The common theory is that it first acquired fame as a remedy employed
in one or other of the Æsculapian Temples. This may have been the case,
but there is no evidence in support of the suggestion. It is possible
that the name may have suggested the notion, and the drug vendors of
Rome would certainly not discourage the fancy.
Before the time of Julius Cæsar there were no physicians in Rome. Greek
practitioners of the minor arts of medicine, such as bath-keepers,
corn-cutters, tooth-drawers, and herbalists crowded into the great city
as it became rich, and opened shops which were known as “medicinas,”
and it is likely that most of these brought with them a more or less
famous “hiera,” claiming that it had been compounded from a genuine
Temple formula.
Leclerc, an excellent authority on all matters concerning ancient
medicine, attributes the first Hiera to Themison of Laodicea, who
practised in Rome about 50 B.C., and who is reputed to have
been the first physician to make use of leeches. The Hiera of Themison
was composed of 100 drachms of aloes, with 1 oz. each of mastic,
saffron, Indian nard, carpobalsamum, and asarum.
The Hiera of Galen, which was modified from that of Archigenes, was
originally in the following form:--
Socotrine aloes, 100; cinnamon, spikenard, xylobalsamum, mastic,
asarum, and saffron, of each 6; honey to make an electuary. In the P.L.
this was ordered to be kept in the form of species, and was principally
used to make a tincture which was called tinctura sacra. In the 1721
edition the mastic and the spikenard were omitted, cardamom seeds being
substituted for the latter, and some cochineal was added with a view to
colouring the tincture. In 1746 hiera picra became simply a mixture of
aloes and canella, and as such it was retained in the following edition
(1788), but under the title of Pulv. Aloeticus, which in the Index is
given as “olim Hiera Picra.” This was the latest reference to Hiera
Picra as such in the London Pharmacopœia. The P.L. of 1788 gave also
a Pulv. Aloeticus c. Guaiaco, which consisted of 1½ oz. of Socotrine
aloes, 1 oz. of powdered guaiacum, and ½ oz. of aromatic powder
(afterwards called Pulv. Cinnamomi Co., and compounded of cinnamon,
cardamoms, ginger, and long pepper). The canella mixture did not appear
again, but that with guaiacum was repeated in all the subsequent London
Pharmacopœias including the last in 1851, but was dropped from the
British Pharmacopœias.
Pil. Rufi, our Myrrh and Aloes pill, was originally a Hiera invented
by Rufus of Ephesus, who lived in the reign of the Emperor Trajan. The
Hiera was made into pills by the Arabs, and were for a long time known
as Pilulæ Pestilentiales, which was the name Avicenna gave them. In the
early Edinburgh Pharmacopœias they were called Pilulæ Communes.
Scribonius Largus, physician to the Emperor Tiberius, relates
(A.D. 52) that one of these noted hieras, the Hiera Pachii,
was much sought after, and that large sums had been offered for the
formula. When Pachius died at Antioch the Emperor had his library
searched, and the true recipe for the famous medicine was there found
in a book which Pachius had prepared and had dedicated to the Emperor.
Tiberius handed the formula to Scribonius with instructions for its
publication. The formula given by Scribonius, which it will be noted
contained no aloes, was as follows:--Colocynth, agaric, germander,
white horehound, Arabian stœches (a sort of lavender), of each ℥x;
opoponax, sagapenum, parsley seeds, round birthwort root, white pepper,
of each ℥v; spikenard, cinnamon, myrrh, and saffron, of each ℥iv;
despumated honey, 3 lb. 3 oz. 5 drachms, to make an electuary.
