<'■»$>, ^OQt:^qg^r-■ ciety of Copenhagen ; and Foreign Member of the -*" Royal Society of Sciences at Copenhagen, &c. &c. A PHILADELPHIA: T* H. C CAREY & I. LEA—CHESNUT STREET. '.y J. R. A. Skerrett, Printer. ** 1827. M : Eastern District of Pennsylvania, to wit: ******** BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the fourth day of April, in the fifty * Seal. * first year of the Independence of the United States of America, A. D. * * 1827, John Redman Coxe, M. D. of the said District, hath deposited in this*office*the title of a Book, the right whereof he claims as author, in the words fol- lowing, to wit: " The American Dispensatory, containing the Natural, Chemical, Pharmaceutical, and Medical History of the different substances employed in Medicine; together with the Operations of Pharmacy ; illustrated and explained, according to the prin- ciples of Modern Chemistry : to which are added, Toxicological and other Tables; the Prescriptions for Patent Medicines, and various Miscellaneous Preparations. Seventh edition, improved and enlarged. By John Redman Coxe, M. D. Professor of Materia Medica and Pharmacy in the University of Pennsylvania; Member of the American Philosophical Society, and of the Batavian Society of Sciences at Haarlem ; Ordinary Member of the Royal Medical Society of Copenhagen; and Foreign Member of the Reyal Society of Sciences at Copenhagen, &c. &c." In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled, " An Act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the Copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of such Copies, during the times therein mentioned." ■—And also to the Act, entitled, " an Act supplementary to an Act, entitled, " an Act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of such Copies during the times therein mentioned," and extending the benefits thereof to the Arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other Prints." D. CALDWELL, Clerk of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania ^7* The Letters connected with the articles, (viz. L. E. D. A.* point out the names by which they are designated in the London, Edinburgh, Dublin, and American pharmacopoeias. The last, is frequently given, simply as a note at the bottom of the page. GCjr* Erratum—p. 660, third line from the bottom, for prepared impure oxyd of Tin, read of Zinc. • ■: 7 PREFACE. 1 HE seventh edition of the American Dispensatory is now presented to the medical public with some additions to the work:—a series of in- teresting observations and experiments on the subject of Cinchona, by Mr. George Carpenter, a most intelligent young Apothecary of Philadelphia, will amply repay the attentive reader, by the perusal. The same gentleman has given a number of observations, Avhich are highly important, on other pharmaceutic preparations—such as sul- phat of cornine, extract of cornus florida, rhubarb, &c.; and at the conclusion of the work, will be found a statement of some experi- ments made with the poison of the Rattlesnake, by Dr. Wallace of Virginia, on himself and others:—although this statement is so very concise, on a subject of much interest, both from its novelty and hazard; yet, sufficient is probably said, to induce its further investi- gation. In former editions of this work, the Editor earnestly called the attention of Practitioners to the propriety of establishing throughout our extensive country, an uniform standard for their Medicinal preparations and compounds. To a certain extent, this has been accomplished by the formation of a Pharmacopoeia; which, when duly revised, will answer the important objects for which it was intended. Whatever will contribute to facilitate the important operations of Apothecaries, and to lessen the difficulties of the apprentice in acquiring a knowledge of his profession, must be equally beneficial to the community, in diminishing the chances of error and mistakes in which its interests are so closely involved. Under such impres- sions, the Editor takes the liberty, respectfully to renew the sug- gestion, that some general and uniform plan should be adopted for the arrangement of their shops; so that in every place, so far at least as local circumstances will permit, the various articles may in- variably be found in the same relative locality. A plan of such a nature, fully matured, by a Committee of their own body, would, we should suppose, be willingly adopted; since, independently of being already arranged in a certain way, there iv PREFACE. can be no particular reason which can influence any one to adhere to any present form of arrangement. The advantages of uniformity would however, undoubtedly be considerable. Every one acquainted with the business, would be at home in any shop, whether here or elsewhere; and an engraving of such arrangement, would prove a powerful means of facilitating an apprentice in his attainments, in a