Chronicles of Pharmacy, Vol. 2 (of 2)Wootton, A. C.
History
Chronicles of Pharmacy, Vol. 2 (of 2)
Wootton, A. C.
Pharmacy -- History
“The public will now be fully enabled to judge of Mr. Hawes’s
pretensions to the knowledge of this medicine; and they will
determine what degree of credit they ought to pay to the
assertions of a man who has made so daring an attempt to impose
upon their understanding; who in contradiction to Dr. James’s
deposition has represented himself as possessing a secret with
which he was never entrusted, and as having performed operations
at which he was never present; and who, to invalidate the
Doctor’s testimony, has declared him to be reduced to fatuity at
a time when the vigour of his mind was known and acknowledged by
the physician and surgeon who attended him, and by patients of
the highest rank who continued to entrust him with health and
life.”
In 1774 Dr. James patented an “analeptic pill.” It was composed of
his own fever powder with pil. rufi and gum ammoniacum, the last two
ingredients to be dissolved in an underground cave furnished with the
conductors of electric fire.
The first official substitute for James’s powder was introduced into
the London Pharmacopœia of 1787. The formula was devised by a Dr.
Higgins, and the experiments were made in the laboratory of the Society
of Apothecaries. It was composed of equal parts of tersulphuret of
antimony and hartshorn shavings. This was found to be stronger than
the original, and further experiments were made for the College by Dr.
Pearson, who reported in 1791 that James’s powder consisted of about
equal parts of oxide of antimony and phosphate of lime. The formulas
in the London Pharmacopœias of 1809 and 1824 were consequently reduced
in strength, one part of the antimonial salt with two parts of horn
shavings being substituted. The ingredients were heated to redness
in a crucible and afterwards powdered. For the Pharmacopœia of 1851,
Mr. Richard Phillips experimented, and mainly confirmed Dr. Pearson’s
results. The formula remained as in 1824. Meanwhile the Edinburgh
Pharmacopœia continued to adopt the stronger combination, while the
Dublin Pharmacopœia prescribed a different preparation altogether,
tartarised antimony and phosphate of soda solutions being mixed, and
a precipitate consisting of teroxide of antimony and phosphate of
lime being produced by precipitation by the addition of a solution of
chloride of calcium and ammonia. This was a modification of a process
advocated by Chevenix in a paper published in _Phil. Trans._,
1801. His process was recommended by Abernethy and many other of the
leading practitioners of his time. In the British Pharmacopœias the
simple formula of one part of antimonious oxide and two parts of
calcium phosphate has been adopted. The name of Dr. James’s Powder as
a synonym has now been dropped.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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