CH RON ICLES O F

PHA RMACY

A . C . WOOTTON

V OL. I

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PREFACE

PHARMACY ,or the ar t of selecting

,extracting , pre

aring,and compounding medicines from vegetable ,

imal,and mineral substances

,is an acquirement

ich must have been almost as ancient as man himon the earth . In experimenting with fruits

,seeds ,

eaves,or roots with a view to the discovery of varieties

)f feed,our remote ancestors would occasionally find

some of these,which

,though not tempting to th e palate

,

Dos s es s ed this or that property th e value of which would;oon come to be recognised . The t r adition of theseVirtues would be h anded down from generation to

generation , and would ultimately become,by various

n eau s,the heritage of the conquering an d civilising races .

Df the hundreds of drugs yielded by the vegetable<in g dom,

collected from all parts of th e world,and used

i s remed ies,in some cases for thousand s of years

,I do

let know of a single one which can surely be traced tomy historic or scientific personage . It is possible inn any instances to ascertain the exact or approximatelate when a particular substance was intr oduced to ournarkets

, and sometimes to“name th e physician

,explorer

,

ner chan t,or conqueror to wh om we are indebted for

PREFACE

such an addition to our materia medica;but there isalways a history or a tradit ion behind our acquaintancewith the new medicine

,going back to an u ndetermined

past.In modern dispensatories the ever increasing accumu

lation of chemical,botanical

,h istological

, and therapeuticnotes h as tend ed to crowd out the h istoric paragraphswhich brightened the older treatises . Perhaps this resultis inevitable

,but it is none th e less to b e regretted on

account of both the student and the adept in the art ofpharmacy.

“ I have always thought,

” wrote FerdinandHoefer in the In troduction to h i s still valuable “Historyof Chemistry ” “

that th e best method of popularising scientific stud ies

,generally so little attractive

,

consists in presenting,as in a panorama

,the different

phases a science has passed th rough from its origin toits present condition . No science nor

,indeed

,any

single item of knowledge,can be properly appreciated

apart from th e records of i ts evolution;and it i s asimportant to be acquainted with the errors and misleading theories which have prevailed in regard to it

,as

with the steps by which real progress has beenmade .

Th e history of drugs , investigations into their cultivat ion ,

their commerce,thei r constitution

,and their thera

peutie effects , have been dealt with by physicians andpharmacologists of th e highest emi nence in both past andrecent times . In Fluckiger and Hanbury

’

s Pharmaco

g r aphia (Macmillan : earlier records were stuwith th e most scrupulous care , and valuable new infotion acquired by personal observation was presented .

other work of a similar character was so original,

accu rate,or so attractive as this . A v ery import

systematic study of drugs,profusely illustrated

PREFACE

productions of photographs s howing particularly th e

ethod s whereby th ey are produced and brought to ourar ket s

,by Professor Ts chi r ch of Berne , is now i n

of publication by Tauchnitz of Leipsic. In thesee “ Chronicles it has been impossible to avoid

entirely occasional Vi sits to th e domain so effi cientlyoccupied by these great authorities;bu t as a rule th esubj ects they have made their own have been regardedas outside the scope of this volume .

Bu t the ar t of th e apothecary,of pharmacy

,as we

should now say, restricted to i ts narrowest signification ,consists particularly of the manipulation of d rugs, theconversion of the raw material into the manufacturedproduct. Th e records of this ar t and mystery likewisego back to the remotest periods of human history. Inthe course of ages they become associated with magic

,

with theology,with alchemy

,with cr imes and consciou s

frauds,with the strangest fancies

,and dogmas

,and

delusions,and with th e severest science . Deities

,kings

,

and quacks,philosophers

,priests

,and poisoners

,dreamers

,

seers,and scientific chemists

,have all helped to build th e

fabric of pharmacy,and it is some features of their work

which are imper fectly s ketch ed in these Chronicle s .

”

My original intention when I began to collect th e

mate r ials for this book was simply to trace back to theirauthors the formulas of themost popular of our medicines

,

and to recall those which h ave lost their reputation . Ithought

,and still think

,that an explanation of the

modification of processes and of the variation of th eingredients of compounds would be u seful

,bu t I have

n ot accomplished this des w n . I have been temptedfrom it into various by—paths , and probably in them haveoften erred

,and certainly have missed many obj ects of

interest . I s hallbe g r ateful to any critic , better informed

PREFACE

than myself,who will correct me where I have gone

astr ay,or refer me to information wh ich I ought to have

given . I may not have the opportunity of utilisingsuggestion s myself;bu t all that I receive will be carefully collated

,and may assist some future writer .

A . O. WOOTTON .

4 SEYMOUR ROAD,FINCHLEY

,

LONDON ,N.

PUBLISHERS ’ NOTE

As the author unhappily died while his book wasstill in the printer

’s hands,his fri end

,Mr . Peter

MacEwan ,editor of The Chemi s t an d Dr u g g i s t, h a s

been good enough to revise th e p roofs for press .

CONTENTS

HAFTERI . MYTHS PHARMACYI I . PHARMACY IN THE TIME OF PHARAOH SI I I . PHARMACY IN THE BIBLEIV . THE PHARMACY OF H IPPOCRATESV . FROM H IPPOCRATES TO GALEN

ARAB PHARMACYV I I . FROM THE ARABS TO THE EUROPEANSVIII. PHARMACY IN GREAT BRITAIN

i

IX . MAGIC AND MEDICINEX. DOGMAS AND DELUSIONSMASTER S IN PHARMACY

XI I . ROYAL AND NOBLE P I IARMACI STSXI II . CHEMICAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO PHARMACY

MEDICINES FROM THE METALS

ILLUSTRATIONS

V OL. I

ISISOs ir i sApollofE s eulap Iu s

Arms of th e Society Of Apothecar ie sChir on th e CentaurAch illea MilfoilCentau r yPhoen ixUn icor nDr agonTh e Dr agon Tr eePapyr u s Eber sH ippocr atesInter ior of Mos qu e, CordovaAv icennaNur ember g PharmacyS ir Theodor e Mayer ne

LohnGeor ge Er nes t StahlMar qu is e d e SevigneS ir KenelmDigbyGalenRaymond LullyBas il Valentin ePar acels u sCulpepper

IL LUSTRATIONS

Culp epp er’

s H ou s eJ . B . V an H elmontGlauberKar l Wilh elm S ch eeleScheele ’

s PharmacyEcole d e Pharmacie , Par isVauqu elinJos eph PelletierBar on L iebigS ir H umph r y DavyDr . William H eber denS ir Walter RaleighBer keleyDr . Nehemiah Gr ewJos eph BlackJohann Ku nckel

An timony cu p

Dr . Thoma s SydenhamThomas Willis , M .D.

Qu ick s ilver bottles

ERRATA

V OL. I ~

Ten th line fr om top , for Mes ne r ead Mes u e .

S ixth linef r om bottom, r efer ence s hou ld be Vol . I I . ,

E ig h th linef r om top , r efer ence s hould be Vol . I I . ,182 .

Top lin e, r efer ence s hou ld be : Vol . I I .,37 .

Second linef r om top ,add itional r ef er ence Vol . I I . ,

179 .

Ninth linef r omtop , for P anchymag og umr ead P anehymag og on .

HRON ICLES O F PHARMACY

MYTHS OF PHARMACY

Deor um immor talium in ven tion i con s ecr ata e s t A r s Medica .

C ICERO,Tu s cu lan . Qu aes t. , Lib . 3 .

THE earliest medical practitioners of any sort andamong all peoples would almost certainly be

,as we

should designate t hem,herbalists;women in many

cases . How they came to acquire knowledge of thehealing properties of herbs i t is futile to discuss . Old

writers Often guess that they g ot hints by watchinganimals . Their own curiosity

,suggesting experiments

,

would probably be a more fruitful source Of theirscience

,and from accidents , both happy and fatal

,they

would gradually acquire empiric learning .

Very s een these herb experts would begin to preparetheir remedies SO as to make them easier to takeor apply

,making infusions

,decoctions

,and Ointments .

Thus the Ar t of Pharmacy would be introduced .

Th e herbalists and pharmacists” among primitive

tribes would accumulate facts and experience,and

finding that their skill and services had a market valuewhich enabled them to live withou t so much hard workas their neighbours , they would naturally surround

V OL. I B

CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY

their knowledge with mystery,and keep it to

themselves or in particular families . Th e profession ofmedicine being thus started

,th e inevitable theories Of

supernatural powers causing diseases would be em

cou r ag ed ,because these would promote the mystery

already gathering round th e practice of medicine,and

from them would follow incantations,exorcisms

,the

association of priestcraft with the healing arts,and the

Superstitions ,A

'

cr edulities , and impostures which havebeen its constant companions

,and which are still too

much in evidence .

THE INVENTORS OF M EDICINE

Medicine and Magic con sequently became Intimatelyassociated, and useful fac

‘ts,superstitious

,

practices,and

con s ciou S'

and“unconscious d eceptions

,became blended

into a mosaic which formed a fixed and reverencedSystem Of Med i cIne . Again the supernatural powerswere called in and the credit of th e revelation of thisArt, that is its total fabric , wa s attributed either toa d i v Ine being who had brought it from above

,or

to some gifted and inspired creature,who in consequence

had been admitted into the family of the deities .In Egypt Osiris and Isis , brother and sister, and

at the same time husband and wife,were worshipped as

the revealer s of medical knowledge among most othersciences . Formulas credited to Isis were in existence inthe time of Galen

,but even that not too critical

authority rej ected th ese traditions without hesitation .

In ancient Egypt , however , the priests who held intheir possession “ all the secrets of medicine claimedIsis as;the founder of their science . Some Old legendsexplained that she acquired her knowledge Of medicine

MYTHS OF PHARMACY

from an angel named Am‘

nael,

on e of th e sons ofGod of whom we read In th e book Of Genesis . The

science thu s imparted to her was th e p r ice she exactedfrom him for the surrender of herself to him . Th e sonof Isis

,Horus

,was identified by th e Greeks with their

Apollo , and to him also th e discovery of medicine isattributed.

The legend which associa ted “ the son s of God withthe daughters of men before the Flood

,and

ISIS . OSIRIS .Fr om th e Collection of Medals an d other Antiqu ities of Casalins (17th centu r y).

In Lecler c’

s H i s tor y of Med i cine.

suggestion that they imparted a knowledge of medicineto the inhabitan ts of the earth

,i s traceable in the

traditions of the Egyptians,the Assyrians

,and th e

Persians , as well a s in Jewish literature . In the 6 th

chapter of Genes i s it is said that “they s aw th e

daug hters of men that they were fair;and they tookthem wives of all that they chose .

” From thes e‘

u n ion s

came the race of giants , and the wickedness of man SO

B 2

CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY

great in the earth that the destru ction of the race bythe Flood resulted . Th e apocryphal Book of Enoch

,

composed,it is agreed

,about 100 or 1 50 years before

the birth of Christ , is very definite in regard to thislegend

,showing that it was current among the Jews at

that period . We read in that Book,that “ They (the

angels) dwelt with them and taught them sorcery,

enchantments,the properties of roots and trees , magic

sign s,and the art of observing the stars .” Alluding to

one of these angels particularly it is said “ he taughtthem the use of the bracelets and ornaments

,the ar t of

painting,of painting the eyelashes , th e uses Of precious

stones,and all sorts of tinctures

,so that the world was

corrupted .

HERMES .

With Osiris and Isis is always associated theEgyptian Thoth whom the Greeks called Hermes , andwho i s also identified with Mercury . He was describeda s the friend , or the secretary , Of Osiris . Eusebiusquotes an earlier author who identified Hermes with

Moses but if Moses was the inventor Of medicine andall other sciences it would be hardly exact to speak ofhim as “ learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians .”

Thoth , who is also claimed as a Phoenician , as Canaanthe son of Ham

,and as an associate of Saturn , attained

perhaps the greatest fame as an inventor of medicine .He wa s th e presumed author of the six sacred bookswhich the Egyptian priests were bound to follow in theirtreatment of th e sick . One of these books was speciallydevoted to pharmacy.

Thoth , or Hermes, is supposed to have inventedalchemy as well as medicine

,the art of writing

,arith

MYTHS OF PHARM ACY

metic,laws

,music

,and the cultivation Of the Olive .

According to Jamblicu s,who wrote on the mysteries of

Egypt in the reign of the Emperor Julian , the Egyptianpriests then recognised forty- two books as the genuineworks of Hermes . Six Of these dealt respectivelywith an atomy

,diseases in general

,women ’s complaints

,

eye diseases,surgery

,and the preparation of remedies .

Jamblicu s is not sure of their authenticity , and , asalready stated , Galen un compromisingly declares themto be apocryphal . Other writers are far less modestth an Jamblicu s in their estimates of the numberof the writings of Hermes . Seleucus totals them at

and Manethon saysThe legend of Hermes apparently grew up among the

Alexandrian writers of th e first century . It was fromthem that h i s surname Trismegistus (thrice-great)originated . It was pretended that in the old Egyptiantemples the works of Hermes were kept on papyri

,

and that the priests in treating diseases were bound tofollow his directions implicitly . If they did

,and the

patient died,they were exonerated;but if they de

parted from the written instructions they were liableto be condemned to death

,eVen though the patient

recovered .

It is hardly necessary to say that in the precedingparagraph no attempt has been made to discuss modernresearches on ancient beliefs . Greek scholars

,for ex

ample,trace the Greek Hermes to an Indian source

,

and assume the existence of two gods of the samename.

BACCHUS,AMMON

,AND ZOROASTER .

Bacchus,King of Ass yria , and subsequently a deity ,

was claimed by some of the Eas tern nations as the

CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY

discoverer of medicine . He i s supposed to have taughtthe medicin al value Of the ivy

,but it i s more likely

that he owes his medical reputation to his supposedinvention of wine . Some Old writers identify him withNoah . Hammon , or Ammon , or Amen , traced to Ham ,

the‘

second son of Noah,has been honoured as having

Originated med icme I n Egypt . Some attribute thename of sal—ammoniac to the temple of Ammon in theLibyan oasis , on the theory that it wa s first producedthere from the dung of camels . Gum ammoniacum i ssimilarly supposed to have been the gum of

~

a shrubwhich grew In that locality . Zoroaster

,who gave the

Pers i ans their religious system,is also counted among

the inventors of medicine,perhaps because he wa s so

generally regarded as the discoverer of magic .

APOLLO.

Apollo,th e reputed god of medicine among the Greeks

,

wa s the s on of Jupiter and Latona . H i s divinity b ecame associated with the s u n

,and his arrows

,which

Often caused sudden death were , accord ing to modernexpounders Of ancient myths

,only the rays of the s un .

Many of his attributes were similar to those which theEgyptians credited to Horus

,the son of Osiris and Isis

,

and it is evident that the Egyptian legend was incor por ated with that of th e early Greeks . Besidesbeing the g od of medicine Apollo wa s the deity Of

music,poetry

,and eloquence

,and he was honoured as

the inventor of all these arts . He evidently possessedthe j ealousy of the artist in an abundant degree

,for

after his musical competition with Pan , Apollo playingth e lyre and P an the flute

,when Tmolu s

,the arbiter

,

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CHRONICLES OF PHARM ACY

another of th e legendary inventors of the art , who alsotaught Achilles and others . E s culap iu s became s o skilfu lthat Castor and Pollux insisted on h i s accompanying theexpedition of th e Argonauts . Ultimately he acquiredthe power of restoring the dead to life . Bu t thisperfection Of h i s art was his ruin .

Pluto,alarmed for the future *of his own dominions ,

complained to Jupiter,and the Olympian ruler Slew

jE SCULAP I US .

Fr om th e Casalin s Collection of Medals , &c. Fr om th e Louvr e Statu e , Pal is .(17th centu r y).

fEs culap iu s with a thunderbolt . Apollo was so incensedat this cruel j udgment that he killed the Cyclops whohad forged the thunderbolt. F or this act Of rebellionApollo wa s banished from Olympia and spent nineyears on earth

,for some time as a shepherd in the

service Of the king of Thessaly . It wa s during thisperiod that the story of his adventure with Daphne ,

MYTHS OF PHARMACY

told by Ov id , and from which the quotation on

THE ARMS OF THEl

s OCI ETY OF APOTHECARIES

(italicised below) is taken , occurred . Ovid relates thatApollo

,meeting Cupid

,j eered at h i s child ’s bows and

arrows as mere playthings . In revenge Cupid forgedtwo arrows

,one of gold and the other Of lead . The

golden one he shot at Apollo,to excite desire;th e

leaden arrow,which repelled desire

,wa s shot at Daphne .

The legend ends by the nymph being metamorphosedinto a laurelwhich Apollo thenceforth wer e as a wreath .

One of th e incidents n arrated by Ovid represents thegod telling the nymph who he is . Dryden ’s versionmakes him say

Per haps thou knowes t not my s uper ior s tate

An d fr om that ign or an ce pr oceeds thy hate .

A somewhat uncouth method of seeking to ingra tiatehimself with th e reluctant lady . Among his attainments Apollo says

I nventummedicina meum es t, Op if er qu e p er or bem

Di cor , et b er ham s ubjecta poten tia nobi s .

Dryden v er s ifies these lines thus

Medicin e i s m i ne, what her b s and s imple s gr owI n field s and for es ts

,all their power s I kn ow

,

An d am th e g r eat phys ician called below.

The arms Of the Society of Apothecaries are thusdescribed in Burke

’

s “ Encyclopaedia Of Heraldry,”

1 85 1

In Shield , Apollo , the inventor of phy s io, with h i shead radiant , hold ing I n his left hand a bow

,and in his

righ t a serpent . About the shield a helm,thereupon a

mantle , and for the crest , upon a wreath of their colours ,

CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY

a rhinoceros , supported by two unicorns , armed andungulated . Upon a compartment to make the achievement complete

,this motto : ‘

Op ifer qu e per orhem

ARMS OF TH E SOCIETY OF APOTHECARIES .

was William Camden,the famous antiquary and

Clarenceux King at Arms in James I .

’

s reign , whohunted out the middle of the above Latin quotation forthe newly incorporated Society of Apothecaries .

THE SONS or ZESCULAP IUS .

fEs culapiu s left two sons , who continued their father’s

p r ofes s IOn ,and three or four daughters . It is not pos

sible to be chronolog ically exact with these semimythical personages , b u t according to the usual reckoning fEs culap iu s lived about 1 2 50 B.C. He wou ld havebeen contemporary with Gideon

,a j udge of Israel

,

about two centuries after the death of Moses,and two

centuries before the reign Of King David . His sonsMachaon and Pedalir u s were immortalised in the Iliadamong the Greek heroes who fought before Troy , andthey exercised their surgical and medical skill on their

MYTH S OF PHARMACY

comrades,as Homer relates . When Menelaus wa s

wounded by an arrow shot by Pandarus , Machaon wassent for , and sucked t h e blood , and sovereig n balminfused , wh ich Chiron gave , and ZEs culap iu s used .

After th e Troj an war both th e brothers continued toexercise thei r art

,and some of their cures are recorded .

Their sonsafter them likewise practised med 1c1ne , and theearlie s t fEs culapian Temple is believed to have beenerected in memory Of his grandfather by Spy r u s , thesecond son of Machaon

,atArgos . Perhaps he only in

tended it as a home for patien ts , or it may have been asan advertisement . From th en

,however

,the worship of

ZEs culap iu s spread , and we read of temples at Titane inth e Peloponnesus

,at Tricca in Thessalia , at Tr ithor ea ,

at Corinth,at Epidaurus

,at Cos, at Megalopolis In

Arcadia,at Lar in Laconia

,-at Dr epher , at Drope , at

Corona on the Gulf Of Messina , at. Eg r um,at Delos ,

at Cyllene, at Smyrna, and at Pergamos in Asia Minor .

The Temple of Epidaurus was for a long time th e mostimportant

,but before the time of Hippocrates that of

Cos seems to have taken the lead .

THE DAUGHTERS OF E SCULAP I US

are often described as allegorical figures,Hygeia r ep r e

senting health,and Panacea

,medicine . Hyge i a espe

cially was widely worshipped by Greeks , and when richpeople recovered from an illness they Often had medalsstruck with her figure on the reverse . Pliny says it wascustomary to offer her a simple cake of fin e flour , toindicate the connection between simple living and goodhealth . Panacea was likewise made a divinity . She

presided over the administration of : medicin es . Eg r ea

and Jaso are b ut little known. The former (whosename signified th e light Of the Su n) married a serpent

CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY

and was changed into a willow,while Jaso in the only

known monument on which she appears,is represented

with a pot,probably of ointment

,in her hand .

PROMETHEUS .

More mythical than the story of ZEs culapiu s , or evenof Orpheus , who was also alleged to have discoveredsome of the secrets of medicine

,i s the legend of Prome

theus who stole fire from heaven for the benefit ofmankind . According to the Older mythologists Prometheus was the same as Mag og ,

and was the son ofJaph et . E s chylu s is the principal authority on h i s

tradition . After recounting many other wonderfulthings he had done for humanity

,the poet makes him

say,On e of the greatest subtilties I have invented i s

that when any one falls ill , and can find n o relief;canneither eat nor drink

,and knows not with what to

anoint himself;when for want of the n ecessary remedieshe must perish then I showed to men how to preparehealing medicine which Should cure all maladies . Or asDean Plumptr e has rendered it

If any one fell illTher e wa s n o help for him nor healing ba lm,

Nor unguen t, n or yet potion o b u t for wan tOf d r ugs they wa s ted till I Showed to themTh e blendings of allmild medicamen tsWher ewith they war d the attack s of s ickn es s s or e.

other words,Prometheus was the first pharmacist.

MELAMPUS .

Melampus was a shepherd to whom we owe,as legend

tells us,hellebore (Gr . Melampod ion) and iron a s

I MYTHS OF PHARMACY

medicines . Melampus studied nature closely,and , when

young,brought up by hand some young serpents , who

were dutifully grateful for th e cares he had bestowed onthem . One day ,

finding h im asleep,two of them crept

to h i s ears and so effectively cleaned them with theirtongues that when he woke he found he could easilymake out the language of birds

,and hear a thou s and

th ings which had prev iously been hidden from man .

Thus he became a great magician . In tending hisgoats he observ ed that whenever they ate the blackhellebore th ey were purged . Afterwards , many of thewomen of Argos were stricken with a disease whichmade them mad . They ran about the fields naked

,and

believed they were cows . Among th e women so afflictedwere the three daughters of Proetus

,the king of Argos .

Melampus undertook to cure the three princesses,and

did so by giving them the milk of lth e goats after theyhad eaten the hellebore . His reward was one of themfor his wife and a third of the kingdom . Another cureeffected by Melampus was by h i s treatment of Iph iclu s ,king of Phylacea , who greatly desired to beget children .

Melampus gave him rust of iron in wine,and that

remedy proved successful . This was the earliestVinum Ferri . Melampus is supposed to have livedabout 1 380 B C.

GLAUCUS .

Glaucus,son of Mine s

,king of Crete

,was playing

when a child and fell into a large vat of honey,in

which he was suffocated . Th e child bei ng lost theking sent for Polyidus of Ar gos , a famous magician ,and ordered him to discover his son . Polyidus havingfound th e dead body in the honey , it occurred to Minos

CHRON ICLES O F PHARM ACY

that so clever a man could also bring him back to life .

He therefore commanded that the magician should be

pu t into the same v at . While perplexed at the problembefore him

,Polyidus saw a serpent creeping toward s

the v at . He seized the beast and killed him . Presen tlyanother serpent came

,and looked on his dead friend .

The second wen t out of the place for a few minutes andreturned with a certain herb which he applied tothe dead reptile and soon restored him to life . PolyidustOok th e hint and used the same herb on Glaucus withan equally satisfactory result. He restored him to hisfather

,who loaded the sorcerer w ith gifts . Un for

tu nately in telling the other details of this history thenarrator has forgotten to inform us of the name of theherb which possessed such preciou s proper ties . Polyidus

,

according to Pausanias,was a nephew of Melampus .

CH IRON .

Chiron the Cen taur was very famous for his knowledge of simples

,which he learned on Mount Pelion

when hunting with Diana . Th e Centaury owes itsname to him

,either because he used it as a remedy or

because it was applied to his wound . H i s great meritwas that he taught h i s knowledge of medicines toZEs culap iu s , to Hercules , to Achilles , and to variousother Greek heroes . In the Iliad Homer representsEurypylus wounded by an arrow asking Patroclus

W ith lukewa rm wa ter wa s h the go r e awayW ith healing ba lm s th e r aging sma r t a llaySu ch a s s age Chir on , s ir e of pha rmacy

,

On ce taught Achille s , and Achille s thee.

(IL, Bk . XI,Pope ’

s Tr an s lation .)

Chiron was shot in the foot by Hercules by an

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CHRONICLES OF PHARMACY

He d iscovered the virtues of the plant Achillea Milfoil,

but Pliny leaves it doubtfu l whether he cured th e

ACHILLEA MILFOIL .

wounds of his friend Telepha s by that remedy or byverdigris ointment , which he also invented .

ARISTES .

Aristes,king of Arcadia

,was another famous pupil of

Chiron . He i s credited with having introduced thes ilph ion or laser which became a popular medicine andcondiment with the ancients , and which wa s longbelieved to have been their name for asafoetida

,but

which modern authors have doubted,alleging that

s ilph ion was th e product of Thap s ia s ilph ion . Aristesis further said to have taught the art of collecting honeyand of cultivating the

,olive .

MYTHS OF PHARMACY

MEDEA .

Medea of Colchis i s one of the most discussed lad ies

of mythical history . Euripides,Ovid

,and other poets

represented her for the purposes of th eir poems a s afiend of inhuman ferocity . Some more trustworthyhistorians believe that she was a princess who devoteda great deal of study to the medicinal virtues ofthe plants which grew in her country

,and that s he

exercised her skill on the poor and sick of her country .

Certainly the marvellous murders attributed to her musthave been planned by a tr ag Ic poet to whom no con

d ition s were impossible . B iederns declares that theCorinth ians stoned her and her sons

,and afterwards

paid Euripides five talents to j ustify their crime .Medea’s claim to a place in this section i s the adoptedtheory that she d iscovered the poisonous properties ofcolchicum

,which derived its name from her country .

Colchis had the reputation of producing many poisonousplants;hence the Latin expression “

v enena Colchica .

”

MORPHEUS .

Morpheus was,according to the Roman poets

,the

son or chief minister of the g od of sleep (Somnus). Thegod himself was represented as living in Cimmeriandarkness . Morpheus d erived his name from Morphe

,

(Gr .

, form or shape), from h i s supposed ability to mimicor assume the form of any individual he desired to poseas in d reams . Thus Ovid r elates how he appeared toAlcyone in a dream as her husband

,who h ad been ship

Wrecked , and narrated to her all th e circumstances of thetragedy. Morpheus is represented with a poppy plantin his hand bearing a capsule with which he was

C

CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY

supposed to touch those whom he desired to pu t to

sleep . He also had th e wings of a butte r fly to indicatehis lightness . Ser tii r ner adopted the term morphium ”

as the name of the opium alkaloid which he haddiscovered .

PYTHAGORAS .

Pythagoras,who lived in th e sixth century before

Christ,has been the subj ect of s o many legends that

it is difficult to separate the philosopher in him fromthe charlatan . He is said to have tamed wild beastswith a word

,to have v isited hell

,to have recoun ted

h i s previous stages of exis tence from the siege of Troyto his own life

,and to have accomplished manymiracles .

Probably these were the myths which often gatherround great men

,and it is certain that from him or

from his disciples in h i s name much exact learning,

especially in mathematics, has reached us . Pythagoraswas famous in many sciences . His chief con tributionto pharmacy was the inven tion of acetum s cillae .

According to Pliny he wrote a treatise on squills,

which he believed possessed magic virtues . Pliny alsostates that he a ttributed magic virtues to the cabbage ,but i t is not certain that he meant the vegetable whichwe call the cabbage . Aniseed was another of h i s magicplants . Holding aniseed in the left hand he r ecom

mended as a cure for epilepsy,and he prescribed an

anisated wine and also mustard to counteract the

poison ous effect of the bites of s corpions . An Antidotum Pythagoras is given in some old books

,bu t

there is no authority for supposing that this was devised by the philosopher. I t was composed of orris ,1 8 drachms and 2 scruples gentian , 5 drachms;g inger,4% drachms black pepper , 4 drachms;honey , g a s .

MYTH S OF PHARMACY

TH E PATRON SAINTS OF PHARMACY.

Cosmas and Dami en,who are regarded a s the patron

saints of pharmacy in many Cath olic cOuntr ies gwer e twobrothers

,A rabs by birth

,but who lived in the city of

Egea,in Cilicia

,where they practised medicin e g r atu i

tously. Overtaken by the Diocletian persecution inthe fourth century ,

they were arrested and confessedtheir faith . Being condemned to be drowned

,it is

related that an angel severed their”bonds so that they

could gain the shore . They were then ordered to beburnt

,but th e fire attacked their executioners

,several

of whom were killed . Next”

they were fastened .to a

cross and archers shot arrows at them. Th e arrows ,however

,were turned from them and struck those who

had placed them on the c r osses . Finally they werebeheaded

,and their souls were seen mounting heaven

ward . For centuries their tomb at Cyrus , in Syria , wasa shrine where miracles of healing were performed

,and

in the sixth cen tury the.

Emperor Ju s tin ian,

’

whobelieved he had been cured of a serious illn ess bytheir in tercession

,not only beau tified and fortified th e

Syrian city ,but also built a beautiful church in their

honour at Constantinople . Later,their relics were

removed to Rome,and Pope Felix consecrated a church

to them there . Physicians and pharmacists throughoutCatholic Europe celebrated thei r memory on September27th for centuries .

FABLES OF PLANT MEDICINES .

The Mandrake (Atropa Mandragora) has been ex

ceptionally famous in medical history . Its reputationC 2

CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY

for the cure of sterility is alluded to in the story ofLeah and Rachel (Genesis xxx , 1 4 I t is not

,

however , certain that the Hebrew word dudaim ”

should be translated mandrake . Various Biblical scholarshave questioned this which was the Septuagint rendering . Lilies

,violets

,truffles

,citrons

,and other fruits

have been suggested . In Cant,v ii

,1 4

,the same

plant i s described as fragrant , and the odour ofthe mandrake i s said to be disagreeable . Mandragorais described in Chinese books of medicine

,and from

Hippocrates down to almost modern times every writeron the ar t of healing treats it with reverence . Hippocrates asserts that a small dose in wine

,less than w ould

occasion delirium,will relieve the deepest depression

and anxiety . The roots of the mandrake are often ofa forked shape and were supposed to represent thehuman form

,some being regarded a s male and others

as female . This fancy originated with Pythagoras,who

conferred on the mandrake the name of anth r opomorphon . I t was said that when the roots were drawnfrom the earth they gave a human shriek . Shakespearein Romeo a nd J u liet alludes to this superstition

An d s hr iek s like mand r akes tor n ou t of the ea r thTha t living mor ta l s hear ing them r un mad .

In Othello again Shakespeare refers to this medicineand particularly to its alleged narcotic properties

Not poppy,n or mandr agor a

,

Nor all th e dr ow s y s yr up s of th e wor ld .

In An tony and Cleop a tr a , too ,Cleopatra says

,

“Giveme to drink mandragora ”

(that s he may sleep out thegreat gap of time while Antony is away) and Banquoin Ma cbeth

,when he asks , Or have we eaten of the

I MYTHS OF PHARMACY

insane root that takes the reason prisoner " ” is believedto allude to the mandrake .There is a good deal of evidence that mandragora

was used in an cient and mediaeval times not only asa s opor ifie , b u t also as an anaesthetic . Dioscoridesexplicitly asserts this property of the root more thanonce . He describes a decoction of which a cupful isto be taken for severe pains

,or “ before amputations

,or

the use of the cautery,to prevent the pain of those

operations . Elsewhere he alludes to its employmentin parturition

,and in another passage dealing with a

wine prepared from the external coat of the root,

says,

“ The person who d rinks it falls in a profoundsleep

,and remains deprived of sense three or four

hours . Physicians apply this remedy when the n eces

s ity for amputation occurs , or for applying the cautery .

Pliny refers to the narcotic powers of the mandrake,

and among later writers its effects are often described .

Josephus mentions a plant which he calls Baar a s,which

cured demoniacs,but could only be procured at great

risk,or by employing a dog to uproot it

,the dog being

killed in the process . This Baar a s is supposed to havebeen mandrake . Dr . Lee in his Hebrew Lexicon quotesfrom a Persian authority an allusion to a similar rootwh ich

,taken inwardly , renders one insensible to the

pain of even cutting off a limb .

”

Baptista Porta describes th e power of the mand rakein inducing deep sleep

,and in A . G . Meissner’s

“ Skizzen,

” published at Carlsruhe in 1 7 82,there i s a

story of Weiss,surgeon to Augustus

,King of Poland

and Elector of Saxony , who surreptitiously administereda potion (of what medicine is not

”stated) to his royalmaster

,and during his in sensibility cu t off a mortifying

foot.

CHRON IC LE S OF PHARMACY

AMARANTH,AMBROSIA

,AND ATHANASIA .

Amaranth i s the name which ha s been given to thegenus of plants of which Prince ’s Feather and LoveLies -Bleeding are species . This means immortal andis the wor d used in th e Epistle of St . Peter (v ,the amaranthine crown of glory , or as translated in ourversi on “ the crown Of glory that fadeth not away .

”

Milton refers to the “ immortal amarant-h,a flower

which once in Parad ise,fast by the Tree of Life began

to bloom .

”

Ambrosia,the food of the gods

,sometimes alluded to

as drink,and sometimes as a sweet - smelling ointment.

wa s also referred to by Dioscorides and Pliny as a herb ,but it is not known what particular plan t they meant;It was reputed to be nine times sweeter than honey .

The herb Ambrose of the old herbalists wa s th e

Chenopodium Botrys , but C . Amb r oi s ioides (th e oakof Jerusalem), the wild sage , and the field parsleyhave also borne the name . Th e Amb r oi s ia of modernbotanists i s a plant of the wormwood kind .

Athanasia was abbreviated by the old herbalists intoTansy

,and this herb acquired the fame due to its

distinguished designation . In Lucian ’

s Dialogues ofth e Gods , Jupiter tells Hercules to take with him th e

beautiful Ganymede , whom he has stolen from e arth,

and when he ha s drunk of Athanasia (immortality)bring him back

,and he shall be our cupbearer .

Naturally the ancients sought for that herb , Athanasia ,which would yield immortality .

MYRRH .

Myrrha,th e daughter of Ciny r u s , King of Cyprus ,

having become pregnant , was driven from home by her

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CHRONICLES OF PHARMACY

representing in a materialistic form the charm ofHelen ’s conversation and manner . Th e diffi culty aboutthat interpretation is that he exp licitly states that theremedy came from Egypt . Theophrastus credits theopopanax with similar properties to those which Homerclaims

,and Dioscorides i s believed to allude to the same

g um under the name of Nectar ion ,which he indicates

to have been of Egyptian origin . This ha s beenadopted by some old ‘critics as the true nepenthes .Pliny as serts that Helenium was the plan t whichyielded the mirth - Inspiring drug

,but it is not clear

that he means our elecampane . Borage and buglosshave also had their advocates

,Galen supporting the

latter. Rhazes voted for saffron . Cleopatra is assumedto have meant mandragora when she asked for somenepenthe to make her forget her sorrow while she wasseparated from Antony . Opium ha s of course beenselected by many commentators

,but it could hardly

have furnished a mirth - inspiring bowl . Indian hempor h a s ch i s h seems to meet the requirements of the versebetter than any other drug . There are also reasons forchoosing hyoscyamus or stramonium . The Indianpi tcher plants to which Linnaeus gave the name ofnepenthes are out of the question . A learned con

tr ibution to this study may be found in the Bu lletin ole

P ha rma cie,Vol . V. by M. J. J . Virey .

BELLADONNA .

Atropa Belladonna is the subj ect of several legends .How it came by its several names it would be interestingto know. Atropa

,from the eldest sister of the Fates

,

she who carried the scissors with which she cut the

MYTHS OF P HARMACY

thread of life,is appropriate enough but not more to this

than to any other poison plant . Belladonna— s e - calledbecause Italian ladies made a cosmetic from the berries

“with which to whiten their complexions;s e - called b ecause the Spanish ladi es made use of the plant to dilatethe pupils of . their brilliant black eyes;s e-called because Leucota , an Italian poisoner , u sed it to destroybeautiful women . These are among the explanationsof the name which the old herbalists gave withouttroubling themselves about historical eviden ce . Belladonna is supposed to have been described by Dioscoridesunder the name of Morella fu r ios um lethale

,and by

Pliny as Strychnos man ikon . It was used by Galen incancerous affections , and its employment for this purposewas revived in the 1 7 th century , infusion s of leavesbeing administered both internally and externally .

That it figured among the ph iltr ess of the sorcerers

cannot be doubted . Likemandragora

,it did not act

by exciting amorous passions,

but by rendering the Victimhelpless .

CENTAURY.

The lesser Centaury (E r ythr a ea Cen tau r iu rn )is allegedto owe its name to Chironth e Centaur , who i s supposedto have taught medicine CENTAURY .

to fEs culap iu s . Th e storywhich associates Chi ron with plant has beenalready .

CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY

MINT.

Mentha wa s a nymph of the infernal reg i ons belovedof Pluto . Prosperine out of j ealousy caused her to bemetamorphosed into the plant which thus acquired hername .

DITTANY.

Dittany,the origanum Dictamnus

,was reputed to

possess wonderful virtues for healing wounds . E neas,

wounded in a combat,wa s treated by Iapyx

,who had

been sp ecially taught by Apollo , but h i s simples had noeffect . Venus

,touched by the suffering s of her son ,

thereupon descended from heaven in a cloud,gathered

some dittany on Mount Ida,and secretly added it to

the infu sion with which Iapyx was vainly trying torelieve the hero . She added some ambrosial elixir

,and

suddenly the pain ceased,the flow of blood wa s arrested

,

the dart was easily drawn from the wound , and fEneasrecovered his s trength .

MYTH ICAL ANIMALS .

THE PH (ENIX.

Th e Phoenix was largely adopted by the alchemists

a s their emblem ,and afterwards wa s a frequent signused by pharmacists . According toHerodotus this bird

,which was wo’r

shipped by the Egyptian s,was of

about the size of an eagle,with

purple and gold plumage,and a

PHOENIX .

purple crest . Its eyes sparkled likestars;it lived a solitary life in the

Arabian desert, and either came to Heliopolis , th e

MYTH S OF P HARM ACY

city of the s un,to die and be burned in the temple

of that city,or its ashes were brought there by its

successor. There was only one phoenix at the sametime

,and it lived for 500 years . The legends vary

a s to its longevity , but 500 years is the p eriod usuallyassigned . When the p hoenix knew that it s time hadcome

,it made it s own funeral pyre out of spiced

woods,and the sun provided the fire . Out of the

marrow of its bones came a worm,which quickly grew

into a new phoen i x , who , after burying its parent inEgypt , returned to Arabia .

The Talmud relates some curious legends of thephoenix

,which the Jews believed to be immortal . One

story is that when Eve had eaten the forbidden fruit shegave some to all the animals in the Garden of Eden

,and

that the phoenix was the only one which refused,

Hence it escaped the curse of death which overtook therest of the animal creation . Another legend is thatwhen it wa s In the ark

,and when all

,

the other animalswere clamouring to be fed

,the phoenix was quiet .

Noah,observing it

,asked if it was not hungry

,to

which the phoenix replied ,“ I saw you were busy

,so

would not trouble you ,” an answer which s o pleased

Noah that he blessed it with eternal life . In the bookof Job

,xxix

,1 8

,recalling ‘ his earlier glory

,the

patriarch says,

“ Then I , said I shall"

die In my nest ,and I shall multiply my days as the sand .

”

ManyJewish scholars believe that the word translated sandshould be phoenix

,and our Revised Version gives

“ phoenix ” as an alternative r endering. I t is easy to

appreciate how aptly this wou ld exp r es s/ Job

’

s idea .

Some of the Hebrew commentators translate t h e versein P S . ciii

,5,

So that thy youth I s renewed like theeagle

,by substituting phoenix for

“

eagle .

CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY

THE UNICORN

had not quite passed into the region of fable whenPomet wrote his History of Drugs very early inthe 1 8th century , for though he does not believe in theanimal himself

,he quotes from other authors not so very

long antecedent to him who did . He states,however

,

that what was then sold as unicorn ’s horn was in fact

UNICORN (AFTER BOCHAUT’

S H I EROZOICON).

the horn or tusk of the n arwhal,a tooth which extends

to the length of six to ten feet . The unicorn,or mono

ceros was referred to by Aristotle,Pliny

,Aelian

,and

other ancient writers , and in later times it was describedby various travellers who , if they had

‘

not seen it themselves

,had met with persons who had .

The details given by Aristotle are supposed to havebeen derived from Ctesias

,whose description of the

Indian wild ass is what was adopted with many embellishments for the fabulous unicorn . It i s this author who

MYTH S OF PHARMACY

first notices the marvellous alexipharmic properties solong attributed to the unicorn’s horn . Drinking vessels

,

he says,were made Of the horn

,and those who used them

were protected against poison,convulsions

,and epilepsy

,

provi ded that either j ust before or j ust after taking thepoison they drank wine or water from the cup madefrom the horn . In the middle ages the

/

hor n of theunicorn was esteemed a certain cure for the plague

,

malignan t fevers , bites of serpents or of mad dogs . It

wa s to be made into a j elly to which a little saffron andcochineal were to be added . Some writers allege thatpoisoned wounds could be cured by merely holding thehorn of a unicorn opposite th e wound . These horns aresaid

,however

,to have cost about ten times the pri ce of

gold, s o that not many sufferers cou ld avail themselves

of them as a remedy.

The unicorn is mentioned several times'

in the Old

Testament,th e translators of the Authorised Version

having followed th e Septuagint in which th e Hebrewword Re’em was rendered by the Greek termMonoker os

,

which corresponds with our unicorn . It is agreed thatthe word in the original had no reference to the fabulous animal

,but that the wild ox

,or ex antelope

,a

strong untameable beast,known in Palestine

,was

intended . In the Revis ed Version wild ex i s uniformlysubstituted for unicorn . This animal i s believed tohave been the Urus mentioned by Julius Caesar asexisting in his time in th e forests of Central Europe ,and not entirely extinct until some 500 or 600

years ago .

The transla tors evidently found a difficulty in associatin g the unicorn with th e Hebrew Re’em in Deut .

xxxiii , 1 7, where we read of “ the horns of the

unicorns .” In the Hebrew the horns are the plural

30 CHRONICLES OF PHARMACY

but Rc’

em is singular . But the horn s of th e unicornwould have been a contradiction in terms .The allusions to the unicorn in Shakespeare all seem

to show unbelief in the legends . In the Temp es t (Act8,s e

t

8) Sebastian says when music is heard in thewood

,Now I will believe that there are unicorns .” In

J u liu s Caes a r (Act 2 ,s o . Decius Brutus

,recount ing

Caesar’s superstitions,says

,

“ He loves to hear thatunicorns may be betrayed with trees ”

;and Timon ofAthen s raves about the unicorn among the legendaryanimal beliefs (Act 4 , s o. An authority on heraldry

,

Gu illim,in 1 6 60,

however,comments thus on the

scepticism of his contemporaries : “Some have made

doubt whether there be any such beast a s this or not .But the great esteem of his horns (in many places to beseen)may take away that n eedless, scruple .

”

Th e uni corn was introduced into the British royalarms by James I .

,who substituted it for th e red dragon

with which Henry V I I . had honoured a Welsh con tin

gent which helped him to win the battle of Bosworthfighting under the banner of Cadwallyd r . The un i cornhad been a Scotch emblem for several reigns beforethat of James I . (or The Scottish pound of thatperiod wa s known by th e name of a unicorn from thed evice stamped on it .Pomet tells us that in 1 5 5 8 a unicorn’s horn was

brought to the King of France which was valued atsterling and that one presented to Charles I .

of England,supposed to be the largest one known

,

measured 7 feet long , and weighed 1 3 lbs . It is alsorelated that Edward I V . gave to the Duke of Burgundywho visited him

,a gold cup set with j ewels

,and with a

piece of unicorn ’s horn worked into the metal . One

larg e unicorn’s hor n wa s owned by the city of Dresden

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CHRONICLES OF PHARMACY

tail,and feet armed with talons . They pretend

,he

adds ,“ that this figure gave the name to tree . But I

believe this circumstance fabulous because I neverknew it confirmed by any traveller . ”

Very likely the shrewd Arabs invented the namedragon’s blood to please their Chinese customers

,and it

THE DRAGON TREE (B r acona Dr aco).

Th e tr ee illu str ated above is at Tener iffe, an d is , per hap s , th e Oldest tr ee in th e wor ld .Humboldt,in 179 9 , foun d i ts tr unk was for ty-eig ht feet in cir cumfer en ce .

may be therefore that the tree acquired it s n ame fromthe resin

,not the resin from the tree .

Dragon ’s blood was given in old pharmacy as a mildastringent

,and wa s one of the i ngredients in the styptic

pills of Helvetius . It was also included in the formulafor Locatelli ’ s balsam . Now it is chiefly used as a varnishcolouring

,a s for example in varnishes for violins . In

some parts of the country it has a reputation as acharm to restore love . Maidens whose swains are

MYTHS OF PHARMACY

unfaithful or neglectful procure a piece , wrap it in paper ,and throw it on the fire

,saying

May h e no plea s u r e or pr ofit s eeTill he come back again to me.

[Cu thber t Bede in Notes an d Qu er ies .

Ser ies l .,Vol . II. ,

p . 242 ]

Dragons are mentioned many times in the AuthorisedVersion of the Old Testament . In most o f theseinstances j ackals are substituted in theRevised Version ,

and only once,I think

,the alternative of crocodiles is

suggested in the margin,though in many instances it

would obviously be a better renderi ng , as has been

pomted out by many scholars .

THE SCIENCE OF MYTHOLOGYwhich s eek s to explain how th e old myth s , s ome

poetical

,many di s gu s ting ,

and all impos s ible , or iginated , i s a moder n s tudy w ich has fas cinated a lar genumber of lear ned s cholar s . Th e old notion that they wer e mer ely allegor icalforms Of r epr es enting fact s an d phenomena i s not tenable in view of th e u n i

v er s ali ty of th e legen d s among th e lea s t cu ltivated r ace s . Pr ofe s s or Max

Muller in itiated a lively con tr over s y s ome for ty year s ag o by s ugg e s ting thatmyth s wer e a con s equ en ce of language, a di s ea s e of langu age , a s M r . Andr ewLang ha s termed it . He tr aced many of th e Gr eek myths to Ar yan s ou r ce s ,an d in s i s ted that they h ad developed fr om the wor ds or phr a s e s u s ed to

des cr ibe natu r al phenomena . Thu s,for example , h e explained th e myth of

Apollo and Daphne (men tioned on page 9 ) by s uppos ing that a phr a s eexi s ted des cr ibing th e Sun following , or cha s ing, th e Dawn . He even maintained that the San s kr it Ahana , dawn , was th e der ivat ion of Daphn e.

Wor ds , of cou r s e , wer e inven ted to convey s ome men tal con ception;thatcon ception ,

while i t was intelligible,wou ld (accor ding to Max Mu ller ’

s

s ys tem) b e developed into a s tor y. Th e a r gument’

wa s mos t ingen iou s lywor ked out , b ut it h as n ot pr oved capable of s ati s fying th e condition s of th e

pr oblem. H ow cou ld it s u ffice,for in s tance , to explain the occu r r ence of

almos t identical myths tr eas u r ed by th e mo s t degr aded and widely s epa r atedpeople s " Th e mor e likely theor y i s that in a ver y ea r ly s tage of th e s avagemind t h e u n tr ain ed imagination tended in evitably to a s s ociate th e facts of

natu r e with cer tain mon s tr ou s , Ob s cene,and i r r ational forms . Per haps th e

mos t able expos ition of thi s view, or s omething like it , expou nded wi thinmoder ate limi ts

,i s to b e found in an a r ticle on Mythology contr ibu ted to th e

En cyclopaedia Br itann ica by Mr . Andr ew Lang.

V OL. I

PHARMACY IN THE TIME OF THE PHARAOHS

GO up in to Gilead an d take balm, O vir gin daughter of Egypt °

in vain do s t thou u s e many medicines ;ther e i s no healing forthee.

”

So wrote the prophet Jeremiah (xlvi , and thepassage seems to suggest that Egypt in his time wasfamous for its medicines . Herodotus

,who narrated his

travels in Egypt some two or three hundred yearslater

,conveys the same impression

,and the records of

the papyri which have been deciphered within the lastcentury confirm the opinion .

Whatever may have been the case with other arts andsciences

,it does not appear that much progress was made

in medicine i n Egypt during the thousands of years ofits history which have been more or less minutely traced .

The discovery of remedies by various deities , by Isisespecially

,or the indication : of compounds invented for

the relief of the sufferings of the Sun -god Ra,before he

retired to his heavenly rest , i s the burden of all thedocuments on which our knowledge of Egyptian pharmacy is founded . It was criminal to add to or varythe perfect prescriptions thus revealed

,a provision

which made advance impossib le to the extent to whichit was enforced .

II IN THE TIME OF THE PHARAOHS 35

So wisely was medicine managed in Egypt ,” says

Herodotus ,“that no doctor was permitted to practise

any b u t h i s own branch ”. That is to say

,the doctors

were all specialists;some treated th e eyes , others th eteeth

,the head

,the skin , the stomach , and s o forth .

The doctors were all priests,and were paid by the

Treasury,but they we r e allowed to take fees besides .

Their recipes were often absurd and complicated , butthere I s reason to suppose that their directions in regardto diet and hygiene were sensible

,and there is evidence

that they paid some attention to disinfection andcleanliness .The physicians were always pri ests

,but all the

priests were not physicians;Clement of Alexandriasays those who actually practised were the lowest gradeof priests . They prepared as well as prescribed medicines

,but r elied

'

per hap s more on magic , amulets , andinvocations than on drugs . The secrets of magic were

,

however,especially the property of the highest grade of

priests,the Sages and soothsayers . According to Celsus

,

the medical science of Egypt was founded on the beliefthat the human body wa s di vided into thirty - s ix parts

,

each one being under the con trol of a separate demonor divinity . The art of medicine consisted largely inknowing the names of these demons so as to invoke theright one when an ailment had to be treated .

Symbolical names were giv en to many of the herbsused as medicines . The plant of Osiris wa s the ivy

,

th e vervain was called Tears of Isis,saffron was the

blood of Thoth , and the squill was the eye of Typhon .

Until the mystery of the Egyptian writings was u n

locked,the key b ein g found about a century ago i n the

decipherment of the Rosetta Stone , of which Napoleonfirst took possession

,and which Was subsequently taken

D 2

CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY

from the French by the British,and is now a familiar

obj ect in the British Museum,knowledge of Egyptian

scien ce and life was limited to the information whichcame to u s from Greek and Roman authors;and thiswas often fabu lous . Now

,however

,the daily life of

the subj ects of the Pharaohs ha s been revealed inwonderful minuteness by the papyri which have beendeciphered .

Among the papyri preserved in various museums anumber of medical and pharmaceutical records havebeen found . Some medical prescriptions inscribed on apapyrus in the British Museum (No . are saidto be a s old a s the time of Khufu (Cheops), reckoned tohave been about 3700 years B.C. Dr . E . A. WallisBudge

,th e Director o f the Department of Egyptian

and Assyrian Antiquities in the British Museum ,

informs me that these prescriptions have not beentranslated

,and that no photograph of them is available .

The Papyrus it s elf o may be of about 1 400 BC,but it

refers to some medical lore of th e time of Khufu , as amodern English book might quote some prescr iptions ofthe time of Alfred the Great .By far the most complete representation Of the

medicine and pharmacy of an cient Egypt is comprisedin the famous Papyrus Ebers

,which wa s discovered by

Georg Ebers,Egyptologist and romancist

,in the winter

of 1 87 2 —3 .

Ebers and a friend were spending that winter inEgypt , and during their residence at Thebes they madethe acquaintance of a well-to -do Arab from Luxor whoappeared to know of some ancient papyri and otherrelics . He first tried to pass off to them some of noparticular value , but Ebers was an expert and was notto be imposed on . Ultimately the Arab brought to

1 1 IN TH E TIM E OF TH E PHARAOH S 37

him a Papyrus which he stated had been discoveredfourteen years prev iously between the knees of amummy in the Theban Ne cropolis . After examinationEbers wa s convinced of its g enuin eness and bought it .His opin ion was fully confirmed by all the authoritieswhen he brought it to Germany , and the contents haveproved to be of extreme value and interest in thedelin eation of the medical manners and customs Of theancient Egyptians .

This papyrus was wrapped in mummy cloths andpacked in a metal case . It is a single roll of yellowbrown papyrus of th e finest quality

,about 12 inches

wide and more than 22 yards long . It is divided into108 column s each separately numbered . The numberingreaches actually 1 10, but there are no numbers 28 and29 , though there is no hiatus in the literary com

position . Ebers supposes there may have been somereligious reason for not u sing the missing numbers .

The writing is in black ink , bu t the heads of sectionsand weights and measures are written with r ed ink .

Th e word n efr” S ignifying “ good ” is written in the

margin against many of the formulae in a differentwriting and in a paler ink

,evidently by someone who

had used the book . It has been considered possiblethat this wa s on e of the s ix hermetic books onmedicine menti oned by Clement of Alexandria;but itmore likely to have been a popular collection of

medical formulae from various sources .Internal evidence

,satisfactory to experts

,the writing

,

the name of a king,and particularly a calendar attached

to one of th e sections , establish the date ,Of this docu

ment . The king named wa s Tjes or -ka—Ra,and h i s

throne -name was Amen -hetep I .

,the second king of the

1 8th dynasty . Th e date ass ig ned to the papyrus is

CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY

about the year 1 5 5 2 B.C ., which , according to the con

v en tional scriptural chronology , would correspond withabout the 2 l s t year of the life of Moses . If thisestimation i s appr oximately correct it follows that theprescriptions of the papyrus are considerably older thanthose given in the book of Exodus for the holy anointing oil and for incense

,which in old works are sometimes

quotedr a s the earliest records of “ the art of the’ apo

thecar yThe papyrus begins by declaring that the writer had

brought help from the King of Eternity from Heliopolis from the Goddess Mother to Sais

,s h e who alone

could ensure protection . Speech had been given himto tell how all pains and all mortal sicknesses might bedriven away . Here were chapters which would teachhow to conj ure away the diseases from this my head ,from this my neck , from this my arm ,

from this myflesh

,from these my limbs . For Ra pities the sick;

h i s teacher is Thu ti (Thoth or Hermes)“ who ha s

given him words to make this book and to give instruotions to scholars and to physicians who will followthem

,so that what is dark shall be unriddled . For he

whom the God loveth,he maketh alive I am one who

loveth the God,and he maketh me alive .

Here are the words to speak when preparing theremedies for all parts of the body :

“ AS it shall be athousand times . This i s the book of th e healing of allsicknesses . That Isis may make free , make free . MayIsis heal me as she healed Horus of all pains which h i sbrother Set had done to him who killed his father Osiris .Oh

,Isis

,thou great magician

,heal me and save me from

all wicked,frightfu l

,and red things

,from demoniac and

deadly diseases“

and illnesses of every kind . Oh , Ra.

Oh,Osiris.”

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CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY

stinking fat , moisture from pigs’ ears

,milk from a lying

in woman the excreta of adults , of children , of donkeys ,antelopes , dogs , cats , and other animals , and th e dirtleft by flies on the walls , are among th e remedies metwith in the papyrus .Among the drugs named in the papyrus and identified

are oil, wine , beer (sweet and bitter), beer froth , yeast ,v inegar , turpentine , various gums and resins , figs

,

sebestens , myrrh , mastic , frankincense , opium ,worm

wood,aloes

,cummin

,peppermint

,cassia

,carraway

,

coriander,anise , fennel , saffron , sycamore and cyprus

woods,lotus flowers

,linseed

,j un iper berries

,henbane

,

and mandragora .

There are certain substances , evidently metals by thesuffixes

,but they have not been exactly identified .

Neither gold,silver

,nor tin i s i ncluded . One is supposed

to be sulphur,another , electrum (a combination of gold

and silver), and another alluded to as“ excrement

divine ” remains mysterious . Iron,lead

,magnesia

,

lime,soda

,nitre and vermilion are among the mineral

products which were then u sed in medicine .

It n eed hardly be said that scores of drugs namedhave only been guessed at

,and in regard to a number

of them,it ha s not been possible to get a s far as th is .

Most of the prescriptions are fairly simple , but thereare exceptions . There is a pou ltice with thirty -fiv e

ing r ed ients . Here is a specimen of rather complicatedpharmacy . It is ord ered for what seems to have been acommon complaint of the stomach called s ety t. Seedsof the sweet woodru ff

,seeds of mene , and the plant

called A’am,were to be reduced to powder and mixed .

Then seven stones had to be heated at a fire . On these ,one by one

,some of the powder was to be sprinkled

while the ston e was hot;it wa s then covered with a new

REDUCED FACSIMILE OF A PAGE OF THE PAPYRUS EBERS .

Th e Papyr u s Eber s h as been r epr odu ced by photogr aphy in facsimile , an d published in twomagnifi cent volumes by Mr . Wilhelm En g elma i i n ,

of Leipz ig . M r . Engelmann h as k indlypermitted me to copy on e of th e pag es fr om his wor k for this book. Th e above is a r edu cedr epr odu ction of pag e 47 of[\ th e Papyr u s . Th e photogr aph w as taken at th e Br itish Mu seum .

Th e fi r st line of this pag e is th e en d of th e instr u ctions for applyin g a mixtu r e of powder sr ubbed down W ith date W ine to wounds an d skin diseases to heal them. That compound w as made by th e g od Seb ,

th e g od of th e ear th , for th e g od Ra . Then follows a

complicated pr escr iption devised by th e g oddess Nu t , th e goddess of heaven ,also for th e g od

Ba , an d like th e last to apply to wound s . I t pr escr ibes br ickdu st , pebble , soda ,an d s ea -salt

,

to b e boiled in Oils with some gr oats an d other v egetable matter . Isis n ext su pplies a

formula to r elieve Ra of pains in th e head . I t contains opium,cor iander

, absinth , juniperber r ies, an d honey. This was to b e applied to th e head . Thr ee other f ormu las for pains inth e head , th e last for a pain on on e side of th e head (mig r aine), ar e g i ven , an d then ther e isa br eak in th e man u scr ipt, an d after war ds some in ter esting instr u ctions ar e given for th emedicinal employment of th e r icinu s (d eg m) tr ee . Th e stems infu sed in water will make a

lotion which will cu r e headache;th e ber r ies chewed with beer will r elieve constipation th eber r ies cr u shed in 011 will make a woman ’s hair gr ow;an d pr essed into a salve w ill cu r eabscesses if applied ever y mor ning for ten d ays . Th e par ag r aph ends (b u t on th e next pag e),a s many of them d o

, with th e cu r iou s idiom , As i t shall b e a thousand times .” Th e tr an slation is g iven in full (i n German) in Dr . Joach im’

s P apy r os E ber s . Das altes teBa ch u ber

Hei lkun d e (Ber lin , Geor g Reimer .

CHRONICLES OF PHARMACY

pot in the bottom of which a hole had been made . Areed was fitted to the hole and the vapour inhaled .

“ Afterwards eat s ome fat,

” says the writer.To draw the blood from a wound z— Foment it four

times with a mixture made from wax,fat

,date wine

,

honey,and boiled horn these ingredients boiled with a

certain quantity of water.To prevent the immoderate crying of children a

mixture of the seeds of the plant Sheb en with somefly

-dirt is recommended . It i s supposed that Shebenmay hav e been the poppy. Incidentally it is remarkedthat if a new-born baby cries ny that is a good signbut it i s a bad sign if it cries “ mbe.

To prevent the hair turning grey anoint it with theblood of a black calf which has been boiled in oil;orwith the fat of a rattlesnake . When it falls out oneremedy is to apply a mixture of s ix fats

,namely those

of the horse,the hippopotamus , th e crocodile , the cat ,

the snake,and the ibex . To strengthen it anoint with

the tooth of a donkey crushed in honey .

A few other prescriptions are appended .

As Purges — Mix milk , one part , yeast and honey ,

two parts each . Boil and strain . A draught of this tobe taken every morning for four days . Pills com

pounded of equal parts of honey , absinth powd er , andonion . In another formula kes eb t fruits are orderedwith other i ngredients . Ebers conj ectures that kes ebtmay hav e been the ca stor oil tree .

For Headache — Equal parts of frankincense,

cummin,berries of u’an tree and g oos eg r eas e are to be

boiled together;the head to be anointed with themixture .For Worms z— Resin of acanthus , peppermin t flowers ,

lettuce,and “ as plant . Equal parts to make a plaster.

II IN TH E TIME OF TH E PHARAOHS 43

For too much urine (diabetes) z— Twig s of kadetplant grapes honey berries of u ’an tree 3

3-

5 ,

s weet beer L2;As a Tonic — Figs

,sebesten s

,grapes

,yeast

,frankin

cense,cummin

,berries of u ’an tree , wine , g oos eg r eas e ,

and sweet beer are recommended .

An Application for Sore Eyes . Dried excrement of achild 1

,honey 1

,i n fresh milk .

To make the hair grow — Oil of the Nile horse 1,

powder of mentha i non tana 1 , myrrh 1 , mes pen corn 1 ,vitriol of lead

'

1 . Anoint . Another formula prescribedfor the same purpose wa s prepared for Sches ch (a queenof the 3r d dynasty) and con sisted of equal parts of theheel of the greyhound (from Abyssinia), of dateblossoms

,and of asses’ hoofs boiled in oil .

A long formula for an ointmen t “ which the god Ramade for himself contain s honey

,wax

,frankincense

,

onions and a number of un i dentified plants . The dustof alabaster and powdered statues are prescribed a s

applications for wounds .To stop Diarrhoea — Green bulbs onions)5, freshly

cooked groats oil and honey wax113 , water -

5

1;

dena (a dena is about a pint). Take four days .A plaster to remove pains from one side of the

stomach — Boil equal parts of lettuce and dates in oil,

and apply .

Medicines against worms are numerous . Heftworms

,believed to be thread worms

,are treated with

pomegranate bark,sea- salt

,ricinus

,absinth

,and other

unidentified drugs . For tape worms,mandrake fruits

,

castor oil,peppermint

,a preparation of lead

,and other

drugs are prescribed .

Remedies which the God Su (god of the air), the GodSeb (god of th e earth), the Goddess Nut (goddess of

CHRONICLE S OF PHARMACY

the sky), and other divinities had devised are comprisedin this collection . This is an application which Isisprescribed for Ra

’

s headache —Coriander,opium

,

absinth,j uniper

, (another fruit), and honey .

