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THE LEGAL CONTROL OF THE SALE OF NOSTRUMS AND POISONS IN

FRANCE DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

Let it not be thought that there was no legislation for the control of nostrums or the sale of poisons two centuries and more ago. In France the government maintained a sharp eye over quacks and their remedies, and also legislated on the substances to be used by confectioners and others in the making of all sorts of sweets and pastry. I shall here give literal translations of portions of the following decrees, edicts and police regulations relating to the above, as they are of considerable interest and, since they are in the domain of the jurist, are less known to medical historians:

1. Edict of Aug. 31, 1682, for the punishment of different crimes, such as Soothsayers, Magicians, Sorcerers, Poisoners, and which controls those who can sell dangerous drugs.

2. The Decree of the Council of State of March 17, 1731, concerning the Discipline and the Police of the three Corps of Medicine.

3. The Decree of the Council of State of Oct. 25, 1728, Interdicting All Sorts of Persons to Distribute Remedies without Having Obtained New (renewed) Permission from His Majesty.

4. The Regulation of the LieutenantGeneral of Police of July 10, 1742, Concerning Spice Merchants, Apothecaries and Others Who Sell Drugs.

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5. The Police Ordonnance of Oct. 10, 1742, Concerning the Compositions Which Enter in Desserts.

I will first transcribe in English the nine articles composing the Decree of March 17, 1731.

"Art. I. In the future no patent (licence) shall be sent or delivered by the First Physician (of the King) for the distribution of private remedies until these have been examined by the Commission and after due deliberation signed

by all those belonging to it: And for still, greater security in the use of the said remedies, the diseases and circumstances to which they shall be judged applicable, shall be specified in the said patents and grants.

“Art. II. The said patents and grants cannot be accorded but for this time and space of three years, passed which time, those who have been favored must return them in order to have them renewed and they will not be delivered excepting on a certificate given by the physicians and surgeons of the place where the said remedies have been employed, stating the good effects they have produced: And in case some of the said patents or grants have been given for an unlimited time, they shall only be valid for the said time of three years, counting from the date of their issue, under the penalty of nullity, one thousand pounds fine to be applied to the Hospitals of the place, even of exemplary punishment for those who shall have, the said time having passed, continued to distribute their remedies without having renewed their patents in the form prescribed above.

“Art. III. Wills His Majesty that the minutes of the said patents and grants, as well as the register which shall be kept, remain in the hands of the First Physician (of the king), so that recourse to them may be had in case of need.

"Art. IV. And in order to avoid any deceit on the public on the part of the distributors of the said remedies which shall have been examined and approved, His Majesty commands that the original of the handbills shall be in conformity. with the tenor of the patents which authorize them and the visa of the first physician, or some one appointed by him

to this effect, under the penalty of five hundred pounds fine.

"Art. V. His Majesty commands that his first Physician shall be bound to send two printed copies of each patent or grant, to the deans of the Faculties or Aggregations of Medicine, who shall take care to inform him exactly as to the success and ill consequences of the said remedies.

"Art. VI. His Majesty likewise commands that when epidemic diseases arise or extraordinary cases so far unknown, either of a medical or surgical nature, in the City of Paris, a notification of them shall be sent to the Commission by the physicians or surgeons attending the patients, who shall be invited, if judged necessary, to come and give details of the said disease or said extraordinary cases before the said Commission, to which physicians and surgeons of the Provinces shall be likewise bound in the same circumstances to send an account and which will be addressed to the first Physician and shall also indicate the manner in which the patients shall have been treated and all shall be put upon the register, in which mention shall be made of the progress and outcome of the said disease or said extraordinary cases.

"Art. VII. His Majesty very expressly enjoins all Corps of the Faculties of Medicine and Aggregations of the Kingdom, as well as all the Lieutenants of the first Surgeon, to denounce to the said Commission all distributors and pedlars of remedies who do not possess a patent delivered by the First physician in the form hereabove described.

“Art. VIII. And in order to forestall all kinds of litigation and lawsuit between the three professions of physicians, surgeons and apothecaries in respect to the various business and policies of the said professions, His Majesty commands that the said Commission after having seen

the Statutes and Rules, shall give its opinion on the difficulties arisen or to arise concerning the exercise, discipline and limitations of the said professions, in order that the said opinion having been examined and reported, these circumstances shall be provided for by His Majesty.

"Art. IX. His Majesty forbids all governors and magistrates of cities in the Provinces to allow persons without quality, such as operators and others, to distribute and sell any remedies which have not been approved by the Commission and when they do not possess patents or grants in the form above mentioned.

