Tincture of Opium; or Liquid Laudanum.
Take of crude opium, two ounces; spirituous aromatic water, and mountain wine, of each ten ounces. Dissolve the opium, sliced, in the wine, with a gentle heat, frequently stirring it; afterwards add the spirit, and strain off the tincture.
As twenty-five drops of this tincture contain about a grain of opium, the common dose may be from twenty to thirty drops.
Sacred Tincture, or Tincture of Hiera Picra.
Take of succotorine aloes in powder, one ounce; Virginian snake-root and ginger, of each two drachms. Infuse in a pint of mountain wine, and half a pint of brandy, for a week, frequently shaking the bottle, then strain off the tincture.
This is a safe and useful purge for persons of a languid and phlegmatic habit; but is thought to have better effects, taken in small doses as a laxative.
The dose, as a purge, is from one to two ounces.
William Buchan
Domestic Medicine 2nd edition 1785