It is not necessary to describe the other hieras devised by later
authorities, but it may be noted that the Hiera Tralliani compounded
by Alexander of Tralles (about 550 A.D.) contained scammony,
and that he advises concerning it that the quantity of scammony
shall not be increased, as it appears some were inclined to do, not
knowing that thereby they make it useless. For he says it is not the
intention that the medicine should be carried immediately through the
system. It should be detained in the body and conveyed to the remote
parts so as to correct the various humours, open the passages, remove
the obstructions of the nerves, and make way for the motion of the
spirits. This was the formula given in the P.L. 1721 under the name of
Hiera Diacolocynthidis, but our present-day hiera picra has descended
from the Hiera Simplex of Galen. The old dispensatories up to the
eighteenth century give a liberal choice of Hieras, among which were
the Hiera Simplex Galeni cum Agarice, Hiera Logadii, Hiera Antiochi,
Hiera Archigenes, Hiera Tralliani, Hiera Rufi, Hiera Justi, Hiera
Constantini, and others. Originally these were all electuaries made
with honey. It became the practice, however, to keep them in the form
of “species,” and ultimately electuaries went out of fashion altogether.
LAUDANUM.
Paracelsus probably invented the name of laudanum, and seems to have
called several medicines by that term. In one place he expressly states
that his laudanum was made from gold leaf and unperforated pearls; in
other places he seems to mean red precipitate, and undoubtedly opium
or a compound of it was sometimes intended. Crollius gives a formula
for a pill mass, which he designates the laudanum of Paracelsus, which
contained one-fourth of its weight of opium, to which were added
henbane juice, mummy, salts of pearls and corals, the bone of the heart
of a stag, bezoar stone, amber, musk, unicorn, and some species, with
a few drops of many of the essential oils. The Anodynum Specificum of
Paracelsus was a product obtained by first digesting opium, 4, in a
mixture of orange and lemon juices, 180, with distilled frogs’ sperm
water, to which cinnamon, 4, cloves, 45, ambergris, 4, and saffron, 45,
were added. This mixture was digested for a month, and after pressing
and straining, coral, magistery of pearl, and quintessence of gold, of
each 2, were added, together with the salt extracted from the marc.
The laudanum of the early London Pharmacopœias was a pill mass made
as follows:--Thebaic opium extracted by spirit of wine, ℥i.; saffron,
similarly extracted, ℥iss; castorum, ℥i; combined with ℥ss. of species
of diambræ made into a tincture with spirit of wine; to these might be
added, ex-gratia, ambergris and musk, of each 6 gr., and oil of nutmeg
10 drops. Evaporate the moisture and leave the mass.
One would think that the name laudanum was an echo of laudandum, and
that has been the usual opinion. But Professor Skeat is confident that
it is a variation of ladanum, which, he says, was a stomachic cordial
made and named from gum labdanum, which had been in medical use for
centuries. This, of course, is possible, but it must be remembered that
Paracelsus was untrammelled by any etymological rules in his invented
words, and that the one unlikely thing for him to do would have been
to adopt with a slight modification the name of a remedy then in use,
if, indeed, a preparation of labdanum was at that time popular, or
even known at all in Germany in his time.[2] Adam of Bodenstein, son
of the theologian Carolstadt, who wrote both for and against Luther’s
doctrines, wrote a treatise in which he professed to explain all the
mysterious terms used by Paracelsus. Laudanum, he says, is from _a
laude_, and was a quintessence of mercury and not an opiate.
Sydenham’s Laudanum is the preparation of opium which attained the
highest popularity. It has always been the principal liquid preparation
of the drug in continental practice, and formulas for it more or less
corresponding with the original are in all the principal Pharmacopœias
except the British. It was omitted from the P.L. in 1746, or rather a
very similar preparation named Tinctura Thebaiaca was substituted for
it. Sydenham’s formula, which was given incidentally in his description
of the dysentery of 1669–72, prescribed strained opium, 2 oz., saffron
1 oz., cinnamon and cloves of each 1 drachm, and Canary wine, 1 pint.
“I do not think this preparation has more virtue than the solid
laudanum of the shops,” he wrote; “but I prefer it before that for its
more commodious form, and by reason of the greater certainty of the
dose, for it may be dropped into wine or any distilled water, or into
any other liquor.”
