chief use for outward application in small-pox to prevent the pitting.
It was melted with oil of almonds, and with this mixture the pustules
were kept moist when they began to harden. He says, “Although this is
but a modern practice in this distemper, yet Schroder takes notice
of its use in his time in smoothing and filling up the fissures or
cavities made by blotches and scabs.”
Schroder was much puzzled by this substance and was doubtful whether
to class it among animal or mineral substances. He decided to include
it among minerals. Subsequently it was believed to be the spawn of the
whale, and from this belief it acquired its name. Still its origin
continued to be discussed. Gesner said it was a milk shed by the whale.
Borrichius believed it to be the spinal marrow. Pomet affirms with
certainty that spermaceti is the brain of the whale (cachalot). He had
not only seen it prepared, but had prepared it himself. He described
the process. The brain was melted over a gentle fire, then cast into
moulds, cooled, and when the oil had drained off, remelted, moulded
again and again until it was very white. Then, with a knife made for
the purpose, it was cut into scales or flakes. Lemery says the ancients
gave it the name, believing it to be the seed of the whale, which was
found floating on the sea. But in (his) modern times this opinion had
been rejected, and it was held to be a kind of sea froth driven by the
waves to and fro. Quite recently (when he wrote) it had been learnt
that it was drawn from the head of the whale.
Our spermaceti ointment was known in earlier pharmacopœias as unguentum
album, and at first contained white lead.
HONEY
is one of the oldest of food products, and was the only sweetening
substance in popular use until quite modern times. Sugar was known in
India and was imported into Greece and Rome at very early periods.
The name saccharum is of Sanskrit origin, and therefore testifies
to its ancient lineage, and allusions to it, likening it to honey,
are to be found in the writings of many of the classic naturalists
from Herodotus onwards. The Arabs, who had long brought sugar from
India to the wealthy West, made great use of it in medicine, and the
early apothecaries in England, France, and Germany were the makers
of sweetmeats from sugar to royal and aristocratic gourmets. Queen
Elizabeth’s apothecaries were in the habit of presenting her with boxes
of sweetmeats on her birthdays.
But sugar was a rarity and a luxury for the rich, while honey was
always in use. Palestine was a land flowing with milk and honey, and
the records of its employment as a food, a fermented beverage, and as
a medicine, are traceable in almost all histories. The ancients had
curious notions concerning it. They knew that the bees obtained it
from flowers, but they thought the flowers had only caught it as it
descended from the heavens. Pliny says it is engendered in the air,
mostly at the rising of the constellations, and especially when Sirius
is shining. He is not sure whether it is the sweat of the heavens,
saliva from the stars, or a juice exuding from the air while purifying
itself. He admits that its flavour affords an exquisite pleasure, but
he wonders what that flavour would be if we could get the pure ethereal
substance uncontaminated by the corruption of the air, its absorption
by the herbs, and afterwards in the stomachs of the bees. Pliny and
Galen both affirm that it was sometimes found where no bees had been,
and Galen says in such cases the peasantry exclaimed that Jupiter
was raining honey. The honey which came in this way was called Cibus
Celestis.
Honey was used in the preparation of all the famous confections and
electuaries of old pharmacy, and when these began to lose their
reputation there were authorities who attributed their decline in
efficacy to the substitution of sugar for honey. Dioscorides had
stated that honey counteracted the evil effects of the juice of the
poppy. In the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries honey was credited
with many medicinal virtues. Applied to the scalp it was a remedy for
baldness; better if some dead and dried bees were ground up with it.
It wonderfully promoted expectoration. It was also claimed that it
would destroy worms if drunk in milk, because the worms took to it
so greedily that they killed themselves by excess. Oxymels, too, had
at one time a high repute. A compound oxymel, containing a number of
aromatic herbs, was handed down from Mesué to the early pharmacopœias,
and was esteemed as a stimulant of the liver and kidneys.
