Joshua Ward (1685–1761) was an English doctor, most remembered for the invention of Friar's Balsam. He sat briefly in the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

from 1715 to 1717.

Life

Ward was born in

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

. He was the brother of John Ward, who was MP for several years. At the 1715 general election Ward was returned as Member of Parliament for Marlborough, through the artifice of one of the mayors, but was unseated on petition in 1717. Ward went to France where he practiced as a quack doctor, but returned to London in 1734. He invented a medicine called "Joshua Ward's drop", also known as the "Pill and Drop". It was supposed to cure people of any illness they had, gaining acclaim and notoriety for Ward. Ward is widely cited as an example of a quack. His pills, which he claimed could cure any illness, are suspected of containing large amounts of antimony, which is poisonous and could cause permanent

liver The liver is a major metabolic organ (anatomy), organ exclusively found in vertebrates, which performs many essential biological Function (biology), functions such as detoxification of the organism, and the Protein biosynthesis, synthesis of var ...

damage. The pills were artificially coloured red, purple and blue. The historian Jeremy Black has noted that "his remedies killed as many as they cured". The chemist Joseph Clutton published an analysis of Ward's pills in ''A True and Candid Relation of the Good and Bad Effects of Joshua Ward's Pill and Drop'' in 1736. He found that two of the pills contained antimony and cobalt and the other

arsenic Arsenic is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol As and atomic number 33. It is a metalloid and one of the pnictogens, and therefore shares many properties with its group 15 neighbors phosphorus and antimony. Arsenic is not ...

. In 1736, Ward set up the Great Vitriol Works in Twickenham to produce sulphuric acid. It used a process discovered in the seventeenth century by Johann Glauber, in which sulphur is burned together with saltpetre ( potassium nitrate), in the presence of steam. As the saltpetre decomposes, it oxidises the sulphur to sulphur trioxide, which combines with water to produce sulphuric acid. This was the first practical production of sulphuric acid on a large scale.Sulphur surplus: Up to our necks in a diabolical element
BBC, 18 July 2014 Ward was in many ways quite generous to those living in

poverty Poverty is a state or condition in which an individual lacks the financial resources and essentials for a basic standard of living. Poverty can have diverse Biophysical environmen ...

. He opened hospitals for the poor in

Westminster Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...

and the

City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...

, and the clinics did not charge people for their service. It is estimated that he gave around the sum of £3,000 to charity. Ward is buried in Westminster Abbey.'The Abbey Scientists' Hall, A.R. p35: London; Roger & Robert Nicholson; 1966

Memorials

A statue of Ward, by his good friend Agostino Carlini, is in the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ward, Joshua 1685 births 1761 deaths British chemists British MPs 1715–1722 Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies Medical doctors from Yorkshire Pseudoscientific diet advocates