much more expeditious manner than at present. There is another point which may also be here again mentioned, and which will equally be useful if carried into effect, to the Physi- cian who keeps his own medicines, and to the Apothecary. It is well known that mistakes do occasionally take place, by which arti- cles of a poisonous nature have been unintentionally, yet fatally, given for others, not in the least injurious—Tartar emetic has been thus given for Cream of Tartar;—Oxalic acid,—Nitre, &c. for Glauber's salt; Laudanum instead of Lavender, and so forth. All such mis- takes may be readily obviated, by simply agreeing invariably to keep every article of a poisonous nature, in bottles of a different form from those occupied by innocent ones. Let us employ square bot- tles for poisons; and the circumstance of taking hold of one of this form, at once, even in the hands of the youngest student or appren- tice, will evince to him, that he has in his hands a dangerous arti- cle, and will lead to that attention which is so essentially required. Should these imperfect hints meet the approbation of those for whom they are intended, we may hope that in a short time they may be carried into effectual operation, and the general interests of society, thus be united with those of an individual nature. As connected in some degree with the interests of the Medical profession, the Editor may be permitted to regret that no measures have ever yet been taken in this country, to establish a fund for the relief of the Widows and Orphans of Practitioners, who are often left destitute by the sudden decease of the head of the family, either from the effects of contagion, or of other causes, to which they may be considered as more peculiarly exposed. Almost every class of citizens has established means of relief for similar contin- gencies, except our own; and in Great Britain, such an association has long existed. Let us hope that the time is not far distant when so estimable a charity shall exist amongst a class of men, who are always prompt to relieve distress in the line of their profession, without an expectation of pecuniary recompense. To be efficient, it must be general, for the cases which require aid are not limited to any particular district. Philadelphia, April 1, 1827. MATERIA MEDICA KT PR^EPARATA. EVERY substance employed in the prevention or cure of disease, whether in its natural state, or after having undergone various phar- maceutical preparations, belongs to the Materia Medica, in the ex- tended acceptation of the words. But in most Pharmacopoeias, the Materia Medica is confined to simples, and to those preparations which are seldom prepared by the apothecary himself; but which are commonly purchased by him, as articles of commerce, from druggists and others. Systematic authors on this branch of medical knowledge, have bestowed much pains in contriving scientific arrangements of these articles. Some have classed them according to their natural resem- blances; others, according to their active constituent principles; and others, according to their real or supposed virtues. Each of these arrangements has its particular advantages. The first will probably be preferred by the natural historian, the second by the chemist, and the last by the physiologist: all the arrangements hither- to adopted are, however, liable to numerous objections. Without en- tering into the merits or imperfections of either, we may remark, that no adequate reason has been assigned, why the pharmaceutic prepa- rations should not immediately follow the articles which constitute the bases of these preparations, so as to embrace together, in one view, every thing connected with them. It is the plan heretofore adopted in the former editions of the American Dispensatory, and it is the one herein pursued. We have added to most of the articles of any importance, their Synonymes, in the following languages, distinguished by the abbre- viations affixed, viz. Arabic......(A.) Italian......(I.) Bengaleese .... (B.) Persian ----- (Pers.) Dukhanie ----- (D.) Russian......(R.) French......(F.^ Sanscrit.....(Sans.) German - - - - - (G.) Spanish......(S.) Hindostanie - - - - (H.) Tamool.....(Tam.) Some of these may be useless, but as many of our remedies are brought from the East, it was thought it might gratify the curiosity of our reader?. q 2 A.—Acacia. ACACIA. 