An oil of wax was known as the Celestial Medicine. It was made by
melting bees’ wax, then wringing it out by hand pressure seven times in
sweet wine, and finally distilling it twice. It would kill worms, cure
palsy, and greatly assist in childbirth.
XVI
REMINISCENCES OF ANCIENT PHARMACY
At the Renaissance of letters at first everything had to give
place to the books of the ancients; nothing was good or true
except what was found in Aristotle or Galen. Instead of studying
plants as they grew, they were only studied in the works of
Pliny and Dioscorides; and nothing is so frequent in the
writings of those times than to find the existence of a plant
doubted for the simple reason that Dioscorides has not spoken of
it.
J. J. ROUSSEAU: _Dictionary of Botany_.
PRECIOUS STONES.
Marvellous virtues were attributed by the ancients to the precious
stones known to them, but rather perhaps in their character of amulets
than as medicines. One of the so-called hymns of Orpheus, composed
probably about 500 B.C., is “On Stones,” and describes the
properties of many of these highly esteemed minerals. Four lines
(taken from a translation in the Rev. C. W. King’s “Natural History of
Precious Stones”) will serve as a sample:--
With its complexion of a lovely boy
The opal fills the hearts of gods with joy;
Whilst by the mild effulgence of its light
Its healing power restores the fading sight.
Coral, according to the same authority, acquired its special properties
from Minerva. This substance was much valued by the Romans, who
attached pieces of it by ribbons to their children’s necks, in the
belief that it would protect them against the designs of sorcerers; and
Paracelsus adopted the same view, recommending necklaces of coral to be
worn as a preventive of epilepsy, “but such impostures,” says Quincy
(1724), “are now deservedly laughed out of the world.” Some old writers
insisted that coral worn on the person changed colour, becoming dull
and pale when the wearer’s health failed.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries coral and pearls were
considerably used in medicine in the form of magisteries, tinctures,
syrups, and arcana. Lemery says coral was given to infants in their
mothers’ milk as soon as they were born (he does not explain how) to
prevent epilepsy, and he names a multitude of other disorders for which
it was good. Boyle, too, in his “Collection of Remedies,” recommends it
in drachm doses to “sweeten the blood and cure acidity.” The largest
and reddest obtainable was to be chosen.
Pearls were used in medicine until the eighteenth century, when it
began to be suspected that chalk had the same effect. The tiniest
pearls, known as pearl seeds, ground to a fine powder, were prescribed
as an absorbent, antacid, and cordial. This powder was also used, says
Pomet, “by ladies of quality to give a lustre and beauty to the face.”
It was superseded before long by Lemery’s magistery of bismuth, which,
however, retained the name of pearl white. Pomet further states that
a magistery of pearl was made (apparently by quacks) by combining the
ground pearl with acids; an arcanum, spirits, flowers, and tinctures
were also prepared and credited with marvellous virtues, “to pick
fools’ pockets.”
Pearls, writes Jean de Renou (1607), “are greatly cordial and rejoice
the heart. The alchemists consequently make a liquor of pearls, which
they pretend is a marvellous cure for many maladies. More often than
not, however, their pretended liquor is nothing but smoke, vanity, and
quackery. I knew a barber in this city of Paris who was sent for by
a patient to apply two leeches, and who had the impudence to demand
six crowns of gold for his service. He declared that he had fed those
leeches for an entire month on the liquor of pearls.”
It is on record that Pope Clement VII took 40,000 ducats’ worth of
pearls and other precious stones with unicorn’s horn within fourteen
days. (See Mrs. Henry Cust’s “Gentlemen Errant.”)
Emeralds had a great reputation, especially on account of their moral
attributes. They were cold in an extra first degree, so cold that
they became emblems of chastity, and curious tales of their powers in
controlling the passions were told. Moses Maimonides, a famous Jew
who lived in Egypt in the twelfth century, in a treatise he wrote by
command of the Caliph as a concise guide in cases of venomous bites or
poisons generally, declared that emeralds were the supreme cure. They
might be laid on the stomach or held in the mouth or 9 grains of the
powdered stone might be taken in wine. But recognising that emeralds
were not always handy when the need arose, Moses names a number of more
ordinary remedies.