The Commission referred to in the Decree of March 17, 1731, was composed of the First Physician and Surgeon to the King and members of the various corporations of physicians, surgeons and apothecaries who were selected according to their fitness for the examination of the various nostrums

of which there were legion-submitted to them. Human nature has always been the same and the public has always been in the habit of going out of its way for the purpose of being gulled by ignorant pretenders of the sure cure of all ills. The eighteenth century was no exception to the rule. The French pound of the eighteenth century had a purchasing value which was about three or four times as great as that of the franc before the recent war.

The Royal Decree of July 31, 1682, is interesting in many ways, but of its eleven articles, I shall transcribe only three as they alone directly concern the subject of the present communication.

1 "Art. VI. Shall be included among poisons, not only those which can cause a prompt and violent death, but also 1 The writer is glad to be able to offer a photographic reproduction of one of these handbills -now of extreme rarity-referred to in the decree

those which by progressively changing the health cause disease, be the said poisons simples, naturals or made by the hand of the artisan, and in consequence forbids all persons on the penalty of death, even physicians, apothecaries and surgeons on the penalty of corporal punishment, to possess and keep such

PAR PERMISSION DU PARLEMENT de Provence.

Les vertus du Baume du Pape Innocent XI. debité par moy Philipe Borfary Operateur Italien, etabi dans la Ville d'Aix.

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Left très fouverain pour les maux d'Eftomac, il en faut boire demi cuillerée le matin, & aller dormir,

Il est fouverain pour les douleurs de Flanc, duretté de Ratte, Froideur, Sciatique, Nerfs retirez, en frotant froid la partie malade, & mettre dessus un linge ben cahud. Il est bon pour la retention d'Urine, ardeur de Verge, il faut en boire une cuillerée le matin, & fe promener pendant un quart d'heure. On s'en fert pour les Playes des Jambes, en mettant deflus un linge trempé dans le Baume, il mange les chairs pourries, fait modifier les chairs, & guerir les Playes.

Il est très bon pour les vers des enfans, leur en faifant boire une demi cuilletée.

Pour les Fievres tierces, quartes, vous prendrés une cuillerée au commencement de la fievre, & vous met trés an lit bien couvert; il détruit la fievre, en la deffechant par les fueurs.

Pour les Coupures & Bleffures, prenez du linge trempé dans le Baume, & le mettez fur la coupure, plus vieux il eft meilleur il eft, & il faut tenir la fiolle bien droite & bien bouchée. Et le fieur Borlary traite toute forte de maladie, & arrache les dents dans la derniere perfection.

Handbill referring to a balsam offered by Philipe Borsary, a bone-setter practising at Aix.

poisons, simple or prepared, which always retain their poisonous qualities and not entering into the composition of ordinary things, can only serve to harm and are from their nature pernicious and lethal.

"Art. VII. In respect to arsenic, reagale, orpiment and sublimate, although they are dangerous poisons in all their

issued by the Parliament of Provence and contained in his private collection. It refers to a balsam offered by one Philipe Borsary, a bone-setter or perhaps a lithotomist, practising at Aix, the ancient capital of Provence. Aix is the natal city of Tournefort, Vanloo, the painter, Adanson and a number of other distinguished men of science and arts.

substance, yet as they enter into and are employed in several necessary compounds, we wish in order to prevent in the future the too great facility that has been enjoyed until now to make abuse of them, that only merchants living in cities can sell them and they alone may deliver them to physicians, apothecaries, surgeons who shall, when receiving them, inscribe on a register kept by the merchant, their names, qualifications and address, as well as the quantity that they have taken of the said minerals under the penalty of three thousand pounds fine or even corporal punishment if they fail (to comply with the law).

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The above decree was undoubtedly the outcome of the famous poison case which drove all Paris crazy and ended in the arrest and hanging of the too famous Marquise de Brinvilliers and her several accomplices, although the case was tried several years before, in 1676.

The decree of the Council of the King under date of Oct. 25, 1728, need not detain us, as it merely again forbids anyone to sell or distribute nostrums unless he has renewed his patents or grants after the expiration of three years as formulated in the later decree of March 17, 1731. It is interesting, however, from the fact that it contains the names of those composing the commission appointed to examine the

patents, etc. They were: Dodart, first physician to the King; Helvetius, first physician to the Queen; Geoffroy, dean of the Faculty of Medicine of Paris; Sylva and Vernage, both celebrated physicians in their day. Then as surgeons, the great names of Maréchal and La Peryonie appear coupled with the no lesser names of Petit and Malaval. Bolduc and Geoffroy were the two apothecaries appointed. But the decree also states that the surgeons named are only to examine such topical applications or other preparations pertaining to the art of surgery. All other nostrums are to be dealt with by the above-named physicians and apothecaries only.

The police regulation of July 10, 1742, deals with the sale of certain oils, particularly oil of poppy, but the Police Ordonnance of Oct. 10, 1742, is otherwise interesting as it deals directly with questions that our supposedly up-to-date health boards are expected to look after. It refers to the manufacture and composition of sweets, pastry, etc. and I will translate it in extenso.

