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In 1686 the Zeeland Chamber of the West Indian Company undertook a serious effort to establish a colony on the Wild Coast at the Pomeroon. The Wild Coast, a territory described as stretching from the Amazon to the Orinoco river, was of growing significance for the trade in pharmaceutical and technical products of the Guyana country: dyes, letterwood, balsam of copaiba, tobacco, sugar, vanilla beans and carape oil. The expedition consisted of the ship 'De Vrijheyt' which was dispatched from Flushing with the new commander Jacob de Jongh, his family, some soldiers and the surgeon David van Cassel aboard. The latter could rely on a surgeon chest with 103 medicines. The new Pomeroon colony however quickly collapsed. Mortality due to dysentery and malaria was high and the lack of leadership led to faulty discipline. The list of medicines used to combat diseases is reviewed in this article. Antimony takes an important place in the assortment and theriac was used for its anti-inflammatory activity.

This article traces the long history of the electuary. The term is a combination of two Greek roots, echleigma (Lat. ecligma) and echleichton (Lat. electuarium). During the Middle Ages, the electuary formed the largest group of pharmaceutical antidota. Introducing the use of sugar, the Arabs developed new techniques for the fabrication of the electuary. After its great success throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance, the use of the electuary started to decline, having all but disappeared from modern pharmacy.