Confection of Hyacinth was a noted compound formulated in all the old
pharmacopœias, and regarded as a sovereign cordial, fortifying the
heart, the stomach, and the brain; resisting the corruption of the
humours and the malignity of the air; and serving for many other
medicinal purposes. The original formula ordered besides hyacinths
(which were probably amethysts), sapphires, emeralds, topazes, and
pearls; silk; gold and silver leaves; musk, ambergris, myrrh, and
camphor; sealed earth, coral, and a few vegetable drugs; all made into
an electuary with syrup of carnations. A similar compound, but in
powder form, was known as “Hungary Powder” and was believed to have
been the most esteemed remedy in the Hungary Fever, to which some
reference is made in the sketch of Glauber (Vol. I, pp. 260–264). The
Emperor Ferdinand’s Plague Powder was another variation of the same
compound. The formula given in Lemery’s Pharmacopœia orders about
twenty vegetable drugs with bole, hartshorn, ivory, and one scruple
each of sapphires, hyacinths, emeralds, rubies, and garnets, in a total
bulk of about 4½ ounces. The dose was from ½ scruple to 2 scruples.
Sir William Bulleyn, a famous physician in the reign of Henry VIII,
and said to have been of the same family as the Queen, Anne Boleyn, in
his “Book of Simples,” which was a work of great renown in its day,
gives the following recipe for Electuarium de Gemmis. “Take 2 drachms
of white perles; two little peeces of saphyre; jacinthe, corneline,
emerauldes, granettes, of each an ounce; setwal, the sweate roote
doronike, the rind of pomecitron, mace, basel seede, of each 2 drachms;
redde corall, amber, shaving of ivory, of each 2 drachms; rootes both
of white and red behen, ginger, long pepper, spicknard, folium indicum,
saffron cardamon, of each one drachm; troch diarodon, lignum aloes, of
each half a small handful; cinnamon, galinga, zurubeth, which is a kind
of setwal, of each 1½ drachm; thin pieces of gold and sylver, of each
half a scruple; musk, half a drachm.” The electuary was to be made
with “honey emblici, which is the fourth kind of mirobalans with roses,
strained, in equall parts, as much as will suffice.” What that may mean
I do not know. The medicine, it was said, would heal cold, disease of
the brain, heart, and stomach, and Bulleyn adds, “Kings and noble men
have used this for their comfort. It causeth them to be bold-spirited,
the body to smell well, and ingendreth to the face good colour.”
There was a theory that the engraving of a design or a monogram on a
gem increased its medicinal virtues. Galen doubts this, however. He
states that the jasper benefits the chest and the mouth of the stomach
if laid thereupon, and for complaints of these parts he recommends
a necklace of jaspers hung round the neck and reaching down to the
affected part. That he knew would do good. But some recommended that a
serpent should be engraved on the stones, and Galen had tried this, but
could not discover that the engraved stones were any better than the
plain ones (Simp. Med., ix).
The idea did not die, however. Mr. King quotes the opinion of Camillo
Lionhardo, physician to Cæsar Borgia, to the effect that if precious
stones were engraved by a skilful person under a particular influence,
that influence would be transmitted to the stone; and if the figure
engraved corresponded with the virtue of the stone itself or its
natural quality, the virtue of the figure and of the stone would be
doubled.
