Amidships of the Dauphine, archaeologists found a group of apothecary instruments, including a remarkable bronze mortar complete with pestle, and a clyster, or enema syringe, made of pewter.
The discovery of a mortar and pestle is proof that pharmaceutical preparations were made aboard ship. The naval decree from August 1681 states that the ship-owner must provide "an apothecary chest furnished with drugs, ointments, medications and other things required to treat illnesses during the voyage", while the surgeon is required to bring aboard "the instruments of his profession" (Title VI, On the ship's surgeon, Art. 3).
When it was found, the clyster still contained traces of a clove-based preparation. The use of the clyster, which Molière satirised in The Imaginary Invalid, was quite popular in the 17th and 18th centuries. The discovery of such syringes on several ships from the early modern period proves that "clystermania" had also found its way into the maritime world.
