554 
Sal  Catharticum  Amarum. 
5  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
(     August,  1^21. 
been  of  a  somewhat  mixed  character,  as  we  are  told  that  one  of  the 
elegant  amusements  consisted  in  trying  to  catch  a  pig  by  the  tail.  By 
this  time  the  mineral  water  and  its  virtues  had  begun  to  be  somewhat 
of  a  secondary  consideration  with  those  who  frequented  what  had 
become  quite  a  gay  and  lively  town. 
An  enterprising  apothecary,  named  Livingstone  or  Levingstern, 
realized  this  fact,  and  thought  he  saw  a  way  to  make  a  fortune.  He 
accordingly  bought,  in  1706,  a  piece  of  land  about  half  a  mile  from 
the  Old  Wells,  and,  having  sunk  a  well,  built  in  connection  with  it  a 
large  house  with  conveniences  for  dancing  and  all  kinds  of  games  of 
chance.  He  also  erected  shops  for  jewelers,  milliners,  and  other 
trades  which  appealed  to  the  fashionable  folk  of  the  day.  Thus,  by 
means  of  concerts,  balls,  and  facilities  for  gambling,  this  apothecary 
attracted  the  people  from  the  old  well  to  the  new  one.  Unfortun- 
ately, this  scheming  benefactor  overreached  himself,  and  in  1727  he 
purchased  the  lease  of  the  old  establishment,  closed  the  well  and 
killed  the  goose  that  laid  the  golden  eggs,  inasmuch  as  the  new  well 
did  not  possess  the  cathartic  virtues  of  the  old  one,  and  Livingstone 
discovered  that  the  attractions  of  his  fashionable  establishment  were 
really  only  accessory  to  the  healing  qualities  of  the  sal  catharticum. 
Notwithstanding  this  blow  to  the  prosperity  of  Epsom  deter- 
mined efforts  were  made  to  retain  the  patronage  of  the  gay  and 
fashionable  crowd  of  London.  Some  queer  expedients  were  resorted 
to  for  doing  this,  and  perhaps  one  of  the  strangest  was  the  engage- 
ment entered  into  by  the  authorities  of  the  town  with  Mrs.  Mapp, 
the  notorious  "bone-setter,"  or  "shape  mistress,"  as  she  was  called. 
This  fat,  ugly,  drunken  woman  haunted  the  fairs  of  the  country,  and 
acquired  a  great  name  as  an  expert  in  the  replacing  of  dislocated 
limbs,  which  she  appears  to  have  done  by  reason  of  her  great 
strength,  rather  than  by  dexterity.  Her  eccentricities  added  much  to 
her  fame,  as  did  also  her  affected  sobriquet  of  "Crazy  Sally  of  Ep- 
som." Her  cures  struck  the  townsfolk  of  Epsom  as  being  so  extra- 
ordinary that  they  though  they  would  be  justified  in  endeavoring  to 
stem  the  waning  fortunes  of  the  town  by  giving  this  female  quack 
and  ragamuffin  a  fee  of  one  hundred  guineas  if  she  would  continue 
her  residence  there  for  one  year.  She  is  said  to  have  made  twenty 
guineas  a  day  by  her  "profession."  In  the  Gentleman's  Magazine  for 
1736,  we  are  told  that  "Mrs.  Mapp  continues  making  extraordinary 
cures."   She  has  "now  set  up  an  equipage,  and  on  Sunday  waited  on 
