THE POOR MAN's MEDICINE CHEST; OR, THOMPSON's Box of Antibilious Alterative Pills.
WITH A FEW BRIEF REMARKS ON THE STOMACH; CLEARLY DEMONSTRATING HOW MUCH HEALTH DEPENDS UPON PAYING ATTENTION TO THAT VENTRICLE IN PARTICULAR, AND THE BOWELS IN GENERAL.
The mind that is conscious in rectitude fears no assailant! Mens sibi conscia recti
BY JOHN-WEEKS THOMPSON, SURGEON, MAN-MIDWIFE, &c.
LONDON: PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR; And Sold by J. and J. TAYLOR, at the Architectural Library, N o 56, HIGH HOLBORN.
M.DCC.XCI.
[PRICE ONE SHILLING.]
TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE LORD RAWDON.
THE very slight personal knowledge which I have of your Lordship could not have justified me in the liberty I take in prefixing to this most humble little work your Lordship's name, had I not been well informed, by gentlemen of the highest integrity and honour, [Page vi]who are perfectly acquainted with your Lordship, of your uncommon philanthropy and goodness of heart—General report, my Lord, has indeed said sufficient in your praise to entitle you to the world's approbation — But when these were signed, sealed, and delivered to me, by the very respectable characters before mentioned, it became a most complete ratification of your inestimable worth.
It is not, then, my Lord, to your rank in life that I wish here to pay my respects, but to those virtues which adorn your mind, giving to nobility that true and unsading lustre which can alone render it complete, and which have so eminently distinguished your [Page vii]Lordship as the hero in the field, the real and independent patriot in the senate, in private life the friend to merit, and incessant benefactor to the poor!
It is these, and these alone, my Lord, that I admire — and had they been placed in any other well-formed bosom of inferior rank in life to your Lordship I should equally have paid my tribute to them, "The widow's mite;" convinced that the offering, however small, that breathes good will towards mankind cannot fail of being acceptable to one of your Lordship's exalted character: and if in the subsequent pages I should be so happy as to have given any hints that prove of service to my fellow citizens, &c., and be found worthy of [Page viii]your Lordship's approbation, it will be of no little satisfaction to a person who has the honour to subscribe himself,
TO THE PUBLIC.
THE title of this pamphlet required that it should be written in the plainest and most simple language, which I have endeavoured to do by avoiding as much as possible all technical words, a few excepted, (and those by no means essential to many whether they understand them or not, as they cannot be embarrassed for want of knowing them in the use of the pills, the directions for which are clear and intelligible to the lowest capacity) but what may be found in an English dictionary, to which such as read can have recourse, and they who are so unfortunate as not to be able will receive information from those that can, which I am certain every truly generous mind will be happy to give them. For the preceding reasons the Author trusts that such recapitulations as the judicious [Page 2]reader meets with in the course of this work will be excused, his wish being to render every thing respecting the medicine it treats of, &c., as plain and easy as possible to the common reader.
The Antibilious Alterative Pills is a most incomparable remedy for all indispositions of the stomach and bowels arising from bile, foulness, indigestion, worms, acidity, ardor ventriculi, (or heartburn, so called) predigestion, flatulency, (that many headed monster), costiveness, &c., &c., which last often produces several of the foregoing, as well as many other, complaints, owing to the feces or excrement becoming highly putrid from too long retention in the body, thereby forming a nidus, or nest of predisposing putrefaction, which meeting with malignant exhalations in the air, or those arising from infected persons or places, &c., &c., &c., the most dreadful fevers, agues, inflammatory disorders of various kinds, scurvy, erysipelas or St. Anthony's fire, rheumatism, leprosy, jaundice, cruptive complaints, and numberless others, are occasioned: hence arises the necessity of paying the most religious attention to the first passages of the body, which the able and judicious physician never fails to make the first object of his consideration. The stomach is the grand reservoir which receives and prepares whatever is to support and nourish the whole machine, consequently if that is out of repair, or diseased from any of the before-mentioned causes, or others, whatever is taken into such a [Page 3]stomach must assuredly fail, more or less, of producing the natural and intended effect, and, instead of properly nourishing the body, sends periodically into the circulation— since blood is made from what we eat and drink—a portion of diseased matter, which, congregating by degrees, must inevitably occasion various disorders in the system; and although the efforts of nature to relieve herself from the variety of attacks made upon her are often great and wonderful, (and always should be attended to) yet without the assistance of art, seasonably and properly administered, she frequently finks under the burden. The same All-good Being that provided remedies for the brute part of the creation, made them also for man; the former are directed by instinct to theirs, the latter should have recourse to reason and experience.
