an attempt was made to track this medicine to its origin, and a number
of old formulas were sent in by correspondents. The statement is made
in many books that the compound acquired its name from the circumstance
that the recipe for it was given by a Chelsea Pensioner to Lord Amherst
for gout and proved so successful that Lord Amherst gave him £300 and
an annuity of £20. Sometimes this story associated Lord Anson with
the pensioner and the amounts given in gratitude varied from £300 to
500 guineas, with an annuity sometimes of £20, sometimes of £30, and
occasionally of £100. The then living descendants of Lords Amherst and
Anson were written to by _The Chemist and Druggist_, but neither
could give any information. It rather looks as if the fiction were
concocted as an advertisement in the days when the electuary was a
proprietary medicine, if it ever was.
The earliest formula traced in the correspondence referred to was given
in Gray’s Supplement, 1821. This ran:--Pulv. gum. guaiaci, ʒi; pulv.
rhei, ʒij; pulv. pot. bitart., 1 oz.; flor. sulph., 2 oz.; one nutmeg,
and 1 lb. of honey. Of this, the dose was two tablespoonfuls night and
morning. Sometimes pulv. pot. nit. is substituted for pulv. pot. bit.;
probably a mistake of a copyist. In other formulas mustard appears
instead of nutmeg; perhaps a similar slip for myristica. Treacle
occasionally takes the place of honey, and the proportions of the
ingredients vary considerably.
The Secretary of the Chelsea Hospital was good enough to take some
trouble in reply to my inquiry to endeavour to trace this compound,
but only negative results were attained. Dr. Thomas Ligertwood, the
oldest living medical officer of the Royal Hospital, was appealed to,
but he only knew of the remedy as “a very useful combination,” and had
never heard the story of Lord Amherst’s purchase of the secret. He
thought some information might be found in a work on the “Diseases and
Infirmities of Old Age” by Dr. Daniel Maclachlan, a former Principal
Medical Officer of Chelsea Hospital. That work (dated 1863) contains
two allusions to the Chelsea Pensioner, but nothing about its history.
Writing of Chronic Rheumatism the author says:--“ ... The more
stimulating diaphoretics and diuretics prove serviceable. Among these
the preparations of guaiacum deserve the confidence they have long
enjoyed. The virtue of the powder (_sic_) known as the Chelsea
Pensioner is chiefly due to the guaiacum and sulphur it contains.” In
the section on gout he writes:--“The once famous Portland Powder has
for long been abandoned, as has also the almost equally noted Chelsea
Pensioner gout powder. One formula for the latter consisted of rhubarb,
sulphur, nitre, and gum guaiacum, in equal parts. Fifteen or twenty
grains of the powder were taken morning and evening in treacle. Another
was powdered bark, ginger, guaiacum, aa ʒi, cream of tartar 1 oz.,
flowers of sulphur ½ oz., to be made into an electuary with simple
syrup. One teaspoonful to be taken three times a day. This is certainly
not a bad combination though a nauseous one.”
The following formula is given in the “Pharmacopœia Batava recusa
cum notis et additamentis Medico-Pharmaceuticis,” published by J. F.
Niemann, in 1824:--Resin of guaiacum, rhubarb, aa ʒij; supertartrate of
potash, 1 oz.; sublimed sulphur, 2 oz.; one nutmeg; despumated honey, 1
lb. It is evident that this “Anti-Rheumatismal Electuary,” as Niemann
calls it, and the Chelsea Pensioner had a common origin, and as the
formula is not to be found in Niemann’s previous edition, 1811, it
would appear to have come into popularity between that date and 1824.
So far it remains doubtful whether its composition is due to an English
or a Dutch author.
CITRINE OINTMENT.
An ointment thus named appeared first in the P. L. 1650. It was a
compound of coral, limpet shells, quartz, white marble, white lead, and
tragacanth incorporated into a basis of hogs’ lard, suet, and hens’
grease. It was reputed useful for certain skin complaints, freckles,
etc. In the P.L. 1678 some of the old ingredients were omitted,
sugar of lead was substituted for the white lead and rose water, and
frankincense and citron bark were added.
Nitrate of mercury ointment appeared first in the Edinburgh
Pharmacopœia of 1722. It was made by dissolving mercury in a sufficient
quantity of nitric acid, and adding the solution to melted lard
gradually. This was not a satisfactory formula, and it was not until
1787 that anything similar was introduced into the P.L., when 1 oz.
of mercury, 2 oz. of nitrous acid, and 1 lb. of lard were combined.