This passage is quoted from Pechey’s translation of Sydenham’s works.
The allusion to “the solid laudanum of the shops” confirms the opinion
that Sydenham’s was the first liquid preparation generally designated
laudanum. Among the Sloane manuscripts in the British Museum is
included what is described as “The Commonplace Book of an Apothecary
at Great Dunmow,” which contains several more or less similar recipes
for laudanum. The book is dated 1644–5. The most elaborate formula is
headed “Laudanum Josephi Michælis,” and lengthy directions for making
this are given. The ingredients were opium, extract of henbane, species
diambræ (a compound of most of the known spices), pearls, coral,
amber, musk, mummy, cloves, and oil of cloves. Some of these were to
be extracted with spirit of wine, and the spirituous extracts were to
be distilled. Ultimately the whole was to be set aside to ferment for
three months. The dose was stated to be 4 or 5 grains at bedtime.
Rousseau’s laudanum, which also became famous among opium preparations,
differed from others in being a fermented compound. It was made by
dissolving 12 oz. of honey in 3 lb. of warm water, and setting the
mixture in a warm place. When it began to ferment, 4 oz. of opium mixed
with 12 oz. of water were added, and the fermentation was allowed to
continue at a moderate temperature for a month. After straining, the
liquid was evaporated to 10 oz., and 4½ oz. of alcohol were added.
Rousseau was a Capuchin monk and was destined for mission work in Asia.
Sent from Rome to Paris to study medicine so that he might be better
fitted for his life’s work, he carried a letter of introduction to
Colbert, the first minister of Louis XIV. Rooms were provided for him
in the Louvre, and there before long he set up a laboratory and began
to prepare and sell medicines. The Capucin of the Louvre became the
fashionable quack, and Louis ordered the Faculty of Medicine to confer
on him a degree. The life was so agreeable that, when orders came from
Rome that he was to proceed on his mission, Rousseau refused, and,
having transferred his allegiance to the order of Cluny, he continued
his medical practice in Paris. Falling ill he refused medical aid,
treated himself with his own compounds, and died. After his death his
brother published his “Remédes et Secréts Eprouvés” (1697).
Black Drop was the name of a celebrated proprietary medicine very
popular from the first half of the eighteenth, until the early part of
the nineteenth century. Its inventor was one Edward Runstall of Bishop
Auckland in the county of Durham, but it also came to be known as the
Lancaster or the Quaker’s Black Drop. A formula for it was found by a
Dr. Armstrong among the papers of a relative of the proprietor, and was
published in a treatise on fevers in the early part of the nineteenth
century. The recipe was as follows:--Opium, ½ lb.; good verjuice (the
juice of the wild crab), 4 pints; nutmegs, 1½ oz.; saffron, ½ oz. Boil
to a proper consistence, set in a warm place, add two spoonfuls of
yeast, set in a warm place for six or eight weeks, then in the open
air until it becomes of the consistence of syrup. Decant, filter, and
bottle, putting a little sugar into each bottle.
This preparation was three times the strength of laudanum. The acetum
opii of the Edinburgh and Dublin Pharmacopœias was intended as a
substitute, but closer approximations to the original formula were
given in the Hamburg Codex of 1845 and in the U.S. Pharmacopœia of
1851. The growing favour with which morphine was regarded gradually
destroyed the popularity of the Black Drop.
TINCTURA LAVANDULÆ COMPOSITA
has much fallen from its earlier glories. In the P.L., 1721, it was
made with French brandy and twenty-seven other ingredients, including
besides lavender, sage, rosemary, betony, borage, lilies of the valley,
cowslips, balm, orange flowers, bay berries, cinnamon, mace, nutmegs,
cardamoms, cubebs, aloes wood, ambergris, saffron, musk roses, and
a few other less familiar flowers or cordials. The preparation was
known as Palsy Drops, but I am not sure whether the official compound
acquired this title, or whether it was an imitation of a tincture
previously known as such.
