"The remedy here treated of is ipecacuanha: although its antidysenteric virtues had previously been made known in 1649 by the writings of Piso and Marggraf [No. 2263.1] it was left to Helvetius, about forty years subsequently, to bring the remedy into public notice in France. This he did in a truly empirical [quack, charlatan] style, keeping his remedy a secret, placarding its virtues on the street walls, &c. So great was his success, the Dauphin of France having been cured by its means, that the French king purchased from Helvetius his secret for 1000 louis-d'or and made it public" (Waring, Bibliotheca therapeutica 1, 526).