Remedies are also prescribed in this papyrus fordiseases of the stomach

, th e abdomen , and the urinarybladder;for the cure of swellings of the glands in thegroin;for the treatment of the eye , for ulcers of thehead

,for greyness of the hair

,and for promoting its

growth ;to heal and str engthen the nerves;to cured iseases of the tongue , to strengthen the teeth

,to

remove lice and fleas;to banish pain;to sweeten thebreath;and to strengthen the organs of hearing and ofsmell .Quantities are indicated on the prescriptions by

perpendicular lines thus one, two

," I three . Each

of these lines represents a unit. Ebers calls the unit adrachm and supposes it to be equivalent to the Arabicd irhem

,about forty- eight English grains . The Egyptian

system of numeration was decimal . Up to nine lineswere used n was ten

,and two

,three or more of these

figures followed each other up to ninety . Then came(3 a hundred

, é a thousand , and so on . Fractions0

were shown by the figure and this with three dotsunder it meant one -th ird , with four dots one - fourth , orwith the 10 sign under it , one - tenth . Half wasrepresented by E . Th e unit of liquid measure isbelieved to have been the tenat , equal to three-fifth s ofa litre

,or rather more than an English pint .

In the British Museum Guide Dr . Budge quotesthe following prescription “ for driving away wrinklesof the face

,

” and gives the same in hieroglyphics :Ball of incense , wax , fresh oil , and cypress berries ,

1 1 IN TH E TIME OF THE PHARAOHS 45

equal parts . Cr u s h,and rub down

,and put in new

milk,and apply it to the face for six days . Take

good heed .

” Generally medicines are directed to be

taken or applied for four days;the ingredients arevery often fou r and in many cases incantations are tobe four times repeated . The Pythagoreans swore bythe number 4 ,

and probably their master acquired hisrev erence for that figure from Egypt .A sacred perfume called kyph i is prescribed to perfume

the house and clothes for sanitary reasons. It was composed of myrrh , j uniper berries , frankincense , cypruswood

,aloes wood

,calamus of Asia

,masti c

,and styrax .

Among the Greek Papyri discovered in the last decadeof the 1 9 th cen tury at Oxy r inchu s one quoted byMessrs . Grenfell and Hunt in their work on thesepapyri (Vol . II .

,p . 1 34) gives about a dozen formulas

for applications for the earach e . These ar e believed tohave been written in the 2nd or 3r d century A .D.

On e is z— Dilute some gum with balsam of lilies;addhoney and rose - extract . Twist some wool with th e oilin it round a probe

,warm

,and drop in . Onion j uice ,

the gall of an ox,the sap of a fi r tree

,alum and myrrh,

and frankincense in sweet wine,are among the other

applications recommended .

PHARMACY IN THE BIBLE

Pou r bien en tendr e le V ieux Tes tamen t il es t ab s olumen t n écess a ir e d ’

app r ofond i r l’

H i s toi r e Natu r elle, aus s i bien que les moeu r sd e s Or ien taux . On y tr ou ve a pen pres tr oi s cen ts n oms de V ég é

taux je n e s ais combien de n oms tir és d a r egn e an imal, et um

gr and n omb r e qu i dé s ign ent d es pier r es p r écieu s es .

—T. D .

M ICHAELIS, Gottin g en ,1 7 90.

To some extent the habits and practices of theIsraelites were based on those of the Eg yptians . Butin the matter of medicines the differences are morenotable than the resemb lances . In Egypt the practiceof medicine wa s entirely in the hands of the priesthood

,and was largely associated with magical arts . I t

appears, too ,

that the Egyptian practitioners had acquiredexperience of a fairly wide range of internal medicines .Among the Israelites the priests did not practisemedicine at all . Some of the p r ophets did

,and they

were expected to exercise healing powers . Elij ah andElisha were frequently called upon for help in this way

,

and th e prescription of Isaiah of a lump of fig s to be laidon Hezekiah ’s boil (2 Kings , xx , 7) will be recalled .

But among the Israelites physicians formed a distinctprofession

,though it cannot be said that in all the

history covered by the Scriptures they performed thesame functions . Th e physicians of Joseph ’s household

46

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CHRONICLES OF PHARMACY

what enigmatic,and may or may not be complimentary .

It runs,

“ He that sinneth before his Maker,let him

fall into the hand of the physician .

” In the recentlydiscovered manuscript is the passage not previouslyknown

,He that sinneth against God will behave

arrogantly before h i s physician .

” Probably into thismay be read the converse idea that he that behavesarrogantly towards his physician sinneth before God .

In the same chapter we are told that “ the Lord hathcreated medicines out of the earth , and he that is wisewill not abhor them ” Possibly this was directedagainst the Jewish prej udice against bitter flavours .Then the writer asks

,

“ Was not the water made sweetwith wood "

2” and he says of such (the medicines)mento whom God hath given skill heal men and take awaytheir pains;and of such doth the apothecary make aconfection .

”

The idea that physicians get their skill direct fromGod i s prominent in these passages

,and is perhaps truer

than we are willing to admit in this age of curricula andexaminations;

MEDICINES or THE JEws .

The Papyrus Ebers was supposed by its discoverer tohave been compiled about the time when Moses wasliv ing in Egypt

,a century before the Exodus. There

is no evidence in the Bible that the Jews brought withthem from the land of their captivity any of the medicallore which that and other papyri not much later reveal .It is not certain that in the whole of the Bible thereis any distinct reference to a medicine for internaladministration . It is assumed that Rachel wanted themandrakes which Reuben found to make a remedy for

PHARMACY IN TH E B IBLE

sterility ,but that is not definitely stated . Nor i s it

certain that th e Hebrew word Dudaim , translatedmandrakes

,meant th e shr ub we know by that name .

Violets,lilies

,j asmin

,truffles

,mushrooms , citrons ,

melons,and other fruits have been proposed by various

critics . There are three passages in Jeremiah whereBalm of Gilead is men tioned in a way which may havemeant that it was to be used as an internal remedy.

These are 0. viii . v . 1 2 ,c . l i . v . 1 1

,and c. li . v. 8 .

In two of these the expression “ take balm i s used,

but it is quite,

possible to understand this as meaningemploy balm

,and in all th e passages the sense is

metaphorical .Th e Mishnah

,the book of Jewish legends

,which

forms part of the Talmud,mentions a treatise on

medicines believed to have been compiled by Solomon .

Hezekiah i s sai d to have hidden ”1 this work for fear

that the people should trust to th at wisdom rather thanto the Lord . Th e Talmud also cites a treatise onpharmacology called Meg illat

-Samman in,but neither of

these works has been preserved . In th e Talmud aninfusion of onions in wine is mentioned as a means ofhealing an issue of blood . It was necessary at thesame time for someone to s ay to the patient ,

“ Behealed of thine issue of blood . This r emedy andthe formula to be spoken are strongly reminiscent ofEgypt.

The Talmud,though it wa s compiled in the early

centuries of our era , undoubtedly reflects the Jewish lifeand thought of many previous ages

,and consequently

indicates fairly enough the condition of therapeuticamong the ancient Hebrews . Among its mi scellaneousitems are cautions again st th e habit of taking medicineconstantly also against having teeth extracted need

V OL. I. E

CHRONICLE S OF PHARMACY i n

lessly . It advises that patients sh ould be permitted toeat anything they specially crave after . Among its

aphorisms are salt after meals,water after wine

,onions

for worms,peppered Wi ne for stomach disorders

,

inj ection of turpentine for stone in the bladder .People may eat more before 40,

drink more after 40.

Magic is plentifully supplied for the treatment ofdisease . To cure ague

,for instance

,you must wait by

a cross - road until you see an ant carrying a load . Thenyou must pick up the ant and its load

,place them in a

brass tube wh ich you must seal up,say ing as you do

this,

“ Oh ant,my load be upon thee

,and thy load be

upon me .

”

Towards the time of Christ the sect of the Essenes,

ascetic in their habits and communistic in their principles , cultivated , according to Josephus , the ar t ofmedicine

,

“ collecting roots and minerals for thispurpose . Their designation may have been derivedfrom this occupation .

THE APOTHECARY

is or was,familiar to readers of the Old Testament , but

i n the revised translation he has partially disappeared .

The earliest allusion to him occurs‘ in Exodus xxx .

,

2 5 , where the holy anoin ting oil is prescribed tobe made “ after the art of the apothecary and in thesame chapter

,v . 2 9 , incense i s similarly ordered to

be made into a confection “ after the art of theapothecary

,tempered together. The Revised Version

gives in both cases “ the ar t of the perfumer ,” and

instead of the incense being tempered together

(0. xxx , v , 35) th e instruction is now rendered“ seasoned with salt . A further mention of the art of

PHARMACY IN THE BIBLE

the apothecary,or in the Revised V ersion

,the perfumer

,

i s found again in connection with the same com

pounds ih Exodus xxxvii . , 2 9 . In 2 Chronicles xv i,

14,the apothecaries ’ art i n the preparation of sweet

odours and divers kinds of spices for the burial of KingAsa i s again alluded to , and this time without anyapparent reason the Revised Version retains the oldterm . The next quotation (Nehemiah , iii , 8) isparticularly interesting . The Authorised Version saysHananiah

,the son of one of the apothecaries

,

” workedon the repair of the walls of Jerusalem by th e side ofHar aiah of the goldsmiths . In the Revised VersionHananiah is described as one of the apothecaries .”

Hebrew scholars tell us that the idiom employed showsthat these men belonged to guilds of apothecaries andgoldsmiths respectively;a pretty little insight intoancient Jewish trade history.

In Ecclesiastes,x,1,we come to the

~

oft quotedparallel

,

“ Dead fi ies cause the ointment of the apoth e

cary to send forth a stinking savour,

”

this being likenedto a

“

little folly spoiling a reputation for wisdom . Th e

revisers have substituted perfumer for apothecary inthis text . They certainly ought to have changed ointment for pomade in the same text to explain their Vi ewof the meaning of the passage .In the passage already quoted from the apocryphal

book of Ecclesiasticus,xxxviii

,8,

“ Of such dothth e apothecary make a confection

,and in xlix

,1,

“ The remembrance of Josias is like th e composition ofth e perfume made by the ar t of the apothecary ,

”

the revisers have n ot seen fit to alter the tradedesignation .

The words translated a pothecary , compound , ointment

,and confection in th e passages cited , and in many

CHRONICLE S OF PHARMACY

others in th e Hebrew scriptures,are all infiexion s of the

root verb,Rakach (in which th e final ch is a strong

aspirate or guttural). Ges en iu s says of this root,The

primary idea appears to be in making the spices smallwhich are mixed with the oil The apothecary therefore

,may be regarded as a crusher , or pounder.

PHARMACY,DISGRACEFUL .

The Greek word, pharmakeia ,

the original of ourpharmacy

,

” had a rather mixed history in its nativelanguage . It does not seem to have exactly deteriorated

,

as words in all languages have a h abit of doing,for from

the earliest times it was used concurrently to describethe preparation of medicines

,and also through its

association with drugs and poisons and the productionof philtres

,a s equivalent to sorcery and witchcraft . It

i s in this latter sense that it i s employed exclusively inthe New Testament . St . Pau l , for in s tance (inGalatians

,v,20) enumerating th e works of the

flesh n ames it after idolatry . The word appears a s

witchcraft in th e Authorised,and as sorcery in the

Revised Version . Pharmakeia or one of its derivativesalso occurs several times in the Book of Revelations

(ix , 2 1 ;xviii , 2 3;xxi , 8,and xxii

,and is

uniformly rendered sorcery or sorcerers i n bothversions

,and is associated with crime . Hippocrates

uses the verb Pharmakeu ein with the meaning of topurge

,but he elsewhere employs the same word with

th e meaning of to drug a person , to give a stupefyingdraught. In Homer the word Pharmaka appears inthe senses of both noxious and healing d rugs , and alsoto represent enchanted potions or philtres . The word“ pharmakoi ” in later times came to be used for the

PHARMACY IN TH E BIBLE

criminals who were sacrificed for the benefit of thecommunities

,and thus it acquired its lowest stage

of signification . It i s remarkable and unusual for aword which ha s once fallen as this one did to recoverits respectable position again .

DRUGS NAMED IN THE BIBLE .

BALM or GILEAD

is now usually identified with the exudation from theBalsamum Gileaden s e , known as Opobalsamum

,a

delicately odorous resinous substance of a dark redcolour

,turning yellow as it solidifies . It is not now

used,

in modern pharmacy, except in the East . Th e

London Pharmacopoeia of 1 746 authoris ed the subs titu tion of expressed oilof nutmeg for it in the formulafor Theriaca . Some Biblical commentators have preferred to regard mastic as the original Balm of Gilead

,

and others have thought that styrax has fulfilled thedescription . At this day the monks of Jericho sell totourists an oily g um extracted from the Takkum,

orBalanites Eg yptiaca , as Balm of Gilead . It i s p ut up intin cases

,an d is said to be useful in the

d

tr eatment

of sores and wounds but it cannot be the true Balm ofthe Bible .

The references to Balm of Gilead in the Old Te stamentshow that it was exported from Arabia to Egypt fromvery early times . The Ishmaelites “ from Gilead whobought Joseph , were carryi ng it down to Egypt withother Eastern gums and spi ces (Genesis , xxxvi i ,A little balm was among the gifts which Jacob toldhis sons to take to the lord of Egypt (Genes1s , xliii ,

This was the same substance tsora in Hebrew.

CHRONICLES OF PHARMACY

The translation “b alm in the Authorised Version issaid in the Encyclopedia Biblica to be an unfortunateinheritance from Cov er dale

’

s Bible .

” Why it is un

fortunate is not clear , unless it is that the English wordsuggests the idea of a medicine . In the Gen esisreferences to the substance there is no indication thatthe tsora was employed as a remedy

,but in the Book

of Jeremiah it i s mentioned three times (viii , 2 2;xlvi

,1 1 li

,and in all these allusions its healing

virtues are emphasised . Wyclif translates tsorain Genesis “

s weete gum ,

”

and,in Jeremiah

,

“r es yn .

”

Coverdale adopts tr iacle in Jeremiah . The Septua

gint rendered the Hebrew tsora into the Greek retineresin .

The text of the prophetic book leaves it open todoubt whether the balm was for internal or externaladministration . Probably it was made into an ointment .Gilead was the country on the East of the Jordan

,

not very d efined in extent, a geographical expressionfor the mountain ous region which the Israelites tookfrom the Amorites . But it is not necessary to supposethat

,

the balsam was produced in that district . Josephusstates that the Balsamum Gileaden s e

,the Opobalsamum

tree,was grown in the neighbourhood of Jericho;but

he also reports th e tradition that it was brought toJudea by the Queen of Sheba wh en she visitedSolomon . This is not incompatible with the muchearlier record of the Ishmaelites carrying it “ fromGilead ” to Egypt. For the Sabaean s who i nhabitedthe southern part of Arabia were from very early timesthe great traders of the East

,and they would have

supplied the balm to these Ishmaelites in the reg u lar.course of commerce. The Sabaean s are believed to

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CHRONICLES OF PHARMACY

The Arabic term wa s luban,and apparently olibanum

is a modification of this Arabic name with the articleprefixed , Al- luban . The common trade term “

thus ”

is the Greek word for incense , and is derived from theverb thuein , to sacrifice . Thurible was the Greekequivalent of the censer . The same word has beenmodified into fume in English . There is

,besides

,a

common gum thus,obtained from the pines which yield

American turpentine .Olibanum, or frankincense , derived from various speciesof the Boswellia , was greatly prized among many of theancient nations , especially by th e Egyptians , the Assyrians

,and the Phoenicians . The finest qualities were

grown in Somaliland,but the stocks of these were

always bought up by the Arabs,who monopolised the

commerce in olibanum. It was believed for centuriesthat the shrub from which it was obtained was a nativeof South Arabia , and an old Eastern legend alluded toin the Apocalypse of Moses declares that Adam wasallowed to bring this tree with him when he was expelledfrom th e Garden of Eden . Bruce the African traveller

,

first ascertained its African origin . The historical noteson Olibanum in “

Pharmacog r aph ia are extremelyinteresting and complete .

Stacte , in Hebrew Nataph ,is frequently identified

with opobalsamum,and this interpretation is given in

the margin of the Revised Version . But there arereasons for regarding it as a particularly fine kind ofmyrrh in drops or tears . Nataph meant somethingdropped or distilled .

Galbanum,it is not disputed

,was the galbanum known

to us by the same name . Its Hebrew name was He]

banah or Chelbanah . It has been an art icle of commercefrom very early times

,but the exact plan t from which

PHARMACY IN TH E B IBLE 5 7

it i s obtained is very uncertain . Hanbury states thatthe Irvingite chapels in London still use galbanum asan ingredient in their incense in imitation of the ancientJewish custom .

Onycha has been the subj ect of much discussion .

The balance of learned opinion favours the view that iti s the operculum of a species of s ea - snail found onth e shores of the Red Sea . It is known a s Unguisodoratus

,blatta Byzantina , and devil

’s claw. Nubianwomen to this day use it with myrrh , cloves , frankincense

,and cinnamon

,to perfume themselves .

The incense made from the formula j ust quoted wasreserved specially for the servi ce of the tabernacle

,and

it was forbidden , under the penalty of being cut off

from his people,for any private person to imitate it. It

does not appear,however , that the Israelites continued

to use the same formula for their Temple services .Josephus states that the incense of his day consisted ofthirteen ingredients . These were

,as we learn from

Talmudic instru ctions , in addition to the four gumsnamed in the Exodus formula , the salt with which ithad to be seasoned , myr rh , cassia , spiken ar

‘d,saffron

,

costus,mace

,cinnamon

,and a certain herb which had

the property of making the smoke of the incense ascends traight , and in the form of a date palm . This herb wasonly known to the family of Ab tinas

,to whom was

entrusted th e sole right of preparing the incense for theTemple . Rooms were provided for them in the precincts

,

and they supplied 36 8 minas (about 36 8 lbs .) to theTemple for a year’s consumption that was 1 lb . per dayand an extra 3 lbs . for the Day of Atonement. In thefirst century this family were dismissed becausethey refused to divulge their secret . The Templeauthorities sent to Alexandria for some apothecaries

CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY

to succeed th em , b u t these Egyptian experts could notmake the smoke ascend properly , s o the Abtina s had tobe r e- engaged at a considerably increased salary. Theygave as a reason for their secrecy their fear that theTemple would soon be destroyed and their incensewould be used for idolatrous sacrifices .The incense now used in Catholic churches is not

made according to th e Biblical formula . The followin gis a typical recipe in actual u s e — Olibanum

,450;

benzoin,2 50 storax

,1 20;sug ar , 100;cascarilla , 60;

nitre,1 50.

OLIVE OIL.

Among all the ancient Eastern nations olive oil wa s oneof the most precious of products . It was used lavishlyby the Egyptians for the hair and the skin

,as well as

in all sorts of ceremonies . The Israelites held it in th ehighest esteem before th ey went to Egypt , the earliestallusion to it in the Scriptures being in Genesis

,xxviii,

1 8 , where we read that Jacob poured oil on the stonewhich he set up at Bethel

,evidently with the idea of

consecrating it . The Apocalypse of Moses has a legendof Adam’s experience of its medicinal virtues in the

Garden of Eden . When he was in his 9 30th year hewas seized with g reat pain in his stomach and sickness .Then he told Eve to take Seth and go as near a s theycould get to the Garden

,and pray to God to permit an

angel to bring them some oil from the tree of mercy sothat he might anoint himself therewith and be free ofh i s pain . Eve and Seth were

,however

,met by the

Archangel Michael , who told them to return to Adam ,

for in three days the measure of h is life would befulfilled .

PHARMACY IN TH E BIBLE

To the Israelites in the Desert the anticipation of thecorn and wine and oil ” of Canaan was always present ,and throughout their history there are abundant ev i

dences of how they prized it .

The prescription for the “ holy anointing oil givenin Exodus

,xxx

,2 3

,is very remarkable . It was to be

compounded of the following ingredients

Flowing myr r hSweet cinnamonSweet calamu sCa s s ia (or cos tu s )Olive oil

It is the Revised Version which gives flowing myrrh,

apparently the gum which exudes spontaneously . Th e

Authorised Version reads pure myrrh .

”The Revised

Version also suggests eos tu s in the margin as an alternative to cassia . This oil was to be kept very sacred . Anyone who should compound any oil like it wa s to be cutoff from his people .

A hin was a measure equivalent to about 5 -5 of ourquarts . The shekel was nearly 1 5 lb s .

,and some of th e

Rabbis insist that the shekel of the san ctuary ” wastwice the weight of the ord inary shekel . At the lowestreckoning

,less than “

6 quarts of oil were to take up theextract from nearly 9 0 lbs . of solid substance . It willbe seen on reference that th e shekel weights are notdefinitely stated

,b ut the verses can hardly be

otherwise read . Some critics have suggested that somany shekels ’ worth is intended

,but this reading under

the circumstances i s almost inadmissible .” Ma'

imonides,

a great Jewish authority , says the method was to boilthe spices and gum in water until their odours wereextracted as fully as possible

,and then to boil the water

and the oil together until the former was entirely

CHRONICLES OF PHARMACY

evaporated . Doubtless the expression “ after the art ofthe apothecary (or perfumer

,

”

R V .)wa s a sufficientexplanation to those Israelites who had practisedthat art in Egypt . The consistence of the oil cou ld . nothave been thick

,for when used it trickled down on

Aaron ’s beard .

Rabbinical legends s ay that the quantity of the holyoil prepared at the time when it was first prescribedwas such as would miraculously suffi ce to anoint theJewish priests and kings all through their history . Inthe reign of Josiah the vessel containing the holy oil

was mysteriously hidden away‘

with the ark , and willnot be discovered until the Messiah comes . Messiah

,it

n eed hardly be said,means simply anointed ;and

Ch rist is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrewword .

MANNA .

The manna of the wilderness provided for thechildren of Israel on their j ourney towards Canaan hasno claim to be regarded as a drug

,except that a drug

has in modern times usurped its name . When the

Israelites first s aw the small round particles “ likehoar frost on the ground ”

(Exodus , xvi , 1 4) theysaid

,according to the Authorised Version ,

“ It ismanna;for they wist not what it was . The RevisedVersion makes the sentence read more intelligiblyby translating the Hebrew word Man -hu interrogativelythus : “ What is it " For they wist not what itwas . This Hebrew interrogation has been widelyadopted as the origin of the name , but it i s moreprobable that the Hebrew word man

,a gift

,is the true

derivation . Ebers s uggested the Egyptian word

PHARMACY IN TH E BIBLE

manhu,

” food,as a probable explanation . The Ar ab ic

word for the manna of Sinai is still man . This is thesubstance which scientific

,

investigators have agreed i sthe manna described in Exodus . It is an exudationfrom th e Tamarisk mannifera , a shrub which grows inthe valleys of the Sinai peninsula , the manna being

y ielded from the young branches after the punctures ofcertain insects . Another Eastern manna

,a Persian

product from a leguminous plant,Alhagi Maurorum

,

and a manna yielded by an evergreen oak in Kurdistan,

are still sold and used in some Eastern countries forfood and medicine . Bu t in Europe

,and to some extent

in the East also,Sicilian manna

,the product of an a s h

tree,Fraxinus ornus

,has displaced the old sorts since th e

fifteenth century . The commerce in this article and itshistory were investigated by Mr . Daniel Hanburyand described by h im in Science Papers and inPharmacog r aph ia .

Th e rabbinical legends concerning the manna of thewilderness are many and strange . On e is to the effectthat when it lay on the ground all the kings ofthe East and of the West could see it from theirpalace windows . According to Zabdi ben Levi it wasprovided in such abundance that it covered everymorning an area of cubits square and was 60

cubits in depth . Each day’s fall was sufficient to

nourish the camp for years . The Book ofWisdom (xvi , 20,

2 1) tells us that the manna soaccommodated itself to every taste that it provedpalatable and pleasing to all .

“ Able to content everyman’s delight , and agreeing to every taste . The

rabbinical legends enlarge this statement and assure usthat to those Israelites who did not murmur the mannabecame fish , flesh , fowl at will . This is in a deg ree

CHRONICLES OF P HARMACY

based on the words in P s . lxxviii, 2 4 , 2 5 , in which it is

described as “ corn of heaven,bread of the mighty

,and

meat to the full ” But the traditions s ay it couldnot acquire the flavours of cucumbers

,melons

,garlic

,

or on ions,all of which were Egyptian relishes which

were keenly regretted by the tribes . It is also onrecord among the legends that the manna was purenourishment. All of it was assimilated;so that thegrossest office of the body was not exercised . Itwas provided expressly for the children of Israel . Ifany stranger tried to collect any it slipped from h i s

grasp .

BDELLIUM .

Bdellium (Heb . Bedoloeh) is mentioned in Genesis ,ii

,1 2

,a s being found along with gold and onyx in the

land of Havilah,near the Garden of Eden . The associa

tion with gold and onyx suggests that bdellium was aprecious stone . Th e Septuagint translates the word inGenesis

,anthrax , carbuncle;but renders the same

Hebrew word in Numbers,xi

, 7 , where the manna islikened to bd ellium

,by Kr y s tallos , crystals . The Greek

bdellion d escribed by Dioscorides and Pliny was thefragrant g um from a species of Balsamodendron , andthis word was almos t certainly derived from an Easternsource

,and might easily have been originally a gen eric

term for pearls . Pear ls would better than anythingelse fit the reference in Numbers (

“ like coriander seed ,and the appear ance thereof as the appearance . of bdellium and this is the meaning attached to the word inthe rabbinical traditions . Some authorities haveconj ectured that the 7 (d) of b edolach may have beensubstituted for q (r) b er olach ,

so that the berylstone may have been intended .

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CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY

the Saviour. Nicodemus brought myrrh and aloes toembalm the body of Jesus . On the cross St. Matthew

(xxvii , 34) names vinegar mixed with gall as a drinkgiven to Christ by the soldiers in an apparentlyparallel passage in St . Mark ’s Gospel (xv , 23) winewith myrrh i s the mixture described . It is possible thatMatthew writing in Syriac may have used the word mur

(myrrh) and that his translator into Greek read fromhis manuscript Mar (gall). In Gen esis

,xxxvii

,2 5

,and

xliii,1 1

,the word translated myrrh is Loth (not mur)in

the Hebrew . The best opinion i s that this meantladanum

,the gum from the cistus labdan ifer us which

Dioscorides states was scraped from the beards of goatswhich had fed on the leaves of this shrub and had takenup some of the exuding gum .

WORMWOOD.

The Israelites had great obj ection to bitter flavours,

and the coupling of “ gall and wormwood ” expressessomething extremely unpleasant . The Hebrew word i sLa

’

anah,and the Septuagint twice renders this hemlock

(Ho s,x,4 and Amos

,vi

,1 2) but in other places

wormwood . The star which fell from heaven and madethe rivers bitter (Rev .

,V 111

,1 1) was called by the

Greek name for wormwood,Ap s inthos .

Hv s s or .

Hyssop is a word which has occasioned much differenceof opinion among interpreters . The Hebrew word hez obwas translated in the Septuagint by hy s s opos , andthis word is used twice in the New Testament. Fromreferences used in the Pentateuch it is clear that “ a

PHARM ACY IN TH E B IBLE

bunch of hyssop was employed in the Is r aelitish ritualfor sprinkling purposes (Exodus , xii , 22 ;Leviticus ,xiv

,4 and 6 ;Numbers , x1x , 6 and From 1

Kings,iv

,33

,it appears that it was a shrub that

grew in crevices of walls;from Psalm li , 7 , “ Purgeme with hyssop and I shall be clean

,it has been

assumed to have possessed purgative properties, though

it is more likely that th e allus ion wa s to the cer emonialpurification of the law according to St. John its stemwa s used to hand up th e sponge of vinegar to th e Saviouron the cross

,b u t St . Matthew and St . Mark use the

term calamus,or a reed . It may have been that a

bunch of hyssop was fixed to the r eed'

and the spongeof vinegar placed on the hyssop . Some learned com

mentator s have conj ectured that the word hy s s opos inSt . Job u ’

s accoun t was originally hy s s o ,a well -known

Greek word for the Roman pilum of j avelin . The otherallusion in th e New Testament occurs in Hebrews , ix ,1 9

,and is merely a quotation from the Pentateuch .

It has been found impossible to apply the descriptionsquoted to any one plant . That which we now callhyssop (Hyssopus officinali s )does not grow in Palestine .

It is generally agr eed that it was not that shrub . The

caper has been suggested and strongly supported,but

the best modern op inion is that the word wa s appliedgeneri cally to several kinds of origanum which werecommon in Syria .

JUNIPER.

The Hebrew word rothem ,translated jun iper in our

Authorised Version,has given much trouble to trans

lators . The Septuagi nt merely converted the Hebrewword into a Greek one , and the Vulgate followed th eSeptuagint . The allusions to th e tree are in 1 Kings

,

V OL . I F

CHRONICLE S OF PHARMACY

xix,4 and 5

,where Elijah slept under a j uniper

tree ;Job , xxx , 4,speaks of certain men s o poor

that they cu t up mallows by the bushes,and j uniper

roots for their meat; and Psalm cxx,4, Sharp

arrows of the mighty with coals of j uniper. The treealluded to was almost certainly . the Broom

,and it is so

rendered in the Revised Version either in the text orin the margin in all the instances . The Ar ab ic namefor the broom i s ratam

,evidently a descendant of

rothem . The Genista reetam is said to be the largestand most conspicuous shrub in the deserts of Palestine

,

and would be readily chosen for its shade by a wearytraveller . The mallows in the Book of Job are translated salt wort in the Revised Version . Renan gives“ They gather their salads from the bushes .” Saladswere regarded as indispensable by the poorest Jews .The coals of j uniper (or broom) are supposed to havereference to the lasting fire which this wood furnishes

,

but other translation s suggest as the proper reading ofthe verse The arrows of a warrior are the tongues ofthe people of the tents of Mi s r am.

”

JONAH ’

S GOURD.

The Gourd , of which we read in Jonah , iv , 6— 10,is Kikaion in Hebrew ,

and there has been some doubtwhat the plant could have been which grew so rapidlyand was so quickly destroyed . It is stated that theLord made this grow over th e booth which the prophethad erected in a single night

,and provide a shade of

which Jonah was exceeding ly glad . The nextmorning

,‘ however

,a worm attacked it

,and it

withered .

The author of Harris’s Natural History of the Bible ,

PHARMACY IN TH E BIBLE 6 7

Dr . Thaddeus M. Harris,of Dorchester

,Massachusetts

quotes from an earlier work,

“ Scripture Illustr ated ,

” a curious account of a Violent dispute betweenSt . Jerome and St . Augustine i n reference to the identification of this plant. According to thi s author thosepious fathers not only differed in words

,but

from words they proceeded to blows;and Jerome wasaccused of heresy at Rome by Augustine . Jeromethought the plant was an ivy

,and pleaded the

authority of Aquila , Symmachus,Theodotion

,and

others Augustine thought it was a gourd , and he wassupported by the Seventy , the Syriac , the Arabic , &c.

Had either of them ever seen the plant " Neither .Let the errors of these pious men teach us to thinkmore mildly

,if not more meekly

,respecting our own

opinions;and not to exclaim Heresy , or to enforce theexclamation

,when the subj ect is of s o little importance

as— gourd ver s u s i v y .

”

While endorsing the practical lesson which the authorj ust cited extracts from his rather unpleasant story

,I

think I ought to append to this narrative another whichi s given in Gerard’s Herbal (1 5 9 7) which seems to beincompatible with the previously quoted account of thequarrel . This is what Gerard writes

“ Ricinus , whereof mention is made in the fourthchapter and sixt verse of the p r ophecie of Jonas , wascalled of th e Talmudists kik , for in th e Talmud we readeVelo b es eh emen kik, that is in English , And not withthe oile of kik;which oile is called in the Arabiantoong Alker ua

,as Rabbi Samuel the s Onne of Hofn i

tes tifieth . Moreover a certain Rabb ine moov eth aquestion saying What is kik 7

”

Hereunto ReschLach i s ch maketh answer in Ghemar a

,say ing Kik is

nothing else bu t Jonas his kikaijon . And that this isF 2

CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY

true it appeareth by that name kiki which the ancientGr eeke ph i s icion s and the Aeg yptian s used , whichGr eeke word cometh of the Hebrew kik . Hereby itappeer eth that the olde writers long ago , though unwittingly

,called this plant by h i s true name . But the

olde Latine writers knew it by the n ame Cucurbitawhich evidently is manifested by an Hi s tor ic whichSt. Augustine r ecor deth in his Epistle to St . Jeromewhere in effect he writeth thus — That name kikaijonis of small moment yet so small a matter caused agreat tumult in Africa . For on a time a certaineBishop having occasion to intreat of this which is mentioned in the fourth chapter of Jonas h i s p r ophecie (ina collation or sermon which he made in his cathedralchurch or place of a s s emblie), said that th i s plant wascalled Cucurbita

,a Gourde

,because it increased to so

great a quantitie in so Short a space , or else (saith he)it is called Hedera . Upon the novelty and untruth ofthis doctrine the people were greatly offended , andthere arose a tumult and hurly burly , so that the bishopwas inforced to go to the Jews to aske their j udgementas touching the name of this plant . And when he hadreceived of them the true name which was kikaijon ,

hemade h i s open recantation and confessed his error

,and

was j ustly accused of being a fals ifier of HolyScripture .

I quote the letter as Gerard gives it without quiteunderstanding it, and I have not been able to trace itsorigin . But it is clear that if St . Augustine thought itwa s

'

s uch a small matter he would hardly have quarrelledso violently with St . Jerome about it . Probably

,how

ever,the story of the quarrel is founded on this letter .

Moreover the conclusion seems to be that the gourdwas not a cucurbita but the Palma Christi.

PHARMACY IN TH E B IBLE

The importance of Jcrome ’s translation of the wordrepresenting th e plant to be Ivy (Hedera.) i s that heincorporated it into his Latin version of th e Bible knownas th e Vulgate . The much older Septuagint (Greek)translation gives kolokyntha , the bottle gourd

,a s

the rendering of the Hebrew kikaion . The Swedishbotanist and theologian Celsius strongly supported theView that Jonah ’s gourd wa s the Palma Christi i n his“ Hier obotan icon ;sive de Plantis Saerae Scr iptu r ae ,

”

1 7 46 . But though this tree is of v ery rapid growth,

and is planted befo r e houses in the East for its shade,

and though philological arguments are in its favour ,Dr . Hastings Encyclopaedia Biblica rej ects thesuggestion and prefers the Septuagint version becausehe thinks the pas sage clearly indicates that a v ine isintended . He considers there i s no support

,either

botanical or etymological,for the

“

selection of ivy torepresent the gourd .

THE WILD GouRDs

mentioned in 2 Kings,iv

, 39,are generally

supposed to have been colocynth fruit,though the

squ irting cucumber (Ecb alium purgans) has also beensuggested . The plant on which this g rows , however ,would hardly be called a wild vine

,for i t h as no

tendrils . The Jews were in the habit of Shreddingvarious kinds of gourds in their pottage

,and as

narrated,someone had brought a lapful of these gourd s

,

the fruit of a wild Vine,and shredded t hem into the

pottage which was being prepared for the sons ofthe prophets . The mistake could“ hardly have beenmade with the squirting cucumber

,which i s very

common throughout Palestine,but the colocynth only

CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY

grew on barren sands like those near Gilgal,and might

easily be mistaken for the globe cucumber . The

mistake was discovered as soon as the pottage wastasted

,and the alarm of “ death in th e pot

” wasraised . Elisha , however , casting some meal in the potdestroyed the bitter taste

,and apparently rendered the

pottage quite harmless .

THE HORSE LEECH

mentioned in Proverbs , xxx , 1 5 ,

“ Th e horse—leechhath two daughters

,crying Give

,Give

,is a translation

of Hebrew Alaka , the mean ing of which i s not withoutdoubt. The Hebrew word is interpreted by cor

responding terms in Arabic,but of these there are

two,one meaning the leech , and the other fate or

destiny. The latter word is supposed to have beenderived from the former from the idea that everyperson ’s fate clings to him . Another similar Arabicword is Aluk

,a female ghul or vampire

,who

,it was

believed,sucked the blood of those whom She

attacked .

NITRE

is mention ed twice in the Old Testament,first in Pro

verbs,xxv

,20,

As vinegar upon nitre,so is he that

singeth songs to a heavy h eart . ” In the RevisedVersion soda is given instead of nitre in the margin .

The other reference is in Jeremiah , ii , 22,

“ Thoughthou wash thee with nitre

,and take thee much sope .

In this passage the Revised Version changes nitre tolye . The Hebrew word is Nether , the natrum of theEast

,an impure carbonate of sodium which was

condensed from certain salt lakes,or obtained from

marine plants . Vinegar would cause effervescence withthis substance

,but not with nitrate of pot-ash . The

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CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY

passage, Matthew , xxiii , 23 . Anise was never grown

in Palestine . The other herbs were common ingardens

,and the allusion to paying tithe on them

,

and to rue in a similar connection in Luke,xi

,42

,

appears to refer to the scrupulous observance of theletter of the law by the Pharisees , even down to suchan insignificant matter as the tithe on these almostvalueless herbs . The law did not , in fact , require titheto be paid except on production s which yieldedincome . It was therefore rather to satisfy their ownself- righteousness that th e Pharisees insisted onpaying the contribution on mint and anise andcummin .

SAFFRON

is only mentioned in the Song of Solomon,iv

,1 4

,

as one of the many valuable products of an Easterngarden . There is not much doubt that this was thecrocus sativa known to medicine from the earliest times .The Hebrew word

,karkum

,was kurkum in ancient

Arabic,and this is given in Arab dictionaries a s

equivalent to the more modern z a- faran from whichour word i s derived .

POMECRANATES

are always referred to in the Scriptures as luxuries .The spies sent by Moses to see the land of Canaanbrought back pomegranates with figs and grapes

(Numbers , xiii , the same fruits are promisedin Deut . (viii , th e

i

wither in g of the pomegranatetree i s

,with that of the Vine and fig tree

,noted by

,

the

prophet Joel (i , 1 2) as a sign of desolation . I t is stillhighly prized as a fruit in the East.

PHARMACY IN TH E B IBLE

THE POULTICE OF FIGS

applied to Hezekiah’s bo il (2 Kings , xx , 7) is aninteresting reminiscence of Israelitish home medicine .

The fig tree often appears in the Bib le . Some verylearned Biblical commentators (Celsius , Ges

‘

en iu s,

Knobel,among them) have believed that th e fig leaves

with which Ad am and Ev e made aprons were in factthe very long leaves of the banana tree . This

,however

,

is scarcely possible,as the banana i s a native of the

Malay Archipelago,and there is no evidence that it was

known to the Jews at the time when the Pentateuchwas written .

SPIKENARD

i s mentioned three times in the Song of Songs (i , 1 2 ,iv

,1 3

,iv

,and in the

‘

New Testamenton two occasions (Mark xiv , 3

,and John xii

,

a box of spikenard ointment,

“ very costly and “ veryprecious ”

i s,in the instance record ed by St. Mark

,

poured on the Saviour ’s head,and in the n arrative of

St . John , is used to anoint His feet . On both occasionswe are told that the value of this box or vase was threehundred pence . It is explained in the Revised Versionthat the coin named was equivalent to about 85d . The

price of the ointment u sed was therefore over ten pounds .In the Greek text the word used is nardos pitike .

It has been variously conj ectured that the adj ectivemay have meant liquid

,genuine or powdered the word

lends itself to either of those meanings . Or it mayhave been a local term

,or possibly it may have been

altered from a word which would have meant what weunderstand by “ spike ”

* ih botany . The most likelymeaning is genuine

,

” for we know that this product

CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY

was at that period a perfume in high esteem,and that

there were several qualities , th e best , and by far the costliest

,being brought from India . Th e ointment employed

was really an otto,and it was imported into Rome and

other cities of the Empire in alabaster vessels . Dioscor ides and Galen refer to it as nardostachys . The

Arab name for it was Sumbul Hindi , but this must notbe confounded with the sumbul which we know. The

word sumbul Simply means spike . The botanical origin ofthe Scripture Spikenard

,the nardostachys of Dioscorides

,

was cleared up,it is gen erally agreed

,by Sir William

Jones in 1 7 9 0. He traced it to a Himalayan plant ofthe valerian order which was afterwards exactly identifiedby Royle . A Brahman gave some of the fibrous rootsto Sir William Jones , and told him it was employed intheir religious sacrifices .Pliny mentions an ointment of spiken ard composed

of the Indian nard,with myrrh

,balm

,custos

,amomum

,

and other ingredients,but the “ genuine ” nard alluded

to in the Gospels was probably the simple otto . Plinyalso states that the Ind ian nard wa s worth

,in h i s time

,

in Rome,one hundred denarii per pound .

Horace mentions an onyx box of nard which wasconsidered of equal value with a large vessel of wine

Nar do vin um mer eb er eNar di par vu s onyx eliciet cad um.

EASTERN IMAGERY.

In Ecclesiastes,xii

,5,the familiar words and

desire shall fail,

” have been changed in the RevisedVersion to the caper-berry shall fail . This alterationdoes not strike the ordinary reader a s an improvement ,but it appears

.

that the Revised Version translation i s a

PHARMACY IN TH E B IBLE 7 5

reversion to that of the Septuagint , and is probablyexactly correct . I t is supposed to

'

mean the same thing .

The caper has always b eeni r ecog n i s ed a s a relish to meat ,a s we u s e it and there i s eviden ce that it was given as

a stimulating medicine among th e Arabs in the MiddleAges

,and perhaps fr om very ancient times . The idea

would be therefore that even the caper-berry will notnow have any effect . The Revisers also suggest in themargin “b urst ” for “ fail .” It is only a que s tion ofpoints in Hebrew which word is intended

,and some

think that th e berry when fully ripe and bursting mayhave been an emblem of death .

The other clauses i n the same verse have given riseto much difference of opinion .

“ Th e almond tree Shallflouri sh is gen erally supposed to indicate the whitelocks of the old man . But against th IS '

lt is obj ectedthat the almond blossom is not Wh ite but pink;andby a Slight alteration of th e original it is possible toread “

th e almond (the fruit) s hall be refused ” orrej ected;it i s no longer a

'

temptin g morsel .The almond and the almond tree (the same word may

mean either) are mentioned several times in the Bible .

Jacob’s gifts to Joseph from Canaan to Egypt includedalmonds . They were grown i n Canaan and were aluxury in Egypt . In Jeremiah

,i,1 1

,the almond

branch is used as symbolical of hastening or awakening,

which is the primary meaning of the word,derived from

the early appearance of the blossoms on the almondtree .The third clause

,the grasshopper Shallbe a burden

,

similarly presents d ifli eulties,bu t these hardly concern

us here . Probably all the metaphors conveyed distinctideas to Eastern readers at that time

,but have lost

their point to us .

CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY

The interpretation of the beautiful Hebrew poetr y'

of

the twelfth chapter of Ecclesiastes,a s given in Lecler c’

s

“ History of Medicine,

” may be of interest . Leeler c

savs t he chapter is an enigmatic description of old ageand its inconveniences

,followed by death . Th e sun

,

the light,the moon

,and the stars are respectively the

mind,the j udgment

,the memory

,and the other faculties

of the soul,which are gradually fading. Th e clouds and

the rain are the catarrhs and the fluxion s incident toage . The guards of the house and the strong man arethe senses

,the muscles

,and the tendons . Th e grinders

are the teeth those who look out through the windowsis an allusion to the sight . The doors shall be shut inthe streets

,and the sound of the grinding is low, means

that the mouth will scarcely open for speaking,and that

eating must be slow and quiet . The old man mus t rise atthe voice of the bird

,for he cannot sleep . There is no

more Singing,and read ing and study are no longer

pleasures . The fear of climbing,even of walking

,are

n ext expressed ;the white hair i s signalised by thealmond blossom

,and the flesh falling away by the

grasshopper,though the word burden may indicate

the occasional unh ealthy fattening of old person s . The

caper failing indicates the loss of the various appetites .Th e Silver cord represents the Spinal marrow, thegolden bowl the brain or the heart;the pitcher , theSkull and the wheel

,the lung. The long home is the

tomb .

THE PHARMACY OF HIPPOCRATES .

When we s ear ch into the his tor y of medicin e and the commencemen t of s cience

,the fir s t body of doctr ine that we meet with i s

th e collection of wr itings attr ibu ted to H ippocr ates . Scien cea s cends dir ectly to that or igin and ther e s tops . Ever ything thathad been lea r ned befor e th e phy s ician of Cos h a s per is hed;and ,cu r iou s ly

,ther e exis ts a gr eat g ap after him a s well a s befor e him .

. So that th e wr itings of H ippocr ates r emain i s olated amongs tthe r u i n s of an cien t medical liter atu r e — LITTRE. Intr odu ction to

th e Tr an s la tion of the Wor ks of H ipp ocr a te’s

ABOUT eig ht hundred y ears separated the periods of[Es culap iu s and Hippocrates . During that long time thestudy of medicine in all its branches wa s proceeding inintimate association with the various philosophies forwhich Greece has always been famous . Intercoursebetween Greece and Egypt

,Persia, Indi a and other

countries brought into u s e a number of medicines,and

probably these were introduced and made popular bythe shopkeepers and the travelling doctors , marketquacks as we Should call them .

Leclerc has collected a list of nearly four hundredsimples which he finds alluded to as remedies in thewritings of Hippocrates . But these include variousmilks

,wines

,fruits

,vegetables

,fats

,and other sub

stances which we should hardly call drugs now . Omitting these and certain other substances which cannot be

77

7 8 CHRONICLES OF PHARMACY

identified I take from the author named the followinglist of medicines employed or mentioned in that fardistant age

Abr otanum.

Ab s in the .

Ad ian t um (ma id enhair ).

Agn u s cas tu s .

Algae (var iou s ).

Almond s .

Althaea .

Alum.

Amber .

Ammoniac .

Amomum.

An agallis (a ver on ica).Anagyr is .

An ch u s a .

An emon e .

LAn ethum.

An i s e .

aAn th emi s .

Apar in e (goos egr eas e).Ar is tolochia .

Armen ian s ton e .

A s phalt .

A s phodel .Atr iplex .

Bacchar is .

Balm.

Ba s il .Bis tor t .

Blite .

Br as s (flower s , filings ,as hes ).

Br iar .

Br yony .

Bu r dock .

Cabbage .

Cachr y s .

Calamu s ar omaticu s .

Can thar ides .

Caper s .

Car damom.

Car duu s benedictu s .

Car r ot .

Cas tor eum.

Cen tau r y.

Centipedes .

Chalcitis (r ed ochr e).Chenopodium.

J. Cinn amon . Lettu ce .

Cinqu efoil . "Lico r ice .

Clove .r Lin s eed .

Colocyn th . Loads ton e .

f Cor iand er . Lotu s .

Cr ayfi s h . Lupin sC r es s . Magn es ian s ton e .

Cu cumber (wild). Mallow.

Cummin . Mandr agor a ,

Cyclamen . MeconCytis u s . Melilot .

Dictamn us . Mer cu r ialis .

Dog . Min ium.

Dr acon tium. Min ts (var iou s ).Ear th s (var iou s ). Mugwor t .

’ E later ium. My r ab olan s .

E lder . Myr r h .

E r ica . Myr tle .

Euphor bia . Nar cis s u s .

Excr emen t of as s , goat, Nar d .

mu le,goos e

,fox. Nitr e .

-Fenn el . Oak .

Fig tr ee (leave s , wood , Oenanthe .

fr u it). Oe s yp u s .

Foenugr eek . Olive .

Fr ankin cen s e . On ion s .

Fr ogs . Or igan um.

” Galban um.’ Or pimen t .

“ Galls . Os tr ich .

Gar lic . Ox-gall .Germander . Ox (liver , gall , u r in e).Goat (var iou s par ts ). Panax.

Hawthor n . Par th en ium.

H eather . Pennyr oyal .~H ellebor e (white and Peony .

black). “ Pepper .

H emlock . Per s ea (s ebes ten s ).~H enban e . Per s il .vH on ey . Peu cedanum.

H or ehound . Pha s eolu s .

Hor n s of ox,goat

,P h ili s tium.

s tag . Pin e .

Hys s op .i P iteh .

Is atis . "Pomegr anate .

I vy . IP op py .

a J un ip er . Qu icklime .

Las er pitium. Qu ince .

Lau r el . Ranuncu lu s .

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CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY

words and in verses called epaioide , or carmina , fromwhich came the idea and name of charm .

In later times these temples were beautiful places,

generally situated in th emost healthy localities,and amid

lovely scenery . They were either in forests or surroundedby gardens . A stream of pure water ran through thegrounds

,and the neighbourhood of a medicinal spring

was chosen if possible . The patients who resorted tothem were required to purify themselves rigorously

,to

fast for some time before presenting themselves in thetemple

,to abstain from wine for a still longer prelimin

ary period , and thus to appreciate the solemnity of theintercession which was to be made for them . On entering the temple they found much to impress them . Theywere Shown the records of cures

,especially of diseases

similar to their own their fasts had brought them intoa mental condition ready to accept a miracle

,the cere

monies which they witnessed were imposing,and at last

they were left to sleep before the altar . That dreamsshould come under those circumstances was not wonderful nor was it surprising that in the morning thepriests should be prepared to interpret these dreams .Not unfrequently the patients s aw some mysteriousshapes in their dreams which suggested to the prieststhe medicines which ought to be administered . For no

doubt they did administer medicines,though for many

centu r ies they observed the s trictest secrecy in referenceto all their knowledge and practices .It need hardly be added that offering s were made to

the god,to the service of the temple , and to the priests

personally by grateful patients who had obtained benefit.

At one of the temples it is said it wa s the custom tothrow pieces of gold or . silver into a welLfOr th e god .

At others pieces of carving representing the part which

I v TH E PHARMACY OF H I P P OCRA'

I‘

E S 8 1

had been the seat of disease were sold to those who hadbeen cured

,and these were again presented to th e

temple,and

,it may be surmised

,sold again . That

cu r es were effected i s likely enough .. The excitement

,

the anticipation , the deep impression s made by thenovel surroundings had great influence on many minds

,

and through the minds on the bodies . Records ofthese cures were engraved on tablets and fixed on thew alls of the temples .Spr engel gives a translation of four of these in s cr ip

tions found at ,the Temple of fEs culapiu s which had been

built on the Isle of the Tiber,near Rome . The first

relates that a certain Gain s , a blind man , was told by .

the oracle to pray in the temple , then cross th e floorfr om right to left , lay the five fingers of h i s right handon the altar

,and afterwards carry his hand to his eyes .

He did s o,and recovered his Sight t in the. presence of a

large crowd . The next record i s also a cure of blindness . A soldier n amed Valer iu s Aper was told to mixthe blood of a white cock with h oney and apply themixture to his eyes for three s u cceSS 1v e days . He

,too

,

was cured,and thanked the god before all the people .

Julian was cured of Spitting of blood . His case hadbeen considered

~

hopeless . The treatment prescribedwas mixing seeds of the fir apple with honey , andeating the compound for three days . The fourth curewas of a son of Lucius who was d esperately ill withpleurisy . The god told him in a dream to take ashesfrom the altar

,mix them with wine

,and apply to h i s

side .

The legend of th e foundation of this Roman templeis curious . In the days of th e republic on the occasionof an epidemic in the ,

city the sibylline books wereconsulted

,with th e result that an embassy was sent to

V OL . I G

CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY

Epidaurus to ask for the help of ZEs culap iu s . QuintusOg uln i u s wa s appointed for this mission . On arrivingat Epidaurus the Romans were astonished to see a largeserpent depart from th e temple , make its way to theShore

,and leap on the vessel , where it proceeded at

once to the cabin of Og uln iu s . Some of the priestsfollowed the serpent and accompanied the Romans onthe return j ourney . The vessel stopped at Antium

,and

th e serpent left the ship and proceeded to the Temple ofE s culap iu s in that city . After three days he returned

,

and the voyage was continued . Casting anchor at themouth of the Tiber the serpent again left the vessel andsettled itself on a small island . There it rolled itselfup

,thus indicating its intention of settling on that

spot . The god,it was understood

,had selected that

island as the Site for h i s temple,and there it was

erected .

AS might be expected , some of the less reverent ofthe Greek writers found subj ects for satire in theworship of Z-Es culap iu s . Aristophanes in one of hiscomedies makes a servant relate how h i s master

,

Plautus,who was blind

,was restored to Sight at the

fEs culap ian temple . Having placed their offerings onthe altar and performed other ceremonies

,this servant

says that Plautus and he laid down on beds of straw.

When the lights were extinguished th e priest cameround and enj oined them to Sleep and to keep Silenceif they should hear any noise . Later the god himselfcame and wiped the eyes of Plautus with a piece ofwhite linen . Panacea followed him and covered theface of Plautus with a purple veil . Then on a Signalfrom the deity two serpents glided under th e veil , andhaving licked his eyes Plautus recovered h i s sight .I t cannot be doubted that in the course of the

I V TH E PHARMACY OF H IPPOCRATE S 83

centuries a large amount of empiric knowledge was

accumu lated at thes e temples , and probably th e pretence of supernatural aid wa s far more rare than wesuppose . In an exhaustive study of the subj ect recentlypublished by Dr . Ar av intinos , of Athens , that authorityexpresses the opin i onthat the temples served as hospitalsfor all kinds of sufferers

,and that arrangements were

prov ided in them for prolonged treatment . He thinksthat in special cases the treatment was carried outduring the mysterious sleep , when it wa s desired tokeep from the pati ent an exact knowledge of what wasbeing done;bu t generally he supposes a course ofnormal medication or hygiene wa s followed . Forty - twoinscriptions have been discovered

,but on analysing

these Dr . Ar avmtinos comes to the conclusion thatthey record in most cases on ly cures effected byrational means

,and not by miracles . He finds massage

,

purgatives,emetics

,diaphoresis

,bleeding

,baths

,poul

ticing,and such like methods indicated , and though the

sleeps, possibly hypnotic , are often mentioned , this is

not by any means the case invariably .

About a century before Hippocrates wrote and praeti s ed ,

the Asclepiads began to reveal their secrets . The

revolt again st the-mysteries and trickeries of the templeswa s incited by the infidelity to their oaths of certain ofthe Italian disciples of Pythagoras . The school ofphilosophy and medicine founded by that mystic aimedalso to keep his doctrines secret

,b ut when the colony

he had established at Cr otona ,in South Italy

,was d i s

per s ed by the attacks of the mob , a number of theinitiates travelled about under the title of P er iod eutespractising medicine often in close proximity to anfEs culapian temple . Thefi r s t of the Asclepiads to yieldto this competition were those of Gu idos

,b u t the school

G 2

CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY

of Cos was not long after them . The direct an cestors ofHippocrates were among the teachers of the temple whobecame eager to make known the accumulated science intheir possession

,and thus by the time when the famous

teacher was born (460 th e world was ripe for hisintellect to have free play .

HIPPOCRATES .

Hippocrates was born in Cos,as far a s can be as cer

tained,about the year 460 BC

,and is alleged to have

liv ed to be 9 9,or;a s some s ay ,

109 years of age . It isclaimed that h i s father

,Her aclides

,was a direct descend

ant of ZEs culap iu s , and that his mother , Phenar ita ,was

of the family of Hercules . H is father and his paternalancestors in a long line were all priests of the fEs culap iantemples

,and h i s son s and thei r sons after them also

practised medi ci ne i n the same surroundings . The family,

traceable for nearly 300 years,among whom were seven

of the name of Hippocrates,were all

,i t would appear

,

singu larly free from the charlatanism which the Greekdramatists attributed to the [Esculapian practitioners ,from th e superstition which overlaid the medical scienceof so many older and later centuries

,and especially

from th e fantastic pharmacy which was to develop tosuch an absurd extent in the following five hundredyears .It is not possible to distinguish with any confidence

th e genu ine from the spurious writings attributed toHippocrates which h ave come down to u s . Bu t thenote which even h i s imitators sought to copy was oneof directness

,lucidity

,and candour. He tells of his

failures as simply a s of h i s successes . He does not seekto deduce a system from his experience

,and though he

I V THE PHARMACY OF H IPPOCRATES 8 5

is reputed to be the origin ator of the theory of thehumours , he does not allow the doctrine to influencehis treatment

,which is based on experience .

The medical views of Hippocrates do not concern ushere except as they affect his pharmaceutical practice

This por tr ait of Hippocr ates,which is given in Lecler c ’

s“Histor y ofMedicine ,” is stated to

b e copied fr om a medal in th e collection of Fu lv iu s U r sinu s , a celebr ated Italian connoisseu r .

I t is believed that th e medal was str u ck by th e people of Cos at some lon g distant time inh onou r of their famou s compatr iot . A bu st in th e Br i tish Mu seum ,

found n ear Alb a i i o ,among some r u ins conjectu r ed to have been th e villa of Mar cu s V ar r o, is pr esumed tor epr esent Hippocr ates on th e evidence of th e likeness i t bear s to th e head on this medal.

but a very long chapter might be written on hispharmacy , that is to s ay ,

011 th e u s e he made of drugsin th e treatment of di sease . Galen believed that h emade his preparation s with his own hand , or at least

CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY

superintended their preparation . Lecler e’

s list of themedicaments mentioned a s s uch in theworks attributedto Hippocrates have been already quoted

,and it will be

found that after deducting th e fruits and vegetables,

the milks of cows , goats , asses , mules , sheep , andbitches , a s well as other things which perhaps we Shouldhardly reckon as medicaments , there remain betweenone hundred and two hundred drugs which are stillfound in our drug shops . There are a

k

’

g r eat manyanimal products

,some copper and lead derivatives

,

alum,and the earths so much esteemed;but evidently

the bulk of h i s materia medica was drawn from thevegetable kingdom .

Hippocrates was considerably interested in pharmacy .

Galen makes him say,

“We know the nature of medicaments and simples

,and make many different prepara

tion s with them;some in one way , some in another.Some S imples must be gathered early , some late;some we dry

,some we crush

,some we cook

,the

He mad e fomentations,poultices , ga rgles , pessaries ,

katapotia (things to swallow ,large pills), ointments , oils ,

cerates,collyria

,looch es

,tablets

,and inhalations

,which

he called perfumes . For quinsy,for example

,he burned

sulphur and asphalte with hyssop . He gave narcotics,

including,it i s supposed , the j uice of the poppy and

henbane seeds,and mandragora purgatives , s udor ifics ,

emetics , and enemas . H i s purgative drugs were generallydrastic ones the hellebores , elaterium , colocynth , scammony

, thapsia , and a species of rhamnus .Hippocrates describes methods for what he calls purging

th e head and the lungs , that is , by means of sneezing andcoughing . He explain s how he diminishes the acridityof spu rge ju i ce by dropping a little of it on a dried fig ,

whereby he gets a good remedy for dropsy . He has a

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FROM HIPPOCRATES TO GALEN.

Medicine i s a s cien ce which ha th been mor e pr ofes s ed thanlabou r ed, and yet mor e labou r ed than advan ced th e labou r havingbeen

,in my judgmen t

,r ather in cir cle than in pr ogr es s ion . For I

find mu ch iter ation ,b u t s mall addition — BACON, “ Advan cement of

Lear n ing.

” —Book 2 .

THE fame of Hippocrates caused naturally a greatmultiplication of works attributed to ‘ him . The

Ptolemies when founding the Library of Alexandria,

which they were determined should be more importantthan that of Pergamos

,commi s s ion ed '

captain s of Sh ipsand other travellers to ’ buy manuscripts of the Greekphysician at almost any price;an excellent methodof encouraging forgeries . The works attributed toHippocrates have been subj ect to the keenest scrutinyby s cholars , but even now the verdict of Galen inregard to their genuine or spurious character is theconsideration which carries th e greatest weight. Eventhe imitations go to prove how free the physicianof Cos was from superstitious practices or prej udicedtheories .Between him and Galen an interval of some s ix

hundred years elapsed and,especially in the latter half

of that period , pharmacy developed into enormou s

v FROM H IPPOCRATES TO GALEN 89

importance . Not that it necessarily advanced . Butthe faith in drugs , and especially in the ar t of compounding th em

,and the wild polypharmacy which grew

up in Alexandria and Rome in the first two centuriesof our era

,of which Galen shows s o much approval ,

add inestimably to th e chronicles of pharmacy . It wasduring the interval between Hippocrates and Galenthat the many sects of ancient medicine , the Dogmatics ,th e Stoics , the Empirics , the Methodics

,and the

Eclectics were born and flourished . Some of theseencouraged the administration of special remedies .Bu t probably a far greater influence wa s exercisedon th e pharmacy of the ancient world by the newcommerce with Africa and the East which the Ptolemiesdid so much to foster

,and by the travelling quacks and

the prescribing druggists who exploited the drugs offoreign origin which now came into the market.

Serapion of Alexandria , one of th e most famous of theEmpirics

,who is supposed to have lived in the second

century , was largely responsible for th e introduction ofthe animal remedies which were to figure so prominentlyin the pharmacy of th e succeeding seventeen cen turies .Among his specifics were the brain of a camel

,the

excrements of the crocodile,the heart of the hare ,

the blood of the tortoise , and th e testicles of the wildboar .The Empi r i cs were the boldest users of drugs

,and so

far as can be j udged , were the practitioners who broughtopium into general medicinal esteem . One of the mostfamous doctors of this sect

,Her aclides

,made sev eral

narcotic compounds which are commended by Galen .

One of these formulae prescribed for cholera wa s 2

drms . of henbane seeds , 1 d rm. of anise,and d rm. of

opium ,made into 30

’

pills , one for a dos e. Another

CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY

which was recommended for coughs was composed of4 drms . each of j uice of hemlock , j uice of henbane ,ca s tor um

,white pepper

,and costus;and 1 d rm. each

of myrrh and opium .

Musa,a freed slave of Augustus

,and apparently a

sort of medical charlatan,but a great favourite

w ith the Emperor,is alleged to have introduced the

flesh of Vipers into medical use especially for the cureof ulcers .Celsus

,Dioscorides

,and Pliny

,whose works are recog

n i s ed as the storehouses of the science of ImperialRome

,belonged to the period under review . Celsus

wrote either a little before or a little after the com

mencement of our era . He wa s the first eminentauthor who wrote on medicine in Latin . Pliny diedA.D. 7 9 , suffocated by the gases from Vesuvius

,which

in his eagerness to observe he had approached too nearduring an eruption . Dioscorides i s supposed to havelived a little before Pliny , who apparently quotes him ,

but curiously never mentions h i s name,though usually

most scrupulous in regard to his authorities .Themison , who lived at Rome in the reign of Augustus

Caesar , and who is said to have been the first physicianto have distinguished rheumatism from gout

,is n oted

in pharmacy as the author of the formulae forDiagrediumand Diacodium . He praised the plantain as a universalremedy

,and is also the earliest medical writer to

mention the u s e of leeches in the treatment of illness .Several of the writers on med ical subj ects of this

period adopted th e method of prescribing their formulasand the instructions for compounding them in verse .

The most famous instance is that of And r omachu s ,physician to Nero , whose elegiac verses describing thecomposition of h i s Ther iakon are quoted by Galen .

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CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY

prescribed with his own hands,or at least super

intended the production of them . Accord ing toCelsus , i t was in Alexandria and about the year300 that the div ision of the practice ofmedicine into distinct branches was

'

fi r s t noticeable .

