Godfrey's Cordial was a patent medicine, containing laudanum (tincture of opium) in a sweet syrup, which was commonly used as a sedative to quieten infants and children in Victorian England. [1] Used mostly by mothers working in agricultural groups or industry, [2] it ensured that she could work the maximum hours of her employment, without being disturbed by her infant, and thus increased the family income. [3] It was also used by nurses and baby-minders to enable them to neglect their duties if they wished. [3] [4]
The original formula was named after apothecary Thomas Godfrey of Hunsdon in Hertfordshire. After his death in 1721, without leaving a clear heir to his work, [5] others claimed to have the formula and it was mass-produced across England. [5] Some also ascribed the medicine to Ambroise Hackwitz, also an apothecary, at around the same time, who changed his name to Godfrey and did business in Southampton Row. [1]
Thomas Wakley analysed the formula in 1823, and the ingredients, as he discovered them, were published in The Lancet . They included ginger, rectified spirits of wine, oil of sassafras, tincture of opium and Venice treacle. [5] [6] Other preparations have also been suggested, especially in light of the fact that opium was one of the most adulterated drugs in Victorian England. [3] Godfrey's cordial contained about 11⁄4 grain of opium per ounce apothecaries' system (~0.26% by mass) and was readily available without prescription in England and North America. [7] [8]
Godfrey's cordial had long been recognised as leading to fatal cases of opium poisoning. [9]
However, it continued to be made and used until the early twentieth century, [3] at least in part due to the ease with which it could be manufactured. It was reportedly sold in enormous quantities in eighteenth century England, [1] [8] a time-span that has been popularly referred to as the golden age of physic, due to the widespread availability and consumption of enormous amounts of proprietary medicines. [10] Its low cost [11] and a lack of public knowledge about infant management [3] further increased its popularity.
Though many cases of infant death had been conclusively linked to an indiscriminate use of the medicine by mothers and nurses, [1] [5] [7] [12] exact numbers are hard to ascertain. [3] [11] Those who survived often, reportedly, had a severely damaged physical constitution. [3]
In 1857, with ill-advised opioid usage reaching alarming levels, a parliamentary bill was put forward which classified opium and its derivatives as poisons. This was intended to severely restrict the sale of such compounds, but it failed to pass through parliament, after being subject to intensive lobbying by trading chemists. It was also widely criticised as an impractical solution from an overall perspective. [3] A much-diluted version of the original proposed bill was finally implemented as the Pharmacy Act 1868 which limited the sale of opium derivatives to registered chemists and legally qualified apothecaries. [8] It explicitly excused patent medicines (and thus Godfrey's Cordial) from its purview. [3]
Usage of Godfrey's Cordial gradually declined post-1890 as several court rulings held that the act applied equally to patent medicines [3] and the British Medical Association subsequently published lists of safe home remedies, in a bid to increase public health awareness, which mentioned calomel and sugar-based derivatives as substitute sedative agents. Finally, the Pharmacy Act 1908, which classified it as a Schedule-I poison, [3] followed by the Dangerous Drugs Act 1920 which mandated a medical prescription, [8] heavily restricted the availability and usage of any such opioid-based drug.
The Harrison Narcotics Tax Act was a United States federal law that regulated and taxed the production, importation, and distribution of opiates and coca products. The act was proposed by Representative Francis Burton Harrison of New York and was approved on December 17, 1914.
Morphine is a pain medication of the opiate family that is found naturally in a dark brown, resinous form, from the poppy plant. It can be taken orally or injected. It acts directly on the central nervous system (CNS) to induce analgesia and alter perception and emotional response to pain. Physical and psychological dependence and tolerance may develop with repeated administration. It can be taken for both acute pain and chronic pain and is frequently used for pain from myocardial infarction, kidney stones, and during labor. Morphine can be administered by mouth, by injection into a muscle, by injection under the skin, intravenously, injection into the space around the spinal cord, or rectally. Its maximum effect is reached after about 20 minutes when administered intravenously and 60 minutes when administered by mouth, while the duration of its effect is 3–7 hours. Long-acting formulations of morphine are available as MS-Contin, Kadian, and other brand names as well as generically.
Opium is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy Papaver somniferum. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which is processed chemically to produce heroin and other synthetic opioids for medicinal use and for the illegal drug trade. The latex also contains the closely related opiates codeine and thebaine, and non-analgesic alkaloids such as papaverine and noscapine. The traditional, labor-intensive method of obtaining the latex is to scratch ("score") the immature seed pods (fruits) by hand; the latex leaks out and dries to a sticky yellowish residue that is later scraped off and dehydrated. The word "meconium" historically referred to related, weaker preparations made from other parts of the opium poppy or different species of poppies.
The term narcotic originally referred medically to any psychoactive compound with numbing or paralyzing properties. In the United States, it has since become associated with opiates and opioids, commonly morphine and heroin, as well as derivatives of many of the compounds found within raw opium latex. The primary three are morphine, codeine, and thebaine.