This was intended, according to Christison, as an imitation of the
well-known golden eye salve, which, however, was, as we know it,
an ointment of the red oxide of mercury. Other authorities, Paris
Dorvault, Gray, etc., have stated that Singleton’s golden eye ointment
was an ointment of sulphuret of arsenic, orpiment some say, realgar
others. Pliny refers to the use of sandrach (probably realgar) as an
application in ophthalmic affections.
Apparently the originator of the P.L. nitrate of mercury ointment was
a Dr. Thomas Nettleton of Halifax, Yorkshire. In a pamphlet entitled
“On a Safe and Efficacious Medicine in Sore Eyes and Eyelids,” by
Thomas Dawson, M.D., of Hackney, printed in 1782, the writer relates
that he had heard of a yellow ointment specially good for sore eyes,
which fifty years previously had been in the possession of Dr. Thomas
Nettleton of Halifax, “whose merit as a man and a physician exceeds all
encomium.” One day one of Dr. Dawson’s patients told him of a yellow
ointment she had had from a Dr. Key, of Manchester, who had been a
pupil of Dr. Nettleton’s. Dr. Dawson wrote to Dr. Key, who at once
sent him the recipe, which was as follows:--
Take 1 oz. each of aqua fortis and mercury; dissolve and add the
solution to 8 oz. of butter melted. To this add 2 drachms of camphor
dissolved in 2 oz. of olive oil.
About the end of the eighteenth century, a citrine ointment, made
with an ounce of mercury dissolved in nitric acid and incorporated
with a pound of lard, was introduced into the Hotel Dieu Hospital of
Paris, and used to cure itch. The formula was adopted in the Dublin
Pharmacopœia, 1807.
COLD CREAM.
The Unguentum Refrigerans, also called “Ceratum,” appeared in the first
P.L., the formula being attributed to Galen. Four ounces of white wax
were melted in 1 lb. of rose oil (ol. rosarum omphacinum, that is,
olive oil in which rose buds 4 oz. to the lb. had been macerated, the
maceration being carried out three times, each time with a fresh lot of
roses). The melted oil and wax were to be poured frequently from one
vessel to another, stirring in a little cold water meanwhile, until the
mixture became white. Lastly, it was to be washed with rose water, and
a little rose water and rose vinegar were to be added.
DIACHYLON PLASTER.
The original formula for this plaster was compiled by Tiberius Claudius
Menecrates, who lived in the reign of the Emperor Tiberius, and was
probably his physician. In a Greek inscription discovered at Rome he
is described as Physician of the Cæsars, probably Tiberius, Caligula,
and Claudius, for he died in the reign of the last named. He wrote a
great work on remedies entitled “Autocrator Hologrammatos,” literally,
“The Emperor, whose words are written in full.” Probably the book was
dedicated to one of the Emperors, and thus got its first title. The
second intimates that the recipes are written out in full so that any
reader could understand them; suggesting that the other physicians who
wrote such books were in the habit of employing abbreviations.
The formula for diachylon and the directions for compounding it were
put into iambic verses by Servilius Damocrates, who lived a little
later than Menecrates, and it is in this form that they have been
preserved by Galen. Briefly the composition was to incorporate 1 lb.
each of the mucilages of fœnugreek, of linseed, and of marshmallow root
with 3 lb. of old oil, and 1½ lb. of golden litharge. The mucilages
were made by boiling the seeds and root in water. Damocrates concludes
his poem with the line (I quote from the Latin translation): “Vocabat
ipsum non absurde Dia Chylon.”
Mesué wrote at length about this plaster, and devised a much more
complicated formula which was named Diachylum Magnum. It contained,
besides the mucilages already named, others made from raisins and figs,
juices of orris, squill, and dill, œsypus (sheep wool fat), turpentine,
rosin, and wax. Subsequent authors also devoted their talents to the
further improvement of this famous preparation.
Diachylon meant a preparation of juices, and this plaster received the
name of plaster of the mucilages in many pharmacopœias. In 1746 the
London College, having dismissed the adjuncts, altered the name of
the simple plaster to Emplastrum Commune, but the old term has refused
to die. An Emplastrum Commune cum Gummi was also prescribed. This
contained galbanum, thus, and turpentine combined with the Emplastrum
Commune.
The Menecrates to whom we owe Diachylon is alleged to have written 155
works, and Galen gives a number of his formulas, but no other than
Diachylon has survived. He must not be confounded with the perhaps
more celebrated Menecrates who was physician to Philip of Macedon.
This one was particularly noted for his vanity, which amused the king.