Jerome Cardan and other mystic writers of the sixteenth century gave
great prominence to precious stones as remedies; and Culpepper after
quoting from several of them intimates that he expects some of his
readers may consider the accounts given incredible. They declared that
the diamond rendered men fearless, that the ruby took away idle and
foolish fancies, that the emerald resisted lust, that the amethyst kept
men from drunkenness and too much sleep, and so on. Culpepper’s reply
to prospective sceptics is that he has named his authorities, and that
he knows nothing to the contrary why it may not be as possible for
these stones to have the effects attributed to them as for the sound of
a trumpet to incite a man to valour, or a fiddle to dancing. Moreover,
said Garcius, if the stones applied externally were so efficacious, how
much more so would they be if taken internally.
THE FOUR OFFICINAL CAPITALS.
This description was applied in old medical books to Mithridatium,
Venice Treacle, Philonium, and Diascordium. There were writers who
ventured to criticise some of the details of composition, or some of
the uses frequently made of these compounds, but the possibility of
medicine existing without them was hardly contemplated previous to the
eighteenth century. Of the two confections first named much has been
said in other chapters; but it may be of interest to present here a
conspectus of the ingredients of each, comparing the last formulas
prescribed in the London Pharmacopœia with what may be regarded as
the original compositions. The first pair of formulas are quoted from
Galen, who gives the Mithridatium from Damocrates and the Theriaca from
Andromachus. Both were in Greek verses. It is not known whether the
prescription of Andromachus was versified by Nero’s physician or by his
son.
ANTIDOTUS MITHRIDATICA DAMOCRATIS.
Root of round birthwort; of valerian; of each 4½ oz.; of sweet
flag, 5 oz. 3 drm.; of gentian, 7½ oz.; of Ligusticum meum, 3
oz. 6 drms.; of ginger, 15 oz.; herb of dittany of Crete, 7½
oz.; of pennyroyal, and of scordium, of each 10½ oz.; leaves of
laurus cassia, 12 oz.; flowers of St. John’s wort, 3½ oz., of
French lavender, 12 oz.; of red lavender, and of roses, of each,
7½ oz.; Celtic nard, 7½ oz.; spikenard, 15 oz.; lemon grass, 13
oz.; seeds of thlaspi, 15 oz.; of seseli, 12 oz.; of carrot,
10½ oz.; of parsley, and fennel, of each, 7½ oz.; of anise,
4½ oz.; juniper berries, 1 oz.; long pepper, 12 oz.; white
pepper, and fruit of amyris opobalsamum, of each 10½ oz.; lesser
cardamoms, 7½ oz.; saffron, 15 oz.; cinnamon, 15½ oz.; Arabian
costus, 12 oz.; cassia lignea, 10½ oz.; trochiscs of agaric, 15
oz.; castor, 12 oz.; scincus marinus, 3½ oz.; myrrh, 16 oz.;
olibanum, 15 oz.; bdellium, 10½ oz.; gum Arabic, 7½ oz.
Pulverise, mix, and sift the above. Then dissolve in 8 lb. of
wine galbanum and opoponax, of each 12 oz.; sagapenum, 4½ oz.;
juice of hypocist, 12 oz.; juice of acacia, 4 oz.; opium, 7½ oz.
Mix this solution with 106 lb. despumated honey, and gradually
incorporate the powder. Then pour into the mixture 12 oz. of
storax dissolved in 14 oz. of turpentine, and finally add 12 oz.
of opobalsamum. Stir for several hours and leave the mixture to
ferment in a large vessel.
ELECTUARIUM THERIACALE MAGNUM.
