688. From παρηγορέω lenio, to assuage pain.

689. Matthew’s Injection. This once celebrated remedy for Fistula in Ano, was nothing more than a diluted Tincture of Cantharides.

690. Solomon’s Balm of Gilead. An aromatic tincture, of which Cardamoms form a leading ingredient, made with brandy. Some practitioners have asserted that Cantharides enter its composition.

691. Daffy’s Elixir. This is the Tinctura Sennæ Composita, with the substitution of treacle for sugar candy, and the addition of aniseeds and elecampane root. Different kinds of this nostrum are sold under the names of Dicky’s Daffy, and Swinton’s Daffy; but they differ merely in some subordinate minutiæ, or unimportant additions.

692. The following remarks, with which I have lately been favoured by Dr. Davy, appear interesting. “In the few cases which I have tried this remedy for the retention of urine, I have seen no good effects produced, until it excited nausea. For this purpose I have found it advantageous to give it in a little tepid water: upon chemical examination I could not discover that it ever passed off by the urine; the fæces, however, are uniformly coloured black by it, whence I conclude it must be evacuated through the bowels. In order to prevent its tendency to constipate the bowels, I have found it necessary to give some aperient, as castor oil, speedily after its exhibition.” May not this latter circumstance explain the reason of his not having detected it in the urine? (See p. 95.)

693. De La Motte’s Golden Drops. An Æthereal solution of Iron.

694. It has, for this reason, been substituted for oak bark in the tanning of leather.

695. British Herb Tobacco. The basis of which is Coltsfoot; this appears to have had a very ancient origin, for the same plant was smoaked through a reed in the days of Dioscorides, for the purpose of promoting expectoration, and was called by him βηγὶον, from βηξ, tussis, whence Tussilago.

Essence of Coltsfoot. For an account of this nostrum, see page 314.

696. In the first edition of this work, I stated the probability of the Veratrum being the active ingredient of the Eau Medicinale, and, upon the authority of Mr. James Moore, I inserted a formula for its preparation; subsequent enquiry, however, has shewn the fallacy of this opinion; but the fact of the medicinal efficacy of the Veratrum, when combined with opium, in the cure of gout, remains incontrovertible. One of the two Sweating Powders of Ward was a combination of the Veratrum and Opium, it is certainly a very singular coincidence, that recent experiments should have shewn that the active principle of colchicum is identical with that which gives efficacy to the hellebore, viz. Gallate of Veratria. The fact itself offers a striking instance of medical experience having anticipated the discoveries of chemistry, while it affords a powerful case in support of the arguments which I have urged in the first part of this work, p. 55.

697. Edinburgh Ointment. The principal ingredients of which are the White Hellebore and Muriate of Ammonia.

698. For an account of which the reader is referred to a most ingenious and interesting Essay by Dr. Macculloch, entitled “Remarks on the Art of making Wine, with suggestions for the application of its principles to the improvement of Domestic Wines.”

699. This may also explain why bitters, under certain circumstances, have been found to counteract the effects of wine, as in the instance of the “Poculum Absinthiatum,” of which the ancients entertained so high an opinion. See page 68.

700. .sp 1

Pliny (lib: 14. c. 14.) mentions a Wine under the name of Myrrhina, which was so called on account of its being impregnated with Myrrh.

This custom explains the origin and meaning of the Thyrsus of Bacchus, which appears to have been a spear entwined with leaves or a fillet, and surmounted with a Fir cone; thus,

701. See Dioscorides, lib. 5, c. 35, 36, 37, 38, 39.

702. An interesting and highly embellished work upon the subject of Wines, has lately been published by Dr. Henderson.

703. .sp 1

The Odes of Horace abound with manifestations of the same taste, thus,

Here Horace sends his Slave for a cask of the wine on which the Marian war was recorded, and which must therefore have been sixty-eight years old.

In ode xxviii. book 3, we find him calling for

Now as the poet was born in the Consulate of Manlius, as above stated, which happened A. U. C. 688, and Bibulus was Consul in 694, the wine must have been hoarded from the time Horace was six years of age.

Wine however might, according to the opinion of our Poet, be too old; he terms wine of this description “Languidiora Vina,” and Plautus compares old wine which has lost its relish and strength, to a man who has lost his teeth by age, “Vinum vetustate edentulum.”

Nestor’s wine was eleven years old. Od. γ. 390.

The Romans had their wine cellars at the top of their houses; thus Horace,

The object of such an arrangement was that the wine might ripen sooner by the smoke, for their fires were made in the middle of their rooms, with an opening above to let out the smoke, which is described as rolling to the top of the house, in the Eleventh Ode of the Fourth Book.

704. From the noxious effects which some persons experience from potations of Champagne, it has been conjectured that this wine must possess some narcotic principle like that which exists in many species of Fungi. This, however, is extremely improbable.

705. ξηρος signifies dry. This is a curious coincidence.

706. The Sack of Shakespeare was probably Sherry; a conjecture which receives additional strength from the following passage.

