Introduction - Uppsala Monitoring Centre

Remedies from the practice of Abraham Wagner’, is a approximately
200-page octavo manuscript in German with clinical notes and
patient observations and recipes reproduced both in Latin and in the
extensive pharmaceutical notation of the period. Apparently begun in
1740.
1745 William Heberden (1710–1801) denounced Mithridatium as ‘good for
nothing’. (Heberden, 1745).
An anonymous review of the London Dispensary gave an amusing
account of many of the drugs within it:
‘Mel Helleboratium (Honey of Hellebore) Seldom ventured on;
seldom to be met with any good.’
‘Oleum Lateritium (Oil of Brocks) Nonsense’.
‘Causticum Commune Mitius (Common mild caustic) Beneath all
criticism’.
‘Pulvis Antilyssus Powder (Against the bite of a mad dog) A mere
plaything and not dangerous in itself, but in the delay from other
medicines.’ (This comment could be applied to most modern
complimentary medicines).
‘Of Thorn-apple I well know that the plant is altogether disused in
Physick, and described by authors as highly noxious both to men
and to beasts. For all of them unanimously write, that the Thornapple
disorders the mind causes madness, destroys our ideas
and memory and occasions convulsions.’ (Anon, 1745).
1746 Henbane fell into disuse and was omitted from the London
Pharmacopoeias of 1746 and 1788 and restored in 1809 when it
started being used for convulsions.
1747 The ‘Jāmi‘ al-javāmi‘-i Muhammad-Shāhī’ was a large
pharmacopoeia of at least several volumes by Hakīm Muhammad
Hāshim ibn hakīm Muhammad Hādī Qalandar ibn Muzaffar al-Dīn
‘Alavī Shīrāzī ‘Alavī Khān (d1747 or 1749).
Examination of drugs to prevent adulteration. Apothecaries’ Petition
to the House of Commons Committee, to Whom the Petition
of...Apothecaries of the Cities of London and Westminster...Were
Referred. By Sir William Calvert. Bill to revive, explain and amend
the Act for the better viewing, searching and examining all drugs,
medicines and waters, oil and compositions used in medicines.
Evidence from members from the Society of the Art and Mystery of
Apothecaries, alleges that unskilled or dishonest practitioners are
dispensing drugs of dubious quality, often comprising incorrect
ingredients.