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
The sample of Pistoia gout powder examined was of a greenish ginger
colour and had a bitter taste. MM. Guignard, Collin, Chastaing, and
Barillot give the following formula for the Pistoia gout powder:
Colchicum corm 10 parts
Bryony root 10 ”
Betony (root, stem, and leaves) 50 ”
Gentian root 10 ”
Camomile (chiefly stem, leaves, a little root, and flowers) 10 ”
M. Collin is one of the leading authorities on the microscopic
characters of powdered vegetable drugs, and a microscopical examination
of the specimen revealed characters consistent with this formula; such
small differences as were observed were only such as might be expected
between specimens grown under different conditions of soil, climate,
etc.
Another formula which has been published for the powders is as follows,
but the sample examined agreed more nearly with No. 1:
II.
Colchicum corm 20 parts.
Bryony root 10 ”
Betony root 40 ”
Gentian root 10 ”
Camomile 10 ”
LAVILLE’S ANTIGOUT REMEDIES.
According to Zernik, the chief constituents of the Liqueur du Dr.
Laville, an antigout remedy, very popular in France, in spite of its
high price and secret composition, are colchicin (about 0·08 per cent.)
and quinine in alcoholic solution. The pilules du Dr. Laville are
sold as preventive remedies against gout. They were found to contain
extract of winter cherry, Physalis alkekengi, one of the Solanaceae
(? capsicum), guaiacum resin, powdered leaves and root of the marsh
mallow, and sodium silicate. Each bottle contains 75 grams, about 2½
fluid ounces, and costs 8s.
SOME GERMAN NOSTRUMS.
The following notes upon a few German remedies are quoted from Dr.
Zernik’s reports in the _Deutsche Medicinische Wochenschrift_.
URICEDIN.
This is a Berlin product vaunted as a remedy for the
gouty diathesis, but its composition is very simple;
it contains 2½ per cent. sodium chlorate, and 66·5 per
cent. dry sodium sulphate, the remainder being sodium
citrate and sodium tartrate.
RHEUMACID.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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