One would think that the name laudanum was an echo of laudandum, and that has been the usual opinion. But Professor Skeat is confident that it is a variation of ladanum, which, he says, was a stomachic cordial made and named from gum labdanum, which had been in medical use for centuries. This, of course, is possible, but it must be remembered that Paracelsus was untrammelled by any etymological rules in his invented words, and that the one unlikely thing for him to do would have been to adopt with a slight modification the name of a remedy then in use, if, indeed, a preparation of labdanum was at that time popular, or even known at all in Germany in his time.[1] Adam of Bodenstein, son of the theologian Carolstadt, who wrote both for and against Luther's doctrines, wrote a treatise in which he professed to explain all the mysterious terms used by Paracelsus. Laudanum, he says, is from a laude, and was a quintessence of mercury and not an opiate.
Sydenham's Laudanum is the preparation of opium which attained the highest popularity. It has always been the principal liquid preparation of the drug in continental practice, and formulas for it more or less corresponding with the original are in all the principal Pharmacopœias except the British. It was omitted from the P.L. in 1746, or rather a very similar preparation named Tinctura Thebaiaca was substituted for it. Sydenham's formula, which was given incidentally in his description of the dysentery of 1669-72, prescribed
- ↑ Labdanum or ladanum is a resinous substance which exudes from the leaves and branches of a shrub found in the Isle of Candy—Cistus creticus of Linnæus. It was formerly collected by combing the beards of goats which fed on these leaves. A commoner kind was brought from Spain. It was an ingredient in an anti-hysteric nerve cordial called Theriaque Cœleste. It was also combined in a plaster designed to cure rupture.