"Upon what has been represented to us by the King's procurator, that some confectioners, officers of households, even eating-house keepers and others, who from their status or profession use sugar for the purpose of representing flowers, fruits, leaves, birds and all sorts of animal figures, even terraces, to adorn their desserts, employ for giving them a natural color and for coloring their pastilles, fruits glacés, all kinds of coloring matter, even substances detrimental and dangerous for the health, such as gamboge, blue cinders, azure blue, preparations of copper, ashes or lime of lead, such as masticot, minium or what is called vermillion

(silver gilt) and even orpiment; substances that are employed by painters, but which are dangerous and very detrimental to the health; instead of using the juices of plants and harmless substances used for tinctures, such as cochineal, saffron, dyer's-weed, cucuma, sunflower, indigo and others from which nothing need be feared; although these kinds of desserts thus colored are used for decoration rather than for eating, nevertheless they are often consumed and are given especially to children; that it has come to his hearing that various accidents have already occurred and he thought himself obliged to warn us, in order that he may be confirmed in his rights (to act) by us.

"Upon which we, admitting the speech for the crown of the King's Procurator and having heard the Guards of the Merchant Apothecaries, grocers and grocerconfectioners, order very express prohibition and interdiction to all merchant confectioners, pastry-dealers, eatinghouse keepers, even officers of households and all others, to use in their dough, sugar paste, pastilles and dragées, fruits glacés, preserves, dry jams, frosted marchpanes (a kind of cake) and other things, either for desserts, or for sale to the public; gamboge all copper preparations . . . all of which are dangerous and more or less detrimental to the health; on the penalty of confiscation of all merchandise and two hundred pounds fine for each infraction, etc. . . .

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The above decrees require no comment but they show that the physicians of yore were wide-awake and fully aware of the evils of impure or adulterated foods and food-stuffs.

CHARLES GREENE CUMSTON.

BOOK REVIEWS

DR. JOHN RADcliffe, a Sketch of His Life, with AN ACCOUNT OF HIS FELLOWS AND FOUNDATIONS. By J. B. Nias, M.D., M.R.C.P., Radcliffe Travelling Fellows, 1882-5. Oxford, at the Clarendon Press, 1918. 8vo, pp. 124. Illustrated.

As Dr. Nias states in the preface, there exists no adequate biography of one who was not only the most eminent physician of his time in England but also one of the most generous benefactors of the University and city of Oxford whose posthumous fame has been besmirched by many stories chiefly apocryphal, exhibiting him as a man of rough manners, and a ready but coarse, rough wit.

Shortly after the death of Radcliffe, William Pittis, a hack writer, wrote his biography, full of anecdotes illustrating his lack of manners toward his patients, and not in any way informing the reader of the methods of practice which led to his unquestioned fame as a consultant, nor illuminating as to the high motives which induced him to give such liberal endowments, of a then original character, to his Alma Mater and to the city of Oxford.

From his life by Pittis, Dr. Macmichael compiled the sketch of Radcliffe's life, which he wrote for the "Lives of British Physicians" (1830), and from it he also wrote the biographical details concerning Radcliffe for "The Gold-headed Cane." It is from Macmichael that subsequent generations have gleaned their ideas as to Radcliffe, many of which will be revised after a perusal of Dr. Nias' most interesting book. In addition to giving a delightful sketch of Radcliffe himself, correcting some of the inaccuracies of Pittis and Macmichael, and bringing forward new facts about the first

owner of "The Gold-headed Cane," Dr. Nias gives short accounts of all the various holders of the Radcliffe fellowships, and describes fully the various Radcliffe Foundations, and the circumstances of their establishment. The work has evidently been a labor of love, and the result is an invaluable addition to the history of English medicine. It is accompanied by a number of excellent and appropriate illustrations, including a very striking reproduction of the great physician's portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller.

Dr. Nias, with too much modesty, terms his book a "collection of notes." To us it seems to practically supply the “adequate life" of Radcliffe.

FRANCIS R. PACKARD.

RAMBLING RECOLLECTIONS, AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY. By A. D. Rockwell, M. D.; Paul B. Hoeber, New York, 1920. Octavo, pp. 332. Illustrated.

It has been said that every man's life contains at least one good story. If this be true a man who has surpassed the Biblical three score and ten by a decade should by all the rules of probability be able to relate more than one interesting reminiscence. The eighty years through which Dr. Rockwell has lived have witnessed more revolutionary changes in the social, political, and even physical life of man than any similar epoch in the world's history, and their review by a man whose life has been passed in the full current of the stream ought to possess much of interest, and his book does. Of all autobiographies we think what the curate said of his egg, that it was good in spots, is more or less true. No man's life can be made interesting throughout its

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