Important: Safety Warning
This page presents medical treatment from an era before modern medicine. The remedies described are ineffective against the conditions named, and some of the ingredients or doses are harmful. Do not use them to treat any illness; consult a qualified medical professional.
This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon.
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Moore's Syrup of Tar
Take of tar (strained), 1 ounce (troy) pulverized sugar (refined), 12 ounces; carbonate of magnesia, 3 ounces, rubbed to powder on a sieve; alcohol. 2 fluid ounces. Mix the alcohol with 6 fluid ounces of water, rub the tar in a inortar of sufficient capacity with 1 ounce of the sugar, and then with the carbonate of magnesia, gradually added, until the whole is reduced to a uniform, pulverulent mixture. To this gradually add, with constant trituration, which should be continued for 15 or 20 minutes, 4 fluid ounces of the mixture of alcohol and water; then strain with strong expression. Return the residue to the mortar, and again triturate, first with 1 ounce of the sugar and then with the remaining 4 fluid ounces of the mixture of alcohol and water, gradually added, as before; finally strain and strongly express, and then reduce the dregs by trituration to a smooth and uniform condition, and pack firmly in a glass funnel prepared for percolation, and adjusted to the neck of a graduated bottle containing the remainder of the sugar, and pour upon this the expressed liquid; and when it has all disappeared from the surface, continue the percolation with water until the whole measures 1 pint. Agitate occasionally, until the sugar is dissolved, and strain if necessary. Dose from a dessert to a table-spoonful. The strained tar, such as is usually sold in gallon cans, answers well for this purpose, but when it is not at hand the crude tar may be dissolved in a small quantity of ether, and strained, and the ether allowed to evaporate spontaneously.