UNIVERSAL PANACEA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22712, 26 October 1935, Page 9

UNIVERSAL PANACEA

) 1 In the history of medicine, many panaceas have been put on the market, but ’ I none achieved greater popularity oi ! aroused greater controversy than tar : water, which in the middle of the • eighteenth century was accepted by rich and poor of many countries as an infal- ! : lible remedy against disease (says the ’ Melbourne Age). In Europe and America 1 I hospitals were established for the treat- ■ t ment of every sort of human ailment with tar water. It was very easily prepared, ! but those who did not prepare it for their • own consumption could obtain it at the coffee houses. The tar used was net coal , tar, but a liquid prepared from conifer trees. A gallon of water was aaded to a ' quart of tar,, and after the mixture had ! been stirred it was allowed to stand for 48 hours, and the clean part was then i poured off for drinking. The usual dose for those who wished to preserve health was half a pine in the morning and the | same at night. Stronger doses were given for the cure of specific diseases. For i dysentery the dose was a spoonful of powdered resin, mixed with a little broth or oil The Right Rev. Dr Berkeley Bishop of Cloyne, Ireland, was primarily respon- | , sible for the widespread belief in the vir- j tues of tar water. He claimed that the j pine trees captured the vital force of the universe present in sunlight, and stored it in their sap, and that the introduction of the sap into the human system in the form of tar water was a certain remedy against every disease. In 1725. when Dean of Derry, he had formed a scheme for converting the / merjcan Indians to Christianity, and he sacrificed his lucrative post at Derry in order | to establish a training college at Rhode ; Island for young missionaries, who were to convert the Indians. He remained : there seven years, but the scheme did not meet with the financial support that had been promised, and he returned to Europe. It was while at Rhode Island that he noticed the Indians made use of pine tar in their remedies, and lie became convinced that tar would cure, or at least mitigate, every known disease of the human system. When he returned to England he preached the virtues of tar water, and in 1744 he published a little hook on the subject, under the title: “ Siris: A Chain of Philosophical Reflections and Inquiries Concerning the Virtues of Tar Water and Divers Other Subjects Connected Therewith and Arising from One Another.” A second revised edition was published later in the year, and in 1740 his friend. Thomas Prior, published an “Authentic Narrative of the Success of Tar Water,” in which details of numerous cases of disease successfully treated were given. These publications produced a controversy between advocates and opponents of tar water (the latter including many members of the medical profession), and each side abused the other without restraint. Bishop Berkeley’s book was published in French, German. Dutch and Por- I tngnese; and a few months before he I died in 1753 ho published another hook. “ Further Thoughts on Tar Water.” But tar water did not accomplish all that was claimed _for_ it. and after the bishop’s death faith in it rapidly declined.