The Chemical Drugs

Glauber’s Salt

Perhaps only one chemical drug significant to the Corps was produced in North America: Glauber’s salt–sodium sulfate. While Lewis ordered a few ounces of some other chemical drugs, such as magnesia, tartar emetic, and white vitriol, he asked for six pounds of “salts.”

Popular with physicians and laymen alike, Glauber’s salt was judged “a mild and useful purgative.”^[2]Edinburgh New Dispensatory (1791), 396. Second only to Rush’s Bilious Pills, it was the laxative of choice for the captains. It was named for Johann Glauber (1604-1668), who apparently was the first to identify this chemical in its natural form, in a hot spring in Hungary. Lewis and Clark frequently likened the flavor of some of the spring waters they tasted to that of Glauber’s salt.

Cream of Tartar

A large quantity–2 pounds–of Cream of Tartar (potassium bitartrate) appears on the drug list. Derived from the tartar deposited on wine casks, cream of tartar was a common ingredient in laxative preparations, often combined with senna, jalap, or scammony. Physicians also prescribed it alone as a mild laxative. As one authority put it, “there are few medicines more commonly employed.”^[3]Ibid., (1797), 254. Today, cream of tartar is no longer a medicine but it comprises a prime ingredient of baking powder. Therefore it continues to be “commonly employed!”

Tartar Emetic

A potent derivative of cream of tartar was called tartar emetic for its swift and reliable inducement of vomiting. The single ounce of potassium antimony tartrate carried by the captains was enough for one or two hundred doses. Emetics were usually given to help the patient eliminate any noxious substance that might be producing imbalance.^[4]Ibid., (1791), 419.

Elixir of Vitriol

A wide variety of recipes exist for this mixture of sulfuric acid, alcohol, and aromatics (usually ginger and cinnamon). Whatever the preparation, this elixir was prescribed as a tonic and for stomach disorders.^[5]Ibid., (1797), 494-496.

Saltpetre (nitre)

The nitrates have had a long and fascinating history as medicines and chemicals. Valued as fertilizers, nitrates have been sought by farmers for hundreds of years.^[6]Aaron Ihde, The Development of Modern Chemistry (New York: Harper & Row, 1964), 449-451. The medicinal nitrate of choice, saltpetre (potassium nitrate) was both mined as a mineral and extracted from plant and animal matter. Private George Gibson returned to Fort Clatsop from the salt-makers’ camp with a persistent fever; Captain Lewis treated him with both Dr. Rush’s bilious pills and nitre.

Gibson’s fever still continues obstenate tho’ not very high; I gave him a doze of Dr. Rush’s which in many instances I have found extreemly efficatious in fevers which are in any measure caused by the presence of boil [bile?]. the nitre has produced a profuse perspiration this evening and the pills operated late at night his fever after which abated almost entirely and he had a good night’s rest.^[7]Moulton, Journals, 16 February 1806.

Magnesia

Like some of the other chemical drugs carried along by the Corps, Magnesia (magnesium oxide) has continued to be used in modern medicine for the same purpose–as an antacid.^[8]David B. Troy, ed., Remington: The Science and Practice of Pharmacy (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 2006), p 1296.

Sugar of Lead and White Vitriol

Oddly enough, one could argue that the small quantities of sugar of lead (lead acetate) and white vitriol (zinc sulfate) carried by the Corps were among their most precious cargo. Whelan spent less than a dollar on these ingredients, which were dissolved in water to make eye wash, or “eye water,” but their value skyrocketed when it came to bargaining for food and horses to get them back across the Rockies in the spring of 1806. By that time the captains had no more than a handful of bona fide trade goods left, and medical ministrations were all they could offer. On the Columbia River below the mouth of the Snake, the captains gave some Walla Wallas eye water which, Clark believed, would “render them more esential Sirvece than any other article in the Medical way which we had in our power to bestow on them.”^[9]Moulton, Journals, 29 April 1806. Lewis concluded, after they reached Nez Perce territory again a few days later, “sore eyes is an universal complaint with all the natives we have seen on the west side of the Rocky mountains.”^[10]Ibid., 5 May 1806.

External Remedies

At first glance, the several external preparations purchased for the Corps seem like an afterthought. However, on a journey of back-breaking labor with scores of cuts and scrapes, blisters and rope burns looming ahead, they were sensible purchases. And while today we stock up on sterile bandages and antibiotic cremes, military medicine around 1800 called for far cruder pharmaceuticals such as Unguent Basilicon, a greasy mixture of eight parts hog lard, five parts white resin, and two parts yellow wax.^[11]Robert A. Buerki & Gregory J. Higby, “History of Dosage Forms and Basic Preparations,” Encyclopedia of Pharmaceutical Technology (New York: Marcel Dekker, 1993), 7:325-326; Edinburgh … Continue reading Another was Diachylon Plaster, a sticky mixture of oil and litharge (lead monoxide), which was ordered by physicians from the time of Galen (AD 131-201) up into the 1950s. A third long-standing favorite, Balsam Traumaticum or Compound Benzoin Tincture, was used both externally and internally. This aromatic remedy had many recipes, the most common consisting of small amounts of benzoin (resin from genus Styrax), balsam of Peru, and aloes dissolved in alcohol.^[12]Robert A. Buerki & Gregory J. Higby, “History of Dosage Forms and Basic Preparations,” Encyclopedia of Pharmaceutical Technology (New York: Marcel Dekker, 1993), volume 7, pp. … Continue reading Calamine ointment, a final soothing remedy, was used in ways similar to our own calamine lotion.^[13]Edinburgh New Dispensatory (1797), 572.

Unguentum Epispastic

At the other end of the therapeutic spectrum sat Unguentum Epispastic or blistering plaster, which contained as its active ingredient Cantharides or Spanish Flies. These dried insects, when pounded into a greasy base (wax, suet, lard, or a mixture), yielded a preparation that according to the Edinburgh New Dispensatory of 1797 “never fails of producing blisters.”^[14]Edinburgh New Dispensatory (1791), 557. The theory was simple: the fluid in blisters could carry away the toxins causing illness in the patient.