| Show DRUGS FEARFUL AND AWFUL amazing concoctions Concoct ions that our ance tor swallowed believing that they had medicinal virtue i the medicine used down to even recent da if sound most extraordinary to our ears As late as the eighteenth century dried toad was seriously considered a specific against the plague in an article in the new york medical journal dr william renwick of toronto canada mentioned a few of the remedies in vogue A planter made of arsenic was applied to cancers bleeding was practiced on all occasions even in the time nt oui grandparents but the sovereign remedy of all was known ba or this wa the great antidote of roman pharmacy it originally had 40 or 60 ingredients all vegetables but beroa physician Andro machus added the flesh of vipers every physician had own vail atlon of the formula and matteoli Matt eoll in the sixteenth century put no less than ingredients into it the name or under which it was commonly known was derived from the greek therion 1 a wild beast as the stuff was conald cred a specific against the poisonous altea of beasts and serpents the french word was corrupted into the english treacle and the medicine was known in england aa venice treacle it was the famous sydenham who first opposed the usa of drugs in fact when sir richard blackmore asked him for a good guide in practice he replied don quixote and declared that the arrival of a good clown would do more tor the health of a city than that of 20 asses laden with drugs |
