 In addition to curing various venereal diseases, including “the pox” and the “French disease”, it was claimed to cure leprosy, gout, scrophula, dropsy, small pox, consumption, tape worms, cancer, scurvy, and diaorrhea 

Whether he believed in the efficacy of his remedy or not, he did study the conventional medicine of the era and gained an MD in 1785, although there is no record of his subsequent election to the Royal College of Physicians.Swainson, who was less noted for botany, is honoured by the genus name Swainsona, which is now known as the emblem of South Australia.Its common name is Sturt's desert pea.