The sections li e names were Dietetics, Surgery and

Pharmaceutics .The physicians who practised dietetics were like our

consultants,only more s o. They were abov e all' th in g s

philosoph ers,the recognised successors of the Greek

thinkers and theorists,and but too often their

imitator s . Although they owed their designation totheir general authority on regime

,they prescribed

and i nvented medicin es . The pharmaceutical sectioncame to be called in Latin med icamentar ii , and theirhistory corresponds closely with that of our Englishapothecaries . At first they prepared and administeredthe medicines which the physicians ordered . Bu t inAlexandria and Rome they gradually assumed theposition of general practitioners . To another class

,

designated by Pliny V uln er ar ii , was left th e treatmentof wounds

,and probably of tumours and ulcers . The

n ecessity of a lower grade of medical practitioners inRome is manifest from a remark of Galen’s tothe effect that no physician , meaning a person inhis own rank

,would attend to diseases of minor

importance .It i s worthy of note that the Latin designation medi

camentar iu s , which was n early equivalent to the Greek

ph armacopoli s , wa s similarly used to mean a poisoner ,while pharmakon in Greek and med icamen tu s in Latinmight mean either a medicine or a poison .

It is noted elsewhere (page 5 2) that the word

pharmakeia when it occurs in the New Testament i s

v FROM H IPPOCRATE S TO GA LEN 93

universally translated in our versions by the termsorcery or some similar word . At the time

,

when theApostles wrote this was evidently the prevalent meaningattached to the term . But in earlie r Greek literaturethe reputable and the disgracefu l ideas associated withthe word seem to have run side by Side for centuries .Homer uses pharmakon in both senses;Plato makespharmakeuein mean to administer a remedy , while Herodotas adopts it to sign ify th e practice of sorcery .

Apparently this word came from an earlier, pharma s s ein

,

which was derived from a root implying to mix , and thegradual sense development wa s that of producing aneffect by means of d rugs . They might produce purging

,

they might produce a colour,or they might produce

love .

The mu ltiplication of names for the variou s classesconnected with medicine and pharmacy in the Romanworld is rather confusing. As the language of medicineup to and including Galen was largely Greek

,many of

the d esignations employed were those which hadbeen drawn from that tongue . The name PharmacOpeu s ,

used in Greek to denote certain handlers of drugs ,had ”

always a Sin i ster signification . It suggested apurveyor of noxious drugs

,a compounder of philtres

,

a vendor of poisons . The men who kept shops for thesale of drugs generally were called pharmacopoloi .

This term was not free from reproach,because it was

a common appellation,not only of the Shop-keepers

strictly s o- called, b ut was also applied to the per iodeu tes ,

or ag y r toi , t r avelling quacks or assembly gatherers , oras they came to be named in La tin , cir culator es orcir cumfor anei .These itinerant drug sellers are occasionally referred to

by the classic authors . ~ Lucian speaks of one hawking

CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY

a cough mixture about th e streets;and Cicero , in hisOratia pro Cluen tio

,suggests that the travelling pharma

copoli s ts who attended the markets of country townswere not unwilling to sell poisons a s well as medicineswhen they were wanted . On e of these i s specificallynamed

,Lu cius Clod iu s

,and the cr ater suggests that he

wa s bribed to supply medicines to a certain lady whichwere to have a fatal effect .The designation P er iodeutes meant originally

,and al

ways ih strict legal terminology , physician s who visitedtheir patients . Th e term was also used among th e

Christians to describe the ministers charged to Visit theSick and poor in their dioceses .The tramp doctor in time gets tired of his vagabond

life,and

,it may be , a little weary of hearing his own

Voice . If he has saved a little money,therefore

,the

attractions of a shop in the city , where he can exerci sehis healing on people who seek him , appeal strongly tohim . So in Greece and in the Roman Empi re th echarlatans settled in little shops and were called iatr oi

ep id iph r ioi or s ellular ii ' medici,meaning sedenta ry

doctors . But all these were pharmacopoloi .Peculiarly interesting i s the suggestion made by

Epicurus and intended as a sneer,that Aristotle was one

of these pharmacopoloi in his younger days . Accordingto Epicurus the philosopher having first wasted hispatrimony in riotous living and then served as a soldier ,afterwards sold antidotes in the markets up to the timewhen he j oined Plato’s classes .

Sepla s ia was the ordinary name in Rome for a druggist’s Shep ,

and those who kept them were designatedSepla s iar ii or P igmentar ii . These names appear to havebeen used without much recognition of their originalmeanings . Strictly the Sepla s iar ii were ointment

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CHRONICLE S OF PHARMACY

habit of themselves preparing the medicines theyprescribed for their patients . Bu t naturally theydid not gather their own herbs

,and a s many of those

used for medicine were exotics,it i s obvious that they

could not have done s o if they had wished . The

herbalists who undertook this duty (botanolog oi inGreek) developed into the s epla s iar ii , pharmacopoloi ,

med icamen tar ii , and pigmentar ii already mentioned .

Beckmann says they competed with the regularphysician s

,having acquired a knowledge of the healing

virtues of the commodities they sold,and the methods

Of compounding them. This could not help happening ,b u t it ought to be remembered that the physiciansof all countries had themselves developed from herbalists ,that i s

,if we abandon the theories of miracu lous

instruction which are found among the legends ofEgypt

,Assyria

,India

,and Greece .

How Similar the relations of the doctors and druggistsof ancient Rome were with those still prevailing in thiscountry may be gathered from a reproach levelledby Pliny against physicians contemporary with him

(Bk . xxxiv,1 1) to th e effect that they purchased their

medicines from the s eplas iar ii withou t knowing of whatthey were composed .

ARAB PHARMACY.

I n th e s cience of medicine th e Ar abian s have been des er vedlyapplauded . The names of Mes u a and Geber , of B azi s and Avicenn a

,

a r e r anked w ith th e Gr ecian mas ter s in th e city of Bagdad 860

phys ician s wer e licen s ed to exer ci s e their lu cr ative pr ofes s ion ;inSpain th e lives of th e Catholic pr in ces wer e en tr u s ted to th e s kill of.th e Sa r acen s and the School of Saler n o, their legitimate offs pr ing,r evived in Italy and Eu r ope th e pr ecept s of the healing ar t .

G IBBON Decline and Fall of th e Roman Empir e, Chap . LII .

NO period of European history i s more astonishingthan the records of the triumphant progress of th eArab power under the influence of the faith of Islam .

From the earliest times thi s grand Semitic race wasdistinguished for learning of a certain character, forgr avity , piety , superstition , a poetic imagination

,and

eloquence . Centuries of independence,j ealously guarded

,

and innumerable local feuds made the material of perfectsoldiers

,and whenMohammed had grafted on the native

religious character his own faith and missionary zealthe Arab army

,the Saracens

,as they came to be called

,

filled with fanatic fervour , and utterly indifferent todeath

,or

,rather

,eager for it as the introduction to th e

Paradise which their prophet had seen and told themof

,formed such an irresistible force as on a small scale

has only been reproduced by Cromwell in our nation .

But th e rapidity of the conquests of Mohammedan i smV OL. I 9 7

H

CHRONICLES OF PHARMACY

was perhaps less remarkable than the extraordinaryassimilation of ancient learning and the developmentof new science among these hitherto unlettered Arabs .Mohammed was born in the year 5 6 9 of our era . Th e

Koran was the first substantial piece of Arabic literature . Alexandria was taken and Egypt conquered bythe Moslems under Amrou in A.D. 640, Persia and Syriahaving been previously subdued . Amrou was himselfdisposed to yield to the solicitations of s ome Greekgrammarians

,who implored him to spare the great

Library of the city,th e depository of th e learning of

the ancient world . But he considered it necessary torefer the requ est to the Caliph Omar . The reply ofthe Commander of the Faithfu l i s one of the mostfamiliar of the stories in Gibbon ’

s fascinating history .

“ If the writings support the Koran they are superfluous;if they oppose it they are perniciou s;burn them .

” Itis declared that the papers and manu scripts served asfuel for the baths of the city for s ix monthsTh e de s truction of th e Alexandrian Libra ry is often

allud ed to a s a signal triumph of barbarism over civilisation . Gibbon cynically remarks that “ if the ponderousmass of Arian and Monophysite con troversy were indeedconsumed in the public baths a philosopher may allowwith a smile that it was ultimately devoted to thebenefit of mankind ” But at least the spirit whichanimated Omar in 6 40 may be noted for comparisonwith the encouragement of learning which was s oon tocharacterise the Arab rulers .Only a lifetime later

,in A .D. 7 1 1 , the sons of the

Alexandrian conquerors invaded Spain,and within the

same century made their western capital,Cordova

,the

greatest centre of learning, civilisation , and luxury inEurope. The following quotation from Dr . Draper’s

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100 CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY

lamp in London . I ts s t r eet s wer e s olidly paved . I n Par i s,cen

tu r ies s ub s equ en tly, whoever s tepped over h i s thr es hold on a r a inyd ay s tepped up to h i s ankles in mud . Other cities

,a s Gr anada

,

Seville, Toledo, con s ider ed them s elve s r ival s of Cor d ova . Th e

palaces of th e Khalifs wer e magn ificen tly decor ated . Tho s es over eign s might well look down with s uper ciliou s con tempt on thedwellings of th e r u ler s of Germany, Fr an ce, and England

,which

wer e s car cely better than s tables — chimn eyles s,windowles s , with a

hole in th e r oof for th e s moke to es cape,like th e wigwams of

cer tain Indian s .

About the same time the passion for learning wasgrowing in the East . Bagdad was founded A .D . 7 62 ,

and about the year 800Haroun Al-Raschid founded thefamous university of that city . Libraries and schoolswere established throughout the two sections of theSaracenic dominions . Greek and Latin works of philosophy and science were translated

,but the licentiou s

and blasphemous mythology of the classical poets wa sabhorred by this serious nation

,and no Arabic versions

of Olympian fables were ever made . Astronomy,ma

thematics,metaphysics

,and the arts of agriculture

,of

horticulture , of architecture , of war , and of commerce ,were advanced to an extent which this century doesnot realise

,while amid all this progress the study of

chemistry,medicine

,and pharmacy wa s pursued with

particular eagerness .Curiously the Arabs owed their instruction in these

branches of knowledge to those whom we are accustomedto regard as their traditional fees . The dispersion of theNestorians after the condemnation of their doctrines bvthe Council of Ephesus in A.D. 43 1 resulted in the foundation of a Chaldean Church and the establishment offamous colleges in Syria and Persia . In these thescience of the Greeks

,the philosophy of Aristotle, and

the medical teaching of Hippocrates were kept alivewhen they had been banished by the Church from Con

ARAB PHARMACY

s tantinople . The Jews had also acquired speci al famefor medical Skill throughout the East and they andthe Nestorian s appear to have associated in some of theschools . It was to these teachers the Arabs turnedwhen

,having assured their military success , they de

manded intellectual advancement . Th e Caliphs notonly tolerated

,they welcomed the assistance of the

unbelievers,and

,in fact

,depended on them for the

equipment of their own schools , and for th e privatetuition of their child ren . To John Mesne

,a Nestorian

,

and a famous writer on medicine and pharmacy,Haroun

Al-Raschid entrusted th e superintendence of the publicschools of Bagdad .

The first Nestorian college is believed to hav e beenestablished in the city of DSchond i s abou r in Chu z i s tan

(Ni s hapoor ), before the revelation of Mohammed .

Theology a nd Medicine were particularly studied at thisseat of learning

,and a hospital was established to which

the medical students were admitted,but they had first

to be examined in the Psalms,the New Testament

,and

in certain books of prayers .It wa s the Caliph Almansor and h i s immediate suc

cessor,Haroun Al—Raschid , who between them made

Bag dad a centre of study . Students and professorscame thither from all parts of the then civ ilised world

,

and the Caliphs welcomed, and indeed invited , both

Christians and Jews to teach there . Hospitals wereestablished in the city

,and the first public pharmacies

or dispensaries were provided in Bagdad by HarounAl-Raschid . It is on record that in A .D. 807 envoysfrom that monarch came to the court of Charlemagnebringing gifts of balsams

,nard

,Oi ntments

,drugs

,and

medicines .Arabic medicine was based on the works of Hippo

102 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY

crates and Galen,which were for the most part translated

first into Syriac , and then into Arabic . It does not comewithin the scope of this work to narrate or estimate theadvance in medicine which may be accredited to theArabian writers and practitioners . Medical historiansdo not allow that they contributed much original serviceto either anatomy

,physiology

,pathology

,or surgery;

but it is admitted by every student that their maintenance of scholarship through the half dozen centuriesduring wh ich Europe wa s sunk in the most abj ect ig norance and superstition entitles them to the gratitude ofall who have lived since . The medicine of Avicennawas perhaps much the same as that of Galen . Bothwere accepted by the physician s of England

,France

,and

Germany with the slavish deference which the longburial of the critical faculties had made inevitable

,and

which needed the Vigorous abuse of Paracelsus to quickeninto activity.

Whatever may have been the case with medicine itcannot be denied that the Arabs contributed largely tothe development of its ministering arts

,chemistry and

pharmacy . The achievements.

attributed to Geber inthe eighth century were probably not due to any singleadept. Tradition assigned the glory to him and

,likely

enough,if such a chemist really lived and acqui red

fame,other investigators who followed h im for a

century or two adopted the pious fraud so frequentlymet with in other branches of study in the ear ly cen

tu r ies of our era of attributing theories or discoveriesto some venerated teacher in order to assure for themimmediate acceptance . However this may be

,it is not

the less established that the chemistry of Geber,or of

Geber and others , wa s in fact the fruit of Arab industryand g enius .

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104 CHRON ICLES OF P HARMACY

cepoeia was professedly based largely on the Formular yof Mesne.

There i s also evidence that both in civil life and inthe army the pharmacists were closely supervised .

Their medicines were inspected,and the prices at

which they were sold to the public were controlled bylaw.

The development and progress of medicine and itsassociated sciences among the Arabs may be very con

ci s ely sketched . The flight of Mohammed from Meccato Medina , the Hej ira a s it is called

,from which the

Mohommedan era is d ated,corresponds in our chronology

with A .D. 622 . The prophet died in 6 32 . Contem

por ar y with him lived a priest at Alexandria namedAh r un or Aaron

,who compiled from Greek writers

thirty books which he called the Pandects of Physic .These were translated into Syriac and Arabic about6 83 by a Jew of Bassora named Ma s er d s chawaih -EbnDs chald s chal. It is not in existence

,and i s only

known by references to it made by Rhazes . The firstallusion to small- pox known to history was containedin these Pandects . Serap i on quotes a number offormulas which he says were invented by Ab run . In7 72 Alman sor , the Caliph who founded the city ofBagdad , brought thither from Nishabur (Ds chond i s abou r )in Persia

,a famous Christian physician named G eorge

Bakti s chwah ,who stayed for some time

,and at the r e

quest of Almansor translated into Arabic certain bookson Physic . He then returned to h i s own land , but hisson wa s afterwards a physician in great favour with thetwo succeeding Caliphs , Almohd i and Haroun Al-RaschidF r eind states that when the elder Bakti s chwah returnedto Persia Alman sor presented him with pieces of

g old , and that Al-Raschid paid th e young er Bakti s chwah

ARAB PHARMACY

an annual salary of drachmas . The last-namedruler also brought to Bagdad the Nestorian Christian ,Jahiah-Ebn—Mas awaih

, (

who,under the name of Mes u e

the Elder,retained a reputation fo r his formulas even

up to the publication of the London Pharmacopoeia .

Mes ué is noted for his opposition to the Violentpurgative medicines which the Greek and Romanphysicians had made common

,and he had much to do

with the popularisation,if not with the introduction of

,

senna,cassia

,tamarinds

,sebestens

,my r abolan s , and

jujube . He modified the effects Of certain remedies byj udicious combinations , a s , for example , by giving violetroot and lemon j uice with scammony . He gave pinebark and decoction of hyssop as emetics

,and r ecom

mended th e p ancreas of the hare a s a styptic indiarrhoea .

A disciple of Mesne’s,Ebn—Izak

,added greatly to the

medical resources of the Arabs by translations of theworks of Hippocrates

,Galen

,Pliny

,Paul of Eg ineta ,

and other Greek authors .Abu Mou s s ah Ds chafar Al Soli , commonly called

Geber , the equivalent of his mi ddle name , is supposed to

’

have lived in the eighth century . It hasalready been remarked that the chemical discoveri esattributed to this philosopher were probably the achievements of many workers

,and wer e afterwards collected

and passed on to posterity as his alone . From himaredated the introduction into science

,to be adopted later

in medicine,of corrosive sublimate

,of red precipitate

,of

nitric and nitro -muriatic acids,and of nitrate of Silver .

These chemical discoveries must have been madewithin th e hundred years from ”

7 50 to 850, becauseRhazes , who wrote i n the latter half of the ninthcentury, mentions them. Geber has been supposed to

106 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY

have claimed to have discovered the philosopher’sstone , and to have made the universal medicin e . Butit is not at all certain that he contemplated medicineat all . Hi s language is highly figur ative

,and probably

when he says his gold had cured six lepers he meantonly that he had

,or thought he had

,extracted gold

from s ix baser metals .Rhazes,whose Europeanised name is the modification

of Arrasi , which was the final member of a long series ofEastern patronymics , was of Persian birth , and commenced h i s studies in that country with music andastronomy . When he was thirty he removed toBagdad , and it was not until then that he took up thes ciences of chemistry and medicine . Subsequently hewa s made director of the hospital of Bagdad

,and his

lectures on the medical art were attended by studentsfrom many countries . Hi s principal work was en

titled Hhawi,which has been translated Continent

,

apparently because it was supposed to conta in all therewas to know about medicine . The style of this treatiseis that of notes without method

,and it is certain

that it could not have been written entirely by Rhaze s .

a s a uthorities are named who did not live until afterh e had died . The theory i s that Rhazes left a quantityof notes of his lectures and cases

,and that some of h i s

disciples afterwards published them with additions,but

without much editing .

Among the methods of treatment for which Rhazes i sresponsible may be mentioned that of phthisis

,with milk

and sugar;of high fever , with cold water of weaknessof the stomach and of the digestive organs

,with cold

'

water and buttermilk;and he advises sufferers frommelancholia to play chess . He states that fever is notitself a diseas e

,but an

, effor t of nature to cast out a

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108 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY

wine wa s not practised till a century after him .

Mercury’

in the form of Ointment and corrosive s ub

limate were applied by him externally,the latter for

itch yellow and red arsenic and sulphates of iron andcopper were also among his external remedies . Borax

(which he called tenker ), saltpetre , red coral , variousprecious stones , and oil of ants , are included among theinternal remedies which he advises .The Arab author who acquired by far the greatest

fame in Western lands,and who

,indeed

,Shared with

AV ICENNA .

As r ep r esented on th e dip loma of th e Pharmaceu tical Society.

Galen the unquestioning obedience of myri ads of medicalpractitioners throughou t Europe until Paracelsus shookhis authority five hundred years after his death

,was

Al-Hussein-Abou-Ali—Ben -Abdallah -Ebn -Sina,which pic

tur es qu e name loses its Eastern atmosphere in the transmutation of its two concluding phrases into Avicenna .

This famous man was born at Bokhara in 9 80 at twelveyears of age he knew the Koran by heart;at Sixteenhe was a skilful physician;at eig hteen he operated on

ARAB PHARMACY

the CaliphNuhh with such brilliant s uccess that h i s‘

fame

was established . In the course of a varied life he wasat one time a Vizier , and soon afterwards in prison forbeing concerned i n some sedition . He escaped fromprison and lived for a long time concealed in the houseof a friendly apothecary

,where he wrote a large part of

his voluminous Canon . He spent the later years ofhis life at Ispahan , where he was in great favour withthe Caliph Ola—Oddaula

,and he died at Hamdan in 1038

in the fi fty- eighth year of his age . He had led an

irregular life,and it was said of him that all his

philosophy failed to make him moral , and all his knowledge of medicin e left him unable to take care of h i sown health .

Competent critics who have studied the medicalteaching of Av icenna have not been able to discoverwherein its merits have ju s tified

’ the high esteem to

which it attained . Th e explanation appears to be thatwhat Avicenna lacked in originality he made up inmethod . The main body of his “ Canon ” is a j udiciousselection from the Greek and Latin physicians

,and

from Rhazes and other of his Arabic predecess ors . Hewrote a great deal on d rugs and remedies , but it has beenfound impossible to identify many of th e substances ofh is Materia Medica , as in many cases the names he givesevidently do not apply to those given by Serapion

,

Rhazes,and other writers . He often prescribed camphor

,

and alluded to several differen t kinds;a solution ofmanna wa s a favourite medicine with him;he regardedcorrosive sublimate as the most deadly of all poi son s

,

b u t used it externally Iron he had three names for,

probably different compounds;he had great faith ingold , silver, and precious stones;it was probably hewho introduced the silvern and gilding of pills

,but

1 1 0 CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY

h i s object was not to make them more pleasant to take ,bu t to add to their medicinal cflect.

Serapion the younger,and Mesne the younger

,who

both lived soon after the time of Avicenna,were prin

cipally writers on Materia Medica , from whose workslater authors borrowed freely .

Th e subsequent Arab authorities of particular notecame from among the Western Saracens . Albucasis ofCordova , Av en z oar of Seville

,and Av er r hoes of

Cordova , who are all believed to have flourished in thetwelfth century , were the most celebrated . Albucasiswas a great surgeon and describes the Operations ofhis period with wonderful clearness and intelligence .

Av en z oar wa s a physician who interested h imself largelyin pharmacy . He was r eputed to have lived to th e ageof 1 35 and to have accumulated experience from his20th year to the day of his death . Av er r hoes knewAv en z oar personally

,but was younger . He was a

philosopher and somewhat of a freethinker whointeres ted himself in medical matters . We arenaturally more concerned with Av en z oar than withthe others .I t is evident from the books left by Av en z oar , whose

full name wa s Abdel -Malek-Abou—Merwan—Ebn—Zohr,that in his time the practices of medicine , surgery , andpharmacy were quite distin ct in Spain

,and he

apologises to the higher branch of the profession for hisinterest in th e s e practices which were usually leftto their servants. But he states that from h i s youthhe took delight in studying how to make syrupsand electuaries

,and a strong desire to know the

Operation of medicines and how to combine themand to extract their virtues . He writes about poisonsand antidotes;has a chapter on the oil alqu imes ci ,

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1 1 2 CHRONICLE S OF P HARMACY

expenditure of time and money. Consequently,

“ theillustrious Kadi Fakh il

, (who was apparently one ofSaladin ’s ministers),

“ whose days may God prolong,

ordered the most humble of his servants in 5 9 5

(A .D. 1 1 9 8) to compose a treatise , small , and showingwhat ought to be done immediately for a person bittenby a venomous animal . The treatise which Maimonidescomposed

,in obedience to this order

,he called

Fakhiliteh .

”

This small popular manual reflects ingeneral the pharmacy of Spain and is of no particularinterest . The author considers that for all kinds ofpoison s and

,venoms the most efficacious antidote is

an emerald , laid on the stomach or held in themouth;and he notes the virtues of theriaca , mithridatium,

and of bezoar. But th e Kadi was th inkingof poor people

,and therefore more ordinary remedies

were also named A pigeon killed and cut in twopieces might be applied to painful wounds

,but if this

was not available warm Vinegar with flour and oliveoil might be substituted . Vomiting must be excited ,

and to destroy the Virus a mixture of asafoetida,sulphur

,

salt,onions

,mint

,orange -pips

,and the excrement of

pigeons,ducks

,or goats

,compounded with honey and

taken in wine,was recommended . Th e wisdom of

Rhazes,of Av en z oar

,and of other great authorities was

also drawn from .

FROM THE ARABS TO THE EUROPEANS

Medicin er s,

’ like th e medicin e s which they employ,ar e often u s e

ful,though th e “

on e wer e by bir th an d mann er s th e V ile s t of human ity,

a s th e other s ar e in many ca s es extr a cted f r om th e ba s es t mater ial s .

Men may u s e th e a s s i s tan ce of pagan s an d infidels in their n eed, andther e i s r ea s on to think that on e cau s e of their being permitted tor emain on ea r th i s that they might min i s ter to th e con ven ien ce oftr u e Chr is tian s .

” —Th e Ar chbi s hop of Tyr e in S i r Wa lter Scott’sTali sman .

IT would require a very long chapter and wou ld beoutside th e scope of this work to attempt to trace inany detail the manner in which the ancient wisdom and

science of the Greek and Latin authors , which was s o

marvellously preserved by th e iconoclastic Arabs , wastransferred

,when their passion for study and research

began to fail,to European nat i ons . It has been alleged

that the Crusades served to bring th e attainments ofth e Eastern Saracens to th e knowledge of the Westthrough learn i ng p icked up by th e physicians andothers , who accompan i ed the Christian armie s againstthe Mohammedans .But there i s no evid ence and not much probability

that Europeans acquired any Eastern science of valuethrough th e Crusades . Indirectly medi ci ne ultimatelyprofited greatly by th e commerce which these marvellons wars opened up between th e East and th e West ,

V OL. I .

”3 I

1 1 4 CHRONICLES OF P HARMACY V I I

and the diseases which were spread as the consequenceof the intimate association of th e unwholesome hordesfrom all the nations concerned

,resulted in the establish

ment of thousands of hospitals all over Europe . The

provision of homes for the sick was far more commonamong the Mohammedans than among the Christians ofthat period . Activity of thought was stimulated

,and

medical science must have shared in the effects of spiritof inquiry . Some historians have supposed that theinfusion of astrological superstitions into the teachingand practice of medicine wa s largely traceable to th ecommunion w ith the East in these Holy Wars but thisidea is not supported by anything that we know of theArab doctors . I have not found the un ion of astrologywith medicine taught by

’

any writer of that nation,

says Sprengel and his authority is very great . On theother hand the philosophers and theologians of that agewere only too eager to seize upon anything mystic

,and

plenty of materials for their speculations were found inthe Greek and Lat in manuscripts handed down to them .

Superstitions entered into the mental furniture of th eage much more directly from Rome and Alexandriathan from Bagdad .

That the Arabs of the East could have taught theirChristian foes much useful knowledge cannot be doubted .

The letter from the Patriarch of Jerusalem to Alfred theGreat (s ee page for example

,i s proof of the

pharmaceutical superiority of th e Syrians over theSaxons at th at time .

M. Berthelot has shown by abundant evidence in hisHistory ofAlchemy that the Latin works dealing withchemistry of the thi r teenth

,fourteenth , and fifteenth

centuries which were very numerous in -Christendom ,

were almost exclusively drawn from Arabic sources .

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1 1 6 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY V I I

Adala (a Saracen), and Saler n u s (a Roman) as itsfounders , but there is no eviden ce of th e epoch to whichthis refers . Although other subj ects were taught atSalerno , it became Specially noted for its medical school ,and in the ninth century it had assumed the title ofCivitas Hippocr atica . William of Normandy resortedto Salerno prior to his conquest of England

,and a

dietetic treatise in verse exists ded icated to his sonRobert. It has been claimed that the works ofHippocrates and Galen were studied at Salerno fromits earliest days , but s o far as this was the case it wasby the intermediary of Jewish doctors

,who themselves

derived their knowledge from Arab sources,that these

were available . Th e‘ original texts of the Greek and

Latin authors were not in the hands of Europeanscholars till Aldus of Ven ice began to reproduce themearly in th e sixteenth century .

The pharmaceutical knowledge to which the famousschool attained may be j udged by the reputation whichattended the Antidotary of Nicolas P r epos itu s who wa sdirector of the school in the first half of the twelfthcentury . In this Antid otary are found the absurdformulas pretending to have been invented or used bythe Apostle Paul and others . “ Sal Sacerdotale quou teban tu r sacerdotales tempore Heliac p r ophetae isamong these . In the course of the next century or twomedical students from England

,Germany

,Italy

,and

F r ance'

went to Cordova , Toledo , and Seville , and therewrote translations of the medical works used in thoseschools . These translations by the end of the thirteenthcentury were so universally accepted as to eclipseSalerno , which from then began to decline in fame

,

Bologna,Montpellier

,Padua

,and Leyd en gradually

partit ioning among themselves its old reputation . But

V I I . FROM ARABS TO EUROPEANS 1 1 7

the medical school of Salerno actually existed until1 8 1 1 , when it was dissolved by a decree of Napoleon I .

As evidence of the ~monopoly of Avicenna in themedical schools of Europe at the begi nning of the sixteen th century , and doubtless for a long period prev iou s ly ,

the following from the preface to a Latintranslation of the works of Paulus Eg ineta i s quoted byLeclerc

Avicenna, who i s r egar ded as th e Pr ince and mos t excellent of allphys ician s , i s r ead and expounded in all th e s chool s and th e n in thbook of Rhazes , phys ician to th e Caliph Alman s or , i s s imila r ly r eadand commen ted on . Thes e ar e believed to teach th e whole a r t ofhealing. A few later wr iter s , s u ch as Betr u ch iu s

, Gatinar ia , Guayner in s , and V ales cu s , a r e occa s ionally cited, and n ow and thenH ippocr ates , Galen ,

and Dios cor ides ar e qu oted , b u t all th e otherGr eek wr iter s ar e u nknown . The Latin tr an s lation s of a few ofthe book s of Galen and H ippocr ates which ar e in u s e a r e ver ycor r upt and bar bar ou s , and ar e on ly admitted at th e plea s u r e ofth e Ar abian Pr in ces , and this favou r i s b u t r ar ely con ceded .

The most notable event in th e h istory of pharmacyafter the earlier Crusades was an edict regulating th epractice of both medicine and pharmacy issued

,

byFred erick II , the Holy Roman Emperor and King ofSicily . This monarch , probably th e ablest ruler in theMiddle Ages , who died in 1 2 50, had great esteem forArab learning . Mohammedans and Jews were eu

cou r ag ed to come to Naples during h i s reign , and hefacilitated by all means in his power the introductionof such inn ovations as had been acquired from Cordovaand Bagdad .

The edict referred to mention s apoth eca ,meaning

thereby only the warehouses where prepared medicineswere stored Those who compounded the medicineswere termed Con fectionar ii ,

” the places or Shops wherethey were sold were called s tationes ,

” and the persons

1 1 8 CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY V I I

who supplied them ,s tationar ii . It is not quite clear

whether the confectionar ii and the s tationar ii were thesame persons . Probably they were sometimes

,but not

necessarily always . Apparently the s tationar ii weregenerally the drug importers and dealers

,and th e

confectionar ii were the compounders . Both had to belicensed by the Medical School of Salerno;and amongthe duties imposed upon the phys i ci an

,one was to

inform the authorities if he came to discover that any“con fectionar iu s had falsified med icines . Longfellowalludes to this provision in th e Golden Legend

To r epor t if any con fectionar iu s

M ingles h i s dr ugs with matter s var iou s .

The phys i cian was strictly forbidden to enter intoany arrangement with a drug gist whereby he wouldderive any profit by the sale of medicaments

,and

he was not permitted himself to conduct a pharmacy .

Th e confectioners were required to take anoath to prepare all medicines according to the

Antidotary of the Saler n ian School . Their profitswere limit ed and graduated , less being allowed on

those of frequent consumption than on thosewhich they had to keep for more than a year .Pharmacies were only allowed in the principal cities ,and in each such city two notable master apothecaries

were appointed to supervise them . The confectionershad to make their syrups and electuaries and othercompounds in the presence of these two inspectors , andif they were detected i n any attempt at fraud theirproperty was subj ect to confiscation . If one of theinspectors was found to have been a party to th e fraudhis pun ishment was death .

I t i s well known ,s ay s Beckmann in An cien t Inven tion s ,

that almo s t all political in s titu tion s on thi s s ide th e Alps , and

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1 20 CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY V I I

cities of Germany .

1 He mentions a conj ecture thatthere was a pharmacy at Augsburg in th e thirteenthand fourteenth centuries

,but exact dates begin with

the fifteenth century. There was a female apothecaryestablished at Augsburg in 1 445

,and the city paid her

a salary . At Stuttgart , in Count Ulric authorisedone Glatz to open a pharmacy . There was one existing

THE REPRODUCTION OF A S IXTEENTH CENTURY PHARMACYIN THE GERMANIC MUSEUM AT NUREMBERG .

at Frankfort in 1 472 . The police regu lations of Basle1 440 mention the public physician and his duty

,

adding that “ what costly things p eople may wish tohave from the apothecary ’s shop they must pay for . ”

The magistrates of Berlin,in 1 488

,granted to one Hans

1 Sch elen z in “ Ge s chichte d er Pharmacie,1904

,has collected a r e

mar kable n umber of facts an d documen ts illu s tr ative of th e developmen tof pharmacy in Germany . He quotes a Nur ember g or dinan ce of 1350which for bids phys ician s to b e inter es ted in th e bu s in e s s of an apothecar y

,

an d r equ ir e s apothecar ie s to b e s atis fied with moder ate pr ofi ts .

V I I FROM ARABS TO EUROPEANS 1 21

Zehender a free house , a certain provision of rye , notaxes

,and the assurance that no other apothecary

should reside in the‘

city . But the E lector Joachimgranted a

' new patent to another apothecary in 1 49 9 .

At Halle there was only one apothecary . In that yearthe Archbishop , with the confirmation of the Chapter ,gr anted t o his physician , von VVyke, the privilege ofopening another

,but gave at the same time the assur

ance that no more should b e permitted in the city toeternity .

In France’ apothecaries were in business a s suchcertainly before 1 2 50. A charter of the church ofCahors

,dated 1 1 7 8 , describes the retail shopkeepers

of the t0wn as apothecar ii , the term being usedevidently as “ boutiquiers ” i s now

,and signifying

nothing more than shopkeepers . The meaning,how

ever,soon became restricted to dealers in drugs and

spices . In the middle of th e next century John ofGar lande alludes to appotecar ii ,

” who sold confectionsand electuaries

,roots and herbs

,ginger

,pepper

,cumin

,

and other spices,wax

,sugar

,and licorice . Officially

,

however, these tradesmen were classed at that timeamong the es p icier s .

”The two guilds

, i ndeed , continu ed in formal association until 1 7 7 7 , but royalordinances of 1 484 and 1 5 1 4 clearly established thedistinction between them . Even in 1 27 1 the Facultyof Medicine of Paris forbade herborists and apothe

caries to practise medicine . Special responsibilities,

duties , and privileges were expressly provided for theapothecaries , and in the ordinance of 1 5 1 4 it isspecifically declared that though the apothecary isalways a grocer , the grocer i s not necessarily an apothe

cary . Qui est es p i cier n’

es t pas apothicaire,et qui

est apothicaire es t

1 22 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY V I I

In the fourteenth century the apothecaries of Pari swere required to subscribe to a formal oath before theywere permitted to practise . They swore to live and diein the Christian faith

,to speak no evil of their teachers

or masters , to do all in their power for the honour , glory ,ornament

,and majesty of med i cine , to give no remedy

or purge without the authority of a physician,to

supply no drugs to procure abortion,to prepare exactly

physician s’ prescriptions,neither adding

,subtracting

,

nor substituting anything without the express permission of the physician

,to avoid the practices of charlatans

as they would the plague,and to keep no bad or old

drug in their stocks . An ordinance of 1 35 9 providesthat no one shall be granted the title of masterapothecary un less he can Show that he can read recipes .The edict of 1 484 , issued during the minority of

Charles VIII,sets forth that

,

“We,of our certain science

,

especial grace,full power

,and royal authority

,do s ay ,

declare

,s tatuate , and ordain

” the curriculum to be observedby those who d esire to learn the trade of an apothecary.

A four years’ apprenticeship wa s essential,and th e as

p ir an t had to dispense prescriptions , recognise drugs ,and prepare “ chefs d ’

oeuvres in wax and confectioneryin the presence of appointed master- apothecaries . Latinwas added to the examination in 1 536 , and ten years

’

experience after the apprenticeship was also insistedupon ultimately before the candidate could be admittedas a master-apothecary . On e of the ordinances of thesixteenth century gave to the apothecaries the monopolyin the manufacture and sale of gingerbread .

These edicts all related particularly to the apothecariesof Paris . There were similar ones in th e provinces

,

with some peculiarities . At Dij on,for example,

_

it wasprovided that no apothecary could receive a legacy

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PHARMACY IN GREAT BRITAIN .

For none b u t a clever dialecticianCan hope to become a gr eat phys icianThat has been s ettled long ag o.

Logic makes an impor tan t pa r tOf the mys ter y of th e healing a r t;For withou t i t how cou ld you hope to s howThat nobody kn ow s s o mu ch a s you kn ow .

— LONGFELLOW “ Golden Legend .

BRITISH PHARMACY IN SAXON ENGLAND.

THE condition of medicine and pharmacy in Saxontimes has been carefully portrayed i n three volumespublished

,in 1 86 4 , under the authority of the Master of

the Rolls at the expense of the Treasury. These wereedited by the Rev . Oswald Cockayne

,M.A. ,

and appearedunder the title of Leechdoms

,Wor tcunn in g , and

Starcraft .” Many old documents were translated andexplained

,and from these the ideas of medicine in these

islands a thousand years ago were made manifest.Mr . Cockayne gave at length a Saxon Herbarium ,

written,he supposed

,about the year 1000

,and pro

fessing to be a translation from Apuleius,a Roman

physician of the second century,with additions from

Dioscorides , and some from native science . A few1 24

VIII PHARMACY IN GREAT BR ITA IN 1 25

specimens will s ufli ce to Show the character of the herbtreatment in England before the Conquest .

CRESS,WATERCRESS (Nasturtium officinale).

1 . This wort is not sown , but it i s produced of itselfin wylls (springs), and in brooks , also it is written thatin some land s it will grow against walls .2 . In the case that a man’s hair fall off take ju i ce of

the wort which one nameth nasturtium ,and by another

name cress pu t it on th e nose;th e hair shall wax

3 . For sore of head , that i s for scurf and for‘

itch,

take seed of this same wort and goose grease . Poundtogether . It draws from the head the whiteness of thescurf.4 . For soreness of the body (the Latin word is ad

cr ud itatem,indigestion) take this same wort nasturtium ,

and pennyroyal;seethe them in water , give to drinkthen amendes t thou the soreness of the body

,and th e

evil departs .5 . Against swellings

,take this same wort

,and pound

it with oil lay over th e s wellings then take leaves ofthe same wort

,and lay them thereto .

6 . Against warts,take this same wort and yeast

,

pound together,lay thereto

, they be soon taken away .

MAYTHE (Anthemis nobilis).

For sore of eyes,let aman take ere the up g omg of the

sun , the wort which is called Chamaimelon,and by

another name Maythe,and when a man taketh it let

him say that he will take it'

against white specks , andagainst soreness of th e eyes ;let

’

him next take th eooze , and smear the ey es therewith .

1 26 CHRONICLES OF PHARMACY VII I

POPPY (Papaver somniferum).

1 . For sore of eyes,that is what we denominate

blearedness , take the ooze of this wort , which the Greeksname Makona and the Romans Papaver album ,

and theEngles call white poppy

,or the stalk with the fruit lay

it to the eyes .2 . For sore of temples or of the head

,take ooze of

this same wort , pound with Vinegar , and lav upon thesore it alleviates the sore .

3 . For sleeplessness,take ooze of this same wort

,

smear the man with it,and soon thou sendest the sleep

on him .

Many of the herbs named in th e Herbarium wereemployed for other purposes than those for which theywere used in later practice . Comfrey is recommendedfor one bursten within .

” It was to be roasted in hotashes and mixed with honey;then to be taken fasting .

But nothing is said of its bone- setting property.

Mullein,subsequently famous as a pectoral medicine

,

is recommended in the Herbarium as an externalapplication in gout

,and to carry about to prevent the

attacks of wild beasts . Dill i s prescribed a s a remedyagainst local itching fennel in cough and sore bladder;and madder for broken legs

,which it would cure in

three days .To prevent sea -sickness the traveller had to smear

himself with a mixture of pennyroyal and wormwood inoil and Vinegar. Peony laid over a lunatic would sooncause him to upheave himself whole;and vervain orverbena if carried on the person would ensure a manfrom being barked at by dogs .

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1 28 CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY VIII

To get sleep a goat’s horn laid under the head tu rnethwaking into sleep .

For sleep lay a wolf’s head under the pillow;theunhealthy Shall Sleep .

Let those who suffer apparitions eat lion ’s flesh;they will not after that suffer any apparition .

For any fracture,take a hound’s brain laid upon

wool and bind upon the broken place for fourteendays;then will it be firmly amended

,and there shall

be a need for a firmer binding up .

If thou frequently smear es t and touch es t children ’sgums with b itches ’ milk

,the teeth wax without

sore .

VARIOUS LEECHDOMS .

Some Fly -Leaf Leechdoms of unknown authorshipfollow. In these information concerning the fourhumours is given

,hot and cold

,moist and dry remedies

are distinguished,and we are told of the forty -fiv e dies

caniculares “ in which no leech can properly give aidto any sick man .

” It is carefully noted that thesame disorder may occur from different causes, andquite scientifically the practitioner is advised tovary his treatment accordingly . Thus

,for example ,

dealing w ith host (cough)we are told that“ it hath

a manifold access,as the spittles are various . Whilom

it cometh of immoderate heat,whilom of immoderate

cold,whilom of immoderate dryness .” The remedies

must dep end on the causes of the complaint . The

token s of “ a diseased maw of “ a half head’s ache”

(megrims) and of other distempers are s et forthwith graphic simplicity

,and often sensible advice as to

diet and medicine is given . But not infrequently theremedy may not be an easily procurable one . For

vm PHARMACY IN GRE AT BR ITA IN 1 29

instance “ If one drink a creeping th i ng in water,

let him cu t open a sheep instantly and drink thesheep ’s blood hot and “ if a man will eat rindwhich cometh ou t of Paradise i re venom will damagehim.

”

The writer con siderately adds that such rind is“ hard gotten .

”

The following i s apparently adapted from Alexanderof Tralles

,or

' some other of the later classicalauthors.

“ Against gout and against the wristdrop;take thewort hermodactylu s , by another name titulos a ,

that i sin our own language the great crow leek;take thisleek ’s heads and dry them thoroughly

,and take thereof

by weight Of two and a half pennies , and pyrethrum andRoman rinds , and cummin , and a fourth part of laurelberries

,and of the other worts , of by w eight of a

halfpenny,and six pepper corns , unweighed , and grind

all to dust , and add wine two egg—shells full;this is atrue leechcraft. Give it to the man to d rink till thathe be hole ”

A few other recipes in the Leechbooks may bequotedFor headache take a vessel full of leaves of green rue

,

and a spoonful of mustard seed,rub together

,add the

white of an egg , a spoonful , that th e salv e may bethick . Smear with a feather on th e s ide which is notsore .

For ache of half th e head (megrim) take the rednettle of one stalk

,bruise i t

,mingle with Vinegar

and th e white of an egg , p u t all together , anointtherewith .

For mi stiness of the eyes take juice of fennel and ofrose and of r ue

,an d of dumbledores’ honey;(the

dumbledore is apis b omb inatr ix);and kid’s gall)

,

V OL . I K

1 30 CHRON ICL E S OF PHARMACY V I I

mixed together . Smear the eyes with this . Again,

take live periwinkles burnt to ashes;and let him mixthe ashes with dumbledores’ honey .

For sore and ache of ears take j uice of henbane,make

it lukewarm,and then drip it on the car ;then the

sore stilleth . Or , take garlic and onion and goosefat , melt them together , squeeze them on th e ear . Or

,

take emmets’ eggs,crush them

,squeeze them on the

car .

For the upper teeth ache —Take leaves of withewind

(convolvulus), wring them on the nose For then ether tooth ache

,slit with the tenaculum till they

bleed .

For coughs,mugwort

,marrubium

,yarrow

,red nettle ,

and other herbs are recommended generally boiled inale

,sometimes in milk .

Pock disease (small-pox) is dealt with , but not veryseriously . It i s of interest because the classica l writersdo not mention it. The Ar ab Rhazes wrote a treatiseon it about A .D. 9 23. A few herb drinks are prescribedin th e Leechb ooks

,and to prevent the pitting “ one

must delve away each pock with a thorn,then drip

wine or alder drink within them,then they will not be

seen .

”

Against lice — One pennyweight of quicksilver andtwo of old butter .Against itch z— Take ship tar

,and ivy tar

,and oil ,

r ub together,add a third part of salt smear with that .

In case a man should overdrink himself,let him

drink betony in water before his other drink .

For i n ickle travelling over land,lest he tire

,let him

take mugwort to him in hand or put it in his shoe , lesthe should weary

,and when he will pluck it

,before the

upgoing of th e sun,let him say these words ,

“ I will

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1 32 CHRONICLES OF PHARMACY VIII

which he will drink Tr iacle he shall fast until midday,and

not let wind blow on him that day then let him go tothe bath

,let him sit there till he sweat;then let h im

take a cup ,put a little warmwater in it

,then let him take

a little b it of the tr iacle,and mingle with the water

,and

drain through some thin raiment,then drink it

,and

let him then go to his bed and wrap himself up warm,

and so h e till he sweat well then let him arise and Sit

up and clothe himself,and then take his meat at noon

(three hou rs after midday), and protect himself earnestlyagainst the wind that day then I believe to God it willhelp the man much .

”

EARLY ENGLISH MEDICAL PRACTICE .

In th e thirteenth century Roger Bacon , the greatman of science

,wrote on medicine

,alchemy

,magic

,and

astrology,a s well a s most other sciences . He believed

that a universal remedy was attainable,and urged Pope

Clement IV to give his powerful aid to its d iscovery ,Nothing particular remains of his medical studies .Gilbert An g licanu s , who was a contemporary of

Bacon,and wrote a Compendium of Medicine , a tedious

collection of th e most fantastic theories of disease,was

more advan ced in pharmacy than in th e treatment ofdisease . He describes at con siderable length the mann erof extinguishing mercury to make an ointment , r ecom

mendi 'ng particularly the addition of some mustard seedto facilitate the process . He gives particulars of thepreparation of the oil of tartar per d eliqu ium

,and

proposes a solution of acetate of ammonia in anticipation of Mindererus fou r hundred years later . Gilbert’sformula is thus expressed

“ Con ter atu r sal armon iacum min utim,et s uper in

V III PHARM ACY IN GREAT BR ITAIN 133

fundatu r frequenter et paullatim acetum ,et cooper iatu r

et mov eatu r , u t ev an es cet sal .”

Ant ’s eggs,oil of scorpions

,and lion ’s flesh i s h i s

prescription for apoplexy,but he does not explain how

the last ingredient w a s to be obtained in England .

Several of his formulas are quoted in the first LondonPharmacopoeia . For the expulsion of calculi he prescribes the blood of a young goat which has been fedon diuretic herbs such as persil and saxifrage .

Chaucer,whose writings belong to the latter half of

the fourteenth century , ha s left on record a graphicpicture of the Doctou r of Phi s ike of h i s day

,and the

old poet is as gently sarcastic about his pilgrim ’ sscien ce as a writer of five hundred years later mighthave been “ He wa s grounded in astronomy

,

” we aretold

,and

Well cou ld h e for tu n e th e a scendan tOf h i s image s for h i s patien tH e knew the cau s e of ever y maladyWer e i t of cold

, or h ot, or mois t, or d r y ,And wher e engender ed an d of what humou r .

H e wa s a ver y per fect p r acti s ou r .

His library was a wonderful one considering the rarityof books at that time .

Well knew he th e olde E s cu lap iu sAn d Dio s cor ide s

,an d eek Ru fu s

Old Ypocr a s,H a ly

,and Galien

,

Ser apyon ,B azi s

,and Av icen

,

Av er r oi s , Dama s cien ,and Con s tan tyn ,

Ber n ar d , and Gates den ,and Gilb er tyn .

The doctor was careful about h i s food,his study was

b u t little on the Bible,he dressed w ell

, b u t wasinclined to save in his expenses .

H e kept that h e won in th e pe s tilen ce .

For gold in ph i s ike i s a cor d ialle

Ther e for e h e loved gold in s pecial .

1 34 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY VIII

The original of Chaucer ’s “ Docteur of Ph i s ike hasbeen sometimes supposed to have been the well -knownJohn of Gaddesden

,physician to Edward II

,Professor

of Medicine at Merton College,Oxford

,a Prebendary

of the Church,and ‘ th e author of “

Rosa Anglicana .

This work,although full of absurdities and crude ideas

of medicine and pharmacy,became the popular medical

treatise in England,was translated in to several

European languages,and reprinted many times in this

coun try during the two hundred years which followedits first appearance . The author named it the Rose

,he

says,because

,a s the rose has five sepals

,h i s book is

divided into fi ve parts;and as the rose excels all otherflowers

,so his book i s superior to all other treatises on

medicine . It wa s probably published between 1 3 10

and 1 320.

John of Gaddes den’

s wor k well illustrates thepharmacy of the period

,for he was great on drugs . He

taught that aqua Vitae (brandy) was a polycli r es t , orcomplete remedy; that swines

’

excrement wa s asovereign cure for haemorrhage that a sponge steepedin a mixture of vinegar , roses , wormwood , and rainwater

,and laid on the stomach

,would check vomiting

and purging that toothache and oth er pa in s might becured by saying a Paternoster and an Ave for the soulsof the father and mother of St . Phillip;a boar

’sbladder

,taken when full of urine and dried in an oven ,

is recommended as a cure for epilepsy a W i ne of fenneland parsley for blindness;and a mixture of whateverherbs came into his mind— for example

,apium

,petro

s elinum,endive

,s colopend r on ,

chicory , liver-wort ,scariola

,lettuce

,maiden -hair

,plantain

,ivory shavings

,

sandal wood,Violets

,and vinegar ”

— is ordered as adigestive drink . Add

)

to such senseless recipes as these

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1 36 CHRON ICL ES OF PHARMACY VIII

to him having lost her speech . The master rubbed herpalate with some theodor icon emper i s ticon and witha little d iacos tor ium.

”

She soon recovered . Anapothecary brought a youth to th e hospital with acarbuncle on his face

,and his throat and neck swollen

beyond belief. The master said the youth must gohome to die . Is there then no remedy " ” asked theapothecary . The physician replied

,

“ I believe mosttruly that if thou wert to give tyriaeum in a large d ose ,there would be a chance that he might live .

”

Th e

apothecary gave two doses of Bij. each , which caused aprofuse perspiration

,and in due course the youth

recovered . He advises smelling and swallowing musk,

aloes wood,storax

,calamita

,and amber to prevent

infection in cold weather,and in warm weather sandal

wood,roses

,camphor

,acetos ita s citr i

,sour milk

,and

vinegar,taking s yrup of Vinegar in the morning and

syrup of Violets at mid - day . For gout he prescribesan ointment the principal constituent of which i s goosegrease . Th e preparation of this remedy is explainedmetrically . The verses begin thus

An s er s umatu r,V eter an u s qu i videatu r ,

Po s t d eplumetu r , I n tr alib u s evacu etu r .

Rheumatism wa s to be treated with olive oil,and the

pharmacist is directed to warm it while he repeats thePsalm Quare fr emer unt gentes as far as Postula ame et dabo tibi gentes her ed itatem tuam ,

then th e

Gloria and two prayers . This recitation was to berepeated seven times . There were no clocks availableat that time

,and this therefore was the method of

prescribing the length of an operation . Dr . Moore sayshe finds this direction would cover about a quarter ofan hour .

VIII PHARM ACY IN GREAT BR ITAIN 1 37

Medical treatises in verse were frequent and popularin England in the fou rteenth and fifteenth centuries .There are several in th e British Museum . A curiousspecimen is preserved in the Royal Library at StoCkhelm

,and it is reproduced in readable English in

Archeologia,Vol . XXX

,with notes by the tran slator

,

Mr . George Stephens , and by Dr . Pettigrew . They bothbelieve it wa s written in the fourteenth century . Itconsists of 1 485 lin es . Of these it will suffice to givethe first four

,and one specimen of its section s . It

begins thus

I n fou r e pa r tie s of amaBe g yn neth ye s ekenes s e y t y ie h an

I n heed,in wombe, or i y e s plen e

Or 1 b leddy r , ye s e i i ijI mene .

6 6following is entitled in the margin werk .

Amed icyn I hawe i Myd eFor h ed wer k to telle as I fyndeTo taken s y s yl pulyole r yale

And camamyle to s ethe w t all

And w t ye jou s anoy te y i n os th r yll wellA make aplai s ter of ye toyer delAnd do it in a good gr ete clowte

An d wynde yi heed yer w t ab owte

A s s oon a s i t b e leyde yer ouAll y i h edwer k xal away g on .

Two other specimens of these early poeticalfrom other authors may be quoted

ffor defhed of ye h ed .

For d efhed of b ed for d u ller yn g e

I fynd e w r ete dyu er s thyn g e

Take opor cyon (a por tion) of. b oiy s v r yn e

And megeJ

i t w t hon ey good fyne

An d i ye er e late i t ca s teYe h er yn g e s chal amede in ha s te .

CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY VIII

ifor to s lepe wellQwo s o may n ot s lepe w el

Take eg r imonye afay r e del

And ley i t v n der h i s heed on ny th

An d i t s chall hym do s lepe a r y th

F or of h i s s lepe s ch a l h e not wakyn

Tyll i t b e fr o vnde r h i s heed takyn .

THE EARLY ENGLISH DRUG TRADE .

Th e development of pharmacy a s a separate organisation was later in England than on the Continent

,and

wa s very gradual . In the Norman period the retailtrade in drugs and spices and most other commoditieswas in the hands of the mercers . These were

,in fact

,

general Shopkeepers,deriving their designation from

mer x,merchandise . They attended fairs and markets

,

and in th e few large towns had perman ent booths .Under th e Plantagenets a part of th e south side ofChepe roughly extending from where is now BowChurch to Friday Street was occupied by their stores ,and was known a s the Mercery . Behind these booth swere the meadows of Cr own s ild

,slop ing down to what

it may be hoped was then the silvery Thames .Probably sheep and cattle fed on the pastures whichCannon Street and Upper Thames Street have sinceusurpedBut English traders were beginning to feel their feet ,

and other guilds were pushing forward . Th e Easterlings

(East Germans from the Baltic coasts and the Hansetowns) brought goods from the East and placed them011 the English market

,and the Pepperers and Spicers

distributed them to th e public . Th e Easterlings , itmay be mentioned

,have left us the word sterling to

commemorate their Soj ourn among us . The Mercers

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1 40 CHRON ICLE S OF P HARMACY VIII

defective apothecaries ’ wares,and the offender was

committed to the Poultry Comptoir .

BUCKLERSBURY .

Buckler s b u r y was th e centre and headquarters of theLondon drug trade

,at least from the Tudor to the

Hanoverian periods . Shakespeare in Th e Merry Wivesof Windsor ” makes Falstaff refer to

“ the lispinghawthorn buds that come like women in men ’s apparel

,

and smell like Buckler s b u r y in sample time .

”

Stow

(1 5 9 8) says of this thoroughfare that “ This wholestreet on both sides throughout is possessed of grocersand apothecaries .” Ben Jon son calls it “ Apoth ecar ie

Street.

”This dramatist in “ Westward He "

” makesMr s . Tender hook say GO into Buckler s bu r y and fetchme two ounces of preserved melons;look there be notobacco taken in the shop when he weighs it .

”

Later in a self- asserting poem to his bookseller,Ben

Jon son says of on e of his books,obj ecting to vulgar

advertising methods,

If withou t the s e v ile ar t s i t will n ot s ell ,Send i t to Bu ckler s b u r y , ther e

’twill well .

In Charles I I ’S reign Mou ffet speaks of Buckler s b u r ybeing replete with phy s io, drugs , and spicery , and saysit was so perfumed at the time Of the plague w ith thepounding of spices

,melting of gums

,and making of

perfumes,that it escaped that great plague . A

quotation from Pennant in Cassell’s “ Old and NewLondon ” shows that in the reign of William I II

Bu ckler s bu r y wa s the resort of ladies of fashion topurchase teas

,furs

,and other Indian good s ;and the

king is said to have been angry with the queen

V III P HARMACY IN GREAT BRITA IN 1 41

for Visiting these shops , which appear from Some linesof Prior to have been sometimes perverted to places ofintrigue .The street acquired its name from a family called the

Boker ells or Bucker ells , who lived there in the thirteenthcentury . Stow gives a different account . He statesthat there wa s a tower in the street named Carnet’sTower

,and that a grocer named Buckle who had

acquired it was assisting in pulling it down , intending toerect a goodly frame of timber in its place , when a partfell on him

,which so sore bruised h im that it shortened

h i s life .

A CHEMIST’S ADVERTISEMENT IN THE SEVENTEENTHCENTURY.

A London chemist’s advertisement (about 1 6 80

1 6 9 0) runs thusAmbrose Godfrey Hanckwitz

,chemist in London

Southampton Street , Covent Garden , continues faithfully to prepare all sorts of remedies , chemical andgalenical . He hopes that h i s friends will continue theirfavours . Good cordials can be procured at his establishment

,as well as Royal English drops

,and other articles

such as Powders of Kent,Zell

,and Con tr ajer v a ,

Cordialred powder

,Ga s koin s powder

,with and without bezoar

,

English smelling salts,true Glaubers salt

,Epsom

salt,and volatile salt of ammonia , stronger than the

former . Human skull and hartshorn,essence of

Ambergris,volatile essence of lavender

,musk and

citron , es s ence of Viper , essence for th e hair , vulnerarybalsam

,commendeu r

,balsam for apoplexy

,red spirit

of purgative cochliar ia,spirit

’

of white cochliar ia,

and others . Honey water,lavender water of two

1 42 CHRON ICLE S OF PH ARMACY VIII

kind s,Queen of Hungary water

,orange flower

'

water,

arquebusade .

“ For the information of the curious,he is the only

one in London who makes i nflammable phosphorus,

which can be preserved in water. Phosphorus ' ofBolog n ian stone , flowers of phosphorus

,black phos

phor u s , and that made with acid oil,and other

varieties . All unadulterated . Every description ofgood drugs he sells

,wholesale and retail .

“ Solid phosphorus,wholesale

, 508 . an ounce,and

retail,£3 sterling ,

the ounce .

”

THE ENGLISH APOTHECARIES .

Although th e Grocers were the recognised drugdealers of this country

,apothecaries who were associated

in their Guild were also recognised . Some authoritiesname Richard Fitz n ig el as apothecary to Henry IIbefore he was made Bishop of London . But this evidencecannot be trusted . Th e first definite allusion to anapothecary in England occurs in 1 345

,when Edward III

granted a pension of Sixpence a day for life to Cou r s u sde Gan g eland ,

an apothecary of London,in recognition

of his services in attending on the king during h i sillness in Scotland . The record of this grant is foundin Rymer ’s “ Foed er a

,which was not published until

1 704 , b ut Rymer was historiographer royal , appointedby William III

,and his work wa s a compilation from

official archives . An earlier mention of an apothecaryis found in the Scottish Exchequer Rolls wherein itappears that on the death of Robert the Bruce , in 1 32 9 ,payments were made to John th e Apothecary

, p r e

s umab ly for materials f or embalming the king’s body .

Dr . J . Mason Good , who wrote a History of Medicine,

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1 44 CHRONICLES OF PHARM ACY VIII

reign the President and Censors of the College s um

mon ed the Wardens of the Grocers ’ Company and allthe apothecaries of London and the suburbs to appearbefore them

,and enjoyned them that when they

made a dispensation of medicine they should exposetheir several ingredients (of which they were composed)to open View in their shops for six or eight days that sothe physicians pas sing by might j udge of the goodnessof them

,and prevent their buying or s elling any corrupt

or decayed medicines . The grocers and apothecaries donot appear to hav e raised any obj ection to this decree .

Whether they obeyed it or not i s not stated.)

INCORPORATION OF THE APOTHECARIES .

Th e first Charter of Incorporation wa s granted to theapothecar i es ‘ by James I in 1 606 , but this did notseparate them from their old fees , the grocers . Theycontinued their efforts

,however , and with the aid of

friends at Court they obtained a new Charter inwhich gave them an en tir ely independent existence asa City Guild under the title of theW e

This is the only Lond on guild whichncor por ation to th e

’

p r es en t time admittedonly - actual apothecaries to its fraternity .

Another peculiarity claimed by one of the Com

pany’

s historian s (Dr . J . Corfe : “ Th e Apoth ecary ”

)is that the Guild of Apothecaries is the only CityCompany which is called a Society . He believes thatth is may be attributed to the supposed fact that th e cor

por ation was modelled on a similar association foundedat Naples in 1 5 40under th e n ame of Societa Scien tifica .

Sir Theodore‘de May er ne , the King

’s first physician,

and Gideon de Lau ri e , pharmacien or apothecary to the

VIII PHARMACY IN GREAT BR ITA IN 1 45

Queen,Anne of Denmark

,were the supporters of the

apothecaries in rescuing them from the control of thegrocers . Both of these men deserve honourable mention

S IR THEODORE MAYERNE .

Th e or ig inal painting by Rubens , of which th e above is a copy,was in th e collection of

Dr . Mead, an d was sold in 1 754 for £115 . I t passed into th e possession of th e Ear l of

_

Bes s b or ou g h an d th e Mar qu is of Lansdowne , an d then thr ough th e hands of some dealer san d in 1848 wa s bought by th e Royal College of Physicians for £33 12

in the chronicles of British pharmacy . I t happens thatboth were of foreign origin and of the Protestant faith

,

two of that eminent crowd of immigrants of highV OL. I L

1 46 CHRONICLES OF PHARMACY VIII

principle and distinguished ability who served Englandso well in the seventeenth century when they foundthemselves not wanted ” in France .

Mayer ne was a Swiss by birth , but a Frenchman byeducation;and adoption , and had ,

been physician to

Henri IV . ,But he incurred th e bitter animosity Of

the Paris Faculty,led by th e fanatic Gui Patin

,partly

on account , of his religious heresy , and partly becau sehe prescribed chemical medicines . By a unan imousvote the Paris College of Physicians resolved in 1 603that he must not be met by any Of

’

its members inconsultation . He continued

,however

,to practise i n

Paris until an . English peer whom he had“

treated tookhim to London and introduced him , to James I , whomade him phy sician to the Queen . Mayer ne , however,soon returned to Paris

,but in 1 6 1 1 h e settled in London

on the , invitation of the King,who made him his

first physician . He had a great deal to do with thecompilation of the first London Pharmacopoeia , and isreputed to have introduced calomel and black washinto medical practice . Subsequently he was appointedphysician to Charles I and Queen Henriette

,but after

the execution of the King he retired into priv ate life,

and though nominally phys i c i an to Charles II he neverpractised at that Court. He died at Chelsea in1 6 6 5 .

Gideon de Laune was also a man of considerableinfluence . Dr . Corfe regards him as almost the founderof the Society of Apothecaries

,but Mr . Barrett

,who

recently wrote a history of that Society ,suggests that

he could not have been so much thought of by his contemporaries

,as he was only elected to the Mastership

some years after the Charter had been granted , andthen only after a contest . At any rate the apothecaries

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148 CHRON ICL ES OF PHARMACY VIII

the apothecaries were assessed at £500 between them .

Towards this the apothecaries,pleading poverty

,offered

£20. The grocers ridiculed this offer,and having paid

£300 as their share , left their old associates to findthe other £200, which they had to do somehow.

About the same time th e new corporation vigorouslyopposed an application for a Charter made by the d i stillers of London . The grocers supported th e distillers

,

and the apothecaries failed in their opposition . Sir

Theodore Mayer ne told them that their monopoly ofdist illation wa s only intended to extend to the distillation of medicinal Spirits and waters . Mr . Barrett quotesfrom the old records another curious instance of thecontest for monopolies which wa s characteristic of theperiod . In 1 620

,one John Woolf Rumbler having

obtained from the King a concession of the sole rightof making “ mer cu r ie sublimate

,

” applied to the Courtof Apothecaries that he might enj oy the same withouttheir contradiction . This “ upon advised consideration

,

the Court refused to grant . It is not stated whetherthe will of the King or that of the apothecariesprevailed in the end .

