[The Baume du Chevalier de St-Victor otherwise the Baume du Commandeur de Pernes]

The Baume du Commandeur de Pernes was studied in 1929 and the Commandeur identified by M. Bouvet; the origin of its synonym introduced by N. Lemery (1715), i.e. the Baume du Chevalier de St-Victor had not been elucidated up to now. The author's proposals, based upon genealogical data, are the following: two brothers Chevalier de St-Victor were enrolled in the Order of Malta in 1624 at St Gilles (Languedoc); one of them was able to transmit the Balm's formula to N. Lemery during his stay in Montpellier between 1668 and 1671. The geographically very different origins of the Commander and the Knight should prove perhaps that a basic pharmaceutical formulary common at least to all the French Commanderies was existing at that time. In the other hand, the fluctuations of the formula since the XVIIth century have been reported.