A letter to a doctor of physick concerning diascordium, &c.

Date:: 1719

Credit: A letter to a doctor of physick concerning diascordium, &c. Source: Wellcome Collection.

17/46 page 17

$[ *7 ] 1. I would take great care to reduce the Species all into the fineft Powder poflible, and be exadfly curious about it; particularly I would order the Bole, and Crocus Mart is, according as our Pharmacopoeia Londin. di¬ rects for the Preparation of Litharge. a. I would make a vaft great Quantity at a time, as Proffer Alptnus reports the ^Egy¬ ptians always do, when they prepare their Treacle. My Reafbn is, that the Mafs may have Subftance enough to maintain a due Fer¬ mentation, till all be leavened, and brought into an uniform Lump. 3. In JEgypt they mix up their Theriaca, generally in the Month of May ; but I would chafe time for it, precifely in October. For that Month with us is uliially juft warm e- nough to excite and promote Fermentation; and the Cold of Winter coming gradually on, there will not be any danger of the Medi¬ cine’s growing {harp and hard rafted (like four ftrong Beer) by too fierce a Fermenta¬ tion. Perhaps we may expedt as great a difference between it, and what is made in the Spring; as we find there is between Oc¬ tober and March brewed Beer, which (for the fame reaibn) is ftrangely different. 4. I would provide a final! long fhaped Bar¬ rel, capacious enough to hold a third part more than the Quantity of the Mafs, that it may afford fufficient room for it to rarefy, and work in. And made fo very iinooth in C the$

A letter to a doctor of physick concerning diascordium, &c.

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