The Eucharist (Greek for thanksgiving) is a central act of Christian worship. Sacramental bread called holly wafers or hostia (Latin for sacrificial victim), along with sacramental wine are the two elements of the ritual commemoration of Jesus’ Last Supper with his disciples (Figure 1).

Wafers (holy or not) played also a role in medicine and pharmacy. In a paper on the topic, Hymen Saye (1907-1993) states that “In countries professing the Roman Catholic faith, great curative powers were attributed to the communion wafer. In the same measure that it could drive out sin when given to the communicant by the priest uttering the proper words, so ought it to expel the physical ills of the body, when blessed by the priest (Saye, 1935).”

Pierre Chirac (1648-1732), first physician to French King Louis XV (Louis le Bien-Aimé), in a work dealing with disease affecting the crew of vessels (les maladies des équipages des vaisseaux) recommends among other remedies for scorbut, the daily use of “pain à chanter”, the French word for holy wafers (Dulieu, 1984;

Possibly expanding on the intrinsic therapeutic properties of the wafers, curé Arnal, the parish priest of the village of Pérols (now part of the city of Montpellier), together with St. Affrique (Aveyron) pharmacist Marcelin Vernhet pere († 1863) and Montpellier goldsmith Etienne Dartis (1784-1848) was involved in marketing a cure for malarial intermittent fever. Sulphate of quinine in cachets under the name of hosties du curé de Pérols or febrifuge Arnal were sold on a large scale. The innovation consisted in hiding the bitter test of quinine: he inserted the drug between two wafers sweetened with some confiture. His activities were apparently quite successful and wide spread; on a single occasion, the priest and his companions purchased some forty-thousand tablets of quinine from the Montpellier depot. Such activities irked the Montpellier pharmacists who saw their income and authority threatened and so they sued the clergymen and his associates.

Amédée Estor¹ was the lawyer representing the Montpellier pharmacists, while public prosecutor Honore Argence², a gifted orator, was reminding the priest in court that the House of God was not meant to be spelunca latronum (den of robbers)³.

Despite a vigorous defense provided by attorney Etienne Daudé de Lavalette⁴, the Montpellier Criminal Court (Tribunal Correctionnel de Montpellier) found 1836 the priest and his business partners guilty of illegally practicing pharmacy; heavy fines were issued and the remaining cachets confiscated (Anonymous, 1837) (Figure 2).

While the guilty verdict protected the interests of Montpellier pharmacists and possibly avoided some cases of quinine toxicity, the decision also suppressed the innovative method of delivery used, making best possible use of the religious wafers.

The Editor of Le Courrier Medical⁵ stated 1873 that the trade went on for some thirty years. This is certainly a massive exaggeration; the more likely timeframe is mid1820s to 1836 (Limousin, 1879). Our priest was still running his parish by the end of the 1850ies as the Departmental Archives of Hérault contain a number of documents regarding his unsatisfactory behavior (unexcused absences; absences injustifiées) (communication by Sylvie Desachy; Departmental Archives of Hérault).

A similar approach in drug administration is followed some twenty years later (1853) by Lyon pharmacist André-Alexandre Guillermond (1812-1890). He is credited with re-introducing under the name Enazyme(En cachet de pain azyme)the holy wafer packaging, but he fails to apply for a patent and does not try to exploit it economically (Pierre, 1993; Limousin, 1879). The distinguished Guillermond dynasty of pharmacists is described by (Guitard, 1958) (Figure 3).

Limousin, Stanislas (1831-1887), well known Parisian pharmacist at 2^bis Rue Blanche and his partner Charles Gustave Toiray (1835-1908), are responsible for making medicated wafers truly popular and widely available (Bury & Théodoridès, 1981; Petroianu, 2020). They are however not the ones to have originally developed the method; this honor belongs to curé Arnal (Limousin, 1879) (Figure 4).

The surname Arnal is quite common in southern France and elsewhere, with many homonymic Arnals overlapping chronologically, professionally and geographically. Considering the publicity generated by the aforementioned judicial case, we assumed however that identifying the proper Arnal would not be too difficult; we were proven wrong.

Despite generous help from Madame Sylvie Desachy (Conservatrice générale du Patrimoine, Directrice des Archives départementales) no reference to the judicial case could be found either in the Archives of the Tribunal in Montpellier nor in the Departmental Archives of Hérault. Equally fruitless were enquiries at Perols (Montpellier) church where no memories of the ancient curé survived.

The key to the mystery was found in a eulogy to Auguste-Antoine-Hippolyte Arnal (1829-1881), a distinguished lawyer and state prosecutor in Montpellier, appointed to the French Légion d’honneur on the 1880 celebration of the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille (Anonymus, 1880). Among the details provided, one finds the sentence “In addition to Monseigneure Affre, two of his uncles were priests: the curé of Pérols and the curé of Montclarat”. The mentioned priests and the father of the honored were brothers.

The database Leonore, containing information about the members of the Légion, allowed identification of the parents of Auguste-Antoine-Hippolyte and then completion of the family tree. The father of Auguste-Antoine-Hippolyte) was Antoine-Hippolyte ARNAL, lawyer in Le Truel, related to the Archbishop Affre by marriage with his sister, Marie Louise AFFRE (Figure 5).

Historically, the majority of the Arnals were staunchly conservative catholic public servants, notaries, lawyers, and prosecutors. The family connected by marriage mainly with the Affres, Boyers and Thomas families.

Especially Christine BOYER (1768-1819), the sister of Denis BOYER (1766-1842), French philosopher and Superior of the Catholic Seminary at Saint-Suplice infused fresh religious fervor into the larger family. Her son Denys Auguste AFFRE (1793-1848) became the 126^th Archbishop of Paris; as mentioned, her daughter married Antoine-Hippolyte ARNAL, one of the sons of Joseph Bernard ARNAL (1757-1830).

Two other sons, Benoît Augustin and Joseph Lambert became priests: Benoît Augustin ARNAL (1793-1873) curé in Montclarat (Saint-Rome-de-Cernon, Aveyron) while Joseph Lambert (1798-1867) curé in Perols (now a suburb of Montpellier) and later honorary canon of the Montpellier Cathedral.

The introduction of cachets made of wafers to conceal the unpleasant taste of the active ingredient is the merit of a clergyman [Joseph Lambert Arnal (1798-1867), curé in Perols, Aveyron]. Familiar with both holy wafers and the suffering of the population not only from malaria but also from its horribly bitter treatment, he identified a business opportunity. While his activities were most likely motivated by greed, the conviction for illegal activities delayed the general acceptance of an innovative administration method by about half a century.

The author declares no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this paper.

Petroianu, G. A. (2022). Holy Wafers in Pharmacy: Who Was Curé Arnal? Advances in Historical Studies, 11, 27-32. https://doi.org/10.4236/ahs.2022.111003