Wikipedia reminds me that Büsching met Fritz, but didn't know him well, so it's possible something got changed in the telling (like how often it happened), but something like it must have happened (and perhaps it happened exactly like that all the time).
I also saw that he has a date for the "days without sleep anecdote", saying that Fritz used to tell the story in his old age
YAY! Look, I buy it totally, given 1) his lifelong commitment to at least minimizing sleep, 2) the fact that doing without sleep is an idea that occurs to a lot of workaholics, myself at ~16 included. ;) (If you joined salon late enough not to have heard this story, the upshot is that I was arrogant enough that I assumed that just because other people couldn't do without sleep didn't mean I couldn't, but finding out that *Fritz* couldn't made me think that, okay, this limitation probably applied to me too, and thus that I shouldn't bother trying the experiment. And I didn't. Thank you, Fritz, for nearly killing yourself with coffee so I didn't have to! (You are one of the few people my past self would have drawn that conclusion from.))
Also, the 1734 campaign date makes PERFECT sense for this experiment. (Note that he's also cutting down on sleep to study in 1736, and Suhm is trying to convince him this is a bad idea.)
I was going to ask whether the fennel water was mentioned in the "last hours" write-up. It's mentioned as the last thing he drank in his life (August 16) in numerous accounts, which probably go back to Carlyle, who evidently read this.
It's apparently used for medical reasons, including digestive problems (which Fritz had all his life) and water retention/edema/dropsy (which he had in his last months due to what sounds very much like congestive heart failure).
It's apparently used for medical reasons, including digestive problems
To this day, too, so not just an 18th century thing. I have drunk fennel tea for that reason myself, but I can't tell you if it made a difference or if there is any scientific proof for its effectiveness. It's also given to babies (mixed with milk!) when they are having digestive troubles, so it can't have hurt at least.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
Re: Glasow: the Nicolai version
Date: 2021-02-26 01:10 am (UTC)Wikipedia reminds me that Büsching met Fritz, but didn't know him well, so it's possible something got changed in the telling (like how often it happened), but something like it must have happened (and perhaps it happened exactly like that all the time).
I also saw that he has a date for the "days without sleep anecdote", saying that Fritz used to tell the story in his old age
YAY! Look, I buy it totally, given 1) his lifelong commitment to at least minimizing sleep, 2) the fact that doing without sleep is an idea that occurs to a lot of workaholics, myself at ~16 included. ;) (If you joined salon late enough not to have heard this story, the upshot is that I was arrogant enough that I assumed that just because other people couldn't do without sleep didn't mean I couldn't, but finding out that *Fritz* couldn't made me think that, okay, this limitation probably applied to me too, and thus that I shouldn't bother trying the experiment. And I didn't. Thank you, Fritz, for nearly killing yourself with coffee so I didn't have to! (You are one of the few people my past self would have drawn that conclusion from.))
Also, the 1734 campaign date makes PERFECT sense for this experiment. (Note that he's also cutting down on sleep to study in 1736, and Suhm is trying to convince him this is a bad idea.)
I was going to ask whether the fennel water was mentioned in the "last hours" write-up. It's mentioned as the last thing he drank in his life (August 16) in numerous accounts, which probably go back to Carlyle, who evidently read this.
It's apparently used for medical reasons, including digestive problems (which Fritz had all his life) and water retention/edema/dropsy (which he had in his last months due to what sounds very much like congestive heart failure).
Re: Glasow: the Nicolai version
Date: 2021-02-26 06:51 am (UTC)Re: Glasow: the Nicolai version
Date: 2021-02-26 07:38 pm (UTC)To this day, too, so not just an 18th century thing. I have drunk fennel tea for that reason myself, but I can't tell you if it made a difference or if there is any scientific proof for its effectiveness. It's also given to babies (mixed with milk!) when they are having digestive troubles, so it can't have hurt at least.
Re: Glasow: the Nicolai version
Date: 2021-02-26 09:53 pm (UTC)It's also given to babies (mixed with milk!) when they are having digestive troubles, so it can't have hurt at least.
That I didn't know! And yeah, probably one of his least harmful remedies.