Secret remedies : $b What they cost and what they containBritish Medical Association
Science
Secret remedies : $b What they cost and what they contain
British Medical Association
Patent medicines
It appeared, however, from a booklet sent with the ointment that
rheumatism was only one among a large number of complaints for which
the ointment was recommended; it was described on the label as:
A certain cure for Sprains, Bruises, Cuts, Burns,
Chapped Hands, Eczema, Blood Poisoning, Whitlows, Sea
Water Boils, Abscesses, Piles, Rheumatism, Sciatica,
Lumbago, Pains in the Back and Loins, and all Sores and
Ulcers of every description.
The directions for its use in rheumatism were:
First wash the part to be treated with warm water and
soda, then thoroughly dry—(a quantity of the ointment
may then be well rubbed in). Now get a piece of thick
cotton cloth (old sheeting answers very well) or better
still, chamois leather, spread the ointment thickly and
apply like a poultice. When the dressing begins to get
dry, take it off, and after scraping the cloth replace
it with fresh ointment. The part may, after a dressing
or two, begin to itch, and the skin, being stimulated,
may come out in a humour. If so, do not be alarmed but
persevere. This is a sure sign that the Ointment is
doing its work, drawing out the deleterious matter,
viz., Uric Acid Poison, from the body through the most
natural of all channels, the pores of the skin.
Analysis showed the presence of colophony resin, petroleum jelly, a
little beeswax, and a fatty base. The colophony was accompanied by
a small proportion of another substance of resinous nature, which
appeared to be the altered resin to be found in the variety of
colophony known commercially as “black resin”; a dark substance was
also present which appeared to consist of the natural impurities of
crude petroleum; the fatty basis showed generally the properties of a
mixture of lard and tallow. A similar ointment was obtained by using
the following formula:
Black resin 12 per cent.
Beeswax 2 ”
Crude petroleum jelly 26 ”
Tallow 20 ”
Lard 40 ”
Estimated cost of ingredients for 1¾ ounces, 1d.
ZOX.
Zox is a powder made by a Company with an address in London and the
price charged is 1s. for a box containing eight powders. It was
described on the wrapper as:
The most marvellous pain reliever. Instantly cures
Toothache, Neuralgia, Headache, Sciatica, and all
Nerve Pains. Pure, Harmless, not Aperient.
In a circular enclosed with the box directions were given for taking
the powders for neuralgia, toothache, headache, sciatica, rheumatic and
gouty pains, and influenza. For neuralgia the directions were:
Ono Powder should be taken when in pain, and should the
enemy return, continue the Powders every four hours,
for a few days. If very weak from continual pain, take
a few doses of Zox Tonic; this will give you speedy
relief.
For rheumatic and gout pains:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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