Those Pills, then, which, in conscious rectitude, I now venture to offer to the Public, are the attentive result of thirty years extensive practice in various parts of the world, (upwards of twenty of which I passed in His Majesty's service, in the army); the officers and soldiers of which, (to whom I have the honour to be known) and whom I beg leave, in this humble, little pamphlet, to invoke, will, I doubt not, do me the justice to speak as, I presume to think, my conduct and character merit, that of being indefatigable, attentive, and candid, in my profession, and successful in my practice: I have the same expectations from those amongst [Page 4]whom I have now practised above ten years in this capital.
I am, however, well aware that this address (and the object of it) is likely to subject me to the sarcastical sneers of some of the wonderful geniuses of the faculty, many of whom owe, however, perhaps their most exalted fame to the secret use of Dr. James's powder, and other medicines of that description. There are besides, I make no doubt, some other thrusts I must be prepared to parry from those uninformed, contracted minds, who term every medicine, the constituent parts of which the proprietor keeps in secret, a quack medicine, and refuse to take it on that account; at the same time swallow abundantly the prescriptions of the apothecary and physician, of which they have just as much knowledge as of the ingredients that compose my pills. But to such I shall only observe, that they are totally ignorant of the true meaning of the word quack, that epithet being only applicable to illiterate pretenders, not properly bred to the profession, and unacquainted with its practice; otherwise it must necessarily follow that every man, of whatever art, science, or profession, who improves an old, or invents any new thing, because he will not divulge the secret, becomes indisputably a quack; consequently there must be quack lawyers and preachers, who profit well by keeping mankind in secret darkness; quack painters, coblers, tinkers, and taylors; and it may not be unfair to add, quack physicians of [Page 5]State, who, notwithstanding their feeling regard for His Majesty's loyal subjects, will not blush to crib a shilling's worth of pills out of The poor Man's Medicine Chest (stamp duty) to administer to the hectic constitution of the State, and relieve the canine appetite of minions, placemen and pensioners. Here stop for a moment, Humanity! and reflect upon what the sensations of that man's heart must be who first suggested this benevolent tax, extorted from the painful afflictions and miseries of the sick, particularly the lower orders of society, who are frequently obliged to seek relief from what are termed quack medicines, after perhaps having spent nearly their little all in vain endeavours to obtain it from the most eminent gentlemen of the faculty.—A nostrum they may term my medicine, if they please, for such it is, (and of which most of the faculty have to boast a few); but which I shall be ready to make known to the Public for a proper gratuity, whenever it shall be found to answer, as I am confident it will do, to all such as give it a fair and impartial trial.
I should not have presumed to take up so much of the reader's time as I have done in this address, or have appeared so much my own panegyrist, as most probably I shall be thought, but with a view to remove as much as possible the prejudices which generally (and sometimes justly) attend on addresses of this sort, particularly when unsanctioned by a voluminous publication entered at Stationers' Hall —a mode quite in fashion with modern practitioners, [Page 6]who begin their career that way to attract public notice; in works of which description the press already teems with too many in the medical line, the mere offspring of lectures, and stuffed with the writer's own and borrowed hypotheses, unestablished and inadmissible in practice, serving only to bewilder and lead the Public into fatal errors.
Hippocrates says the description of the causes and treatment of diseases should not be the suppositions of ingenious men, (for all hypotheses, says that learned father of the faculty, I reject as useless, nay dangerous, in physic) but from certain means often tried on human bodies, the effects of which bear evident proof to our senses, all our reasonings should be drawn; not but I ever wish to see in print the well-digested sentiments of able and experienced men of the profession: it is their duty to give them, and the world are indebted to them for such—such as will stand the test and command the sanction of the critical reviewer without fear, partiality, or bribe.
In short, in my private opinion, the study of physic is by no means so difficult, or involved in such labyrinths, as many writers would make the world believe. A proper knowledge of the human system, with strict attention to the efforts and operations of nature, joined to a quick perceptibility on the part of the practitioner to watch and catch the critical period when she can't relieve herself, and [Page 7]then to assist her cautiously by the proper and experienced use of such aid as Providence has provided for that purpose, is the only task of a physician.
Having now said as much as I think is necessary to offer (in this place) to a discerning Public in behalf of my Box of Pills, &c., I shall proceed to give as clear and concise directions as possible for their use in the complaints already mentioned, and some others, making some farther remarks as I go along.
DIRECTIONS.
For a grown person, a common dose of these pills is three, one to be taken going to bed, and two the next morning. Strong constitutions may take two night and morning, and some have taken three night and morning; but in general one at night and two in the morning is sufficient, and many require only one night and morning.
A child of one year old may take a third part of one of the pills; from three years to five, half a pill, and from five to ten a whole pill; and so on in proportion to age and strength. As it may be difficult to make children swallow a pill, it may be dissolved in any simple liquid, or mixed with a little pap or currant jelly.
My reason for preferring part of the dose to be taken over night is, that, by gradually dissolving whilst the body is at rest, it mixes more readily with the offending matter in the stomach, &c., thereby exciting it into action, renders the remaining part of the dose more effectual and speedy in its operation in the morning.