LENITIVE ELECTUARY.
The formula prescribed in the first London Pharmacopœia was as
follows:--Raisins (stoned), polypody of the oak, Eastern senna, of
each 2 oz.; herb mercury, 1½ handful; jujubes and sebestens, of each
20; maidenhair, violets, and cleaned barley, of each 1 handful; prunes
(stoned), tamarinds, of each 6 drachms; liquorice, ½ oz.
These drugs were to be boiled in 10 lb. of water to one-third of its
volume, and to the strained liquor were to be added pulp of cassia
fistula, tamarinds, prunes, sugar of violets, of each 6 oz.; sugar, 2
lb.; and at last 1½ oz. of powdered senna was to be incorporated to
each pound of the electuary.
In the Pharmacopœia of 1650 powdered aniseed, 2 drachms to each pound
of the electuary, was added in order to correct the action of the senna.
In 1721 figs (20) took the place of the jujubes and sebestens; and
powdered coriander seeds were substituted for the aniseed.
In the Pharmacopœia of 1746 the preparation was much simplified, the
raisins, polypody, herb mercury, maidenhair, violets, and barley, being
rejected. The formula then adopted was very nearly the same as the one
now prescribed, but the name of the compound was changed in 1851 to
Confection of Senna.
As in the case of most other medicines, the dose of this compound has
been gradually reduced. There was more senna in proportion to the
finished product in the old formulas than in the modern ones; but the
dose was stated by Culpepper to be “one ounce for a man of reasonable
strength.” Later a piece the size of a walnut was recommended; now the
official dose is 1 to 2 drachms.
For a long time this preparation was grossly adulterated. “I
understand,” says Paris, “that a considerable quantity is manufactured
in Staffordshire in which unsound or spoilt apples are an ingredient;
that jalap blackened with walnut liquor is frequently substituted for
pulp of cassia; and that the great bulk of what is sold in London is
little else than prunes, figs, and jalap.”
COMPOUND LIQUORICE POWDER.
Although this popular medicine was only made official by being adopted
in the B. P. Additions, 1874, it had already acquired reputation as
a pleasant laxative in household medicine, and had been familiar in
German pharmacy for the better part of a century. It first appeared
in the Prussian Pharmacopœia in 1799, and had been devised by a noted
physician of Berlin, Dr. E. G. Kurella, who died in the year named.
He called the mixture Pectoral Powder, and he made an electuary from
similar ingredients.
The Prussian powder looks like a modification of a compound senna
powder included in the first London Pharmacopœia, 1618. This contained
senna, liquorice, caraway, fennel, cumin, spikenard, cinnamon,
galangal, and gromwell seeds. Its “first contriver” (says Quincy) was
Isaac Hollandicus.
OPODELDOC.
So far as can be traced Paracelsus first used the term opodeldoc (or
as it is generally found in his works, opodelloch or opodeltoch). If
he invented the word it is probable that he did not derive it from
any etymological elements. Various suggestions have been made from
time to time in explanation of the term, but without any sound basis.
The most ingenious one is given by Hermann Peters in his “Pictorial
History of Ancient Pharmacy.” He derives it from the first syllabic
of opoponax, the second syllable of bedellium, and the third syllable
of aristolochia root. These were the principal ingredients of the old
opodeldoc plaster as it appeared in the last Nuremburg edition of the
“Dispensatory of Valerius Cordus.”
In some dictionaries Mindererus is credited with the invention of the
word, but incorrectly. He uses it, but expressly attributes it to
Paracelsus. In his “Medicina Militaris,” for example, he advises the
army doctor to “be provided with a good plaister for wounds made by
thrusting (spear-wounds) such as are the opodeldoc of Theophrastus.”
