Dover's Powder, developed and described by the British physician Thomas Dover in 1732, was one of the more popular and enduring of the opium-based medications that were widely used in the United States and Europe prior to the twentieth century. The medication combined OPIUM with what we know today as ipecac (ipecacuanha), a substance that induces vomiting. The result was a pain-reducing potion that might induce a sense of euphoria but could not be ingested in large quantities because of its emetic properties. Taken as a nonprescription medicine by the general public for over 200 years, it was also prescribed by physicians for home and hospital use. Versions of the preparation are still listed in pharmaceutical formularies in which "Dover's Powder" commonly denotes any opium-based mixture that includes ipecacuanha. The wide use of Dover's Powder declined in the early 1900s largely because of the...