The story of the j ealousies which arose between thephysicians and the apothecaries is a long and tediousone innumerable pamphlets were written 011 both sidesof the controversy

,and th e dispute figures in English

literature of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries .Pope very neatly expressed the Views of the physiciansin th e familiar verse in the “ Essay on Criticism ” inwhich

,comparing the old critics of Greece who “ fanned

th e poet’s fire,And taught the world with reason to

admire,

” with those of h i s own day who

Aga in s t the poets their own arm s they tu r nedS u r e to ha te mos t themen fr omwhom they lear n ’

d,

VIII PHARMACY IN GREAT BR ITA IN 1 49

i llustrated the position by introducing the

Moder n potheca r ie s , taught th e a r t

By doctor s ’ bill s to play th e doctor s ’ pa r t,Bold in th e pr actice of mi s taken r u le s

,

Pr es cr ibe, apply, and call their ma s ter s fool s .

This was written in 1 709 .

The apothecaries strengthened their position as medical practitioners in the public esteem by remaining attheir posts during the Great Plague in London in 1 6 6 5

when most of the physicians fled from the stricken city .

Between this date and the end of the sev enteenth centurythe quarrel between the two sections of th e professionconstantly grew in bitterness . Some of the allegationsof extortion made against the apothecaries are almostincredible . In Dr . Goodall’s Historical Account of theProceedings of the Royal Colleg e of Physicians againstEmp ir icks and Unlicensed Practisers it i sreported that George Buller who gave the college sometrouble in 1 6 33 had charged 303 . each for 2 5 pills£37 103 . for the boxful . Three were given to a Mr s .

Style for a sore leg , and she d ied the same night . A

Dr . Tenant prosecuted by th e college in James I ’S reign“was so impudent and un conscionable in the rating of

hi s medicines that he charged £6 for one pill and thesame for an apoz eme .

”

Dr . R. Pitt , F .R.S .,i n Crafts and Frauds of Physic

Exposed , 1 703 (a book written expressly to defendthe establishment of dispensaries by the Physi ci ans),states that apothecaries had been known to make £1 50out of a Single case , and that in a recent instance (whichhad apparently come before the law courts) the apothe

cary had made £320. In every bill of £100 Dr . Pittsays th e charges were £9 0 more than the s hOp pricesfor the medicine .

1 50 CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY VIII

In Jacob Bell’s Historical Sketch of the Progress ofPharmacy in Great Britain an apothecary ’s bill formedicines for one day

,supplied to a Mr . Dalby of

Ludgate Hill,is quoted from a pamphlet called “ The

Wisdom of the Nation i s Foolishness .” It i s as follows

An Emuls ion,48 . 6d . A Mu cilage

,38 . 4d . Gelly of H a r ts hor n

,

48 . Pla s ter to dr e s s Blis ter , 18 . An Emollient Gli s ter , 28 . 605.

An ivor y pipe,armed 1 8 . A Cor dial Bolu s

,28 . 6d . The s ame

again,28 . 6d . A cor dia l dr aught, 28 . 4d . The s ame again

,

28 . 4d . An other bolu s , 28 . 6d . An other d r aught,28 . 4d . A

gla s s of cor dia l s pir it s , 38 . 6d . Bli s ter ing pla s ter to th e arm,5 8 .

Th e s ame to th e w r i s t s , 58 . Two bolu s es aga in,5 8 . Two dr aughts

again,48 . 803. An other emu l s ion ,

48 . 6d . Another pear l ju lep,48 . 6d .

Mr . Dalby’s bill for five days came to £1 7 28 . l0d .,and

this wa s declared to be not an isolated case but illustr ativ e of the practice of apothecaries when attendingpatients of the higher classes .

CONTEST BETWEEN THE PHYSICIANS AND

APOTHECARIES .

In 1 6 87 the College of Physicians adopted a

resolution binding all Fellows,Candidates

,and

Licentiates of the College to give advice gratis totheir neighbouring sick poor when desired within thecity of London or seven miles round . But in Viewof the gross extortions of the apothecaries it was asked

,

What was the u s e of the physicians ’ charity if the costof compounding the medicines was to be prohibitory "

The apothecaries , of course , denied that the examples oftheir charges which were quoted were at all gen eral

,and

probably they were not. It was not to the interest oftho apothecaries to destroy free prescribing. Indeed aproposal was made to the physician s on behalf of a

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1 5 2 CHRON ICLE S OF PH ARM ACY VIII

the physicians’ point of View . Johnson says that in ’

addition to its intrinsic merit it co - operated withpassions and prej udices then prevalent His sym

path ies are indicated by his remark that it wa s on theside of charity against the intrigues of interest

,and of

regular learning against licen tious usurpation of medicalauthority .

”

One line in the book (th e last in thepassage quoted below) has attained currency in theEnglish language . Expressing satirically th e complaintsof the apothecaries

,Garth says :

Ou r man u factu re s n ow the doctor s s ell ,And their in tr in s ic valu e mean ly tellNay , they di s cover too (their s pite i s s u ch)Tha t health

,than c r own s mor e va lued, co s ts not much 3

Whil s t we mu s t Shape ou r condu ct by the s e r u les ,To cheat as tr ades men or to fail a s fool s .

THE APOTHECARIES WIN.

Notwithstanding the sympathy of Dr . Johnson , Pope ,and many other famous contemporaries , the quarrelended in the comparative triumph of the apothecari es ,The physicians , though reluctant to enforce what

they believed to be their statutory powers,were goaded

into law,and at last brought an action against a

London apothecary named William Rose,who they

alleged had infringed the Act passed in the reign ofHen ry ‘ VIII . Rose had attended a butcher In St.

Martin ’s - in - the -Fields named Seale , and had administered“ proper medicines to him . He had no licence fromthe Faculty

,and in his treatment of Seale had not

acted under the direction of any physician . Hehad neither taken nor demanded any fee for h i s advi ce .Those were the facts found by the j ury who first

h ea rd the case. The Colleg e claimed a penalty of five

VIII PHARM ACY IN GREAT BR ITA IN 1 5 3

pounds per month for the period during which Rose hadthus practised . The Charter granted to the physiciansin the tenth year of Henry VIII

,and confirmed by an

Act of Parliament passed in the fourteenth and fifteenthyear of that reign , contained a clause forbidding anyperson not admitted by the College to practise th efaculty of medicine in London or within seven milesthereof under a penalty of one hundred solidi for everymonth during which he sh ould thus infringe the law .

The j ury having found the facts already quoted,

referred to the Cou r t of Queen ’s Bench th e legalquestion whether the acts performed constituted thepractice of medicine within the meaning of the Act .Th e case was argued three times in the Court ofQueen ’s Bench— (s o it is stated in the report of theproceedings in the House of Lords),— and ultimately thej udges decided unanimously in favour of th e contentionof the College . Thereupon , on behalf of Rose a writ oferror was moved for in the ‘House of Lords demandinga reversal of the j udgment . Th e counsel who arguedthe appeal were S . Dodd for Rose

,and F . Brown for the

College . The case was heard on th e 1 5th ofMarch,1 703 .

In support of the appeal it was argued that if th ej udgment were allowed to stand it would ruin not onlyRose but all other apothecaries . That the Act was avery old one

,and that the constant usage and practice

ought to be taken into account . That if this j udgmentwere right the apothecary would not dare to sell a fewlozenges or a little electuary to any person asking for aremedy for a cold

,or in other common cases where a

medicine had a known and certain effect . That to givea monopoly in the treatment of d isease to physicianswould have most mi sch ievous consequences both richan d poor would be seriously taxed

,and in the cas e of

1 5 4 CHRONICLE S OF PHARMACY VIII

sudden accidents or illne s ses in the night whenapothecaries were s o frequently sent for , the danger ofnot permitting them to supply the necessary medicinemight often be most serious .To these contentions the counsel for the College

rep lied that by several orders physicians had boundthemselves to attend the poor free

,either at their own

offices,or

,if sent for , at the patient

’s house . That ou tof consideration for the poor they had gone further byestablishing Dispensaries where the medicines they prescribed could be obtained at not more than one - third ofthe price which the apothecaries had been in the habitof charging . That in sudden emergen cies an apothecaryor anyone else was j ustified in doing his best to relievehis neighbours

,bu t that in London

,at least

,a skilled

physician was a s available as an apothecary,and that

this emergency argument ought not to be used topermit apothecaries to undertake all sorts of seriousdiseases at their leisure . That there was nothing toprevent apothecaries selling whatever medicines theywere asked for

,but that to permit them to treat cases

however slight involved both danger and expense,

because a mistake made at the beg inning of a distemper might lead to a long illness

,and in any case

the apothecary would charge for much more medicinethan was n ecessary .

After hearing th e arguments it was ordered andadj udged that the j udgment given in th e Court ofQueen’s Bench be reversed .

”

THE APOTHECARIES AND THE CHEMISTS AND

DRUGGISTS .

From this period the apothecaries became recognisedmedical practitioner s , the Society granted medical dip

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1 5 6 CHRON ICL ES OF PHARM ACY VIII

Historical Sketch of the Progress of Pharmacy inGreat Britain

,

“ that th e Assistants employed andinstructed by the Physicians at these institutionsbecame d i s pen smg chemists on their own account;andthat some of the apothecaries who found their craft indanger followed the example

,from which source we may

date the origin of the chemists and druggists . ”

In th e course of the eighteenth century chemists anddruggists had to a large extent replaced apothecariesa s keepers of shops where medicines were sold anddispensed

,and even when the businesses were owned

by apothecaries,they usually styled themselves

chemists and druggists . In th e year 1 841 an attemptwa s made to get a Bill through Parliament which wouldhave made it penal to recommend any medicin e for thesake of gain . The Bill was introduced by a Mr . Hawes

,

and th e chemists and druggists of London opposed itwith such vigour that it was ultimately withdrawn .

In order to be prepared against future attacks thevictorious chemists and druggists then formed thePharmaceutical Society of Great Britain

,which was

incorporated by Royal Charter in 1 842 . An Actprotecti ng the title of pharmaceutical chemist waspassed in 1 852

,and in 1 86 8 ano ther Act , requiring all

future chemists and druggists to pass examinationsand be registered

,and restricting to them the sale of

poisons,became law.

MAGIC AND MEDICINE

Amu lets and things to b e bor ne abou t I fin d pr es cr ibed, taxedby s ome

,appr oved by other s . Look for them in M i z ald u s

,Por ta ,

Alber tu s,etc. A r ing made with the hoof of an a s s

’

s r ight for efoot

,ca r r ied abou t

,etc. I s ay , with Ren odeu s

,they a r e not alto

gether to b e r ejected . Piony doth help epilep s ies . P r etiou s s ton e smos t dis eas es . A wolf’s dung car r ied about help s th e cholick . A

s pider an ague,etc. Such medicin es ar e to b e exploded tha t con

s i s t of wor d s,char acter s

,s pell s

,and cha rms , which can do no good

at all,b u t ou t of a s tr ong con ceit

,a s P omponatiou s pr oves or th e

devil ’ s policy, that i s th e fir s t founder an d teacher of them .

BURTON “ Anatomy of Melan choly.

CHARMS,enchantments

,amulets

,incantations

,talis

mans,phylacteries

,and all th e armoury of witchcraft

and magic have been intimately mixed up withpharmacy and medicine in all countries and in all ages .The degradation of th e Greek term pharmakeia fromit s or I g Inal meaning of the art of preparing medicineto sorcery and poison ing is evidence of the prevalenceof debasing superstitions in the practice of medicin eamong the cultivated Greeks . Hermes the Egyptian

,

Zoroaster the Persian,and Solomon th e Hebrew were

famous among th e early practition ers and teachers ofmagic . These names served to conj ure with . Those whobore them were probably wise men above the average

1 57

1 5 8 CHRONICLES OF PHARMACY

who were above such tricks as were attributed to them .

Bu t it suited th e purpose or the b u smes s of those whomade their living out of the superstition s of the peopleto pretend to trace their practices to un iversally reveredheroes of a dim past .Not that th e whole of the magical rites associated

with the art of healing were based on con scious fraud .

Th e b eliefs ‘

of savage or untutored races in demonswhich cause diseases is natural

,it may almost be said

reasonable . What more natural when they see one oftheir tribe seized with an epileptic fi t than to assume thepresence of an invisible foe " Or if a contagious plagueor smallpox or fever attacks their Village , is it n ot aninevitable conclusion that angry s pir its

l hav e attackedthe tribe

,perhaps for some u nknown offence " From

such a basis the idea of sacrifice to th e avenging fiendfollows obviously . In some parts of China if a personaccidentally kicks a stone and soon afterwards falls illthe relatives go to that stone and offer fru it

,wine

,or

other treasur es,and it may be that the patient recovers .

In that case th e efficacy of the treatment is demons tr ated

,and only those who do not desire to believe will

question it;if the patient Should d ie the proof is not

less conclusive of the demon ’s malignity .

In some primitive peoples,among the New Zealand

n atives,for example

,it is believed that a separate demon

exists for each distinct disease;one for ague , one forepilepsy

,one for toothache

,and s o forth . This too ,

seems reasonable . Each of those demons has somethingwhich will please or frighten him . So amulets , talismans

,charms come into use . The North American

Indians,however

,generally attribute all disease to one

evil spirit only . Consequently,their treatment of all

complaints i s the same

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1 60 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMA CY

cutting of roots by the sons of God who came toearth and associated with them . The Greeks andRoman s always h eld Jewish sorcery in the highestesteem

,and the Arabs accepted their teaching with

implicit confidence . Th e Talmud is full of magicalformulas

,and the Kaballah

,a mystic theosophy which

combined Israelitish traditions with Alexand rianphilosophy

,and began to be known about the tenth

century,was unquestionably th e foundation of the

sophistry of Paracelsus and his followers .In th e Middle Ages

,and in some communities un til

quite recent times,belief in the occult powers of Jews ,

which they had themselves inculcated , was firm andun iversal

,and became the reason

,or at least the excuse ,

for much of the persecution they had to suffer. Forthe punishment of sorcery and witchcraft was not basedon a belief that fraud had been practised , but resultedfrom a conviction of the terrible truth of the claimswhich had been put forward .

The Jews of Western Eu rope have lost or abandonedmany of th e traditional practices which have beenassociated with their popular medicines from timeimmemorial. But in the East , especially in Turkey and

Syria,quaint prayers and antiquated materia medica

are still associated as they were in th e days of th e"

Baby lonian captivity . Dogs’ livers , earthworms , hares’

feet,live ants

,human bones , doves

’ dung , wolves’

entrails,and powdered mummy still rank high as

remedies,while for patients who can afford it such

precious products as dew from Mount Carmel are prescribed . Invocations , prayers , and superstitiouspractices form the stock in tr adapo f th e

“Gab betes ,

”

generally elderly persons who attend on th e Sick . Theyhave a multitude of infallible cures in their repertoires .

M AG IC AND M ED IC INE

Powdered,freshly roasted earthworms 111 wmo

,or live

grasshoppers in water,are given by th em for bilious~

ness . For bronchial complaints they write someHebrew letters on a new plate

,wash it off with wine

,

add three grains of a Citron which has been used at theTabernacle festival , and give this as a draught . Dogs’

excrements made up with honey form a poultice forsore eyes

,mummy or human bones ground up with

honey i s a precious tonic , and wolves’ liver is a cure for

fits . But the administration of these remedies must beaccompanied . by the necessary invocation

,generally to

the names of patriarchs,angels

,or prophets

,but often

mere gibberish,such a s Adar

,gar

,vedar

,gar

,

” whichis the form ula for use with a toothache remedy .

The phylacteries still worn by modern Jews atcertain parts of their services

,now perhaps by most of

them only in accordance with inveterate custom,have

been in all ages esteemed by them as protecting themagainst evil

’

and demoniac influences . They areleathern receptacles

,which they bind on their left arms

and on their foreheads in literal obedience to theMosaic instructions in the passage s transcribed

,and

contained in the cases , from Exodus c. 1 3,v. 1— 10

,and

c. 1 3 , v . 1 1— 1 6,Deuteronomy c. 6 ,

V . 4— 9,and c. 9 ,

v . 1 3— 2 1 . To a modern reader these passages appear toprotest against superstitions and heathenish beliefs andpractices , but the rabbis and s cribes taught that theseand the mesuza , the similar passages affixed to thedoorposts , would avert physical and spiritual dangers ,and they invented minute instructions for the preparation Of the inscriptions . A scribe

,for example

,who had

commenced to write one of the p assages , was n ot to

allow himself to be interrupted by any human distraetion , not even if th e king asked him a question .

V OL. I M

1 6 2 CHRONICLE S OF PHARMACY

All the eastern nations trusted largely to amulets ofvarious kinds for the prevention and treatment ofdisease . Galen quotes from Nech ep s u s , an Egyptianking

,who lived about 6 30 B.C.

,who wrote that a green

j asper cu t in the form of a dragon surrounded by rays,

applied externally would cure indigestion and strengthenthe stomach . Among the books attributed to Hermeswas one entitled “ The Thirty - six Herbs Sacred toHoroscopes .” Of this book Galen says it is only awaste of time to read it . The title

,however

,as

Leclerc has pointed out,rather curiously confirms the

statement attributed to Celsus which is found inOrigen ’s treatise

,

“ Contra Cels um,

”

to which allu s IOn

has already been made .

Amulets are still in general u se in the East. Bertherand in Medicine of the Arabs says the uneducatedArab of tod ay when he has anything the matter withh im goes to his priest and pays him a fee for which th epriest gives him a little paper about two inches squareon which ce rtain phrases are written . This is pu t upin a leathern case , and worn as near the affected partas is possible . The richer Arab women wear silvercases with texts from the Koran in them . But it i sessential that the paper must have been written on aFriday

,a little before sunset , and with ink in which

myrrh and saffron have been dissolved ’

In the Third Report of the VVellcome Research Laboratories at th e Gordon Memorial College

,Khartoum

(London : Baillier e , Tindall , Cox , Dr . R. G .

Anderson writes an interesting chapter on the medicalsuperstitions of the people of Kordofan , and gives anumber of illustrations of amulets and written charmsactually in use by the Arabs of that country . To thenative , says Dr . Anderson ,

“ no process is too absurd

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1 6 4 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY

THE ABRACADABRA MYSTERY.

Abracadabra was the most famous of the ancientcharms or talisman s employed in medicine . Its mysticmeaning ha s been the subj ect of much ingeniousinvestigation , but even its derivation has not beenagreed upon . The firs t mention of the term is foundin the poem “ De Medicina P r aecepta Saluberrima ,

” byQuintus Ser enu s Samon icu s . Samon icu s was a notedphysician ln Rome in the second and third centuries .He was a favourite with the Emperor Severus , andaccompanied him in his exped ition to Britain A .D. 208 .

Severus died at York in A .D. 2 1 1 , and in the followingyear his s on Caracalla had his brother Geta , andother people supposed to be favourable to Geta ’sclaims

,assassinated . Among the victims wa s Ser enu s

Samon icu s . The poem ,which is the only existing

work of Ser en u s , consists of hexameter lines which

illustrate the medical practice and superstitions of the

period when it was written . The lines in which theword Abracadabra

,

” and the way to employ 1t, ,are

Introduced are theseI n s cr ib i s char tae, qu od d icitu r Abr acadabr a,Saep iu s et s ub ter r epeta s , s ed detr ahe s ummae,E t magis atqu e magis des in t elementa fig u r i s

S ingula , quae s emper r ap ies et coeter a fi g es ,Donec in an g u s tam r ed ig atu r liter a conum.

H i s lin o n exi s collum r edimir e memento.

In a paper on Ser enu s Samon icu s by Dr . Barnesof Carlisle

,contributed to the S t. Lou i s Med ica l

Review ,the followmg translation of the above passage

is given . A semitertian fever of a particular characteris the disease under discussion .

“ Write several times on a piece of paper the word‘ Abracadabra ,

’ and repeat the word in the lines

MAG IC AND M ED IC INE

below,bu t take away letters from the complete

word and let th e letters fall away one at a time ineach succeeding line. Take these away ever , but keepthe rest until the writing is reduced to a narrow cone .

Remember to tie these papers with flax and bind themr ound the neck .

”

Th e charm was written in several ways all in con

formity with the in s tr uctIOn s . Dr . Barnes gives thesespecimens :

A B R A C A D A B R A a b r a c a d a b r a

A B R A C A D A B R a b r a c a d a b r

A B R A C A D A B a b r a c a d a b

A B R A C A D A a b r a c a d a

A B R A C A D a b r a c a d

A B B A C A a b r a c a ABRACADABRAA B R A C a b r a c BRACADABR

A B R A a bi

r a RACADAB

a b r ACADA

a b CAD

a A

After wearing the charm for nine days it had to bethrown over the Shoulder into a stream running eastwards . In cases which resisted this talisman Ser enu srecommended th e application of lion

’s fat,or yellow

coral with green emeralds tied to the skin Of a cat andworn round the neck .

Ser enu s Samon i cu s is believed to have been a discipleof a notorious Christian heretic named Ba s ilides , wholived in the early part of the second century

,and was

himself the founder of a sect branching out of thegnostics . Ba s ilides had added to their beliefs somefanciful notions based on the teachings of Pythagorasand Apollonius of Tyre

,especially in regard to names

and numbers . To him i s attributed th e invention ofthe mystic wor d abr axas

,

” which in Greek numerationr epresents the total 36 5 , thus — a - 1

,b —2

,r — 100

,

1 6 6 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY

a— l,x— 60

,a —1

,s This word is supposed to

have been a numeric representation of the Persian sungod

,or if it was invented by Bas ilides

,more likely

indicated the 36 5 emanations of the infinite Deity . Itha s been generally supposed that abracadabra wasderived from abraxas .There are

,however

,other interpretations . Littré

associates it with the Hebrew words,Ab

,Ruach

,Dabar

Father,Holy Ghost

,Word . Dr . King

,an authority on

the curious gnostic gems well-known to antiquarians,

regards th is explanation as purely fanciful and suggeststhat Abracadabra

,

is a modification of the termAblathanabla ,

a word frequently met with on the gemsalluded to

,and meaning Ou r Father

,Thou art Ou r

Father . Others hold that Ablathanabla is a corruptionof Abracadabra . An ingenious correspondent of Notes

and Qu er ies thinks that a more likely Hebrew origin ofthe term than the one favoured by Littré would beAbrai seda brai

,which would signify Out

,bad spirit

,

out . It is agreed that the word should be pronouncedAb r a s adab r a . Another likely origin

,suggested by

Colonel C. R. Conder in “ The Rise of Man”

p . 3 1 4 , is Abrak -ha- dabra a Hebrew phrase meaning Ibless the deed . The triangular form of the charm wasno doubt significant of the Trinity in Unity .

GREEK AND ROMAN MAGIC .

Pythagoras taught that holding dill in th e left handwould prevent epilepsy . Serapion of Alexand ria (B.C.

27 8) prescribed for epilepsy the warty excrescences onth e forelegs of animals , camel

’s brain and gall , rennet ofseal

,dung Of crocodile , blood of turtle , and other animal

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1 6 8 CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY

ENGLISH FOLK-LORE SUPERSTITIONS .

It would be as tedious as’

it would be useless to relateat any length the multitude of Silly superstitions Whichmake up the medicinal folk- lore of this and othercountries . Methods of curing warts

,toothache

,ague

,

worms,and other common complaints are familiar to

everyone . The’

idea that toothache is caused by tinyworms which can be expelled by henbane , i s veryancient and still exists . A process from one of theAnglo -Saxon Leechdoms converted into modern Englishby the Rev . Oswald Cockayne may be quoted as apleFor tooth worms take acorn meal and henbane seed

and wax,of all equally much

,mingle them together ,

work into a wax candle and burn it , let it reek into themouth

,put a black cloth under

,and the worms will fall

on it .Marcellus

,a late Latin medical author whose work

wa s translated into Saxon,

‘gave a simpler remedy . Itwas to s ay

“ Ar g idam,Mar g id um,

S tu r d ig um,

”

thrice ,then spit into a frog ’s mouth and set him free

,requesting

him at the same time to carry off the toothache .

Another popular cure for toothache in “early Englandwas to wear a piece of parchment on which the followingcharm was written : As St . Peter s at at the gate ofJerusalem our Blessed Lord and Sav IOu r

,Jes u s

‘

Christ ,passed by and said

,What aileth thee " He said Lord ,

my teeth ache . He said,Ari se and follow me and thy

teeth shall never ache any more .”

Sir Kenelm Digby ’s method was less tempting . Hedirected that the patient should scratch his gum withan iron nail until he made it bleed , and , should thendrive the nail with the blood upon it into a wooden

MAG IC AND M ED IC INE

beam.He will never have toothache again , says this

sage .

For warts the cures ar e innumerable . They are allmore or less like this : Steal a piece of meat from abutcher’s stall or basket , bury it secretly at a gatewaywhere four lanes meet. As the meat decays the wartswill die away . An apple cut into slices and rubbed onthe warts and buried is equally effi cacious . So is asnail which after being rubbed on the warts

.is impaled

on a thorn and left to die .

A room hung with red cloth wa s esteemed in manycountries to be effective agai nst certain diseases

,small

p’

ox .

‘ especially . John of Gaddesden relates how hecured Edward I I ’ s s on by this device . The prejudice infavour of red flannel which still exists

,for tying a piece

of it round sore. throats-

is probably a remnant of thefancy that red was specially Obnoxious to ev il spirits .The Romans hung red coral round the necks of theirinfants to protect them from the evil eye . This practice

,

too,has come down to our day .

Among other charms and incan tation s quoted by Mr .

Cockayne in his account of Saxon Leechdoms We findthat for a baby

’s recovery some would creep througha hole in th e ground and stop itup behind them with thorns

,

” “ ifcattle have a disease of the lungs ,burn (something undeciphered)on midsummer ’s day ;add holywater , and pour it into theirmonth s on mid s ummer’s morrowand sing over them : P S . 5 1

P s . 1 7 , and th e Athanasian Creed .

If anything has be en stolen from you write acopy of the annexed diag ram and put it into thy

1 70 CHRONICLES OF PHARMACY

left shoe under the heel . Then thou shalt soon hearof it .”

TRANSFERRING DISEASES .

It was widely believed that disease could betransferred by mean s of certain silly formalities . Thiswas a very ancient n otion . Pliny explains how pains inthe stomach could be transferred to a duck or a puppy.

A prescription of about two hundred years ago for th ecure of convulsions was to take parings of the sick man ’sn ails

,some hair from his eyebrows

,and a halfpenny

,

and wrap them all in a clout which had been round hishead . This package must be laid in a gateway wherefour lanes meet

,and th e first person who opened it

would take the sickness and relieve the patient of it. Acertain John Dougall was prosecuted in Edinburgh in1 6 9 5 for prescribing this treatment . A more gruesomebut less unj ust proceeding was to transfer the disease toth e dead . An example is the treatment of boils quotedfrom Mr W . G. Black ’s “ Folk Medicine . The boilwas to be poulticed three days and night s , after whichthe poultices and cloths employed were to be placed inthe coffin with a d ead person and buried with the corpse .

In Lancashire warts could be transferred by rubbingeach with a cinder which must be wrapped i n paper andlaid where four roads meet. As before

,the person who

opens this parcel will take the warts from the presentowner. In Devonshire a child could be cured ofwhooping cough by putting one of its hairs betweenslices of bread and butter and giv ing these to a dog . Ifthe dog coughed

,as was probable

,the whooping cough

was transferred .

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1 7 2 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY

on stones and worn by th e early Christians,the Gnostic

gems,the coral n ecklaces

,the bezoar stones

,the toad

ashes , the strands of the ropes used for hangingcriminals , the magnets of the middle ages and ofmodern times

,and a thousand other things

,credited

with magical curative properties,might be cited .

Besides th ese there are myriad s of forms of wordswritten or spoken

,some pious

,some gibberish

,which

have been used and recommended both with andwithout drugs .Schelen z in “ Geschichte der Pharmacie (1 904)

quotes from Jakob Maer lan t of Bruges,

“ the Father ofFlemish science ” “

(born about 1 235) the r ecommenda

tion of an Amulettr in g” on th e stone of which the

figure of -Mercury was engraved,

and which wou ldmake the wearer healthy

,

“ die maect S inen tr ag h er e

g h es on t.

”

(See Cramp Rings , p .

How widespread ha s been the belief in the powerof amulets and charms may be gathered from a fewinstances of such superstitions among , famou s persons .Lord Bacon wa s convinced that warts could be curedby rubbing lard on them and transferring the lard to apost . The warts would die when the lard dried .

Robert Boyle attributed the cure of a haemorrhage towearing some moss from a dead man ’ s skull . The fatherof Sir Christopher Wren relates that Lord Burghley

,

the Lord Treasurer of England I n Queen Elizabeth ’ sreign

,kept off the gout by always wearing a blue

ribbon studded with a particular kind of snail shellsround his leg . Whenever he left it off the pain returnedViolently . Burton in the “ Anatomy of Melancholy

(1 62 1) says S t. John ’ s Wort gathered on a Friday inthe horn of Jupiter

,when it comes to his effectual

operation (that is about full moon in July), hung about

MAG IC AND MED IC INE

the neck will mightily help melancholy and drive awayfantastical spirits .Pepys writing on May 2 8 , 1 6 6 7 , says , My wife went

down with Jane and W. Hewer to Woolwich in orderto get a little ayre

,and to lie there to-night and so

to gather May Dew to-morrow morning

,which Mr s .

Turner hath taught her is the only thing to wash herface with;and I am content w ith it. But Mr s .

Turner ought to have explamed to Mr s . Pepys thatto preserve beauty it was necessary to collect the MayDew on the first of the month .

Catherine de Medici wore a piece of an infant ’s skinas a charm

,and Lord Bryon presen ted an amulet of

this nature to Prince Metternich . Pascal d ied withsome undecipherable inscription sewn into h i s c .lothe sCharles V always wore a sachet of dried silkworms toprotect h im

_

fr omvertigo . The Emperor Augustus wore apiece of the skin of a sea calf to keep the lightning fromI nju rmg him ,

and the Emperor Tiberius wore laurelround his n eck for the same reason when a thunderstorm seemed to be approaching. Thy r eu s reports thatin 1 5 6 8 the Prince of Orange condemned a Spaniard tobe Shot

,but that the soldiers could not hit him . They

undressed him and found he was wear ing an amuletbearing certain mysterious figures . They took this fromhim

,and then killed h im without further difficu lty .

The famous German physician,Frederick Hoffman

,tells

seriously of a gouty subj ect he knew who could tellwhen an attack was approaching by a stone in a ringwhich he wer e changing colour .

DOGMAS AND DELUSIONS .

See s ku lking Tr u th to h er Old caver n fled,

Moun tain s of ca s u is tr y heap’

d o’

er h er headPhilo s ophy that lean ’

d on H eav’

n befor eShr ink s to her Second Cau s e and i s no mor e.

Phys ic Of Metaphys ic begs d efen ce,And Metaphys ic call s for aid on Sens e.

See Mys ter y to Ma thematic s flyI n vain " they gaze, tu r n giddy, r ave, and d ie .

POPE The Dunciad (64 1

ELEMENTS AND PHLOGISTON .

THE ancient idea that earth , air , fire , and water werethe elements of Nature was held by chemists in the 1 8thcentury . Empedocles appears to have been the authorof this theory

,which was adopted by Aristotle . Some

speculative philosophers,however

,taug ht that all of

these were derived from “one original first principlesome held that this was water

,some earth

,some fire

,

and others air. Paracelsus,who does not seem to have

obj ected to this idea , contributed another fantastic oneto accompany it . According to him everything wascomposed of sulphur

,salt

,and mercury but he did not

mean by these the material sulphur , salt , and mercuryas we know them ,

b ut some sort of refined essence of1 74

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1 7 6 CHRON ICL E S OF PHARMACY

satisfied with th e orthodox opinion,and improved upon

it by limiting the elements to water and earth but herecognised three earths

,V itr ifiable , inflammable , and

mercurial . The last y ielded the metals . Stahl wasinclined to go back to the four elements again

,he

GEORGE ERNEST STAHL .

Bor n at Anspach , 1660 died at Ber lin , 1734. Stahl was th e or iginator of th e phlog istontheor y ” which gener ally pr evailed in chemistr y until Lavoisier dispr oved I t in th e lastq uar ter of th e 1 8th centu r y.

had his doubts about their really elementary character.He

,however

,concentrated his attention on fire

,out of

which he evolved his well-known phlogiston theory .

This substance,if it was a substance

,was conceived as

floating about all through the atmosphere,but only

DOGMAS AND DELUS IONS 1 7 7

revealing itself by its effects when it came into contactwith material bodies . There was some doubt whetherit possessed the attribute of weight at all;but itsproperties were supposed to be quiescent when itbecame united with a substan ce which thereby becamephlogisticated . It needed to be excited in some Specialway b efor e it could be brought again , into activity .

When combined it was in a pas sive condition .

The amu s in g‘

featur es of the phlogiston theory onlydeveloped when it came to be realised that when thephlogiston was driven out of a body ,

as in the case ofthe calcination of a metal , the calx remaining washeavier than the metal with the phlogi ston had been .

The first explanation of this phenomenon was thatphlogiston not only _ pos s es s ed no heavin ess

,but wa s

actually endowed with a faculty of lightne s s . Thishypothesis was

,however

,a little too far - fetched for

even the seventeenth century . Boerhaave thereupondiscovered that

‘

as the phlogi ston escaped it attackedthe vessel in which the metal wa s calcined and comb in ed some of that with the metal . This notion wouldnot stand experiment

,b ut Baume s explanation of what

happened was singularly ingenious . He insisted thatphlogiston was appreciably ponderable . But

,he said

,

when it i s absorbed into a metal or other substan ce itdoes not combine with that substan ce

,bu t i s constantly

in motion in th e interstices of th e molecules . SO thatas a bird in a cage does not add to the weight of th ecage so - long a s it is flying about

,no more does

phlogiston add to the weight of the metal in which itis similarly flying about . But when the calcinationtakes place the dead phlogiston

,

w

a s it may be called ,does actually combine with the metal

,and thus th e

increase of weight is accounted for.V OL. I

1 7 8 CHRONICLES OF P HARMACY

HUMOURS AND DEGREES .

The doctrine of the humours,or humer alpathology

,

as it is generally termed,is usually traced to Hippocrates .

It is s et forth in his book on the Nature of Man,which

Galen regarded as a genuine treatise of the Physician ofCos

, but which other critics have supposed to have beenwritten by one or more of h i s disciples or successors . Atany rate , it is believed to represent his views . Platoelaborated the theory , and Galen gave it dogmaticform .

The human body was composed not exactly of the fourelemen ts

,earth , air , fire , and water , but of the essences

of these elements . The fluid parts,the blood

,the

phlegm,the bile

,and the black bile

,were the four

humours . There were also three kinds of spirits,

natural,vital

,and animal , which put the humours in

motion .

The blood was the humour which nourished th e

various parts of the body , and wa s the source of animalheat . The bile kept the passages of the body open

,

and serv ed to promote the d igestion of the food . The

phlegm kept the nerves , the muscles , the cartilages ,th e tongue , and other organs supple , thus facilitatingtheir movements . The black bile (the melancholy ,Hippocrates termed it) was a link between th e otherhumours and sustained them . The proportion of thesehumours occasioned the temperaments

,and it i s hardly

necessary to remark that this fan cy still prevails in ourlanguage the sanguine

,th e bilious

,the phlegmatic

,and

the atrabilious or melancholy natures being familiardescriptions to this day .

The humours had different characters . The bloodwas naturally hot and humid , the phlegm cold and

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1 80 CHRONICLES OF PH ARMACY

are hot in th e fourth degree;those which provokesweat abundantly

,and thus “ cut tough and compacted

humours ” (Culpepper) are h ot in the th ird degree .

Opium was cold in th e fourth degree,and therefore

should only be given alone to mitigate violent pain . Inordinary cases it is wise to moderate the coldness of theopium by combining something of the first degree ofcold or heat with it .An amusing illu stration of the reverence which this

doctrine of the temperatures inspired is furnished bySprengel in the s econd volume of his History ofMedicine . Dealing with the Arab period

,he tells us

that Jacob -Ebn - Izhak-Alkh end i,one Of the most cele

b r ated authors of his nation,who lived in the ninth

century,and cultivated mathematics , philosophy , and

astrology as well as medicine,wrote a book on the

subj ect before us,extending Galen ’s theory to compound

medicines,explaining th eir action in accordance w ith

the principles of harmony in music . The deg rees heexplains progress in geometric ratio

,SO that th e fourth

degree counts as 1 6 compared with unity . He sets outh i s proposition thus x z b’ H a ;Oi being the first , I) thelast

,90 the exponent , and n the number of the terms .

Sprengel has pity on those of us Who are not familiarwith mathematical manipulations , and gives an exampleto make the formula clear.

Medicamen t . Weigh t. Hot . Co ld . H umid . Dr y .

Car damom s 1 1

Sugar 2 2

Indigo lMyr obalan s 1 2

3vi

This preparation therefore forms a mixture exactlybalanced in hot and cold properties

,but twice a s dry as

DOGMAS AND DE LUS IONS

it is humid;the mixture is therefore dry In the firstdegree . If the total had Shown twelve of the dry tothree of the humid qualities

,it would have been dry in

the second degree . When it i s remembered that inaddition to these calculations the physician had torealise that drugs adapted for one part of the bodymight b e of no use for another, it will be perceived thatthe art of prescribing was a serious business under thesway of the old dogmas .

THE ROSICRUCIANS .

It has never been pretended , so far a s I am aware,

that the Ros Icr ucian mystics of th e middle ages didanything for the advancement of pharmacy . They areonly mentioned here because they claimed the power ofcuring disease , and also because it happens that thefiction which created the legends concerning them wasalmost contemporaneous with the not unsimilar one (ifthe latter be a fiction)which made a historical figure ofBasil Valentine . Between 1 6 14 and 1 6 1 6 three workswere published professing to reveal the history of thebre thren of the Rosy Cross . The first was known as

Fama F r ater n itati s , the second was the ConfessioFr ater n itati s

,and th e third and most important was the

“ Chymical Marriage of Christian,

Ros encr eu tz”

Th e

treatises are written in a mystic j argon,and have been

interpreted as alchemical or religious parables , thoughvast numbers of learned men adopted the records asstatements of facts . It was a s serted that ChristianRos enc r eu tz

,a German

,born in 1 37 8 , had travelled in

th e East,and from the wise men of Arabia and other

countries had learnt the secrets of their knowledge ,religious , necromantic , and alchemical . On his return

1 82 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY

to Germany he and seven other persons formed thisfraternity , which was to be kept secret for a hundredyears . The brethr en , it is suggested , communicated toeach other their discoveries and the knowledge whichhad been transmitted to them to communicate witheach other. They were to treat the sick poor free

,were

to wear no distinctive dress,but they used the letters

C.R. They knew h ow to make gold,but this was not

Of much value to them ,for they did not seek wealth .

They were to meet once a year, and each one appointedhis own successor

,but there were to be no tombstones

or other memorials . Christian Ros encr eu tz himself isreported to have died at th e age of 106 , and long afterwards his Skeleton was found in a house

,a wall having

been built over him . Their chief business being to healthe sick poor

,they must have known much about

medicine,but the books do not reveal anything of any

u s e . They acquired their knowledge , n ot by study , butby the direct illumination of God . The theories— sucha s they were -were Paracelsian

,and the fraternity ,

though mystic , was Protestant .The most curious feature of the story is that the almost

obviously fictitious character of the documents whichannounced it Sh ould have been so widely believed .

Very soon after their publication German students werefiercely disputing concerning the authenticity of therevelations , and the controversy continued for twohundred years. Much learned investigation into theorigin of the first treatises has been made

,and the most

usual conclusion has been that they were written bya German theologian , Johann Valentin Andreas

,of

Wii r ttemb u r g , b . 1 5 86,d . 1 6 54 . He is said to have

declared before his death that he wrote the allegedhistory expressly as a work of fiction .

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1 84 CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY

The signatures of some drugs were no doubt observedafter their Virtues had been discovered . Poppy

,for

instance , under the doctrine was appropriated to braindisorders

,on account of its shape like a head . Bu t

its reputation a s a brain soother was much moreancient than the inference .

It i s only necessary to give a few specimens ofthe inductive reasoning involved in the doctrine ofsignatures as revealed by the authors of the old herbals .The saxifrages were supposed to break up rocks;their med icinal value in stone in th e bladder wastherefore manifest . Roses were recommended in blooddisorders

,rhubarb and saffron in bilious complaints

,

turmeric in j aundice , all on account of their colour.Trefoil “ d efendeth the heart against the noisomevapour of th e spleen ,

says William Coles in his “Ar t

of Simpling ,” “

not only because th e leaf is triangularlike the heart of a man

,bu t because each leaf con

tai n s the perfect icon of a heart and in the p r oper fleshcolour . Aristolochia Clematitis was called birthwort

,

and from the shape of its corolla was believed to be u s eful in parturition . Physalis alkekengi , bladder wort ,owed its reputation as a clean ser of the bladd er and

urinary passages to its inflated calyx . Tormentillaofficinali s , blood root , has a red root , and would therefore cure bloody fluxes . Scrophularia nodosa , kernelwort

,has kernels or tubers attached to its roots

,and

was consequently predestined for the treatment ofscrofulous glands of th e neck . Canterbury bells , fromtheir long throats , were allocated to the cure of sorethroats . Thistles , because of their prickles , would curea stitch in the side . Scorpion grass , the old n ame ofthe forget—me-not , has a spike which was likened to thetail of a scorpion

,and was therefore a remedy for

DOGMAS AND DE LUS IONS

the sting of a scorpion . [The name forget-me-not wasapplied in England

,unti l about a century ago , to the

Ground Pine (Aj uga Chamoepity s ), for the unpoeticalreason that it left a nauseou s taste In the mouth ]Oswald Cr olliu s , who describes himself as Medicus et

Ph ilos ophu s Hermeticu s , in his“ Tractatus de Signa

turis ,” writes a long and very pious preface explain ing the

importance of the knowledge of signatures . It i s themost useful part of botany

,he observes

,and yet not

a tenth part of living physicians have fitted themselves to practise from this study to the satisfactionof their patien ts .

’

His inferences from the plants andanimals he mentions are often very far- fetched

,b u t

he gives his conclusions as if they had been mathematically demonstrated . Never once does he intimatethat a signature is capable of two interpretations .A few illustrations not men tioned above may beselected from h i s treatise .

Walnuts have the complete signature of the head .

From the shell,therefore

,a salt can be made of special

u s e for wounds of the pericranium . The inner part

of the Shell will make a decoction for inj u ries to theskull;the pellicle surrounding the kernel makes amedicine for inflammation of th e membrane of thebrain;and th e kernel itself nourishes and strengthensthe brain . The down on the quince shows that adecoction of that fruit will prevent th e hair fallingout . SO will the moss that grows on trees . The

asarum has th e Signature of the ears . A con serve ofits flowers will therefore help the hearing and thememory . Herb Paris

,euphrasia

,chamomile

,hieracium

,

and many other herbs i eld preparations for th e eyes .Potentilla flowers bear th e pupil of the eye , and maysimilarly be employed . The seed receptacle of the hen

1 8 6 CHRON ICLES OF PH ARMACY

bane resembles the formation of the j aw . That is whythese seeds are good for toothache . The lemon indicatesthe heart , ginger the belly , cassia fistula the bowels

,

aristolochia the womb,plantag o the nerves and veins ,

palma Christi and fig leaves th e hands .The signatures sometimes simulate the diseas es them

selves . Lily of the valley has a flower hanging like adrop;it is good for apoplexy . The date

,according to

Paracelsus,cures cancer;dock seeds , red colcothar , and

acorus palustris ‘

will cure erysipelas red santal,

geraniums,coral

,blood stones

,and tormentilla

,are in

d icated in haemorrhage rhubarb in yellow bile wolves ’

livers in liver complaints,foxes’ lungs in pulmonary

affections,and dried worms powdered in goats ’ milk to

expel worms . The fame of vipers as a remedy waslargely due to the theory of the renewal of theiryouth . Tartarus

,or salt of man ’s urin e

,is good against

tartar and calculi .Colour was a very usual signature . Red hangings

were strongly advocated in medical books for the beds ofpatients with small-pox . John Of Gaddesden , physicianto Edward II

,says

,When I saw the s on of th

renowned King of England lying sick of the smallpox I took care that everything round the bed shouldbe of a red colour

,which succeed ed so completely

that the Prince was restored to perfect health withou tthe vestige of a pustule .”

METALS AND PRECIOUS STONES .

It will be not-iced that parts of animals are creditedin the examples j ust quoted with remedial properties .This was a natural extension of the doctrine . Metals

,

too,were credited with medicinal Virtues corresponding

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1 88 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY

unaccountable than the belief in the SO -called sympathetic remedies . There i s abundant material for a longchapter on this particular manifestation of faith in theimpossible

,but a few prominent instances of the remark

able method of treatment comprised in the designationwill suffi ce to prove that it was seriously adopted bymen capable of thinking in telligently.

The germ of the idea goes back to very early ag es .Dr . J . G . Frazer

,the famous authority on primitive

beliefs,traces the commandment in the Pentateuch

,

Thou shalt not seethe a kid in its mother’s milk,

” toan ancient prej udice against the boiling of milk in anycircumstances

,on the ground that th i s would cause

suffering to the animal which yielded the milk . If thesuffering could be thus conveyed, it wa s logical tobelieve that healing was similarly capable of transference .

Pliny (quoted by Cornelius Agrippa) says :“ If any

person shall be sorry for a blow he has given another,

afar off or near at hand , if he shall presently spit intothe middle of the hand with which he gav e the blow ,

th e party that wa s smitten shall presently be free fromam.PParacelsus developed the notion with the confidence

which he wa s wont to bestow on theories which involvedfar - fetched explanations . This wa s h is formula forUnguentum Sympath eticumTake 4 oz . each of boar’s and bear ’

S fat,boil slowly

for half an hour,then pour on cold water . Skim off

th e floating fat,rej ecting that which sinks . (The older

the animals yielding the fat , the better .)Take of powdered burnt worms , of dried boar

’s brain ,of red sandal wood

,of mummy , of bloodstone , 1 oz . of

each. Then collect 1 drachm of the moss from th e

skull Of a man who died a violent death , one who had

DOGM AS AND DELUS IONS

been hanged,preferably

,and had not been buried .

This Should be collected at the rising of the moon,and

under Venus if possible,but certainly not under Mars

or Saturn . With all these ingredients make an ointment

,which keep in a closed glass vessel . If it becomes

dry on keeping it can be softened with a little fresh lardor virgin honey . Th e Ointment must be prepared inthe autumn .

Paracelsus describes the methods of applying thisointment

,the precaution s to be taken

,and the mann er

in which it exerts its influence . It wa s the weaponwhich inflicted the wound which wa s to be anointed

,

and ’ it would be effective no matter how far away th ewounded person might be . It would not answer if anartery had been severed , or if th e heart , th e brain , orthe liver had suffered the lesion . The wound was to bekept properly bandaged , and the bandages were to befirst wetted with the patient’s urine . The anointmentof the weapon wa s to be repeated every day in the caseof a serious Wound , or every second Or third day whenthe wound was not so severe

,and th e weapon was to be

wrapped after anointment in a clean linen cloth,and

kept free from dust and draughts , or the patient wouldexperience much pain . Th e ano intment of th e weaponacted on the wound by a magnetic cu rrent through theair direct to the healing balsam which exists in everyliving body , j ust as th e heat of the sun passes throughth e airParacelsus also prescribed th e leaves of th e Polygonum

persicaria to be applied to s ores and ulcers,and then

buried . One of his disci ples explains that th e Obj ectof burying th e leaves was that they attracted th e evilspirits like a magnet

,and thus drew these spirits from

th e patient to the earth .

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The sympathetic egg wa s another d evice to cheatdiseases , attributed to the same inventive

“

genius . Anempty chicken’s egg was to be filled with warm bloodfrom a h ealthy person , carefu lly sealed and placed undera brooding hen for a week or two

,so that its Vitality

Should not be impaired . It was then heated in an ovenfor some hours at a temperature sufficient to bake bread .

To cure a case this egg was placed in contact with theaffected part and then buried . It was

,assumed that it

would inevitably take the disease with it,as healthy

and concentr ated blood must have a stronger affinityfor disease than a weaker sort .Robert Fludd

,M.D.

,the Rosicrucian

,who fell under

the displeasure of the College of Physicians on accountof h i s unsound views from a Galen ical standpoint, wasa warm advocate of the Paracelsian Weapon Salve . Inreply to a contemporary doctor who had ridiculed thetheory he waxes earnest

,and at times sarcastic . He

explains that “ an ointment composed of the moss Of

human bones,mummy (which is th e human body com

b ined with balm), human fat , and added to these theblood

,which is the beginning and food of them all

,

must have a spiritual power,for with the blood the

bright soul doth abide and oper ateth after a hiddenmanner. Then as there i s a spir itual line protractedor extended in the Ayre between the wounded personand the Box of Ointment like the beam of the Sun fromthe Sun

,so this animal beam is the faithfu l conductor

of the Healing nature from the box of the balsam to

the wounded body . And if it were not for that linewhich conveys the wholesome and salutiferous Spirit

,

the value of the ointment would evaporate or s luce outthis way or that way and so would bring no benefit tothe wounded persons .”

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1 9 2 CHRONICLES OF PHARMACY

found all th e wounds closed , and the man muchcomforted . Three days later the poor fellow was able .

to call on Sir Gilbert to thank him , but even then heappeared like a ghost with noe blood left in his body .

”

DOGMAS AND DE LUS IONS

her daughter on January 28th,1 6 85

,She tells her that

a little wound which was believed to have been healedhad shown Signs of revolt bu t it is only for the honourof being cured by your powder of sympathy . The

Baume Tranquille i s of no account now;your powderof sympathy is a perfectly divine remedy. My sorehas changed it s appearance and i s now half dried andcured .

”On February 7th ,

1 6 85 , Sh e wri tes agai n Iam afraid th e powder of sympathy is only suitable forold standing wounds . It has only cured the leasttroublesome of mine . I am now u smg the blackointment

,which is admirable .” Even the black ointment

proved unfaithful,for in June of the same year the

marchioness writes that she has gone to the Capucins ofthe Louvre . They did not believe in the powder ofsympathy ;they had something much better . Th eygave her certain herbs which were to be applied to theaffected part and removed twice a day . Those removedare to be buried;“ and laugh if you like

,as they d ecay

s o will the wound heal , and thus by a gentle andimperceptible transpiration I shall cure the most illtreated leg in th e world .

”

The name of Sir Kenelm Digby is more closelyassociated with the powder of sympathy ” than thatof any other person , and indeed he is often creditedwith th e i nvention of the idea;but this was not thecase . He was an extraordinary man who played arather prominent part in the stirring days of theStuarts . Hi s father, Sir Everard Digby , was implicatedin the Gunpowder Plot , and was duly executed . Kenelmmust have been g ifted with unusual attraction s orplausibility to have -overcome this unfortunate stain onhis pedigree , but he managed it , and history introduceshim to u s at the court of that suspicious monarch

,

V OL. I O

1 9 4 CHRONICLES OF PHARMACY

James I .,while he was quite a young man . He had

inherited an income of a year,and seems to

have been popular with the King and with his fellowcourtiers . But he was not contented to lead an idlelife , s o he pressed James to give him a commission to go

S I R KENELM DIGBY .

(Fr om a p ainting by V andyke in th e Bodleian Galler y, Ox for d

forth and steal some Span ish galleons,which was the

gentlemanly thing to do in those days . James con

sented,but at the last moment it was discovered that

the commission would not be in order unless it wa scountersigned by the Lord High Admiral

,who was

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1 9 6 CHRON ICLES OF PHARM ACY

prognosticated gangrene and probably death . Th e

friends of the wounded man appealed to Sir Kenelm,

who generously consented to do h i s best . He told theattendants to bring him a rag on which wa s some of thesufferer’s blood . They brought the garter which hadbeen used a s a bandage and which was still thick withblood . He soaked this in a basin of water in which hehad dissolved a handful of his sympathetic powder.An hour later the patient said he felt an agreeable coolness . The fever and pain rapidly abated

,and in a few

days the cure was complete . It was reported that theDuke of Buckingham testified to the genuineness of thecure and that th e king had taken a keen interest in thetreatment .Digby asserted that the secret of the powder was

imparted to him by a Carmelite monk whom he met atFlorence . Hi s laboratory assistant,George Har tman

,pub

li s h ed a Book of Chymicall Secrets ,” in 1 6 82 , after Sir

Kenelm’s death,and therein explained that the Powder of

Sympathy , which was then made by himself (Hartman)and sold by a bookseller in Cornhill named Brookeswas prepared by dissolving good English vitriol in aslittle warm water as will suffice

,filter

,evaporate

,and

set aside until fair,large , green crystal s are formed .

Spread these in the sun until they whiten . Then crushthem coarsely and again dry in the sun .

”Other recipes

s ay it should be dried in the sun gently (a Frenchformula says amoureusement for 36 5 days .Sir Kenelm’s scientific explanation of the action of

his sympathetic powder is on th e same lines as theothers I have quoted . Briefly it was that the rays ofthe s un extracted from the blood and the vitriolassociated with it the spirit of each in minute atoms .At the same time the inflamed wound was exhaling hot

DOGMA S AND DE LUS IONS

atoms and making way for a current of air . The ai r

charged with the atoms of blood and vitriol wereattracted to it , and acted curatively .

In a letter written by Strau s to Sir Kenelm , it isrelated that Lord Gilbor ne had followed th e system ,

but his method was described as “ the dry way .

”

Acarpenter had cut himself severely with an axe . Th e

offending axe still bespattered with : blood wa s smearedwith the proper ointment and hung up in a cupboar d .

Th e wound was going on well , but one day it suddenlybecame violently painful again . On investigation itwas found that the axe had fallen from th e nail onwhich it was hung .

Inscribed on the plate attached to th e portrait of SirKenelm Digby in t he National Portrait Gallery , it isstated that His character has been summed up as aprodigy of learning

,credulity , valour , and romance .

”

Although th is appreciation is quoted the author i s n ot

named . Other testimonials to his character and reliab ility are to be found in contemporary literature .

Evelyn alludes to him as a teller of a strange things .Clarendon describes h im a s a person very eminentand notorious throughout the whole course of h i s lifefrom h i s cradle to his grave . A man of very extraordinary person and presence;a wonderful gracefulbehaviour

,a flowing courtesy , and such a volubility of

language as surprised and delighted .

” Lady Fan shawemet him at Calais with the Earl of Strafford and othersand says

,much excellent discourse passed ;but ,

‘

a s

was reason,most share was Sir Kenelm Digby ’s who

had enlarged somewhat more in extraordinary storiesthan might be averred .

”

At last he told the companyabout the barnacle goose he had seen in

,

Jersey;abarnacle which changes to a bird , and at this they all

1 9 8 CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY

laughed in credulously . But Lady Fanshawe says thiswas the only thing true he had declaimed with them.

This was h i s infirmity,though otherwise of most excel

lent parts,and a very fin e- bred gentleman .

” In JohnAubrey ’s “ Brief Lives ” set down between 1 6 6 9 and

Digby is described as such a goodly person,

g i g an tiqu e and great voice , and had s o graceful elocution and noble address

,etc .

,that had he been drop’t out

of the clowdes in any part of the world he would havemade himself respected .

”

It may be of interest to add that a daughter of SirKenelm Digby ’s second s on married a Sir John Conway

,

of Flintshire . Her granddaughter,Honora

,married a

Sir John Glynne whose great-grandson , Si r StephenGlynne

,was the father of the late Mr s . W . E .

Gladstone .

In 1 6 9 0, Lemery had the courage to express somedoubts about this powder of sympathy

,and in 1 7 7 3

Baumedeclared i ts pretensions to be absolutely illusory .

To conclude the account of this curious delusion,a

few quotations from English literature may be added .

There are seve ral allusions to sympathetic cures inHudibras . For instance

,

For by h i s Side a pou ch h e wo r eReple te with s tr ange h ermetick powderTha t wound s n ine mile s poin t blank wou ld s older ,By s kilfu l chemi s t at gr eat co s tExtr acted fr om a r otten pos t.

And again,

’Ti s tr ue a s cor pion ’

s oil i s s a idTo cu r e th e wound s th e vermin madeAn d weapon s d r e s s ’

d with s alves r es tor eAn d hea l th e wound s they made befor e .

In Dryden ’s Temp es t, the sympathetic treatment isreferred to . Hippolito has been wounded by Fernando ,

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200 CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY

attributed the virtues of preventing and healing painsin the s e organs .Paracelsus originated the theory Of animal magnetism .

The mysterious properties possessed by the loadstoneand transferable from that body to iron

,were according

to Paracelsus an influence drawn directly from thestars and possessed by all an imate beings . It was afluid which he called Magnale . By it he explain ed themovements of certain plants which follow the course ofthe s un ,

and it was on the basis of this hypothesis th athe composed his sympathetic ointment and explainedthe action of talismans . Paracelsus applied the magnetin epilepsy

,and also prepared a magisteriummag neti s .

Glauber professed to have a secret magnet whichwould draw only the essence or tincture from iron

,

leaving the gross b ody behind . With this he made atincture of Mars and Venus

,thus robbing the dragon

of the golden fleece which it guards . This is understood tO mean that he dissolved iron and copper in aquafortis . And a s Jason restored h i s aged father to you thagain

,s o would this tincture prove a wonderful restera

tive . He commenced to test it on one occasion andvery soon black curly hair began to grow on his baldhead . But he had not enough of the tincture to permit h im to carry on th e experiment

,and though he had

a great longing to make some more,he apparently put

Off doing so until it was too late .

Van Helmont,Fludd

,and other physician s of mystic

instincts,were among the protagonists of animal

magnetism,and physicians administered pulverised

magnet in salves,plasters

,pills and potions . But in

1 6 60 Dr . Gilbert,of Colchester

,noted that

,when

powdered, th e loadstone no longer possessed magnetic

properties . Ultimately, therefore , it was understood

D OGMA S AND DE LUS IONS

that the powder of magnet was not capable of producingany other effects than any other ferruginous substance.But the belief in magnets applied to the body wa s byno means dissipated . Th e theory was exploited byvarious practitioners, but notably towards the latterpart of the eighteenth century

,When the Viennese

doctor,F . A. Mesmer

,excited such a vogue in Paris

that the Court,the Government

,the Academy of

Sciences,and aristocratic society generally were ranged in

pro and anti—Mesmer sections . Franklin stated that atone time Mesmer was taking more money in fees thanall the regular physi ci ans of Paris put

’

together. Andyet Mesmer’s explanations of the phenomena attend inghis performances were only an amplification of thedoctrines wh ich Paracelsus had first imagined .

The excitement did not spread to England to anygreat extent

,but about th e same time an American

named Perkins created a great d eal of stir ‘ with hismetallic tractors , which sent th e nation tractor—mad forthe time . Dr . Haygarth

,of Bath

,contributed to the

failure of this delusion by a series of experiments onpatients with pieces of wood painted to resemble thetractors from which equally wonderful relief was felt

,

proving that th e cures such as they were,could only

have been the consequence of faith .

THE TREATMENT OF ITCH .

The history of the treatment of itch is such acurious instance of the blind acceptance of authoritythrough many centuries

,in the course of which the true

explanation lay close at hand,that it i s Worth narrating

briefly .

It is stated in some histories that the disease was

202 CHRONICLES OF PHARMACY

known to the Chinese some thousands of years ago,and

the name they gave it,Tchong-kiai

,which means

pustules formed by a worm,indicates that at least when

that term was adopted th ey had some acquaintancewith the character of the d isease .

Some writers have supposed that certain of the u n

cleannesses alluded to in the Book of Leviticus h avereference to this complaint;and it i s quite possiblethat in old times it acquired a much more severecharacter than it ever has n ow

,owmg to neglect or

improper treatmen t . Psora,in Greek

,and the equ iva

lent term Scabies,in Latin

,are supposed to have at

least included the itch,though in all probability those

words comprehended a number of skin diseases whichare now more exactly distinguished . Hippocratesmentions psora , and apparently treated it solely bythe internal administration of diluents and purgatives .Aristotle mentions not on ly the disease but the insectsfound

,he said

,in the blisters . Celsus advocated the

application of ointments composed of a miscellaneouslot of drugs

,such as verdigris

,myrrh

,n itre

,white

lead,and sulphur . Galen hints at th e danger of

external applications which might drive the diseaseinwards . In Cicero

,Horace

,Ju v enal

,and other of the

classical writers,the word scabies is used to indicate

something unnatural;showing that it had come to beadopted metaphorically.

The Arab writers a r e much more explicit . Rhazes,

Haly Abbas,and Avicenna are very definite in their

descriptions of th e nature of the complaint, and howit is transmitted from one person to another;butAvicenna ’s mode of treatment was directed to theexpulsion of th e supposed v icious humours from thebody by bleeding an d purgatives

,especially by a

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204 CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY

of his cure but he never got beyond the idea that thecause of the complaint was a specific ferment .The earliest really scientific contribution to the study

of this disorder may be credited to Thomas Mouffet, ofLondon

,who

,in a treatise publish ed in 1 6 34 ,

entitledI n s ector um s i ve Min imor um An ima lium Thea tr um

,

showed not only that the animalculae were constantlyassociated with the complaint , but made it clear thatthey were not to be found in the vesicles

,but in th e

tunnels connected with these For this was thestumbling block of most of th e investigators . It hadbeen so often stated that the parasites were to be foundin the vesicles

,that when they were not there the

theory failed . Mou ffet’

s exposition ought to have led toa correct understanding of the cause of the complaint

,

but it wa s practically ignored .

About this time the microscope was invented,and in

1 6 5 7 a German naturalist named Hauptmann publisheda rough drawing of the insect magn ified . A better

,bu t

still imperfect , representation of it was given a fewyears later by Etmuller .

In 1 6 87 a pharmacist of Leghorn ,named Cestoni

,

induced a Dr . Bonomo of that city to j oin him inmaking a series of experiments to prove that theacarus was the cause of itch . They had both observedthe women of the city extracting the in sects from thehands of their children by the aid of needles

,and the

result of their research was a treatise in which theparasitic nature of th e complaint was maintained

,and

the uselessness of in ternal remedies was insisted on .

These intelligent Italians recommended sulphur ormercury Ointment a s the essential application .

Even with this evidence before them the doctorswent on faithful to their th eory of humours. Linnaeus

DOGMAS AND DE LUS IONS

supported the view of Bonomo and Cestoni , but madethe mistake of identifying the itch parasite with thecheese mite . The g r eat

‘ med ical authorities of theeighteen th century , su ch a s Hoffmann and Boerhaave ,still recommended general treatment

,and a long list

of drugs might be compiled which were supposedto be suitable in the treatment of itch . Among these

,

luckily,some parasiticides were included

,and

,cou se

quently,th e disease did get cured by these , but the

wrong th ings got the credit. About the end of theeighteenth century Hahnemann promulgated the theorythat the ps oric miasm

,

” of which the itch eruptionwas the symptomatic manifestation

,was the cause of a

large proportion of chronic diseases .Some Observers thought there were two kinds of itch ,

one caused by the acarus,the other independent of it .

