John Locke, 1632-1704, physician and philosopher : a medical biography / with an edition of the medical notes in his journals.

  • Kenneth Dewhurst
Date:
1963
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Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: John Locke, 1632-1704, physician and philosopher : a medical biography / with an edition of the medical notes in his journals. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Reduce [nitre] by simmering to a fixed salt, and by melting dissolve into a yellowish liquor. This is the Alkahest of Glauber; 1 for it dissolves zinc and stannum also into a white fluid, and calcinated [silver] into a blue fluid, all without fire. But it does not dissolve amber. ib. Mund. Jul. 18. He observes in fevers that the motion of the humors follows the motion of the moone, but because the moone moves some times faster and sometimes slower in the Zodiac hence it is that some times those criticali motions are sometimes 7th and sometimes the eight day according as the moon comes sooner or later to the quadratures 2 and other aspects. He observed that in the plague that was in 1666 at Orleans most people were taken sick, either in the conjunction, 3 opposition, quad rature etc. of the moon with Jupiter. ib. [Bleed] first if need be, then purge and cool the patient, then give filings of stannum [alloy of silver and lead] as much as an ordinary pill; repeat if necessary, for the crude stannum halts the fluor albus, the exces sive menstruation and all the haemorrhage by concentrating the spirits; as Dr. Godfroy reports from experience. The thickened juice of the oak makes the best Scammony. 4 The rind of the root of the same tree, in doses of up to 15 gr. cures even inter mittent fevers, by purging either upwards or downwards according to the motion of the humours. To check its bitterness it can be diluted with a great quantity of watery fluid. But this bitterness is better avoided by drying the root in the sun or by a fire; which causes the bitter and fiery parts to evaporate. Heads of the white poppies which grow in these districts if cut in the evening, yield the next morning a transparent gummy juice far superior to the opium imported from the East. The most improved kind of opium, according to Dr. Godfroy, seems to be produced by simple drying; he thinks the narcotic elements are thus evaporated and the anodyne elements retained: but it must not be scorched to dryness, but moderately heated to a point when it still keeps a certain flexibility. 1 John Rudolph Glauber was a German alchemist born at Carlstadt in 1603. His most important discovery was glauber salts. The alkahest was supposed to be a universal solvent, which he kept secret as he feared that a knowledge of it might encourage the luxury, pride, and godlessness of poor humanity. (A. C. Wootton, op. cit. y vol. 1, pp. 260-4.) 2 An astronomical term which in this case refers to the position of the 1110011 relative to other heavenly bodies. The moon is in the quadrature when the difference of longitude (between the moon and the other planets) is 90 0 . 3 The moon is in conjunction with Jupiter when they come in the same longitude. 4 A purgative. The Earl of Warwick's powder (in the Pharmacopoeia of 1721) is com posed of Scammony, prepared with the fumes of sulphur, diaphoretic antimony and Cream of Tartar. Diagrydium was composed of scammony prepared with quince seeds. Alkahest pp. 206-7 (Latin) Pestis pp. 207-8 Fluor albus p. 208 (Latin) Intermittentes (Latin) Opium p. 208 (Latin)
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