From Quacks To Quaaludes: Three Centuries Of Drug Advertising

image credit: Bosworth
In his book Polyanthea Medicinal (Lisbon, 1697), a Portuguese doctor and seller of secret remedies named Jo達o Curvo Semedo listed hundreds of early drug recipes. The substances listed as medicinal drugs in Polyanthea Medicinal run the gamut from dog feces to powdered pearls, and from ordinary table salt to mysterious stones 'found on the beach of Casomdama in the Kingdom of Angola,' which, 'after being put in wounds caused by any venomous beast, will draw out the venom.'