ually illustrative of this subject. The Duke of Portland's
celebrated powder was nothing less than the _deacintaureon_ of Caelius
Aurelianus, or the _antidotus et duobus centaurae generibus_ of Aetius,
the receipt for which, a friend of his grace brought with him from
Switzerland, into which country, in all likelihood, it had been
introduced by the early medical writers, who had transcribed it from the
Greek volumes, soon after their arrival into the western part of
Europe.[134]

The active ingredient of a no less celebrated preparation for the same
complaint, the _Eau medicinale_ de Husson, a medicine brought into
fashion by M. de Husson, a military officer in the service of Louis XVI
has been discovered to be the meadow saffron. Upon searching after and
trying the properties of this herb, it was observed that similar effects
in the cure of the gout were ascribed to a certain plant, called
hermodaclyllus, by Oribasius (an eminent physician of the 4th century)
and Aetius, who flourished at Alexandria towards the end of the 5th
century, but more particularly by Alexander of Tralles, a physician of
Asia Minor, whose prescription consisted of hermodaclyllus, ginger,
pepper, cummin seed, aniseed, and scammony, which he says will enable
those who take it to walk immediately. On an inquiry being immediately
set on foot for the discovery of this unknown plant, a specimen of it
was procured at Constantinople, and it actually did turn out to be a
species of meadow saffron, the colchicum autumnale of Linnaeus.

The celebrated fever powder of Dr. James was evidently not his original
composition, but an Italian nostrum, invented by a person of the name of
Lisle; a receipt for the preparation of which is to be found at length
in Colborne's complete English Dispensary for the year 1756. The various
secret preparations of opium which have been extolled as the discovery
of modern days, may be recognised in the works of ancient authors. The
use of prussic acid in the cure of consumptions, lately suggested by M.
Magendie, at Paris, is little more than the revival of the Dutch
practice in this disorder; for Linnaeus informs us, that distilled
laurel water was frequently used in the cure of pulmonary
consumption.[135]

We shall conclude these observations with a few remarks on what are
termed _patent medicines, nostrums_, or _quack medicines_, and their
boasted pretensions in general. There is, in fact, but one state of
perfect health,