As these pills are a declared enemy to bile, whenever that is in the stomach they never fail to vomit, and sometimes one pill in the course of the night will operate both ways; not owing to the violence or strength of the medicine, as some may be induced to think, but from the great soulness and plenitude of the stomach and bowels at the time being overloaded with bilious filth or too-long-retained feces — a self-evident position which must appear clear to every intelligent capacity — therefore should the night pill only operate by vomit, the patient must not be deterred from taking more in the morning; for after the stomach has been well cleansed of its contents, two or three more pills will only occasion as many stools without any farther sickness. If after the first dose any part of the cause which induced taking them should appear to remain, they may be taken daily, or every other day, until all the offending matter is carried off.
During their operation it will be proper to drink a draught of gruel, beef or chamomile tea, or some such simple liquid, to sacilitate each operation, and [Page 9]render it more effectual, which the patient will do well to have in readiness previous to taking the pills.
This efficacious medicine, though sometimes so brisk in operating, is notwithstanding, I do aver, as innocent and as safe as a dose of salts, rhubarb, or a common emetic, and may be taken at all times and seasons with as little risk or danger, as they will always find their way out of the body by vomit, stool, or urine, and quietly by the latter, unless when they meet with such humours in their passage as required being carried off by the other outlets.
The advantages, then, arising from these pills, according to this unvarnished account, must be many, and great.
- First, By effectually cleansing the stomach, that grand reservoir is put in a proper state to perform the important offices, for which nature intended it, of digestion, &c.
- Secondly, By removing all long-retained feces, and bilious, slimy matter from the lower bowels, fevers, jaundice, agues, cholic, worms, flatulency, inslammatory tendency, rhcumatism, &c., &c., are cut off in the bud and destroyed.
- Thirdly, In filtering by the kidnies and urinary passages, gravelly concretions, dropsy, &c., are happily [Page 10]relieved and prevented; and lastly, by conveying accumulated salts and other acrid and feculant humours out of the blood by this channel, leprosy, scurvy, scrophulous humours, and many eruptive complaints, and other foulnesses of the blood arising from thence, as well as all that tribe of complaints termed nervous, originating from the same source, (since the nerves as well as the rest of the body receive their nourishment from the blood) are prevented, and often cured.
Hence it will appear that these pills are not only an effectual cleanser of the stomach and bowels, but also a most POWERFUL ALTERATIVE.
To which end, after having properly prepared the body by two or three common doses, taken in the space of a week or ten days, the patient should then enter on the alterative course, first by taking one pill at night for four or five nights successively, afterwards take one night and morning; continuing these as long as any part of the cause or effect which induced taking them appears to remain; and it will not be amiss to continue them some little time longer, (for it sometimes happens that causes remain after effects vanish; and frequently it happens, as, for instance, in the small pox, that effects, such as a redness of the skin, &c., remain for some time after the cause is removed) observing to increase the night or morning dose occasionally to keep the body gently open. It having been already remarked, [Page 11]that after the stomach has been well cleansed they cease to act as an emetic; for as the bodies of some are constitutionally costive, it may become necessary in such habits to increase the dose as just mentioned, yet, in general, a pill night and morning not only relieves the most costive habits, but one will prove sufficient in most constitutions for that purpose. Here it may not be improper to remark, that costive habits are more subject than others to offensive and fetid breath, (particularly children whose powers of digestion are by no means equal to the too great quantity of strong and improper food they commonly take in); which idea perhaps may be one motive why the French have such frequent recourse to lavement, or clyster. I say it has been already observed that our blood is made from what we take into the stomach, from whence is prepared that milky liquid called chyle, which forms the basis of the blood, the whole process of which is performed within the space of twenty-four hours; after which period the feces or excrement can answer no good purpose by remaining in the body, since all their nutritive and essential parts (good or bad, which depends upon the nature of the food so taken in and state of the stomach) has been extracted for the above purpose. Now as the feces in the most healthy constitutions are rendered highly offensive when discharged at the end, or in the course of that time, how much more putrid must they inevitably become if retained for days or weeks, as is very [Page 12]often the case in relaxed and weak habits, more especially such as lead sedentary and inactive lives!
During the alterative course it will be highly necessary for the patient to observe such mode in diet as is calculated to aid and assist the intention of the medicine, by avoiding all salted, high-seasoned, and inflammatory food; yet notwithstanding to partake of such proper innocent and nourishing food as is sufficient to keep up the bodily strength and produce good juices; for my wish is not to reduce the patient's strength, only to conquer the disease, and by supporting the constitution properly they will be the better enabled to obtain that end. But as it is impossible to give a bill of fare suitable to every constitution, palate, and situation in life, suffice it, therefore, to say, that the food should be simple, easy of digestion, nutritive, plain dressed, and moderately taken; that is, not to load the stomach with too much at one time, but rather to eat as instinctive animals do in a state of nature, little and often—a hint from thence is no bad precedent, for nature will ever be found to exceed the best philosophical reasonings of art.
