ultimately sold for ten thousand pounds, but it does not seem to have retained its popularity after the personality of its inventor had been removed. Nevertheless it possessed certain properties which were thought by some of its users to be little short of miraculous. For example, when applied to the skin the particular part where the pain was most severe would develop redness quicker than the other parts. In the course of a little time, the rubbing being continued, a fluid varying in colour according, as was believed, to the nature of the illness, would ooze from the skin, though the cuticle remained unbroken. Lastly, the treatment being still continued, the part affected would gradually resume its healthy appearance. In the Lancet of June 23, 1838, may be found the report of a meeting of the "Medico-Botanic Society," held on the 13th of that month, at which Dr. Macreight communicated the result of an investigation into the composition of this famous liniment, an imitation of which had been made by himself and Mr. Fownes, the well-known chemist. The explanation of the analysis was accompanied by a good many disparaging comments on Long, and suggestions that there was nothing very wonderful about his liniment after all. The formula which Dr. Macreight and Mr. Fownes devised for a liniment which they said corresponded exactly with the quack compound was as follows:—
Yolk of one egg; pure oil of turpentine, 1-1/2 oz.; strong acetic acid, 1 oz.; distilled water, 3 oz.
Dr. Macreight notices one of St. John Long's recommendations to apply a cabbage leaf to the skin when the discharge had been obtained, and remarks "this in many respects is superior to a common cataplasm, which is clumsy and dries up rapidly; but of course no regular
