The apothecary of Dr. Cornelius Stork is an historical fiction based upon the pharmacology of the 18th and century centuries, and the use of prescribed medicines which were equally likely to kill than cure. Tincture of opium was first discovered by the Swiss German Renaissance physician, botanist, alchemist, astrologer, and occultist Paracelsus (11 November or 17 December 1493 – 24 September 1541) this tincture of opium Paracelsus found to be effective at reducing pain, based upon this property he named the tincture  laudanum, derived from the Latin verb laudare, meaning to praise. By the 18th century, the medicinal properties of opium and laudanum were well known. Continuing to live up to its name, the Scottish surgeon George Young’s (1692–1757) ‘Treatise on Opium’ (1753) extolled the virtues of laudanum and recommended the drug for practically every ailment for adults and children.