Part 1

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OBSERVATIONS ON ANTIMONY,

Read before the MEDICAL SOCIETY of LONDON,

And published at their Request,

BY JOHN MILLAR, M. D.

LONDON: Printed for J. JOHNSON, No. 72, St. Paul’s Church-yard, and D. WILSON and G. NICOL in the Strand, MDCCLXXIV.

TO THE MEMBERS OF THE MEDICAL SOCIETY OF _LONDON_.

GENTLEMEN,

The following observations having been honoured with your approbation, are now published at your request, and presented to you as a testimony of the author’s respectful regard.

Candour requires him to acknowledge that some gentlemen of the Society were averse to the publication, judging that the free censure of popular opinions would rather provoke resentment than produce reformation. Not deterred from his purpose, he has availed himself of their friendly cautions to obviate some objections which may be made to the design.

The account of the earlier chymists may, on a superficial view, appear superfluous; but it was thought necessary to illustrate the Medical History of Antimony, and to shew how little credit is due to those writers whose exaggerated praises of that medicine have contributed so much to mislead and abuse mankind.

It may be objected that the author has not himself assayed the antimonial ores, nor repeated the chymical processes. But by drawing the chymical and mineralogical materials from other sources, all imputation of prejudice or partiality, on his part, is prevented, since he appeals to the testimony of the patrons of antimony themselves, for the authenticity of the facts by which some of their opinions are subverted.

I am,

GENTLEMEN,

Your most obedient, and most humble servant,

JOHN MILLAR.

Pall Mall, April 2, 1774.

THE CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION Page 1

SECTION I.

_Some Account of the earlier Chymists, and of their opinions concerning Antimony_ 4

SECTION II.

_Of the Natural History of Antimony_ 13

SECTION III.

_Of the Chymical Properties and Analysis of Antimony_ 27

SECTION IV.

_Of the Antimonial Preparations and their Medical Effects_ 48

SECTION V.

_Of the Secret Antimonial Medicines, and particularly of the Fever-Powder_ 71

OBSERVATIONS ON ANTIMONY.

INTRODUCTION.

Read 1st and 15th Febry. 1774.

Remedies have often acquired reputation without sufficient evidence of their innocence and efficacy. Some have been introduced by an injudicious application of the theory of the schools, others by rash and precipitate conclusions drawn from partial experiment, and many by a refined species of imposition on the credulity of mankind, veiled under the specious pretence of strict morality, extensive benevolence, and disinterested love of science.

It is not surprising that a steady exertion of these arts should prevail, when we consider that physicians, whose duty it is intelligently to examine these boasted remedies, and if frivolous or dangerous, to expose and resist the patrons of them, have too often contributed to establish the deceit. Some are borne along by the torrent of vulgar prejudice; while others stand aloof beholding, with indignant pride, the triumph of imposture; and many judging a compliance with popular prejudices their surest and safest course, unite in supporting error and imposition, and in confirming the most pernicious practices.

Thus is the publick confidence betrayed, the art of physick brought into contempt, bold and extravagant assertions gain ground, and dangerous remedies are established.

The common interest calls us to expose these intrigues, since men do not knowingly sacrifice life and health, but are unwarily misled by misrepresentation. Let us therefore unite in promoting a safe and effectual practice, and in repelling the common enemies of science and of mankind.

Among the delusions of the present age, one of the most dangerous is the universal belief of the perfect innocence and superlative efficacy of antimony. The extensive use of this mineral demands our particular attention, since it not only obtains among regular physicians, but has been generally adopted in domestic practice. But if its reputation shall appear to have been raised by falsehood or misrepresentation, it becomes us to resist that tyrannical fashion by which it hath been established.

SECTION I.

_Some Account of the ancient Chymists, and of their opinions concerning Antimony._

Antimony was originally used by the Chymists, who, as they pretended to preternatural illumination, affected to conceal from the vulgar and profane, the sacred mysteries of the adepts, who arrogantly stiled themselves the favourites of Heaven. An exact chronological account is not to be expected in an art which took its rise among illiterate Miners, and in the most superstitious country in the world. How long it was cultivated by the lower set of people, with whom it originated, is uncertain; but Trismegistus, having, as is believed, first treated it in a scientifical manner, has been honoured by his successors as the Inventor and founder of the art. He is stiled a philosopher, a priest and a King, is said to have been instructed in all manner of learning, to have been the Inventor of medicine among the Egyptians, and to have lived about fifteen hundred years before the christian æra, or according to some about the time of Moses.

