Note 594 — PHARMACOLOGIA. (continued 6)

The Black Drop, or The Lancaster, or Quaker’s Black Drop. This preparation, which has been long known and esteemed, as being more powerful in its operation and less distressing in its effects than any tincture of opium, has until lately been involved in much obscurity; the papers however of the late Edward Walton, of Sunderland, one of the near relations of the original proprietor, having fallen into the hands of Dr. Armstrong, that gentleman has obliged the profession by publishing the manner in which it is prepared, and is as follows:—“Take half a pound of opium sliced; three pints of good verjuice (juice of the wild crab,) and one and a half ounce of nutmegs, and half an ounce of saffron. Boil them to a proper thickness, then add a quarter of a pound of sugar, and two spoonsful of yeast. Set the whole in a warm place near the fire, for six or eight weeks, then place it in the open air until it becomes a syrup; lastly, decant, filter, and bottle it up, adding a little sugar to each bottle.” One drop of this preparation is considered equal to about three of the Tincture of Opium. P. L. It would appear that an Acetate of Morphia is formed, which is more active, and less distressing in its effects, than any other narcotic combination.

The French Codex contains directions for preparing a compound very similar to the Black Drop; viz.

Vinum Opiatum Fermentatione Paratum, or Guttæ seu Laudanum Abbatis Rousseau. Take of white honey twelve ounces; warm water, three pounds; dissolve the honey in the water, pour it into a matrass, and set it aside in a warm place: as soon as fermentation has commenced, add four ounces of good opium, having previously dissolved, or rather diffused it in twelve ounces of water; allow them to ferment together for a month, then evaporate until ten ounces only remain, filter, and add four ounces and a half of alcohol.

Liquor Opii Sedativus. Under this name, Mr. Battley, a manufacturing druggist, of Fore-street, London, has offered for sale a narcotic preparation, which it is generally supposed owes its efficacy to the acetate of morphia; on being kept, however, I found that it underwent some important change, during which so much air was disengaged as to blow out the cork from the bottle with violence. This is an objection to its admission into practice, unless we can ensure recently prepared portions as often as they may be required.

In publishing the above statement, I have unfortunately been the cause of much unnecessary Ink-shed. A letter, by Mr. Battley, has been industriously circulated through the different ranks of the profession, purporting to be an apology for his preparation, but after a careful perusal of it, instead of being able to discover any argument in its favour, we receive a full acknowledgment of the validity of the objection above stated. “I explained to Dr. Paris, that the liability of the solution to undergo change, WAS A DEFECT in the preparation, but that the addition of a little spirit would prevent decomposition,” and yet in the next sentence he tells us that in those cases in which it is most beneficial, “the addition of spirit would be highly improper.” See Medical Repository, vol. xiii, p. 273.

But the circumstance which has excited the greatest indignation in the mind of Mr. Battley, is my having applied the term NOSTRUM to his preparation. Every medicine that is prepared by a secret process, and sold for the private advantage of an individual, is properly designated a NOSTRUM. And I am at a loss to discover any feature in the present case that can entitle it to be considered as an exception to this general rule; but perhaps Mr. Battley is inclined to be hypercritical, and as the preparation is not indebted to him, but to Wedelius or Le Mort, for its origin, is prepared to exclaim with the Roman Poet:

“Quæ non fecimus ipsi vix ea NOSTRA VOCO.”

Mr. Battley also complains bitterly of my having inserted his preparation under so odious a motto as “Arcana Revelata fætent,” for my own part I cannot conceive any thing more appropriate to the case, viz. Arcana, these secret preparations, revelata, exposed to the air, fætent, grow fœtid. But, notwithstanding the objections which I have thus felt it my duty to offer, I am disposed to speak favourably of its mild and uniform effects, and in justice to Mr. Battley, I will further state the same opinion has been formed by a great number of respectable practitioners. The late Mr. Haden, who during his protracted illness took a large quantity of this preparation, states, in his Translation of the Formulary of Dr. Majendie, that it is devoid of exciting, and almost of constipating, properties. He made a very good substitute, “by macerating the dregs, remaining after making tincture of opium, in a solution of Tartaric acid.” The preparation formed a tolerably deep tincture, and 40 drops acted, he thought, in all respects, like 20 of the liquor opii sedativus. It neither stimulated, nor produced costiveness.