Am  Tour.  Pharm.  \        Some  Old-Time  Medicines.  4.10 
June,  191S.       >  *t*7 
nal  Swedish  formula  contained  honey,  licorice,  camphor,  oil  of 
senna,  and  salt  of  tartar.  The  original  formula  has  been  greatly 
modified  in  passing  through  the  pharmacopoeias  ;  to-day  we  still  have 
paregoric  with  similar  properties  quite  different  from  the  ancient 
combination  and  with  a  rather  waning  use  and  popularity. 
Four  Thieves  Vinegar. — Older  pharmacists  can  probably  re- 
member the  popular  aromatic  and  antiseptic  vinegars.  The  original 
preparation  is  said  to  have  been  devised  to  prevent  the  spread  of  the 
plague.  The  story  goes  that  during  a  plague  four  thieves  went 
about  the  French  city  of  Toulouse  plundering  the  dead  and  the 
dying,  and  the  secret  of  their  immunity  was  a -vinegar  used  as  a 
prophylactic.  Preparations  of  this  character  in  a  limited  way  had 
descended  to  modern  times.  Their  use  in  the  sick  room  has  at  least 
had  the  merit  of  being  refreshing  and  in  a  mild  way  antiseptic. 
Mithridatum. — Of  all  the  famous  compounds  this  stands  out 
among  the  records  of  pharmacy  and  medicine.  The  inventor  is  said 
to  be  Mithridates  the  Great,  King  of  Pontus,  Asia  Minor,  who  lived 
two  centuries  before  Christ.  The  preparation  has  passed  down 
through  the  centuries,  sometimes  containing  a  very  large  number  of 
ingredients,  at  other  times  as  few  as  a  hundred,  and  sometimes  less. 
Preparations  of  this  character  at  times  have  acquired  immense  fame, 
Roman  emperors  have  been  recorded  as  compounding  them  with 
their  own  hands.  The  greatest  physicians  have  studied  this  prepa- 
ration with  a  view  if  possible  of  perfecting  it. 
Theriacums. — Are  a  modification  of  the  original  under  other 
designations.  At  the  present  day  we  look  upon  these  compounds  as 
of  the  order  of  the  shotgun  mixtures,  but  in  any  event  for  long  cen- 
turies they  held  sway  as  of  the  greatest  value  in  medicine. 
Lanolin. — Incidentally  we  may  regard  wool  grease  as  a  sub- 
stance long  used  by  the  ancients  for  anointing  and  healing,  and 
again  revived  in  our  own  day,  where  it  has  acquired  a  place  of  great 
value  in  the  healing  art. 
One  could  thus  go  on  and  enumerate  name  after  name  of  prepa- 
rations famous  in  the  history  of  medicine.  The  point  to  be  urged 
is  that  it  is  not  only  interesting  to  know  the  name,  origin  and  the 
preparation  of  these  old-time  medicines,  but  also  to  bear  in  mind 
that  their  value  is  not  altogether  historical,  and  we  should  ever  keep 
before  us  that  there  is  a  possibility  that  in  these  there  may  be  some- 
thing that  may  be  of  value  to  the  healing  art. 