Once he wrote a letter to Philip commencing “Menecrates-Jupiter to
King Philip, greeting.” The king replied, heading his letter, “Philip
to Menecrates, Health and Common Sense.” Menecrates got himself up
to look like Jupiter, and had attendants who were made to figure as
Apollo, Æsculapius, and Mercury. Philip gave a banquet in his honour. A
separate table was reserved for him, and instead of viands only incense
was served to him, while the other guests were gloriously feasted.
Menecrates was offended at the joke and left the table in anger. He is
credited with having written a Book of Remedies, but it has been lost.
DOVER’S POWDER.
Thomas Dover, to whom we owe “Dover’s Powder,” practised as a doctor
in London in the first half of the eighteenth century. He was born
and buried at Barton on the Heath in Warwickshire in 1660. How he got
his medical training is not on record, but some time in his youth he
lived in the house of Thomas Sydenham, the famous physician, from
whom probably he acquired his independent ideas of medical treatment,
and possibly the germ of his lack of reverence for the College of
Physicians. While living with Sydenham he had small-pox, and forty or
fifty years later he described how the doctor treated him. First he was
bled to the extent of 22 oz.; then he took an emetic. He only took to
his bed when he became blind with the disease. In his bedroom he had
no fire, the windows were always kept open, and the bedclothes were
only allowed up to his waist. This was in the middle of January. For
medicine, Dover says, “he made me take twelve bottles of small beer
acidulated with spirit of vitriol every twenty-four hours,” and he
concludes, “I never lost my senses one moment.”
Having resisted both the disease and the treatment, Dover is first
heard of in practice in Bristol in 1684. He plodded along there until
1708, when at the age of forty-eight he set out with a privateering
party on a voyage round the world. The expedition consisted of two
ships, the _Duke_ and the _Duchess_. Captain Woodes-Rogers,
who has left an account of the voyage, was in chief command, and Dover
on the _Duke_ was his lieutenant. He must have had previous
experience of seafaring life or he would never have been entrusted with
the command of a vessel.
The buccaneers were away from England three years, and when they
returned they brought with them a Spanish frigate of twenty-one
guns, and a quantity of loot. One event of their voyage proved to
be of world-famous importance. On February 2, 1709, Dover, on the
_Duke_, touched at the island of Juan Fernandez and took on board
Alexander Selkirk who had lived alone on the island four years and four
months, and whose story was to develop in the skilful hands of Defoe
into that of the immortal Robinson Crusoe.
A few months after leaving Juan Fernandez the expedition arrived at
Guayaquil in Peru. Having duly sacked the city and stored their plunder
in the ships, the sailors slept in the churches, and Dover quaintly
relates how annoyed they were by the smell of the Spanish corpses;
for plague was raging in the place at the time, and the victims were
buried just under the floors with only a plank or two over them. Two
days later, at sea, the disease broke out among the crews. They had
180 cases all at the same time, and Dover had four surgeons with him.
He ordered them to go round and start bleeding all the patients, and
to stop the bleeding when the round had been completely made. About
100 oz. of blood, he says, was taken from each man. Then he gave them
spirit of vitriol, and only seven or eight died.
The next we know of Dover is that from 1721 to 1728 he was in practice
in Cecil Street, Strand; he returned to Gloucestershire for a few
years, then came back to London and practised in Lombard Street,
removing in 1736 to Arundel Street, Strand.
He is supposed to have died about 1742. It was in these latter years
that he wrote his “Ancient Physician’s Legacy to his Country.” He
describes himself on the title-page as Thomas Dover, M.B., and his book
as “Being what he has collected in forty-nine years’ Practice, or an
account of the several diseases incident to mankind, described in so
plain a manner that any person may know the nature of his own disease.
Together with the several remedies for each distemper faithfully set
down.”
In this work Dover relates a number of wonderful cures he had
effected, gives names and addresses of many of his patients, often
adding grateful letters from them. He had but limited confidence in the
“clan of prejudiced gentlemen,” as he calls the College of Physicians,
and he complains vigorously of the extortions of the Apothecaries.
Metallic quicksilver was his panacea, and he prescribed it so lavishly
that he acquired the title of “the quicksilver doctor.” It forms balsam
with the blood, he says. That is why it cures venereal diseases. Other
doctors gave it, but in disguise, in the form of Ethiops Mineral
generally; which was like using the sword in the scabbard.
