Londinense. The proportion of opium in Philonium was 1 grain in 36 grains.
Diascordium,
the last of the four officinal capitals, was a medicinal compilation by Hieronymus Frascatorius, and is given in his book "De Contagio et Morbis Contagiosis." It was devised as a preventive of plague, but it acquired such popularity that Dr. James in the introduction to his Dispensatory (1747) writing of the conventional esteem in which so many compounds are held, says, "Thus the Venice Treacle invented by Andromachus under the reign of Nero, and the Diascordium of Frascatorius, have been used by almost every physician who has practised since their publication." The original formula, which was adopted in its integrity in the first P.L., was as follows:—
Cinnamon, Cassia wood, aa 1/2 oz.; true scordium (water germander)
1 oz.; Cretan dittany, bistort galbanum, gum Arabic,
aa 1/2 oz.; storax, 4-1/2 drachms; opium, seeds of sorrel, aa 1-1/2 drachm;
gentian, 1/2 oz.; Armenian bole, 1-1/2 oz.; sealed earth (Lemnian),
1/2 oz.; long pepper, ginger, aa 2 drachms; clarified honey, 2-1/2 lb.;
generous canary, 8 oz. Make into an electuary, S.A.
In the eighteenth century this compound became a
popular household opiate, and was frequently given
to children for soothing purposes, especially as the
Pharmacopœia had substituted syrup of meconium
(poppies) for the honey. As the preparation was
rather a strong astringent it was doubly harmful as
a frequently taken remedy. In the P.L. 1746 two
species of diascordium were prescribed, one with and
one without opium; at the same time a "pulvis e bolo
compositus" was introduced in which the scordium, the
dittany, the sorrel seeds, the storax, the sealed earth,
