Dover’s powder
Pulvis ipecacuanhae compositus; pulvis Doveri
- Known today as
- Ipecacuanha and opium, with salts, in a powder.
- Kind
- Compound
- Constituents
- morphine, emetine
- Poisoning
- Opioid poisoning
Revised October 3, 2026: Checked against its sources, each read in full, in part, or in its abstract. Version 1, first published September 30, 2026.
Dover’s powder: what was it used for?
Against gout, taken at bedtime in a white-wine posset and sweated out under warm covers; later a sweating powder for the onset of colds, by an 1888 account “of almost daily use in medical practice.”
Dover’s powder: what does modern science say?
It contained opium.
Pharmacognosy & Toxicology
- Constituents
- Mechanism
- A diaphoretic in incipient colds and an anodyne in gastric pain, by the BPC of 1911; a tenth of it was opium, whose chief constituent is morphine.
- Checked against ChEMBL
- morphine: ChEMBL’s curated mechanism: agonist Mu-type opioid receptor.
- Toxic dose
- Five to fifteen grains (BPC 1911), a tenth of it opium.
- Syndrome
- Opioid poisoning
- Standing
- In the British pharmacopoeias into the twentieth century.
- Dover, T. (1732). The Ancient Physician’s Legacy. Book, not indexed
Constituent names open the compound’s record at PubChem, and “ChEMBL” beside a name opens its record at ChEMBL, the European Bioinformatics Institute’s database of bioactive molecules. Where a mechanism line was checked against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37, read 1 October 2026), the check is shown with the measured value and its source paper, or says plainly that nothing has been measured. Doses are as the references give them, for description only; this is not medical advice. Each source carries the result of its check against Crossref, PubMed, or the authority’s page: see Verification.
Dover’s powder: what lore surrounds it?
Thomas Dover, who published it in The Ancient Physician’s Legacy to His Country, had been a privateer: in 1709 his expedition rescued the castaway Alexander Selkirk, whose story suggested Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, and sacked the city of Guayaquil.
In Their Own Words
Buchan says his 'Sudorific Powder' is generally known as Dover's Powder, a powerful sudorific given in obstinate rheumatisms and other cases where a copious sweat is needed.
“This is generally known by the name of Dover’s Powder. It is a powerful sudorific. In obstinate rheumatisms, and other cases where it is necessary to excite a copious sweat, this powder may be administered”
William Buchan, M.D., Domestic Medicine: or, a Treatise on the Prevention and Cure of Diseases by Regimen and Simple Medicines. With an Appendix, containing a Dispensatory for the Use of Private Practitioners, Dispensatory, Powders: 'Sudorific Powder'. London: printed for A. Strahan, T. Cadell, 1791 (Project Gutenberg eBook #74359). The text, read in part
Each passage is quoted from the text named, which the press fetched and read, and was checked word for word against a fresh copy of it; the link opens that copy. Passages are given as printed, without the editors’ footnote numbers, and with words broken across lines joined.
Sources
- Dover, T. (1732). The Ancient Physician’s Legacy to His Country. Read in full · the text read
- Moore, N. (1888). Dover, Thomas. Dictionary of National Biography 15. Read in full · the text read
- The British Pharmaceutical Codex (1911). London: Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. Monographs as transcribed at Henriette’s Herbal Homepage, henriettes-herb.com. Read in full · the text read
Verification
- Checked
- October 1, 2026, and October 3, 2026
- Passes
- Every sentence read against its sources, in the fifty-entry sample
- The Standing line checked against the authority it names (EMA, WHO, FDA, CITES, Commission E)
- Every dated or regulatory claim checked by category across the database
- The mechanism read against ChEMBL (ChEMBL 37): curated mechanisms and measured activity
- Every source read, in full, in part, or in its abstract, and every sentence checked against what was read (October 3, 2026)
- Sources
- 4 cited: 3 read in full, 1 book, not indexed.
- Corrections
- "in the BP until the 1980s" softened to "into the twentieth century," unverified.
What was checked, how, and what was found is set out on the Verification page. A checked source is one whose record was found; it does not make the entry medical advice.
Cite This Entry
Version 1 · first published September 30, 2026 · last revised October 3, 2026
- Chicago
“Dover’s powder.” In Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema. Version 1. The Thinking Press, 2026–. Last modified October 3, 2026. https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/dovers-powder.
- MLA
“Dover’s powder.” Materia Medica, edited by B. C. P. Statema, version 1, The Thinking Press, 3 Oct. 2026, thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/dovers-powder. Accessed 8 Oct. 2026.
- APA
Dover’s powder. (2026, October 3). In B. C. P. Statema (Ed.), Materia medica (Version 1). The Thinking Press. Retrieved October 8, 2026, from https://thethinkingpress.org/materia-medica/dovers-powder
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See Also
Poisoned alike: opioid poisoning
Laudanum · Diascordium · Mithridate · Theriac · Nepenthe · Paregoric · Opium poppy · the syndrome, with all of them →
Sharing morphine, emetine
Drawing on the same sources: Moore
Nearby in the alphabet
Dragon’s blood · Dittany (Origanum dictamnus, famous in antiquity for drawing out arrows) · Eagle-stone (A hollow nodule of iron oxide with a loose stone rattling inside) · Dill (Anethum graveolens) · Earth of the Holy Land · Diatrion piperion (with aniseed and ginger) · Earthworm (washed in wine, dried, powdered, or boiled in oil)
Historical description, not medical advice.