Introduction:

New Granada medical manuscripts allowed the dissemination and preservation of medical knowledge and practices between the 18th and 19th centuries, these writings are based on the administration of medicinal agents made of plant, animal, mineral, used to attenuate symptoms generated by multiple diseases.

Objective:

To contextualize pain management during the colonial period through a medical prescription of the time. Simultaneously, expose the possible scientific bases that explain its usefulness.

Material and methods:

Documentary search in the historical archive of the Octavio Arizmendi Posada library of the University of La Sabana, where the medical prescription entitled «Reumas, gota y herpes» was found.

Results:

Medicine during the 16th and 19th centuries in the Viceroyalty of New Granada modulated pain through thermotherapy in herpes simplex virus infection, being effective in reducing pain, inflammation and itching. The efficacy of thermotherapy in relieving pain in rheumatological diseases is controversial.

Conclusions:

Medical manuscripts allow us to travel to the past to understand the medical practices of our predecessors. There is currently scientific evidence supporting the effectiveness of thermotherapy in the management of herpetic and rheumatological pain.