His formula for “Diaphoretic Powder” is given in a chapter on gout. It
was as follows:--
“Take opium 1 oz.; saltpetre and tartar vitriolated, each 4 oz.;
liquorish 1 oz.; ipecacuanha, 1 oz. Put the saltpetre and tartar into a
red-hot mortar, stirring till they have done flaming. Then powder them
very fine. After that slice in your opium; grind these to a powder,
and then mix the other powders with them. Dose, from 40 to 60 or 70
grains in a glass of white wine posset going to bed, covering up warm,
and drinking a quart or three pints of the posset while sweating. In
two or three hours at furthest the patient will be free from pain, and
though before not able to put his foot to the ground, ’tis very much if
he cannot walk next day. The remedy may be taken once a week or once a
month.”
The dose appears to us in these degenerate days a large one, and Dover
states that “some apothecaries have desired their patients to make
their wills before they venture upon so large a dose.” But he declares
he has given up to 100 grains, and the patient has appeared abroad the
next day. The notion of danger, he adds, proceeds entirely from their
ignorance, and from the want of knowing those ingredients that are
mixed up with it, for they naturally weaken the power of the opium.
Dover’s powder first appeared in the London Pharmacopœia for 1788.
Probably it was adopted after the quack Ward had made it famous as a
“sweating powder.” Ward died in 1761 and the formulæ for his remedies
were published soon after his death.
UNGUENTUM ELEMI.
Ointment of elemi was in all the London Pharmacopœias, and was only
dropped from the B.P. 1898. In the earlier issues it was called
“unguentum or linimentum Arcœi,” because it had been introduced and
recommended by Arcœus of Amsterdam in 1574, for healing wounds.
A similar ointment was called “Balsamum Arcœi” in the Prussian
Pharmacopœia of 1847. The inventor’s formula was to melt together six
parts each of gum elemi and turpentine, and add six parts of melted
stag’s suet, and two parts of oil of St. John’s wort. Arcœus was a
Spaniard by birth, and an eminent authority on the treatment of wounds.
FOWLER’S SOLUTION OF ARSENIC.
Thomas Fowler kept an apothecary’s shop in York from 1760 to 1774. In
the latter year he relinquished trade, and went to Edinburgh to study
medicine. Graduating as M.D. in 1778, he settled at Stafford, and was
appointed physician to the Infirmary of that town. Later, he returned
to York, where he acquired a large practice, and where he died in 1801.
It was in 1786, during his residence at Stafford, that Dr. Fowler
published his treatise, entitled “Medical Reports of the Effects
of Arsenic in the Cure of Agues, Remitting Fevers, and Periodic
Headaches.” It was only a small work, but it made Fowler’s reputation,
and introduced arsenic into the list of recognised remedies. The
doctor stated that a certain Patent Ague Drops known as Tasteless Ague
and Fever Drops, which had acquired some reputation in this country,
had been occasionally tried in the Stafford Infirmary, and had been
found efficacious. With the assistance of the apothecary to the
Infirmary, a Mr. Hughes (“whose industry, attention, and abilities in
his professional line justly merit applause”) he had ascertained that
these drops were a preparation of arsenic, and he goes on to detail
the experiments which led him and Mr. Hughes to devise the following
formula as representative of the patent medicine:--
“Recipe arsenici albi in pulverem subtilissimum triti.
“Salis alkalini fixi vegetabilis purificati, singulorum grana sexaginta
quatuor.
“Aquæ fontanæ destillatæ, libram dimidiam.
“Immitantur in Ampullam florentinam qua in Balneo Arenæ posita,
Aqua lente ebulliat donec Arsenicum perfecte Solutum fierit. Deinde
Solutioni frigidæ adde.
“Spiritus Lavendulæ compositum, unciam dimidiam.
“Aquæ fontanæ destillatæ, libram dimidiam, plus vel minus, adeo ut
solutionis mensura libra una accurata fiat, vel potius Pondere unciæ
quindecim cum dimidia.”
Fowler reminds his readers that of course troy weights are intended,
and he explains that the spirit of lavender is added merely to give the
mixture a medicinal appearance, lest patients entrusted to drop it for
themselves might be tempted to use a water-white solution too freely.
He also suggests that as arsenic conveys rather alarming ideas, this
medicine should be described as “mineral solution.”
It is universally recognised that Fowler introduced the modern
medicinal employment of arsenic, but it should in fairness be
remembered that he was guided to his discovery by a quack remedy, as
lie himself fully acknowledged.
The Liquor Arsenici Chloridi, P.L., was adopted from a formula of Dr.
F. de Valangin, a Swiss doctor who qualified in England in 1765. He
made a quantity and presented it to the Apothecaries’ Hall, where it
was sold for some time under the name of Solvent Mineral.