Bolder theorists held that the insect was the productof the disease . The dispute continued until 1 834

,in

which year Francois Renucci,a native of Corsica , and

at the time assistant to the eminent surgeon d ’

Aliber t

at the HOp ital St . Louis,Paris

,undertook to extract

the acarus in any genuine case of itch . As a boy hehad seen the poor women extract it in Corsica

,as

Bonomo and Cestoni had seen others do it at Leghorn ,though h i s learned master at the hospital remainedsceptical for some years . It was near the middle ofthe nineteenth century before the parasitic character ofitch was universally acknowledged .

MASTERS IN PHARMACY

We a r e gu ilty, we h Ope, of no ir r ever en ce towar d s thos e gr eatnation s to which th e human r ace owes a r t

,s cien ce, ta s te, civil and

in tellectual fr eedom ,when we s ay that th e s tock bequeathed by

them to u s h a s been s o car efu lly impr oved that the accumu latedinter es t n ow exceed s the pr in cipal .

MACAULAY :“E s s ay on Lor d Bacon

DIOSCORIDES .

IT has been a subj ect of lively dispute whetherDioscorides lived before or after Pliny . It seemscertain that one of these authors copied from theother on particular matters

,and in neither case is credit

given . Pliny was born A .D. 23 and died A .D. 7 9 , and

would therefore have lived under the Emperors Tiberius,

Caligula,Claudius

,Nero

,Galba

,Otho

,Vitellius

,and

Vespasian . Su ida s,th e historian

,who probably wrote

in the tenth century , dates Dioscorides as contemporarywith Antony and Cleopatra

,about 40

,and some

Arab authorities say h e wrote at the time of PtolemyVII

,which would be still a hundred years earlier . But

Dioscorides dedicates his great work on materia medicato Areus Asclepiades

,who i s otherwise unknown , but

mentions as a friend of his patron the consul LiciniusBassus . There was a consul Lecan iu s Bassus in the

206

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208 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY

and in order to s ee them in their native lands heaccompanied the Roman armies through Gr eece

,Italy

,

and Asia Minor . This wa s the easiest method ofvisiting foreign countries in those days . It is notunlikely that he went as assistant to a phys i cian

,

perhaps to the one to whom he dedicated h i s book .

That is to s ay ,he may have been an army compounder.

Su ida s says of him that he was nicknamed Phocas,

because his face was covered with stains of the shapeof lentils .In his treatise on materia medica

,Peri Ules

Iatr ikes ,” or

,according to Photius

,originally Peri

Ules,

”

On Matter , only , he d escribes some six hundredplants

,limiting himself to those which had or were

supposed to hav e medicinal virtues . He mentions,

besides,the therapeutic properties of many animal

substances . Among these are roasted grasshoppers,for

bladder disorders;the liver of an ass for epilepsy;seven bugs enclosed in the skin of a bean to be takenin intermittent fever;and a spider applied to thetemples for headache .Dioscorides also gives a formula for the Sal V iper um,

which wa s a noted remedy in his time and for longafterwards . His process was to roast a viper alive ina new earthen pot with some figs

,common salt

,and

honey,reducing the whole to ashes . A little spikenard

was added to the ashes . Pliny only adds fenneland frankincense to the viper

,but Galen and later

authors make the salt a much more complicatedmixture .His botany i s very defective . He classifies plants in

the crudest way;Often only by a similarity of names .Of many his only description i s that it is well-known ,

”

a habit which has got him into much trouble with

MASTERS IN P HARMACY 209

modern investigators who have looked into h i s work forhistorical evidence verifying th e records of herbsn amed in other works . Hyssop is an example . As

stated in the section en titled “ The Pharmacy of theBible

,

” it has not been found possible to identify theseveral references to hyssop in the Bible . Dioscoridescontents h imself by saying that it is a well-knownplant

,and then gives its medicinal qualities . But that

his hyssop wa s not the plant known to us by that n ameis evident from the fact that in the same chapter hedescribes the Ch r y s ocome ,

”and says of it that it

flowers in racemes like the hyssop . He also speaks ofan origanum which has leaves arranged like an umbel

,

similar to that of the hyssop . It is evident,therefore

,

that his hyssop and ours are not the same plant .

0

The mineral medicines in u s e in h i s time are alsoincluded in the treatise of Dioscorides . He mentionsargentum vivum

,cinnabar

,verdigri s

,the calces of lead

and antimony,flowers of brass , rust of iron , litharge ,

pompholix , several earths , sal ammoniac , nitre , andother substances .Othe

’

r treatises , one on poisons and the bites ofvenomous animals

,and another on medicines easy to

prepare , have been attributed to Dioscorides , bu t it isnot generally accepted that he was the author . The

best known translation of Dioscorides into Latin wasmade by Matth iolu s of Sienna in the Sixteenth century .

The MS . from which Matth iolu s worked i s still preservedat Vienna and is believ ed to have b een written in thesixth centuryThe very competent authority Kurt Sprengel

,while

recognising the defects in the Materia Medica ofDioscorides , credits h im with the record of manyvaluable observations . His descriptions of myrrh

,

V OL. I P

2 10 CHRON ICL ES OF PHARMACY

bdellium,laudanum

,asafoetida

,gum ammoniacum

,

opium,and squill are selected as particularly useful the

accounts he gives of treatments since abandoned (someof which are mentioned above

,but to these Sprengel

adds the application of wool fat to wounds which hasb een

’

r ev iv ed Since he wrote), are of special interest;and the German historian further justly points outthat many remedies r e- discovered in modern timeswere referred to by Dioscorides . Among these arecastor Oil

,though Dioscorides only alludes to the

external application of this substance;male fernagainst tape worms;elm bark for eruptions;horehoundin phthisis ;and aloes for ulcers . He describes manychemical processes very intelligently

,and was the first

to indicate means of discovering the adulterations ofdrugs .

GALEN.

No writer of either ancient or modern times can

compare with Claud i us Galenus probably in theabundance of his output

,but certainly in the influence

he exercised over the generations that followed him .

For fifteen hundred years the doctrines he formulated,

the compound medicines he either introduced orendorsed

,and the treatments he recommended

commanded almost universal submission among medicalpractition ers . In Dr . Monk’s Roll of the College ofPhysicians

,mention is made of a Dr . Geynes who was

admitted to the Fellowship of the College in 1 5 60,

but not until he had signed a recan tation of his errorin having impugned the infallibility of Galen .

” 1 This

1 Dr . Monk gives a copy of th e Latin min u te in th e books of th eCollege r efer r ing to this cu r iou s r ecan tation . Th e actual wor ds whichGeyn e s Sign ed wer e the s e Eg o , Johannes Geyn es , fateor Galenumin i i s

,quae p r op os u i contr a eum, non er r as s e.

”

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2 1 2 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY

was at the time when to deny Galen meant to followParacelsus

,and the contest was fier cer j ust then than at

any time before or since .Galen was born at Pergamos

,in Asia Minor

,A .D. 1 31

,

and died in the same city between A .D. 200 and 2 10.

His fat her was an architect of considerable fortune,and

the s on was at first destined to be a philosopher,but

while he was going through his courses of logic , Nicon

(the father) was advised in a dream to direct theyouth ’s studies in th e direction of medicine . It will beseen directly that Galen’s career was a good dealinfluenced by dreams .Nothing was spared to obtain for the youth the best

education available,though his father died when he was

2 1 . After exhausting the Pergamos teachers , Galenstudied at Smyrna

,Cor inth

, ,and Alexandria . Then he

travelled for some years through Cilicia,Phoenicia,

Palestine,Scyros

,and th e Isles of Crete and Cyprus .

He commenced practice at Pergamos when he was 2 9and was appointed Physician to the School of Gladiatorsin that city . At 33 he removed to Rome and soonacquired the confidence and friendship of manydistinguished persons

,among them Septimu s Severus

,

the Consul and afterwards Emperor,Sergius Paulus , the

Praetor,the uncle of the reigning Emperor , Lucius

Verus,many of whom he cured of various illnesses .

His success caused bitter j ealousy among the otherGreek physicians then practising in Rome . They calledhim P ar adoxolog os , and Log iatr os , which meant that hewa s a boaster and a master of phrases . It appears thathe was able to hold h i s own in this wordy warfare.Some of h i s opponents he described a s Asses ofThessaly,and he also made allegations against their competenceand probity . However

,he quitted Rome in the year

M ASTERS IN PHARM ACY

1 6 7,and as at a later timehe left Aqu ilea , both movings

being comcnlen t with the occurrence of serious plagues,

h i s reputation for courage has suffered . It was at thisperiod of his life that he visited Palestine to see theShrub which yi elded Balm of Gilead

,and then

proceeded to Armenia to satisfy himself in regard to thepreparation of the Terra Sigillata . He was able toreport that the general belief that blood was used inth e process wa s incorrect .It was to Aquilea that Galen was sent for by th e

Emperor Marcus Aurelius , who was there preparing acampaign against the Mar coman s

,a Germani c n ation

dwelling in what is now called Bohemia . MarcusAurelius was in th e habit of taking Theriaca , and wouldhave none but that which had been prepared by Galen .

He urged Galen to accompany h im on h i s expedition,

but the physician declined the honour and the danger,

alleging that [Es culap iu s had appeared to him in adream

,and had forbidden him to take the j ourn ey .

Th e Emperor therefore sent him to Rome and chargedhim with the medical care of his son Commodus

,then

1 1 years of age . Galen is said to have done th e worldthe ill- serv ice of saving the life of this monster . Galenretained the favour of Marcu s Aurelius till the death ofthe Emperor

,and continued to make Theriaca for his

successors,Commodus

,Pertinax , and Septimus Sev erus .

He died during the reign of th e last named Emperor.Galen is sometimes said to have kept a pharmacy in

the Via d ’

Acr a at Rome , b ut his “ apoth eca” there

appears to have been a house where his writings werekept and where other physicians came to consult them .

This house was afterwards burned and it is supposedthat a number of the

/

phy s ician s manuscripts weredes troyed in that fi r e.

2 1 4 CHRONICLES O F PH ARMACY

His medical fame began to develop soon after h i sdeath . In about a hundred years Eusebius

,Bishop of

Caesarea , reproaches the world with treating Galenalmost as a divinity . Nearly all the later Romanmedical writers drew freely from his works

,and some

seemed to depend entirely on them . Arabic medicinewas largely based on Galen ’s teaching

,and it wa s the

Arabic manuscripts translated into Latin whichfurnished the base of the medical teaching of Europefrom the eleventh and twelfth centuries to theeighteenth .

Galen aimed to create a perfect system of physiology ,pathology

,and treatment . He i s alleged to

’

havewritten 500 treatises on medicine

,and 2 50 on other

subj ects,philosophy

,laws

,grammar. Nothing like this

number remains, and the s o- called “ books ” are oftenwhat we should call articles . His known and acceptedmedical works number eighty-fi v e . All h i s writingswere originally in Greek .

ORIBASIUS .

Oribasius , like Galen , was a native of Pergamos , andwa s physician to and friend of the Emperor Julian . Heis noted for having compiled seventy- two books in whichhe collected all the medical science of preceding writers .This was undertaken at the instance of Julian . Onlyseventeen of these books have been preserved to moderntimes . Oribasius adds to h i s compilation many originalobservation s of his own , and in these o ften shows r emarkable good sense . He was the originator of thenecklace method Of treatment , for he recommends anecklace of beads made of peony wood to be worn inepilepsy ,

but does not rely on this means alone .

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2 1 6 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY

ALEXANDER OF TRALLES .

This writer , who acquired considerable celebrity as amedical authority

,lived a little later than Aetiu s ,

towards the end of the sixth century. He was a nativeof Tralles , in Lydia , and i s much esteemed by theprincipal medical historians

,Sprengel

,Leclerc

,Fr eind

,

and others who have studied h i s writings . Especiallynotable is h i s independence of opinion ;he does nothesitate occasionally to criticise even Galen. Heimpresses strongly on his readers the danger of becomingbound to a particular system of treatment . The causesof each disease are to be found

,and the practitioner is

not to be guided exclusively by symptoms . Among h i sfavourite drugs were ca s tor um,

which he gave in feversand many other maladies ;he had known severalpersons snatched from th e j aws of death by its u s e inlethargy (apoplexy);bole Armen iac

,in epilepsy and

melancholia;grapes and other ripe fruits instead ofastringents in dysentery;rhubarb appeared a s a medicinefor the first time in h i s writings

,but only as an

astringent and he wa s the first to us e can th arides forblisters in gout instead of soothing applications . Hi s

treatment of gout by internal remedies and regimenrecalls that of Aetiu s and i s worth quoting . Heprescribed an electuary composed of myrrh , coral ,cloves

,rue

,peony

,and aristolochia . This wa s to be

taken regularly every day for a hundred days . Th enit was to be discontinued for fifteen days . After thatit was to be recommen ced and continued during 460

days,b ut on ly taking a dose every other day then after

another in terval thirty-fiv e more doses were to be takenon alternate days

,making 36 5 doses altogether in the

cour s e of nearly two year s , Meanwhile the diet was

MASTERS IN PHARMACY

strictly regulated,and it may well be that Alexander

only provided the medicine to amuse his patientwhile he cured the gout by a calculated reduction of hisluxuries . Alexander of Tralles was the author whorecommended h ermodactyls , supposed to be a kind

-

of

colchicum in gout a remedy which was forgotten untilits use wa s revived in a French proprietary medi c ine .

Hi s prescription compounded h ermodactyls , ginger ,pepper

, cummin seeds , aniseeds , and scammony . Hesay s it will enable sufferers who take it to walkimmed iately .

’

He is supposed to h ave been the firstto advocate th e administration of iron for the removalof Obstructions .

ME s u‘

E AND SERAPION.

These n ames are often met with in old medicaland pharmaceutical books , and there i s an elder ” anda younger ” of each of them

,so that it may be

desirable to explain who they all were . The elder andthe younger of each are sometimes confused . Serapionthe Elder , or Serapion of Alexandria , as he i s morefrequently named i n medical history

,lived in the

Egyptian c ity about 200 BC,and was *the recognised

leader of the sect of the Empirics i n medicine.He i s

credited with the formula that medicine rested on thethree bases , Observation , History , and Analogy. N0work of his has survived , but he is alleged to haveviolently attacked the theories of Hippocrates

,and to

have made great u s e of such animal products asca s tor um, the brain of the camel , th e excrements of thecrocodile , the blood of the tortoise , and the testicles ofthe boar .Serapion the Young er was an Arabian physici an who

21 8 CHRONICLES OF PHARMACY

lived towards the end of the tenth century and wrote awork on materia medica wh ich was much used for somefive or s ix hundred yearMesne

’

the Elder was first physician at the court ofHaroun - al-Raschid in the ninth cen tu ry . He was bornat Khou z , near Nineveh ,

in 7 7 6 ,and died at Bagdad

in 85 5 . Under h i s superintendence the School ofMedicine of Bagdad was

,

founded by Haroun . Althougha Nestorian Christian

,Mes ué retained his position as first

physician to five Caliphs after Haroun . To his teachingthe introduction of the milder purgatives

,such as senna

,

tamarinds,and certain fruits is supposed to be due .

His Arabic name was Jahiah -Ebn -Mas awaih .

Mesn'

e the Younger is the auth ority generally mean twhen formulas under his name

,sometimes quai i i tly

called Dr . Mes u e in old English books,are quoted . He

lived at Cairo about the year 1000. He was a Christian,

like his earlier namesake,and is believed to have been a

pupil or perhaps a companion of Avicenna;at all events ,when the latter ’

g ot into disgrace it is alleged that bothhe and Mes u é took refuge in Damascus . At DamascusMes u é wrote his great work known in Latin as Receptar ium Antidotar ii . From the time of the inventionof printing down to the middle of the seventeenthcentury

,when pharmacopoeias became general

,more

than seventy editions of this work,mostly in Latin

,but

a few in Italian,have been counted . In some of the

Latin tran slations he is described as “ John,the son of

Mes u é , the son of Hamech , the son of Abdel , king ofDamascus .” This dignity has been traced to a confusionof the Arabic names

,one of which was very similar to

the word meaning king . Nearly half of the formulaein the fir st London Pharmacopoeia were quoted fromhim .

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220 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY

which meant cannella,and which they so named because

it wa s brought from China .

The compound s collected in th is Antidotary are of thefamiliar complicated character of which s o manyspecimens are given in this volume . Many of thetitles are curious and probably reminiscent of the piouscredulity of the period when My r ep s u s lived . Thereis

,for example

,the Salt of the Holy Apostles

,wh ich

taken morning and evening with meals,would preserve

the sight,preven t the hair fr om falling out

,relieve

difficulty of breathing,and keep the breath sweet . It

was Obtained by grinding together a mixture of herbsand seeds (hyssop , wild carrot , cummin , pennyroyal ,and pepper)with common salt . The Salt of St. Lukewas similar but contained a few more ing r edients .A Sal P u r g ator iu s prescribed for the Pope Nicholasconsisted of s al ammoniac

,3 oz .

,scammony

,3 drachms

,

poppy seeds,2 drachms

,orris root

, 3 drachms , pepper ,1 3 grains

,one date

,pine nut 2 5 grain s

,and squill

2 drachms . This might be made into an electuary withhoney .

An tidotu s Ach ar is tos , which means unthanked antidote

,is stated to be s o named because it cured so quickly

that patien ts were not sufficiently grateful . They didnot realise how bad they might have been without it .An electuary said to have been prescribed for King

David for h i s melancholy was composed of aloes , Opium ,

saffron,lign aloes

,myrrh

,and some other spices

,made

up with honey . A Sal Sacerdotale (salt combined witha few spices) stated to have been used by the prophetsin the time of Elij ah had come down to this Antidotarythr oug h St. Paul.

MASTERS IN PHARMACY

RAYMOND LULLY.

The life of Raymond Lully i s so romantic that it iswo r th telling

,though it only touches pharmaceutical

history occasionally . Born at Palma,in the island of

Majorca , in 1235 , in a good position of life , he marriedat the ag e of twenty - two ,

and had two sons and adaughter . But home life was not what he desired , andhe continued to live the life of a gallant , serenadingyoung girls

,writing verses to them

,and giving balls

and banquets, to the seri ous derangement of his fortune .

Ultimately he conceived a violent passion for abeautiful and virtuous married woman named Ambrosiade Castello who was living at Maj orca with her husband .

She,to check this libertine’s ardour

,showed him her

breast,ravaged by cancer. This s o afflicted him that

he set himself to study medicine with the Obj ect ofdiscovering a cure for the cruel disea s e . With thestudy ofmed icin e

’

and of alchemy he now associated aninsatiable longing for the deliverance Of th e world fromMohammedan error . He renounced th e world , including it would seem his wife and children (though it isrecorded that he first shared his possession s with hisw ife), and went to live on a mountain in a hutwhich he built with h i s own hands . This career

,

however,did not promise an early enough extirpation

of infidels,so before long Lully is found travelling

,and

residing at Paris,Rome

,Vienna

,Genoa

,Tunis

,and in

other cities , preaching new crusades , importuning thePope to establish new orders of mis sionary Christians ,and at intervals writing books on medicine . He hadinvented a sort of mathematical Scheme which in hisopinion absolutely proved the truth of Christianity

,

and by the use of diagrams he hoped to convert the

222 CHRONICLES OF PHARMACY

Saracens . Hi s ideas are s et forth , if not explained , in hisAr s Mag net . In the course of his strange life he VisitedPalestine and Cyprus

,and at Naples in 1 29 3 he made

the acquaintance of Arnold de Villanova . This learnedman taught Lully much

,and found a fervent d iscipline

in him . He was more than seventy when,according

to tradition,he travelled to London with the obj ect of

RAYMOND LULLY .

(Fr om a p or tr ait in th e Royal Cou r t and State Libr ar y, Munich .)

urging on Edward III a new war against the Saracens .Edward alleged his want of means

,but Lully was

prepared to meet the difficulty , and some of thehistorians of the science of the period assert that hecoined a lot of gold for the purpose of the new crusade .

Edward promptly used this money for the war withFrance

,in which he was more interested. Disappointed

and disgusted,Lully left England , and some time after ,

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224 CHRONICLE S OF PHARMACY

Capitals,was invented as a r einedy for the Plague .

Hi s great literary fame depended principally on aLatin poem he wrote with th e now

‘

repellent titleof Syph illid es , sive Morbi Gallici ,

” in three books .This was published in 1 5 30. The author did not acceptthe View that this disease had been imported fromAmerica . He held that it had been known in ancienttimes

,and that it was caused by a peculiar corruption

of the air . His hero,Syphilis

,had given offence to

Apollo,who

,in revenge

,had poisoned the air he

breathed . Syphilis is cured by plunging three times ina subterraneous stream of quicksilver. Th e best classicalscholars of the age regarded the poem as the finestLatin work written since the day s when that languagewas in its full life

,and they compared it appreciatively

with the poems of Virgil . The following lines will serv eas a specimen

n am s aep iu s ip s iCa r ne s u a exu tos ar tu s , s qu allen tia o s s aV idimes , et foedo r o s a er a deh i s cer e h iatu

Or a,atqu e exile s r en en tia g u ttu r a voces .

The name of the disease was acquired from this poem,

and though it has a Greek form and appearance,no

ancient derivative for it can be suggested . Fr a s catoralso wrote a poem on hydrophobia .

BASIL VALENTINE .

The name and works of Basil Valentine are inseparably associated with the med ical use of antimony.

Hi s “ Cu r r u s Tr iumph ali s Antimon ii (the TriumphalChariot of Antimony) i s stated in all text-books to havebeen the earliest description of the Virtues of thisimportant remedy

,and of the forms in which it might

MA STERS IN PHARMACY

be prescribed . And very wonderful indeed i s thechemical knowledge displayed in this and other ofValentine’s writings .Basil Valentine explains the process of fusing iron

with this stibium and obtaining thereby “ by a particular manipulation a curious star which the wise

BASIL VALENTINE .

(Fr om th e Collection of Etchings in th e Royal Galler y, Munich.)

men before me called the Signet star of philosophy .

He commences the treatise already mentioned byexplaining that

_

h e is a monk of the Order of St .

Benedict , which (I quote from an English translation byTheodore Kir kr in g iu s , M.D.

, published at London in1 6 7 8)

“ requires another manner of Spirit of Holin essV OL. I

226 CHRONICLE S OF PHARMACY

than the common state of mortals exercised in the profane business Of this World .

”

After thus introducing himself he proceeds to minglechemistry

,piety

,and abuse of th e physicians and

apothecaries of his day with much repetition thoughwith cons iderable shrewdness for abou t fifty pages . At

last,after many false starts , he expounds the origin and

nature of antimony,thus

“ Antimony is a mineral made of the vapour of theEarth changed into water , which spiritual s yder alTransmutation is the true As tr um of Antimony which water,by the stars first

,afterwards by the Element of Fire

which resides in the Element of Air,is extracted from

the Elementary Earth,and by coagulation formally

changed into a tangible essence,in which tangible

essence is found very much of Sulphur predominating,

of Mercury not s o much,and of Salt the least of the

three . Yet it assumes s o much Salt as it thenceacquires an hard and Unmalleable Mass . The principalquality of it is dry and hot

,or rath er burning;of cold

and humidity it hath very little in it , as there is incommon Mercury;in corporal Gold also i s more heatthan cold . These may suffice to be spoken of thematter , and three fundamental pri nciples of Antimony ,how by th e Archeus in the Element of

’

Earth it isbrought to perfection .

”

It needs some practice in reading alchemical writingsto make out the drift of this rhapsody , and no profitwould be gained by a clear interpretation of themysticism. It may

,however , be noted that the

Archeus was a sort of friendly demon who worked at

theformation of metals in the bowels of the earth thatall metals were supposed to be compounds of sulphur ,mercury

,and salt in varying proportions , the sulphur

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228 CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY

In the same treatise Basil Valentine describes spirit ofsalt which he had obtained by the action of oil of vitriolon marine salt;brandy , distilled from wine;and howto get copper from pyrites by first obtaining a sulphate

,

then precipitating the metal by plunging into thesolution a blade of iron . This operation was a favouriteevidence with later alchemists of the transmutation ofi ron into copper .

According to some of his biographers Basil Valentinewas born in 1 39 3;others are j udi

’ci ously vague andvariously suggest the twelfth

,thirteenth

,or four

teenth century . That he was a Benedictine monk,

he tells u s himself, and several monasteries of the orderhave been named where he is supposed to have livedand laboured.

Many medical historians have doubted whether sucha person as Basil Valentine ever existed . Hi s writingsare said to have been circulated in manuscript

,but no

one has ever pretended to have seen one of those manuscripts

,and the earliest known edition of any of Basil

Valentine’s works was published about 1 601 , by JohannThOlde

,a chemist

,and part owne r of salt works at

Fr ankenhau s en in Thuringia . It is rather a large claimon our credulity

,or incredulity , to assume that ThOlde

was himself the author of the works attributed to theold monk

,and that he devised the entire fiction of the

alleged discoveries,chemistry and all . It was n ot an

uncommon thing among the alchemists and othe r writersof the middle ages to represent their books a s the worksof someone of acknowledged fame

,j ust as the more

ancient theologians were wont to credit one of theapostles or venerated fathers with their inventions . Butit wa s not common for a discoverer to hide himselfbehind a fictitious sagewhose existence he had himself

M ASTER S IN PHARMACY

invented . This theory i s,however , held by some

chemical critics .It is certain that the

‘

r eal Basil Valentine could nothave been SO ancient a s he was generally believed to be .

Syphilis is referred to in the Triumphal Chariot as thenew malady of soldiers (Newe Krankheit derKriegsleute),as morbus Gallicu s , and lues Gallica . It was not knownby these names until the invasion of Naples by theFrench in 1 49 5 . Another allusion in the same treatiseis to the use of antimony in the manufacture Of typemetal

,which Was certainly not adopted at any time at

which Basil Valentine could have lived . Anotherreason for questioning h i s actual existence is that themost diligent search has failed to discover his nameeither on the provincial list or on the general roll Of theBenedictine monks preserved in the archives of theorder at Rome . Boerhaave

”

asserted that the Benedictines had no monastery at Erfurt , which was generallyassigned as the home of Valentine .A curi ous item of evidence bearing on th e allegation

that ThOlde was thefabricator of Basil Valen tine ’s works,

or at least of part of them ha s been indicated by Dr .

Ferguson , of Glasgow,in his n otes on Dr . Young ’s

collection of alchemical works . ThOlde,it appears

,had

written a book in his own name entitled Haliog r aph ia .

This is divided into four sections , namely : 1 . Variouskinds of Salts . 2 . Extraction of Salts . 3 . Salt Springs .4 . Salts obtained from metals , minerals , animals , andvegetables . This Part 4 of the work wa s subsequentlypublished by ThOlde among Basil Valentine ’s writings .One of two things therefore is obvious . Either ThOld eadopted a work by Valentine and i ssued it as his own

,

or one at least of the pieces alleged to have been byValentine was really by ThOlde .

230 CHRON ICLE S OF PH ARMACY

Basil Valentine , mean i ng the valiant king , hasassuredly an alchemical ring about it . It is exactlysuch a name as might be invented by one of the

scientific fiction i s ts of the midd le ages .’

It is impossible,

too,to read the Triumphal Chariot

,

” at least when s u s

p icion ha s been awakened,without feeling that the

character of the piou s monk i s a little overdone . Areally devout monk would hardly b e proclaiming hispiety on every page with s o much vehemence . Thenthere is the legend which accounts for the long lostmanuscripts . It is explained that they were revealedto someone

,unnamed

,when a pillar in a church at

Erfurt was struck and split open by lightning,the

manuscripts having been bur ied in that pillar . Whenthis happened is not recorded .

In Kopp ’s Beitrage zur Geschichte der Chemie thelearned author argued thatThOld e could only be regardeda s an editor of Basil Valentine’s works

,because when

they were published they gave so many new chemicalfacts and observations that it was impossible to

'

thinkthat ThOld e wou ld have denied himself the credit of thediscoveries if they had been his in fact. That book waspublished in 1 87 5 . In “ Die Alchemie , which Kopppublished in 1 886

,he refers to Basil Valentine , and says

that there i s reason to think that the Works attributedto him were an intentional literary deception perpetratedby ThO’ld e.

PARACELSUS : HI S CAREER .

N0 one man in history exercised such a revolutionaryinfluence on medicine and pharmacy a s the erraticgenius Philipu s Au r eolu s Theophrastus Bombast vonHohenheim . The name Paracelsus is believed to havebeen coined by himself, probably with the intention of

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232 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY

In the Tyrolese min es Paracelsus learned much aboutminerals , about diseases , and about men . Then hetravelled through various parts of Europe

,paying h i s

way by his medical and surgical skill,or

,as his enemies

said , by conj uring and necromancy . He states that hewa s in the wars in Venice

,Denmark

,and the Nether

lands;it is supposed as an army surgeon , for heafterward s declared that he then learned to cure fortydiseases of the body . He boasted that he learned fromgypsies

,physicians , barbers , execution ers , and from all

kinds of people . He claims also to have been inTartary , and to have accompanied the Khan

’s son toConstantinople . Van Helmont tells us that it was inthis city that he met an adept who gave him thephilosopher ’ s stone . Other chroniclers relate that thisadept was a certain Solomon Tr i smen s inu s

,who also

possessed the elixir of life,and had been met with some

two hundred years later .Although Paracelsus in his writings appears to hold

the current belief in the transmutation of metals,and

in th e possibility of producing medicines capable ofindefinitely prolonging life , he was ted no energy indreaming abou t these , as the alchemists generally did .

The production of gold does not seem to have interestedhim

,and his aims in medicine were always eminently

practical . It i s true that he named his compoundscatholicons

,elixirs

,and panaceas

,but they were all real

remedies for specific complaints;and in the treatmentof these he must have been marvellously successful .Whether he ever went to Tartary or not

,and whether

he served in any wars or not , may be doubtful . Hiscritics find no evidence of acquaintance with foreignlanguages or customs in his works , and they do findindications of very elementary notions of geography .

MA STERS IN PHARMACY

But it is certain that for ten years he was peregrinatingsomewhere if h i s travels were confined to Germany theeffect was th e same . G ermany was big enough to teachhim . Passionately eager to wrest from Nature all hersecrets

,gifted with extraordinary powers of observa

tion and imagin ation,with unbounded confidence in

himself,and bold even to recklessness a s an exper i

menter,this was a man who could not be suppressed .

Armed with h i s new and powerful drugs,and n ot afraid

to administer them , cures were inevitable;other con

sequences also,i n all probability .

When,therefore , Paracelsus arrived at Basel , in the

year 1 52 5 , in the thirty—second year of h i s age , his famehad preceded him . Probably he was backed by highInfluence . According to his own account he had curedeighteen princes during his travels

,and some of these

may have recommend ed him to th e Un iv er ity au thori

ties . It i s to the credit of Paracelsu s that he waswarmly supported by the saintly priest (Ecolampad iu s

(Hausschein), who subsequently threw in his lot withthe reformers . Besides being appointed to the chairof medicine and surgery

,Paracelsus was made city

phys i ci an .

His lectures were such as had n ever been heard beforeat a university . He began h i s course by burning theworks of Galen and Av icenna in a chafing dish

,and

denouncing the slav ish reli ance on authority which at

that time characterised medical teaching and practice .

He taught from his own experience,and he gave his

lectures in German . Many quotations of his boastfulutterance have been handed down to

,

us,and they match

well with what we know of him from his recognisedwritings . All th e universities had less experience thanhe , and the very down on his n eck was more learned

234 CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY

than all the authors . He likened himself to Hippocratesthe one ancient whom he esteemed . He contrasted himself with the doctors in white gloves who feared to soiltheir fingers in the laboratory . Follow me

,

” he cried“ not I you

,Avicenna

,Galen

,Rhazes

,Montagnana

,

Mes ue,and ye others . Ye of Paris

,of Montpellier

,of

Swabia , of Cologne , of Vienna;from the banks of theDanube

,of the Rhine

,fr om the islands of the seas , from

Italy,Dalmatia

, Sarmatia , and Athen s , Greeks , Arabs ,Israelites . I shall be the monarch

,and mine shall be

the monarchy .

”

In h i s capacity as city physician he naturally createdmany enemies among his fellow practitioners . Hisfriends said he cured the cases which they found hopeless;they said he only gave temporary relief at thebest

,and that his remedies Often killed the patients .

He fell foul,too

,of the apothecaries . He denounced

their drugs and their ignorance . The three years hespent in Basel must have been lively both for him andhis opponents .

“ In the beginning,he says

,

“ I threw myself withfervent zeal on th e teachers . But when I saw thatnothing resulted from their practice but killing , laming ,and distorting;that they deemed most complaintsincurable;and that they administered scarcely anything b u t syrups

,laxatives

,purgatives

,and oatmeal

gruel,with everlasting clysters

,I determined to aban

don such a miserable ar t and seek truth elsewhere .

”

Again he says : “ The apothecaries are my enemiesbecause I will not empty their boxes . My recipes areSimple and do not call for forty or fifty ingredientsI seek to cure the sick

,not to enrich the apothecaries .

His career at Basel was brought to a close by adispu te with a preb ’endary of the cathedral named

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23 6 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY

and his generosity to the poor in the followingterms

Cond itu r hic Philippu s Theophr a s tu s , in s ign i s Med icinae Doctor,

qu i dir a illa vu lner a , lep r am, podag r am,hyd r opos im,

aliaque in s anabilia con tagia mi r ificu ar te s u s tuli t;ac bona s u a in pau per es d i s

tr ib uenda collocandaqu e h onor av i t. An no 1 5 41,d ie 24 Sep temb r .

vitam cum mor te mu tav i t.

”

(“ H er e lies Philippu s Theoph r a s tu s , th e famou s Doctor of

Medicine,who by h i s wonder fu l ar t cu r ed the wor s t wou nd s

,

lepr os y, gou t, dr op s y, an d other di s ea s es deemed in cu r able and to

h i s honou r,s har ed h i s po s s es s ion s with the poor .

Among the contemporaries of Paracelsus were Luther,

Columbus,and Copernicus . Their names alone are

sufficient to show how the long - suppressed energy ofthe human intellect wa s at that period bursting forth .

These four men were perhaps the greatest emancipatorsof the human race from the chains of slavish obedienceto authority i n the past thousand years . Paracelsuswas not

,s o far a s i s known

,a Lutheran Protestant .

But he could not help sympathising with his heroiccountryman . The enemies of Luther

,

” he wrote,are

to a great extent fanatics , knaves , bigots , and rogues .You call me a medical Luther

,but you do not intend

to honour me by giving me that name . Th e enemiesof Luther are those whose kitchen prospects are interfer ed with by his reforms . I leave Luther to d efendwhat he says

,as I will defend what I say . That which

you wish for Luther you wish for me;you wish u s

both to the fire .” There was,indeed

,much in common

between these two independ ent souls .Columbus landed in the Western world the year

before Paracelsus was born . Luth er burnt the Pope’

sBull at Wittenberg in 1 520

,and it was this action of

h i s which at the time at least thrilled the Germannation more than any other event in the history of

MA STERS OF PHARMACY

the Reformation . It is evident that Paracelsus , inimitating th e conduct of h i s famou s contemporary , wa sonly demonstrating his conviction that scientific , noless than religious

,thought needed to free itself from

the shackles of tyrannic trad ition .

HI S CHARACTER .

Such details of the personality of Paracelsus as havecome down to u s were written by his enemies . Erastus ,a theologian as well as a physician , who may have metParacelsus

,and who fiercely attacked his system

,de

pr eciates him on hearsay, Bu t Oper inu s , a disciplewho had such reverence for him that when Paracelsusleft Basel

,h e accompanied him and was with him night

and day for two years,wrote a letter about him after

his death to which it is impossible hot to attach greatimportance .In this letter Opermu s expresses the most unbounded

admiration of Par acels u s’

s medical skill of the certaintyand promptitude of his cures;and especially of the“ miracles he per formed

'

in the treatment of malignantulcers . But

,adds Oper inu s ,

“ I never discovered inhim any piety or erudition .

” He had never seen himpray . He was a s contemptuous of Luther as he wa s ofthe Pope . Said no one had discovered the true meaning or got at the kernel of the Scriptures .During the two years he lived with him

, Op er inu s

declares Paracelsus was almost constantly drunk . Hewas scarcely sober two hours at a time . He would goto taverns and challenge the peasantry to drink againsthim . When he had taken a quantity of wine

,he

would put his finger in ‘

h i s throat and vomit . Thenhe could start again . And yet Op er inu s also reports

238 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY

how perpetu ally he worked in his laboratory . The firethere was always burning , and something was bein gprepared

,some sublimate or arsenic

,some safran

'

ofiron

,or his marvellous opodeldoch .

”

Moreover,how

ever drunk he might be he could always dictate,and

Oper inu s says“ h i s ideas were as clear and consecutive

as those of the most sober could be .

”

According to this same letter Paracelsus had been anabstainer until he wa s 25 . He cared nothing for women .

Oper inu s had never known him undress . He wouldlie down with his sword by his side

,and in the night

would sometimes spring up and slash at the walls andceiling. When his clothes got too dirty he would takethem off and give them to the first passer

,and buy

new ones . How he got his money Oper inu s did notknow. At n ight he often had not an obolus in themorning he would have a new purse filled with gold .

It is not easy to form a fair j udgment of Paracelsusfrom thi s sketch . Many writers conclude that Oper inu swa s spiteful because Paracelsus would not tell him h i s

secrets . More likely Oper inu s left h i s master becausehis religious sentiments were shocked by him. Paracelsus was evidently a born mocker

,and it may be that

he took a maliciou s delight in making his disciple’s flesh

creep . Oper inu s gives an instance of the levity withwhich h i s master treated serious subj ects . He was sentfor one day to see a poor person who was very ill . Hi s

first question wa s wheth er th e patient had taken anything .

“ He ha s taken the holy sacrament,

” was thereply . Oh

,very well , said Paracelsus ,

“ if he hasanother physician he has no need of me . I thinkOper inu s wrote in good faith , b u t the stories of thedoctor’s drunkenness mu s t have been exaggerated . Iti s inconceivable that he could have been so constantly

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240 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY

Butler’s verse (in Hudibras may be taken to r ep r esent the popular view held about Paracelsus after thefirst enthusiasm of h i s followers had cooled down

Bomb as tu s kept a Devil ’s bir d,

Shu t in the pommel of h i s s wor d,

That taught him all th e cunn ing pr ank sOf pa s t an d fu tu r e moun tebank s .

German studies of Paracelsus have been verynumerous during the past fifty years

,and the general

tendency has been greatly to enhance his fame .

After the death of Paracelsus,the Archbishop of

Cologne desired to collect h i s works,many of which

were in manuscript and scattered all over Germany . Bythis time there were many treatises attributed to himwhich he never wrote . It was a paying business todiscover a new document by the famous doctor . It isbelieved that the fraudulent publications were far morenumerous than the genuine ones

,and it is quite possible

that inj ustice has been done to his memory by theassociation with his name of some other peoples ’ absa rd ities .

HI S MYSTICISM .

The mystic views of Paracelsus , or those attributed tohim

,are curious rather than useful . He seemed to

have had as much ”capacity for belief a s he had disbelief in other philosophers ’ speculations . He believedin gnomes in the interior of the earth

,undines in the

seas,sylphs in the air

,and salamanders in fire . These

were the Elementals,beings composed of soul - substance

,

but not necessarily influencing our lives . The Elementalsknow only the mysteries of the particular element inwhich they live . There i s life in all matter . Everymineral

,vegetable

,and animal has its astral body .

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That of th e minerals is called Stannar or Tr ug hat ofthe vegetable kingdom

,Leffas ;while the astral bodies

of animals are their Eves tra . The Ev es tr um may travelabout apart from its body;it may live long after thedeath of the body . Ghosts are

,in fact , th e Ev es tr a of

the departed . If you commit suicide the Ev es tr umdoes not recognise the act;it goes on as if the bodywere going on also until its appoin ted time .

Man i s a microcosm the universe is the macrocosm .

Not that they are comparable to each other;they areone In reality

,divided only by form . If you are not

spiritually enlightened you may not be able to perceivethis . Each plant on earth has it s star . There is a stellaab s inth ii , a stella r or i smar in i . If we could compile a

complete herbarium spirituale s ider eum we should befully equipped to treat disease . Star influences alsoform our soul - essences . This accounts for our varyingtemperaments and talents .The material part of man

,the liv ing body

,is the

Mumia . This is managed by the Archaeus,which rules

over everybody;it i s the v ital principle . It providesthe internal balsam which heals wounds or diseases

,and

controls the action of the various organs .Hi s theories of mercury

,sulphur

,. and salt

,a s the

constituents of all things,seem at first likely to lead to

something conceivable if not credible . But before wegrasp the idea we are switched off in to the spiritualworld again . It is the sidereal mercury

,sulphur

,and

salt,spirit

,soul

,and body

,to which he is alluding .

HI s CHEMICAL AND PHARMACEUTICAL INNOVATIONS .

These fantastic notions permeate all the medicaltreatises of Paracelsus . But every now and then thereV OL. I R

242 CHRONICLES OF PHARMACY

are indications of keen insight which go some waytowards explaining his success a s a physician;for itcannot be doubted that he did effect many remarkablecures . Hi s European fame was not won by mere boasting. Hi s treatise

,Dc Mor bi s ea: Ta r ta r e or iunolu s

,is

admittedly full of sound sense .

Some of his chemical Observation s are startling fortheir anticipations of later discoveries . If there wereno air

,he says

,all living beings would die . There

must be air for wood to burn . Tin,calcined

,increases

in weight;some air is fixed on the metal . Whenwater and sulphuric acid attack a metal there is efferv es cence that is due to the escape of some air fromthe water . He calls metals that have rusted

,dead .

Saffron of Mars (the peroxide)i s dead iron . Verdigrisi s dead copper. Red oxide of mercury i s dead mercury.

But,he adds , these dead metals can be r ev ivified ,

reduced to the metallic state,

” are his exact words

(and it i s to be noted that he was the first chemistto employ the term reduce in this sense), by meansof coal . Elsewhere he describes digestion as a solutionof food;putrefaction as a transmutation . He knewhow to separate gold from silver by nitric acid; It isquite certain that the writer of Par acels u s ’s works wasa singularly observant and intelligent chemist . He had“ a wolfi s h hunger afte r knowledge ,

” says Browning .

“ Have you heard,

” wrote Gui Patin to a friend ahundred years after the death of the famous revolu tionar y ,

“that ‘ Paracelsus ’ is being printed at

Geneva in four volumes in folio " What a ' shame thats o wicked a book should find presses and printers whichcannot be found for better things . I would rath er seethe Koran printed . It would not deceive so manypeople . Chemistry is the false money of our profession .

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244 CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY

concerned,they were compiled about fifty years after

the death of Paracelsus,and at the time when his fame

was at its zenith . Many of the allusions to antimonycontained in those treatises might have been collectedfrom the traditions of the master’s conversations and

writings,much from his immediate disciples

,and the

whole skilfully blended by a literary artist .Paracelsus praises highly h i s magistery of antimony

,

the essence,the arcanum

,the virtue of antimony . Of

this,he says

, you will find no account in your book s ofmedicine . This i s how to prepare it . Take care at theoutset that nothing corrupts the antimony but keep itentire without any change of form . For under thisform the arcanum lies concealed . No deadhead mustremain

,but it must be reduced by a third cohobation

into a third nature . Then the arcanum i s yielded .

Dose,4 grains taken with quintessence of melissa .

His Lilium,

” or tinctura metallor um,given as an

alterative and for many complaints,was formulated in

a very elaborate way by his disciples , but simplified itconsisted of antimony

,4,tin 1

,copper 1

,melted

together in a crucible,the alloy powdered

,and combined

(in the crucible) with nitre 6 , and cream of tartar 6 ,added gradually. The mixture while still hot wastransferred to a matrass containing strong alcohol 32 ,digested

,and filtered .

Besides mercury and antimony,of which he made

great use,iron

,lead

,copper

,and arsenic were among

the mineral medicines prescribed by him. He made anarseniate of potash by heating arsenic with saltpetre .He had great faith in vitriol

,and the spirit which he

extracted from it by distillation . This “ spirit heagain distilled with alcohol and thereby produced anethereal solution .

‘His “s pecificum purgans ” was

MASTERS IN PHARMACY

afterwards said to be s ulphate ‘

of potash . He r ecom

mended sublimed s ulphu r in inflammatory maladies ,saffron of Mars in dysentery , and salts of tin againstworms .Whether his formulas were purposely obscure in so

many cases,or whether mystery is due to th e carelessness

or ignorance of the copyists cannot be known . Much ofhis chemical and pharmaceutical advice is clear enoug h .

Honey he extols as a liquor rather divine thanhuman

,inasmuch as it falls from heaven upon the

herbs . To g et it s quintessence you are to distil from itin a capacious retort amuld , red like blood . This 1 sdistilled over and over again in a bain mariae until youget a liquid of the colour of gold and of such pleasantOdour that the like cannot be found in the world . Thisqu intessence i s itself good for many things , but from 1t

the precious potable gold may be nfade. The ju lce of alemon with this quintessence will dissolve leaf gold inwarm ashes in forty- eight hours . With this Paracelsussays he has effected many wond erful cures which peoplethought he accomplished by enchantment. Elsewherehe speaks of an arcanum drawn from vitriol which isso excellent that he prefers it to that drawn fromgold .

He refers with great respect to alchemy and the truealchemists , but with considerable shrewdness in regardto their professions of transmuting other metals intogold . He considered it remarkable that a man shouldbe able to convert one substance into another in a fewshort days or weeks , while Nature requires y ears tobring about a similar result but he will not deny thepossibility . What he in sists on

,however

,is that from

metals and fire most valu able remedies can be Obtainedand the apothecary who does not understand th e right

246 CHRONICLE S OF PHARMACY

way of producing these i s but a servant in the kitchen,

and not a master cook .

Hellebore was an important medicine with Paracelsus .The white

,he said

,wa s suitable for persons under 50,

the black for persons over 50. Physicians ought tounderstand that Nature provides different medicines forOld and for young persons

,for men and for women .

Th e ancient physicians , although they d id not know howto get the essence of the hellebore

,had discovered its

value for old persons . They found that people whotook it after 50 became younger and more vigorous .Their method was to gather the hellebore when themoon was in one of the signs of conservation

,to dry it

in an east wind,to powder it and mix with it its own

weight of sugar. The dose of this powder was as muchas could be taken up with three fingers night andmorning . The vaunted essence was simply a spirituoustin ctu re . It was more effective if mistletoe , pellitoryand peony seeds were combined with i t. It was a greatremedy for epilepsy

,gout

,palsy and dropsy . In the

first it not merely purges out the humours , but drivesaway the epileptic body itself. The root must begathered in the wan ing of the moon

,when it is in the

sign Libra , and on a Friday .

Paracelsus made balsam from herbs by digesting themin their own moisture until they p utr efied , and thendistilling the pu tr efied material . He obtained anumber of essential Oils and used them freely as

quintessences . He defines quintessences thus — Everysubstance is a compound of various elements

,among

which there is one which dominates the others,and

impresses its own character on the compound . Thisdominating element

,disengaged

,i s the quintessence .

Th is term he obtained from Aristotle.

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248 CHRONICLES OF PHARMACY

He had abundant faith in animal remed ies . HisC onfectio Anti—Ep ileptica ,

formulated by h i s interpreter , Oswald Cr olliu s , is a s follows —First get threehuman skulls from men who have died a violent deathand have not been buried . Dr y in the air andcoarsely crush . Then place In a retort and apply a

P ARACELSUS (B).

gradually increasing heat . The liquor that passedov er was to be distilled three times over the samefaeces . Eight ounces of this liquor were to be slowlydistilled with 3 drachms each of species of d iamu s k

,

ca s tor um,and anacar d ine honey . To the distilled liquor

4 scruples of liquor of pearls and one scruple of oilof vitriol were to be a dded . Of the resulting medicine

MASTERS IN PHARMACY

one teaspoonful was to be’

taken in the morning ,fasting

,by epileptic subj ects

,for n ine days con

s ecu tiv ely .

An Arcanum Cor allinum of Paracelsu s which wasIncluded in some of the earlier London Pharmacopoeias ,

PARACELSUS (C).

was simply precipi tate prepared in a specialmanner . The Committee of th e College of Physicianswhich s at in 1 745 to revise that work rej ected th isproduct with the remark that an arcanum wa s not asecret known only to some adept

,b u t wa s simply a

medicine which produces its effect by some hiddenproperty . (This might be said of many medicines now

250 CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY

as well as then .) They recognised , however , thatParacelsus , whose supercilious ignorance merits ourscorn and indignation ,

” did use the term in the sense ofa secret remedy .

The Pharmacy of Paracelsus is s o frequently referredto in other sections of this book that it is not necessaryto deal with it here at greater length . It i s evident

,

however , that some of the formulas he devised , some ofthe names he coined, and some of the theories he ad

v anced have entered into our daily practice;and eventhe dogmas now obsolete which are sometimes quoted tos how how superior is our knowledge to his

,served to

quicken thoug ht and speculation .

PORTRAITS OF P ARACELs u s .

Th e por tr aits of Par acels u s to b e found in old book s , as well a s s omecelebr ated pain tings , ar e cu r iou s ly var iou s a s liken e s s es . Th e olde s t andby far th e mos t fr equ en t r epr es entation of h im on title pages of h i s wor k si s mor e or les s s imilar t o th e por tr ait mar ked A, p . 247 . This par ticu lardr awing wa s copied fr om on e in th e pr in t r oom of th e Br itis hMu s eum. Por tr ait B i s copied fr om a pain ting attr ibu ted to Ruben swhich wa s for a long time in th e Duke of Mar lbor ough ’

s collectionat Blenheim. I t wa s s old publicly in 1886 in London for £1 25

and i s now in th e “ Collection Kums ”at Antwer p . Ther e i s a s imilar

pain ting, believed to b e a copy of th is on e, in th e Bodleian Libr ar y at

Oxfor d .

In th e year 1875 , at an exhibition of his tor ical pain tings held at Nan cy(Fr an ce), a pain ting “

attr ibu ted to Alber t Dur er , ” an d bear ing h i s

name in a car tou che,was exh ibited and des cr ibed a s Por tr ait pr es ume

d e P ar acels e .

”I t wa s n ot a copy b u t was unmis takably th e s ame per s on

a s th e one s hown in the pain ting of Ruben s . I t came fr om a pr ivatecollection an d was s old to a local dealer for fr an cs , and afterwar d sdis pos ed of to an unkn own s tr anger for fr an c s . I t has n ot beentr aced s in ce . Dii r er died in 1 528 (thir teen year s befor e th e date of th ed eath of Par acels u s ). Ther e i s n o mention of this liken e s s in any of h i sletter s . I t may have been th e wor k of one of h i s pupils .

Th e thir d por tr ait (C)wh ich i s u n like either of th e oth er s pr ofe s s e s toh ave been pain ted fr om life (“ Tintor etto ad V ivum pinxit ”

) by JacopeRobu s ti, mor e common ly kn own a s Tin tor etto . Th e or iginal h as n ot

been fou nd , an d th e ear lies t pr int fr om it wa s a copper -plate engr avingin a collection is s u ed by Biti s kiu s of Gen eva in 1658 . Th e pictu r e h er eg iven i s a r edu ced copy of that engr aving fr om a phototype made byMe s s r s . Anger er and GO

’

s chl,of Vienna , an d publi s hed in a valuable

wor k by th e late Dr . Car l Aber le in 1890 en titled Gr abdenkmal ,S ch adel, und Abbildungen d e'

s Th eoph r as tu s Par acels u s . Th e publi s h er

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25 2 CHRON ICL ES OF PHARMACY

cha r itably j udge them. E ither th e v i r tu e of th e hellebor e will flyaway in s u ch a mar tydom

,or el s e i t will r emain in th e d ecoction .

If it evapor ate away,then i s th e medicine good for n othing;if i t

r emain in i t i s en ough to s poil th e s tr onges t man living. Be

cau s e it i s too s tr ong. Becau s e i t i s not cor r ected in th e

lea s t . An d becau s e th ey have not cor r ected that, I take leave tocor r ect them.

”

This passage is not selected as a favourable specimenof Culpepper

’

s pharmaceutical skill,but as a sample of

CULr EP P ER .

(Fr om an old book of his .)

the manner in which he Often rates “ the College . Hi s

own opinions are Open to quite as severe criticism . Alarge part of h i s lore i s astrological;and he is veryconfident about the doctrine of signatures . But hekn ew herbs well , and his general advice is sound .

Perhaps many of those who have studied his workshave formed th e idea that he was a bent Old man with

MASTERS IN PHARMACY

a long g rey beard , who busied himself with th e

collection of simples . He was,in fact

,a soldier

,and

died at the early age of 88 . Hi s portraits and thedescriptions of him by his astrological friends representhim as a smart

,brisk young London er

,fluent in speech

and animated in gesture,gay in company

,but with

frequent fits of melancholy,an extraordinarily good

conceit of himself,and plenty of reason for it .

Culpepper lived in the stirring times of the Civil War,

and fought on one side or the other , it is not certainwhich . Mos t ' likely ,

j udging from the frequent piou s

CULP EP P ER’

S HOUSE .

(F r om an old book of his .)

expressions in h i s works,he wa s a Parliamentarian

.He

was severely wounded in the chest in one of the battles,

but it i s not known in which . It i s probable that it wasthis wound which caused the lung disease from which hedied .

Such information as we have of Culpepp er’

s career isgathered from his own works

,and from some brutal

attacks on him in certain public prints.He describes

himself on the title-pages of some of his big books as

M.D. , but there is no evidence that he ever graduated .

He lived , at least during' his married life

,at Red Lion

Street , Sp italfield s , and there he carried on h i s medical

25 4 CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY

practice . Probably it wa s a large one,for he evidently

unde r stood the art of advertising himself. He claimsto have been the only doctor in London at the timewho gave advice gratis to the poor

,and h i s frequ ent

comments on the cost of the pharmacopoeia preparationssuggest that the maj ority of his patients were not of thefashionable clas s .Nicholas Cu lpepper wa s apprenticed to an apothecary

in Great St. Helen ’s,Bishopsgate

,and at the same time

a certain Marchmont Nedham was a solicitor’s clerk inJewry Street . Nedham became the most notoriousj ournalist in England

,and founded and edited in turn

the Mer cu r iu s B r i tann icu s,an anti - royalist paper

,the

Mer cu r iu s P r agma ticu s violently anti -Commonwealth ,and the Mer cu r iu s P oli tica s

,subsidised by Cromwell’s

government,and supervised by Mr . John Milton . This

publication , amalgamated with the P u blic In telli

g ence/r,i ts principal rival , has descended to us as the

Lond on Ga z ette. Probably Nedham and Culpepperwere friends in their early days

,and they may have been

comrades in arms when the war broke ou t . But ev i

d ently they became fierce enemies later. In Eller cu r iu sP r a gma ticu s Nedham,

pretending to review Culp epper’

s

translation Of the Official Dispensatory , takes theopportunity of pouring on him a tirade of scurrilousabuse . The translation , he says ,

“ i s filth ily done ,”

which was certainly not true . This is the only piece ofcriticism in the article . The rest deals with the authorpersonally . Nedham informs h i s readers that Culpepperwa s the son of a Surrey parson ,

“ one of those whodeceive men in matters belonging to their most precioussouls ”

That meant that he was a Nonconformist.Nicholas himself

,according to Nedham

,had been an

Independ ent,a Brownist, an Anabaptist , a Seeker , and

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25 6 CHRONICLES,

OF PHARMACY

raised enemies for h im at court . The king,who v alued

Turquet,did his best to persuade him to conform to the

Church ofRome as he himself had done,and to moderate

the ran cour of his professional foes . Bu t he was-

u ns uc

ces s ful in both efforts . Still Henri tried to keep him,

ignoring his heresies,and perhaps rather sympathising

with them . But the queen,Marie de Medici

,insisted

on Tu r qu et’

s dismissal,and the Faculty of Paris was no

whit behind the queen in intolerance . Coupling himwith a quack named Pierre Pena

,a foreigner then

practising medicine illicitly at Par is,they issued a decree

forbidding all physicians who acknowledged theircontrol to consult with De Tu r qu er , and exhortingpractitioners of all nations to avoid him and all similarpests

,and to persevere in the doctrines of Hippocrates

and Galen .

Turquet de Mayer ne came to England evidently witha high reputation

,for he was soon appointed first

physician to the king (James I) and queen , and held thesame position under Charles I and Charles II . Heseems to have kept in retirement during the Commonwealth

,though in 1 628 it appears from his manuscript

records Eph emerides An g licae,” he called them) that

he was consu lted by a “ Mons . Cromwell whom hedescribes as Valde melancholicu s .

” He di ed atChelsea in 1 6 5 5 at th e

’

ag e of 82 . It was in Englandthat he used the name of Mayer n e .

‘De Mayer ne exercised a considerable influence onEnglish pharmacy . The Society of

‘

Apothecar ies owedto h im their separate incorporation

,and the first London

Pharmacopoeia was compiled and authorised probably tosome extent at h i s instigation . He certainly wrote thepreface to it . Paris quotes him a s prescribing amongabsurd and disgusting remedies “ the secundines of a

MASTERS IN P HARMACY 257

woman in her first labour of a male child,the bowels of

a mole cut open alive,and th e mummy made of the

lungs of a man who had died a violent death .

”

Bu t suchremedies were common to all practitioners in England andFrance at the time . The principal ingredient in a goutpowder which he composed was the raspings of an un

buried human skull . He devised an ointmen t for hypochondria which was called the Balsam of Bats . It contained add ers

,bats

,sucking whelps

,earthworms

,hog’s

grease,marrow of a stag , and the thigh bone of an ox .

On the other hand,May er n e is creditedwith the in tr oduc

tion of calomel and black wash into medical practice .

V AN HELMONT.

Jean Baptiste Van Helmont, born at Brussels in

1 5 7 7 , and died at Vilvorde near that city in 1 644 ,was

an erratic genius whose w r itln g s and experiments sometimes astonish us by their lucidity and insight

,and

again baffle us by their mysticism and puerility .

Van Helmont was of aristocratic Flemish descent,

and possessed some wealth . He was a voracious studentand a brilliant lecturer . At the University of Louvain

,

however,where he spent several years

,he refused to take

any degree b ecause he believed that such academic distinction s only mini stered to prid e . He resolved at thesame time to devote his life to the service of the poor

,

and with this in view he made over his p roperty to hi ssister

,and set himself to study medicine . His gift of

exposition was so great that the au thorities of theUniversity Ins i sted on his acceptan ce of the chair ofSurgery , though that was th e branch of medical practicehe kn ew least about

,and though it was contrary to th e

V OL. I s

25 8 CHRONICLES OF PHARMACY

statutes of th e faculty to appoint a person as Professornot formally qualified .

For a time things went well,but Van Helmont got

tired of medical teaching before the University becametired of him . The particular occasion which disgustedhim with medical science was that he contractedth e itch , and though he consulted many eminent

J . B . V AN H ELMONT . 1 5377— 1644.

(Fr om an engr av ing in th e Bibliothequ e Nationale , Par is .)

physicians could not get cured of i t. He came to thecon clusion that the pretended ar t of healing was a fraud

,

and he consequently resolved to shake the dust of itfrom his feet

,after he had recovered from the weaken

ing effects of the purgat ives which had been prescribedfor his complaint .Then he set forth on his travels

,and in the course of

them he “

met with a quack who cured him of his itch

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260 CHRONICLES OF PHARMACY

an imals . He alludes to other kinds of vapour, bu t

does not precisely defin e them . Th e carbon dioxide henamed “

g a s sylvestre .

”

This was the first use of the term gas . Hunes pir itum,

hactenu s ignotum,novo nomine gas voco .

”

(I call this spirit , heretofore unknown , by the new namegas .) What suggested this name to him is not certain .

Some have supposed that it was a modification of theFlemish

, g ees t, spirit by others it is traced to the verb

g a s chen ,to boil

,or ferment and by many its deriva

tion from chaos is assumed .

Hi s physiology was a modification of that of Paracelsus . An Archeus within ruled the organi s m withth e assistance of s ub -archei for d ifl

'

er en t parts of thebody . Fermen ts stirred these archei into activity. Inthis way th e processes of digestion were accounted for .Th e vital spirit , a kind of gas , causes th e pulsation ofthe arteries . The Soul of Man he assigned to thestomach . The exact locality of this important adjunctwas a subj ect of keen discussion among the ph ilos o

ph er s of that age . Van Helmont’s conclusive argument for the stomach as its habi tation wa s th e undoubtedfact that trouble or bad news had the effect of destroying the appetite .

GLAUBER

John Rudolph Glauber,who was born at Carlstadt

,in

Germany,in 1 603

,con tributed largely to pharmaceutical

knowledge,and deserv es to be remembered by h i s many

investigations,and perhaps even more for the clear

common sense which he brought to bear on his chemicalwork . For though he retained a confident belief in thedreams of alchemy

,he does not appear to have let that

belief interfere with his practical labour;and some of

MA STERS IN PHARMACY

his processes were so well devised that they have hardlybeen altered from h i s day to ours .Not much is known of his histor y except what he

himself wrote or wh at was related of him by his contemporaries . According to his own account he tookto chemistry when as a young man he g ot cured of atroublesome stomach complaint by drinking some mineral waters . Eager to discover what was th e essentialchemical in those waters to which he owed his health hes et to work on his experiments . The result was thediscovery of s ulphate of soda

,which he called Sal

admir ab ile,

” but which all subsequent generations haveknown as Glauber’s Salts . This

,it happens

,was the one

of his discoveries of which he was not particularly vain,

for he supposed that he had only obtained from anothersource Par acels u s ’s sal en ixon

,which was in fact sul

phate of potash . Hi s own account of this discovery isnecessarily of pharmaceutical interest . He gives it inlllS /Wofl i Dc Na tu r a S a lt/am

,as follows

I n th e cou r s e of my you thfu l tr avel s I wa s attacked a t V ienn awith a violen t fever known ther e a s the H ungar ian d is ea s e , towhich s tr anger s a r e es pecia lly liable. My en feebled s tomach r e

jected all food. On the advice of s ever a l fr iend s I dr agged my s elfto a cer tain s pr ing s ituated about a leagu e fr om New s tad t. I h adb r ought with me a loaf of br ead

,b u t with no hope of being able to

eat i t . Ar r ived at th e s pr ing I took th e loaf fr om my pocket andmade a hole in i t s o that I cou ld u s e i t a s a cup . A s I dr ank th ewater my appetite r etu r ned, an d I ended by eating the impr ov is edcup in its tu r n . I made s ever al vi s its to th e s pr ing and wa s s oonmir acu lou s ly cur ed of my illnes s . I a s ked what was th e n a tu r e ofthe water an d wa s told it was s alpeter -wa s s er .

”

Glauber was twenty- one at that time,and knew

nothing of chemistry . Later he analysed the water and

g ot from it , after evaporation , longC

cr y s tals , which , hesays , a superficial Observer might confuse with saltpetrebut he soon s atis fied h imself that it was something

2 6 2 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY

quite different . Subsequently he obtained an identicalsalt from the residue in his retort after distilling marin esalt and vitriol to obtain spirit of salt . As already

I n th e s even teen th an d eighteen th cen tu r ies th e s ign of Glauber ’sH ead appear s to have been u s ed in this coun tr y by s ome chemicalmanu factur er s . Th e pictu r e ann exed i s fr om one of t hes e s ign s wh i chwa s u s ed mor e than a hu ndr ed year s ag o by S linger an d Son ,

of Yor k ,and i s now in th e pos s es s ion of Me s s r s . Raimes an d Co .