After what has been already said, I think it almost unnecessary to add, that such as are accustomed to take physic in the spring and autumn will find this the best they can have recourse to. Indeed no person, however healthy, would be the worse for employing this friendly scavenger once or twice a [Page 13]month; and all such who are so unfortunate as to labour under a very fashionable disease will find these pills a most certain remedy, (taken agreeable to the alterative course just laid down), without having their bodies loaded, like a barometer, with mercury, owing to the too liberal use of which, in the present practice, many unsortunate beings (though cured of that disease) are left a wreck, subject, like the mathematical instrument, to every vicissitude of weather, to trail out a miserable existence.
Women also at the turn of life would do well to pay strict attention to this medicine, being in every respect calculated to carry off the humours which nature often, embarrassed with at that critical period, throws on the legs and other parts of the body, rendering the remainder of their days painful, and often burdensome.
And even women with child need not be afraid to take these pills (because they sometimes vomit) to remove that costiveness they are commonly subject to in that situation. Since vomiting is a natural attendant upon pregnant women, (and sometimes violently so) particularly in their first pregnancy, which the wisdom of Providence has so ordered, no doubt, for the best of ends; and if any danger was likely to ensue from that operation, we might surely expect it at that time, when all the bowels are more than ordinarily compressed from the extension of the uterus and weight of the foetus; yet who ever [Page 14]heard of any such women being injured by vomiting?
In the course of my practice I never met with any instance of the kind; on the contrary, I always found it relieved, and made them more cheerful and easy. Again, how frequently do people at sea go through that operation several times a day for weeks together without any bad consequences from the operation itself? And even hectic people, and others who have been to all appearance at the last gasp, and given over by their physician, by making a sea voyage have been effectually relieved by that operation, and returned home, to the astonishment of all that knew them, perfectly sound and hearty; and yet notwithstanding all these evident proofs before their eyes, most people are terrisied at taking an emetic.
As the greatest inconveniency which attends this operation (particularly in costive habits) arises from wind pent up in the bowels, which sometimes occasion griping pains therein during the action of an emetic; that might in a great measure, if not altogether, be prevented by administering the following or some such clyster previous to taking any thing of the emetic kind, viz. Take about half a pint of gruel or broth of any kind, a table spoonful of common salt, three large spoonsuls of vinegar, and as much of oil, mixed, makes one for a grown person. In short, wind being, from that necessary delicacy [Page 15]observed in society, often kept back when nature is disposed to discharge it, lays the foundation of innumerable tormenting complaints; the wind so restrained I have frequently, when sitting in company, heard rumbling for a considerable time in the bowels of a person several seats from me. And once travelling in a stage coach, (from Stamford to London) a poor woman therein, from a circumstance of this sort, was greatly embarrassed and put to the blush from the tittering of two unfeeling young men (farmers to appearance) fellow travellers: she soon after grew pale, and was about to faint when I stopped the coach, and got her out in the air; upon which she fell into a strong hysteric fit, that held above half an hour, in the course of which she expelled an immense deal of wind both upwards, &c., which contributed to her recovery. I mention this just to prove how little a matter will put the boasted human machine out of sorts, and to reprobate the unfeeling conduct of such as can enjoy a laugh at the painful misfortunes of their fellow creatures, particularly of that sex who command our most humane and affectionate attention, being, from the peculiar restraint their modesty lays them under, liable to many inconveniences which men are not.
In the year 1770 the following extraordinary case occurred at Mahon, in the island of Minorca: — William Kearns, a soldier of the Old Buffs, was sitting on a stone seat by the guard-room door, between the hours of nine and ten at night, with several [Page 16]others of the guard. His comrade, on passing by him to the guard room, in play, put himself in a boxing attitude, saying, ‘"Have at you, Kearns; I can lick you now."’ Upon which Kearns threw his head back suddenly against the wall, the distance about six inches, which made him call out, seemingly dipleased, ‘"Damn you, messmate, that's no joke—I believe you have made me break my sconce."’ Then taking off his hat, he rubbed the back of his head with his hand, saying, ‘"I will be up with you for this."’ The other ran laughing into the guard room.—Kearns continued afterwards above half an hour sitting at the door, talking as usual to the other men, without appearing the least indisposed, or saying any thing more about his head. He then went in and laid down on the guard bed. At twelve o'clock, being to go sentinel, and not turning out with the relief, the corporal, thinking he was asleep, went in to rouse him, and sound him lying on his side foaming at the mouth, speechless, and his eyes wide open. The corporal then called to some of the men to come and see him, and they tried to raise him up; upon which he fetched a deep groan and expired. One of the men ran to Mr. Duffy, surgeon to the 67th regiment, who lived almost opposite the guard house, and another to me, about half a mile distant. Mr. Duffy went to him immediately, and opened the temple artery; but it was too late—he was dead. Upon my arrival soon after I learnt the preceding account. We then out off his hair, and carefully examined the head [Page 17]and every part, but could not perceive the smallest external injury whatsoever, except a very slight extravasation of blood behind the left ear, the side he lay on the guard bed. About one o'clock that day I opened the head of the deceased in presence of Dr. Monro, physician to the garrison, Mr. Duffy, and anoher surgeon; when we found about two ounces (not more) of coagulated blood on the right anterior hemisphere of the brain, which appeared to have issued from a vessel of the dura mater; every other part of the membranes, brain, ventricles, &c., &c., were in as sound and perfect a state as possible; the head was uncommonly full of brain, and the scull remarkably thin, and in many places quite diaphanous.
