Chronicles of Pharmacy, Vol. 2 (of 2)Wootton, A. C.
History
Chronicles of Pharmacy, Vol. 2 (of 2)
Wootton, A. C.
Pharmacy -- History
It is not necessary to describe the other hieras devised by later
authorities, but it may be noted that the Hiera Tralliani compounded
by Alexander of Tralles (about 550 A.D.) contained scammony,
and that he advises concerning it that the quantity of scammony
shall not be increased, as it appears some were inclined to do, not
knowing that thereby they make it useless. For he says it is not the
intention that the medicine should be carried immediately through the
system. It should be detained in the body and conveyed to the remote
parts so as to correct the various humours, open the passages, remove
the obstructions of the nerves, and make way for the motion of the
spirits. This was the formula given in the P.L. 1721 under the name of
Hiera Diacolocynthidis, but our present-day hiera picra has descended
from the Hiera Simplex of Galen. The old dispensatories up to the
eighteenth century give a liberal choice of Hieras, among which were
the Hiera Simplex Galeni cum Agarice, Hiera Logadii, Hiera Antiochi,
Hiera Archigenes, Hiera Tralliani, Hiera Rufi, Hiera Justi, Hiera
Constantini, and others. Originally these were all electuaries made
with honey. It became the practice, however, to keep them in the form
of “species,” and ultimately electuaries went out of fashion altogether.
LAUDANUM.
Paracelsus probably invented the name of laudanum, and seems to have
called several medicines by that term. In one place he expressly states
that his laudanum was made from gold leaf and unperforated pearls; in
other places he seems to mean red precipitate, and undoubtedly opium
or a compound of it was sometimes intended. Crollius gives a formula
for a pill mass, which he designates the laudanum of Paracelsus, which
contained one-fourth of its weight of opium, to which were added
henbane juice, mummy, salts of pearls and corals, the bone of the heart
of a stag, bezoar stone, amber, musk, unicorn, and some species, with
a few drops of many of the essential oils. The Anodynum Specificum of
Paracelsus was a product obtained by first digesting opium, 4, in a
mixture of orange and lemon juices, 180, with distilled frogs’ sperm
water, to which cinnamon, 4, cloves, 45, ambergris, 4, and saffron, 45,
were added. This mixture was digested for a month, and after pressing
and straining, coral, magistery of pearl, and quintessence of gold, of
each 2, were added, together with the salt extracted from the marc.
The laudanum of the early London Pharmacopœias was a pill mass made
as follows:--Thebaic opium extracted by spirit of wine, ℥i.; saffron,
similarly extracted, ℥iss; castorum, ℥i; combined with ℥ss. of species
of diambræ made into a tincture with spirit of wine; to these might be
added, ex-gratia, ambergris and musk, of each 6 gr., and oil of nutmeg
10 drops. Evaporate the moisture and leave the mass.
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