Chronicles of Pharmacy, Vol. 2 (of 2)Wootton, A. C.
History
Chronicles of Pharmacy, Vol. 2 (of 2)
Wootton, A. C.
Pharmacy -- History
In a collection of quack advertisements in the British Museum, all
published in the last half of the seventeenth century, there is a
handbill issued by Major John Coke, “a licensed physician and one of
his Majesty’s Chymists” advertising miraculous necklaces for children
breeding teeth “preventing (by God’s assistance) feavers, convulsions,
ruptures, chincough, ricketts, and such attendant distempers.” These
are 5_s._ each. A number of titled people whose children have used
these necklaces are named. A correspondent of _Notes and Queries_
(Mr. J. Elliot Hodgkin, 6th Ser., Vol. IX.) quotes a reference to
anodyne necklaces from a pamphlet published in 1717 dedicated to Dr.
Chamberlen and the Royal Society, evidently an advertisement which
it may not be too uncharitable to suppose was written by Chamberlen
himself. But another correspondent of the same journal (6th Ser., Vol.
X.) quotes from Smith’s “Book for a Rainy Day” another reference to the
necklaces in which they are alluded to as Mr. Burchell’s, and are said
to be “so strongly recommended by two eminent physicians, Dr. Tanner,
the inventor, and Dr. Chamberlain,” to whom he had communicated the
prescription. The necklaces were composed of artificially prepared
beads, small like barleycorns, and they were sold at 5_s._ each.
The beads were often made of peony wood, a substance which Oribasius
(fourth and fifth centuries) recommended to be hung round the neck for
the cure of epilepsy. They were especially recommended for children
cutting teeth, and for pregnant women. No doubt they served like any
other hard substance to help in the former trouble to open the gums,
but the idea suggested was that they gave out a certain vapour or
effluvium which reduced the feverish condition.
“May I die by an anodyne necklace,” is an expression used by one of
the characters in “The Vicar of Wakefield” (Ch. XX.). In a comment on
this allusion by the eminent authority on the eighteenth century, Mr.
Austin Dobson, it was explained that hanging was there euphemistically
referred to. Mr. Dobson’s mistake was pointed out in _Notes and
Queries_, and he acknowledged it.
The Collier de Morand was a neckband sold for goitre. It was made of
carded cotton on which was sprinkled a powder consisting of equal parts
of sal ammoniac, common salt, and burnt sponge. Paracelsus recommended
that coral should be worn round the necks of children to preserve them
from the effects of sorcery.
DAFFY’S ELIXIR.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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