Joshua Ward (1685–1761) was an English doctor, most remembered for the invention of Friar's Balsam. He sat briefly in the House of Commons from 1715 to 1717.
Ward was born in Yorkshire. He was the brother of John Ward who was MP for several years. At the 1715 general election Ward was returned as Member of Parliament for Marlborough, through the artifice of one of the Mayors, but was unseated on petition in 1717.
Ward went to France where he practiced as a quack doctor but returned to London in 1734. He invented a medicine called "Joshua Ward's drop", also known as the "Pill and Drop". It was supposed to cure people of any illness they had, gaining acclaim and notoriety for Ward. Ward is widely cited as an example of a quack. His pills which he claimed could cure any illness, are suspected of containing large amounts of antimony which is poisonous and could cause permanent liver damage. The pills were artificially coloured red, purple and blue. Historian Jeremy Black has noted that "his remedies killed as many as they cured."

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