Simple syrup.
Is made by dissolving in water, either with or without heat, about double its weight of fine sugar.
If twenty-five drops of laudanum be added to an ounce of the simple syrup, it will supply the place of diacodium, or the syrup of poppies, and will be found a more safe and certain medicine.
The lubricating virtues of the syrup of marshmallows may likewise be supplied, by adding to the common syrup a sufficient quantity of mucilage of gum arabic.
Those who chuse to preserve the juice of lemons in form of syrup, may dissolve in it, by the heat of a warm bath, nearly double its weight of fine sugar. The juice ought to be previously strained, and sufferd to stand till it settles.
The syrup of ginger is sometimes of use as a warm vehicle for giving medicines to persons afflicted with flatulency. It may be made by infusing two ounces of bruised ginger in two pints of boiling water for twenty-four hours. After the liquor has been strained, and has stood to settle for some time, it may be poured off, and a little more than double its weight of fine powdered sugar dissolved in it.
William Buchan
Domestic Medicine 2nd edition 1785