Schröder, another medical author of about the same date (1600) also
refers to the “oppodeldoch plaister of Paracelsus.” Paracelsus only
uses the term opodeldoc for plasters, and for these he does not give a
specific formula. One of his annotators, Felix Wurtz, however, states
that the following was the method of preparing the great opodeldoch
plaster which Paracelsus was in the habit of using. Its formula was as
follows:--
Galbanum, opoponax, of each 3 oz.; ammoniacum, bdellium, of each
1 oz. Macerate for eight days in distilled vinegar and slowly
evaporate the solution to the consistence of honey. Then boil
together, litharge in fine powder, ½ lb., with 1½ lb. of oil,
stirring until the compound acquires the colour of bay. Add 1
lb. of wax, and when melted mix with the solution the gums above
mentioned, and soon after add 3 oz. of oil of laurinus. Stir all
these diligently until they are perfectly mixed, then remove
from the fire and work in the following powders, all finely
powdered:--
Crocus martial, mummy, prepared magnet, magistery of white
coral, and magistery of red coral, of each ½ oz.; calamine,
myrrh, frankincense, mastich, aristolochia root, of each 2 oz.
Stir these gradually with the liquefied plaster.
Separately mix 1 drachm of powdered amber, 1 drachm of oil of
laurinus, and ½ oz. of turpentine, and add to them 1 drachm
of camphor and ½ drachm of saffron. Add this mixture to the
plaster, and when perfectly blended form into magdaleons
(rolls). These may be slightly softened with oil of St. John’s
wort.
The author explains that this plaster will heal all wounds and all
ordinary ulcers without the formation of pus; but for rodent ulcers
he recommends the addition of 1 drachm of the following mixture of
powders to each ½ oz. of plaster:--Crocus of antimony, vitriol of
calcined rubies, and red precipitate; equal parts worked in with a
little oil of turpentine. Other forms were given by different authors,
but this was the one which was adopted in the P.L., 1721.
Just when the name was transferred from a plaster to the liquid soap
liniment cannot be traced; it was applied to an ointment on the way.
There is a formula for an Unguentum Opodeldoch in the first Edinburgh
Pharmacopœia, 1722, as follows:--
“Rad. angelicæ, aristolochiæ longæ, imperatoriæ, aa 2 oz.;
“Fol. ocimi (basil), origani, salviæ, serpylli,
“Flor anthos, lavandulæ, aa 1½ oz.;
“Bacc. juniper, lauri, sem. cummini, aa 2 oz.; castorei, 1 oz.
“Affunde Spirit. Vini Rect. congium unum. Digere frigide per triduum
in vaso clauso; tandem humitatur in B.M. tepidum per horas aliquot.
Colatura expressæ adde
“Camphoræ 1 oz., saponis Venet. minutim incisi, lbii.
“Digere rursus in vase circularorio juncturis lutatis, leni calore B.M.
donec coeant in unguentum.”
Steer’s opodeldoc was similar to this compound, but with some ammonia
added. It appeared about the middle of the eighteenth century, and
foreign dispensatories state that it was the patent of an English
doctor. I have not been able to trace either the patent or the doctor.
Steer’s opodeldoc was evidently the model imitated in most of the
foreign pharmacopœias.
PAREGORIC.
Paregoric Elixir originated with Le Mort, Professor of Chemistry at
the University of Leyden from 1702 till 1718, when he died and was
succeeded by Boerhaave. A modification of Le Mort’s formula was given
in the P.L., 1721, as Elixir Asthmaticum, thus:--Honey and liquorice
root, of each 4 oz.; flowers of benjamin and opium, of each 1 drachm;
camphor, 2 scruples; oil of aniseed, ½ drachm; salt of tartar, 1 oz.;
spirit of wine, 2 lb. Quincy (1724) says, “there is not any composition
of our shops to be compared to it in the intention in which it is
ordered.” He explains that opium procures a truce with the cough,
and so provides a better opportunity for the other ingredients to
rarefy and thin the viscid cohesions in the vessels, and fit them for
circulation and secretion. In the P.L., 1746, the honey, liquorice,
and salt of tartar were omitted, and the name of the preparation was
changed to Elixir Paregoricum. The Edinburgh Pharmacopœia of 1756 left
out the honey, liquorice, and salt of tartar, substituted saffron for
camphor, and ammoniated the spirit. The P.E. also adopted the name of
Paregoric. In the P.L., 1788, the official name became Tinct. Opii
Camphorata, and in 1851, Tinct. Camphoræ Co. A similar formula appears
in most foreign Pharmacopœias. In the German Pharmacopœia and in some
others it is called Tinct. Opii Benzoica.