Root of Florentine iris, licorice, of each, 12 oz.; of Arabian
costus, Pontic rhubarb, cinquefoil, of each 6 oz.; of Ligusticum
meum, rhubarb, gentian, of each, 4 oz.; of birthwort, 2 oz.;
herb of scordium, 12 oz.; of lemon grass, horehound, dittany of
Crete, calamint, of each, 6 oz.; of pennyroyal, ground pine,
germander, of each, 4 oz.; leaves of laurus cassia, 4 oz.;
flowers of red roses, 12 oz.; of lavender, 6 oz.; of St. John’s
wort, 4 oz.; of lesser centaury, 2 oz.; saffron, 6 oz.; fruit
of amyris opobalsamum, 4 oz.; cinnamon, 12 oz.; cassia lignea,
spikenard, of each, 6 oz.; Celtic nard, 4 oz.; long pepper, 24
oz.; black pepper, ginger, of each 6 oz.; cardamoms, 4 oz.; rape
seeds, agaric, of each 12 oz.; seeds of Macedonian parsley, 6
oz.; of anise, fennel, cress, seseli, thlaspi, amomum, sandwort,
of each 4 oz.; of carrot, 2 oz.; opium, 24 oz.; opobalsamum, 12
oz.; myrrh, olibanum, turpentine, of each 6 oz.; storax, gum
Arabic, sagapenum, of each 4 oz.; asphaltum, opoponax, galbanum,
of each 2 oz.; juice of acacia, and of hypocist, of each, 4 oz.;
castor, 2 oz.; Lemnian bole, calcined vitriol, of each, 4 oz.;
trochiscs of squill, 48 oz.; of vipers, of sweet flag, of each
24 oz.
Triturate the balsams, resins, and gums in a sufficient quantity
of wine, to form a thin paste, and incorporate the whole with
960 oz. of honey.
Appended are the formulas for these two confections as given in the
P.L. 1746. The drugs named in parentheses are those which the College
officially authorised as substitutes.
CONFECTIO DAMOCRATIS (MITHRIDATIUM).
Cinnamon, 14 drachms, myrrh, 11 drachms; agaric, spikenard,
ginger, saffron, thlaspi seeds, frankincense, Chio turpentine,
of each, 10 drachms.
Camel’s hay, Arabian costus (zedoary), Indian leaf (mace),
French lavender, long pepper, hartwort seeds, juice of rape of
cistus, strained storax, opoponax, strained galbanum, balm of
Gilead (expressed oil of nutmeg), Russian castor, of each, 1 oz.
Poley mountain, water germander, fruit of balsam tree (cubebs),
white pepper, Cretan carrot seeds, strained bdellium, of each 7
drachms.
Celtic nard, gentian root, Cretan dittany leaves, red roses,
Macedonian parsley seeds, lesser cardamum seeds, sweet fennel
seeds, gum Arabic, strained opium, of each 5 drachms.
Sweet flag root, wild valerian root, aniseed, strained
sagapenum, of each 3 drachms.
Spignel, St. John’s wort, juice of acacia (catechu), bellies of
seines, of each 2½ drachms.
Clarified honey, three times the weight of all the rest.
THERIACA ANDROMACHI.
Troches of squills, ½ lb.
Long pepper, strained opium, dried vipers, of each, 3 oz.
Cinnamon, balm of Gilead (expressed oil of nutmeg), of each, 2
oz.
Agaric, orris root, scordium, red roses, navew seeds, extract of
licorice, of each 1½ ounces.
Spikenard, saffron, greater cardmoms, myrrh, costus (zedoary),
camel’s hay, of each 1 oz.
Cinquefoil root, rhubarb, ginger, Indian leaf (mace), Cretan
dittany leaves, horehound, calamint, French lavender, black
pepper, parsley seeds, olibanum, Chio turpentine, valerian root,
of each, 6 drachms.
Gentian root, Celtic nard, spignel, poley mountain, St. John’s
wort, ground pine, creeping germander, fruit of balsam tree
(cubebs), aniseed, fennel seed, lesser cardamoms, bishop’s weed,
hartwort, treacle mustard, juice of rape of cistus, catechu,
gum Arabic, storax, sagapenum, Lemnian earth (Armenian bole),
calcined green vitriol, of each, ½ oz.
Creeping birthwort, lesser centaury, Cretan carrot seeds,
opoponax, strained galbanum, Russian castor, Jews’ pitch (white
amber), sweet flag root, of each, 2 drachms.
Clarified honey, three times the weight of all the rest.
