Page 28 - Pharmacy History 37 Nov 2009

Seidlitz - the morning-after
powder
Peter Homan is a retired community pharmacist and honorary secretary of the British Society for the History of Pharmacy
‘This will be handy I feel quite sure For the morning after the night before.’
Christmas is a time when the customers’ thoughts turn to remedies for over indulgence, the Seidlitz powder was one such product.
Seidlitz powders were a very popular remedy to be taken, according to Harmsworth’s Home Doctor (circa 1930), ‘when from the state of the tongue and the general sensations it may be inferred that one has eaten too much or when the bowels have become a little costive’.
A Seidlitz powder was, in fact, two powders - one wrapped in blue paper and one in white paper. The powder in the blue paper, containing sodium potassium tartrate and sodium bicarbonate, was thoroughly dissolved in half a pint (275 ml) of water and the contents of the white paper, tartaric acid, added. The resulting solution was drunk while it effervesced.
Derivation of the
name
Seidlitz is a small town on the
Czech border, 40 miles south of Dresden, in what used to be known as Bohemia. In 1724 a physician from Halle, Frederick Hoffmann, discovered a mineral spring having similar properties to the Epsom well in England, i.e., the water (aqua sedlitziana) contained magnesium sulphate (approx 1.3%). It was found that a tumblerful of about half a pint would produce the desired laxative effect. The water was bottled and exported until the middle of the 20th century.
Hooper’s Medical Dictionary (1839) stated: ‘The diseases for which this water is recommended are crudities
of the stomach, hypochondriasis, amenorrhoea, and the anomalous complaints succeeding the cessation of the catamenia (menstruation), oedematous tumours of the legs
in literary men, haemorrhoidal affections, and scorbutic eruptions.’ Synonyms for magnesium sulphate have included Seidlitz salt as well as Epsom salt.
The powders
The formula of the powders bore no resemblance whatsoever to the mineral water. Indeed, they did not even contain magnesium sulphate.
The name Seidlitz powder was patented by Thomas Field Savory, chemist, of 136 New Bond Street, London. On 23 August 1815
he obtained a patent for ‘the combination of a neutral salt or
powder which possesses all the properties of the medicinal spring of Seidlitz in Germany, under the name of the Seidlitz powders’. The patent described the production of the ingredients and the resulting formula for a single dose was:
• Sodium potassium tartrate – 120 grains (7.5 g)
• Sodium bicarbonate – 40 grains (2.5 g)
• Tartaric acid – 40 grains (2.5 g)
The patent was revoked in 1823 following Savory’s action against Messrs Price and Son, of 4 Leadenhall Street, for an alleged infringement. The court held the patent invalid
in consequence of the elaborate directions to be used for the production of the ingredients which were, in fact, all freely available in chemists shops.
28 Pharmacy History Australia
volume 5 no 37 NOVEMBER 2009