,of th at city, who

have kindly given me a photogr aph of it . I t i s a wooden bu s t Wt h was

on ce gilded,an d pr es umably pr e s en ts th e tr aditional liken es s of th e

famou s German chemi s t .

stated,he believed he had produced the s alen ixon of

Paracelsus . But in memory of th e benefit he hadhimself experienced from its u s e he gave it the title ofs almirabile .”

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26 4 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY

sell nor publish . It was that of the Alkahest,or

universal solvent . To make this known might,he

feared,

“ encourage the luxury,pride

,and godlessness

of poor humanity .

”

Oliver Cromwell wrote in an old volume of Glauber’sAlchemy ° “ This Glauber i s an errant knave . I doeb eth inke me he speaketh of wond ers which cannot beaccomplished;b ut it i s lawful for man too the en

d eavou r .

”

Glauber complained that he was not appreciated,

which was probably true . I grieve over th e ignoranceof my contemporaries ,

” he wrote,and the ingratitude

of men . Men are always envious,wicked

,ungrateful .

For myself,faithful to the maxim

,Or a ct La bor a , I

fulfil my career,do what I can

,and await my reward .

Elsewhere he writes,

“ If I have not done all the goodin the world that I should have desired , it has been th eperversity of men that has hindered me .

” His em

ployee s , he says , were unfaithful . Having learned h i sprocesses

,they became inflated with pride

,and left

him . Apparently there was a good business to be donein chemical secrets at that time . Bu t Glauber did notgive away all he knew

,and he found it best to do all

h i s important work himself. “ I have learnt by expensive experience

,he wrote

,

“th e truth of th e proverb ,

‘ Wer seine Sachen will g ethan haben recht , Musss elb s ten s eyn Herr und Knecht .

’

Although all Glauber’s books appeared with Latintitles they were written i n German .

GOULARD.

Thomas Goular d was a surgeon of Montpellier withrather more than a local reputation . He was counsellor

MASTERS IN PHARMACY

to the king,perpetual mayor of th e town of Alet ,

lecturer and demon strator royal in surgery , demons tr ator royal of anatomy in the College of Physicians ,fellow of the Royal Academies of Sciences in Mont

pellier , Toulouse , Lyons , and Nancy , pensioner of theking and of the province of Languedoc for lithotomy

,

and surgeon to the Military Hospital of Montpellier .His treatise on “ The Extract of Saturn ” was publishedabout the middle of the e1g hteenth century , and hisname and the preparations he devised were soon spreadall over Europe . White lead and sugar of lead

,and

litharge a s the basis of plasters had been familiar inmedical practice for centuries ;and Galen and othergreat authorities had highly commended lead preparations for eye

,

diseases and for gen eral lotions . Th e

preparation of sugar of lead is indicated in the worksatt r ibuted to Basil Valentine . Goular d

’

s special meritconsisted in the ‘ care which he gave to th e productionof h i s “ Extract o f Saturn

,and in his intelligent ex

per iment s with it , and its variou s preparations in thetreatment ' of external complaints .Coulard made his extract of Saturn by boiling

together golden litharge and strong French wineV inegar at a moderate heat for about an hour

,stirring

all the while,and after cooling drawing Ofl for u s e the

clear supernatant liquor . Dilu ting this extract byadding 100 drops to a quart of river water with fourteaspoonfuls of brandy

,made what he called his Vegeto

Mineral Water,which he used for lotions . His cerate

of Saturn was made by melt i ng 4 oz . of wax in 1 1 oz .

of olive oil,and incorporating with this 6 lbs . of vegeto

mineral water (containing 4 oz . of extract of Saturn).A cataplasm wa s made by gently boiling th e vegetomineral water with crumb of bread . A pomatum was

”bu

26 6 CHRON ICLE S OF PH ARMACY

prepared by combining 4 oz . of the extract with acerate composed of 8 oz . of wax in 1 8 oz . of rose Ointment . This was made stronger or milder as the casemight need . There was another pomatum made withth e extract of Saturn

,sulphur

,and alum

,for the

treatment of itch;and several plasters for rheumaticcomplaints . Goular d gave full details of th e variousu ses of these applications in inflammation s , bruises ,wounds

,abscesses

,erysipelas, Ophthalmia , ulcers , can

cers,whitlows

,tetters

,piles

,itch

,and other complaints

His own experience was supported by that of othe rpractitioners .

- In giving th e results of his experience thus freelyand completely

,Goular d wa s aware of the sacrifice he

was making “ I flatter myself,

” he says,

“that the

world is in some measure indebted to me for publishingthis medicine

,which

,if concealed in my own breast ,

might have turned out much more to my privateemolument ”

;at th e same time he did not Obj ect toreap some profit from his investigations , if this couldbe done . At th e end of th e English translation of hisbook

,a copy of a document i s printed addressed to his

fellow student of fifty years before,Mr . G . Arnaud

,

practising as a surgeon in London ,engaging to supply

to him,and to him only

,a s ufli cient quantity of extract

of Saturn made by himself,to be distributed by the

said Mr . Arnaud,or by those commissioned by him ,

over all th e dominions of his British Maj esty .

SCHEELE .

Karl Wilhelm Scheele is th e most famous Of

pharmacists,and has few equals in scientific history .

He wa s the s eventh child Of a merchant at Stralsund ,

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2 6 8 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY

Scharenberg at Stockholm . His next move was toUpsala with a Mr . Lokk

,who appreciated his assistant

and gave him plenty of time for his scientific work .

Las tly,he took the management of a pharmacy at

Ko’

ping for a widow who owned it,and after an anxious

time in Clearing the business from debt,he bought the

business in 1 7 7 6 and for the rest of his short life wa sin fairly comfortable circumstances . Ill -health thenpursued him

,rheumatism and attacks of melancholy .

In th e spring of 1 7 86 , in the forty - fourth year of hisage

,after suffering for two months from a slow fever , he

d ied . Two d ays before his death he married the'

widowof his predecessor

,whose business he had rescued from

ruin,so that s h e might repossess it . A few months

later she married again .

That was Scheele’s life as a pharmacist ;patient ,plodding

,conscientious

,only moderately successful

,and

shadowed by many disappointments . The work heaccomplished as a scien tific Chemist wou ld have beenmarvellous if he had had all his time to do it in underth e actual circumstances in which it was performed itis simply incomprehen sible . A bare catalogue of hisachievements is all that can be noted here , but it mustbe remembered that he never announced any discoveryuntil he had checked his first conclusion s by repeatedand varied tests .An account of an investigation of cream of tartar

resulting in the isolation of tartaric acid was his firstpublished paper . He next made an examination offluor spar from which resulted the separation of fluor icacid . From this on the suggestion of Bergmann heproceeded to a series of experiments on black oxide ofmanganese which besides showing the many importantcombinations of the -metal led the chemist direct to h i s

MASTERS IN PHARMACY

wonderful discoveries of oxygen , chlorin e , and barytes .

This work put him on the track of the observation s s etforth in his famous work on Air and Fire .

” In this heexplained th e composition of th e atmosphere , which , hesaid

,consisted of two gases

,one of which he named

empyreal or fi r e - air,

” the same as he had obtainedfrom black oxide of manganese

,and other substances .

S CHEELE ’S PHARMACY AT KOPING .

He realised and described with much acuteness th e partthis gas played in nature , and the rest of the book contained many remarkable observations which showedhow nearly Scheele approached the new ideas whichLavoisier was to formulate only a few years later .Air and Fire was not issued till 1 7 7 7 , three years

after Priestley had demonstrated the s eparate existencend char acteris tics of whatJ

h e termed dephlogisticatedir.” Bu t it is well known that the long delay of

270 CHRONICLES OF PHARMACY

Scheele ’s printer in completing his work wa s one of thedisappointments of his life

,and there is evidence that

his discovery of oxygen wa s actually made in 1 7 7 3 , ayear before Pries tley had isolated th e same element .Both of these great experimenters missed the fullsignificance of their Observations through the confusinginfluence of th e phlogiston theory

,which neith er of

them questi oned , and which was so soon to be destroyeda s th e direct result of their labours .

Among the other investigations which Scheelecarried out were h is proof that plumbago wa s a form ofcarbon

,his invention of a new process for the manu fac

ture of calomel,his discov ery of lactic , malic , oxalic ,

citric,and gallic acids

,of glycerin ,

and his expositionof th e chemical process which yielded Prussian blue

,

with his incidental isolation of prussic acid,a substance

which he described minutely though he gives no hintwhatever to show that he knew anything of its poisonousnature .

The subj ects mentioned by no means exhaust themere titles of the work which Scheele accomplished;they are only th e more popular of h i s results . The

value of his scientific accomplishments was appreciatedin his lifetime

,but not fully until the advance Of

chemistry set them out in their true perspective . Thenit wa s realised how completely and accurately he hadfinished the many inquiries which he had taken inhand .

A PHARMACEUTICAL PANTHEON .

THE School of Pharmacy of Paris,built in 1 880

honours a number of pharmacists of h istoric fame byplacing a series of medallions on the facade of the

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27 2 CHRONICLE S OF PHARMACY

ipecacuanha , and other drugs , which it is recognisedOpened th e way for the definite separation of some ofth e most valuable of the alkaloids accomplished afterwards by Pelletier , Caventou , Rob iqu et , and others .Vauquelin published more than 2 50 scientific articles .

VAUQUELIN .

(Or ig in u nkn on n .)

Antoine Augustin Parmentier (born 1 7 37 ,died

i fter serving an apprenticeship with a pharmacist at

Montpellier,j oined the pharmaceutical service in the

army,and distinguished himself in the war in Germany

,

especially in the course of an“epidemic by which the

French soldiers suffered seriously . He was takenprisoner five times

,and at one period had to support

himself almost entirely on potatoes . On the lastoccasion he Obtained employment with a Frankfort

MASTERS IN PHARMACY

chemist named Meyer , who would have gladly kepthim with him . But Parmentier preferred to re turn tohis own country, and Obtained an appointment in thepharmacy of the Hotel des Invalides

,rising to the post

of chief apothecary there in a few years . A prizeoffered by the Academy of Besancon for the best meansof averting the calamitie s of famine was won by himin 1 7 7 1 , his German experience being utilised inh i s advocacy of th e cultiv ation of potatoes . Thesetubers

,though they had been widely cultivated

“

inFrance in th e sixteenth century , had gone entirely outof favour

,and were at that time only given to cattle .

The people had come to believe that they occasionedleprosy and various fevers . Parmentier worked withrare perseverance to combat this prej udice . He cultiv ated potatoes on an apparently hopeless p iece of landwhich th e Government placed at his disposal

,and when

the flowers appeared he made a bouquet of them andpresented it to Louis XVI

,who wore the blossoms in

his button -hole . His triumph was complete,for very

soon the potato was again cultivated all thr ough France .

The royalist favour that he had enj oyed put him insome danger duri ng the Revolution b u t in the latterdays of th e Convention

,which had deprived him of his

Official position and salary,he wa s employed to organise

the pharmaceutical se rvice of the army . He alsoinvented a syrup of grapes which he proposed to theMinister of War as a substitute for sugar during thecontinental blockade .

Th e med allions , in the order in which they appear onth e facade of the Ecole de Pharmacie , represent the

following French and foreign pharmacistsAntoine Jerome Balar d

,the discoverer of bromine

(born 1 802 , died a n ative of Montpellier ,V OL . I T

27 4 CHRONICLES OF PHARMACY

where he qualified as a pharmacist and commencedbusiness . As a student he had worked with the saltsdeposited from a salt marsh in the neighbourh ood

,and

had been struck with a coloration which certain testsgave with a solution of sulphate of soda obtained fromthe marsh . Pursuing his experiments

,he arrived at the

discovery of bromine , the element which formed thelink between chlorine and iodine . This early successwon for him a medal from the Royal Society of Londonand a professorship of chemistry at Montpellier

,and

subsequently raised him to h igh scientific positions inParis . Balar d did much more s c1entific work

,among

which wa s th e elaboration of a process for the productionof p otash salts from salt marshes . He had worked atthis for some twenty years

,and had taken patents for

his methods,when the announ cement of the discovery

of the potash deposits at Stassfurt effectually destroyedall h i s hope of commercial success .Joseph Bienaimé Caventou (born at St. Omer 1 7 9 5 ,

died 1 87 7) carried on for many years an importantpharmaceutical business in Paris . His fame rests onhis association with Pelletier in the discovery of quininein 1 820.

Joseph Pelletier (born 1 7 88 , died 1 842)was th e sonof a Paris pharmacist , and was one of th e most brilliantworkers in pharmacy known to us . He is best knownfor h i s isolation of quinin e . Either alon e , or in associa

tion with others , h e investigated the nature of ipecacuanha ,

nux vomica,colchicum

,cevadilla , hellebore ,

pepper,opium

,and other drugs

,and a long series of

alkaloids is credited to him. He also contributedvaluable researches on cochineal

,santal , turmeric , and

other colouring materials . To him and his associate ,Caventou , the In stitute awarded the Prix Monthyon of

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27 6 CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY

were In connection with opium (from which he extractedcodeine) on JIquor ice , cantharides , barytes , and nickel .Andre Constant Dumer il (born at Amiens , 1 7 74 ,

died1 860)was a physici an , but d istinguished himself as anaturalist and anatomist . He had been associated withCuvier in early life . Latterly he was consultingphysician to Louis Philippe .

Antoine Louis Br on g n iar t (born 1 742 , died 1 804)wasthe s on of a pharmacist of Paris

,and became himself

pharmacien to Louis XVI . He also served the

Conv ention a s a military pharmacist,and was placed

on the Council of Health of the Army . In associationwith Has s en fr atz who was one of the organisers of theinsurrection of Augu st l0th

,1 7 9 2 , and himself a

professor at the School of Mines,Br on g n i ar t edited

a “ Journal des Sciences,Arts

,et Metiers during the

Revolution .

The next medallion memorialises Scheele , the greatSwedish pharmacist and chemist

,of whose career details

have already been given .

Pierre Bayen (born at Chalons s/Mar n e,1 72 5 , died

1 7 9 8) was an army pharmacist for about half of hislife

,and to him was largely due the or g an ls ation of

that service . He was with the French Army inGermany all . th r ou g h the

“

Seven Years ’ War,1 7 5 7

17 63 . Among his scientific works were examinationsof many of th e natural mlner al waters of France ,and a careful investigation into the alleged danger oft in vessels used for cooking . Two German chemists ,Mar g r aff and Henkel , had reported the presence ofarsenic in tin utensils generally , and the knowledge ofth is fact had produced a panic among hou s ekeepeBayen went into the subj ect thoroughly and was able topublish a reassuring report . To h im

,too , belongs

MASTERS IN PHARMACY

the glory of having been one of the chemists beforeLavoisier to prove that metals gain and do not loseweig ht on calcinati on In the airPierre Joseph Macquer

,Master of Pharmacy and

Doctor of Medicine (born 1 7 1 8 , died came of anoble Scotch family who had settled in France onaccount of their adherence to the Catholic faith

,made

some n otable chemical discoveries,and became director

of the royal porcelain factory at Sevres . He workedon kaolin

,magn esia , arsenic , gold , platinum , and the

diamond . Th e b i- arseniate of arsenic was for a longtime known as Macqu er

’

s arsenical salt . Macquer wasnot quite satisfied with Stahl’s phlogiston theory

,and

tried to modify it;but he would n ot accept th e

doctrines of Lavoisier. He proposed to substitute lightfor phlogiston , and regarded light as precipitated fromthe air in certain conditions . These notions attractedno support.Guillaume Francois Rouelle (born near Caen , 1 703 ,

died 1 7 70) was in youth an enthusiastic student ofchemistry

, th e rudiments of which he taught himself inthe Village smithy . Going to Paris he obtained asituation in the pharmacy which had been Lemer y

’

s ,

and subsequently established one of h i s own in the Ru eJacob . There he commenced courses of private lectureswhich were characterised by such intimate knowledge

,

and flavoured with such earnestness and,as appears

from the stories giv en by pupils , by a good deal ofeccentricity

,that they became the popular resort of

chemical students . Lavoisier i s believed to haveattended them . Commencing his lectures in full profes s ional costume , he would soon become an imated andabsorbed in his subj ect

,and throwing Off h i s gown

,cap ,

wig and cravat,delighted his hearers with his vigour .

27 8 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY

Rouelle was Offered th e position of apothecary tothe king , but declined the honour as it would haveinvolved the abandonment of his lectures . His chiefpublished work wa s the classification of salts inton eutral

,acid , and basic . He also closely investigated

medicinal plants , and got s o near to the discovery ofalkaloids as the separation of what he called theimmediate principles

,making a number of vegetable

extracts .Etienne Francois Geoffrey (born 1 6 72 ,

died the

son of a Paris apothecary,himself of high reputation

,

for it was at his house that the first meetings wereheld which resulted in the formation of th e Academyof Sciences

,studied pharmacy at Montpellier , and

qualified there . Returning to Paris he went throughthe medical course and submitted for his doctorate threetheses which show the bent of hi s mind . Th e firstexamined whether all diseases have one origin and can

be cured by one remedy,the second aimed to prove

that the philosophic physician must also be an operativechemist

,and th e third dealt with the inquiry whether

man had developed from a worm . Geoffrey wasattached as phys i ci an to the English embassy for sometime and was elected to th e Royal Society of London .

Afterwards he became professor of medicine andpharmacy at the College of France . His chief workswere pharmacological researches on iron

,on vitriol , on

fermen tation,and on some mineral waters . He wrote a

notable treatise on Materia Medica .

Albert Seba wa s an apothecary of Amsterdam ,who

spent some part of his early life in the Dutch Indies .He was born in 1 6 6 8 and died in 1 7 36 . He wasparticularly noted for a great collection illustrating all

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280 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY

archbishopric should henceforth lose their venom . Thiswas a special temptation to Moses Charas . He wa sstrong on Vipers . He had made medicine of many ofthem , he had written a book about them ,

and he knewall there was to know about them . He knew somethingabout archbish ops too

,which ought to have prevented

him from p ublicly demonstrating the vanity of th eproclamation . But he must needs show to someinfluential friends a local Viper he had caught andmake it bite two chickens

,both of which died promptly .

This demon stration got talked about,and Charas was

prosecuted on a charge of attempting to overthrow anestablished belief. He was imprisoned by the Inquisition

,

b u t after four months he abj ured Protestantism, andwas set free . It must be remembered that he was 72years of age . On his return to France Louis XIVreceived him kindly

,and had him elected to the

Academy of Sciences . Charas ’s chief work was aPharmacopoeia

,which wa s in great vogue

,and was

translated into all the principal modern languages,

even into Chinese .

Nicolas Lemery (born at Rouen , 1 645 , died aself—taught chemist and pharmacist

,exercised an enor

mous influence in science and medicine . He Opened apharmacy in the Ru e Galande

,Paris

,and there taught

chemistry orally and practically . Hi s course wa s animmen se success . Fashionable people thronged to hislectures

,and students came from all countries to g et

the advantage of his teaching . He,too

,was a

Protestant , and wa s struck by th e storm of religiousanimosity Charles II had the opportunity of showinghim hospitality in London , and seems to have manifes ted towards him much friendliness . Th e Un iversity

MA STERS IN PHARMACY 28 1

of Berlin likewise made him tempting p roposals , butLemery could only feel at home in France . Thingsseemed quieter and he returned

,only

’

to find in a shorttime that the condition wa s worse for Protestants thanever . Th e Revocation of th e Edict of Nantes preventedhim from followmg either of his profess i ons , pharmacyor medicine and for their sake he adopted the Catholicfaith . His “ Universal Pharmacopoela and h i s “ Dic

tionar y of Simple Drugs were published after thesetroubles

,and they are the works by which he won his

lasting reputation .

Gilles Francois Bouldu c (1 6 7 5— 1 742) wa s for manyyears first apothecary to Louis XIV , and an authorityon pharmaceutical matters in his time . By his essayshe helped to popularise Epsom, Glauber

’s,and Sei gnette’s

salts inFrance .

Antoine Baume (born at Senlis , 1 7 2 8 , died thes on of an Innkeeper , after an 1mper fect education in th eprovinces

, g ot into th e famous establishment of Geoffreyat Paris and made s uCh good u s e of his opportunitiesthat he became Professor of Chemistry at the College ofFrance when he was 2 5 . A practical and extraordinarilyindustrious chemist

,he wrote much , invented the areo

meter which bear s hi s name , founded a factory of salammon i ac

,and bleaching works for silk by a process which

he devised . Baume did good service , too ,in dispelling

many Of the traditional superstitions”

of pharmacy,such

as th e complicated formulas and disgusting ingredientswhich were so common in h i s time . He was nevercon tent to accept any views on trust .

The three medallions which follow are those ofLavoisier

,Berthollet

,and Chap tal;great chemists

whose right to be represented cannot be challenged ,

282 CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY

but whose works were not specially associated withpharmacy . These three all li ved at the time of theRevolution . Lavoisier was one of its most distinguish edvictims , Berthollet became the companion and adviserof Napoleon in Egypt

,and Chaptal was the chemist

commissioned by the Convention to provide gunpowderfor i ts ragged troops . He became one of Napoleon’sMinisters under th e Consulate .

And r e Laugier (1 7 70 who comes next,was a

relative and pupil of Fou r cr oy ,and became an Army

pharmacist,serving through Bonaparte ’s Egyptian

campaign . His works were mostly on mineralogicalabj ects .Georges Simon Ser ulla s (1 7 74— 1 832) wa s another

military pharmacist who served in the Napoleonic wars.

He was,later

,chief pharmacist at the military hospital

of Val de Grace , where he devoted much study to

many medicinal Chemicals,such as cyan lc acid , iodides ,

bromides,and chlorid es of cyanogen

,hydrobromic

ether,etc .

Thenard (1 7 7 7— 1 85 7 the eminent chemist,follows .

He was very poor when he asked Vauquelin to receivehim as a pupil without pay . He only secured the

benefi t he asked for because th e Chemist’s sister happened to want a boy at the time to help her in thekitchen . He became a peer of Fran ce in 1 832 . To

him we owe peroxide of hydrogen .

Nicolas J . B" Gu ibou r t (1 7 9 0 Professor ofMateria Medica at the School of Pharmacy , was authorof a well -known “ History of Simple Drugs

,

” and otherworks . He is Often quo ted in Pharmacog r aphia .

”

Achille V alenciennes (1 7 9 4— 1 86 5) wa s noted as anaturalist

,and especially as a zoologist. He wa s

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284 CHRONICLE S OF PHARMACY

M. Gay -Lussac, th e most eminent chemist in Paris at

th e time . The acquain tance thus curiously commencedresulted in P elou z e becoming Gay -Lu s s ac

’

s laboratoryassistant . He ultimately succeeded his employ er atthe Polytechnic School and , later still , was promoted tothe Chair which Thenard had occupied at the Collegeof France . P elou z e wa s a voluminous writer , and diduseful work on the production of n ative sugar . Inconj unction with Liebig he discovered oenanthic ether.Sir Humphry Dav

’

y served an apprenticeship with aMr . Borlase

,an apothecary of Penzan ce , but afterwards

exchanged physic for science .

He died at Geneva in 1 829

at the age of 5 1,after a

life crowded with scientifictriumphs .Antoine Ju s s ieu was the

eldest of the three sons ofLaurent Ju s s ieu

,a master in

pharmacy at Lyons . An toinewas born in 1 6 86 , and beganto collect plants from h 1 s

childhood . His two brothers ,S IR HUMPHRY DAV Y Bernard and Joseph

,followed

in his steps , and they , andBernard’s son , Antoine Laurent , con stitute the famousJu s s ieu dynasty , from whom we have received the n aturalsystem of botanical classification . Th e story is a longand interesting one , b ut it is outside the scope of th esenotes . It must be remarked

,however

,that to Antoine

Ju s s 1eu i s due th e credit of the introduction of the - coffeeplant into th e western hemisphere . The island ofMartinique was where the first coffee shrub was planted .

MASTERS IN PHARMACY 285

Fou r cr oy ,another chemist Of the Revolutionary period

,

comes next and is followed byNicolas Houel (1 520 who wa s the founder of

the Schoo l of Pharmacy of Paris . He was an apothecary ,and out of the ample fortune which he had made fromh i s profession ,

endowed a House of Christian Charity .

”

He stipulated that it was to be a school for youngorphan s born of legal marriages

,there to be instructed

to serve and honour God,to acquire good literary in

struction,and to learn th e art of the apothecary . He

also provided that the establishment should furnishmedicines to th e sick poor

,who did not wish to go to

the hospital , gratuitously . The institution consisted ofa chapel

,a school

,a complete pharmacy

,a garden of

simples,and a hospital . The charity wa s duly authorised

by Henri III and Queen Loise of Lorraine,but this did

not prevent Henri IV taking possession of it in 1 5 9 6,

and using it as a home for his woun‘d ed sold iers . Thatwas the origin of the Hotel des Invalides . Louis XIIItransferred the Invalides to the Chateau of Bicetre

,and

gave the school to the Sisters of St. Lazare . In 1 622,

however , th e Parliament of Paris took th e matter inhand and restored the property to th e corporation ofApothecaries on condition that they would carry ou t

the bequest of Houel. In 1 7 7 7 Louis XV I made it theCollege of Pharmacy

,and after the Convention th e

Directory declared it to be the Free School of Pharmacy .

When pharmacy was reorganised in France duringNapoleon ’s consu late

,the Inst i tution became the Paris

School of Pharmacy .

Jean Swammerdam,a famous Du tch anatomist

(1 637 —1 6 comes next,and after him

,Claude Bernard

,

the physiologist (1 8 1 3 who began his career in

28 6 CHRONICLES OF PH ARMACY x 1

a poor little pharmacy a t Lyons . Jean Baptiste Dumas,

born 1 800,and living when th e medallion was placed

,

also commen ced his career in a small pharmacy atAlais (Gard), h i s native town . Dumas was one of th egreatest chemists of the century . The doctrine ofsubstitu tion of radicles in chemical compounds wassuggested by him . He died April 1 1 1 884

,at Cann es .

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288 CHRONICLES OF PHARMACY x 1 1

establishment of the Chinese dynasties . To him is alsoattributed th e invention of the plough .

Th e Emperor Adrian,whose curiosity and literary

tastes led him to the study of astrology,magic

,and

medicine,composed an antidote which was known as

Ad r ianum,and which consisted of more than forty

ingredients,of which opium

,henbane

,and euphorbium

were the principal .Attalus III , the last king of Pergamos in Asia Minor,

who died about 1 34 B .C.,bequeathing his kingdom to

the Romans who already controlled it , was a w orthlessand cruel prince b ut of some reputation in pharmacy .

Having poisoned his uncle,the reigning king , Attalus

soon wearied of public affairs,and devoted h i s time to

gardening,and especially to the cultivation of poisonous

and medicinal plants . Plutarch expressly mentionshenbane , hellebore , hemlock , and lotus a s among theherbs which he studied

,and Justin reports that he

amused himself by sending to his friends presents offruits

,mixing poisonous ones with the others . He is

credited with the invention of our white lead ointmentand Celsus and Galen men tion a plaster and an antidoteas among his achievements . Marcellu s has preserv ed aprescription which he says Attalus devised for diseasesof th e liver and spleen

,for dropsy

,and for improving a

lurid complexion . It consisted of saffron , Indian nard ,cassia

,cinnamon

,myrrh

,s choenanth u s , and costus , made

into an electuary with honey,and kept in a Silver box .

Gen tiu s,King of I lly r ia ,

discovered the medicinalvalue of the gentian and introduced it into medicalpractice . The plant is supposed to have acquired itsname from this king. Gentiu s was induced by Perseus ,King of Macedon

,to declare war against the Romans ,

Perseus promising to support him with money and

XII ROYA L AND NOBLE PHARMAC ISTS 28 9

other aid . This he failed to do and Gentiu s wa s

defeated and taken prisoner by AnIcIu s after a warwhich lasted only thirty days .

MITHRIDATIUM .

Mithridates VI , commonly called“ the Great

,King

Of Pontus in Asia Minor , was born 1 34 B.C.,and

succeeded his father on the throne at the age of twelve .Next to Hannibal he was the most troublesome foeth e Roman Republic had to deal with . His severalwars wit-h tha t power occupied twenty—s ix years of hislife . Sylla

,Lucullus

,and Pompey

,in succession led

Roman armies against him,and gained battles again

and again,but he was only at last completely conquered

by the last-named general after long and costly efforts .Mithridates was a valiant soldier and a skilful general

,

but a monster of cruelty . He was apparently a learnedman

,or at least one who took interest in learning. The

fable of his medicinal secrets took possession of th eimagination of th e Romans . They were especiallyattracted by the stories of his famous antidote . According to some he invented this himself;others say th esecret was communicated to him by a Persian physiciannamed Zopy r u s . Celsus states that a physician of thi sname gave a similar secret to one Of the EgyptianPtolemies . This may have been the same Zopy r u s , forMithridates lived in the time of the Ptolemies . The

Egyptian antidote was handed down to us under thename of Ambrosia .

When Pompey had finally defeated Mithridates hetook possession of a quantity of the tyrant’s papers atNicopolis

,and it was reported that among these were

his medicinal formulas . Mithridates meanwhile wasV OL. I U

2 9 0 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY x 1 1

seeking help to prosecute the war . But his allies,h i s

own s on,and his soldiers were all tired of him . In his

despair he poisoned his wife and daughters,and then

took poison himself. But according to the legend,

propagated perhaps by some clever advertising quacksin Rome

,he had so successfu lly immunised his body to

the effects of all poisons that they would now take noeflect. Consequently he had to call in the assistan ce ofa Gallic -soldier

,who despatched h i s chief with a spear .

Th e story of h i s defeat and death are historic;thepoison story is legend which

,however it was originated

,

wa s no doubt good value in the drug stores of Rome,

where the confection of Mithridates was soon sold . As

will be stated immediately there is abundant reasonto believe that the alleged formula which Pompey wassaid to have discovered and to have had translated wasdevised at home .In 1 745 when a new London Pharmacopoeia was

nearly ready for issue,a scholarly exposure of the

absurdity of the compound which still occupied spacein that and in all other official formularies

,along with its

equally egregious companion , Theriaca , was publishedby Dr . William Heberden , a leading physician of the day ,and though it was too late to cause the deletion of theformulas in the edition of 1 746 , that was the last timethey appeared in the PharmaCOpoeia , though they hadbeen given in all the issues of that work from 1 6 1 8

onwards . No better completion of the history of thispreparation can be given than that which Dr . Heberdenwrote 1 6 5 years ag o. The King of Pontus

,he assumed

,

like many other ancient royalties,was pleased to affect

special skill in the production of medicines,and it is

not s u r p r i smg that his courtiers Should have flatteredhim on this accomplishment . Thus the opinion pre

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29 2 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY XII

Th e anticipation of some marvellous secrets was souniversal

,and the Roman publishers so well disposed

to cater for this , that it is not to be wondered at that aconfection of Mithridates and stories of its miraculouspower soon found their way into literature . A pompousformula

,which it was professed had been discovered

among the papers of Mithridates captured by Pompeycame to be known under the title of AntidotumMith r idatium . It is noteworthy that Plutarch

,who in h i s life

of Pompey mentions that certain love letters and documents helping to interpret dreams were among thesepapers

,makes no

’

allu s ion to the medical recipe;whileSamon icu s states explicitly that

,notwithstanding the

many formulae which had got into circulation pretendingto be that of the genuine confection

,the only one found

in the cabinet of Mithridates was" a trivial one for acompound of 20 leaves of rue

,1 grain of salt

,2 nuts

,

and 2 dried figs . SO that,Dr . Heberden remarks

,the

King of Pontus may h ave been as much a stranger toth e medicin e to which his name was attached as manv

eminent physicians of this day are to medicines associated with their names .The compound , made from the probably spurious

formula,however

,acquired an immense fame . Some of

the Roman emperors are declared to have compoundedit with their own hands . Galen says that whoevertook a proper dose in the morning was ensured ag ainstpoison throughout that day . Great physicians studiedit with a view of making it , if possible , more perfect .The most important modification of the formula wasmade by And r omachu s

,Nero ’s physician

,who omitted

the scink,added vipers

,and increased the proportion

of opium. He changed the name to Galene , but thiswas not retained , and in Traj an

’s time the name of

XII ROYA L AND NOBL E PHARMAC ISTS 29 3

Theriaca was the accepted designation , a title which haslasted throughout the subsequent centuries .Dr . Heberden ’s criticism of the composition is as

effectiv e now as when he wrote , but it should be remembered that in his day there was a Theriacal party inmedicine;to us the comments seem obvious . Hepoints out that in the formula as it then appeared inthe Pharmacopoeia no regard was had to the knownvirtues of the simples

,nor to the rules of artfu l com

position . There wa s no foundation for the wonderfulstories told concerning it

,and the utmost that could

then be said of it was that it wa s a diaphoretic,

“ whichis common ly the Virtue of a medicine which has none .

”

But even if undesigning chance did happen to hitupon a mixture which possessed such marvellous Virtues

,

what foundation was there,he asked

,for believing that

any other fortuitou s concourse of ingredients would beSimilarly successful " This preparation had scarcelycontinued the same for a hundred years at a time .

According to Celsus,who first described it

,it con sisted

of th irty—eight simples . Before the time of Nero fiv e

of these had been struck ou t and twenty n ew onesadded . And r omachu s omitted six and added twentyeight;leaving seventy-fiv e net . Aetiu s In the fifthcentury

,and My r ep s u s in the twelfth gave very

different accounts of it,and since then the formu las had

been constantly fl uctuating . Some of the originalingredients were , Dr : Heberden said , utterly unknownin his time others could only be guessed at . About acentury previously a dispute about Balm of Gilead

,

which was one of the con stituents,had been referred to

the Pope,who , however , prudently declined to exercise

his infallibility on this subj ect.Authorities were not ag reed whether it was better old

2 9 4 CHRON ICLE S OF PH ARMACY XII

or n ew . Galen said the v irtue of the opium wasmitigated by keep in g ;

' Juncker said it fermented,and

by fermentation the power of the opium wa s exaltedthree or fourfold .

A PHARMACEUTICAL POPE .

Peter of Spain,a native of Lisbon

,was a physician

who became Pope under the title of John XXI . Hedied in 1 27 7 . He wrote a treatise on medicine

,or

rather made a collection of formulas,including mos t of

the absurd ones then current and adding a few of hisown . On e was to carry about a parchment on whichwere written the names of

"

Gaspard,Balthasar

,and

Melchior,the three wise men of the East

,as a sure

preservative from epilepsy . Another was a method ofcuring a diarrhoea by filling a human bone with theexcrements of a patient

,and throwing it into a river .

The diarrhoea would cease when the bone was emptiedof its contents .

HENRY V III (OF ENGLAND)

was fond of dabbling with medicine . In Brewer’shistory of h i s reign , referring to the years 1 5 1 6— 1 8 , weare told

Th e amusemen ts of court were diversified by huntingand out- door Sports in the morning;in the afternoonby Memo’s music

,by the consecration and distribution

of cramp rings,or the invention of plasters and com

pounding of medicines,an occupation in which the

King took unusual pleasure .

In the British Mu seum among the Sloan e MSS . thereis one numbered 1047 , entitled Dr . Butt ’s Diary , which

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2 9 6 CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY XII

himself a dabbler in various scientific quackeries . Itconsisted of amber , musk , and civet , dissolved in spiritof roses . It is further on record that the Englishqueen selected doctors and pharmacists for Ivan th e

Terrible of Russia . In VVadd ’

s Memorabilia,one of her

Maj esty’s quarter’s bills from her apothecary,Hugo

Morgan , is quoted . It amounted to £83 78 . 8d .,and

included the following items —A confection made likemanus Ch r i s tI WIth bezoar stone and unicorn ’s horn

,

1 13 . a royal sweetmeat with incised rhubarb,1 8 . 4d .

rose water for the king of Navar r e’

s ambassador,ls . a

conserve of barberries with preserved damascen e plums,

and other things for Mr . Ralegh,6 s . sweet scent to be

used at the christening of Sir Richard Kn ig htley’

s

son,2 8 .

THE QUEEN OF HUNGARY’S WATER .

Rosemary has at times enj oyed a high reputationamong medicinal herbs . Arnold of Villa Nova affirmsthat he had Often seen cancers

,gangrenes

,and fistulas

,

which would yield to no other medicine,dry up and

become perfectly cured by frequently bathing themwith a spirituous infusion of rosemary. His disciple

,

Raymond Lully,extracted the es sential oil by

distillation .

The name probably assisted the fame of the plan t.In the middle ages it was believed to be associated withthe V irgin . It was in fact derived from Ros and Maris

,

meaning Dew of the Sea ;probably because it grewnear the shores of the Mediterranean .

“ Here’s rosemary for you;that’s for remembrance .

So says Ophelia in Hamlet;and many other poets andchroniclers relate how the plant wa s used at funeralsand weddings a s a symbol of constancy. It is supposed

XII ROYAL AND NOBLE PHARMAC ISTS 2 9 7

that this signification arose from th e medicinal employment of rosemary to Improve the memory . It mayeasily have happened , however , that the medicinal u s efollowed th e emblematical idea .

Old books and some modern ones tell the legend ofth e Queen of Hungary and her rosemary remedy . ItIS alleged in pharmaceutical treatises published in thenineteenth century that a document is preserved in theImperial Library at Vienna

,dated 1 235

,and written

by Queen Elisabeth of Hungary,thus expressed

I,E lis abeth, Q ueen of H ungar y

,being ver y infirm and mu ch

tr oubled with gout, in the s even ty- s econd year of my ag e, u s ed fora yea r this r ecipe given to me by an an cien t hermit, whom I n evers aw befor e nor s in ce;and wa s not on ly cu r ed b u t r ecover ed mys tr ength , and appear ed to all s o r ema r kably beau tifu l that th e

King of Poland a s ked me in mar r iage, h e being a w idower and Ia widow . I

,however , r efu s ed him for th e love of my Lor d J es u s

Chr is t, fr om one of whos e angel s I believe I r eceived th e r emedy.

”

The royal formula is a s follows Take aqua Vitae,

four times distilled,3 parts;the tOp S and flowers of

rosemary,2 parts put these together in a closed vessel ,

let them stand in a gentle heat fifty hours,and then

distil them . Take one teaspoonful of this in themorning once every week

,and let your face and

diseased limb be washed with it every morning .

”

Beckmann investigated this story and came to theconclusion that the name “ Eau de La Reine d ’

Hon g r ie”

had been adopted by some vendors of a spirit of rosemary “ in order to give greater consequence and creditto their commodity ” in other words

,he suggests that

the interesting narrative was on ly a clever advertisement.Th e only Queen Elisabeth of Hungary was the wife

of King Charles Robert,and daughter of Ladislaus

,

King of Poland . She di ed in 1 380, and for more than

2 9 8 CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY XII

ten years before that date either her brother,Casimir II

,

or her s on Louis , was the reigning sovereign in Poland ,and neither of these can be supposed to have been hersuitor. The alleged date of the document quoted wouldbetter suit St. Elisabeth of Hungary

,and some Old

writers attribute the formula and the story to her . But

she was never queen of Hungary,and mor eover she

d ied in 1 23 1 at the age of 2 5 . Beckmann also deniesthe statement that the document pretended to be inQueen Elisabeth’s writing is preserved in the ImperialLibrary at Vienna . The whole narrative is traced to aGerman named Hoyer

,in 1 7 1 6 , and he apparently

copied it from a French medical writer named Prevot,

who published it in 1 6 5 9 . Prevot attributes the storyto “

St . Elisabeth , Queen o f Hungary,

”

and says hecopied both the history and the formula from a n Old

breviary in the possession of his friend,Francis

Podacather , a Cyprus nobleman , who had inherited itfrom h i s ancestors . This is the one little p ossibility oftruth in the record

,for it appears that Queen Elis ab eth Of

Hungary did mention two breviaries in her will,and it

may have ‘ been that one of these was the one which theCyprus nobleman pos sessed .

THE ROYAL TOUCH .

— THE KING’S EVIL .

There are several instances in ancient history i llustr ating the healing Virtue residing or alleged to residein the person of a king . Pyrrhus , King of Epirus ,according to Plutarch

,cured colics and affections of the

spleen by laying patients on their backs and passinghis great toe over their bodies . Suelin relates thatwhen th e Emperor Vespasian was at Alexandria a poorb lind man came to him saying that the god Serapis had

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300 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY XII

conferred at the same time . Most of the French kingsdown to Louis XV continued to touch

,and it was even

suggested that the practice should be resumed by LouisXVIII after the Restoration in 1 8 1 5

,but that monarch ’s

advisers prudent ly resolved that it would not do to riskthe ridicule of modern France .

The records of Edward the Con fessor’s miraculousfeats of healing are obtained from William of Malmes

bury,who wrote his Chronicles in the first half of the

1 2th century,about a hundred years after the

Confessor’s reign . The earliest printed edition of theChron icles appeared in 1 5 7 7 , and Shakespeare un

doubtedly drew from it the description of the ceremonywhich is given in Macbeth (Act iv , Sc. Malcolm andMacduff are represented as being in England “ in aroom of the King’s p alace

”

(Edward the Confessor’s).

The doctor tells themTher e a r e a cr ew of wr etched s ou l s

That s tay h i s c u r e their malady convincesTh e gr eat a s s ay of ar t b u t at h i s tou chS u ch s an ci ty hath heaven given h i s handThey pres en tly amend .

Asked about the nature of the disease the doctor saysTi s called the evil ,

” and he adds

H ow h e s olicits H eavenH im s elf bes t kn ows b u t s tr angely vi s ited people

,

All s woln and u lcer ou s , pitifu l to the eye,

The mer e des pa ir of s u r ger y, h e cu r es ,H anging a golden s tamp abou t their n eck s ,P ut on with holy pr ayer s and

’ti s s poken ,

To the s u cceeding r oyalty he leavesTh e healing benediction .

There is no evidence that any of the -Norman kingsperformed the rite

,b ut it i s on record that Henry II

performed cures by touching,and allusions to the

‘ XII ROYA L AND NOBLE PHARMAC ISTS 301

practice by Edward II , Edward III , Richard II , andHenry IV have been found in old manuscripts . It isprobable

,too

, that the other kings, preceding the Tudorsfollowed the fashion when the interval between theirwars gave them the necessary leisure . From Henry VIIto Queen Anne all our rulers except Cromwell“ touched .

”Oliver

,not being able to claim the Virtue

by reason of his descent,would certainly not have been

trusted,and Du tch William had no sympathy with the

uper s tition . It is recorded of him that once he y ieldedto importunity and went through the form of touching .

God gave thee better health and more sense was theunsentimental benediction he pronounced . Queen Anne

,

a s is well known,

“ touched ”Dr . Johnson in his child

hood,but it is recorded that in this case no cure was

effected . Boswell says that Johnson ’s mother in takingthe child (who wa s then between two and three yearsOld) to London for the cer emony

‘ was acting on theadvice of Sir John Floyer , who was at that time a notedphys i ci an at Lichfield . Th e “ touch -piece ” presentedby Queen Anne to Dr . Johnson i s preserved in theBritish Museum . The Pretender, Charles Edward ,touched someone at Holyrood House , Ed inburgh , andhis partisans said a cure was effected in th ree weeks .Which proved his right to the throne of England .

The story told by William of Malmesbury aboutEdward the Confessor is that “ a young woman thathad a husband about the same age as herself

,but no

child,was afflicted w 1th overflowing of humours in her

neck,which broke out in great nobbs , was commanded

in a dream to apply to the King to wash it . To courts he goes

,and the King being at his Devotions all alone

d ip’

d his fingers in water and dabbel’d the woman’sneck

,and he had no soon er taken away his hand than

302 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY XII

she found herself better . William goes on to tell thatwithin a week she was well , and that within a year Sh ewa s brought to bed of twins .Modern doctors have forgotten and despised the

strange story of this royal touch , but two and threecenturies ago they very seriously discussed it . Reportsof marvellous and numerous cures were confidentlyrelated

,and the writers who had no faith in the Virtue

of the performance admitted th e genuineness of manyof th e cases . Sergeant -Surgeon Dickens

,Queen Anne ’ s

s urgeon , narrated the most curious instance . At therequest of one young woman he brought her to theQueen to be touched . After the performance heimpressed upon her th e importance of never partingwith the gold medal which wa s given to all patients;for it appears that he had reason to expect that she waslikely to sell it . She promised always to retain it

,and

in due course s he was cured . In time,thinking all risk

had passed , s he disposed of the touch - piece;the diseasereturned ;She confessed her fault penitently to Dr .

Dickens,and by h i s aid was touched again

,and once

more cured . Surgeon Wiseman,chief surgeon in Charles

I’s army

,and afterwards Sergeant-Surgeon in Charles

II’

s household,described the cures effected by that

monarch . He had been an eye -witness of hundreds ofCures

,he says . Many other testimonies of the same

kind mi ght be quoted,but it i s as well to remark that

a habit grew up of describing the touching itself a s a

cure .

Careful and intelligent inquiries into th e allegedsuccess of the practice by investigators who were by no"

means believers in any actual royal virtue,but who yet

admitted unhesitatingly the reality of many of theclaimed cures

,are on record . Among treatises of thi s

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304 CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY XII

that Charles II touched nearly one hundred thousandpersons during his reign . In his record year

,1 6 82

,he

performed the rite eight thousand five hundred times .Evelyn gives the following account of the perform

ance,which , as will be seen ,

wa s no light duty. Hedescribes it thusSitting under his state in the Banqueting House

, the

chirurgeons cause the sick to be brought or led up tothe throne

,where

,they kneeling

, ye King strokes theirfaces and checks with both his hands at once

,at which

instant a chaplaine in his formalities says He puth i s hands upon them and healed them .

’

This he saidto every one in particular . When they have been alltouched

,they come up again in the same order;and

the other chaplaine kneeling , and having an angel ofgold strung on white ribbon on his arms delivers themone by one to His Maj estic

,who puts them about the

necks of the touched as they passe,while th e first

chaplain e repeats That is ye true light which came intoye world .

’

Then follows an epistle (as at first a gospel)with the liturgy , prayers for the sick , with some alteration

,and then th e Lord Chamberlain and the Comp

troller of the Household bring a basin,ewer

,and towel

,

for his Maj esty to wash .

In 1 684 Thomas Rosewell , evidently an unrepentantPuritan

,was tried before Judge Jeffr ies on a charge of

high treason,the indictment alleging that he had said

the people made a flocking to the king upon pretenceof being healed Of the king ’s evil

,which he could not

do . Rosewell had further declared that he and others,

being p r iests and prophets , could do as much a s theking . And Rosewell had told how Jer oboam

’

s hand haddried up when he would have seized the man of Godwho had prophesied against him

,and how the king ’s

XII ROYA L AND NOBLE PHARMAC ISTS 305

hand had been restored on th e prayer of th e p rophet.

In his defence Rosewell had sneered at th e Latin of theindictment

,which spoke of the Morbus Regni Anglici

,

”

which,as he said

,would mean the disease of the English

kingdom,not the king’s evil . Jeffries

,having taunted

the prisoner and h i s witnesses with being snivellingsaints

,

” insisted on a verdict of guilty,and would no

doubt have had the mocker’s ears cu t Off b ut it issatisfactory to know that Charles II

,who probably had

not more faith in h i s healing power than the accused,

ordered him to be pardoned .

The English,prayer- book contained a form of service

for this ceremony up to the year 1 7 1 9 .

Queen Anne - was th e last ruler in England to touch .

There is no record of any of the Georges attempting themiracle

,but the young Pretender

,Charles Edward

,when

claiming to be Prince of Wales , touched a female childat Holyrood House in 1 745 , and is s aid to have effecteda cu re

,and after his death in 1 780 h i s brother , Card inal

York,still touched at Rome .

Louis XV was the last King Of France who touched .

Louis XIV fulfilled the duty on a larger scale,and

doubtless with the utmost confidence in his royal Virtue .The formula used by the kings of France when they hadtouched a patient wa s Le roi te touche

,Dieu te

g u er i s s e The king touches thee may God healIt is said that Henri of Navarre

,when in the

thick of the fight at Ivry as he laid about himwith his sword right and left , gaily shouted this familiarexpression .

CRAMP RINGS .

Faith in cramp rings corresponds in many respectswith the reverential confidence in th e royal touch as

V OL. I x

306 CHRONICLES OF P HARMACY x 1 1

a cure for scrofula . The former , however, appears tohave been of entirely English origin . Legend attributesth e first cramp ring to Edward th e Confessor.St. Edward on h i s death- bed is alleged to have given

a ring from his finger to the Abbot of Westminsterwith the explanati on that it had been brought to himnot long before by a pilgrim from Jerusalem to whom ithad been given by a mysterious stranger

,presumably a

visitant from the world of spirits,who had bidd en him

give the ring to the king with the message that his endwas near. The ring was preserved as a relic atWestminster for some time

,and was found to possess

miraculous efficacy for the cure of epilepsy and cramp .

It was next heard of at Havering in Essex , the veryname of which place

,according to Camden

,furn ished

eviden ce of the accuracy of the tradition . Haveringwas obviously a contraction of have the ring . So atleast thought the Old etymologists .When the relic disappeared is not recorded;but the

Tudor kings were in the habit of contributing a certainamount of gold and silver as an offering to the Crossevery Good Friday , and the metal being made into ringswas consecrated by them

,in accordance with a form of

service which was included in Old English prayer books

(see Burnett’s History of the Reformation

,Part 2

,

Book 2,No . This was actually used until the

reign of Queen Anne . Andrew Boorde,in h i s “Breviary

of Health,

”

1 5 5 7 , says The kyn g es of England dothb alow every yere cramp r yn g es ye which r yn g es wornon one’s finger doth helpe them why che hath yecramp . They seem to have been regarded especiallya s a protection against epilepsy , and courtiers were muchimportuned to obtain some for persons afflicted .

The process of hallowing the rings i s described in

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308 CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY XI I

not very long since , nine bachelors contributed a crookedSixpence each to make a ring for a young woman in thevillage to wear for the cure of epileptic fits to which shewas subj ect .

THE EARL OF WARWICK’S POWDER.

The Earl of Warwick’s Powder is named in manyold English

,and more frequently still in foreign dis

pen s ator ies and pharmacopoeias , appearing generallyunder the title of “ Pulvis Comiti s de Warwick

,or

Pulvis Warwicien s i s , sometimes also as PulvisCor nacch in i .

” It is the original of our Pulv. ScammonCo

,and was given in the PL . 1 7 2 1 in its pristine form,

thus

S cammony, pr epar ed with the fumes of s u lphu r , 2 ounces .

Diaph or etic antimony, 1 oun ce.

Cr eam of tar tar , oun ce.

In the P L. 1 746 the pulvis e s cammon io compos itu s ,made from four parts of scammony and three parts ofburnt hartshorn

,wa s substituted for the above

,but

neither this nor the modern compound scammonypowder

,consisting of scammony

,j alap

,and ginger

,

can be regarded as representing the original Earl ofWarwick ’ s powder .The Earl of Warwick from whom the powder acquired

its name was Robert Dudley , s on of th e famous Earl ofLeicester

,Queen Elizabeth’s favourite

,and of Ken il

worth notoriety . His mother was the widow of LordSheffield , and there was much dispute about thelegitimacy of the child , but the evidence goes to Showthat Leicester married her two days before the birth ofthe boy . He afterwards abandoned her , but he left hi sestates to the boy . Young Robert Dudley grew up a

XII ROYAL AND NO BLE PHARMAC ISTS 309

singularly handsome and popular youth . He led anadventurous life, voyaging , exploring , and fightingSpanish ships . He failed to establish his claims to histitles and estates in England , and ultimately settled atFlorence

,where he became a Catholic

,and d istinguished

himself a s an engineer and architect . He won thefavour of Ferdinand II , Emperor of Austria , whocreated him Earl of Warwick and Duke of Northumberland

,and the Pope recognised his nobility . He died in

Italy in 1 649 . The chroniclers of the time refer to abook he 1s said to have written under the title ofCa tholicon which was “ in good esteem amongphysicians . I f it existed it wa s probably a collectionof medical formulae , but it is not unlikely that thissupposed book has been confused with one written bya Dr . Cor nacch in i , of Pisa , and dedicated to Dudley .

In that work , which i s known , the powder 1s described ,and its invention is attributed to the Earl . It I s allegedto have possessed marvellous medicinal Virtues .

DUKE OF PORTLAND’

S GOUT POWDER .

Under this title a powder had a great reputationabout the middle of the eighteenth century

,and

well on into the nineteen th century . The powder wa scomposed of aristolochia rotunda (birthwort root),gentian root , and the tops and leaves of germander ,ground pi ne

,and centaury

,of each equal parts . One

drachm was to be taken every morning,fasting

,for

three months,and then 5 drachm for the rest of the

year . Particular directions in regard to diet weregiven with the formula .

The compound wa s evidently only a slight mod ification of several to be foimd in the works of the later

3 10 CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY XII

Latin authors , Aetiu s , Alexander of Trailles , and PaulOf Eg ineta . These were entitled Tetrapharmacum

,

An tidotu s Podagrica ex duobu s centau r iae g ener ibu s ,

Diatesseron , and other names . The duob u s remedywas an electuary prescribed by Aetiu s , and a piece theSize of a hazel nu t had to be taken every morning fora year. Hence it was called medicamentam ad annum .

This , or something very like it , wa s in' use in Italy for

centuries under the name of Pulvis P r incip i s Mir andolae,and spread from th ere to the neighbouring countries .An Englishman long resident in Switzerland had compiled a manuscript collection of medical formulae

,and

his son , who became acquainted with the Duke ofPortland of the period , persuaded him to give this goutremedy a trial . The result was so satisfactory that theDuke had the formula and the diet directions printed onleaflets

,and these were given to anyone who asked for

them .

SIR WALTER RALEIGH ’

S GREAT CORDIAL.

During his twelve years ’ imprisonment in the Towerin th e earlier part of the reign of James I , Sir WalterRaleigh wa s allowed a room in which he fitted up alaboratory , and divided his time between chemicalexperiments and literary labours . It was believed thatRaleigh had brought with him from Guiana somewonderful curative balsam

,and this opinion

,combined

with the knowledge that he dabbled largely withretorts and alembics in the Tower

,ensured a lively

public interest in his “ Great Cordial ” when it wasavailable .

The Queen,Anne of Denmark

,and Prince Henry

,

were both warm partisans of Raleigh , and d id their bestto get him released . The Queen was convinced that

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3 1 2 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY X 1 1

and darkened Raleigh ’s prospects of life . and freedomconsiderably .

N0 known authentic formula of the cordial exists , butCharles II was curious about it , and h i s Frenchapothecary

,Le Febre

,on the king’s command

,prepared

some of the compound from data then available,and

wrote a treatise on it wh ich was afterwards translatedinto English by Peter Lebon . Evelyn records in hisdiary the demonstration of the composition given byLe Febre to the Court on September 20, 1 6 6 2 .

The cordial then consisted of forty roots,seeds

,

herbs,etc . ,

macerated in spirit of wine,and distilled .

With the distillate were combined bezoar stones,

pearls,coral

,deer ’s horn , amber , musk , antimony ,

various earths,sugar

,and much besides . Vipers ’ flesh

,

with the heart and liver , and“ mineral unicorn were

added later on the suggestion of Sir Kenelm Digby .

The official history of this strange concoction isappended .

Con fectio Raleig hana was first official in the LondonPharmacopoeia of 1 72 1 . The formula was

Ras u r ae C . Cer vi lb . i .Car n i s v iper ar um c . cor d ib u s et h epatib u s , 6 oz .Flor . Bor ag . ,

r osmar .,

calendulae, r or is s olis , r os a r um r ub .

s ambu ci, ana lb . SS .H er b . s cor d i i , car du i b ened icti , meli s s ae, d ictamn i cr etici

,

men thae, major anae. b eton icae,ana man ipu les du odecim.

Su cci Kermis , Sem. car d . maj. , cub eb ar um,Bacc . jun ip . ,

maci s,

nuc. mo s ch . ,ca r yOph ., cr oci, ana 2 oz .

Cinnam. opt.,cor t. lign . s a s s af.

,cor t. flav . malor um citr ior um,

au r an tior um,ana 3 oz.

Lign . a loes , s a s s afr a s , ana 6 oz .Rad . ang elic , va ler ian ,

s ylves t.,fr ax inell, s eu d ictamn i alb . ,

s er pen tar . V i r g in ianae, Z edoar iae, tormen tillae bi s tor t., A r i s toloch .

lon g ,Ar i s toloch . r otund . , g en tianae, imper ator iae, ana 1&oz.

These were to be cut up or crushed , and a tincturemade from them with rectified spirit . The tincture wa s

XII ROYAL AND NOBLE PHARMAC ISTS 3 1 3

to be evaporated in a sand bath , the expressed magmawas then to be burned , and the ashes , lixiviated inwater

,were to be added to the extract .

Then the following powders were to be added to thisliquid to form a confection — Bezoar stone , Eastern andwestern

,of each 1 5oz . ;Eastern pearls , 2 oz . ;red

coral,3 oz Eastern Bole

,Terra Sigillata , calcined

hartshorn,ambergris

,of each 1 oz . musk

,l-é drachms;

powdered sugar,2 lb .

In the PL . 1 746 Confectio Raleig hana appears asConfectio Cardiaca . It is expressly stated that this newname i s substituted for the Old one . The formula i ssimplified

,but the resemblance to th e original can be

traced . It runs thus z— SummitatumRor i smar, recent ,

Bacc,Jun ip .

,ana lb . i;Sem. car d .

,mi n . d ecor t.

,

Zedoar iae, Croci . ana lb. SS . Make a tincture with thesewith about 1—5 gallons of diluted spirit , and afterwardsreduce it to 25 lb. by evaporating at a gentle heat;then add the following

,all in the finest powder °

Compound powder of crabs ’ shell s,1 6 oz . This was

prepared powder of crab shells,1 lb . pearls and red

coral,of each 3 oz . : cinnamon and nutmegs

,of each

2 oz . cloves , 1 oz . sugar, 2 lb . To make a confection .

In the P L. 1 788 the compound is still furthersimplified

,and acquires the name of Confectio Aro

matica . The index of that work gives ConfectioAromatica Vi ce Confectio Cardiaca. The formula nowruns thus z— Zedoaria

,coarsely powdered

,saffron

,of

each, é—lb ;water , 3 lb . Macerate for 24 hours

,

express and strain . Evaporate the strained liquorto 15 lb .

,and add the following

,all in fine powd er

compound powder of crabs ’ shells,1 6 oz . ;cinnamon ,

nutmeg , of each 2 oz . cloves,8 oz . cardamom seeds

,

é—oz . sugar,2 lb . Make a confection .

3 1 4 CHRON ICLE S OF P HARMACY

In the 1 809 P L. the zedoary is abandoned,the

quantity of saffron is reduced to 2 ounces,the pulv.

chelis cancr or um co . is described as tes tar um p r aep .,and

there is no maceration of any of the ingredients . The

powders are simply mixed,and the water added little

by little until the proper consistence is attained .

This formula is retained in the Pharmacopoeias of1 824 and 1 836 , but in that of 1 85 1 the powderedshells became prepared chalk. In the EdinburghPharmacopoeia of 1 841 , and in that of Dublin of 1 850,the confection was made from aromatic powders ofsimilar composition

,made into confections in P E. with

syrup of orange peel,and in P .D. with simple syrup

and clarified honey . All that remains of this historicremedy is Pulvis Cr etae Ar omaticu s B B

,and from

this the saffron has been entirely removed .

Raleigh’s Cordial occasionally turns up in histories .In Aubrey

’s “ Brief Lives,

” it is stated that “S ir

Walter Raleigh wa s a great chymist , and amongst someMSS . receipts I have seen some secrets from him . Hemade an excellent cor d iall

,good in feav er s . Mr . Robert

Boyle has the recipe and does great cures by it .”

In Strickland’s “ Lives of the Queens of England

(Vol . VIII , p . 1 22)we are told that , accord ing to the

newspapers of the day,William III

,in his last illness

was kept alive all through his last night by the use ofSi r Walter Raleigh

’s Cordial .In Lord John Hervey ’s “ Memoirs of the Reign of

George II (Vol . III , p . the details of the lastillness of Queen Caroline

,who died in 1 737 , are

narrated . Snake root and Sir Walter Raleigh’s Cordial

were prescribed for her . As the latter took some timeto prepare

,Ransby

,house surgeon to the King

,said

one cord ial was as good as another , and gave her

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3 1 6 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY XII

j oin him,collected about from wealthy sup

porters , and after long negot iations persuaded theHouse Of Commons to recommend George I . to granthim a contribution of which never came . I t

was during that time that he learned of the medicinaleffi cacy of tar water from some of the Indian tribeswhom he visited. Some time after his return he wasmade Bishop Of Cloyne

,and worked indefatigably in his

diocese . A terrible winter in 1 7 39 — 40 caused greatdistress and was followed by an epidemic of small -pox.It was then that the Bishop remembe r ed his Americanexperiences . He gave tar water a s a remedy and tarwater as a prophylactic

,with th e result , as he reported ,

that those who took the disease had it very mildly ifthey had taken tar water. Convinced of its value hegave it in other illnesses with such success that withcharacteristic en thusiasm he came to believe that hehad discovered a panacea . Some reports of thistreatment had been published in certain magazines , butin the spring Of 1 744 a little book by the Bishopappeared giving a full account of his experiences . It

was entitled A Chai n of Philosophical Reflections andEnquiries concerning the Virtues of Tar Water , anddivers other subj ects connected together and arising onefrom another .” The treatise wa s eagerly read anddiscussed both in Ireland and England . A secondedition was required in a few weeks

,and to this

the author gave the short title Siris ” (Greek forchain).The Bishop

’s theory was an attractive one . The

pine trees he argued,had accumulated from the

sunlight and the air a large proportion of the Vitalelement of the universe , and condensed it in the

tar which they yielded . The vital element could

x 1 1 ROYAL AND NOBLE PHARMAC ISTS 3 1 7

be drawn off by water and conveyed to the humanorganism .

It is not necessary here to follow out his chain ofreasoning from the vital element in tar up to theSupremeMind from which that V ital principle eman ated .

