In past times it was not unusual for monarchs to purchase from the
inventors of panaceas the secrets of their composition for publication
for the benefit of their subjects. Several instances are mentioned in
other chapters of this book. Among these may be noted Goddard’s Drops,
bought by Charles II., Glauber’s Kermes Mineral or Poudre des Chartres,
Talbor’s Tincture of Bark, and Helvetius’s Ipecacuanha, the secrets of
which were obtained by Louis XIV for fancy prices. In Louis XIV’s reign
the French Government purchased from the Prieur de Cabrier an arcanum
to cure rupture without bandages or operations. The recipe, which was
made public, was that a few drops of spirit of salt were to be taken
in red wine frequently during the day. Mr. Stephens’s Cure for the
Stone was transferred to the public by a payment authorised by Act of
Parliament.
The Emperor Joseph II of Austria paid 1,500 florins somewhere about
the year 1785 for the formula for a secret febrifuge which was at that
time enjoying extreme popularity. It proved to be simply an alcoholic
tincture of box bark (_Buxus sempervirens_). The remedy lost its
prestige as soon as the secret was gone.
_Nouffer’s Tapeworm Cure._
Louis XVI gave 18,000 livres (about £700) to a Madame Nouffer or
Nuffer for a noted cure for tapeworm, which she had inherited from her
deceased husband. As the result of the king’s purchase, a little book
was published in 1775 explaining fully the treatment.
Nouffer was a surgeon living at Morat, in Switzerland. He had practised
his special worm cure treatment for many years, and by it he had
acquired a considerable local fame. After his death his widow, who
knew all about the secret, continued to receive patients. Among those
who came to her was a Russian, Prince Baryantinski, who was staying in
the neighbourhood and had heard of the cure. He had been troubled for
years with tapeworm, and Madame Nouffer’s remedy cured him. The Prince
reported the facts to his regular physician at Paris, and consequently
cases were sent from that city to the Swiss lady. She was so successful
that the king was induced to give her the sum named for the revelation
of her method, which was briefly as follows:--
For a day or two the patient was fed on buttered toast only. Meanwhile
enemas of mallow and marshmallow with a little salt and olive oil were
administered. Then, early in the morning, 3 drachms of powder of male
fern in a teacupful of water was taken. Candied lemon was chewed after
the dose to relieve the nauseousness, and the mouth was washed out with
an aromatic water. If the patient vomited the medicine another dose
was given. Two hours after the male fern a bolus containing 12 grains
each of calomel and resin of scammony, with 5 grains of gamboge, and
with confection of hyacinth as the excipient, had to be taken. A cup
of warm tea was recommended shortly after the bolus. The doses quoted
were regarded as average ones. They might be modified according to the
strength of the patient. Generally the treatment narrated sufficed to
expel the worm. If it did not, the whole proceeding was repeated.
Male fern was a remedy mentioned by Dioscorides and other ancient
writers, but it had been forgotten for centuries until Madame Nouffer’s
system brought it to the recollection of medical practitioners. It
again fell out of use, but a French physician named Jobert revived its
popularity in 1869. He was assisted in the preparation of the remedy by
Mr. Hepp, pharmacien of the Civil Hospital of Strasburg.
_Bestucheff’s Tincture and La Mothe’s Golden Drops._
Alexis Petrovitch Bestoujeff-Rumine, commonly called Count von
Bestoujeff or Bestucheff, was in the service of the Elector George of
Hanover when that Prince was called to reign over Great Britain. He
thereupon became George’s ambassador at St. Petersburg. On the death
of Peter the Great Bestucheff withdrew from the British diplomatic
service, and commenced a varied and stormy political career, under the
three Empresses Anna, Elizabeth, and Catherine II, who, with brief
intervals, succeeded each other on the Russian throne. He was Foreign
Minister under the first, Grand Chancellor and then a disgraced exile
under the second, recalled and highly honoured by Catherine. During his
banishment he interested himself in a remedy which became enormously
popular at that epoch, known in France as the Golden Drops of General
La Mothe, and in Germany and Russia as Bestucheff’s Tincture. La Mothe
had been in the service of Leopold Ragotzky, Prince of Transylvania,
but retiring from the Army he went to live at Paris and took these
golden drops with him. They were a tincture of perchloride of iron
with spirit of ether, but the public believed them to be a solution of
gold. They were recommended as a marvellous restorative medicine, and
sold (in Paris) at 25 livres (nearly £1) for the half-ounce bottle.
So famous were they that Louis XV sent 200 bottles to the Pope as a
particularly precious gift. Subsequently Louis gave La Mothe a pension
of 4,000 livres a year for the right of making the drops for his Hotel
des Invalides, La Mothe and his widow after him retaining the right to
sell to the public.
Bestucheff sold his recipe to the Empress Catherine for 3,000 roubles,
and by her orders it was passed on to the College of Medicine of St.
Petersburg, which published it under the title of the Tinctura Tonica
Nervina Bestucheffi. The formula at first published was chemically
absurd, but Klaproth corrected it, and the prestige of the quack
medicine was destroyed. But an ethereal tincture of perchloride of iron
was adopted in most of the Continental pharmacopœias.
It is not clear whether Bestucheff and La Mothe were in association at
any time, but their preparations were similar if not identical.
Under the rule of Napoleon I the French Government bought several
formulas of secret remedies for about £100 each. None of them either
had or has since acquired any popular reputation. The formulas were
published in the medical and pharmaceutical journals of the time.