FRIAR’S BALSAM.
Tinct. Benzoin Co., was a copy of Ward’s Balsam, which itself was
only the adaptation of compounds which had been for a long time sold
under the names of Friar’s Balsam, Commander’s Balsam, Jesuit’s Drops,
Turlington’s Drops, and Traumatic Balsam. It was under the last name
that it first appeared in the P.L. of 1746. This was only the Latinised
name of Wound Balsam, another old designation of a similar preparation.
It is not known how the still popular name for this preparation,
Friar’s Balsam, originated. It is included in the Schedule to the
Medicine Stamp Act of 1812, suggesting that at that time it was
regarded as a proprietary medicine.
A correspondent of _The Chemist and Druggist_ (P. F. R., April 15,
1885) quoted from the _Western Antiquary_, 1884, page 136, the
curious item that a Portuguese merchant named Peter de Frias obtained
from the Viceroy of Peru, about the year 1581, the fruit of a balm
or balsam. It is not an impossible suggestion that Peter de Frias
may have been the originator of our Friar’s Balsam. The substitution
of benzoin for the balsam of Peru, which was probably the basis of
his “wound balsam,” is easily accounted for. Perhaps a more likely
explanation of the introduction of Friar’s Balsam into the Medicine
Stamp Act is that there was a patent medicine “called the Frier’s
Drops,” patented by Robert Grubb on June 13, 1777. It was intended
for the cure of the venereal disease, scurvy, rheumatism, and other
complaints. It contained calomel, antimony, guaiacum, and balsam of
Peru in spirit.
The Baume de Commandeur, which was also called Baume du Commandeur de
Permes, and Baume du Chevalier de Saint Victor, seems to have been the
original of these benzoinated tinctures, and acquired considerable
reputation in France. It was evidently at first a proprietary
preparation, but Pomet in 1694 gave a formula for an imitation of it,
with the remark that it would cure in eight days any wound by iron or
fire, if it were not a mortal one. His formula prescribes benzoin,
3 oz.; dry Peruvian balsam, 1 oz.; storax, 2 oz.; Socotrine aloes,
myrrh, olibanum, angelica root, and St. John’s wort flowers, of each ½
oz. digested in 2½ lb. of spirit, and strained. The Traumatic Balsam
introduced into the P.L. substituted Balsam of Tolu for the Balsam of
Peru, and omitted the myrrh, olibanum, angelica, and St. John’s wort.
This was almost identical with the Tinct. Benzoin Co. of the present
B.P.
The simple tincture of benzoin was already popular in this country when
the Traumatic Balsam was introduced. It was taken in doses of 20 to 60
drops in asthma, but its more usual employment was as Lac Virginis (1
drachm of the tincture in 4 ounces of water) as an application for the
skin.
GREGORY’S POWDER.
The original of the Pulv. Rhei Co. of the British Pharmacopœia was a
prescription very frequently given by Dr. James Gregory, of Edinburgh,
in his time the most famous physician of that city. He died in 1822.
This Dr. Gregory was Professor of Medicine in Edinburgh University,
as his father was before him. His son became Professor of Chemistry
in the same university. Direct ancestors of these Gregorys had been
professors of history, astronomy, and mathematics at Edinburgh, Oxford,
and St. Andrews. Within a century and a half the family furnished
sixteen professors to British universities, and it is a curious
coincidence that the Church of Rome likewise counts sixteen Gregorys
among its Popes.
[Illustration: DR. JAMES GREGORY.
Professor of Medicine in Edinburgh University, 1790–1821. Author of
_Conspectus Medicinæ Theoreticæ_ and inventor of Gregory’s Powder.
(From a mezzotint, “after Raeburn,” in the British Museum.)]
It does not appear that the Gregory of powder fame ever published any
special recommendation of his compound. He wrote a “Conspectus Medicinæ
Theoreticæ” (1788) but the formula for his powder does not appear in
that book. Annexed is a facsimile of one of Dr. Gregory’s prescriptions
for his powder. He gave this prescription very frequently, but
occasionally varied the proportion of the ingredients.
[Illustration: FACSIMILE OF DR. GREGORY’S PRESCRIPTION.]
HIERA PICRA.
A medicine with this familiar name can be bought in any chemist’s shop
in Europe or America to-day, just as it could in Damascus a thousand,
or in Rome and Alexandria two thousand years ago. Probably it is the
oldest pharmaceutical compound still in existence. Through all the
centuries the hiera picra known to the public has been a preparation of
aloes. The adjuncts have varied but aloes has always been the essential
ingredient, with one celebrated exception.