PHILONIUM,
a famous antidote invented by Philon of Tarsus, who is supposed to
have lived in the early part of the first century (a contemporary
probably of Saul of Tarsus). Galen says of it that it had been in
great reputation for a long time, and was one of the earliest of the
compounds of the kind. Philon gives his formula in Greek verses and in
such enigmatic language that it would be impossible to interpret it if
Galen himself had not come to the rescue. Philon writes:--
Take of the red and odorous hairs of the young lad whose blood is
shed on the fields of Mercury (saffron), as many drachms as we have
senses; of the Nauplium Euboic (pyrethrum), 1 drachm; the same quantity
of the murderer of the son of Menetius, preserved in sheeps’ bellies
(euphorbium); add 20 drachms of white fire (white pepper); the same
quantity of the beans of the pigs of Arcadia (henbane); one drachm
of the plant which is falsely called a root, and which comes from a
country renowned because of Jupiter Pissean (spikenard); write pium,
and place at the head of the word the masculine article of the Greeks
(opium) 10 drachms; and mix the whole with the work of the daughters of
the bull of Athens (Attic honey).
The words in parentheses are the explanations of this rather unwieldy
joke as they are provided by Galen. It is conjectured from an obscure
passage in Pliny that this antidote was prescribed against a peculiar
form of colic which became epidemic at Rome about the time when Philon
was practising there.
Philonium was the original of the confection of opium which remained
in our pharmacopœias until 1867. In the first London Pharmacopœia
the formula was more similar to that which Galen gives; later, a
modification by Nicolas Myrepsus was adopted, the most important
change being the omission of the euphorbium. Until 1746 it was called
Philonium Romanum. In the P.L. 1746, the ingredients were white pepper,
ginger, caraway seeds, strained opium, and syrup of poppies (or of
meconium, as it was called). This had been substituted for honey in all
the English formulas. The name was also changed in 1746 to Philonium
Londinense. The proportion of opium in Philonium was 1 grain in 36
grains.
DIASCORDIUM,
the last of the four officinal capitals, was a medicinal compilation
by Hieronymus Frascatorius, and is given in his book “De Contagio
et Morbis Contagiosis.” It was devised as a preventive of plague,
but it acquired such popularity that Dr. James in the introduction
to his Dispensatory (1747) writing of the conventional esteem in
which so many compounds are held, says, “Thus the Venice Treacle
invented by Andromachus under the reign of Nero, and the Diascordium
of Frascatorius, have been used by almost every physician who has
practised since their publication.” The original formula, which was
adopted in its integrity in the first P.L., was as follows:--
Cinnamon, Cassia wood, aa ½ oz.; true scordium (water germander)
1 oz.; Cretan dittany, bistort galbanum, gum Arabic, aa ½ oz.;
storax, 4½ drachms; opium, seeds of sorrel, aa 1½ drachm;
gentian, ½ oz.; Armenian bole, 1½ oz.; sealed earth (Lemnian), ½
oz.; long pepper, ginger, aa 2 drachms; clarified honey, 2½ lb.;
generous canary, 8 oz. Make into an electuary, S.A.
In the eighteenth century this compound became a popular household
opiate, and was frequently given to children for soothing purposes,
especially as the Pharmacopœia had substituted syrup of meconium
(poppies) for the honey. As the preparation was rather a strong
astringent it was doubly harmful as a frequently taken remedy. In the
P.L. 1746 two species of diascordium were prescribed, one with and
one without opium; at the same time a “pulvis e bolo compositus” was
introduced in which the scordium, the dittany, the sorrel seeds, the
storax, the sealed earth, the bistort, and the galbanum, as well as
the wine, were omitted. Edinburgh likewise omitted the scordium and
other ingredients, and made the preparation still more astringent by
the addition of catechu and kino. This was called Confectio Japonica.
The mangled remains of the various formulas are represented in the
British Pharmacopœia by Pulvis Catechu Compositus.
THERIACA.