Lectures on medical diseases for nurses / by David Forsyth.

  • David Forsyth
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Lectures on medical diseases for nurses / by David Forsyth. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    is ordinary prepared chalk. As it happens, however, it dates from Queen Elizabeth’s reign, when it was invented by none other than Sir Walter Raleigh, in his enforced leisure as a prisoner in the Tower, and it speedily became widely used under the name of “ Raleigh’s Great Cordial.” The recipe included some fifty ingredients, prominent among them being crushed pearls and coral (i.e., forms of chalk), viper’s flesh, and other mysterious remedies. A century later, being still in high repute, it was admitted, somewhat simplified, into the Pharmacopoeia of the College of Physicians under the name of “ Confectio Raleighana.” In the Pharmacopoeia of 1746 it was further simplified, powdered crab-shells (chalk again) being substituted for the pearls, and in 1788 its name was altered to “ Confectio aromatica.” Finally, after being further deprived of use- less ingredients, the crab-shells, in 1851, gave place to ordinary prepared chalk, and at the present day “ Raleigh’s Great Cordial” survives as Pulv. cretae aromat. The steady tendency towards simplification shown by this example is typical of drug treatment as a whole. Large numbers of drugs have been cast aside as useless, and to-day, instead of writing a prescription with ten, fifteen, or twenty ingredients, we prefer to select one or, perhaps, two drugs of known and proved efficacy. At the same time, however, as our prescriptions have become more scientific, our reliance on drugs of admitted worth has increased. In fact, though a modern physician reposes nothing like as much faith in the omnipotence of drugs as was customary in the past, yet, when he does write a prescription, it is in full confidence both of its efficacy and the limits of its efficacy. In these circumstances it may be asked what tests are required before a drug can gain acceptance as of real value ? First we rely on what is called its Physiological Action, as proved by experiment. The drug is administered to some
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