Page:Chronicles of pharmacy (Volume 1).djvu/427

 made into a liquid with olive oil and spread on calico makes the sparadrap of Vigo, in which form it is most frequently used, as an application to syphilitic eruptions.

Ambrose Paré gives the earliest formula for Vigo's plaster, which was then called Emplastrum Vigonium seu de Ranis. It was looked upon as a masterpiece of combination. First 3-1/2 oz. of earthworms were washed in water, and afterwards in wine. Then they and twenty-six live frogs were macerated in 2 lb. of odoriferous wine, and the whole was boiled down to two-thirds of its volume. A decoction of camel's hay (andropogon schœnanthus), French lavender, and matricaria (chamomilla) was then mixed with this wine. Meanwhile 1 lb. of golden litharge had been "nourished" for twelve hours with oils of chamomile, dill, lilies, and saffron; these were melted down with 1 lb. each of the fat of the pig, calf, and viper. Human fat might be used instead of that of vipers. Juices of elder root and of elecampane with euphorbium, frankincense, and oil of spike were then worked in and the whole melted with white wax. Lastly, quicksilver extinguished by turpentine, styrax, oil of bitter almonds, and oil of bay, were added. In Lemery's time the minimum proportion of mercury was 1 drachm to 1 oz. of the plaster. There was also a simple Vigo's plaster made without mercury. In the Codex formula the worms, the frogs, the fats, the herbs, roots, and oils have all gone, but some more aromatic resins are added.

The first formula for mercurial pills was one which Barbarossa II, a famous pirate and king of Algiers, and