Mercury, opium and antimony rolled into one mass, to be taken at once.
Of calomel and jalap each 10 grains; opium 1½ grain; tartar emetic a grain; oil of aniseed 1 drop. Make the whole into a mass.
To be taken at once, or divided into pills, if the patient prefer it.
Mackenzie's Ten Thousand Receipts, 1867. Public domain; transcription unaltered.
Three poisons with three different jobs. Calomel is mercurous chloride, which purges by damaging the gut. Tartar emetic is an antimony salt, which makes you vomit. The opium is there to stop you minding.
Taken together and at once, the effect is violent emptying from both ends, which the period read as the medicine working. Mercury and antimony both accumulate; the damage does not clear when the dose does.
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Read the original page →The antidote table's advice for opium and laudanum — emetic draught, vinegar and water, “dashing cold water on chest and face, walking up and down for two or three hours.”
The 20th Century Home Cook Book · 1906
Raw loin beaten in a marble mortar with sweet and bitter almonds and sugar, into a pulp with “a rosy hue, and a very agreeable taste.” Said to keep “even in summer.”
The Dixie Cook-Book · 1883
One grain of mercury chloride twice a day as an alterative, four to five as a laxative. The book calls it “a most dangerous medicine” and prints the doses anyway.
The 20th Century Home Cook Book · 1906