On the way the author quoted freely and effectivelyfrom Plato and Pythagoras

,from Theophrastus and

Pliny,from Boerhaave and Boyle

,and from many other

authorities . He showed how the balsams and resins ofthe ancient world were of the same nature as tar .Van Helmont said

,

“ Whoever can make myrrh solubleby the human " body has the secret of prolonging hisdays

,and Boerhaave had recognised that th ere was

truth in this remark on account of the anti -putrefactivepower of the myrrh . This wa s the power which tarpossessed in so large a degree . Homberg had madegold by introducing the Vital element in the formof light into the pores of mercury. Th e process wastoo expensive to make the production of gold by thismeans profitable

,but the fact showed an analogy

with the concentration of the same element in thetar.Berkeley’s process for making the tar water was

simply to pour 1 gallon of cold water on a quart of tarstir i t with a wooden ladle for five or six minutes

,and

then set the vessel aside for three days and nights to letthe tar subside . Th e water was then to be drawn Off

and kept in well - stoppered bottles . Ordinarily halfa pint might be taken fasting morning and night

,but to

cure disease much larger doses might be given . It hadproved of extraordinary value not only in small-pox

,

b ut also in eruptions and ulcers,ulceration of the

bowels and of the lungs,consumptive cough , pleurisy ,

dropsy , and gravel . It“ greatly aided digestion

,and

3 1 8 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY XII

consequently prevent-cd gout. It was a remedy in allinflammatory disorders and fevers . It was a cordialwh ich cheered , warmed , and comforted , with no inj uriouseffects .The nation went wild over this discovery . The

Bishop of Cloyne has made tar water as fashionable asVauxhall or Ranelagh

,

” wrote Duncombe .The Bishop ’s book was translated into most of the

European languages,and tar water attained some

degree of popularity on the Continen t . It owed nolittle of its success in this country to the opposition itmet with from medical writers . The public at onceconcluded that they were very anxious about theirkitchen prospects

,

”to use the symbolism of Paracelsus .

Every attack on tar water called forth s everal replies .Berkeley himself responded to some of the criticismsby very poor verses , which he g ot a friend to sendto the j ournals with strict injunctions to keep hisname secret .Paris in Pharmacologia refers to the tar water

mania,asking What but the spell of authority could

have inspired a general belief that the sooty washingsof rosin would act as a universal remedy " ”

It needhardly be pointed out that the general belief wasrather a revolt against authority than an acceptanceof it .Dr . Young

,th e author of Night Thoughts

,wrote

They who have experienced the wonderful effects oftar water reveal its excellences to others . I say reveal ,because they are beyond what any can conceive byreason or natural light . Bu t others disbelieve themthough the revelation i s attested past all scruple ,because to them such excellences are incomprehensible .Now give me leave to s ay that this infidelity may

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320 CHRONICLES OF PHARMACY XII

Noufi er’

s Tap eworm Cu r e.

Louis XVI gave livres (about £700) to aMadame Nou ffer 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 1 7 7 5 explaining fully the treatment.Nou ffer was a surgeon living at Morat

,in Switzerland .

He had practised his special worm cure treatment formany 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 Bar yantin s ki ,

who was staying in the neighbourhood and had heard ofthe cure . He had been troubled for years with tapeworm

,and Madame Nou ffer ’ s remedy cured him . The

Prince reported the facts to his regular physician atParis

,and consequently cases were sent from that city

to the Swiss lady . She was s o successful that the kingwa s induced to give her the sum named for therevelation of her method

,which was briefly as

followsFor a day or two the patient was fed on buttered

toast on ly . Meanwhile enemas of mallow and marshmallow with a little salt and olive Oilwere administered .

Then,early in the morning

,3 drachms of powder of

male fern in a teacupful of water was taken . Candiedlemon was chewed after the dose to relieve th e nauseousness

,and the mouth was washed out with an aromatic

water . If the patient vomited the medicine anotherdose was given . Two hours after the male fern abolus containing 1 2 grains each of calomel and resin Of

scammony,with 5 grains of gamboge , and with con

fection of hyacinth a s the excipient , had to be taken . A

xmROYA L AND NOBLE PHARMAC ISTS 321

cup of warm tea wa s recommended shortly after thebolus . The doses quoted were regarded a s average ones .They might be modified according to the strength of th epatient . Generally the treatment narrated s ufliced to

expel the worm . If it did not,the whole proceeding

repeated .

Male fern was a remedy mentioned by Dioscoridesand other ancien t writers , but it had been forgotten forcenturies until Madame Nou ffer ’

s system brought it tothe recollection of medical practitioners . It again fellout of u s e

,but a French physician named Jobert revived

its popularity ‘ in 1 86 9 . He was assisted in the pre

par ation of the remedy by Mr . Hepp,pharmacien of the

Civil Hospital of Strasburg .

Bes tu chefif ’s Qtnctu r e a nd La Mothe

’

s Gold en Dr op s .

Alexis Petrovitch Bes toujeff-Rumine , commonly calledCount von Bes toujeff or Bes tucheff, was in the service ofthe Elector George of Hanover when that Prince wa scalled to reign over Great Britain . He thereuponbecame George ’s ambassador at St . Petersburg . On thedeath ‘ of Peter th e Great Bes tu ch eff withdrew from theBritish 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

Chan cellor and then a disgraced exile under the second ,

g hly honoured by Catherine . Duringhe interested himself in a remedy whichusly popular at that epoch

,known in

as the Golden Drops of General La Mothe , andGermany and Russia as Bes tucheff’s Tincture . Laothe had been in the service of Leopold Rag otz ky ,

V OL. I

322 CHRONICLES OF PHARMACY

Prince of Transylvania,but retiring from the Army he

went to live at Paris and took these golden dropswith him . They were a tincture of perchloride of ironwith spirit of ether , but the public believed them to bea solution of gold . They were recommended a s amarvellous restorative medicine

,and sold (in Paris) at

2 5 livres (nearly £1) for the half- ounce bottle . SO

famous were they that Louis XV sent 200 bottles tothe Pope a s a particularly precious gift . SubsequentlyLouis gave La Mothe a pension of livres a yearfor the right of making the drops for h i s Hotel d eSInvalides

,La Mothe and his widow after him retaining

the right to sell to the public .Bes tu cheff sold his recipe to th e Empress Catherine

for roubles,and by her orders it wa s passed on to

the College of Medicine of St. Petersburg,which pub

li s h ed it under the title of the Tinctura Tonica NervinaBes tucheffi . The formula at first published was chemically absurd

,b u t Klaproth corrected it

,and the prestige

of the quack medicine wa s destroyed . But an ethereatincture of perchloride of iron was adopted in most 0

the Con tinental pharmacopoe ias .It is not clear whether Bes tu cheff and La Mothe wer

in association at any time,but their preparations wer

Similar if not identical .Under the rule of Napoleon I the French Gov er nmen

bought several formulas Of secret remedies for abou£100 each . None Of them either had or has sinacquired any popular reputation . Th e formulas wepublished in the med ical and pharmaceutical j ournalsthe time .

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324 CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY XIII

obtained . Thus,when sulphur was b u r n ed

’

phlog i s ton

was set free,and acid remained . Lavoisi er believed

that the acidifying principle had been discovered inoxygen

,and it was on this theory that he gave that

elemen t its name . But this idea broke down whenDavy proved that there was no oxygen in the s o- calledmuriatic

,or oxy -muriatic acid . It was th e subsequent

recognition Of the law of substitution which made itclear that the acids are

,in fact, salts of hydrogen or of

some metal substituted for the hydrogen .

The history of alkalies is as varied as is that of acids .Th e distinction between caustic alkalies and mild alkalieswas a problem as far back as Dioscorides . By burninglimestone caustic lime is produced . It was not anunreasonable presumption that th e fire had created thiscau sticity

,and this theory was held with regard to all

the alkalies until it was proved by Joseph Black,in

1 7 5 6 , that the caustic alkali was the result of a gas ,fixed air

,he named it

,being driven off from the mild i

alkali .Th e ancient Jews prepared what they called Borith

(tran slated“ soap ” in Jeremiah

,ii

,22

,and Malachi

,

iii,2) by filtering water through vegetable ashes .

Borith was therefore an impure carbonate of potash .

It is probable that the salt-wort was generally employedfor this purpose

,and some of the Old versions of the

Old Testament give th e herb Borith ” as th e propesense of the passages referred to above . In any case thealkaline solution produced from vegetable ashes was usedfor bleaching and cleansing pu rposes . The Roman“ lixivium wa s Similarly prepared , and the process i s St illfollowed in some countries Where there are dense forThe Arabic word al—kali was apparentthe produc

XIII CHEM ICA L CONTR IBUTIONS 325

roast. Th e earliest known u s e of the term i s,however

,

found in the works of Albertus Magnus,early in the

thirteenth century . A process of making caustic potashby filtering water through vegetable ashes with quicklime is described in the works attributed to Geber

, b ut

this i s in a treatise n ow known to have been written inthe thirteenth or fourteenth century . It was only in1 736 that th e three alkal i es , soda , potash , and ammoniawere definitely distinguished by Duhamel as mineral

,

vegetable,and animal or volatile alkalies .

A formula for a solution of caustic potash wa s givenin the P L

,1 746 , under the title of Lixivium Sapon

ar ium. Equal parts of Russian potashes and quicklimewere mixed , wetted until the lime was slaked , waterafterwards added freely , and after agitation the solutionpoured off. This was ten years before Black’s classicinvestigation already referred to . Before Black

,and

for some time afterwards,there wer e several theories

in explanation of the action of the lime on the potashes .

The lime had been tamed , but the potash had becomemore v irulent . One popular suggestion was that the limehad withdrawn a kind of mu cilage from the potashes;another that it had th e effect of developing the powerof th e potashes by a mechan ical process of comminution .

AGerman chemist namedMeyer,who vigorously opposed

Black’s conclusions , maintained that the lime contained

a certain Acidum Causticum or Acidum Pingue , which

p otashes ex tracted from it .In the P L ,

1 7 88 , the process was altered by increasing the proportion Of the lime

,and the product

w a s des cribed as Aqua Kali Puri . Subsequently theproportion of the lime employed was reduced .

The word salt ” is traced back to the Greek hals,

the sea,from which was formed the adj ective salos ,

326 CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY XIII

fluctuating (like the waves), and subsequently the Latins al.

” Marine salt was therefore th e original salt,

and salts in chemistry were substances more or lessresembling sea—salt . Generally

,the term was limited

to solids which had a taste and were Soluble in water,

but the notion was developed that salt wa s a con stituentof everything , and th i s salt was extract-cd ,

and was liableto get a new name each time . Salt of wormwood

,for

instance,is one of the names which has survived a s a

synonym for s alt of tartar,or carbonate of potash .

Paracelsus insisted that all the metals were composed ofsalt , sulphur , and mercury , b ut these substances wereidealised in his j argon and corresponded with the body

,

soul,and spirit

,respectively .

Lavoisier was th e first chemi st who sought to definesalts scientifically . He regarded them a s a combinationof an acid with a basic oxide . But when the truenature Of chlorine was discovered it was found that thisdefinition would exclude salt itself. This led to theadoption of the terms “ haloid ” and “ amphide salts

,

the former being compound s of two elements (now thecombination of chlorine

,bromine iodine

,cyanogen

,or

fluorine with a metal), and the latter being compoundsof two oxides . Th e n ames were invented by Ber z el

’

Since then salts have been the subj ects of variou smodern theories

,electric and other

,but they are always

substances in which hydrogen or a metal substitutedfor it i s combined with a radical . In a wide sense theacids are also salts .

ALCOHOL.

Al-koh ’l was'

an Arabic word indicating the sulphideof antimony s o generally used by Eastern women todarken their eyebrows

,eyelashes

,and the eyes them

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328 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY XIII

and descriptions of the apparatus used are known,but

no allusion to the distillation of wine occurs in anyexisting reference to the chemistry of that period .

Rhazes,who died in A .D. 9 2 5

,is alleged to have

mentioned a spirit distilled from wine,but Berth elot

shows that this i s a misunderstanding of a passagerelating to false or artificial wines .Water distilled from roses is ment ioned by Nicander

,

about 1 40 B.C.

,and the same author employ s the term

amb ix for the pot or apparatus from which this waterwa s obtained . The Arabs adopted this word

,and

p r efixin g-to it their article

,al

,made it into alembic .

This in English appeared for some centuries in theabbreviated form of limbeck . The Greek amb ix wa s

a cup—shaped vessel which was set on or in a fire,as a

crucible was used .

Pi s s aeleum wa s a peculiar form of distillationpractised by the Romans . It was an oil of pitch madeby hanging a fleece of wool over a vessel in which pitchwas being boiled . The vapour which collected wa s

pressed out and used .

Distilled waters from roses and aromatic herbs figuredprominently in th e pharmacy of the Arabs , and Geber ,perhaps in the eighth century

,describes the process

,

and may have used it for other than pharmaceuticalpurposes . Avicenna likens the body of man to a still

,

the stomach bei ng the kettle,the head the cap , and

the nostrils the cooling tube from which the distillated rips .M. Berthelot gives the following from the Book of

Fires Of Marcus Grecas,which he says could not be

earlier than 1 300, as the first definite indication of amethod of producing what was called aqua ardens .“ Take a black wine , thick and old . To lb . Of this add

XIII CHEM ICA L CONTR IBUTIONS 32 9

2 scruples of sulphur vivum i n very fine powder,and

2 scruples of common salt in coarse fragments , and 1or 2 lb s . of tartar extracted from a good white wine .Place all in a copper alembic and distil Off the aqu aardens .” The addition of the salt and sulphur

,

M. Berthelot explains , was to counteract the supposedhumidity .

Albucasis,a Spanish Arab of the eleventh century , is

supposed from some obscure expressions in his writingsto have known how to make a spirit from wine;butArnold of / Villa Nova

,who wrote in the latter part of

the thirteenth,century

,is the first explicitly to refer to it .

He does not intimate that h e had d iscovered it himself,

but h e appears to treat it as something comparativelyn ew . Aqua Vini is what he calls it

, bu t some name it ,he says

,aqua vitae

,or water which

,

preserv es itselfalways

,and golden water . It is well called water of

life,he says

,because it strengthens the body and

prolongs life . He distilled herbs with it such as rosemary and sage , and highly commended the medicinalvirtue of these tinctures .It is worth remarking that when Henry II invaded

and conquered Ireland in the twelfth century theinhabitants were making and drinking a productwhich they termed u i s g e

- b eatha,now abbreviated into

whisky , the exact meaning of the name being water of

Raymond Lully , who acquired much of his chemicallore from Arnold of Villa Nova

,was ev en more

enthusiastic in praise of the aqua Vitae than his teacher.The taste of it exceedeth all other tastes , and thesmell all other smells

,

” he wrote . Els ewhere hedescribes it as “ of mar v eylou s use

" and commod itie alittle before the joyn in g of battle to styre and encourage

330 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY XIII

the soldiers’ minds . He believed it to be the panaceaso long sought , and regarded its discovery as evidencethat the end of the world was near. The process formaking the aqua vitae as described by Lully was todigest limpid and well -flav ou r ed red or white wine fortwenty days in a closed vessel in fermenting horse -dung.

It wa s then to be distilled drop by drop from a gentlefire in a sand -bath .

The chemical constitution of alcoh ol was speculatedupon rather wildly by the chemists who experimentedon it before Lavoisier . It was held to be a combinationof phlogiston with water

,but the phlogiston -

ph ilos o

ph er s disagreed on the question whether it containedan Oil. Stahl

,however

,later supported by Macquer

,

found that an oil was actually separated from it ifmixed with water and allowed to evaporate slowly inth e open air , after treating it with an acid . Lavoisier

,in

1 7 8 1 , carefully analysed Spirit of wine and found that1 lb . yielded 4 oz . 4 drms . 375 grains of carbon , 1 oz .

2 drms . 55 grains of inflammable gas (hydrogen), and10 oz . 1 d rm. 2 9 grains of water. It wa s de Saussurewho later

,following Lavoisier’s methods of investiga

tion,but with an absolute alcohol which had been

recently produced by Lowitz,a Russ ian chemist ,

showed that oxygen was a constituent of alcohol.Berthelot succeeded in making alcohol synthetically in1 85 4 . H i s process was to shake olefiant gas (C2H4)vigorously with sulphuric acid

,dilute the mixtu re with

eight to ten parts of water,and distil . Meldola , how

ever (“ The Chemical Synthesis of Vital Products ,

”

insists that an English chemi st , Henry Hennell,

anticipated Berthelot in this discovery .

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332 CHRONICLES OF PHARMACY XIII

Alum and nutmeg equal parts were given in agues .Paris says the addition of nutmeg to alum corrects it stendency to disturb the bowels . It has also beenadvocated in cancer and typhoid

,but these internal

uses have been generally abandoned . Spirit of Alum i soccasionally met with in alchemical writings . It waswater charged with sulphuric acid obtained by thedistillation of alum over a naked fire .

Until the fifteenth century th e only alum factoriesfrom which Europe was supplied were at Constantinople

,

Smyrna,and Trebizonde . Beckman relates that an

alum factory wa s founded in the Isle of Ischia,on the

coast of Tuscany,by a Genoese merchant named

Bartholomew Perdix,who had learnt the art at Rocca .

Very soon afterwards John de Castro,a Paduan who

had been engaged in cloth dyeing at Constantinoplebut had lost all his property when that city wascaptured by Mahomet II in 1 4 5 3

,was appointed to an

offi ce in the Treasury of the Apostolic Chamber,and in

the course of his duties found wh at he believed to

be an aluminous rock at Tolfa,near Civita Vecchia . He

asked the Pope,Pius II

,to allow him to experiment

,

but it was some years before the necessary permissionwas granted . When at last th e truth of Castro’ssurmise wa s established th e Pope was greatly interested .

He looked upon the discovery as a great ChristianVictory over the Turks

,and hand somely rewarded de

Castro,to whom

,besides

,a monument 'wa s erected in

Padua inscribed Joanni de Castro,Alumi n i s i nventor.”

The factory brought in a splendid revenue to theApostolic exchequer

,and the Pope did his utmost

to retain the monopoly,for when in consequence of the

extravagant prices to which the Tolfa alum wa s raisedmerchants began again to buy the Eastern product his

XIII CHEM ICAL CONTR IBUTIONS 333

Holiness issued a decree prohibiting Christians frompurchasing from the infidels under pai n of excom

mun ication . Later,when

,in Charles I’s reign

,S ir

Thomas Challoner discovered an aluminous deposit nearhis home at Guisborough in Yorkshire

,and persuaded

C'Ome of the Pope’s workmen to come there to wor k theschist

,he and those whom he had tempted away were

solemnly and most vigorously cursed .

Meanwhile the nature of the earth with whichthe sulphuric acid was combined remained unknown tochemists . Stahl worked at the problem and came tothe conclusion that it was lime . Th e younger Geoflr oy ,

a famous pharmacist of Paris,ascertained (1 72 8) that

the earth of alum was identical with that of argillaceousearth and Alumina was for some time called Argile .

Mar g g r af Observed that he could not get alum crystalsfrom a combination of argile and sulphuri c acid

,b ut

noting that in the old factories it 'had been the customto add putrid urine to the solution , for which carbonateof potash was subsequently substituted

,went SO far as to

make the salt , but did not appreciate that it was actuallya double salt . The name alumina which the earth nowbears wa s

‘ g iven to it by Mor v eau . It was Vauquelin

(another pharmacist)who clearly proved th e compositionof alum

,and Lavoisier first suggested that alumina was

the oxide of a metal . Si r Humphry Davy ag reedwith this View b ut failed to isolate the metal . Oerstedwas th e first to actually extract aluminium from th e

oxide,b u t his process was an impracticable on e

,bu t in

1 828 Woehler,and in 1 85 8 Dev ille

,found mean s of

producing the metal in s ufli cien t abundance to make ita valuable article of industry .

334 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY XIII

AMMONIA .

Th e chemical history of ammonia commences inEgypt with Sal Ammoniac . This is mentioned byPliny under the name of Hammon iacu s s al. Dioscor ides also alludes to i t but in neither case does thedescription given fit in satisfactorily with the productknown to us . Dioscorides

,for instance

,states that sal

ammoniac is particularly prized if it can be easily splitup into rectangular fragments . It has been conj ecturedthat what wa s called s al ammoniac by the ancientwriters was

,at least sometimes , rock salt .

The name is generally supposed to have been d erivedfrom that of the Egyptian deity

,Amn or Amen

,or

Ammon as the Greeks called him,and in the belief that

he was th e same god as Jupiter he is referred to inclassical literature as Zeus -Ammon or Jup iter -Ammon .

The principal temple of this god was situated in anoasis of the Libyan desert which was then known as

Ammonia (now Siwah), and if, as is supposed , the saltwas found or produced in that locality its name is thusaccounted for . Gum ammoniacum was likewise socalled in th e belief that it was obtained in that district

,

though the gum with which we are familiar and whichcomes from India and Persia

,is quite a different article

from the African gum the n ame of which it ha s usurped .

Pliny derives the name Of the salt from the Greekammos

,

” sand,as it wa s found in the sand of the

desert an explanation which overlooks the fact that thestuff was called by a similar name in a country wherethe sand was not called ammos . In old Latin

,French

,

and English writings armoniac is Often met with .

This wa s not inaccurate Spelling it was suggested bythe opinion that th e word was connected with Greek

,

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336 CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY XIII

sent to the Academy an account of the method by whichsal ammoniac was produced in Egypt

,and this report

definitely confirmed the opinion which Geoffr ey hadformed . It was

,said M. Lemaire

,simply a salt

sublimed from soot . The fuel used in Egypt wasexclusively the dung of camels and other animals whichhad been dried by the sun . It consis ted largely ofsal ammon i ac

,and this was retained in the soot . For a

long time an artificial sal ammoniac had been manufactu r ed at Venice , and a commoner sort also came fromHolland . These were reputed to be made from humanor animal urine . The manufacture of sal ammoniacwas commenced in London early in the eighteenthcentury by a Mr . Goodwin .

A formula for SalAmmoniacum Factiti um i n Quincy ’ sDispensatory (1 7 24) is as follows z— Take of Urin elb . x . of Sea salt lb . ii . of Wood soot lb . i . boil thesetogether in a mass , then put them in a subliming potwith a proper head , and there will rise up what formsthese cakes . Dr . James (1 7 64)states that at Newcastleone gallon o f the bittern or liquor which drain s fromcommon salt whilst making , wa s mixed with 3 gallonsof urine . The mixture was set aside for 48 hours toeffervesce and subside . Afterwards the clear liquorwas drawn off and evaporated in leaden vessels tocrystallisation . The crystals were sublimed . A salammoniacum volatile was made by subliming s al

ammoniac and salt of tartar (or lime or chalk) together .Sometimes some spices were put into the retort . Thissalt was used for smelling-bottle s . Aqua regia wasmade by distilling sal ammoniac and saltpetre together.Sal Volatile Oleos um was introduced by Sylvius

(de la Boe) about the year 1 6 50. It became amedicated stimulant of the utmost popularity

,and there

XIII CHEM ICAL CONTR IBUTIONS 337

ere many formulas for it. One of th e most famouswas Goddard ’s Drop . (See pageAmmoni a i n gaseous form was first obtained by

Priestley in 1 7 74 . He called it alkaline air . Scheelesoon after established that it contained nitrogen andBerthollet proved its ch emical composition in 1 785 .

SPIRITUS AMMONI ZE AROMATICUS

was first inserted in the PL . 1 72 1 , under the title ofSpiritus Salis V olatili s Oleosus .

"

Cinnamon,mace

,

cloves,citron

,sal ammoniac

,and salts of tartar were

d istilled with Spirit of Wi ne . In 1 746 the process wasaltered

,sal ammoniac and fixed alkali being first

distilled w ith proof spirit to yield spiritus salisammoniaci dulcis

,

”

to which essential Oils of lemon,

nutmeg,and cloves were added

,and the mixture was then

r e-distilled . In 1 7 88 the Spi ri t became spiritusammoniac compos itu s , and the r edistillation when theoils had been added was omitted . Th e name spiritusammon iae ar omaticu s was first adopted in the P L. 1 809

,

and has been retained ever since,though th e process of

making it ha s been frequently varied . That title Wa sfirst given to it in the Dublin Pharmacopoeia of 1 807 .

Spiritus Salinus Ar omaticu s was the first title adoptedin th e Edinburgh Pharmacopoe i a . It was a preparationsimilar to that of t he P L , but angelica , marj oram ,

galangal,anthos flowers

,orange

,and lemon were

additional flavours .Quincy 1 724) credits SylV iu s with the invention of

this spirit,which he refers to as mightily now in u s e

,

”

and as “ a most noble cephalic and‘ cordial . ” It hadalmost excluded the u s e of spirit of hartshorn . ThisV OL. I z

338 CHRONICLES OF PHARMACY XIII

preparation,invented by Sylvius

,was called the

Carminative Spirit of Sylvius .Mindererus’s Spirit

,made from distilled vinegar and

the volatile spirit of hartshorn,is believed by many

competent authorities to have possessed virtues whichare not contained in themodern liquor ammonii acetati .The late Professor Redwood was one of these . He believedthat the old preparation contained a trace of cyanicether. The new liquor

,he ' said, made from strong

caustic solution of ammonia and strong acetic acid,

“ isbut the ghost of the old preparation . It is as unlikethe true Mindererus’s Spirit a s a glass of vapid distilledwater i s unlike the sparkling crystal water as it springsfrom a gushing fountain ”

(P ha rm. J nl.,Vol . V .

,N.S .

p . Mindererus was a physician of Augsburg whodied in 1 62 1 . It wa s Boerhaave in 1 7 32 who advocatedthe use of Mindererus’s Spirit and made it popular .Eau de Luce

,which was official in the P L. 1 824 ,

under the title of Spiritus Ammon iae Succinatu s , wasan ammon ia compound which became popular inFrance

,and

,in some degree all over Europe

,about the

middle of the eighteenth century,and was apparently

first sold for removing grease from cloth and otherfabrics . It is said that one of the pupils of BernardJu s s ieu

,having been bitten by a Viper

,applied some

of the preparation,and was cured by it . It thence

acquired a medical fame , which it still retains . The

P L. formula ordered 3 drachms of mastic,4 minims

of oil of amber,and 1 4 minims of oil of lavender to

be dissolved in 9 fluid drachms of rectified spirit ,and mixed with 10 fluid ounces of solution Of ammonia .

In some Of the Continental pharmacopoeias a muchlarger proportion of oil of amber is prescribed , and

sometimes only that and spirit of ammonia . In some

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340 CHRONICLE S OF PHARMACY XIII

as an example of the danger of coming to a conclu siontoo promptly .

COLLODION .

Pyroxylin was discovered by Schonbein in 1 847 ,

and the next year an American medical student at

Boston,Ma s s achu s s ets , described in the American

Journal of the Medical Sciences his experiments showing the use that could be made of this substance insurgery when dissolved in ether and alcohol . By painting it on a band of leather one inch wide and attachingthis to the hand

,h e c au s ed th e band to adhere so firmly

that it could not be detached by a weight of twentypound s

EPSOM SALTS .

The medicinal value of the Epsom springs wa sdiscovered

,it is believed

,towards the end of the six

teenth century , in th e reign of Queen Elizabeth .

According to a local tradition the particular springwhich became SO famous wa s not used for any purposeuntil on e very dry summer , when the farmer on whoseland it existed bethought him to dig the groundround about the spring , so as to make a pond for hiscattle to drink from . Having done this he found thatth e animals would not touch the water , and on tastingit himself he appreciated their obj ection to it . The

peculiar merits of the water becoming known,certain

London physicians sent patients to Epsom to drink it,an d it proved especially useful in the cases of somewho s ufler ed with old ulcers . Apparently the sores werewashed with it . The name of the farmer who con

tributed this importan t item to medical history was

Henry Wicker or Wickes .

XIII CHEM ICAL CONTR IBUTIONS 341

In 1 62 1 the owner of the estate where the spring hadbeen found walled in the well , and erected a shed for theconvenience of the sick Visitors

,who were then resorting

to Epsom in increasing numbers . By 1 640 the EpsomSpa had become famou s . Th e third Lord North

,who

published a book called the Forest of Varieties in 1 645,

claimed to have been the first to hav e made known theVirtues of both the Epsom and th e Tonbridge waters toth e King

’s sick subj ects,

“ the j ourney to the GermanSpa being too expensive and inconvenient to sickpersons

,and great sums of money being thereby

carried out of th e kingdom .

”

After th e Restoration Epsom became a fashionablewatering-place . Before 1 700 a ball - room had beenbuilt

,and a promenade laid out;a number of new

inns and boarding-houses had been opened;sedanchairs and hackney coaches crowded the streets ;andsports and play of all kinds were provided . Pepysmentions Visits to Epsom more than once in h i s Diary

,

and Charles II and some of h i s favourites were thereoccasionally . The town reached its zenith of gaiety inthe reign of Queen Anne

,who with her husband

,Prince

George of Denmark,frequently drove from Windsor to

Epsom to drink th e waters .An apoth ecary living at Epsom in those times

,and

who had prospered abundantly from the influx ofvisitors

,is alleged to have done much to check the

hopeful prospects Of the Surrey village . Much wantedmore

,and Mr . Lev in g s ter n ,

the practitioner referred to,

thought he saw h i s way to a large fortune . He foundanother spring about half a mile from the Old Wells

,

bought th e land on which it was situated,built on it a

large assembly room for music,danci ng

,and gambling

,

and provided a multitude of attractions,including

342 CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY XIII

games,fashion shops , and other luxuries . At first he

drew the crowds away from the Old Wells . But hisEpsom wat er did not give satisfaction . For somereason it brought the remedial fame of the springsgenerally into disrepute . Then Lev in g s ter n bought thelease Of the Old Wells , and , unwisely it may be thought ,shut them up altogether. The glory of Epsom haddeparted

,and though several efforts were made s ub s e

quently to tempt society back to it , they were invariablyunsuccessful . The building at the Old Wells was pulleddown in 1 802

,and a private house built on the site .

This house i s called The Wells,

‘

and th e original well isstill to be seen in the garden . The very site of Mr .

Lev ing s ter n s“ New Wells i s now doubtful . He died

in 1 82 7 .

In 1 6 9 5 Nehemiah Grew ,physician

,and secretary of

the Royal Society , wrote a treatise “ On the BitterCathartic Salt in the Epsom Water .” Dr . Grew names1 620 a s about the date when the medicinal spring wasdiscovered at Epsom by a countryman

,and he says

that for about ten years the countrypeople on ly used itto wash external u lcers . He relates that it was LordDudley North , who apparently lived near by , who firstbegan to take it a s a medicine . He had been in thehabit of Visiting th e German spas , as he “ labouredunder a melancholy disposition .

” He used it,we are

told,with abundant success , and regarded it a s a

medicine sent from heaven . Among those whom heinduced to take the Epsom waters were Maria deMedicis , the mother of the wife of Charles I , LordGoring

,the Earl of Norwich

,and many other persons Of

quality . These having shown the way ,the physician s

of London began to recommend the waters , and then ,Dr . Grew tells us , the place got crowded , as many as

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344 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY XIII

persons having taken the water in a singleday .

It was Dr . Grew who first extracted the salt from theEpsom water

,and his treatise deals principally with

that . He describes the effect of adding all sorts ofchemicals

,oil of vitriol

,salt of tartar

,nitre

,galls

,

syrup of Violets,and other substances to the solution °

explains how it differs from the sal mirabilis (sulphateof soda) and writes of its delicate bitter taste as if hewere commenting on a new wine . It most resemblesthe crystals of silver , he says , in the Similitude oftaste .

As to th e medicinal value of this salt Dr . Grew saysit is free from the malignant quality of most cathartics

,

never Violently agitates the humours,nor causes sick

ness,faintings , or pains in the bowels . He recommends

it for digestive disorders , heartburn , loss of appetite ,and colic;in hypochondriacal distemper , in stone

,

diabetes , j aundice , vertigo , and (to quote the Englishtranslation)

“ in wandering gout,vulgarly bu t erroneously

called the rheumatism .

”

It will exterminate worms inchildren in doses of 15 to 2 drachms , if given after 1 , 2 ,or 3 grains of mercurius dulcis , according to age . Epsomsalts were not to be given in dropsy , intermittent fevers ,chlorosis

,blood - spitting , to paralytics , or to women with

child .

“ I generally prescribe,writes the doctor

,one

,two

,

or three pints of water , aromatised with a little mace , towhich I add 5 oz . or 1 o z .

,or a greater dose of the

s alt .

” He gives a specimen prescription which orders1 oz . or 10 drachms of the salt in 2 quarts of springwater

,with 1 drachm Of mace . This dose (2 quarts ,

remember)was to be taken in the morning in the cou r seof two hours , generally warm ,

and taking a little exercise

XIII CHEM ICAL CONTR IBUTIONS 345

meanwhile . This was what wa s called an apozem . Youmight add to the apozem ,

if thought d esirable,3 drachms

of senna and 15 oz . or 2 oz . of flaky manna .

Mr . Francis Mou lt , Chymist , at the Sign of theGlauber’s Head , Watling Street

,London

,translated

Dr . Grew’s treatise into English ,

and gave a copy tobuyers of the Bitter Purging Salts . Probably he wasthe “ furnace philosopher ” referred to by Quincy (seebelow), though it is diffi cult to s ee what there was toObj ect to in his action .

George and Francis Moult (the latter was , no doubt ,the chymist who kept the Shop in Watling Street) inabout the year 1 700 found a more abundant supply ofthe popular salt in a spring at Shooter’s Hill

,where it

is recorded they boiled down as much as 200 barrels ofthe water in a week

,obtaining some 2 cwt. of salt from

these . Some time after , a Dr . Hoy discovered a newmethod of producing an artificial salt which correspondedin all respects with the cathartic salts obtained fromEpsom water

,and which by reason of the price soon

drove the latter out of the market,and caused the

Shooter’s Hill works to be closed . It was known thatHoy’s salt was made from s ea -water , and at first it wasalleged to be the sal mirabilis of Glauber

,su lphate of

soda . But this was d isproved,and experiments were

carried on at th e salt works belonging to LadyCarrington at Portsmouth , and later at Lymington ,

where th e manufacture settled for many years,the

source being th e residue after salt had been made,called

th e bittern — salts of magnesium,in fact . This was

the principal source of supply , though it was made inmany places and under various patents until in 1 8 1 6

Dr . Henry , of Manchester , took out a patent for theproduction of sulphate Of magnesia from dolomite.

346 CHRON ICL E S OF PHARMACY XIII

I t Should be men tioned that it wa s by the examinationof Epsom salts that Black was led to his epoch -makingdiscovery of the distinction between the alkaline earths

,

and also of fixed air,in 1 7 54 .

In Quincy’s Dispensatory medicinal waterslike those of Epsom are described a s Aquae Aluminos ae.

It is stated that there are many in England,scarce a

county without them . The principal ones about Londonare at Epsom , Acton , Dulwich , and North -hall . Theyall “ abound with a salt of an aluminous and n itr oUs

nature,

” and “ greatly deterge the stomach and bowels . ”

But it is easy to take them too frequently,so that the

salts will too much get into the blood,which by their

grossness will gradually be collected in the capillariesand glands to obstruct th em and occasion fevers

.

”

After some more advice Quincy adds

I t i s difficu lt to pas s thi s a r ticle withou t s etting a ma r k uponthat abomin able cheat which i s n ow s old by then ame of Ep s omw ater s . Dr . Gr ew

,who wa s a mos t wor thy phy s ician and an in

d u s tr iou s exper imen ter , made tr ia l how mu ch s alt thes e water swou ld leave upon evapor ation ,

and fou nd that a gallon left abou ttwo dr am s , or n ea r

,accor ding to my bes t r ememb r an ce

,for I have

not h i s w r iting s by me . H e likewi s e found the s alt thu s pr ocu r edan s wer ed th e vir tues of th e wa ter in i ts cathar tic qualities . Of

thi s an accoun t wa s given befor e th e Roya l Society in a Latind i s s er tation . Bu t th e a va r iciou s cr aft of a cer tain fu r n acephilo s opher cou ld not let thi s u s efu l di s cover y in n atu r al knowledger e s t u nder th e impr ovemen t and pr oper u s e of per s on s of in tegr i tyb u t h e pr etended to make a gr eat quan tity for s ale and to r ecommend h i s s alt tr an s lated th e Docto r ’s Lectu r e in to Engli s h to giveaway a s a qu ack -bill .”

Quincy proceeds to tell us how other competitorscame in

,and how the price wa s so reduced that what

was first sold at one shilling an ounce,and could not

honestly be made under (Quincy apparently refers tothe salt made by evaporation), came down in a shorttime to thirty shillings per hundredweight .

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348 CHRONICLES OF PHARMACY XI II

but he does not seem to have published his process .It wa s in Fr ob en iu s ’

s first paper,published in 1 730,

thatthe name of ether was first proposed for the product

,

which had been previously known a s Aqua Lulliana ,

Aqua Temperata,Oleum Dulce P ar acels i

,and such - like

fancy titles . Fr ob en iu s,it was understood , was a nom

d ep lume. Ambrose Godfrey Hanckwitz,Boyle’s chemist

,

sharply criticised Fr ob en iu s’

s article,said it was a

rhapsody in th e style of the alchemists,and that the

experiments indicated had been already described byBoyle . Godfrey was

,in fact

,at that time making and

selling this interesting substance . In France,the Duke

of Orlean s,a clever Chemist

,who was suspected to have

had some association with the famous poisonings of histime

,and whose laboratory wa s at the Abbaye Ste .

Genevieve,was the first to produce ether in quantities

Of a pint at a time .

Hoffmann ’s “ Mineral Anodyne Liquor, th e original

of ou r Spiritus IZEth er i s Co .

,wa s a semi - secret pre

par ation much prescribed by the famous inventor . Hesaid it was composed of th e d ulcified spirit of vitrioland th e aromatic Oil which came over after it . But hedid not state in what proportion he mixed these , northe exact p rocess he followed .

The chemical nature of sulphuric ether was long indoubt . Macquer

,who considered that ether was alcohol

dep r ived of its aqueous principle , was the most accurateof the early investigators . Scheele held that ether wasdephlogisticated alcohol . Pelletie r described it as alcoholoxygenised at th e expense of the sulphuric acid . De

Sau s s u r e ,

‘

Gay-Lussac

,and Liebig studied th e substance ,

but it was Dumas and Boullay in 1 837 , and Williams on in 1 85 4

,who cleared up the chemistry of e thers .

Ether is alcohol, two molecules deprived of H20

XIII CH EM ICAL CONTRIBUTIONS 349

[alcohol , C2H 5O HO ether,

Distilling spiritof wine and sulphuric acid together , it seemed obviousthat the sulphuric acid should possess itself of th e H 20,

and leave the ether . Bii t on this theory it wa s notpossible to explain the invariable formation of sulphov 1n i c acid (a sulphate of ethyl) in the process , northe simultaneous distillation Of water with the ether .Williamson proved that the acid first combined w iththe alcohol molecule

,setting th e water free

,and that

then an excess of alcohol decomposed the sulphovinicacid thus formed into free sulphuric acid and ether ,this Ci rcu i t proceeding continuously .

SPIRIT OF NITROUS ETHER .

This popular medicine has been traced back to Raymond Lully in the thirteenth century , and to BasilValentine . But the doctor who brought it into generaluse wa s Sylvius (de la

’

Boe) of Leyden , for whom it wa ssold as a lithontr yptic at a very high price . It firstappeared in the P L

,1 746 , a s Spiritu s Nitri dulcis .

In English this was for a long time called “d ulcified

spirit of nitre,

” and in th e form of sweet spirit of nitrestill remains on our labels . In the P L

,1 7 88 , th e

title was changed to Spiritus I ’Eth er i s nitros i,and in that

of 1 809 to Spiritus fEth er i s n itrici . The process orderedin the first official formula was to distil 6 oz . (apoth .

weight) of nitri c acid of 1 5 specific gravity , with 32

fluid oz . of rectified spirit . Successive reductions weremade in the proportion and strength of th e acid in thepharmacopoeias of 1 809

,1 824

,and 1 85 1 , to 35 fluid

ounces of nitric acid,s p . gr . with 40 fluid ounces of

rectified spirit,and a product of 2 8 fluid oun,ces . Th e

Obj ect of these several modifications was to avoid theviolent reaction which affected the nature of the product .

3 50 CHRONICLE S OF PHARMACY XIII

ETHIOPS .

IZEthiop s or Ethiops originally meant a negro or

something black . Th e word is alleged to hav e beenderived from aith ein

,to burn

,and Op s , the face , b u t

this etymology wa s probably devised to fit the facts .There i s no historical evidence in its favour . Mostlikely the word was a native African one of unknownmeaning . It became a popular pharmaceutical termtwo or three hundred years ago

,but is now almost

Obsolete,at least in this country . In France several

mercurial preparations are still known by the name ofEthiops . There are

,for instance

,the Ethiops magn e

sium,th e Ethiops saccharine

,and the Ethiops gommeux

combinations of mercury with magnesia , sugar , andgum acacia respectively . These d esignations echo th emysteries of alchemy .

Ethiops ‘alone meant Ethiops Mineral . This was acombination of mercury and sulphur

,generally equal

parts,rubbed together until all the mercury wa s killed .

It was a very uncertain preparation,but wa s believed

to be specially good for worms . Infallible against theitch

,

” says Quincy,1 724 . Its chemical composition

varied from a mere mixture of the two substances to amixture of sulphur and bisulphide of mercury

,according

to th e conditions in which it wa s kept . It was formerlyknown as the hypnotic powd er of Jacobi .Eth iops Martial wa s the black oxide of iron . It wa s a

mixture of protoxide and sesquioxide of iron . Lemer y’

s

process was th e one usually recommended , but perhapsnot always followed . It was to keep iron filings alwayscovered with water and frequently stirred for severalmonths until the oxide was a smooth black powde r .

Lemer y’

s Crocus Martis was a similar preparation but

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352 CHRONICLE S OF P HARMACY m

the alkaloids . In 1 8 1 1 Courtois was manufacturingartificial nitre

,and experimenting 011 th e extraction of

alkali from seaweed . He had crystallised soda fromsome of the mother liquor until it would yield no morecrystals , and then he warmed the liquor in a vessel towhich a little sulphuric acid had been accidentallyadded . He was surprised to s ee beautiful Violetvapours disengaged

,and from these scales of a grayish

black colour and of metallic lustre were deposited .

Courtois was too busy at the time to follow up hisdiscovery

,but he brought it to the notice of a chemist

friend named Clement . The latter presented a reportof his experiments to the Academy of Sciences onNovember 20th

,1 8 1 3

,two years after Courtois ’s first

observation . No suggestion was made by Courtois orClement of th e new substance being an element .This deduction became the occasion of an acrimon ious

dispute between Gay -Lussac and Humphry Davy . The

English chemist happen ed to be in Paris (by specialfavour of Napoleon)at the time when Clement read hispaper . He immediately commenced experimenting , andwa s apparently the first to suspect the elementarynature of iodine . His claim was confirmed by a commun ication he made to Cuvier. But Gay—Lussacforestalled his announcement in a paper he read at theAcademy on December 6th ,

1 8 1 3 . Davy complained ofth e

“

trick Gay-Lussac played him,

and Hofer , whoinvestigated the circumstances , came to the conclusionthat Davy was certainly the first to recognise iodine asa simple bod y , and to give it its name from the Greek ,Ion

,Violet . Ion wa s originally Fion , but had lost its

initial . Th e Latin Viola was derived from the originalword .

Jean Francois Coindet,of Geneva (an Edinburgh

XIII“

CHEM ICA L CONTR IBUTIONS 3 5 3

graduate), suspected that iod ine was the active cons titu en t of burnt sponge , which had long beenempirically employed in goitre and scrofula

,and havin g

proved that this was the case,was the first physician to

use iod ine as a remedy. The pharmaceutical forms an dthe med ical u ses of iodine have been very numerousduring the century which has almost elapsed since itsintroduction

,but it would be impossible even to detail

them here .

Iodoform wa s first prepared by Ser ullas about 1 82 8,

and its chemical composition was elucidated by Dumassoon after . It was first used in medicine by Bouchardatin 1 836 , and then dropped out of practice for abouttwenty years

,when it again appeared in French

treatises,and its use soon became general as an anti

septic application .

Bernard Courtois was awarded francs by th e

Academy of Sciences in 1 832,b u t he died in Paris in

1 838 in poverty . He had'

been ruined in 1 8 1 5 by thecompetition of East Indian saltpetre with the artificialnitre

’

which he was manu facturing,In that year the

prohibitive duty on the native product was removed .

When the Academy awarded francs to Courtois italso voted francs to Coindet, who had so promptlymade medical u s e of Courtois’ discovery .

LITH IUM .

Lith ium,

*

th e oxide of which was discovered in 1 807

by Ar fwed s on,was first suggested as a remedy for gout

by Dr . Ure in.

1 843 . He based his proposal on anobservation by Lipowitz of th e singular power of lithiumi s dissolv ing u ric acid. Dr . Garrod popularised the

employment of the carbonate of lithium in medicine .Most of the natural mineral waters which had acquired

V OL. I

35 4 CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY XIII

a reputat ion in gouty affections h ave been found to

contain li thium .

MAGNESIA .

The first u s e of carbonate of magnesia medicinallywas in the form of a secret medicine which must haveacquired much popularity in the begi nn i ng of theeighteenth century. It wa s prepared

,says Bergmann

,

by a r egular canon at Rome,sold under the title of the

powder of the Count of Palma,and credited with

almost universal virtues . The method of preparationwas rigidly concealed

,but it evidently attracted the

attention of chemists and physicians,for it appears

that in 1 707 Valentini published a process by which asimilar product could be Obtained from the motherliquor of n i tre (soda) by calcination . In1 709 Slev og t Obtained a powder exactly resemblingit by precipitating magnesia from a solution of thesulphate by potash . Lancisi reported on it in 1 7 1 7 ,

and in 1 722 Hoffmann went near to explaining thedistinction between the several earthy salts

,which in

his time were all regarded as calcareous .Hoffmann’s process to Obtain the powder was to add

a solution of carbonate of potash to the mother liquorfrom which rough nitre had been obtained (solution ofchloride of magnesium), and collect the precipitate .This being yielded by two clear solutions gave to thecarbonate of magnesia precipitated the name

“

ofMir aculum Chemicum.

.Magnesia was the name of a district in Thessaly ,and

”

of two cities in Asia Minor. The Greek magnesialithos , magnesian stone , has been frequently applied tothe lodestone

,but this can hardly have been correct, as

the magnesian stone was described as white and shininglike silver. Liddell , and Scott think talc was more

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356 CHRONICLES OF PHARMACY XIII

bosom of the earth . In another of his works Hoffmanndistinguishes the magnesian salt from one Of lime

,

Showing particularly that the latter was but slightlysoluble and had scarcely any taste . Crabs’ eyes andegg shells he notes combine with sulphuric acid andform salts with no taste . The sulphate of this earth

(Epsom salt) he found had a strong bitter tasteThe true character of magnesia and its salts was not

clearly understood until Joseph Black unravelled thecomplications of the alkaline salts by his historicinvestigation

,which became one of the most noted

epochs of chemistry by its incidental revelation of thecombination of the caustic alkalies with what Blacktermed “ fixed air

,

”

s ubsequently named carbonic acid

g a s by Lavoisier in 1 7 84 . When Black was studyingmed icine at Edinburgh a lively con troversy was inprogress in medical circles on the mode of action ofthe lithontriptic medicines which had lately beenintroduced . Dr s . Whytt and Aston , both universityprofessors

,were the leaders in this dispute . Whytt

held that lime water made from oyster shells wa s moreeffective for dissolving calculi in th e bladder thanlime water prepared from ordinary calcareous stone .Alston insisted that the latter was preferable . Blackwas interested

,and h i s experiments convinced him of

th e scientific importance of his discoveries . He postpon ed taking h i s degree for some time in order tobe sure of his facts . His graduation thesis

,which was

dated June 1 1,1 7 54 ,

was entitled “ De humor e acidecibis orto et magnesia alba .

” His full treatise,

“ Ex

per iment s upon magnesia alba , quicklime , and someother alkaline substances

,

” was publish ed in 1 7 5 6 . Ithad been previously believed that the process ofcalcining certain alkaline salts whereby caus tic alkalieswere produced was explained by the combination with

XIII CHEM ICAL CONTR IBUTIONS 35 7

the salt of an acrid principle derived from the fi r e.

Now it wa s Shown that ‘ something was lost in theprocess;that the calcined alkali weighed less than thesalt experimented with . The something expelled Blackproved was air

,and an air different from that of the

JOSEPH BLACK LECTURING (AFTER JOHN RAY(Fr om a p r int in th e Br itish Mu seum.)

atmosphere,which wa s generally supposed to be the one

air of the universe . He identified it with the “ gassylvestre ”

. of Van Helmont,and named it fixed

air .” Magnesia alba first appeared in the LondonPharmacopoeia of 1 7 87 under that name .

The oxide of magnesia was believed to be an elementary substance until Sir Humphry Davy separated themetal from the earth by his electrolytic method in thepresence of mercury . By this means he obtainedan amalgam

,and by oxidising this he reproduced

35 8 CHRONICLES OF PHARMACY X i i i

magnesia and left the mercury free,thus proving that

the earth was an oxide of a metal . In 1 830 Bussyisolated the magnesium by heating in a glass tube somepotassium covered with fragments of chloride ofmagnesium

,and washing away the chloride of potassium

formed . Magnesi um i n small globules was left in the

tube . The metal is now prepared on an industrialscale either by electrolysis

,or by fusing fluor -spar with

sodium . At present the uses of magn esium and ofits derivatives are infinitesimal in comparison with th evast quantities available in deposits

,as in dolomite

,and

in the Sea.

NITRE

among the ancient Greeks and Romans generally meantcarbonate of soda

,sometimes carbonate of potash . The

Arab chem i sts,however

,clearly described n itrate of

potash . In th e works attributed to Geber and MarcusGraecus , especially , its characters ar e ‘

r ep r es en ted . Raymond Lully

,in the thirteenth century

,mentions sal

n itri,and evidently alludes to saltpetre

,and Roger

Bacon always meant nitrate of pot-a s h when he wrote ofnitre . It was not

,however

,Until the seventeenth

century that the term acquired the definite meaningwhich we attach to it .At the beginning of that century there was much

discussion a s to the formation of nitre,as it had been

held that the acid which combined with the alkali wasready formed in the atmosphere . Glauber wa s the firstto argue that vegetables formed saltpetre from the soil .Stahl taught that the acid constituent of n i tre wasvitriolic acid combined with phlogiston emanating fromputrefying vegetable matter .After gunpowder had become a prime necessity of

life,saltpetre bounded upwards in the estimation of

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360 CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY XIII

anciently known . It was no doubt the principalingredient in the Greek Fire of the middle ages .Petroleum ha s been called by many other n ames .

OilOf Peter or Petre was a common one,mean ing

,like

petroleum,simply rock oil . My r ep s u s , in the thirteenth

century,refers to it as Allicola . The monks called it

sometimes Oil of St . Bar b ar u s,and oil of St. Catherine .

Dioscorides said n aphtha was u sefu l as an applicationin dimness of sight . Two centuries ago it was occasionally given in doses of a few drops for worms

,and

was frequently applied in toothache . PetroleumBarbaden s e

,Barbadoes tar, had s ome reputation in pectoral

complaints in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,

and was admitted into the PL . as the menstruum forsulphur in the balsamum s ulphu r i s Bar b aden s e.

PHOSPHORUS .

Phosphorus,or its Latin equivalent

,Lucifer

,was

the name given by the ancient ast r onomers to theplanet Venus when it appeared as a morning star.When it shone as an evening star they called itHesperus . Do we invent such seductive names now

,or

do they only seem attractive to us because they areancient or foreign "

The phosphorescent properties of certain earths hadbeen occasionally noticed by naturalists

,but no observa

tion of the kind has been traced in ancient writings .Th e earliest allusion to a fi r e- stone known occurs inthe work of a gossipy French historian named DeThou . In a h istory of his own times this writer relatesthat in 1 5 50

,when Henri II made his state entry

into Boulogne on the occasion of its restoration toFrance by the English , a stranger in foreign costume

XIII CHEM ICA L CONTR IBUTIONS 36 1

presented the king with a fi r e- stone which,he said

,had

been brought from India. De Thou narrates that thiswonderful stone glowed with inconceivable splendour

,

was so hot that it could not be touched without danger,

and that if confined in a close space it would springw i th force into the air .Sometime early in the seventeenth century

,a shoe

maker of Bologna,one Vin cent Cas car iolo, who , in

addition to his ordinary business dabbled in alchemy,

discovered a stone in t he n eighbourhood of hi s citywhich was luminous in the dark . The stone

,which i s

now known to have been a sulphate of barium ,and

which the shoemaker calcined,ground

,and formed

into little round discs about the size of a shilling,and

sold for a fancy price;was called the sun - stone . The

discs,exposed to a strong light for a few ~minutes and

then withdrawn into a dark room,gave out the in

candescent light which we know Sowell. The discoveryexcited keen interest among scientific men all overEurope .

About 1 6 6 8 two alchemists named Bauduin andF r u eb en ,

who lived at Gr os s enhayn in Saxony , conceivedthe idea of extracting by chemical processes the spirit ofthe world (Spiritus Mundi). Their n otion was to combine earth

,air

,fire

,and water in their alembic

,and

to obtain the essences of all of these in one distillate.They dissolved lime in nitric acid

,evaporated to

dryness,exposed the residue to the air

,and let it

absorb humidity. They then distilled this substanceand Obtained the humidity in a pure form. Historyd oes not tell us what questions they put to their spiritof the world when they had thus caught it . It appears

,

however,that th e stuff attai ned a g reat sale . It was

supplied at 1 2 groschen the loth , equal to about 1 s . 6d .

36 2 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY XIII

per ounce , and lords and peasants came after it eagerly .

Rain -water would have been j ust as good,Kunckel

,

who tells the story,remarks . But one day Baudu in

broke one of the vessels in which wa s contained some ofthe calcined nitrate of lime

,and he observed that this ,

JOHANN KUNCKEL.

(Fr om th e Collection of Etchings in th e Royal Galler y at Ber lin .)

like the Bologna stone,was luminous in the dark after

exposure to sunlight. Bauduin appreciated the importance of h i s discovery

,and

,taking some of his earth to

Dresden,talked about it there . Kun ckel

,who was

then the Elector’s pharmacist,and keenly interested in

new discoveries,heard about this curious substance , and

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36 4 CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY XIII

friend happily named Krafft at Dresden abou t the newphosphor .

” Honour seems to have been cheap amongscien tific friends at that time

,for Krafft posted Off to

Hamburg,without saying anything to Kunckel abou t

h i s intention,caught Brandt in a different humour

,or

perhaps Specially hard -up ,and bought h i s secret for 200

thalers .According to another story , the German chemist Hom

berg also succeeded in securing Brandt’s secret by takingto him as a presen t one of those weather prognosticatorsin which a figure of a man and another of a womancome out of doors or go in when it i s going to be wet orfine

,a s the case may be;a toy which had just then

been invented .

Stimulated perhaps by Brandt’s obstinacy andKrafft’s treachery

,Kunckel set to work and in time

succeeded in manufacturing phosphorus . It may betaken as certain that he had picked old Brandt’s brainsa little

,and his own skill and shrewdness enabled him to

fill up the gaps in h i s knowledge . However he acquiredthe art

,he soon became th e first practical manufacturer

of phosphorus .Brandt discovered phosphorus because he had arrived

at the conviction tha t the philosopher’s stone was to begot from urine . In the course of h i s experiments withthat liquid , phosphorus came out unexpectedly from theprocess of distilling urine with sand and lime .Th e new substance excited great curiosity in scientific

circles all over Europe,but the German chemists who

kn ew anything about it kept their information secret ,and only misleading stori es of its origin were published .

Robert Boyle , however , who was trav elling on the

Continent when the interest in th e discovery was keenest ,got a hint of the method of manufacture , and on h i s

XIII CH EM ICAL CONTRIBUTIONS 365

return to England proceeded to experiment . Hisoperator and assistant in these investigations wasAmbrose Godfrey Hanckwit z , who became the founderof a London pharmaceutica l business which still exists .Ultimately Boyle and Hanckwitz were completelysuccessful , and for many years the

“ English phosphorus ” supplied by Han ckwitz from his laboratory inSouthampton Street , Strand ,

monopolised th e Europeanmarket . According to a pamphlet published by him

,

entitled Historia Phosphori et Fama,

” the continentalphosphorus was an unctuous

,dawb in g oylines s ,

” whileh i s was th e right glacial kind .

In 1 6 80 Boyle deposited with the Royal Society , ofwhich he was then president , a sealed packet containingan account of h i s experiments and of his process for theproduction of th e Icy Noctiluca, a s he called hisphosphoru s .It is related in theMemoirs of the Academy of Sciences

of Paris for 1 7 37 that in th at year a stranger appearedin Paris and Offered for a stipulated reward to communicate the process of making phosphorus to the FrenchGovernment. A committee of the Academy

,with Hellot

a s its president , was appointed to witness the stranger’s

manipulation . According to the report of this committee , the exper imen t

'

was completely successful .It only remain s to add

,to complete the history

,that

in 1 7 6 9 , Gahn , a Swedish mine - owner , d iscovered phos

phor u s in bones , and that working from this ObservationScheele in 1 77 5 devised the process for t he manufactureof phosphorus which is still followed .

Such a remarkable substance as phosphorus,extracted

as it had been from the human body,was evid ently

'

marked out for medical u ses . Experiments were sooncommenced with it . Kun ckel

’

s“ luminous pills ” were

36 6 CHRONICLES OF PHARMACY XI I I

the first in the field,so far as is known . Hi s report wa s

published in the Chemische Anmerkungen ”

in 1 72 1 .

He gave it in three -grain dos es fand reported that it hada calmative effect Subsequently it was tried in variousdiseases by continental practitioners . Mentz commendedit in colic

,Lan g en s alz in asthenic fevers , Bonneken in

tetanus,V Vetkar d in apoplexy , and Trampel in gout .

In 1 76 9 Alphonse Leroy , of Paris , reported a curiousexperience . He was sent for to a patient apparentlyon the point of death from phthisis . Seeing that thecase wa s hopeless

,he prepared and administered a

placebo of sugared water. Calling the next day,Leroy

found h i s patient somewhat revived,and on examining

the sugar wh ich he had used for h i s solution,he found

that some phosphorus had been kept in it for a longtime . The patient was much too far gone to recover ,b ut She survived for fifteen days

,and Leroy attributed

this amelioration to th e phosphorised water which hehad accidentally given her.Gahn d iscovered phosphorus in the bones in 1 7 6 8 ,

and in 1 7 7 9 another German chemist named Hensingascertained its presence in a fatty matter which heextracted from the brain . Medical theories werenatu rally based on these Observations . Couer b e , aFrench chemist quoted by Dr . Churchill

,wrote thus in

1 830

“ Th e want of phos phor u s in th e br a in wou ld r edu ce man to

th e s ad condition of th e br u te an exces s of this elemen t ir r itatesth e ner vou s s ys tem, excites th e individu al

,and thr ow s him in to

that ter r ible s tate of dis tu r ban ce called madnes s , or mentalalienation;a moder ate pr opor tion gives r i s e to th e s ublimes tidea s

,and pr odu ces that admir able harmony which s pir ituali s ts

call the s ou l .”

British practitioners took but very little notice ofphosphorus as a remedy in the first century of its

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36 8 CHRONICLES OF PHARMACY XIII

consumptive d iseases about 1 85 7 . His preference ofthese salts over the phosphates was based on the theorythat the d eficiency in the system in a phthisical condition was not of phosphates

,which had been completely

oxidised,but of a phosphide in an oxidisable condition

,

and this requirement was fulfilled by the hypophos

ph ites . The latter he compared to wood or coal , thephosphates to ashes

,so far as active energy was

concerned . Dr . Churchill ’s interest in a special manufacture of the hypophosphite syrups prej udiced the

medical profession against his theories,and it i s not

certain that he got a fair hearing in consequence . The

general verdict was that his results were not obtainedby other experimenters

,but for a good many years past

syr ups of the hypophosphites have been among themost popular of our general tonics .Phosphorus i s soluble in alcohol

,ether

,chloroform

,

bisulphide Of carbon,and to a very small exten t in

vvater .

Phosphor paste a s a vermin killer was ordered bythe Prussian Government to be substituted for arsenicalcompounds in 1 843 ,

and it is probable that to somedegree the alteration has been successful

,though in

France it was found that phosphorus in this formbecame a popular agent for suicide and criminalpoisoning .

SAL PRUNELLA

was at on e time in high esteem ,as it was believed that

by the process adopted for making it the nitre wasspecially purified . Purified nitre was melted in an ironpot and a little flowers of sulphur (1 oz . to 2 lb .)was

XIII CHEM ICAL CONTRIBUTIONS 36 9

sprinkled on it,a little at a time . The sulphur d eflag

rating was supposed to exercise the purifying influenceon the nitre . The actual effect was to convert a smallpart of the nitrate of potash into sulphate . It was firstcalled Sal Prunella in Germany from the belief that itwas a specific against a certain plum - coloured quinsy ofan epidemic character . Boerhaave advised the omissionof the sulphur

,but believed that melting the pure n itre

and moulding it was of medicinal value by evaporatingaqueous moisture .

Nitre and flowers of sulphur were d eflag r ated togetherbefore the SalPrunella theory was invented

,equal quan

tities being employed . Th e resulting combination,

which was of course sulphate of po tash,wa s known as

Sal Polych r es tum,the Salt of Many Virtues .

SAL GEMMZE .

Sal Gemmae or Sal Fos s ile was the name given torock salt

,particularly to the transparent and the tinted

varieties . It was believed to be more penetrating thanthe Salt derived from s ea water

,and this property Lemery

ascribed to the circumstance that it had never been dissolved in water

,and therefore retained all its native

keenn ess .

SPIRIT OF SALT .

Spiritus SalisMarini Glaub er i was one of the productsdiscover ed by Glauber

,to whom we owe the name of

spirit of salt. He was a keen observer and remarked onthe suffocating vapour yi elded as soon as oil of vitriol waspoured on sea salt . It is astonishing to his biographersthat he j ust missed discovering chlorine . The spirit ofsalt was highly recommend ed for many medicinal uses

V OL. I B B

370 CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY XIII

for exciting the appetite,correcting the bile

,curing

gangrene,and dissolving stone . Its remarkable pro ;

perty of assisting nitric acid to dissolve gold was soonObserved and was attributed to its penetrating power.

TARTAR.

Tartarus was the mythological hell where the godsimprisoned and punished those who had Oflended them.

Virgil represents it as surrounded by three walls andthe river Phlegethon , whose waters were sulphur andpitch . Its entrance was protected by a tower wrappedin a cloud three times as black as the darkest night

,a

gate which the gods themselves could not break,and

guarded by Cerberus .There is nothing to associate this dismal place with

the tartar of chemistry,except that in old books it i s

said that Paracelsus s o named the product becauseit produces oil

,water

,tincture

,and salt

,which

burn the patient a s Tartarus does Paracelsusdid n ot invent the name of tartar it i s found in manyalchemical books long before h i s time . The earliestfound use of it i s in an alchemical work by Hor tulcuu s ,

an English alchemist of the eleventh century.

Paracelsus was writing about “ tartarous diseasesDe Mor b i s Tar tar ei s those

,that i s

,which resulted

from the deposit of concretions . Stone,gravel

,and gout

were among these diseases of tartar,and evidently it

was this morbid tartar which he associated with thelegendary Tartarus . The word tartar , applied to thedeposit from wine

,i s sometimes supposed to have

descended from an Egyptian term ,dar dar ot

, meaningan eternal h abitation

,and etymologists generally prefer

it as the origin of the name . If it was , the sense

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37 2 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY XIII

water with d iffi culty;but if boiled in water a turbidliquor was yielded which in the boiled conditioncontinually threw up a sort of Skin or scum . This wastaken off with a skimmer and dried;it wa s naturallycalled Cream of Tartar.Paracelsus and other chemists distilled this cream

and got an Oil from it which they called oil or spirit oftartar . It wa s chiefly a pyre - tartaric acid with someempyreumatic constituents . It wa s a thin

,light yellow

,

bitter tasting but rather tart , and pleasant smelling oil ,and was credited with remarkable pen etrating powers .It was used in disorders of the ligaments

,membranes

,

and tendons . Particularly surprising to them was thefact that the residue of a distinctly acid substance wasa strong alkali . This “ salt of tartar ” was found toyield another Oil called Oleum tartari per deliquium

,or

lixivium tartari,which wa s the name by which it was

called in the Pharmacopoeia . Salt of tartar and creamof tartar together yielded the tartarum tar tar i s atu s . It

’

was when making this that Seign ette produced byaccident hi s double tartrate of potash and soda , nowfamiliarly known as Rochelle salt .

