Part 20

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.