Joshua Ward

Joshua Ward (1685–1761) fue un médico inglés, recordado principalmente por la invención del bálsamo del fraile . ^{[ 1 ]} Fue miembro de la Cámara de los Comunes brevemente, de 1715 a 1717.

Vida

Ward nació en Yorkshire . Era hermano de John Ward , quien fue miembro del Parlamento durante varios años. En las elecciones generales de 1715, Ward fue elegido miembro del Parlamento por Marlborough , gracias a la astucia de uno de los alcaldes, pero fue destituido mediante una petición en 1717. ^{[ 2 ]}

Ward fue a Francia donde ejerció como médico charlatán, pero regresó a Londres en 1734. ^{[ 2 ]} Inventó un medicamento llamado "Gota de Joshua Ward", también conocido como "Píldora y Gota". Se suponía que curaba a las personas de cualquier enfermedad que tuvieran, lo que le valió a Ward reconocimiento y notoriedad. ^{[ 3 ]}^{[ 4 ]} Ward es ampliamente citado como ejemplo de charlatán . ^{[ 5 ]}^{[ 6 ]} Se sospecha que sus píldoras, que afirmaba que podían curar cualquier enfermedad, contenían grandes cantidades de antimonio , que es venenoso y podría causar daño hepático permanente. ^{[ 7 ]}^{[ 8 ]} Las píldoras estaban coloreadas artificialmente de rojo, púrpura y azul. ^{[ 9 ]} El historiador Jeremy Black ha señalado que "sus remedios mataron a tantos como curaron". ^{[ 10 ]}

El químico Joseph Clutton publicó un análisis de las píldoras de Ward en A True and Candid Relation of the Good and Bad Effects of Joshua Ward's Pill and Drop en 1736. Descubrió que dos de las píldoras contenían antimonio y cobalto , y la otra arsénico . ^{[ 11 ]}

En 1736, Ward fundó la Gran Fábrica de Vitriolo en Twickenham para producir ácido sulfúrico . Empleaba un proceso descubierto en el siglo XVII por Johann Glauber , en el que el azufre se quema junto con salitre ( nitrato de potasio ) en presencia de vapor. Al descomponerse el salitre, oxida el azufre a trióxido de azufre , que se combina con agua para producir ácido sulfúrico. Esta fue la primera producción práctica de ácido sulfúrico a gran escala. ^{[ 12 ]}

Ward was in many ways quite generous to those living in poverty. He opened hospitals for the poor in Westminster and the City of London, and the clinics did not charge people for their service. It is estimated that he gave around the sum of £3,000 to charity.^[13]

Ward is buried in Westminster Abbey.^[14]

Memorials

A statue of Ward, by his good friend Agostino Carlini, is in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

References

↑Dictionary of British Sculptors, 1660–1851, Rupert Gunnis
1 2"WARD, Joshua (1685–1761)". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 18 August 2018.
↑Nicolson, Marjorie H. (1968). “Ward's ‘Pill and Drop’ and Men of Letters.” Journal of the History of Ideas 29 (2): 177–196.
↑Archibald Clow (1992). The Chemical Revolution. ISBN 2-88124-549-8. Whether Ward, or his partner, John White, was the chemist is uncertain, ...
↑Lock, Stephen; Last, John M; Dunea, George. (2001). The Oxford Illustrated Companion to Medicine. Oxford University Press. p. 208. ISBN 0-19-262950-6
↑Forbes, Robert J. (1970). A Short History of the Art of Distillation: From the Beginnings Up to the Death of Cellier Blumenthal. Brill. p. 244. ISBN 978-9004006171 "Joshua Ward (1685–1761) was a quack doctor famous for his "drop and pill", the efficacy or otherwise of which excited heated controversy."
↑Regan, Geoffrey. (2002). Historical Blunders. Andre Deutsch. p. 18. ISBN 978-0233050652 "Ward died a wealthy man, but the secret of his drop and pill died with him. If, as suspected, they consisted of antimony taken internally, they were damaging to the liver and resulted in dangerous purgings of the stomach. Larger doses could – and did in the case of some of Ward's unfortunate patients — result in colitis and even death."
↑Nash, Jay Robert. (2004). The Great Pictorial History of World Crime: Volume 2. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 364. ISBN 1-928831-22-2 "Ward fled to France, where he promoted a quack medicine known as "White Drop of Ward and the Pill," which, if used in excess, caused permanent liver damage. Ward advertised this noxious medicine as a cure for all diseases. He was spared imprisonment in the Bastille by his friend John Page, and traveled back to England to market the drop and the pill to the public."
↑Kang, Lydia; Pedersen, Nate. Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything. Workman Publishing. p. 21. ISBN 978-0-7611-8981-7
↑Black, Jeremy. (2008). Eighteenth-Century Britain, 1688–1783. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 153. ISBN 978-0-230-53749-1
↑Hancox, Joy. (1994). The Queen's Chameleon: The Life of John Byrom: A Study of Conflicting Loyalties. Jonathan Cape. pp. 122–123
↑Sulphur surplus: Up to our necks in a diabolical element, BBC, 18 July 2014
↑Chapman, Allan. (2016). Physicians, Plagues and Progress: The History of Western Medicine from Antiquity to Antibiotics. Lion Books. p. 335. ISBN 978-0-7459-6895-7
↑'The Abbey Scientists' Hall, A.R. p35: London; Roger & Robert Nicholson; 1966

