340  The  History  of  Dover  s  Powder.  {^i^ZwT*' 
many  interesting  incidents,  which  are  the  facts  of  the  life  and  history 
of  this  hero  of  a  wonderfully  vivid  romance.  But  the  story  is  so 
familiarly  inwrought  in  the  literature  of  our  nursery  and  boyhood 
days  that  it  needs  no  repetition  to  you  here.  Our  purpose  has  been 
served  in  giving  you  incidents  in  the  life  of  Dr.  Thomas  Dover,  and 
in  the  events  which  led  him  to  create  a  medicinal  powder,  than 
which  no  composition  could  be  more  simple ;  yet  it  has  stood  the 
test  of  time  quite  beyond  anything  which  appears  in  the  annals  of 
pharmacy  and  medicine,  so  that  the  days  of  patient  searching  and 
of  little  things  may  not  yet  be  passed. 
"  Dover's  Powder  may  be  viewed  as  one  of  the  few  surviving  relics 
of  mediaeval  polypharmacy,  which  have  maintained  their  existence 
even  in  this  age  of  progression  and  scientific  medication.  The  for- 
mula presents  a  forcible  illustration  of  that  happy  combination 
where  the  properties  and  character  of  one  substance  effectively  aid 
the  other.  Whilst  opium  constricts  and  checks  the  secretion  of  the 
digestive  ferments,  the  tissue  metabolism,  and  also  the  excretion  of 
toxines  by  the  liver  and  kidneys,  ipecacuanha  antagonizes  every  one 
of  these  actions;  opium  restrains  the  nauseant  effect  of  ipecac;  both 
together,  in  union,  determine  to  the  skin,  and  to  the  bronchial 
mucous  membrane,  relaxing  the  vaso-motors  and  allaying  the 
inflammatory  diathesis!" 
In  conclusion,  it  might  be  well  to  note  the  fact  that  the  method 
of  preparing  Dover's  Powder  originally  differed  very  essentially  from 
the  present  process,  both  in  practice  and  in  principle.  This  part  of 
the  subject  might  form  an  essay  from  some  of  our  younger  breth- 
ren. The  doses  of  that  day  corresponded  exactly  with  the  treat- 
ment— they  were  appallingly  heroic  to  our  senses.  Blood  to  deple- 
tion, blisters  to  excoriation,  and  70  grains  of  Dover's  Powder,  in  a 
glass  of  white  wine  possett  on  going  to  bed,  was  considered  specific 
enough  for  an  acute  impending  gout! 
Large  deposits  of  platinum-bearing  ores  are  said  to  have  been  discovered  at 
Fitfield,  New  South  Wales.  It  has  been  known  for  several  years  that  platini- 
ferous  lead  existed  in  that  locality,  and  the  deposits  have  been  worked,  though 
only  on  a  small  scale.  It  is  now  found,  however,  that  the  platiniferous  lead 
deposit  is  over  a  mile  long,  varying  in  width  from  60  to  150  feet,  and  covered 
with  60  to  70  feet  of  loam.  The  precious  metals  are  practically  confined  to 
the  bed  rock  and  the  drift  for  3  inches  above  the  bottom.  Nuggets  which 
weighed  from  a  few  grains  up  to  5  pennyweights  have  been  occasionally  found. 
The  crude  metal  contains  about  75  per  cent,  of  platinum,  and  realizes  at  the 
present  time  upon  the  field  about  $6  per  ounce. 
