Editing Paregoric (section)

==History==
In the very early 18th century, Jakob Le Mort (1650–1718),<ref>{{cite book|title=Bibliotheca Chemica|volume= 2|work=Royal College of Science and Technology (Glasgow, Scotland), n.d. |pages =24–25|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YL1zehD5of4C&q=Jacob+Le+Mort&pg=PA24|access-date= July 11, 2010|isbn= 9781113188182|date= 2009|publisher= BiblioBazaar}}</ref> a professor of chemistry at [[Leiden University]], prepared an elixir for [[asthma]] and called it "paregoric".<ref name="unodc">{{cite web|title=The abuse of paregoric in Detroit, Michigan (1956–1965)|author=A. Martin Lerner|work=UNDOC Bulletin on Narcotics, 1966, Issue 3|pages =13–19|url=http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/bulletin/bulletin_1966-01-01_3_page004.html|access-date=July 11, 2010|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121002090856/http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/bulletin/bulletin_1966-01-01_3_page004.html|archive-date=October 2, 2012}}</ref>  The word "paregoric" comes from the Greek word "paregoricon" which was originally applied to oratory &ndash; to speak, but, more accurately, talk over, soothe,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thefreedictionary.com/paregoric|title=paregoric|via=The Free Dictionary}}</ref> and finally came to have the same meaning as "[[anodyne]]".<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite journal | pmc = 1581631 | pmid=20323061 | volume=50 | issue=4 | title=The Expectorant Action of Paregoric | year=1944 | journal=Can Med Assoc J | pages=338–44 | last1 = Boyd | first1 = EM | last2 = Maclachlan | first2 = ML}}</ref>

Le Mort's elixir, consisting of "honey, licorice, flowers of Benjamin, and opium, camphor, oil of aniseed, salt of tartar and spirit of wine," was listed as "Elixir Asthmaticum" in the London [[Pharmacopoeia]] of 1721.  Its ingredients were assembled according to the [[Humorism|humoral theory]] of the time. Paregoric was used in various formulations for hundreds of years.{{Cn|date=March 2021}}

Paregoric was a household remedy in the 18th and 19th centuries when it was widely used to control [[diarrhea]] in adults and children, as an [[expectorant]] and cough medicine, to calm fretful children, and to rub on the gums to counteract the pain from teething. In a memoir of life in Mississippi after the American Civil War, one woman recalled, "I wonder how any of us grew up, the drinking water of the village was so contaminated...All the family was subject to violent attacks of stomach and intestinal trouble. These were called cramp colic, cholera, morbus flux, etc., and no one ever dreamed of connecting them with the drinking supply. My father had a medicine chest filled with paregoric, [[Jamaica ginger]] and [[cholera mixture]], which he dispersed freely."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Letitia Dabney Remembers |url=https://battleofraymond.org/history/dabney.htm |access-date=2025-03-03 |website=battleofraymond.org}}</ref>

A formula for paregoric from ''Dr. Chase's Recipes'' (1865):<ref name="Chase133">{{cite book |last1=Chase |first1=Alvin Wood |title=Dr. Chase's Recipes |date=1865 |location=Ann Arbor, Michigan |page=133 |edition=25th}}</ref>
{{quote|Best opium 1/2 dr., dissolve it in about 2 tablespoons of boiling water; then add benzoic acid 1/2 dr.; oil of anise 1/2 a fluid dr.; clarified honey 1 oz.; camphor gum 1 scruple; alcohol, 76 percent, 11 fluid ozs.; distilled water 4-1/2 fluid ozs.; macerate, (keep warm,) for two weeks.  Dose – For children, 5 to 20 drops, adults, 1 to 2 tea-spoons.}}

''The Medical Companion, Or Family Physician'', a book from 1827, gave the following recipe: {{quote|Paregoric Elixir – Take of purified opium, flowers of Benzoin, camphor, and essential oil of annis-seed, each, two drachms; brandy, two pints. Digest for eight or ten days, frequently shaking the bottle, and then strain the elixir.<ref>{{cite book|first=James|last= Ewell|year=1827|edition=7|title=The Medical Companion, Or Family Physician; Treating of the Diseases of the United States, with Their Symptoms, Causes, Cure and Means of Prevention: Common Cases in Surgery, as Fractures, Dislocations, &c. The Management and Diseases of Women and Children. A Dispensatory, for Preparing Family Medicines, and a Glossary Explaining Technical Terms. To which are Added, A Brief Anatomy and Physiology of the Human Body, Shewing, on Rational Principles, the Cause and Cure of Diseases: An Essay on Hygiene, Or the Art of Preserving Health, Without the Aid of Medicine: An American Materia Medica, Pointing Out the Virtues and Doses of Our Medicinal Plants. Also, the Nurse's Guide, The Seventh Edition, Revised, Enlarged, and Very Considerably Improved.|publisher=proprietors|url= https://archive.org/details/medicalcompanio00ewelgoog|quote=Paregoric.}}</ref>}}