Chymistry, among the Egyptians, was joined to the magic art, it passed, thus corrupted, from them to the Arabians, where it was rendered still more unintelligible; and, in the course of the pilgrimages, and warlike expeditions to the holy land, it was imported into Europe, during the dark ages of ignorance, where it was still further vitiated by those impostors who scrupled not to corrupt the christian doctrines, and to pervert a religion, instituted to promote the happiness of mankind, to the purpose of oppressing them, by erecting, under the pretence of obedience to its precepts, a temporal and spiritual dominion over all whom they could intimidate or deceive.

In these rude times, when the nations of Europe were overwhelmed with ignorance and slavery, it was not to be expected that Chymistry could be much reformed. The little learning of that age was confined to the ecclesiastical orders, who avowedly reprobated all knowledge which was not derived from divine illumination.

Hence we find the chymical writers of that period boasting of their weakness, yielding up all confidence in their faculties, glorying in what they termed poverty of spirit, which was a state of absolute quietism, and betaking themselves to the invocation of supernatural assistance, on which they depended for that information which had been wisely placed within the reach of their natural capacity. An implicit submission to these monkish tenets was, however, strictly enforced, and all who presumed to depart from them, called forth the severest censures of the catholic church.

But, even in those times of ignorance an ecclesiastic arose worthy of a better age and happier fate. Roger Bacon, undaunted by the terrors of the church, boldly attempted to stem the torrent of superstition, and recal the world to truth and sound philosophy. Such of his writings as yet remain, are composed in a rational, manly stile, void of hypocrisy and dissimulation. He leads us to examine the works of nature and of art, chastly distinguishing those from the sacred truths of revelation, and clearly demonstrating their united operations to be far more wonderful than the pretended miracles of those who boasted of supernatural assistance, whom he justly censures as amusing the ignorant with the fumes of drunkenness, or the ravings of a distempered brain.

The age in which he lived was too much depressed to be roused by his vigorous efforts; and his laudable attempts to emancipate the christian world from that slavish ignorance in which it was held, were, for very obvious reasons, severely censured by the Roman church: he was arraigned, condemned, and cast into prison, where he was exhausted by a tedious confinement and severe penance[1], and soon after fell a victim to the vengeance of his enemies.

The papal tyranny having thus prevailed against the strenuous efforts of this rational and intelligent philosopher, it was easy, under the pretence of exalted devotion, to suppress more feeble attempts toward improvement and reformation.

But those high pretensions to extraordinary sanctity have been so often used as a cloak, by men of an intriguing spirit, that they are now justly deemed suspicious; and we need only look into the lives and writings of the ecclesiastical chymists to be convinced that they were assumed by them, to cover their ignorance, ambition, and dissolute manners. An overweening conceit of their own opinions, and an arrogant contempt for those of others, is, notwithstanding all their pretensions to humility and self-denial, the genuine characteristic of those hypocritical writers. Thus we find them extolling themselves to the disparagement of all mankind. _Ye doctors of physick and surgery_, says Basil Valentine, _come to me, a religious person, and servant of God, I will shew you what ye have never seen, I will make manifest to you the way of health and salvation, which you have not yet known_.[2]

In delivering their chymical processes, an invocation of God is the first precept, and they, then, proceed in the name of the Lord. But not content with having magnified themselves beyond their equals, they address their disciples in the stile and manner of the founder of the christian religion: _I warn you_, says the same ecclesiastical chymist, _my disciple and apostle, if you would imitate me, you must take up your cross, and suffer as I have suffered, and learn to bear persecution as I also have done_[3]: and having thus made themselves equal with God, they proceeded to disclaim all dependance on the supreme Being, declaring, in their pride, that, if God would not assist them, they would rather consult the Devil than the works of former writers[4].

But if the chymists were more intitled to our confidence; the extravagant praises which they bestow on antimony, would justly render their evidence suspected. Not content with attributing to it an infallible efficacy in the cure of diseases, they assert its influence over the temper and disposition of the mind, and seriously affirm that it disposes to probity and chastity. Notwithstanding these miraculous effects they scruple not to own that, in its original state, it is of a poisonous nature; but they pretend that they can easily convert the most noxious substances into salutary medicines, and the mildest nourishment into deadly poison; and thus is antimony rendered an infallible cure for all diseases, and honey destructive to the human race[5].

The writings of modern physicians are indeed free from those gross absurdities; yet the high character given, even by them, to antimonial medicines, so greatly exceeds all bounds of probability, that we shall be justified in witholding our assent, till it is supported by proofs bearing some proportion to the boldness of their assertions.

By the study of mathematics a habit of accuracy and precision is acquired, and it may be suspected that chymistry leads to credulity; or else, some of the modern chymists, after the example of their predecessors, have craftily obtained wealth and fame, by the most criminal practices. Upon the whole, the evidence, as well ancient as modern, concerning the superlative efficacy of antimony is to be suspected, and it is necessary impartially to enquire into its natural history, chymical analysis, and medical effects.

