Saline Laxative Powder.
Take of soluble tartar, and cream of tartar, each one drachm; purified nitre, half a drachm. Make them into a powder.
In fevers, and other inflammatory disorders, where it is necessary to keep the body gently open, one of these cooling laxative powders may be taken in a little gruel, and repeated occasionally.
William Buchan
Domestic Medicine 2nd edition 1785