Chronicles of Pharmacy, Vol. 2 (of 2)Wootton, A. C.
History
Chronicles of Pharmacy, Vol. 2 (of 2)
Wootton, A. C.
Pharmacy -- History
To Dr. Weir letters patent for the pills were granted by King James II,
1687, with letters of Certification, &c., by King William and Queen
Mary, 1694; and Testification by the Town Council of Edinburgh, 1694.
From Dr. Weir by regular succession and assignation, the secret was
conveyed to his widow, 1711; thence to their son Alex. Weir, 1715;
then to Lilias Weir, his sister, 1726; by her to Dr. Thomas Irving,
her nephew, 1770; then to his widow, Mrs. Irving, 1797; by her to her
son, James Irving, 1814, but the old lady appears to have retained an
interest in them until her death in 1837, at the age of 99. During
her life, and probably before and after, the “shop” where the pills
were made and sold was on the second floor of a house in the Lawn
Market opposite the site of the West Bow, a steep street which led
down to the Grassmarket. The house still remains, the date 1690 being
carved on the lintel. After certain assignations and trusteeships the
property came into the hands of a Mr. J. Rodger who sold his rights to
Messrs. Raimes, Blanshard & Co. in 1876. They and their successors,
Raimes, Clark & Co., Limited, have been the proprietors since the date
mentioned, and they inform me that there is still a small demand for
them.
Formulas for “Anderson’s Scots Pills” will be found in all the
manuals of pharmacy published in Europe and America, but they differ
considerably. Paris in “Pharmacologia” said they were a compound of
aloes and jalap with oil of anise; the French Codex which adopted them,
or at least the name, compounded them of aloes and gamboge with oil
of anise; Niemann, whose formulary had a quasi-official sanction in
Holland early in the nineteenth century gave a much more complicated
recipe, adding to the aloes both jalap and gamboge, together with
sulphur, burnt ivory, liquorice powder, and soap. “Pharmaceutical
Formulas” states that they are well represented by Pil Aloes et Myrrhæ
B.P., “which (saving excipient) contains the same ingredients as those
mentioned in a copy of the original document deposited in the Rolls
House.”
ANODYNE NECKLACES.
Anodyne necklaces were perhaps the most extensively advertised of the
quack remedies of the eighteenth century. The introduction of them is
generally attributed to one of the Chamberlen family, well known in
medical history as the inventors of the modern midwifery forceps.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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