Falstaff.—“You rogue, here’s lime in this Sack too: There is nothing but roguery to be found in villainous man: yet a coward is worse than a cup of sack with lime in it; a villainous coward.”

Huldrick Van Speagle, in his “Famous Historie of most Drinks”, says “Sack is no hippocrite, for any man who knows what an Anagram is will confesse that it is contained within the litteral letters and limmits of its own name, which is to say. Cask, i. e. Sack.” See Taylor’s Translation of the “Work of the painful and industrious Huldricke Van Speagle, a grammatical Brewer of Lubeck. A.D. 1637.”

707. Expose equal parts of sulphur and powdered oyster shells to a white heat for fifteen minutes, and when cold, add an equal quantity of cream of tartar; these are to be put into a strong bottle with common water to boil for an hour; and the solution is afterwards to be decanted into ounce phials, adding 20 drops of muriatic acid to each. This liquor will precipitate the least quantity of lead from wines in a very sensible black precipitate. As iron might be accidentally contained in the wine, the muriatic acid is added to prevent its precipitation.

708. Lead will not only correct the acidity of wines, but remove the rancidity of oils: a property which is well known to Painters, and which affords an expedient for making an inferior oil pass for a good one.

709. The quantity of rectified spirit and water ordered will be found on admixture to produce a spirit nearly of the above strength.

710. Ward’s Red Drop. A strong vinous solution of Tartarized Antimony.

711. Ford’s Laudanum. This is similar to the Vinum Opii of the present Pharmacopœia.

712. Laudanum. Paracelsus first bestowed the term Laudanum upon a preparation of Opium, a Laudata ejus efficacia, Laudatum medicamentum.

713. According to the experiments of M. Vogel, Annales de Chimie, (t. lxiv. p. 220) this ointment is nothing more than metallic mercury mixed with grease, the division of which has been carried to such an extent as to impart a blackish colour to the mixture.

714. It is to be hoped that a quantity of the ointment will be prepared according to these views, and be submitted to a more extended series of experiments. The oxide may be procured by decomposing Calomel by a solution of pure potass, or by pouring a solution of the nitrate of mercury into a caustic alkaline solution; this oxide should be at first triturated with a little lard, in the cold, to make the penetration complete, taking care that the lard be quite free from common salt, or else Calomel will be the ultimate result: the mixture is then to be submitted to the action of heat, and it is very important to attend to the necessary temperature, for at 212° the oxide and lard will not unite, at 600° the oxide will be decomposed and the mercury volatilized, at 500° and 400° the oxide is partially decomposed, some red oxide being formed and mercury reduced; the proper temperature is between 300° and 320°, at which it should be maintained for an hour, and the ointment should be stirred until cold.

715. Four ounces, troy, of mercurial ointment, prepared six months before, were kept at 212°, when it separated into two distinct strata, viz. the upper one which was light grey, and extremely active as a medicine, and the under one, which upon being triturated with magnesia, yielded a large proportion of metallic mercury, and which was not found to possess any activity.

716. Whenever it is our object to direct the mercurial impression to any particular organ, we should if possible rouse its excitability by some specific stimulus. An exception, however, to this doctrine would seem to offer itself in the fact, that children at the period of dentition are not readily salivated; a priori, we should have certainly supposed that a predisposition to a flux of saliva would have produced a contrary effect. As it is, we can only conclude that those organs are not disposed to take on any action that may be incompatible with, or adverse to, that of dentition.

717. The Unguentum Werholfii, so long celebrated on the Continent, was a combination of this kind.

718. Basilicon, i. e. the Royal Ointment.

Bailey’s Itch Ointment. This is a very complicated combination; containing Nitre, Alum, Sulphate of Zinc, and Cinnabar, made into an ointment with Olive oil and Lard, and perfumed with the essential oils of Anise Seeds, Origanum, and Lavender; and coloured with Alkanet root.

The Indians use an ointment in inveterate itch, which is said to prove very successful, and consists of finely powdered Cocculus Indicus mixed with a little warm Castor oil.

719. I have been lately informed by a practical chemist, that he has occasionally found his hydrogen, when produced by zinc and dilute acid, to contain a portion of Arsenuretted hydrogen; a fact which confirms the assertion of Roloff.

720. The various quack remedies advertised for the cure of the hooping cough are either Opiates, or medicines composed of sulphate of zinc. The nostrum, sold under the name of Anti-pertussis, contains this metallic salt as its principal ingredient.

721. Oxley’s Concentrated Essence of Jamaica Ginger.—A mere solution of Ginger in Rectified spirit.

Ginger Beer Powders.—White sugar, ʒj ℈ij, ginger grs. v. sub-carbonate of soda grs. xxvj, in blue paper. Tartaric acid grs. xxx, in each white paper. These proportions are directed for half a pint of water.

Ginger Beer.—The following is the receipt by which this popular beverage is prepared. Take of lump sugar half a pound; of cream of tartar half an ounce; Bruised Ginger an ounce; boiling water one gallon. Ferment for twenty-four hours with yeast.

Preserved Ginger.—That from India is almost transparent, while that manufactured in Europe is always opaque and fibrous.