VITRIOL .

Visitando Interiora Terrae Rectificando Inven ies

Occultum Lapidem V er am Medicinam. (Visiting theinterior of the earth you may find

, by rectifying theoccult stone

,the true medicine .) This acrostic is first

found in the works attributed to Basil Valentine .The vitriols enj oyed

“ an enormous reputation inmedicine

,at least until their chemical composition was

definitely explained by Geoffrey in 1 728 . It was

certainly known that the green vitriols contained iron ,

XII I CHEM ICAL CONTR IBUTIONS 373

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 thewhite was understood to \ be associated with calamine

,

though by some it was supposed to be only greenvitriol which had been calcined.

The name of vitriol cannot be traced further backthan to Albertus Magnu s in the thirteenth century . Heexpressly applies the term to atr amentum viride , theLatin name for sulphate of iron . Presumably it wasgiven to the salt on account of its glassy appearance .The alchemists , on distilling these v itriols found thatthey always yielded a spirit or oil , to which theynaturally 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 Latinwa s atr amentum s utor ium,

because they were employedfor. making leather black . Dioscori des states that thissubstance is a valuable emetic

,should be taken after

eating poisonous fungi , and will expel worms . Plinyrecommends it for th e cure of ulcers

,and Galen u sed it

as a collyrium . There was a good deal of confusionbetween th e vitriols and the alums

,and the Greek

s typ ter ia and th e Latin alumen s were often an

aluminous earth combined with some vitriol . Plinygives a test for the purity of what he calls alum

,which

consists in d ropping on it some pomegranate j uice,

when,he says

, it should turn black if it i s pure .Evidently h i s alum contained sulphate of iron .

Paracelsus declared that , with proper chemicalmanagement

,vitriol wa s capable of furn i shing the

fourth part of all necessary medicine . It containedin itself the power of curing j aundice

,gravel

,stone

,

fever s , worms , and epilep sy .

37 4 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY XIII

Mayer ne was another strong advocate of themedicinal virtues of vitriol . According to h im it

'

possessed the most diverse properties . It wa s hotand cold

,attenuative and incr es s ant

,aperitive and

astringent,coagulative and dissolvant

,corroborative

,

purgative,and s udor ific.

A multitude of medicines were made from theV itriols . A v itr iolum camph or atum wa s included inthe PL . of 1 72 1 by distilling spirit of camphor fromcalcined vitriol;but Quincy remarks : “ Its intentionI am not acquainted with

,nor have ever met with it in

prescription .

” In Dr . Walter Harris ’s PharmacopoeiaAnti-Empirica

,1 6 83 , allusion is made to a remedy

made by one Bov iu s,which consisted of spirit of vitriol

,

and was designed to be a universal remedy . Addedto an infusion of balm

,marj oram

,and bugloss

,it would

cure headache and vertigo;with rose water , feverswith fumitory water

,itch with fenn el water it would

restore decayed memory;with p lantain water it wa s aremedy against diarrhoea;and with lettuce water itbecame a narcotic . “ A rare fellow

,

” quaintly commentsthe doctor . Homberg’s narcotic salt of vitriol wa s acombination Of green vitriol and borax made after avery complicated process . Th e Gilla V itr ioli was apurified white v itriol used as an emetic . SpiritusV itr ioli dulcis was an imitation of Hoffman n’s Anodyne .

This distilled with hartshorn made the DiaphoreticVitriol .One of the precious secrets of the alchemists

,occa

s ionally sold to kings and wealthy amateurs , was thatof 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

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MEDICINES FROM THE METALS

Metal s ar e all iden tical in their es s en ce;they on ly differ bytheir form .

'

Th e form depend s on acciden tal cau s e s which th e

a r tis t mu s t s eek to dis cover . The acciden ts in ter fer e with th e

r egu lar combination s of s u lphu r and mer cu r y;for ever y metal i sa combina tion of thes e two s ub s tan ces . When pu r e s u lphu rmeets pu r e mer cu r y, gold r es u lts s oon er or later by th e action ofnatu r e. Species ar e immu table and cann ot be tr an s formed fr omon e in to the other ;b u t lead, copper , ir on ,

s ilver , &c.

,ar e not

s pecies . They on ly appea r to b e fr om their diver s e form s .

ALBERTUS MAGNUS — “De Alchemia .

”

(Abou t

ANTIMONY.

SOME of the old writers insisted that antimony (thenative sulphide)wa s used as a med icine by Hippocrateswho called it Tetr ag onon ,

which S imply meant fourcornered

,and of which we also know that it was made

up with the milk of a woman . The reason whichthe iatro - chemists gave for believing that this compoundwas made from antimony was worthy of the age when itwas the practice to apply enigmatic names to medicinalsubstances

,a practice

,however

,quite foreign to Hippo

crates . They understood the term to imply fournatures or virtues , and they said antimony had fourVirtues

,namely

,s udor ific

,emetic , purgative , and

cordial;therefore tetr ag onon meant antimony ,

376

X I V MED IC INES FROM THE META L S 37 7

THE ETYMOLOGY OF ANTIMONY.

The name of this metal is one of the curiosities ofphilology . The Old legend wa s that Basil Valentine

,

testing his medicine on some Of his brother monks,

killed a few of them. Those who have ear s foretymological sounds

,

” says Paris in Pharmacologia,

”

will instan tly recognise the origin of the word antimonachos , or monks

’- bane .

”

Another version of themonk s tory i s to th e effect that after Basil Valentinehad been experimenting with antimony in his laboratory he threw some of his compounds out of thewindow

,and pigs came and ate them . He noticed that

after the purgative action had passed off the pigsfatten ed . On this hint he administered the samean timonial preparation to certain monks who wereemaciated by long fasts , and they died through the

Violence of th e remedy .

These stories were probably the invention of someFrench punster , who worked them into shape out of theFrench name of the substance

,antimoine

,which

,

without the change of a letter,might mean bad for the

monk . Littré en tirely demolished any possibility oftheir truth by discovering the name in the writings ofthe Salernitan physician , Cons tantine, the African , wholived at the end of the eleventh century

, three or fourhundred . years before the earliest dates suggested forBasil Valentine .Other suggested derivation s have been anti -monos

,

for the reason that the sulph id e was never found aloneanti-menein

, in reference to its ton ic properties;andanti—minium , because it wa s used a s an eye paint in theplace of red lead . These ar e all guesses unsupportedby evidence .

7

3 78 CHRON ICL ES OF PHARMACY X I V

The modern philological theory is that th e earlyLatin stibium and the late Latin antimonium h ave thesame etymological origin . Stibium was the Latinisedform of the Greek stimmi . Stimmi declined a s

s timmid— and this may have found its way into theArabic through a conj ectural i s th immid to the knownArabic name u thmud

,which via athmu d and athmoud

became Latinised agalu i nto antimonium .

AL-KOHOL .

The antimony known to the ancients as stibium ors t1mm1 was the native sulphide which Eastern womenused for darkening their eye- lashes . Probably it wa sused by Jezebel when

,expecting Jehu at Samaria

,she

painted h er eyes and tired her head . The Hebrewexpression i s

“ she put her eyes in paint,

” and theHebrew word for the paint is Phuph ;(2 Kings , c. 9

,

v . In Ezekiel,c. 23

,v . 40

,a debauched woman is

described who painted her eyes,and in this case the

Hebrew word employed is Kohol . The Septuaginttranslated both Phuph and Kohol by stimmi. The

method i s still used by Arabic women . They have alittle silver or ivory rod which they damp and dip intoa finely levigated powder called i smed

,and draw this

between the eyelids . Kar r enhappuch ,one of Job ’s

daughters,meant a vessel of antimony . The writer of

the Book of Enoch says that the angel Azazel taughtthe practice to women before the Flood . He “ taughtmen to make swords

,and knives

,and shields

,and coats

of mail , and made known to them metals , and the artof working them;bracelets , and ornaments , and theuse of antimony

,and the beautifying of the eyebrows

,

and th e most cos tly and choicest stones,and all

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380 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY x r v

other metals in a state of fusion,mercury being an

ingredient of the fused mass,and yellow gold was

produced .

ANTIMONIAL COMPOUNDS .

By other processes the early experimenters obtainedvarious other products . By simply heating crudeantimony in a cr ucible they would sometimes get avitreous substance in consequence of some of the silicaof the crucible combining with the antimony. Thatwas their glass of antimony

,wh ich wa s generally an

oxide with some sulphide . In other cases the s o- calledliv er of antimony resulted

,a compound containing a

larger proportion of the sulphide . This they also calledcrocus metallor um or saffron of the metals , and oneor other of these products was originally the basis ofantimon ial wine .It was digested with Rhine wine

,and th e tartar of the

wine formed a tartrate of antimony,but

,as may be sup

posed,the composition of the wine was very variable .

Emetic tartar was subsequently substituted for theliver .The crystalline protoxide of antimony obtained by

inflamin g ,volatilising

,and condensing the regulus was

known as argentine flowers of antimony . The regulusheated with nitric acid yielded a compound of meta lwith antimonious acid

,and was called mineral bezoar;

a compound,really a suboxide , g ot by fusing sulphide

of antimony and nitre wa s called diaphoretic antimonythe chloride

,first made by distilling crude antimony

(the native sulphide) with corrosive sublimate , yieldedth e thick soft butter of antimony;the addition ofwater to this chemical caus ed the precipitation of a

‘

X I V MED IC INE S FROM TH E METAL S 38 ]

white oxychloride which wa s long known as Algaroth’s

powder,or mercury of life . It contained no mercury ,

but was the most popular emetic before the introductionof the tartrate . Victor Alg ar otti who introduced it ,was a physician

,of Verona

,who died in 1 603 . It was

alleged. that he was poisoned by his local rivals in con

sequence of the success of his remedy . He was also theinventor of a quin tessence of gold .

The regulus of antimony in alloy with some tin wasused to make the antimony cups from which antimonialwine originated . It wa s also made in to th e pilu lae per

petuae , or everlasting pills , wh ich ,

'

pa s s in g through thebody almost unchanged

,were kept as a family remedy

and taken again and again . It i s probable that thesurface of these pills became slightly oxid ised

,and

con sequently acquired a medicinal effect.

KERMES MINERAL .

One of the most famous of the antimony compound swas the kermes mineral

,which it i s understood was in

vented by Glauber about 1 6 5 1 . He made it by treatinga solution of the oxide of antimony with cream of tartar

,

and then passing a current of sulphuretted hydrogenthrough the solution . An orange - red powder was oh

tained,and famous cures were effected by it . Glauber

kept his process secret,but a Dr . de Chastenay learnt it

after Glauber’s death from one of his pupils and confidedit to a surgeon named La Lig er ie, who in his turncommunicated it to Brother Simon

,a Carthusian monk

,

who at once commenced successfully to treat his brothermonks with it

,and soon after the Poudre des Chartres

was one of the most popular remedies in France formany serious diseases

,small -pox

,ague

,d ropsy

,syphilis

,

382 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY X I V

and many others . In 1 720 Louis XIV bought theformula for its preparation for a considerable sum fromLa Lig er ie . It has been agreed by chemists

,Berzelius

and others,who have studied Kermes Min eral

,that it is

a mixture of about 40 per cent . or less of oxide ofantimony with a hydrated sulphide of the metal

,and a

small proportion of su lphide of sodium or potassium

(according to the method of preparation). It is stillofficial in the Pharmacopoeias of the Un ited States andof many Continental countries .From the solution from which the Kermes had been

deposited a further precipitate w a s obtained by theaddition of hydrochloric acid . This

, too, was a mixture ,consisting of protosulphide and persulphide of antimonywith some sulphur . It was the golden sulphuret whichin association with calomel became so noted in the formof Plummer’s powder and Plummer’s pills . The powderwas at first known as Plummer’s [Ethiops Med icinali s .

It would be tedious to go through the multitude ofantimonial compounds which have become official

,and it

wou ld be impossible in any reasonable space even toenumerate the quack medicines with an antimonial basewhich were so recklessly sold in this and other countries ,especially In the earlier half of the seventeenth century .

The most important of all the antimonial compounds , or ,at least

,the one which has maintained the favour of the

medical profession in all countries,is

,of course

,the

tartrate of antimony and potassium,emetic tartar.

EMETIC TARTAR.

Adrian Myn s ich t , physician to the Duke of Mecklen

burg in the early part of the seventeen th century , isgenerally credited with the invention of emetic tartar.

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384 CHRONICLES OF P HARMACY X I V

by the administration of an timony,the defeat of the

anti—antimon i s ts was completed . The repeal of thedecree against antimonials was dated 1 6 6 6 , just a centuryafter its promulgation .

Louis XIV was taken dangerously ill at Calais,in

1 6 5 7 , when he was 1 9 years of age . A physician

(Voltaire says a quack) of Abbeville had the audacityto treat him by the administration of emetic tartar , andthe King himself and his Court were convinced that heowed his life to this remedy . Th e opponents of antimonywere silenced

,though they d id not yield in their opinion .

Gui Patin,who had termed the new medicine “ tartre

s ty g ie (its usual French name was tartre stibié),protested against the attempt to canonise this poison ,and asserted th at th e cure of the king wa s due to hisown excellent constitution .

To illu strate the earnestness,not to say the ferocity

,

of medical controversy at the beginning of the seventeenth century

,the record of the expulsion of Turquet

de Mayer ne from the College of Physicians of Paris , in1 603

,quoted from the minutes of the College and

translated by Nedham,may be given . It should be

remembered that Turquet was the favourite physicianof Henri IV

,and

,n ominally

,his offence was that he

had published a defence of h i s friend , Quer cetanu s , whohad prescribed mercurial and antimonial medicines .The minute Is In the following terms

The College of Phys ician s In the Un iver s ity of Par is , being lawfu lly congr egated, having hear d th e Repor t made by th e Cen s or towhom th e bu s ines s of examin ing th e Apology publis hed under th ename of Tu r quet de Mayer ne, wa s committed, do with un animou scon s en t condemn th e s ame a s an in famou s libel , s tuffed with lyingr ep r oaches and impuden t calumn ies , which cou ld not have pr oceededfr om any b u t an un lear ned , impuden t, dr u nken ,

mad fellow And

do judge th e s a id Tu r qu et to b e unwor thy to pr actis e phys ick in

XI V MED IC INE S FROM TH E M ETAL S 3 8 5

any place becau s e of h i s r a s hne s s , impuden ce, and ign oran ce of tr uephy s ick Bu t do exhor t all_ phys ician s which p r actis e Phy s ick inany n ation s or places whats oever that they will dr ive th e s aidTu r qu et and s uch like mon s ter s of men an d Opin ion s ou t of theircompany and coa s t s and that they will con s tan tly con tin u e in th ed octr ine of H ippocr a te s and Ga len . Mor eover , they for bid all

men tha t ar e of th e Society of th e Phys ician s of Pa r is,tha t they

do not admit a con s u lta tion with Tu r qu et or s u ch like per s on .

Whos oever s hall pr es ume to a ct con tr a r y s h all b e depr ived of all

hon ou r s, emoluments

,and pr ivilege s of th e U n iver s ity and b e

expunged ou t of the r egen t Phys ician s .

Dated December 5 , 1 603.

ANTIMONY CUPS (POCUL‘

A EMETICA)

were in use in”

the sixteenth and seventeenth centuriesmore perhaps in Germany than in this country. Th e

one illustrated is in theMuseum of Pr acticalGeology

,Jermyn Street .

It was bought for ashilling at a sale at

Christies’ in 1 85 8,and

wa s described in thecatalogue a s An oldmetal cup ,

with Germaninscription and coronet

,

gilt,in wood ca s e.

”

The

cups are said to havebeen made of an alloyof tin and antimony

,

and wine standing for atune I n one Of them

(Fr om an illu str ation to"

a note by Pr ofessorWOIlld become Sli g htly Redwood In th e P ha rmaceu ti cal Jou r n al

,

C July 1 ,Impregnated with emetictar tar , the tartar of th e

- wine acting on the film ofoxide of antimony which would form on the inner

V OL. I

ANTIMONY CUP.

386 CHRONICLES OF PHARMACY X I V

surface of th e cup . How far these cups were usedin families does not appear

,but it is said they were

common in monasteries,and that monks who took too

much wine were p unished by having to drink some morewhich had been standing in the poculum emeticum. Dr .

\V alter Harris,in “ Pharmacopoeia Anti -Empirica

(1 6 83) refers to the cup s , and says ,“ their day is pretty

well over . It is r ar e to meet with one now.

It was supposed by th e early chemical physicians thatantimony imparted emetic properties to wine withoutany loss of weight . Angelo Sala tells of a German whoattained some fame in his time by letting out a pieceof glass of antimony on hire . The patient was instructedto immerse this in a cup of wine for three

,four

,or five

hours (according to th e strength of the person prescribedfor), and then to drink the wine . The practitionercharged a fee of a dozen fresh eggs for the use of hisstone

,and

,a s he had hundreds of clients

,patients had to

wait their turn for their emetic .

BISMUTH .

Bismuth, the metal , was not known to the ancients

nor to the Arabs . It was first mentioned under thatname by Agricola

,in 1 546

,in De Natura Fos s ilium,

and was not then regarded as a distinct body . Agricolaconsidered it to b e a form of lead

,and other mining

chemists believed that it gradually changed into silver.The Magistery (trisnitrate or oxynitrate)was the secretblanc de fard which Lemery sold in large quantities asa cosmetic . He bought the secret from an unknownchemist and made a large fortune out of it . Hi s

process was to dissolve one ounce of the metal in twoounces of nitric acid and to pour on the solution fi ve orsix pints of water in wh ich one ounce of sea - salt had

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388 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY X I V

into the R P . 1 86 7 , as an imitation of the proprietaryLiquor Bi smu th i

,which Mr . G . F . Schacht

,phar

maceutical chemi st,of Clifton

,had invented a few years

previously . It was found that the offi cial preparationdiff ered from th e proprietary one in taste and actionprincipally because no attempt had been made to free itfrom

‘

the nitric acid u sed to dissolve th e bismuth . Thiswas corrected in 1 885 by a liquor prepared from citrateof bismuth dissolved by solution of ammonia . Thismethod has been further elaborated . Continentalphysicians have not favoured a solution of bismuth .

They consider that the remedial value of bismuthdepends on its insolubility this view now obtains inEngland also .

Trochisci Bi smu th i Compositi of the R P . 1 864,were

believed to he intended to imitate th e “ HeartburnTablets

,

”

made by Dr . Burt,an eminent medical

practitioner of Edinburgh in the early part of thenineteenth century

,and sold for him at a guinea a

pound . Notwithstanding th e price , perhaps because ofit

,these tablets attained to considerable popularity . It

was said that Dr . Burt and his apprentices made all hesupplied in his kitchen . Some said that h i s tabletscontained no bismuth

,th e antacid properties being due

entirely to chalk . In 1 86 7 rose-flav ou r wa s substitutedfor cinnamon in th e official lozenges , and in 1 89 8 theoxynitrate of bismuth gave place to oxycarbonate .

GOLD .

For gold in phys ick i s a cor d iall,

Ther efor e he loved gold in s pecial .Chau cer ’s Doctou r of P h i s ike.

The employment of gold a s a remedy is but rarelymentioned in ancient medical literature . Gold leaf wasprobably used by the Egyptians to cover abrasions of

X I V M ED IC INES FROM TH E METAL S 38 9

the skin . Pieces of it have been found on mummiesapparently so applied . Some of the Arab alchemists

,

Geber among them, are believed to have made somekind of elixir of life from gold

, b u t their writings aretoo enigmatical to be trust-cd . Avicenna mentionsgold among blood purifiers

,and the gilding of pills

originated with the Eastern pharmacists . Probably itwas believed that th e gold added to th e efficacy ofthe pills . It was not , however , until th e period ofchemical medicin e I n Europe that gold attained itsspecial fame .

Arnold of Villa Nova,and Raymond Lully were

among the advocates of the medicinal virtues of gold;bu t in the century before Paracelsus appeared

,Brassa

V elus,Fallopius

,and other writers questioned its

vir tues . With Paracelsus, Qu er cetan u s , Libav iu s

,

Cr olliu s,and others of that age , however , gold entered

fully into its kingdom . They cou ld h ardly exalt it toohighly . But it is difficult to ascertain from thewritings of this period what th e chemical physiciansunderstood by gold .

Paracelsus says it needs much preparation before itcan be administered . To make their aurum potabilesome of the alchemists professed to separate the saltfrom the fixed sulphur

,which they held wa s the real

p rinciple of gold , it s seed , as some of them called it ,and to obtain this in such a form that it could be takenin any liquor . Th e seed of gold was with many ofth em the universal medicine which would cure alldiseases

,and prolong life indefinitely . I t was the

sulphur of th e sun with which that body r ev iv ifies

nature .

Paracelsus prescribed gold for purifying blood,and

intimates th at it is useful as an antidote in cases of

39 0 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY X I V

poisoning , and will prevent miscarriages in women . He

considered it not s o cordial a s emeralds,bu t more so

than silver . He also states that if put in to the mouthof a newly -born babe it will prevent the devil fromacquiring power over the child .

The Ar ch idoxa Med icinae of Paracelsu s,h i s famous

Elixir of Long Life,i s believed to have been a com

pound of gold and corrosive sublimate . He r ecom

mended gold especially in diseases connected with theheart

,th e organ which th e sun was supposed to rule .

Among the earlier Paracelsians Angelo Sala wrote atreatise on gold

,entitled “

Ch r y s olog ia ,seu Examen

Auri Chymicum,

” Hamburg,1 622 . Sachsens prepared

a Tinctura Solis secundem s ecr etior em Par acels i Mentempreparata . Bu t Thu r n ey s s en ,

who carried on hisquackeries on the largest scale

,did the mos t to push

the gold business . His Magistery of the Sun attain edto great popu larity in Germany , and these and h i s otherpreparations

,together with the as trological almanacks

and talismans which he sold,enabled him to live in

great splendour at Frankfort , where he is said to haveemployed 200 person s in his laboratory . H i s famedeparted

,howeve r

,and he died in poverty at Cologne

,

in 1 5 9 5 .

AURUM Por ABILE .

Roger Bacon is said to have held that potable goldwa s th e true elixir of life . He told Pope Nicholas IVthat an old man I n Sicily

,ploughing

,found one day a

golden phial containing a yellow liquid . He thought itwas dew

,drank in off

,and wa s immediately transformed

into a hale,robust

,handsome

,and h ighly accomplished

youth . He entered into the service of the King ofSicily

,and remained at court for th e next eighty years .

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39 2 CHRONICLE S OF PHARMACY X I V

proper and unbiassed witnesses with t he obj ect ofproving that the compound was truly a solution ofgold . The challenge appears to have been accepted

,

and the Master of the Mint,Baron Thomas Kn iv et

,and

other experts were present when the test was made.According to Gwynne the result was failure

,but

I do not find any unprej udiced report of the ex

p er iment .

The wr iter of the life of Anthony in the old

Biog r aph ia Britannica , who is his warm partisan,

gives what he declares to have been the genuine formulafor the aurum potabile . It had long been in thepossession of Anthony’s descendants

,he says

,and was

given to h im (the author of the biography) by aneminent chemist . If this is true it is evident that

‘ a solution of gold would not have resulted from the

process .This i s what the alleged Anthony’

s manuscript prescribes —Th e

"

obj ect,Anthony says

,is to s o far open

the gold that its sulphur may become active . To openit a liquor and a salt are required

,these together

forming the menstruum . Th e liquor wa s 3 pints,of red

wine v inegar dis tilled from a gallon th e salt was blocktin burnt to ashes in an iron pan;these to be mixedand distilled again and agai n . Take one ounce of filedgold

,and heat it in a crucible with white salt;take it

out and g rind the mixture ;heat again;wash withwater until no taste of salt is left;mix this with themenstruum

,one ounce to the pint , digest , and evaporate

to the consistence of honey . Th e Aurum Potabilewas made by dissolving this In spirit of wine .

Whatever may have been the opinion of the expertswh o watched Anthony make his Aurum Potabile

,

the s ale of th e panacea was not destroyed , perhaps not

X I V MED IC INE S FROM TH E METAL S 39 3

Injured by the result. Anthony made a handsomefortune out of it and continued to sell it largely untilh i s

’

death in 1 62 3,and according to th e authority

already quoted,his son John Anthony

,who qualified as

an M.D. and held the licence of the College , deriveda considerable income from the sale of the remedy . Dr .

Munk ,h owever

,in the Roll of the College of

Physicians intimates that this gentleman was freefrom th e hereditary stain .

“ He succeeded to themore reputable part of his father’s practice , is thepleasant way in which Dr . Munk describes JohnAnthony

,M.D. John

,however , wrote the following

epitaph on his father :

Though poi s onou s Envy ever s ought to blameOr hide th e fr u its of thy In ten t ionYet s hall all they commen d tha t high des ignOf pu r es t gold to make a MedicineThat feel thy H elp by that thy r a r e In ven tion .

Glauber (1 6 50) expounds the true method of makIn g Aurum Potabile ,

” knowledge of which,he says

,was

bestowed on h im from the highest Haply there willbe some

,

” he remarks at th e beginning of his treatise onthis subj ect

,who will deny that gold is the Son of the

Sun,or a metallic body , fixed and perfect , proceeding

from th e rays of the Sun ;asking how th e Solary immaterial rays can be ‘made material and corporeal " ”

But this only s hows how ignorant they are of the generation of metals and “minerals . Disposing of suchincredulity by a few comments , and referring th e s eeptics to his treatise De Gen er ation e Metallor um

,he deals

with several other irrelevant matt ers , and at lastdescribes his process In prolix and unintelligible terms .

B of liv ing gold one part,and three parts of quick

mercury , not of the vulgar , but the philosophical every

39 4 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY X I V

wh ere to be found without charges or labour . Herecommends

,but not as essential

,the addition to th e

gold of an equal part of silver. “ The mixture of maleand female will y ield a greater variety of colours , andwho knoweth th e power of the cordial union of gold ands ilver " ”

These metals being mixed in a philosophicalvessel will be dissolved by the me rcury in a quarter ofan hour

,acquiring a purple colour . Heating for half an

hour,this will be changed to a green . The compound i s

to be dissolved in water of dew,the solutionfiltered and

abstracted in a glass alembic three times un til th egreenness turns to a black like ink

,

“ stinking like a

carcase .

” After standing for forty hours the blacknessand stink will depart

,leaving a milky white solution .

This is to be dried to a white mass,which will change

into divers colours,ultimately becoming a finer green

than formerly . That green gold i s to be dissolved inspirit of wine , to which it will impart a quintessence , redas blood

,which is the quickening tincture

,a superfluous

ashy body being left . After somemore distillations andabstractions a strong red solution will be obtained whichis capable of being diluted with any liquid and may bekept a s a panacea for the most desperate diseases .Next to th e stone this is the best of all medicines .Th e author cautions his readers against the yellow or

red waters sold by distillers of wine at a great price aspotable g old . Further he explains that th e solution ofgold made with aqua regia or spirit of salt i s of little orno medicinal value

,because the Archeus cannot digest

it,but can only separate the gold and discharge it in

th e excrements .In the “ S ecrets of Alexis (John Wight

’s translation)a recipe for a potable liquor of gold i s given which con

serveth the youth and health of man , and will heal

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39 6 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY X I V

suggestion of its medicinal value -One drachm of finegold was d issolved in 2 ounces of aqua regia . To

the solution 1 ounce of essential oil of rosemary wasadded

,and the mixture well shaken . The yellow

colour of the acid solu tion was transferred to the oil ,which was decanted o ff

,and diluted with 5 ounces of

spirit of wine . The mixture was digested for a month ,and then acquired a purple colour . Lewis explains thatthe oil takes up some of the gold , which ,

h owever , isdeposited on the sides of the glass

,or floats on the

surface in the form of a slight film .

AURUM FULMINANS

was described in the works attribu ted to Basil Valentine,

and later by Oswald Cr olliu s . It is sometimes termedVolatile Gold . Valentine explains very clearly theprocess of making it

,that is , by dissolving gold leaf in

aqua regia and precipitating the fulminating gold bysalt of tartar. By treatment with vinegar or sulphur itsexplosive properties were to be reduced . It

'

wa s supposed to possess the medicinal value of gold in aspecial degree

,and was particularly recommended as a

diaphoretic . It appears from reports that it occasionedviolent diarrhoeas

,and wa s

,no doubt

,often fatal . The

s e - called Mosaic Gold,which was given as a remedy for

convulsions in children,was an amalgam of mercury

with tin,ground with sulphur and sal ammoniac .

Hahnemann insisted that gold had great curativepowers

,and sev eral homoeopathic physicians of our time

have highly extolled it Dr . J . C . Burnett, in“ Gold

as a Remedy,

” recommended triturations of gold leaf,

one in a million,as a marvellous heart tonic

,especially

in cases o f diffi cult breathing in old age .

X I V MED IC INE S FROM TH E METAL S 39 7

IRON.

Iron wa s not regarded a s of special medicinal valueby the an cients . Th e

" alleged administration of therust of iron by Melampus was apparen tly lookedupon a s a miracle , and though this instance is oftenquoted as the earliest record of ferruginous treatment

,

it does not appear to have been copied . Classicalallusions

,such as that of th e rust of the spear of

Telephus being employed to heal the wounds which theweapon had inflicted , which is referred to by Homer ,can hardly be treated a s evidences of the surgical skillof that period . Iron is not mentioned as a remedialagent by Hippocrates , but Dioscorides refers to i ts

astringent property , and on this account recommends itin uterine haemorrhage . He states that it will preventconception;it subsequently acquired the oppositereputation . Th e same authority , as well as Celsus ,Pliny

,and others

,allude to a practice of quenching a

red-hot iron in win e or water in order to produce aremedy for dysentery , weak stomachs, or enlargement of

the spleen .

Th e later Latin physicians made very little use ofiron or its compounds . Oribasius and Aetiu s write ofthe uses of its oxide outwardly in the treatment ofu lcers , and Alexander of Tralles prescribes both aninfusion and the metal in substance for a scirrhus of thespleen . He was probably th e earliest physician whodiscovered its value a s a deobstruent . Rhazes

,the

Arab,gave it in substance , and in several combined

forms,but Avi cenna regarded iron as a dangerous drug

,

and suggested that , if any had been acciden tally t aken ,

some loadstone s hould be administered to counteractany evil consequences .

39 8 CHRON ICLES OF P HARMACY X I V

V itriol (sulphate of iron and sulphate of copper)wasthe iron medicine most in use up to th e sixteenthcentury;but it was not given with the special intentionof giving iron . Paracelsus had great faith in th e

Arcanum V itr ioli,which

,indeed

,appears to have been

sulphur . He also introduced the use of th e magnet,

but only externally . It was in the century after himthat the salts of Mars came into general medical u s e.

In the course of the seventeenth and eighteen thcenturies the preparations of iron became verynumerous . Iron filings brought into an alcohol

,that is

very finely powdered , were much employed , sometimesalone and sometimes saccharated

,or combined with

sugar candy . Crocus martis was the sesquioxide ,aethiops martial was the black oxide , and flor es martis ,made by subliming iron filings and sal ammoniac ,yielding an ammoniated chloride of iron

,was included

in the several British pharmacopoeias of the eighteenthcentury .

The association of iron with Mars probably influencedth e early chemical phy s icIan s in their adeption of ironsalts in anaemic complaints

,and a s general ton ics . The

undoubted effect of iron remedies in chlorotic diseasewas natu r ally observed

,and the reputation of the

metal was established for the treatment of this conditionlong before it was discovered

.

that iron is an invariableconstituent of the human body . When this physiologicalfact came to be recognised it was supposed that theaction of iron salts was explained;bu t, in fact, theinvestigation s of the last century have only tended tomake this theory doubtful .It is known that in health the proportion of iron in

the body is fairly constant . An average man ’s bloodcontains about 38 grains

,almost all of which is con

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400 CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY X I V

better to give it in substan ce than in any . of the preparations ,

“ for busy chemists make this a s well as other excellent -medicines worse rather than better by their perverseand over officiou s diligence (P ech ey

’

s translation). Headvises 8 grains of steel filings made into two pills withextract of wormwood to be taken early in the morningand at 5 p m. for thirty days a draught of wormwood

DR . THOMAS SYDENHAM . 1624—1 689 .

(Or iginator of Sydenham ’s Laudanum .)

wine to follow each dose . Next to the steel insubstance

,

” he adds,I choose the syrup of it prepared

with filings of steel or iron infused in cold Rhenish winetill the wine is sufficien tly impregnated , and afterwardsstrained and boiled to the consistence of a syrup with asufficient quantity of sugar.

”

Dr .Willis had a secret preparat ion of iron of which

Dr .Walter Harris

,physician in ordinary to Charles II ,

XI V MED IC INES FROM TH E METAL S 401

in “ Pharmacologia Anti -Empirica writes :“ The best preparation of any that i r on can yield us isa secret of Dr . Willis . It h a s hitherto been a greatsecret and sold at a great price . It was known asDr . V Villis

’

s Preparation of S teel : ” Dr . Harris thinks itwill not be an unacceptable serv ice to the public tocommunicate this masterpiece of that eminent and everfamous man . It was no strained stately magistery

,

THOMAS WILLIS , M .D . 1621—1675 .

no sublimation or s alification,no calcined crocus

,and no

chemical mystery;b u t an easy and a natural way ofopen ing th is hard body that i t may open ours .” It was

given particularly for the removal of obstructions . The

formula was equal parts of iron filings a nd crude tartarpowdered a n d mixed with water i Ir a damp mass in aglazed earthen vessel . This was to be dried over a slowfire or In the sun;wetted and dried again ;and this

V OL. I D D

402 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY X I V

process repeated four or five times . It might be givenin white wine , or made into a syrup , or into pills ,electuary

,or lozenges . Dr . Willis preferred the crude

tartar because the cream of tartar sold by the druggistswas generally a cheat

,often combined with alum . The

crude cou ld be bought at 6d . to 8d . per lb . In theapothecaries ’ shops cream of tartar wa s sold at 3 s .

to 3s . 6d . per lb .

Quincy who frequently offers explanation sof the exact way in which medicines exercise theirr emedial power , thus scientifically d escribes the actionof iron in removing obstructions “ Mechanics teachnothing more plainly than that the momenta of all pereussions are as the rectangles under th e grav ities andcelerities of the moving bodies . By how much moregravity then a metalline particle has more than any

other particle in the Blood,if their celerities are equal ,

by so much the greater will the stroke of the metallineparticle be against everything that stand s in its waythan of any other not s o heavy;and "therefore w illany Obstruction in the Glands and Capillaries be soonerremoved by such particles than by those which arelighter . This is a way of reasoning that i s plain to themeanest Capacity .

Tartarised iron ha s always been a favourite form forits admin istration . Th e Balls of Mars (boules de Mars ,or boules de Nancy), still a popular medicine in France ,are a tartarised iron prepared by a complicated process .First

,a decoction of vulnerary species is made from

1 2 parts of water and 2 of the species . This isstrained and poured on 1 2 parts of pure iron filings inpowder . Th e mixture is evaporated to dryn ess andpowdered . On this powder another decoction , 1 8

of water and 3 of species,is poured

,and 1 2 parts

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404 CHRONICLE S OF PHARMACY X I V

Tincture of perchloride of iron acquired its reputationin the 1 8th century fr om th e secret medicines known asLa Mothe ’ s gouttes d ’or

,and Bes tu cheff

’

s NerveTinctu re (see page The fo rmula of the latter

,

published by th e Academy of Medicine of St . Pete r sburg

,was corr ected by Klaproth

,and u nd er var ious

names and in differen t fo rms found i ts way in to all th epharmacopoeias . Klaproth

’

s proces s wa s to d issolvepowdered iron in a mixture of muriatic acid 3

,and

nitric acid 1 ;evaporate to dryness,and then leave

the mass to deliquesce to a brown liquor . Mix

this with twice it s weight of sulph uric ether . The

saturated ethereal solution to be mixed with twiceits volume of spirit of wine

,and kept in small

bottles exposed to light until th e liquid acquiredthe proper golden t int . A similar preparation isretained in th e French Codex under the title of etherealalcoholic tincture of muriate of iron .

Reduced Iron,or Iron reduced by hydrogen

,was first

prepared by Theodore Quev enne , chief pharmacist ofthe Hopital de la Charité , about the year 1 85 4 . Pharmacolog ical experiments were made w ith it by himselfin association with Dr . Miqu elar d .

‘

I t was believed atfirst that the metallic iron obtained by the processdescribed

,which was to heat the hydrated oxide of iron

in a porcelain tube to dull red,and then to pass a

current of hydrogen through the tube , was absolutelypure

,and from experiments on dogs they came to the

conclusion that the metal in this form wa s moreassimilable than any of its salts . I t had besides th eadvantage of being almos t tasteless . Qu ev enne

’

s treatisedescribing the process and the experiments was

published in 1 85 4 under the title of “ Action physiologique et ther ap eutiqu e d es ferrugineux .

” Later in

xw M ED IC INE S FROM THE M ETALS 405

v es tig ation s , while supporting the original op i n Ion toa great extent a s to the assimilability of the reducediron

,established that the product is not and cannot be

pure . Du s ar t showed in 1 884 that th e proportion ofactual iron could not exceed 87 per cent ,

and wa s notlikely to be more than 84 per cent . Oxides , andcarbonates of iron were inevitable , while sulphur , arsenic ,phosphorus

,and silicon were probable contaminations

from the gas .Citrate of Iron in scales was introduced by Beral , of

Paris,in 1 83 1 . His formula is given in the P ha rm.

J nl.,v ol. I , p . 5 9 4 .

Syrup of Phosphate of Iron wa s introduced in a paperread to the Medical Society of London in 1 85 1 by Dr .

Rou th,and Mr . Greenish subsequently described to the

Pharmaceutical Society the process by which it wasprepared . The formula was afterwards improved byMr . Gale , and his process was adopted in the R P . Itha s since been modified .

A solution of iodide of iron was first employed inmedicine in this coun try by Dr . A . T. Thomson sometime in the ’

30’

s of the nineteenth century . It wa s Introd uced into the London and Edinburgh Pharmacopoeiasin th e form of a solid salt , and in the latter also in theform of a solution . Neither of thes e preparations could bepreserved from decomposition , and the first suggestionof a syrup appears to hav e been made in Bu chn er

’

s

Repertorium in 1 839,and soon after by other exp er i

men ters . Dr . Thomson gave a formula for a syrup ofiod ide of iron to one of the earliest meetings of thePharmaceutical Society in 1 84 1

,reported in the first

volume of the P ha rm. Jnl.

CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY X I V

LEAD .

Lead is one of the ancien t metals and was associatedin classical writings with Saturn . The lead compoundsu sed by the ancien ts in medicine were white lead or ceruse

(carbonate and hydrate), and li tharge (oxide). Ceruseis supposed to owe its name to cera

,and to mean waxy

litharge is from Greek,and means silver stone it was

regarded as the scum of silver . Red lead or miniumwa s also used to some extent in the form of an ointme ‘nt .Although not much used now as a medicine for

internal administration,lead in various forms has been

tried and advocated by doctors,usually as a sedative .

The Pil . Plumb i c . Opio is what remains in our Pharmacopoeia of these recommendations . Galen mentions leadas a remedy in leprosy and plague

,and little bullets of

lead were at one time given in cases of twisted bowels .

The sedative property of lead salts has caused them to

be prescribed for neuralgia,hysteria

,and convulsive

coughs Goular d ,recogn ising th e anticatarrhal and

astringent effects of the acetate,recommended it in

urethritis;and on the theory that lead poisoning andphthisis were incompatible French p r actitioners at onetime hoped to find in lead a remedy for tuberculosis .Litharge was the basis of most of the popular plasters ,

and a century or two ago there were about a hundredof these either official or in demand . Litharge wascalled lithargyrum auri or lithargyrum argenti , according to its colour;b u t the deeper tint was only th e

resu lt of a stronger fire in preparing the oxide. Whitelead was an ingredient in several well -known old ointments , th e unguentum tr ipharmacum of Mesne

,which

was the cer atum lithar g yr i of Galen , the unguentum

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408 CHRON ICLE S OF PH ARMACY X I V

Goular d ,whose name has become inseparably associated

with th e solution of the acetate . Some account of th ebearer of this familiar n ame

,and of his medicinal pre

par ation s of lead will be found in the section on Mastersin Pharmacy .

QUICKS ILV E I

is first alluded to in Greek writings by Theophrastus ,about 3 1 5 B .e .

,but it was certainly known and used

medicinally by th e Chinese and in India long before .

Apparently,too

,it was known by th e Egyptians .

Dioscorides invented the name hydrargyrum , or fluidsilver

,for it. Pliny treats it a s a dangerous poison .

Galen adopted the opinion that th e metal is poisonous,

but states that he hadno personal knowledg eof its effects . With theseauthors argentum vivumwas the term generallyused to mean th e nativequicksilver

,while hy

d r ar g y r um was moreusually employed to describe the quicksilv er obtained from the sulphide

,

cinnabar . Ancient writers appear to have regarded thetwo substances as distinct . Dioscorides points out thatcinnabar was often confused with minium (red lead).The name Mercury

,and th e association of the metal (or

demi -metal,as it was often regarded) with the planet

and w ith its Sign,formerly associated with tin

,dates

from the middle ages . It is mentioned first in thisconnection in a list of metals by Stephanus Of

Alexandria,in the seventh century.

XI V MED IC INES FROM TH E META L S 409

ARABS USED MERCURY IVIEDICINALLY .

The Arabs , who inherited the medical lore of theGreeks

,and probably added

.

to this I n the case ofmercury knowledge acquired from India , were muchinterested in mer cur y p In the chemical works attr i

buted to Geber not only the metal itself, but its compounds

,red precip i tate and corrosive sublimate

,are

described . Much use of mercury was made by"

theArab s in the form of Ointments for skin d iseases

,for

which Mesne recommended it , and Avicenna wasprobably the first physician to express doubt in regardto the poisonous nature of the metal . He Observedthat many persons had swallowed it without any badeffect

,and he noted that it passed through the body

unchanged .

MERCURY PRESCRIBED INTERNALLY.

Fallopius (1 523— 1 5 62) remarks that in his timeshepherds gave quicksilver to Sheep and cattle to killworms

,and Br a s s av olu s (1 500—1 5 5 4) states that he had

given it to children in doses of from 2 to 20grains,and

had expelled worms by that means . Matth iolu s (died1 5 7 7) relates that he had known women take a pound\9\f ' it at a dose with the obj ect of procuring abortion

,

and says it had not produced any bad result .

FRICTIONS AND FUMIGATIONS .

Sprengel fixes the year 1 49 7 as that in which mercurywa s first employed externally for th e cure of syphilis .Frictions

,fumigations

,and plasters were the earliest

forms in which it was employed . Berenger de Carpi,a

famous surgeon and anatomist of Bologna,who p r ac

tis ed in the early part of the sixteenth century ,is said

4 10 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY X I V

to have made an immense fortune by inventing andprescribing frictions with mercurial ointment for syphilis .John de Vigo wa s a strong partisan of fumigations in“obstinate cases . His fumigations were made from cinnabar and storax . I t is not quite clear whether thisphysician gave red precipitate internally in syphili s . Heexpressly indicates its internal use in plague .

MEROURY A REMEDY FOR SYPH ILIS .

Peter Andrew Matth iolu s,born at Sienna in 1 500,

died at Trent in 1 5 7 7 , latterly the first physician to th eArchduke Ferdinand of Austria

,a botanist and author

of “Commen tar ies on Dioscorides

,was

,according to

Sprengel , the first who is known for certain to haveadministered mercury internally . Paracelsus

,however,

was without doubt th e practitioner who popularised itsu s e. He gave red precipita te

,corrosive s ublimate , and

nitrate of mercury , and describes how each of these wasmade . Sprengel credits him also with acquaintancewith calomel , but other authors do not recognise this inany of his writings .

V Ieo’

S PLASTER .

Th e Emplastrum V ig on ium was a highly complicatedcompound

,which was held in great veneration and is

th e subj ect of innumerable comments in the pharmaceu tical writings of the sixteenth , seventeenth , andeighteenth centuries . Charas

,Lemery

,Baume, and

others modified and Simplified it . John de Vigo was anative of Naples , where he wa s born about 1 460, andhe became the first physician of Pope Julius II . Hisplaster still figures in the French Codex , and contains

600 parts of mercury by weig ht in parts . This

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4 1 2 CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY X I V

admiral of the Turkish Fleet under Soliman,Sultan of

Turkey , sent to Francis I , king of France , some time inthe second quarter of the sixteenth century . The recipewas published (says Dr . Etienne Michelon , of Tours , i nhis Histoire P harmacotechn iqu e de Mercure in 1 537by Petrus de Bayro

,physician to the Duke of Savoy .

He does not give the exact formula,but Lemery quotes

it a s followsBest aloes

,and quicksilver extinguished by rose

j uice,aa 6 drachmsTr och i s cs of ag ar Ic selected rhubarb

,

2 drachmsCanella

,myrrh

,mastic

,aa 1 drachm

amber,aa 1 scruple

“ Make a mass with Venice turpentine .

Lemery says you cannot kill the mercury with rosej uice

,but must use some of the Venice turpentine .

These pills were largely used in syphilis,but they

were practically superseded later by the pills of Bellos te,which are still official in the French Codex . These werevery similar . Bellos te was a French Army surgeon , andh i s formula wa s devised about the year 1 700. A formulafor them was published in the Pharmacopoeia of Renaudetduring Bellos te’

s lifetime,b u t after the death of Bellos te

in 1 730 his s on tried to make a mystery of the pillsand sold them as a proprietary product , which probablyhad the effect of making them popular . The formula ofRenaudet

,which is also that of the Codex , was

Mercury,24

'

(killed with honey);aloes , 24;rhubarb ,1 2;scammony , 8;black pepper, 4 . Made into pills ,each of which s hould contain 5 cen tig rams ofmercury .

XI V MED IC INES FROM THE METALS 4 1 3

THE TREATMENT OF SYPH ILIS .

It was at th e close of the fifteenth century that syphilisbegan to spread through Europe . There are doubtfulevidences of its existen ce in both Europe and Asialong previously

,b ut th e theory is generally accepted

that it was brought from America by the sailors of theearliest expeditions , while its rapid spread throughoutthe old world in the decade from 1 490 to 1 500 hasOften been attributed to the Spanish Jews in the firstplace

,and also particularly to the siege of Naples by

the French in 1 49 5 . That large numbers of the Frenchsoldiers then engaged contracted it in the course ofthat war is undoubted , and as they were largely in s tr umental in spreading th e contagion the disease sooncame to be known as th e French disease , or morbusGallicu s , though it has been q uestioned whether theadj ective was not originally a reference to th e skindiseases known under the name of “ gale or “ itch .

”

The Opinion that syphilis came from the west i s not

un iversally adopted . It ha s been pointed ou t thatColumbus only reached Lisbon 011 March 6

,149 3

,on

his return from h i s first v oyage of discovery and thereare several more or less authentic allusions to the

French disease before that date .The rapidity with which this ep Id emic seized on all

th e countries of Europe , and the virulence of itssymptoms

,alarmed all classes and staggered th e medical

men of the day . Special hospitals were opened andParliamentary edicts were promulgated in some of th eFrench and German cities , ordering all persons contaminated to at once leave th e neighbourhoods .Mercury was one of th e

/

fi r s t remedies to suggest itselfto practitioners . It had been employed by the Arabs

41 4 CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY X I V

in the form of ointments and fumigations for skindiseases

,and quacks and alchemists h ad long exper i

mented with it in the hope of extracting a panacea fromit. Before Paracelsus had begun to admin ister i t,Torrella

,physician to the Bor g ia s , h ad prescribed

mercurial lotions made from corrosive sublimat e,and

Jean de Vigo,of Naples

,had compounded his mercurial

plaster,and mercurial ointment

,and had even given

red p r ecip 1tate in pills .At the time when syphilis was causing excitement

through Europe sarsaparilla and guaiacum were muchpraised as s u dor ifics

,and wond erful cures of syphilis by

them were reported . The poet and reformer Ulrich vonHutten wrote a book

,De Morbo Gallico

,in which he

related his own years of Suffering from the disease,and

his complete cure by means of guaiacum in 30 days .You may swallow these woods up to the tomb , saidParacelsus . He had not much more respect for fumigations with cinnaba r

,which he regarded as a quack

treatment by which it was impossible to measure thedose of the mercury

,though he recognised that it cured

sometimes . Red precipitate with th er iacum made intopills with cherry j uice was his favourite remedy

,and

was one of his laudanums . His Catholicon,or universal

panacea,was a preparation of gold and corrosive

sublimate,which was largely used by his followers

under the name of Aurum Vitae.

Corrosive sublimate was the great quack remedy forsyphilis for more than a century

,and the SO- called

vegetable remedies,syrups and decoctions of guaiacum ,

sarsaparilla,and sassafras

,maintained their reputation

largely in consequence of the perchlorid e of mercury ,

which was so o ften added to them . Aqua Ph ag adaen ica ,

1 drachm of corrosive sublimate in 1 pint of lime water ,

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41 6 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY X I V

conclusion that if corrosive sublimate had been add ed tothe syrup the vegetable extractive or th e molasses withwhich it was made so concealed it or decomposed itinto calomel that it could not be detected . In 1 82 9

Giraudeau was prosecuted for selling secret medicines,

and for this offence wa s fined 600 francs . But thein ter esting feature of this trial was the testimony ofPelletier

,Chevallier

,and Or fila that the Rob contained

no mercurial . They reported that the formula given bythe maker might be the correct one

,b ut that in that

case the mixture would contain too small a quantity ofactive substances to possess th e energetic propertiesclaimed for it . Guaiacum and sarsaparilla were th eprincipal ingredients

,b u t there were also lobelia ,

astragalus root,several other herbs

,and a little opium .

Th e history of this discussion is related at some lengthin Dr . Michelon

’s Histoire Pharmacotechn iqu e et

Pharmacologique d u Mercure

RED PRECIPITATE .

Red precipitate was one of the first preparations ofmercury known . It is traced to Geber , but when theworks attributed to that chemi st were written is doubtful . Avicenna in the tenth century wa s acquainted with

it . In his writings he says of the metal mercury thatwarmed in a closed vessel it loses its humidity , that isto say its liquid state

,and is changed into th e nature

of fire and becomes vermilion .

” Being obtained directfrom mercury acted on by the ai r

,It became known

to the e arly chemical experimenters as“

p r ecipitatu s

per s e.

” Paracelsu s obtained it by acting on mercurywith aqua regia an d heating th e solution until he g ot thered precipitate . Then he reduced it to th e necessary

X I V MED IC INES FROM TH E METAL S 41 7

mildness for medicinal purposes by distilling spirit ofwine from it six or seven times . Charas describeda method of obtaining the precipitate by nitric acid butby a complicated process ,

and to the product h e gavethe name of arcana corallina . Boyle obtained the redoxide by boiling mercury in a bottle fitted with as topper which was provided w ith a narrow tube bywhich air was admitted . The product was calledBoyle’s Hell

,because it was believed that it caused th e

metal to suffer extreme agonies .

OTHER MERCURIAL PRECIPITATES .

The multitude of experiments with mercury yieldedmany products , and often the same product by ad ifferent process which acqu I r ed a distinct name.Turbith mineral was a secret preparation with Oswald

Cr olliu s who gave it this name , probably , it is supposed

,on account of its resemblance in colour to th e

Tu r b ethum (Convolvulus) roots which were in h i s timemuch used in medicine . It i s a subsulphate

,made

by treating mercury with oil of vitriol and precipitatingwith water .The precipitation of ,mercury by s al ammoniac was

first described by Beguin in 1 632 . For a time I t

was given as a purgative and in venereal diseases .A double chloride of mercury and ammonium was alsomade by the alchemists and was highly esteemed bythem

,especially as it was soluble . It was called Sal

Alembroth and also Sal Sapientiae. The or i g In ofth e first name is unknown

,but. it has been alleged to

b e of Chaldean birth and to SI g n ify the key ofknowledge .A green precipitate“ was obtain ed by dissolvingV OL. I E E

41 8 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY X I V

mercu ry and copper in nitric acid,and precipitating

by vinegar . This was also used in syphilis .Homberg put a little mercury into a bottle and

attached it to the wheel of a mill . The metal wasthereby transformed into a black powder (the protoxide .)By a careful and very gradual precipitation of a

solution of nitrate of mercury by ammonia Hahnemannobtained what he called soluble mercury . Soubeir an

proved that this precipitate was a mixture in variableproportions of s ub -nitrate and ammonio -proto -nitrate ofmercu ry .

CALOMEL .

Calomel was introduced into practice by Sir TheodoreTurquet de May er n e about the year 1 608 . It ha s beensaid that he was the inventor of the product

,but as it Was

d es cr ibed and,perhaps

,to some extent used by other

medical authorities,Cr olliu s among these

,who lived and

died before Turquet was born,this was evidently im

possible . Theodore Turquet de Mayer ne had been afavourite physician to Henri IV

,b u t he had been com

pelled to leave Paris on account of the j ealousies of h i smedical con temporaries . H i s employment of mineralmedicines

,antimony and mercury especially

,was the

occasion of bitter attacks,but h i s professional heresy

wa s perhaps actually less heinous than his firm Protes tanti sm. Both James I and Charle s I accepted h i sservices and placed great confidence in his skill . He

was instrumental , as explained . in another section , inthe independent incorporati on of the apothecaries , andwas also one of the most active promoters of the

”

publication of the London Pharmacopoeia .

”

It appears likely that Turquet invented the name'

wby

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420 CHRON ICLES OF PHARMACY X I V

accounted for . In Hooper ’s “ Medical Dictionary it isplausibly guessed that the name may have been orginally applied to Ethiops Mineral

,and got tran sferred to

the white product;and Paris quotes from Mr . Graythe opinion that a mixture of calomel and scammonywhich was called the calomel of Riv ier u s may havebeen the first application of the term

,meaning a mixture

of a white and dark substance .Beguin (1 608) is generally credited with having been

th e first European writer to describe calomel . He gaveit the name of “ Draco mitig atu s

”

(corrosive sublimatebeing the dragon). But Berthelot , in h i s Chemistry ofthe Middle Ages

,has shown that th e protochloride of

mercury was prepared a s far back as Democri‘tus,and

that it is described in certain Arab chemical writings .It is also alleg ed to have been prepared in China ,Thibet , and India many centuries before it becameknown in Europe .

QUIOKS ILV ER GIRDLES ,

made by applying to a cotton girdle mercury which hadbeen beaten up w ith the white of egg , were used in thetreatment of itch before the true character of thatcomplaint was understood .

BASILIO POWDER

was the old Earl of Warwick ’s powder or Cor nach ino’

s

powder (equal parts of scammony , diaphoretic antimony ,and cream of tartar), to which calomel , equal in weightto each of the other ingredients , was added . But Ihave not succeeded in tracing why or when the name ofbasilic (royal)was given to th e compound .

X I V M ED IC INES FROM TH E M ETA L S 42 1

CORROSIVE SUBLIMATE .

Van Swieten’

s solution of corrosive sublimate wasintroduced in the middle of the eighteenth cen tury asa remedy for syphilis

,and for a long time was highly

esteemed . Its author , Baron von Swieten ,was of Dutch

birth,and was a pupil of Boerhaave . He wa s invited to

Vienna by the Empress Maria Theresa,and exercised an

almost despotic authority in medical treatment . Hisoriginal formula was 2 4 grains of corrosive sublimatedissolv ed in two quarts of whisky

,a tablespoonful to

be taken night and morning ,followed by a long draught

of barley-water .Corrosive sublimate wa s the recognised cure for

syphilis,at least in Vienna at that time . Maximilian

Locher , another not-ed physician of the same school ,claimed to. have cured cases in eight years withthe drug . This was in 1 7 62 .

CINNABAR .

The bisulphide of mercury (cmnabar ) was also usedin many nostrums . Paris says it was the active in

g r ed ient in Chamberlain’s restorative pills ,

“th e most

certain cure for the s cr ophula ,king ’s evil

,fistula

,scurvy

,

and all impurities of the blood .

”

KILLING MERCURY.

The art of extinguishing or killing mercury hasbeen discussed and experimented on from the fifteenthcentury until the present day . The modern use ofs team machinery in the manufacture of mercurial ointment , mercurial pills , and mercurywith chalk ha s puta check on the ingenu ity of patient pharmacists

,who

422 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY X I V

were constantly discovering some new method fOI ao

celer atin g th e long labour of triturating,which many

ope r ators still liv inb

g can remember . Venice turpen tine,

or oil of turpentine,various essential oils

,sulphur

,

the saliva of a person fasting,and rancid fat were

among the earlier expedients adopted and subsequentlydiscarded . The turpentines made the ointment irritating

,

th e sulphur formed a compound , and the rancid fat wasfound to be worse than the turpentines . Nitrate ofpotash

,sulphate of potash , s tearic acid , oil of almonds

and balsam of Peru , th e precipitation of the mercuryfrom it s solution in nitric acid , spermaceti , glycerin ,and oleate of mercury have been more modern aids .It would be outside th e purpose of this sketch to

deal with th e ° questions which the numerous pr ocessessuggested have raised . Apparently it i s not completelysettled now whether the pill

,th e powder

,and th e oint

ment depend for their,

efficiency on any chemical actionsuch as the oxidation of the metal in the cases of th etwo former

,or on a solution in the fat in the case of the

ointment . These theories have been held,and do not

seem unlikely;b u t there also seems good reason to believe that mercury in a state of minute division hasdefinite physiological effects by itself. At any rate

,it

is well established that the more perfectly the quicksilver is “ killed ” the more effi cient is the resultingcompound .

SILVER .

The moon was universally admitted under th e theoryof th e macrocosm and the microcosm to rule the head ,and as silver was the recognised representative of Lunaamong the metals th e deduction wa s obvious that silver

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424 CHRON ICL E S OF PHARMACY X I V

nitrate of silver combined with opium ,musk

,and

camphor. Nitrate of silver wa s given in doses varyingfrom a twentieth to a tenth of a grain . Th e tincture ofthe moon was a solution of nitrate of silver with someCopper

,which gave it a blue tint and probably was the

active medicinal ingredient . Fused nitrate of silver orlunar caustic seems to have succeeded to the reputationof fused caustic potash as a cautery

,and also to have

acquired th e name of lapis in fer nali s (sometime stranslated hell- s tone in old books) originally appliedto the fused potash .

The only reason assigned for this title is the keenpain caused by the application of th e caustic , thoughprobably it was first adopted to contrast it with thelapis d iv inu s

,which was a combination of sulphate of

copper and alum used as an application to the eyes .Christoph er Glaser

, p harmacien at the court of LouisXIV

,who subsequently had to leave France on

suspicion of being implicated in the Br inv illier s

poison ings , was the first to make nitrate of silver insticks .

Tin came into medical use in the middle ages,and

acquired its position particularly a s a vermifuge . For

this purpose tin had a reputation only second to

mercury . Several compounds of this metal werepopular as medicines both ofli cial and as nostrums inthe seventeenth and eighteenth centuries , and tin d idnot drop out of medicinal employment until early inthe nineteen th century .

The beautiful mosaic gold (aurum mu s iv um), a petproduct with many alchemists , was probably the first

X I V MED IC INE S FROM TH E M ETAL S 425

tin compound to be used in medicine . It was made byfirst combining tin and mer cury into an amalgam ,

andthen distilling this substance with sulphur and salammoniac . It is now known to be a bisulphide of tin .

The mercury only facilitates the combination of the tinand the sulphur , and the sal ammoniac ha s the effect ofregularising the temperature in the process . The

product is a beautiful golden metal of crystallines tructure and brilliant lustre . It was given in doses offrom 4 to 20 grain s;wa s s udor ific and purgative andwa s recommended in fevers , hysterical complaints , andvenereal disorders . The subsequent preparations of tinwhich came to be used prin cipally a s vermifuges werethe Calx Jovis (the binoxide), the sal Jovis (sometimes the nitrate and sometimes the chloride), and theAmalgama

'

Jovis . These,however

,were all ultimately

s uperseded by the simple powder of tin given eitherwith chalk , sugar , crabs

’ eyes , or combined with honeyor some conserve . The dOSe was very various withdifferent practitioners . Some prescribed only a few

g rains , others gave up to a drachm ,and Dr . Alston

,an

eminent Edinburgh physician in the eighteenth century ,

s aid its success depended on being administered inmuch larger doses . He recommended an ounce w ith4 ounces of treacle to be given on an empty stomach .

To be followed next day with 5 oz . ,and another 57 oz .

the d ay after;the course to be wound up by acathartic .

The Anti—hecticum P oter ii was a combination of tinwith iron and antimony , to which nitrate of potash wasadded . It was s udor ific and wa s thought to be e s pecially useful in the sweats of consumption and bloods pitting. Flake’ s Anti-haemorrhoidal Ointment was anamalgam of tin made into an oin tment with rose oint

426 CHRON ICLE S OF PHARMACY X I V

ment , to which some red precipitate was added .

Br u g natelli’

s Poudre Vermifuge was a sulphide of tin .

Spielman ’s Vermifuge Electuary wa s Simply tin filing sand hon ey .

Oxide of tin is the basis of certain applications forthe finger nails . AS supplied by perfumers the pureoxide is coloured with carmine and perfumed withlavender. P ies s e says pure oxide of t in is similarlyused to polish tortoiseshell .

Z INC .

The earliest known description of zinc a s a metal isfound in the treatise on minerals by Paracelsus

,and it

is he who first designates the metal by the name familiarto us . Paracelsus says

“ There is another metal,zinc

,which is in general

unknown . It is a d istinct metal of a different origin ,though adulterated with many other metals . It can b emelted

,for it consists of three fluid principles

,but it i s

not malleable . In its colour it is unlike all others,and

does not grow in the same manner;but with its

u ltima ma ter ia I am as yet unacquainted , _for it

is almost as strange in it s properties as argentumvivum .

”

The alloy of zinc with copper which we call brasswa s known and much prized by the Roman metalworkers , and they a lso knew the zinc earth , calamine ,and used this in th e production of brass . Who firstseparated the metal from the earth i s unkn own so toois the original inventor of white vitriol (sulphate of

zinc). Beckmann quote s authorities who ascribe thisto Julius

,Duke of Brun swick , about 1 5 70. Beckmann

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4 28 CHRONICLE S OF PHARMACY X I V

Amsterdam,named Ludemann

,sold a medicine for

epilepsy which he called Luna fixata , for which heacquired some fame . Gaub iu s was interested in itand analysed it . He found it to be simply oxide ofzinc

,and th ough he did not endorse the particular

medical claim put forward on its behalf he found itusefu l for spasms and to promote digestion .

END OF V OL. I

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