Note 9 — Chapter IV · QUACKERY.
Reading edition
For example, the famous Balm of Gilead, which, in its time, was said to cure all manner of disease, is nothing but brandy spiced with cardamoms and other like seeds, and made a little more stimulating with Spanish flies. The use of this medicine, therefore, was really only one of the modes of dram drinking.
Louis XV. purchased, for a considerable sum, of Madame Nouffleur, a nostrum for the cure of tape-worm. The medicine proved to be the powder of the male fern, which was used for the same complaint by Galen in the second century, but which, in spite of the recommendations of this illustrious physician, and the princely reward paid to Madame Nouffleur for her discovery of it—in, shall I say, some musty book—it has somehow lost its reputation.
Examples of the same kind might be given almost indefinitely.