-Title page: Official manual of gynecology published in Paris in 1886.
Author: Vladimir Fedorovich Snegirev (Владимир Фёдорович Снегирёв)
Professor of Gynecology at the Imperial University of Moscow.
French edition:
Edited by Henri Varnier; under the direction of Dr. Adolphe Pinard.
Publisher: G. Steinheil, Paris
Year: 1886.
Source: National Library of France (BNF)
CannArchive Analysis:
📜 At the end of the 19th century, Western medicine was nothing like the caricature we sometimes project onto it. It was methodical, academic, obsessed with clinical practice and statistics, and it explored everything that could relieve human suffering without prejudice.
In this context, cannabis was not a taboo: it was a therapeutic tool. The 1886 archive we have in our hands, *Uterine Hemorrhages: Etiology, Diagnosis, Treatment*, signed by Professor Vladimir Snegirev, is a striking illustration of this. Snegirev was not a marginal figure or a botanical adventurer: he was a professor of gynecology at the Imperial University of Moscow, translated and published in Paris under the supervision of two French benchmarks, Doctors Varnier and Pinard.
These names, at the time, represented seriousness and academic standards, and this detail is essential: this book is not an isolated testimony, it is an official manual intended for physicians.
-Page 147 of the book showing the recipe: Tincture of Cannabis indica prescribed in gynecology.
💊 In this treatise, cannabis appears at several points in the therapeutic reasoning, and not in a footnote, but in the primary solutions proposed to relieve patients. It was prescribed in the form of a tincture, infusion, or drops, sometimes 4 to 5 times a day, notably to calm pelvic pain, dysmenorrhea, uterine hemorrhages, ovarian inflammation, associated urinary disorders, and even pregnancy pains.
The tone is clinical, precise, and measured. Snegirev explains the doses, expected effects, tolerance, and even the taste of the infusion, which proves that the usage was common enough for patients to actually consume it.
-P. 148: Tincture of cannabis is recommended for uterine conditions accompanied by insomnia, lower back, intercostal, or ovarian pain. Dosage: 15 to 20 drops, 2 to 3 times a day.
🌿 This text also reveals something profoundly ignored today:
Cannabis was among the remedies intended to treat women's suffering, in a field—gynecology—where pain was long minimized. Where other substances caused dependence or drowsiness, cannabis was presented as calming, effective, and well-tolerated, capable of soothing uterine pain without altering consciousness.
It was sometimes associated with belladonna, laudanum, or other plant extracts, proof that it was recognized as a reliable synergistic agent.
-P. 269: In the treatment of hematocele, tincture of cannabis is indicated among narcotics, when the patient does not vomit, to calm intense pain.
💪 What makes this archive so powerful is not just the presence of cannabis:
it is the contrast with the oblivion that followed. In a few decades, treatments used, taught, and published in scientific books disappeared, not because they were ineffective, but because a political choice was imposed upon the world. Cannabis disappeared from hospitals, and then from memory.
This 1886 book shows us that Western medicine already had concrete experience with therapeutic cannabis, including in women's health, long before its erasure.
-Ch. X: Cannabis indica recommended to reduce dysmenorrhea and acute lower abdominal pain, often combined with warm compresses.
✨ This document does not tell an anecdote:
it corrects a truncated history. It reminds us that cannabis was not always surrounded by moral fantasies. It was, in France and elsewhere, a serious medicine, prescribed by professors, taught in faculties, and administered to patients with rigor.
By bringing these archives back to life, we are not campaigning: we are restoring the truth of a deliberately erased past.
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WARNING:
"The information presented in these historical archives reflects the medical practices of the 19th century.
They are shared for cultural, historical, and documentary purposes only.
They do not in any way constitute medical advice, an encouragement to self-medication, or a therapeutic recommendation.
Certain substances mentioned (including medicinal cannabis) are now regulated and their use is strictly controlled.
For any questions concerning your health, your pain, or a treatment:
Consult a physician"
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