Dr. Monro immediately waited on General Johnston, the Governor of the Island, to report his own and our opinion of this case; and Mr. Duffy and I proceeded to open the body, not in expectation of finding any thing farther relative to the cause of this man's death, but from a custom I always followed of opening the body of every soldier that died. Upon raising the breast bone a very uncommon fulness appeared on the left side about the heart, and on dividing the pericardium a great quantity of very fetid wind issued forth, and about four table spoonfuls of clear lymph. The heart of this man (who was a very stout, well-made soldier, thirty-two years of age, and about five feet eight inches high) was uncommonly small indeed, (weighing only fifteen [Page 18]ounces five drams Troy) and looked as if it had been parboiled. The lungs, liver, stomach, and all the other entrails, were in as sound and perfect a state as possible, and in every other respect formed as much for longevity as any I ever saw in my life. I have been the more particular in stating all the circumstances of this case from the supposed cause of his death, and the very extraordinary contents of the pericardium and state of the heart, leaving the decision of the real cause of this man's death to those whose superior skill and microscopic discernment may enable them to give a better solution to it than I chuse to risk my opinion in giving; at the same time to shew that windy complaints are (what I have already said of them) numerous, wonderful, and often puzzling, and therefore how necessary it is that all dead bodies should be opened for information sake, since the dead cannot be injured, and the living may benefit by it.—This case I have singled out from several others which I have in my possession relative to windy tumours discovered by dissection. I beg leave to add, that this man had once or twice been troubled with a slight asthmatic complaint; but in every other respect was as healthy, to all appearance, as any soldier in the regiment.
To return again to the subject of emetics.
Some time ago I was called to a gentleman, a very free liver, and an extraordinary hard drinker, who I make no doubt had a hundred times in his life vomited most severely from inebriety, infinitely [Page 19]more so than he would have done from any common emetic given by the faculty; notwithstanding which, upon my proposing a vomit for him, which his situation absolutely required, he immediately held up his hands, begging for God's sake he might not take an emetic; that he was too weak; that it would strain him to pieces and kill him. He, however, got an emetic, and obtained the wanted relief.—I say again, that, after all these incontrovertible examples, it seems to me most strange that a rational being should be so much afraid of this operation, when many of the brute part of the creation (that feed carnivorously) take such things as instinct directs them to in order to discharge the offending contents of their stomach that way; and I have seen a hawk disgorge the contents of his craw: but I believe no person ever saw an ox, or an ass, a goat, or gander, vomit, of course nature never intended it.
Here, by the by, though foreign to the subject of these leaves, permit me, however, to offer a hint about the treatment of horses, which noble animal I am clearly of opinion has been often tortured, if not killed, by having things of the emetic kind administered, since a horse can no more vomit than an ass, though I once heard a gentleman declare that he saw a dead horse vomit after having Dr. James's powders given him when alive; but as this is a matter I may perhaps treat more at large on some future day, I shall close it here, only adding, that I am satisfied [Page 20]from all I have seen and heard that many medicines that are used by mankind are totally improper and highly dangerous for such animals as feed granivorously and cannot vomit. But how this erroneous method of treating horses as human beings has become the practice could be very easily accounted for.
Vomiting is, I must, however, confess, a very unpleasant operation; but, believe me, it is a much more speedy and effectual method of relieving the stomach of its offending contents than carrying it off by the other channel, through all the turnings, festoonings, and curvatures of the lower bowels, in the cells of which some of the feces will frequently stick and lodge for weeks, nay months together, forming that nidus of mischief I have before mentioned, of which the following is a case in point:—A soldier of the third regiment of foot (in which I served several years) was seized with a cholic in the latter end of September, 1771, at Exeter, where we were at that time quartered after returning from Minorca, which place we left in the month of May preceding, and arrived in England the beginning of June. As we were in a cyder country, I suspected his complaint might arise from drinking that liquor: but he assured me that he had not drank any cyder; that he did not like it. However, after taking a few doses of rhubarb, and some other little things, his complaint went off, and he returned to his duty; but being a few days after attacked again [Page 21]with the same disorder in a most violent degree, he was taken into the hospital—every thing he took came off his stomach immediately, and, in spite of every effort, no passage could be procured downwards. Being now exceedingly alarmed for the safety of my patient, I directed one of my pills to be given every hour until they should operate by stool; the two first pills made him rather sick, but did not vomit him: after taking six, they began to operate downwards, and in one of the discharges he brought off a great quantity, near a handful, of grape skins, highly putrid and offensive. From that hour his violent pain went off, and in a week he was perfectly recovered.
