Introduction - Uppsala Monitoring Centre

a syrup; joining proper specifics and antidotes, according to the
different symptoms, or its way of operating; ‘for some people it will
purge violently and others it will bind.’ (Boerhaave, 1735).
White and Black hellebore ‘The form of which is not ventured upon
by discreet physicians, on account of the violent spasms which it
brings on, for being given to half a scruple it acts most violently.’
(Boerhaave, 1740).
John Astruc wrote ‘A treatise of the venereal disease, containing an
account of the original, propagation, and contagion of this distemper
in general.’ Under the chapter heading ‘Of the force and efficacy of
mercury and mercurial medicines, and whence they proceed’ he
gives: ‘pulsations of the heart…is made stronger, and fuller secretions
…are plentifully promoted… as urine, sweat, liquids discharged by the
glands of the stomach, and saliva; were so affected with the spitting,
diarrhoea, ulcers in the mouth, and inflammation of the head, which
attended it, that growing lean, pale, squalid, toothless, stammering, and
not able to open their jaws, after long and severe sufferings he hardly
got over it.’ (Astruc, 1737).
1736 Nicholas Robinson wrote ‘A New treatise of the Venereal Disease’.
He refers to the ADRs of mercury: huge swellings in the head and
face, in the throat and tongue…threatens the patient with a
suffocation; tremors, faintings; convulsions; cold clammy sweats;
salivation; blindness; deafness; contraction of the jaws; stubborn
pains and weaknesses; violent hurries and intolerable headaches
(Robinson, 1736).
Joseph Clutton wrote ‘A true and candid relation of the good and the
bad effects of Joshua Ward’s pill and drop.’ He described 68 cases
and one of these is given below:
‘Case XXXVIII. Gilbert Jones, at the Butcher’s Arms, in Kingstreet,
Westminster, aged 50 years, had a cough, was a little
pthisical, and stuffed in his lungs, he was also troubled with
rheumatick Pains, which made him go with two sticks.–A person
(who seemed to be one of Ward’s intimate Friends, and with whom,
he said, he had been abroad in France) being in the house as a
guest, and, observing the condition of Gilbert Jones, told him what
wonderful Cures Ward had done there, and also in England, and
therefore mightily persuaded him to try some of his pills, assuring
him, if he would consent to try them, that he should throw away his
Crutches in a Month’s time. Gilbert Jones, upon such Persuasions of
this person, was prevail’d on, and he having some of these famous