Cases in which Velnos' Vegetable Syrup has cured the scurvy, rheumatism, palsy, and ... the venereal disease : with an account of the ... impostures used, to pass on the public the common decoction of the woods, poisoned with sublimated mercury, for the genuine syrup / [Isaac Swainson].

  • Swainson, Isaac, 1746-1812.
Date:
[1785]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cases in which Velnos' Vegetable Syrup has cured the scurvy, rheumatism, palsy, and ... the venereal disease : with an account of the ... impostures used, to pass on the public the common decoction of the woods, poisoned with sublimated mercury, for the genuine syrup / [Isaac Swainson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    felf folely to the preparation and fale of the medicine, as he would of any other ufeful and valuable commodity ; receiving and regis¬ tering fuch cafes and fuch accounts of cures as the patients chufc to have recorded for the infpeftion and benefit of others. This is the line on which alone he will move, and no consideration Shall - drag him among quack do£tors. In the honed preparation and fale of a benign and wonderful medicine, he will not be infulted and defrauded with impunity by thoSe who afTedt to cover their ig¬ norance and villany with idle diplomas, titles and pretenfions. On this principle he annexed to the fir ft' bill he publifhed after his pur- chafe of the property the following caution : “ All pretended im- “ provements and imitations of Velnos’ Vegetable Syrup aredan- “ gerous impofitions, and mere vehicles of Sublimated mercury.” This Mr. Swainfon afterted on experiment; and he will inftrinft any gentleman, who will do him the honour of calling on him, in a fhort chemical procefs, which will convince him of the Same trath; for though it be not poflible, as Burrows has pretended, to diScover the Vegetables which compofc the Syrup, yet it is eafy to know whether it contains any metal. Burrows was then advertising ♦ iomething in his own name, to which Mr. Swainfon did not refer. Dr. Burrows thought, however, an opportunity offered of getting k confounded with that of Velnos’; he therefore, in the General Advertifer of January 21, 1784, opened his battery of Self-adula¬ tion and falfehood. After dealing out thefe unfparingly, he thus difplayed his chemical ignorance : “ If there be any corrofive fub- |j “ limated mercury in Dr. Burrows’s medicine,” thereby clailing his preparation with the pretended imitation and improvement of Velnos, “ and a piece of filver coin is put into it, the mercurial “ particles will adhere to it, and produce an immediate tranfmn- “ tation of color.” This, like almoft all Burrows’s aftertions, is abfolutely falfe, and fhews his ignorance can only be equalled by his difhoneft afturance. Mercury will not approach metal dipped into Syrup in the manner he reprefents, or change its color. Wherever he picked up the conceit in his advertisement, it has fcrved only t6 expofe his want of chemical knowledge, and his difhonourable attempts to impofe on the weak and credulous. Dr. Burrows, in common -with the public, Jhall in due time be taught a truly chemical method of detecting the cruel and villanous frauds of thofe who vend vehicles of mercury and antimony for vegetable Jy- rups. In anfwer to Burrows’s advertisement, Mr. Swainfon infertdH one in the General Advertifer of th4 27th of January, expofing Burrows’s pretenfions to chemiftry, and relating the nature of the connection he formerly had with Mr. de Velnos, which was that of an agent only to fell his medicine. Mr. Swainfon had been a patient of Burrows’s when employed by Velnos; had feen the deed which gave him that employment ; and had known from Burrows himfelf, that his utmoft pretenfions were to the power of vending, not of preparing, the Vegetable Syrup. When Bur¬ rows forfeited the confidence of Mr, de Velnos, and was difmifted his employment, Madame de Velnos came over, Mr. de Velnos being confined by illnefs, and, after configning the property to