Part 18

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.

Professor of Medicine in Edinburgh University, 1790–1821. Author of Conspectus Medicinæ Theoreticæ and inventor of Gregory’s Powder.