A practical treatise on the efficacy of stizolobium, or, cowhage, internally administered, in diseases occasioned by worms. To which are added, observations on other anthelmintic medicines of the West-Indies / by William Chamberlaine.

Date:: 1785

Credit: A practical treatise on the efficacy of stizolobium, or, cowhage, internally administered, in diseases occasioned by worms. To which are added, observations on other anthelmintic medicines of the West-Indies / by William Chamberlaine. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

24/98 (page 6)

$■. . ■ [6] thefe intefline enemies. Bitter purgatives, oily medicines, preparations of tin---the juices of plants celebrated for their antheU .mintic qualities, have all had their turn, and all in their turns have failed. Even mer- cury itfelf has frequently been given, in almoft all its various forms, without any other effe6l than injlaring'the cnnftitution. And here, as it is not improbable that^ the war being at an end^ the number of me- dical pra(5titioners, migrating to the Weft Indies, will be daily increafed ;----for the be-^ nefit of fuch, and of the owners of negroes in general', I wjW take the liberty of obferv- . ing, that mercury, unlefs very cantioufly given, and in very fmall quantities, is rank - poifon to the conftitution of a negro. The many fatal effects I have feen, in the courfe of feveral years practice in the ij[lan4 of Ja^ maica, convince me of the truth of what I have here alTerted, Such pradlitioners-, therefore, (and I have known fuch) \Yho indifcriminately admi- nifter mercurial preparations to the negroes entrufted to their care, confult neither their own reputation, nor the intereft of their employers, whofe number of flayes is too % ' often$