42 FOTHERGILL'S MEDICAL PRACTICE CHAP 



most effective agent ; next to this, quince seeds, then gum 

 tragacanth, and after this the syrupus althece. Mixing in a 

 mortar by attrition produced a much more stable emulsion 

 than simple agitation. Oils of olive, almond, and cloves, 

 balsams of copaiva, guaiacum, Tolu, and Peru, styrax, 

 benzoin, musk even beeswax and spermaceti all formed 

 good and mostly palatable emulsions with the gum arabic. 

 Acids could be added if desired. After this time the mucilago 

 acacia was much more largely employed. 1 



Fothergill was commonly among the foremost in 

 putting new and improved remedies to trial. 



Hemlock, then known by its Latin name of Cicuta, was 

 extolled in 1760 by Dr. Storck of Vienna as a cure for cancer. 

 For a time everybody prescribed the drug, but it soon proved 

 to be of little worth. Fothergill tried it in many disorders, 

 and found that it mitigated pain in tumours and neuralgias 

 its value in tic-douloureux will be noted later and he thought 

 that it checked the progress of ulcers. He was accustomed 

 to begin with a small dose, 20 grains or less of the extract in 

 the day, and to increase it even to 70 grains or more, until 

 toxic symptoms came on giddiness, eye movements, nausea, 

 and tremor. It seldom produced benefit until given in as 

 large a dose as the patient could bear. The extract varies, 

 he says, in strength : it is important that it should be made 

 when the plant has reached its full vigour and is rather on the 

 verge of decline, the fruits observable, and the foliage inclin- 

 ing to yellow ; and very little heat must be employed in 

 the preparation. Modern investigations have confirmed the 

 uncertainty of the virtues of this plant (to which Linnaeus 

 restored the Greek name of Conium), and have led in the 

 present day to its almost entire neglect. 2 



Cinchona, then called Peruvian bark, was a popular 



1 Experiments in mixing oils, etc., with water, by means of a Vegetable 

 Mucilage; Works, ii. 25, iii. 188 ; Med. Obs. <& Inq. i. 412. James Bogle, 

 who added the surname French on his marriage to Elizabeth French, was an 

 apothecary in Red Lion Square, and published with Fothergill's approval the 

 " London Practice " of Physic (no copy traced in the British Museum). See 

 T. Young, Med. Lit. p. 126 ; and Account of Dr. N. Hulme, Trans. Med. Soc. 

 Land., 1810, p. 238. He afterwards became a merchant in London. His will 

 was proved in 1792. Through his daughters he was the ancestor of Horace 

 and James Smith, and of Sir James Plaisted Wilde (Lord Penzance). Informa- 

 tion kindly supplied by N. Bogle- French of York. 



2 Observations on the Use of Hemlock, read about 1768 ; Med. Obs. & Inq. 

 iii. 400 ; Works, ii. 49 ; Cullen, op. cit. ii. 267 ; Woodville, Medical Botany, 

 i. 65, 66 note ; Fluckiger and Hanbury, p. 299. Conium is omitted from the 

 British Pharmacopoeia, 1914. 



