[3] George Berkeley suggested that tar from pine or fir be stirred for three or four minutes with an equal quantity of water and the mixture allowed to stand for 48 hours.
At this time, the separated water is drawn off to be drunk, at the rate of one half-pint night and morning "on an empty stomach".
[4] Explorer Henry Ellis (1721–1806) praises tar water as "the only powerful and prevailing medicine" against scurvy during his 1746 voyage to Hudson's Bay (although his editor, James Lind, notes that "a want of greens and herbage" was the chief cause of the outbreak).
Oh, you have a fine prospect at home: if you are rich, to die gradually with overnursing; if you are poor, to increase the misery of your parents, and finish your days in a hospital.
I am a doctor for you: and my prescription is a bullet, and then your cure will follow; if you escape that, the knapsack will do for you, or marching and exercise will put you to rights; these are additional chances.