Content area
Full Text
Dover's Powder was introduced in the 19th century as a treatment for febrile illnesses and other ailments. The originator of the powder, Thomas Dover, was a man of many parts-doctor, privateer, rescuer of Alexander Selkirk (the inspiration for Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe), fashionable London physician, popular medical author for the general public, and self publicist.
Dover's Powder
My father, a London GP, used to prescribe Dover's Powder for me when I had various mild childhood febrile illnesses. This was probably common practice before and during the second world war. The preparation was a mixture of ipecacuanha, powdered opium, and lactose. It was available in Britain until the 1960s and in India until as recently as 1994. In many ways Dover's Powder was an ideal preparation, its opium content having analgesic and soporific properties and a small dose of ipecacuanha having expectorant properties. However, opioid derivatives came to be considered unsuitable for minor illnesses, particularly for children. Dover's Powder was used extensively during the American civil war, by Italian troops in the western desert, and during the second world war by the navy, in the coxswain's box of medicines that was supplied to destroyers and smaller ships. 1
Dover's early years
Dover took his first degrees (bachelor of arts and then master of arts) in Oxford and then went to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, possibly because of the distinction of the master of the college, Robert Brady, who was regius professor of physic and a friend of Thomas Sydenham's, a doctor who practised in Pall Mall. Sydenham was regarded as the English Hippocrates because of his ability to accurately record the natural history of disease. Dover became the house pupil of Sydenham and learnt the value of opium as a medication. 2
While studying with Sydenham, Dover caught smallpox. Sydenham's treatment consisted of cooling (no bed clothes and open windows), bloodletting, purging, and copious weak beer with "spirit of vitriol" (sulphuric acid). Not only did Dover recover, but he used this therapy on his patients, including seafarers. Surprisingly, many survived, although they may have had the milder strain (alastrim).
Dover's bachelor of medicine was not recognised for practice within six miles of Westminster; for this a licence had to be obtained from the Royal...