Seidlitz Powders
are a well known misnomer. Fr. Hoffmann discovered the Seidlitz spring in 1724, and found that it owed its medicinal effect to sulphate of magnesia with some sulphate of soda. Seidlitz or Sedlitz is a small town near Seidschutz in northern Bohemia. There is evidence that at one time sulphate of magnesia was obtained commercially from this spring as it was from the Epsom water, and in this country then, and in some Continental countries still, Seidlitz salt was and is a synonym for sulphate of magnesia. In Christison’s Dispensatory it was suggested that the name as applied to the powders which have so long been known in Great Britain was a corruption of Seignette’s powders. Other writers suggested that the name may have resulted from a confusion between Seidlitz and Selters. The most probable explanation, however, was given in The Chemist and Druggist of February 23 and March 2, 1901, from which it appeared that Thomas Field Savory, of Bond Street, London, took out a patent in 1815 for “the combination of a neutral salt or powder which possesses all the properties of the medicinal spring in Germany under the name of the Seidlitz powders.” The specification was for the production of three powders, namely, (1) tartrated soda, (2) bicarbonate of soda, and (3) tartaric acid, but these chemicals were not designated by their usual names, but old-fashioned methods of producing them were set forth. Then it was stated that ʒij of No. 1, ℈ij of No. 2, and ℈ij of No. 3 were to be taken and mixed in the manner so familiar to us. In 1823 Mr. Savory brought an action against Messrs. Price & Son, of 4, Leadenhall Street, for alleged infringement of his patent, which, however, the Court held to be invalid in consequence of the elaborate directions in the specification for the production of the several ingredients, all of which were chemicals sold in all chemists’ shops. At the same trial it seems to have been admitted that the combination was both new and useful. There is no record of any objection to the title.
In 1778 Bergmann published a treatise on artificial mineral waters, giving analyses of the most popular, and recommending the use of the factitious waters as preferable to the natural ones. About the same time a French pharmacien, named Vanel, introduced a powder with which to make the favourite Eau de Seltz, or Selters water. Apparently the salts for making mineral waters acquired a certain degree of popularity, and it is likely that Seidlitz salt was among them. Nothing would make this palatable, and Mr. Savory’s idea of substituting a pleasant draught for a nauseous one was at least a commercial success.