Decoction of Sarsaparilla.
Take of fresh sarsaparilla root, sliced and bruised, two ounces; shavings of guaiacum wood, one ounce. Boil over a slow fire, in three quarts of water, to one; adding towards the end, half an ounce of sassafras wood, and three drachms of liquorice. Strain the decoction.
This may either be employed as an assistant to a course of mercurial alteratives, or taken after the mercury has been used for some time. It strengthens the stomach, and restores flesh and vigour to habits emaciated by the venereal disease. It may also be taken in the rheumatism and cutaneous disorders proceeding from foulness of the blood and juices. For all these intentions it is greatly preferable to the Decoction of Woods.
This decoction may be taken, from a pint and a half to two quarts in a day.
The following decoction is said to be similar to that used by Kennedy, in the cure of the venereal disease, and may supply the place of the Lisbon diet drink:
Take of sarsaparilla, two ounces; liquorice and mezerion root, of each half an ounce; shavings of guaiacum and sassafras wood, of each one ounce; crude antimony, powdered, an ounce and a half. Infuse these ingredients in eight pints of boiling water for twenty-four hours, then boil them till one-half of the water is consumed; afterwards strain the decoction.
This decoction may be used in the same manner as the preceding.
William Buchan
Domestic Medicine 2nd edition 1785