Adrian Mynsicht, physician to the Duke of Mecklenburg in the early part
of the seventeenth century, is generally credited with the invention
of emetic tartar. Certainly the earliest known description of it is
found in his “Thesaurus Medico-Chymicum,” published in 1631. But Hofer
has pointed out that the mixture known as the Earl of Warwick’s Powder,
which consisted of scammony, diaphoretic antimony (a binantimoniate of
potash) and cream of tartar, which Cornachinus of Pisa described in
1620, was really its forerunner, and he considers that the salt was
recognised in medicine before Mynsicht published his description.
Glauber, in 1648, described the process of making Mynsicht’s emetic
tartar from cream of tartar and argentine flowers of antimony.