Am.  Jour.  Pharm. ) 
August,  1921.  J 
Sal  Catharticum  Amarum. 
555 
Her  Majesty."  Her  maiden  name  was  Sally  Wallin ;  she  married  a 
footman  of  the  name  of  Mapp,  who,  within  a  fortnight,  soundly 
thrashed  her  two  or  three  times,  and  then  decamped  with  a  hundred 
guineas  and  such  other  portable  property  as  he  could  lay  his  hands 
on.  The  good  lady's  success  withstood  this  experience.  Once  a  week 
she  visited  London,  riding  there  in  her  gorgeous  chariot,  drawn  by 
four  horses,  and  accompanied  by  servants  in  splendid  liveries.  On 
her  return  journey  she  brought  with  her,  as  trophies  of  honor,  the 
crutches  of  the  patients  she  had  cured.  Sometime  or  other  it  may 
be  convenient  to  write  of  the  London  quacks,  and  then  more  may  be 
said  about  this  lady  and  her  crazy  career.  At  the  present  it  will  suf- 
fice to  say  that  her  fame  became  so  great  that  Hogarth  portrayed  hef 
evil  physiognomy  in  the  centre  of  the  upper  portion  of  the  "Under- 
takers' Arms."  A  more  brutal  and  sinister  face  it  would  be  difficult 
to  conceive ;  it  is  gross  in  the  extreme,  and  the  repulsiveness  of  it  is 
heightened  by  a  double  squint  towards  the  nose.  Her  companions  in 
the  picture — two  equally  notorious  quacks — John  Taylor  and  Joshua 
(Spot)  Ward,  are,  by  comparison,  most  humane  and  benevolent- 
looking  gentlemen. 
The  account  of  the  pamphlet  would  not  be  satisfactory  if  some- 
thing further  were  not  said  about  the  sal  catharticum  amarum.  Grew 
took  out  a  patent  in  1698  for  the  preparation  of  it  from  the  Epsom 
spring;  but,  as  Grew  points  out,  it  was  known  that  other  wells,  as 
those  of  Barnet  and  Dulwich,  yielded  aperient  waters.  In  1700  two 
chemists,  George  and  Francis  Moult,  the  latter  being  no  doubt  the 
translator  of  Grew's  monograph,  found  themselves  in  possession  of 
springs  at  Shooter's  Hill,  in  Kent,  from  which  they  obtained  consid- 
erable quantities  of  the  purging  salt ;  in  fact,  in  certain  seasons  they 
obtained  as  much  as  two  hundredweights  a  week.  Their  success 
called  forth  some  harsh  strictures  from  Quincy,  the  compiler  of  the 
"Compleat  English  Dispensatory."  In  referring  to  the  translator  he 
says:  "But  the  avaricious  craft  of  a  certain  Furnace-Philosopher 
could  not  let  this  useful  discovery  in  natural  knowledge  rest  under 
the  Improvement  and  proper  Use  of  Persons  of  Integrity."  Quincy 
goes  on  to  complain,  "that  what  was  first  sold  for  one  shilling  an 
ounce,  and  could  not  honestly  be  made  under,  is  now  come  to  be  sold 
for  not  much  above  thirty  shillings  per  hundredweight,  which  does 
not  much  exceed  three  pence  per  pound."  This  is  apparently  where 
the  shoe  pinched.    He  indulged  his  pessimism  too  soon,  as  appears 
