Chronicles of Pharmacy, Vol. 2 (of 2)Wootton, A. C.
History
Chronicles of Pharmacy, Vol. 2 (of 2)
Wootton, A. C.
Pharmacy -- History
R. Humane Bones or rather scales, well dryed, break them into
bits, and put them into a retort, and join thereto a large
Receiver which lute well; and distil first with a gentle Fire,
then with a stronger, increasing the fire gradatim; so will you
have in the Recipient a Flegm, Spirit, Oyl, and Volatile Salt.
Shake the Receiver to loosen the Volatile Salt from the sides,
then close your Receiver and set it in the earth to digest for
three months, after that digest it in a gentle heat fourteen
days, then separate the Oyl which keep for use.
Salmon says they that please may make it according to the prescription,
but he gives an alternative formula which was “to rectify the Oyl from
the Flegm, then to grind the Volatile Salt with the Oyl, and so by a
long digestion to join them together.” Salmon also tells us that if
these drops are distilled from the bones of the skull they are good for
apoplexy, vertigo, megrims, &c., but “if you want it for gout of any
particular limb it is better to make it from the bones of that limb.
The dose is 6 to 12 drops, but it has an evil scent.” You can, however,
correct that, and “Elixirate” the preparation, bringing it “even to a
Fragrancy” if you add so much Spirit of Nitre as will dissolve the oil,
and then mix it with four times its weight of spirit of wine. Then you
should give 20 to 60 drops in a glass of Canary. “So you will have a
medicine beyond all comparison ten times exceeding the other in worth
and efficacy.”
Who was the inventor of this medicine? Salmon says, “The author of
this Recipe was not that Goddard whose Recipes and Prescriptions are
scattered up and down in several places of this book, but the famous
W. Goddard, a great Philosopher and Physician who deserved well of the
World in his Day and Time, and who has even in this Remedy left himself
an Immortal name. And this is the true Medicine which was purchased of
the Doctor by King Charles the Second, so much famed through the whole
kingdom, and for which he gave him, as it is reported, fifteen hundred
pounds sterling.” Other statements say that Charles bought the formula
for £5,000 or £6,000.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account