Chronicles of Pharmacy, Vol. 2 (of 2)Wootton, A. C.
History
Chronicles of Pharmacy, Vol. 2 (of 2)
Wootton, A. C.
Pharmacy -- History
The formula and good will in the liniment were ultimately sold for ten
thousand pounds, but it does not seem to have retained its popularity
after the personality of its inventor had been removed. Nevertheless it
possessed certain properties which were thought by some of its users
to be little short of miraculous. For example, when applied to the
skin the particular part where the pain was most severe would develop
redness quicker than the other parts. In the course of a little time,
the rubbing being continued, a fluid varying in colour according, as
was believed, to the nature of the illness, would ooze from the skin,
though the cuticle remained unbroken. Lastly, the treatment being
still continued, the part affected would gradually resume its healthy
appearance. In the _Lancet_ of June 23, 1838, may be found the
report of a meeting of the “Medico-Botanic Society,” held on the
13th of that month, at which Dr. Macreight communicated the result
of an investigation into the composition of this famous liniment,
an imitation of which had been made by himself and Mr. Fownes, the
well-known chemist. The explanation of the analysis was accompanied by
a good many disparaging comments on Long, and suggestions that there
was nothing very wonderful about his liniment after all. The formula
which Dr. Macreight and Mr. Fownes devised for a liniment which they
said corresponded exactly with the quack compound was as follows:--
Yolk of one egg; pure oil of turpentine, 1½ oz.; strong acetic acid, 1
oz.; distilled water, 3 oz.
Dr. Macreight notices one of St. John Long’s recommendations to apply
a cabbage leaf to the skin when the discharge had been obtained, and
remarks “this in many respects is superior to a common cataplasm, which
is clumsy and dries up rapidly; but of course no regular practitioner
would employ cabbage leaves while the simple and elegant contrivance,
lint covered with oiled silk, was within his reach.” Perhaps if a
medical man had constructed the cabbage leaf, it might have been also
regarded as “a simple and elegant contrivance.”
SEIGNETTE’S SALTS.
(Soda Tartarata, Sodii potassio-tartras, Rochelle salts, Sel de
Seignette, Sal polychrestum Seignette.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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