ABSTRACT
Stone’s remedy was to take dried white willow bark, grind it with a mortar and pestle, and administer it to ague sufferers . He “gave it in small quantities … about 20 grains of the powder at a dose and repeated it every 4 hours between fits … the fits were considerably abated but did not entirely cease . Not perceiving the least ill consequences, I grew bolder with it, and in a few days increased the dose to two scruples, and the ague was soon removed . It was then given to several others with the same success, but I found it better … when a dram of it was taken every 4 hours in the intervals of paroxysm .” By the time Stone wrote to the Royal Society, he had “treated 50 persons and never failed the cure except in a few autumnal and quartan agues, with which the patients had been long and severely afflicted .” Stone’s letter, published in the Philosophical Transactions, received little attention except for a 1798 report by an English pharmacist named William White who wrote: “Since the introduction of this bark into practice in the Bath City Infirmary and Dispensary as a substitute for the Cinchona, not less than 20 pounds a year have been saved to the Charity .”
