What was tar water

By promoting an affordable solution to pressing national problems, Berkeley provided a practical avenue for Irish patriots to improve the welfare of their countrymen. After outlining the impetus for this work and sketching its practical dimension, I will then survey the popular responses to it from contemporary defenders of medical orthodoxy.

After being appointed Bishop of Cloyne, Berkeley was acutely engaged with Irish economic issues. While this mature position contained elements of religious prejudice, these were tempered by a greater concern for creating a self-sufficient state able to weather the storms of social upheaval. Cloyne was an isolated and impoverished area, but Berkeley implemented a number of plans aimed at improving local conditions.

Drawing upon the ideas of fellow members of the Dublin Society, Berkeley organized a spinning school, built a workhouse for vagrants, and experimented with the cultivation of hemp and flax 5. Nonetheless, these moderate efforts were for naught and by the end of the summer Ireland faced near famine conditions that recalled those of the late s. Faced with these awful conditions, Berkeley felt as though he had no option but to aid in whatever manner he could, an urge acerbated by the paucity of medical care available in the region.

This was the immediate context in which Berkeley began his experiments with tar-water, seeking to alleviate the distress of his neighbors.

First published in Dublin, Siris : A Chain of Philosophical Reflexions and Inquiries concerning the Virtues of Tar Water , quickly became a best-seller and passed through six editions before the end of the year Following this initial foray into medicine, Siris meanders from botany to chemistry to metaphysics, before ending with a discussion concerning the nature of God.

Here Berkeley pointed out two issues of importance for understanding his goals. First, he suggested that tar-water, like the Nile, could provide a healing function for those who imbibed it. Berkeley began Siris with his own recipe for tar-water and then discussed the types of conditions that he treated with success. As described by Berkeley, cheap and plentiful tar-water could safeguard the Irish population and effectively usher in a medical utopia, populated with healthy and productive citizens By the end of the year, the Tar-Water Warehouse opened in St.

Its influence even extended into the netherworld, as a popular tract, Siris in the Shades , purported to relay a conversation over the merits of tar-water in the afterlife Leading the attack from the medical establishment was Dr. Thomas Reeve, later President of the Royal College of Physicians, who argued that Siris was riddled with scientific errors.

Reeve then outlined a series of errors in Siris concerning chemical analyses, concluding that Berkeley had only settled on tar-water due to the fact that it was cheap and easily obtained. In his Letter , Jurin argued that Berkeley misunderstood contemporary medicine, resulting in a farrago of theories without scientific basis. This pamphlet openly ridiculed tar-water by comparing it to an earlier panacea : red cow urine In his defense of Siris , Philanthropos admitted that Berkeley may have overstated his case, but found some value in tar-water.

Risorius questioned the effectiveness of tar-water as a universal panacea and mounted a similarly lukewarm defense. In each of these cases, tar-water was dismissed as a panacea, but was seen to have some limited use in Ireland where medical care was scarce, thus echoing the argument that Berkeley himself made concerning the paucity of doctors in Cloyne.

While this effort elicited a number of critiques, the crisis to which he was responding was legitimate and reaching a critical point. Not only could tar-water improve the well-being of the Irish population, but by providing a healthy workforce the nation as a whole could move forward economically as well. This universal bond could unite and elevate the nation across sectarian bounds just as the power of tar-water could improve the physical bodies of its population.

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Back to search. The medicinal virtues of tar water fully explained To which is added the receipt for making it, and instructions to know by the colour and taste of the water when the tar is good, and of the right sort.

Berkeley, George, Available online. Licence Public Domain Mark. You can use this work for any purpose without restriction under copyright law. Credit: The medicinal virtues of tar water fully explained Many thanks to Clare Moriarty for pointing out this letter. He believes the various qualities of tar-water mean that it can replace most medicines and to be fair, it is safer than at least one he cites, mercury.

It is not much fun to take, but it might be fun to make: Berkeley notes that colder water or less stirring makes the tar-water weaker; the converse makes it stronger.

It should be, he says, no lighter than French white wine and no darker than Spanish white wine p. Checking the dilution using this comparison method while not wasting the open wine is not the worst way to spend an evening. The edition of Siris has appended to it a number of accounts of cures laid to the credit of tar-water. Moreover he was moved to take some form of action in the face of widespread ill health in Ireland.

The later Irish philosophy John O. Yet perhaps from our perspective mid-pandemic, we can identify instead a very human urge to find something, anything, to ward off disease. While we sympathise with it, we should also take it as a warning: not every potion that people report working, from tar-water to elderberry, actually does.

A marvellous thought! My worry is whether or not one must needs avoid drinking tar-water in these pandemic times. Your email address will not be published. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email.

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