External links

Media related to Joshua Ward at Wikimedia Commons
Lee, Sidney, ed. (1899). "Ward, Joshua" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 59. London: Smith, Elder & Co.

[1] Dictionary of British Sculptors, 1660–1851, Rupert Gunnis

[HOP-2] 1 2"WARD, Joshua (1685–1761)". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 18 August 2018.

[3] Nicolson, Marjorie H. (1968). “Ward's ‘Pill and Drop’ and Men of Letters.” Journal of the History of Ideas 29 (2): 177–196.

[4] Archibald Clow (1992). The Chemical Revolution. ISBN 2-88124-549-8. Whether Ward, or his partner, John White, was the chemist is uncertain, ...

[5] Lock, Stephen; Last, John M; Dunea, George. (2001). The Oxford Illustrated Companion to Medicine. Oxford University Press. p. 208. ISBN 0-19-262950-6

[6] Forbes, Robert J. (1970). A Short History of the Art of Distillation: From the Beginnings Up to the Death of Cellier Blumenthal. Brill. p. 244. ISBN 978-9004006171 "Joshua Ward (1685–1761) was a quack doctor famous for his "drop and pill", the efficacy or otherwise of which excited heated controversy."

[7] Regan, Geoffrey. (2002). Historical Blunders. Andre Deutsch. p. 18. ISBN 978-0233050652 "Ward died a wealthy man, but the secret of his drop and pill died with him. If, as suspected, they consisted of antimony taken internally, they were damaging to the liver and resulted in dangerous purgings of the stomach. Larger doses could – and did in the case of some of Ward's unfortunate patients — result in colitis and even death."

[8] Nash, Jay Robert. (2004). The Great Pictorial History of World Crime: Volume 2. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 364. ISBN 1-928831-22-2 "Ward fled to France, where he promoted a quack medicine known as "White Drop of Ward and the Pill," which, if used in excess, caused permanent liver damage. Ward advertised this noxious medicine as a cure for all diseases. He was spared imprisonment in the Bastille by his friend John Page, and traveled back to England to market the drop and the pill to the public."

[9] Kang, Lydia; Pedersen, Nate. Quackery: A Brief History of the Worst Ways to Cure Everything. Workman Publishing. p. 21. ISBN 978-0-7611-8981-7

[10] Black, Jeremy. (2008). Eighteenth-Century Britain, 1688–1783. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 153. ISBN 978-0-230-53749-1

[11] Hancox, Joy. (1994). The Queen's Chameleon: The Life of John Byrom: A Study of Conflicting Loyalties. Jonathan Cape. pp. 122–123

[BBC14-12] Sulphur surplus: Up to our necks in a diabolical element, BBC, 18 July 2014

[13] Chapman, Allan. (2016). Physicians, Plagues and Progress: The History of Western Medicine from Antiquity to Antibiotics. Lion Books. p. 335. ISBN 978-0-7459-6895-7

[14] 'The Abbey Scientists' Hall, A.R. p35: London; Roger & Robert Nicholson; 1966

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