SECTION II.

_Of the Natural History of Antimony._

Antimony is of different kinds: by some it is described a blackish mineral substance staining the hands, full of long, shining needle-like striæ, hard, brittle, and considerably heavy. It is found in different parts of Europe, as Bohemia, Saxony, Transylvania, Hungary, France, and England, commonly in mines, intermixed with earth and stones. Sometimes it is blended with the richer ores of silver, which renders the extraction of that metal difficult, volatilising a part of the silver, or, in the language of the miners, robbing the ore[6].

The Hungarian and Transylvanian, of which little or none comes to us, is esteemed much the best for medicinal use. The English seems of all others the least proper for that purpose, frequently containing a portion of lead[7], which is not separable by any of the common methods of purification, or else the English miners are unacquainted with the method of purifying it in foreign countries.

The celebrated Dr. Hunter has in his museum, eighteen curious specimens of antimony, very different from each other: some are covered with a white calcareous crust; some, in external appearance, resemble cobalt[8]; others the lead ores; and others, those of arsenic; some are almost perfectly black; some have red striæ, interspersed throughout the ore, and others shining spiculæ like polished steel. But as they have not yet been assayed, no very probable conjecture can be formed concerning their component parts, nor of the proportion they bear to each other.

Chymists have not been sufficiently accurate in pointing out the signs by which the purity of this mineral is to be distinguished. Basil Valentine says, it is of two kinds which are very different, one is beautiful and possessed of some of the properties of gold. The other has more of sulphur and not so much affinity to gold, it is distinguished by beautiful, white shining striæ. The one is much to be preferred to the other for the purpose of the medicine as well as alchymy[9].

Some direct antimony to be tried by rubbing the powder with a strong dog’s tooth upon yellow paper, where, if it leaves a red spot it is pure. Others order a tincture to be made with spirit of vinegar and evaporated on an iron plate, and if it leaves a red powder it is reputed good. It is also said to be good, when it is not spongy, but heavy, and when it evaporates by a strong heat[10].

The earlier chymical writers who praise it highly, scruple not to own that it is, in its natural state, a virulent poison. Basil Valentine, its greatest advocate, though he admits that it is given by farmers to their cattle, when they intend to make them fat and smooth; yet declares it to be truly poisonous, and strictly prohibits the use of it unprepared.

Paracelsus, as well as Glauber,[11] recommends it as an external application in the cure of cancers, judging it superior even to arsenic in all corroding diseases, and expresses his ardent wishes that it should be substituted in place of all other remedies, that the reproach of the chirurgical art might be removed, and our humanity might not be offended with such numbers of maimed and mutilated objects[12]. He highly extols its preparations, and attributes to some of them the power of giving the bloom of youth to decrepit old age, but strictly prohibits its internal use unprepared, and treats particularly of the baneful influence of the crude mineral, in his book on the diseases occasioned by working in mines and in metals.

Some later writers are silent concerning its noxious qualities, and others positively assert, that antimony, in its crude state, is not a poison, but if given from four grains to half a drachm, an excellent resolvent and purifier of the blood.

Dr. James in the universal English Dispensatory says, _it is astonishing that so many physicians, and some of them men of learning, should so strenuously oppose the introduction of antimony into medicine, and without any manner of evidence or experience, treat it as a deleterious poison. For it appears that antimony reduced to powder is neither emetic nor cathartic: though, if given in large quantities, it may perhaps, by its weight, gently loosen the belly; and so far is it from being deleterious, that it is an excellent alterative in the mange of horses, and a salutary medicine in some diseases of men as well as cattle. It is therefore astonishing that any instances should occur of patients who have been deserted by physicians, and afterwards found a remedy in antimony, administered by quacks, who do not so much as pretend to any degree of medicinal knowledge._

But the arguments drawn from the example of giving antimony in large quantities to horses, do not prove its innocence in the human body. The crocus metallorum is used by farriers to the quantity of an ounce or two in the day, yet a few grains of this preparation produce in men the most violent and dangerous effects.

The authority of Basil Valentine, which is brought to prove the innocence of crude antimony is also directly perverted, and the story of his having introduced it into medicine from an accidental observation of its effects upon swine, is no where to be found in the Triumphal Chariot of Antimony. Basil Valentine, _to whom_, says the same author, _we are obliged for discovering the medical uses of antimony, first using it internally, and enriching medicine with many of its preparations, having thrown away some antimony which he had used in the fusion of metals, and observing some swine, who had accidentally eaten it, to purge considerably, and afterwards become sleek and fat, took the hint of trying what it would do in human bodies_.