Paregoric, that is, soothing, remedies were frequently spoken of before
the adjective became specific. Leclerc, dealing with the later Greek
and Roman remedies, states that preparations into which poppy juice
or opium entered as an essential ingredient, whether they were pills
or liquids, were called anodyna or paregorica. Bishop Berkeley said
of his tar water that it was “both paregoric and cordial.” The word
was derived from a Greek combination originally meaning to speak in
an assembly, but it acquired the secondary sense of speaking words of
consolation.
PIL. COCHIA.
Pil. Cochia originated with the Greco-Roman physicians, from Galen
onwards, and all the formulas for it associate aloes with a more
drastic purgative such as colocynth, which is the usual ingredient.
The term, however, did not come into use until about the seventh
century, and according to some authorities it was first formally
adopted by Rhazes, the Arab. The predecessors of our pills were called
“katapotia,” which meant things to be swallowed, and the earlier
prescribers directed katapotia of such a size. Celsus, for example,
orders katapotia of the size of an almond, of an Egyptian bean, and so
on. Subsequently as patients became more fastidious they were humoured
by the doctors, and katapotia of the size of a coccus, which was a
lentil berry, were prescribed. Coccion meant a diminutive coccus, and
as the pill of aloes and colocynth was frequently prescribed in this
way the term came to distinguish those pills particularly. Paul of
Ægina’s formula (sixth century) ordered aloes and colocynth pulp, and
extract of wormwood, of each one part, with scammony two parts. To be
made into pills of the size of a coccus. Eleven were to be taken for
a dose. The early London Pharmacopœias contained formulas for pilulæ
cocciæ majores, from Rhazes, and pilulæ cocciæ minores, from Galen.
Only the latter survived. In the P.L., 1746, the name of Pilulæ cocciæ
minores was changed to Pilulæ ex Colocynthide cum Aloe, and the
formula ordered Socotrine aloes and scammony, of each 2 oz.; pulp of
colocynth 1 oz.; oil of cloves, 2 drachms.
PLUMMER’S PILLS.
Pil. Calomel. Co. originated from a formula devised by Dr. Andrew
Plummer, Professor of Chemistry in the University of Edinburgh in the
middle of the eighteenth century. Dr. Plummer first published his
formula in the “Edinburgh Medical Essays,” 1751. It was only a slight
modification of the Pilulæ Æthiopicæ which were already official in the
Edinburgh Pharmacopœia. These were originally a combination of Ethiops
Mineral with the golden sulphide of antimony, but the Edinburgh College
had substituted calomel for the former.
AMMONIATED TINCTURE OF QUININE.
Under this name Mr. Joseph Ince recorded in the _Pharm. Journ._,
June 13th, 1874, that a preparation was made and called by this name
which was a solution of 1 grain of sulphate of quinine in one drachm of
compound spirit of ammonia. This did not meet with general approval,
and in 1853 Mr. Bastick proposed an Ammoniated Solution of Quinine made
by dissolving 32 grains of sulphate of quinine in 3½ ounces of proof
spirit and ½ ounce of solution of ammonia. The present B.P. tincture
contains less ammonia, and alcohol is employed instead of proof spirit.
COMPOUND SOAP PILLS.