Visitando Interiora Terræ Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem
Veram Medicinam. (Visiting the interior of the earth you may find, by
rectifying the occult stone, the true medicine.) This acrostic is first
found in the works attributed to Basil Valentine.
The vitriols enjoyed an enormous reputation in medicine, at least until
their chemical composition was definitely explained by Geoffrey in
1728. It was certainly known that the green vitriols contained iron,
and they were sometimes named vitriol of Mars; that the blue vitriols
contained copper, which obtained for them the designation of vitriol
of Venus; and the white was understood to be associated with calamine,
though by some it was supposed to be only green vitriol which had been
calcined.
The name of vitriol cannot be traced further back than to Albertus
Magnus in the thirteenth century. He expressly applies the term to
atramentum viride, the Latin name for sulphate of iron. Presumably
it was given to the salt on account of its glassy appearance. The
alchemists, on distilling these vitriols found that they always yielded
a spirit or oil, to which they naturally gave the name of spirit or oil
of vitriol.
In Greek the vitriols were called chalcanthon, as they were extracted
from brass; the common name in Latin was atramentum sutorium, because
they were employed for making leather black. Dioscorides states that
this substance is a valuable emetic, should be taken after eating
poisonous fungi, and will expel worms. Pliny recommends it for the cure
of ulcers, and Galen used it as a collyrium. There was a good deal of
confusion between the vitriols and the alums, and the Greek stypteria
and the Latin alumens were often an aluminous earth combined with some
vitriol. Pliny gives a test for the purity of what he calls alum, which
consists in dropping on it some pomegranate juice, when, he says, it
should turn black if it is pure. Evidently his alum contained sulphate
of iron.
Paracelsus declared that, with proper chemical management, vitriol
was capable of furnishing the fourth part of all necessary medicine.
It contained in itself the power of curing jaundice, gravel, stone,
fevers, worms, and epilepsy.
Mayerne was another strong advocate of the medicinal virtues of
vitriol. According to him it possessed the most diverse properties. It
was hot and cold, attenuative and incressant, aperitive and astringent,
coagulative and dissolvant, corroborative, purgative, and sudorific.
A multitude of medicines were made from the vitriols. A vitriolum
camphoratum was included in the P.L. of 1721 by distilling spirit of
camphor from calcined vitriol; but Quincy remarks:--“Its intention I am
not acquainted with, nor have ever met with it in prescription.” In Dr.
Walter Harris’s “Pharmacopœia Anti-Empirica,” 1683, allusion is made to
a remedy made by one Bovius, which consisted of spirit of vitriol, and
was designed to lie a universal remedy. Added to an infusion of balm,
marjoram, and bugloss, it would cure headache and vertigo; with rose
water, fevers; with fumitory water, itch; with fennel water it would
restore decayed memory; with plantain water it was a remedy against
diarrhœa; and with lettuce water it became a narcotic. “A rare fellow,”
quaintly comments the doctor. Homberg’s narcotic salt of vitriol was a
combination of green vitriol and borax made after a very complicated
process. The Gilla Vitrioli was a purified white vitriol used as
an emetic. Spiritus Vitrioli dulcis was an imitation of Hoffmann’s
Anodyne. This distilled with hartshorn made the Diaphoretic Vitriol.
One of the precious secrets of the alchemists, occasionally sold to
kings and wealthy amateurs, was that of converting iron into copper
by means of blue vitriol. A strong solution of the salt was prepared,
and an iron blade, or any iron instrument, was immersed in it for a
certain time. When taken out it appeared to be a blade or instrument
of copper. Kunckel was the first chemist to explain the fallacy.
Elixir of Vitriol was devised by Adrian Mynsicht, a famous German
physician, in the early part of the seventeenth century. He published
an Armamentarium Medico-Chymicum which became very popular. His Elixir
(under the name of Elixir Vitrioli Mynsichti) was first given in the
P.L. of 1721 as follows:--cinnamon, ginger, cloves, of each 3 drachms:
calamus aromaticus, 1 oz.; galangal root, 1½ oz.; sage, mint, of each ½
oz.; cubebs, nutmegs, of each 2 oz.; lign. aloes, lemon peel, of each 1
drachm; candied sugar, 3 oz. Digest in spirit of wine, 1½ lb., and oil
of vitriol 1 lb. for twenty days. Then filter.
In the P.L. 1746 the formula was simplified by mixing 4 oz. of oil of
vitriol with 1 lb. of Aromatic Tincture, and the title was changed
to Elixir Vitrioli Acidum. In the P.L. 1778 there was no Elixir of
Vitriol, dilute sulphuric acid taking its place. This was then called
Acidum Vitriolicum Dilutum. Under the name of Acidum Sulphuricum
Aromaticum, however, an acidulated tincture, flavoured with ginger
and cinnamon, was retained, and this, with the synonym of Elixir of
Vitriol, is still in the B.P.
Quincy (1724) states that this medicine had lately come greatly in
practice, and deservedly. “It mightily strengthens the stomach,”
he says, “and does good service in relaxations from debauches and
overfeeding.”
The alga “nostoch,” so-called by Paracelsus, who also described it as
flos cœlorum, acquired the name of vegetable vitriol, and sometimes
spittle of the stars, because it appeared after rains in places where
it had not been seen before.