Questioning him now about this appearance and evident cause of his complaint, I asked if he had eat any raisins, either alone or in pudding. He assured me he had not taken any thing of the kind since he was on ship board; but that on his leaving Minorca a friend gave him several pounds of dried grapes by way of sea stock; that he eat them all on his passage, and from that time had never tasted any thing of the kind. He remembered, he said, that the grapes griped him often in the same place as when he first applied to me, but not so much as to occasion an application then, as the pain generally went off with a motion, and he thought they did him good. However, it is very clear that a part of this trash remained in his body near four months. Besides this, several [Page 22]other similar cases have occurred to me in the course of practice.
Gouty habits, and all those who live freely either in eating or drinking, (for the reasons already stated concerning the stomach and bowels) will find this a sovereign remedy for the sudden and violent attacks which such are often subject to.
Perhaps it will be asked how can any one medicine be good for so many different complaints as the author has mentioned? To which I answer, BECAUSE IT IS AN ALTERATIVE! By which it is meant, that all such offending humours in the body as nature is not able of herself to throw off, are, by means of this medicine, so changed, disposed, and rendered capable of expulsion by the proper channels or outlets, as to assist her efforts in removing them effectually.—And now I beg leave, in turn, to ask of all those good folks who strain at a gnat and swallow a camel, how it happens that antimony, bark, mercury, and even several insignificant and other medicines which I could mention, are made use of by all and every physician and medical practitioner as general remedies for almost every disease that falls under their cognizance? And lastly, though often too late, why the patient is recommended to that universal remedy, Bath water, &c., when the doctor can do no more for him?
I shall not, however, presume to impose so far upon the understanding of the Public as to endeavour to maintain that my pills are an infallible remedy for all the diseases to which human nature is incident: but thus much I venture positively and boldly to assert, that I do not believe it is in the power of chemical or medical art to compose a better medicine, a milder and more COMPLETE ALTERATIVE out of the drugs, &c. in present use. But what future time may produce I cannot pretend to say.
Surgeons of the army and navy, (without derogating from their abilities) by providing themselves with these pills, would have a remedy immediately at hand, (which their situations sometimes will not admit them to get seasonably prepared) by which means many valuable lives might be saved, and themselves spared much trouble and expence; but particularly masters of merchant ships, who have no medical assistance, (more especially such as visit warm climates, where bilious complaints are most prevalent) and also those who live in the country remote from such aid, would find The poor Man's Medicine Chest (what I have justly termed it) a most invaluable remedy.
Here it may not be improper to give a little advice to those also who visit Margate and other watering places, in the season, for the benefit of their healths, from whence many return worse than they [Page 24]went, and numbers lose their lives from injudicious bathing. Though I am convinced from experience that the use of the cold bath, when properly applied, is of the highest importance towards preserving of health, yet it should never be had recourse to until the body is first properly prepared, not by a few doses of salt water, as is usually the case, which slips quickly through the bowels, leaving behind the long-retained feces, &c., which I have so pointedly described, possessing no powers to act upon them effectually: for give me leave to acquaint those who think that one thing that opens the body is as good as another, that they are most egregiously mistaken, for, in fact, there is as much difference between one purgative and another as between wine and water; for though both of these will allay thirst, yet they will not equally exhilerate the spirits and produce intoxication. Permit me, therefore, most humbly to recommend to all such as visit those places, for their health's sake, previously to prepare themselves for a fortnight or three weeks with my pills, agreeable to the alterative course laid down in page 10, convinced they will find their advantage in so doing. Afterwards, I have no objection to their drinking occasionally a dose of salt water, if they like it, to keep the body gently open, being perfectly proper the body should be so kept during a course of bathing.
There is one hint more, and that of no small importance, which I shall presume to offer to bathers, [Page 25]which is to live temperately and regularly whilst they are seeking relief from the bath, and not go into it hissing hot, like an iron out of a smith's forge plunged into his trough, after sitting up all night, and partaking most unmercifully of all the luxuries of the season; which misconduct I am fully persuaded has brought numbers to an untimely grave!
