Page:Chronicles of pharmacy (Volume 2).djvu/33

 either to serve as presents, or to be kept in their families.

In the paper by Mr. Slare read before the Royal Society already referred to the author comments with similar severity on the then popular Gascoign's Powder. As evidence of the fame it possessed he says he had been told that a certain "grandee of the faculty" had got above £50,000 by prescribing this compound. I suppose this meant he had received that amount in fees for prescriptions ordering that medicine. Taking advantage of the reverence in which bezoar was held by that generation, Gascoign's Powder had assumed as a second title the name of bezoardic powder. It was also known as the Powder of the Black Tops of Crab-claws, from the ingredient in largest quantity. The professed composition of Gascoign's Powder as given by Mr. Slare was oriental bezoar, white amber, hartshorn in powder, pearls, crabs' eyes, coral, and black tops of crabs' claws. Naturally a powder of such costly ingredients was sold at a very high price. Mr. Slare recommends chalk and salt of wormwood as being in all respects as good. The former was cheap enough then; and of the salt he says two pounds could be got for the price of half an ounce of the compound.

Both in ancient and comparatively modern times vipers have been held in the highest esteem for their medicinal virtues, and viper fat, viper broth, and viper wine are used to this day in some remote parts of Britain, and to a still greater extent on the Continent.