[532]. For the origin of this term see page 39.
[533]. Chamberlain’s Restorative Pills. “The most certain cure for the Scrofula, or King’s Evil, Fistula, Scurvy, and all Impurities of the Blood.”
My attention has been particularly directed to these pills, in consequence of having lately seen, during the course of my professional duty, several highly respectable persons, who had been induced to make trial of their efficacy. Their inventor, if I am rightly informed, resides at Ipswich, where, for the benefit of suffering humanity, he prepares these wonderful pills, and, with the alacrity of his patron deity, Mercury, transmits them to every corner of the United Kingdom. It appears from the printed directions which accompany the “Restorative Pills,” that their use must be continued for a very long period; but upon this occasion we must allow the Doctor to speak for himself. “It may be necessary to observe, that in some cases of Scrofula, especially when the seat of the disease is in the feet, ancles, or hands, it may take a long time to effect a cure, even two years, and it may be twelve or sixteen months, with seeming little or no improvement, yet the cure is certain by perseverance.” What—two years! and to be taken during a period of sixteen months without any sensible benefit! Is it possible that persons can be found with sufficient credulity and resolution to submit to so preposterous a proposal? we have no doubt that Mr. Chamberlain can produce as great a portion of cures after such an ordeal, as was adduced in former times, in proof of the efficacy of the Royal Touch, and for the same obvious reason. (See page 16.)
Upon examining these said pills, I find them to consist of Cinnabar, Sulphur, Sulphate of Lime, and a little vegetable matter, perhaps gum. Each pill weighs a fraction less than three grains; upon dividing one with a penknife, and examining the cut surface through a lens, it exhibited the appearance of scoriæ of a brick red colour, having small yellowish masses imbedded in its substance. When exposed on a piece of platinum foil to the action of the blow-pipe, it yielded vapours of a strong sulphureous smell, and left a residuum of a pearly white matter, which consisted almost entirely of Sulphate of Lime. Upon submitting a portion of the pill, in a glass tube, to the heat of a spirit lamp, two distinct sublimates were produced, the first consisting of Sulphur, the second of Cinnabar; and a small carbonaceous deposit remained. The Pill was then assayed, via humida; distilled water dissolved the Sulphate of lime, which was identified by appropriate tests, and left sulphur and cinnabar on the filtre. By the above experiments I feel warranted in considering the composition of this pill as fully ascertained.
Boerhaave’s Red Pill. The basis of this nostrum is Cinnabar.
[534]. The anatomist employs it for giving colour to his injections; for this purpose it is very essential that it should be quite free from red lead, or his preparations will in a short time lose their splendour, and ultimately become black. This has unfortunately happened with some preparations which Dr. Baillie presented to the College of Physicians. Mr. Accum, in his work entitled “Death in the Pot,” states a case of poisoning from cheese which had been coloured with adulterated Vermillion. I am ready to admit, however, that the source of this information is of very doubtful authority; never did a work appear which so little merited the attention it received; even the title, which seemed to have some claim to originality, was borrowed from a work by Mouchart, called “Mors in Olla.”
[535]. Anodyne Necklaces. The roots of Hyoscyamus are commonly strung in the form of beads, and sold under this name, to tie round the necks of children, to facilitate the growth of their teeth, and allay the irritation of teething. The application of medicated necklaces is a very ancient superstition. See page 13. Such remedies were sometimes called Periapts, περιαπτον.
[536]. In many cases it is essential that the water should be at the boiling point, a few degrees even less than this will often prove a source of failure; this is well exemplified by the familiar fact of the weakness of our Tea, when made by water that does not quite boil. The Monks of St. Bernard, in the Alps, complain that they cannot make good Bouillie; the case is simply this, that from the altitude of their monastery, the water boils before it can arrive at a sufficiently high temperature. Whence we may deduce this important inference, that the solvent powers of water are affected by a very slight range of temperature. See a fuller account of this subject in my work on “Medical Chemistry.”
[537]. Where the vegetable matter contains much starch, if the water be of a temperature higher than 165°, instead of dissolving, it will coagulate the starch, and produce a very untractable mass. This fact is well known to Brewers, who are extremely cautious in avoiding a too high temperature.
[538]. Madden’s Vegetable Essence. Is little else than the Infusum Rosæ comp: with an increased proportion of Acid.