I could offer some other useful remarks upon this subject; but as it would extend this little work beyond the limits proposed, I shall reserve them for another place. For the same reason I shall also omit many respectable and well-authenticated vouchers, which I have in my possession, of the wonderful effects my pills have already produced; but indeed I could rather wish they should establish themselves by their future good works, than endeavour to support them by anterior authorities.
Before I conclude, I think it a duty I owe the Public, as well as myself, to make a remark or two more; and although it is neither my talent nor wish to depreciate the productions of others with a view to enhance the value of my own, yet it is but justice to draw a fair line between mine and some of the pills which are at present in much-esteemed use, not doubting at the same time but such are justly entitled to the approbation they have obtained from the benefit those who used them have experienced, and who think themselves, no doubt, as much indebted to them for such relief as they would have [Page 26]been to the prescriptions of the late Sir Richard Jebb, or any great physician of the present day, of the ingredients of whose prescriptions they had no more knowledge than of those that constituted such pills; and therefore I humbly presume it is of very little consequence to the party who is so relieved, whether obtained from Sir Jeffery Dunstan, Mayor of Garratt, or the Vicar of Bray! But as one watch excels another in regulating time, so may one medicine surpass another in momentous essicacy. Many of those pills, then, which I shall forbear to call by name, lest I should incur the appellation of being envious, and increase the number of my opponents, being only calculated to act merely as a purgative, can by no means come in competition with what I have asserted (and on which I pledge my reputation) mine will be sound to persorm; consequently a medicine of this sort has long been wanting. Therefore, without entertaining an iota of doubt but I shall in due time receive from a generous Public the approbation I seek for the offering made, I shall now conclude with an old but just proverb —
☞ Having entitled my box of pills The poor Man's Medicine Chest! it remains for me to maintain that appellation. These pills, then, are put up in boxes at four shillings and six pence, and ton shillings and six pence, slamps included. The small [Page 27]box contains forty-eight pills, or twelve large doses. Now as a common dose is but three, and some require only two pills, it will often happen that this box may contain twenty doses; and whoever is obliged to have recourse to an apothecary for an equal number of doses of medicine would have at least twenty shillings to pay, exclusive of some consideration for his trouble and attendance, and perhaps not receive as much benefit from the whole as from one dose of these pills. The large box contains one hundred and twenty pills, or thirty large doses.
For the present, the pills will be sold by the Proprietor only, at his Patent Baume of Arquebusade Warehouse, No. 13, Leicester Street, Leicester Square; (the use of which Baume has been found, as will appear by the annexed letters, of the highest importance); but as soon as proper persons are appointed to vend them, their names will be affixed to this publication; and the better to prevent impositions, each box is sealed with his coat of arms — Motto, Confido in Deo!
The Public are requested to pay strict attention to these circumstances, since there are a number of medicasters and other piratical wretches ever ready to obtrude on the world their own dangerous imitations for the works of others, (preying like the hornet on the honey of the industrious bee) under a pretence of being able to analyse, without knowing [Page 28]the nature of that arduous and nice process, and many of those pretenders not even the meaning of the word; by which means a most valuable medicine loses its reputation, and the Public are deceived.
LETTERS.
THE BAUME
Was first made public in February,
1786, since which Time the following are a Part of upwards of a hundred Letters addressed to the Patentee, (Originals of which are now in his Possession) by those who have experienced its happy Effects.
I SHOULD think myself lost to all sense of gratitude if I did not acknowledge that, under God, you have been the saver of my life by the use of your Baume d'Arquebusade; and I am now happy in acquainting you that all those violent pains in my stomach and bowels, as well as my loins and kidnies, [Page 30]disagreeable belchings, cold clammy sweats, costiveness, sloppage of urine, restless nights, &c., &c., occasioned by a bilious complaint which I contracted in America, have all entirely left me, and I am now, thank God, in perfect health. — For the first ten or twelve days I took the Baume I thought myself worse, and left it off; but at your particular request I began to use it again, and in about a week found myself better, and began to void gravel of a hard red substance, which I continued voiding, more or less, every day for upwards of two months; sometimes found the quantity of a tea-spoonsul of this gravel in my pot of a morning. Indeed when I took to the Baume a second time I had little or no hopes of myself, (whatever you might have) having been under the care of one or other of the faculty for upwards of three years, and could get no relief until I applied to you. In humanity to my fellow creatures I should wish this letter to be made public; but that as you please —
I BEG leave to express my gratitude, as an individual, for the obligation you have conserred on mankind by the discovery of your Baume d'Arquebusade, and also to inform you of the benefit I have derived from it. I had been afflicted three years with a violent bilious complaint, attended with constant severs, lowness of spirits, violent head-achs, &c., &c. I applied to several of the most eminent of the faculty, and took all the medicines which were recommended: went twice to Bath for the benesit of the waters; the first time of using them found myself much worse, as they increased my fever, head-ach, &c.; the second time they had little or no effect. I at length despaired of a remedy, and thought all I could hope was to prevent the complaint's increasing by a strict regard to diet, when I heard of the wonderful effects of your Baume d'Arquebusade, and resolved to try it. At first it would not stay on my stomach, and occasioned saintness and burning sensation in my throat: though I was rather discouraged by those unpleasant effects, I however determined to give it a fair trial, and by the time I had sinished the first bottle these effects ceased, and I began to find benefit. In about three months I became perfectly free from all complaints, and have ever since enjoyed a confirmed state of health.—I have no objection to your publishing this letter, if you think proper; and am ready to answer, [Page 32]in person, to any who may wish to question me upon the subject.
