[256] For an exposition of the Da Silva quackery, with Or Locock’s letter on the subject, see the ‘Anat. of Quackery,’ or the ‘Med. Cir.,’ ii, 106-126.
1. Aperient or antibilious wafers. From sugar and extract of liquorice (Spanish juice), equal parts; senna and jalap, of each in fine powder, about 1⁄2 dr. to every oz. of sugar employed; made into a mass with a concentrated infusion of senna, and divided into 12-gr. lozenges or squares with the corners rounded off.
2. Female wafers. From sugar, horehound candy (or honey), and aperient wafer mass, equal parts; beaten to a proper consistence with weak gum water, to which a little orange-flower water has been added, and divided into 8 gr. tabellæ, as before.
3. Pulmonic wafers. From lump sugar and starch, of each in powder, 2 parts; powdered gum, 1 part; made into a lozenge-mass with vinegar of squills, oxymel of squills, and ipecacuanha wine, equal parts, gently evaporated to 1-6th their weight, with the addition of lactucarium in the proportion of 20 to 30 gr. to every oz. of the dry powders, the mass being divided into half-inch squares, weighing about 71⁄2 gr. each (when dry), as before.
WAL′NUT. The Juglans regia, a tree of the natural order Juglandaceæ. The sap yields sugar; the fruit is the walnut; the kernels of the latter are eaten and pressed for their oil; the peel or husks are used for ‘rooting’ or dyeing brown; the unripe fruit is pickled, and its juice is used as a hair dye; the leaves are reputed diaphoretic and antisyphilitic; and the wood is esteemed for cabinet work.
WARBURG’S FEVER DROPS. See Tincture, Warburg’s Fever.
WARD’S RED DROP. A strong solution of emetic tartar in wine.
WARTS. Syn. Verrucæ, L. These chiefly attack the hands, and may be removed by the daily use of a little nitrate of silver, nitric acid, or aromatic vinegar, as directed under Corns. The first of the above applications produces a black stain, and the second a yellow one; both of which, however, wear off after the lapse of some days. Acetic acid scarcely discolours the skin. Erasmus Wilson, the eminent surgeon and talented author of several works on the skin, mentions the case of a gentleman who removed an entire crop of warts from his knuckles and fingers by subjecting them to a succession of sparks from one of the poles of an electrical machine. “He was in the habit, as is usual, of trying the amount of electric fluid collected in his
machine by placing his knuckle near the brass knob, and receiving a spark. Observing that an odd sensation was produced whenever the spark struck a wart, he was tempted for amusement to give them a round of discharges. When his attention was next directed to his hands he found, to his surprise and satisfaction, that all the warts had disappeared.” Dr Peez, of Wiesbaden, recommends the internal use of carbonate of magnesia in cases of warts.
The papular eruption which covers the hands of some persons, and which is occasionally called ‘soft warts,’ is best removed by the daily use of Gowlard’s lotion.