SNAIL-WATER Information Sheet
The enclosed recipe was created by Dr Richard Mead in the 18th Century as a medicine for poor people who could not afford more expensive treatments. An alembic is a still to distill the essense of the mixture.
SNAIL-WATER
‘Take Garden-Snails cleansed and bruised 6 gallons,
Earthworms washed and bruised 3 Gallons,
Of common Wormwood, Ground-Ivy, and Carduus, each one Pound and half,
Penniroyal, Juniper-berries, Fennelseeds, Aniseeds, each half a Pound,
Cloves and Cubebs bruised, each 3 Ounces,
Spirit of Wine and Spring-water, of each 8 Gallons.
Digest them together for the space of 24 Hours,
And then draw it off in a common Alembick.'
Recipe by Dr Richard Mead (Physician to St. Thomas’s Hospital)
in 'Pharmacopoeia Pauperum' 1718 (compiled by Henry Banyer)