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Isaac Swainson

Header: Isaac Swainson
Also known as: Isaac Swainson; primary name: Swainson, Isaac; other name: Suainson, Jsaac
Details: individual; merchant/tradesman; scientist/engineer; British; Male
Other dates: 1789- (fl)
Address: No. 21 Frith Street, London
Biography: Issued tokens. Botanist and relative of naturalist William John Swainson. Depicted in a satirical print after his development of Velnos Vegetable Syprup which was named after Vergery de Velnos, and which was one of the many cures for veneral disease that used vegetables rather than mercury as its basis, bought him into conflict with surgeons of the time. Also know for an account published in 1797 'A series of Letters addressed to Dr. Beddos, stripping that poisonous Mineral Mercury of its medical Pretentions'. Velnos was a well known Quack remedy and he was called 'radical quack' for his commercial activities - he also claimed it cured leprosy, scrophula, dropsy, small pox, consumption, tape worms, cancer, scurvy and diaorrhea. He did also study conventional medicine and gained an MD in 1785 but there is no record of any subsequent election to the Royal College of Physicians. He later became famous for his botanical garden which was funded from the profits of Velnos (reputedly £5,000 a year) and had the biological genus Swainsona (which relates to Australisian flowering plants including the South Australian emblem) named after him.
Bibliography: bm satires