But this matter is very differently represented by Basil Valentine himself. Let mankind, says he, be instructed, that antimony not only purifies and refines gold, and frees it from all metals and every foreign matter, but accomplishes the same in men and cattle by its innate virtue. I shall explain this by a rude experiment. If a farmer should set apart any animal, a hog for instance, to be fed, let him give the animal half a drachm of antimony, for two or three days, mixed with his food, so that he may be purged, by which he will not only acquire an appetite and become sooner fat; but if he labours under any disease the antimony will expel it[13]. But I would not advise any person to give crude antimony to the human race, as a medicine, for he that would use it with safety and success, must first know the method of preparing it, in which the greatest part of the mystery consists; and an imprudent physician, who gives it without this necessary knowledge, will do more hurt than good[14].

This is not taking a hint from the effects of antimony on swine, but a direction to give it to those animals when they are to be made fat. It is the more necessary to point out this mistake, since Basil Valentine is quoted by this author, as having maintained the safety and efficacy of crude antimony, though he constantly asserts it, in its natural state, to be virulent and poisonous. _I shall be the first_, says he, _to protest and exclaim against those, who, being ignorant of the method of preparation, give poisons to mankind, for mercury, orpiment, and antimony are poisonous, and will ever remain so, unless they are fitly prepared_[15]: and again, _If antimony is given without being prepared, it will quickly kill the patient_[16].

Hence it appears, though he highly extols the preparations of antimony, yet he not only exclaims against using it in its crude state, but ranks it with orpiment, and declares it poisonous.

It may indeed be suspected that the writers of that age went to the opposite extreme, too easily admitting the poisonous quality of these minerals, which were the subject of their Chymical operations, the more illustriously to display, among the ignorant laity, the supernatural powers of their mystical art.

Yet this difference of opinion, between the earlier and some of the later writers, may be otherwise accounted for, from the present mode of purifying that mineral before it comes into the hands of the Chymists. It is not improbable it may have been formerly sent to them without any preparation, but it is now separated from its natural impurities at the mines, by fusion in an earthen pot, whose bottom is perforated with a number of holes, the fusible antimony passing through, whilst the infusible substances remain behind. The melting vessel is let into another pot, sunk into the ground, which serves as a receiver. This last is of a conical figure, and such is the shape of the loaves of antimony met with in the shops[17].

But some of the modern chymists assert that, if crude antimony is reduced to so fine a powder that the shining spiculæ cannot be seen, its operation is similar to mild kermes mineral[18], and Doctor James[19], and the author of the New Dispensatory[20], the greatest advocates for its perfect innocence, admit, that when acid, alcaline or oleaginous food have been taken liberally, it has proved violently emetic. It may therefore be fairly concluded, even on their authority, that the crude mineral contains such active particles as may, by accident or mismanagement be rendered extremely virulent.

The best modern authors on mineralogy who have carefully examined the antimonial ores, in their natural state, affirm that all of them are arsenical; and some of them were found in Carls ort, in the mine of Salberg, about the end of the last century, so similar to arsenical ores as to be preserved in cabinets, as specimens of arsenical pyrites, their real nature remaining undiscovered, till it was explained in the year 1748, by Mr. Van Swob master of the mines, in a treatise communicated to the royal academy of sciences at Stockholm[21].

Antimony also frequently contains a portion of lead[22], the poisonous qualities of which have been clearly demonstrated by the learned Doctor Baker in his elaborate critical dissertations on that subject, published in the transactions of the college of physicians of London, and by the ingenious Doctor Percival in his observations and experiments on the poison of lead.

SECTION III.

_Of the Chymical Properties and Analysis of Antimony._

It appears from Dioscorides, Pliny and Galen, that in their time antimony was not chymically examined, nor used internally though they recommend it as an external application. It is not surprising that modern chymists should differ concerning its constituent parts, since they cannot be separated without losing something in the operation. Their proportions are also various in different specimens of the crude mineral, a pound of some yielding ten or eleven ounces of regulus, whilst others scarce afford eight ounces[23].

But whatever may be their opinion concerning the effects of crude antimony, they are almost unanimous in affirming, that it contains a portion of arsenic, which by different management, may be either converted into an efficacious remedy or a deadly poison.[24]

It is a fact, says Hoffman, proved beyond all doubt among the chymists, that antimony is composed of sulphur and a mercurial or arsenical substance[25]. The same is asserted by Stahl. Antimony, says he, consists of two or three mineral substances, sulphur, a portion of arsenic, and an imperfect metallic matter. That arsenic enters its composition is proved by the red tinge of sulphur of antimony; its great power of vomiting, and that sickness of stomach and faintness with which its operation is attended; by the resemblance of glass of antimony, to the saturnine arsenical glass; by its solution in aquaregia, and many other appearances. But it is particularly demonstrated, by the purity of antimony, which is regenerated from regulus and pure sulphur, which is much finer and milder than vulgar or native antimony[26].