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Cantharidin
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Spanish Fly
Crushed or powdered emerald-green insects. A type of blister beetle, also known as ‘Spanish fly’. Mainly found in Southern Europe.
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Description:
Cantharidin was used for vesication, or blistering - a common method of therapeutically breaching the skin that lasted well into the 1800s. This irritant was coated on a plaster which was then applied to the skin. The resulting blister was then either left to heal or continually irritated to create a constant weeping sore, known as an ‘issue’.
Catharidin Illustration
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18th century uses include:
• Aphrodisiac
• Blistering agent
• Anti-venereal
• Abortifacient
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Quote:
"They certainly to a strange degree excite Lust, and provoke to Venereal Practices, not by any better Abilities which they give, but by stimulation those Parts which are the Seat or Incentives to such Desires"
Apothecary John Quincy (1726)
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Mercury
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Mercury Ore
An ore, mined in Spain, Slovenia and Peru.
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Description:
Mercury was used in traditional Chinese, Mongolian and Tibetan medicine. Early texts documenting the medicinal use of mercury also survive from Greece, India, Persia and Arabia. It has been a component of medicine for over 3,500 years. Mercury made a person’s stools turn black – which was taken by many as an indication that it was working to remove the bad humours or poisons from the body.
Extracting Mercury
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18th century uses include:
• Expectorant
• Stimulant
• Sedative
• Contraceptive
• Aphrodisiac
• Laxative
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Non-medical uses:
Mercury was used by ancient Romans as a pigment in paint – a practice that continued for hundreds of years.
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Quote:
"What is there that is not poison? All things are poison and nothing is without poison. Solely the dose determines that a thing is not a poison"
Paracelsus
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Myrrh
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Commiphora Myrrha
Gum-resin from the Commiphora myrrha tree, which is native to north-east Africa and West Asia.
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Description:
A naturally occurring essential oil widely used in China, Rome, Egypt and Greece. In South and Central Asia it was used to treat a wide range of conditions including asthma, arthritis, tumours and leprosy.
In ancient Egypt, around 3000 BCE, explorers began to bring back myrrh from other parts of Africa. Myrrh was increasingly traded with Mediterranean countries. Myrrh became a legendary figure in Greek mythology. References to the medicinal uses of myrrh can be found in early Sumerian tablets and the Hippocratic writings of ancient Greece. It was recommended for treating wounds, expelling intestinal worms and counteracting poisons.
Prepared Myrrh
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18th century uses include:
• Expectorant
• Antiseptic
• Anti-inflammatory
• Pain relief
• Abortifacient
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Non-medical uses:
Myrrh was one of the ingredients used in ancient Egypt during the embalming process. It was also used in wine production – to prevent wine fermenting into vinegar.
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Quote:
"I've perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. Come, let's drink our fill of love until morning"
Proverbs 7:17-19
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Antimony
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Stibnite Ore
Smelted from the ore antimony sulfide, also known as stibnite.
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Description:
Antimony was a very effective laxative and vomit, mainly due to how toxic it is to the human body. Symptoms of antimony poisoning included not only intense evacuation, but also fevers and swollen limbs.
Antimony was taken in many forms. It could be ingested as a powder, added to food, or as a tonic. It could be taken in pill form – known as ‘everlasting pills’ because they passed through you and could be retrieved from the chamberpot, rinsed and reused. Antimony cups were also made. These worked by leaving a liquid, usually wine, sitting overnight so it absorbed some of the antimony from the cup.
Antimony Cup
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18th century uses include:
• Expectorant
• Laxative
• Vomit
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Non-medical uses:
Antimony was used in ancient Egypt to make the eye cosmetic known as kohl. It was also used in ancient Mesopotamia to make vases and in 1400s Europe it was added to alloys like pewter as a hardening agent and, as a result, was an important component in everything from church bells to the cast metal printing type used in Johannes Gutenburg’s first printing press.
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Quote:
"There's antimony..."
Tom Lehrer, The Elements (1959)
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Opium
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Opium Poppies
Extracted from the seed pods of the opium poppy, a plant native to the region now known as Turkey.
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Description:
Evidence survives of widespread ancient use of opium for medical purposes – in Mesopotamia it was referred to as the ‘joy plant’. Egyptians cultivated opium poppy fields and traded their opium with Phoenicians and Minoans. In ancient Greece opium was inhaled as a vapour and added to suppositories.
Poppy Illustration
Opium doesn’t seem to have been known in either ancient China or India. It was introduced into India around 300 BCE and into China by about 400 AD. By the late 1700s the British, via the British East India Company, had seized control of the opium trade between both China and India.
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18th century uses include:
• Pain relief
• Sedative
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Non-medical uses:
Opium has been used for recreational non-medicinal purposes for around 3000 years. Ancient Greek writings on opium describe it as euphoria-inducing. Opium poppy was first eaten and then, from the 1500s, drunk in the form of laudanum (a combination of opium and alcohol). Smoking was later introduced into first Europe and then China from the 1600s.
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Quote:
"A little of it, taken as much as a grain of ervum is a pain-easer, and a sleep-causer, and a digester...but being drank too much it hurts, making men lethargical, and it kills"
Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides
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Camphor
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Cinnamomum Camphora
Distilled from the bark of the camphor tree, which is native to India, China, Japan, Taiwan and Mongolia.
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Description:
A naturally occurring essential oil. Camphor was widely used in medicine in ancient China and Japan, and in the Middle East – often to relieve chest complaints and, in ointment form, to reduce joint paint. Unlike many other medicines with such a long history, camphor does not seem to have been known about or used in ancient Greece or Rome. In Europe, camphor was used as a fumigant during the era of the Black Death.
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18th century uses include:
• Expectorant
• Stimulant
• Pain relief
• Abortifacient
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Camphor Incense
Camphor was a common perfume ingredient in the Middle East and in China. It was also used to flavour food – in China as an ingredient in some of the earliest ice cream recipes and in ancient Egypt as a flavouring in bread and, as well, as an ingredient in embalming fluid. It was also used in the Middle East and Europe to flavour sweets and deserts while in Japan it was added to fireworks to make them flash brighter.
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Quote:
"Camphor is better able than any other remedy to destroy just with its vapour the smallest animals of the lower order very quickly, and is therefore capable of rapidly destroying and eliminating the cholera disease which most likely consists of an imperceptible living organism fatal to humans, which attaches itself to skin or hair or clothing and is thus transmitted, unnoticed from one person to another"
Samuel Hahnemann
The Georgian Medicine Chest:
Discover Georgian medicine with our interactive medicine chest.
Click on one of the medicine bottles outlined in gold to find out about the ingredients, uses and dangers of Georgian medicines!
The Case Notes of Andrew Duncan
In 1776 the Edinburgh Public Dispensary was established. These case notes date from the earliest years of the dispensary’s operation – detailing over a decade of patient care. The notes provide a detailed account of the diseases, treatments and experiences of eighteenth-century Edinburgh’s sick poor.
This resource, developed by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, not only presents the case notes of Andrew Duncan as he wrote them, but also translates his shorthand notation into more understandable language.
The development of this online database was funded entirely by donations.
| Statistics: | |
|---|---|
| 1,372 | Patients |
| 174 | Practitioners |
| 900 | Diseases and Treatments |
| 10,402 | Digitised Pages |
| 10,402 | Fully Transcribed Pages |