Laudanum is a tincture of opium containing approximately 10% powdered opium by weight. In short, laudanum is prepared by dissolving extracts from the opium poppy in alcohol (ethanol).
Paregoric, or camphorated tincture of opium, also known as tinctura opii camphorata, is a traditional patent medicine known for its antidiarrheal, antitussive, and analgesic properties.
Naloxone, sold under the brand name Narcan among others, is a medication used to block the effects of opioids. It is commonly used to counter decreased breathing in opioid overdose. Naloxone may also be combined with an opioid, to decrease the risk of opioid misuse. Effects begin within two minutes when given intravenously, and within five minutes when injected into a muscle. Another route it can be given is by spraying it into a person's nose. The effects of naloxone last from about 30 seconds to 24 hours. Multiple doses may be required, as the duration of action of most opioids is greater than that of naloxone.
A patent medicine, also known as a nostrum, is a commercial product advertised as an over-the-counter medicine, without regard to its actual effectiveness. Patent medicines are typically characterized as pseudoscientific.
Opioids are substances that act on opioid receptors to produce morphine-like effects. Medically they are primarily used for pain relief, including anesthesia. Other medical uses include suppression of diarrhea, replacement therapy for opioid use disorder, reversing opioid overdose, suppressing cough, as well as for executions in the United States. Extremely potent opioids such as carfentanil are approved only for veterinary use. Opioids are also frequently used non-medically for their euphoric effects or to prevent withdrawal.
Lactucarium is the milky fluid secreted by several species of lettuce, especially Lactuca virosa, usually from the base of the stems. It is known as lettuce opium because of its putative sedative and analgesic properties. It has also been reported to promote a mild sensation of euphoria. Because it is a latex, lactucarium physically resembles opium, in that it is excreted as a white fluid and can be reduced to a thick smokable solid.
Chlorodyne was one of the best known patent medicines sold in the British Isles. It was invented in the 19th century by a Dr. John Collis Browne, a doctor in the British Indian Army; its original purpose was in the treatment of cholera. Browne sold his formula to the pharmacist John Thistlewood Davenport, who advertised it widely, as a treatment for cholera, diarrhea, insomnia, neuralgia, migraines, etc. As its principal ingredients were a mixture of laudanum, tincture of cannabis, and chloroform, it readily lived up to its claims of relieving pain, as a sedative, and for the treatment of diarrhea.
Dalby's Carminative was one of the two most widely used patent medicines given to babies and children at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries. Together with its rival, Godfrey's Cordial, they were known as "mother's friends" and were used for everything from colic and coughs to typhoid.
Codeine is an opiate and prodrug of morphine used to treat pain, coughing, and diarrhea. It is found naturally in the sap of the opium poppy, Papaver somniferum. It is typically used to treat mild to moderate degrees of pain. Greater benefit may occur when combined with paracetamol (acetaminophen) or a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) such as aspirin or ibuprofen. Evidence does not support its use for acute cough suppression in children or adults. In Europe, it is not recommended as a cough medicine in those under 12 years of age. It is generally taken by mouth. It typically starts working after half an hour, with maximum effect at two hours. Its effects last for about four to six hours. Codeine exhibits similar abuse potential as other opioid medications.
An opiate, in classical pharmacology, is a substance derived from opium. In more modern usage, the term opioid is used to designate all substances, both natural and synthetic, that bind to opioid receptors in the brain. Opiates are alkaloid compounds naturally found in the opium poppy plant Papaver somniferum. The psychoactive compounds found in the opium plant include morphine, codeine, and thebaine. Opiates have long been used for a variety of medical conditions with evidence of opiate trade and use for pain relief as early as the eighth century AD. Opiates are considered drugs with moderate to high abuse potential and are listed on various "Substance-Control Schedules" under the Uniform Controlled Substances Act of the United States of America.
Warburg's tincture was a pharmaceutical drug, now obsolete. It was invented in 1834 by Dr. Carl Warburg.
Opium and Romanticism are well-connected subjects, as readers of Romantic poetry often come into contact with literary criticisms about the influence of opium on its works. The idea that opium has had a direct effect on works of romantic poetry is still under debate; however, the literary criticism that has emerged throughout the years suggests very compelling ideas about opium and its impact on Romantic texts. Usually these criticisms tend to focus on poets such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Thomas De Quincey and George Crabbe.
The Anti-Heroin Act of 1924 is a United States federal law prohibiting the importation and possession of opium for the chemical synthesis of an addictive narcotic known as diamorphine or heroin. The Act of Congress amended the Smoking Opium Exclusion Act of 1909 which authorized the importation of the poppy plant for medicinal purposes utilizing an opium pipe or vaporization to consume the euphoric opiate.
Dr Bateman's Pectoral Drops was a popular patent medicine for disorders of the chest or lungs during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries in Britain and North America. It was later marketed as a remedy for ‘all Rheumatic and Chronic complaints, in pains of the limbs, bones, and joints, for influenza, and in violent colds,.