*⁎* This lady has since been married, and has had two fine children, of both which I delivered her.
The following Extract of a Letter from a respectable Merchant at Plymouth, dated Plymouth, June 9, 1787.
"I CANNOT conclude my letter without rendering your merit the tribute of praise so justly due for presenting to mankind that most excellent medicine, the concentrated Balsam of Arquebusade, which, by having taken a sew bottles, has relieved me from a very dangerous bilious complaint, and for which I tried the Bath waters last summer, upwards of six weeks, in vain, after having previously been under the care of a very eminent physician a considerable time.—If this declaration of mine can be of any service to you, you have sull permission to shew it to all asslicted with that dreadful disorder, from which I have been so happily relieved. But I could wish you [Page 33]not to publish in the newspapers my name, as a reference to yourself for a sight of this declaration must answer every purpose.—Lieut. Scott, of the Royal Navy, hath also, to my knowledge, been entirely cured of a violent bilious disorder by your medicine, and been free from any return for upwards of eight months."
Extract of a Letter from a most respectable Planter in the Island of Nevis, dated Nevis, October 4, 1787.
"YOUR Arquebusade Concentre is of the utmost use to us. I have never yet applied it inwardly; but in bruises, sprains, severe cuts, and rheumntic complaints, it has never failed. One negro, who chopped half his finger off at the joint, had his wound healed by it as if it had been by magic: another, whose leg was violently tore by a dog, equally so. My Overseer's foot was jammed by a cart, and it cured him in a sew days. We use it for all sores in negroes legs, and it never fails. From this you may guess that my provision thereof is much diminished; therefore beg you will send me double the quantity I had the last year. Out of what I have I shall, however, give Mr. Walter Nesbit and Mr. J. Taylor a little for a trial: they are two of our first planters here; and on your account, as well as theirs, I am sorry I did not do it sooner.
"P. S. You are perfectly welcome to make any use you please of the paragragh about your Arquebusade Balsam, for what I have said is true, so help me, &c.
G. FORBES."
HAVING received so much benefit from your much-esteemed and valuable Balsam, I should be glad if you would have my case inserted in the public papers, both for your credit and the good of the Public at large.—I received about two months ago a very violent stroke from a horse on my kneepan, and was so very bad that all who saw me expected I must lose my leg at least — I was advised to apply to you—you gave me a few bottles of your Balsam, by the use of which, in a few days, I was much relieved, and in three weeks time got perfectly sound and well, to the great astonishment of all our family, and of all who had seen my knee; so your publishing this will greatly oblige,
HAVING, by repeated trials, experienced the good effects of your excellent Baume d'Arquebusade, which entirely cured me of a violent dropsical complaint that threatened the most serious consequences, I think it but justice in me to avow it. I have also the pleasure to inform you of a remarkable cure it lately performed upon one of my servants in the country, who had the misfortune to tear her arm by falling upon a rusty spike, (where she hung for some time) which made a hole as large and half as deep as my finger: I immediately filled the wound with the Baume, and after dressing it with the Baume a few days had the satisfaction to see her arm perfectly healed, and she could do her work as usual.
WE have a number of people ill in this neighbourhood, particularly of sore throats. I have found your Baume d'Arquebusade to be more efficacious than any other medicine, it having given almost immediate relief, and only from an outward application. Great numbers have died of this virulent sore [Page 36]throat; but I hope the timely application of this useful medicine may, through the blessing of God, prevent its direful effects. — Beg you will immediately send by the Boston Coach six bottles, at 6s. 10d. per bottle, and write upon the direction to come in the inside of the coach.
☞ This incomparable antiseptic, chemical Balsam is prepared from the concentrated juices of the most salatiferous, aromatic, saponaceous roots, plants, &c., and is of so pervading a nature, that it enters speedily into the system when rubbed upon the surface of the body, gradually opens the obstructed capillary vessels, and passes through the whole course of circulation: its happy effects having exceeded the Patentee's ablest panegyric in the following cases, viz. violent sprains, bruises, fractures, gun-shot and all kinds of wounds, cuts, old obstinate ulcers, and swellings of the joints and other parts, scalds, burns, chilblains, &c.; for all of which, as well as for its internal use, a bill of directions is given with each bottle.