An Acid Julep.
Take pure Spring Water (boiled half away) 28 ounces, Syrup of Violets 3 ounces; Syrup of Gilly Flowers (or Raspberries) 1 ounce; Spirit of Vitriol, as much as serves to make it pleasantly tart, mix.
Spring Water (when its Crudity is boiled off) drinks clean in the Mouth, and in many Cases, I prefer it before Barley Water, which being full of heavy, fulsome Mucilage, is often found ungrateful, both to the Palate and Stomach of weak People.
Riverius tells us, Acids should never be omitted in bilious Fevers, because Bitters are dulcify'd by Acids. And if they be intense in their Degrees, they'll destroy the bitterness even of Aloes, and Coloquintida it self: And when Choler is despoiled of its bitterness, its mortified, and can do no hurt.
And at another Place he says, it ought to be minded of Spirit of Vitriol and Sulphur, that the use of them is great in Putrid Fevers, because they notably refrigerate, open, resist Putrefication, hinder Inflammability of Humours, and quench Thirst. Yet not withstanding, in a Pleurisie, Peripneumonie, Coughing of Blood, Consumption, and the other Pulmonary affects, in Inflammation of the Ventricle, Dysentery, bloody Urine, and Ulcers of the Kidneys and Bladder, they are very pernicious, and must be forborn.
This (elegant, and delicately pleasant) Julep, may be given cold, in burning Fevers, to three or four ounces, four times a day.
Thomas Fuller
Pharmacopeia Extemporanea 1710