1. ACACIA VERA. Acacle Gummi. Z. Acacia Arabics Gummi. E. Gummi Ara- BICUM. D. Acacia Gum. Mimosa Gum. Gum Arabic. Polygamia Monoecia. Nat. ord. Lomentaceas, Linn. Leguminosae, Juss. Syn. Gomme Arabique, (F.) Arabischen Gummi, (G.) Goma Arabig-a, (Sv Tohl, (A.) Vullam Pisin, (Tam.) AkcivSo; auywrrui, Hip. A*aww, Dioscor. This species of acacia grows in the sandy deserts of Africa, Ara- bia Petraea, and Egypt. The greatest quantity of pure gum, com- monly called Gum-Arabic, is furnished by this tree, from which it exudes either spontaneously, or from incisions made into the bark. and afterwards hardens in the air. But a similar gum may be obtain- ed from all the species of acacia, and from many other trees, such as the Swietenia febrifuga, Melia azedirachta, and the different spe- cies of Terminalia; it would therefore have been better to have still retained the old name, which time had consecrated. It is remark- able that the barks of all the trees which furnish this bland mucila- ginous substance are highly astringent; that of the acacia itself i^ used in India for tanning; and in our country, the cherry and plum trees, which sometimes yield a little gum, have very astringent barks. There are two kinds of gum found in the shops, and sold promis- cuously, distinguished by the names of Gum-Arabic, and East India gum. Gum-Arabic consists of roundish transparent tears, colourless, or of a yellowish colour, shining fracture, without smell or taste, and perfectly soluble in water. The pieces which are most transparent, and have least colour, are reckoned the best. They are sometime? selected from the Gum-Arabic in sorts, and sold for about double the price, under the title of picked gum. The East India gum is darker coloured than Gum-Arabic, and is not so readily soluble in water. Dr. Duncan possesses a mass of gum, gathered from an acacia in New South Wales, by Mr. Jamieson. It is darker coloured even than East India gum, and is also less soluble than it; for when suspended in water, it gives off white films, which float through the mucilage. But its most remarkable property is, that it does not precipitate si- licized potass; in which respect it agrees, as far as the Doctor's ex- periments go, with gum collected in the neighbourhood from the common cherry and plum trees. It is also remarkable, that the coarsest gum forms the thickest mucilage; at least Botany-Bay gum forms a thicker mucilage than East India gum, and this than Gum-Arabic. Gum-Arabic was originally brought from Arabia, by the way of Egypt, to Marseilles; and it was not until the beginning of the seven- teenth century, that the Dutch made the gum of Senegal known iu Europe. After the French got possession of that river, they direct- ed their attention to it, as an important object of commerce, and as- certained, by experiments made in the latter half of the seventeenth A—Acacia. 3 century, that gum Senegal was superior to the best gum of Arabia; and for about fifty years it has had the preference. M. Adanson examined all the gum trees of West Africa with great care, and has given the best description of them. They amount to forty in number; but the three great forests which supply the Se- negal market consist chiefly of two kinds; one which produces a white gum, called Vereck, and another, called Nebueb, which yields a red gum. About the middle of November, that is, after the rainy season, which begins early in July, a gummy juice exudes spontaneously from the trunk and principal branches. In about fifteen days it thickens in the furrow, down which it runs, either in a vermicular shape, or more commonly assuming the form of round or oval tears, about the size of a pigeon's egg, of different colours, as they belong to the white or red gum tree. About the middle of December, the Moors encamp on the borders of the forest, and the harvest lasts six weeks. The gum is packed in very large sacks of tanned leather, and brought on camels and bullocks to certain ports, where it is sold to the French and English merchants. In 1787, the annual quantity purchased by the former was about 800,000 pounds, and by the lat- ter 400,000, according to the information of M. Golberry. Mr. Jackson, in his account of the Empire of Morocco, informs us, that from Mogadore they export two sorts of gum, one the com- mon Gum-Arabic, the produce of Morocco, and called Barbary gum; the other finer, called Gum-Soudan, or Senegal, brought from Tim- buctoo by the caravans. He also says, but it must be observed that he is no botanist, that the gum called Morocco or Barbary gum, is produced from a thorny tree, called Attaleh, having leaves similar to the juniper, whereas all the acacias have pinnated leaves. It yields most gum during the hot and parching heat of July and August; and the hotter the weather and the more sickly the tree appears, the more gum it yields. A wet winter aud a mild summer are unfavour- able to gum. Gum is highly nutritious. During the whole time of the harvest, of the journey, and of the fair, the Moors of the desert live almost entirely upon it; and experience has proved, that six ounces are suf- ficient for the support of a man during twenty-four hours. Qualities.—When pure, it is dry, brittle, transparent, colourless, insipid; by exposure to the air, it undergoes no change. Solubility.—Soluble in water in every proportion, forming a vis- cid solution, (mucilage.) One part in six of water, affords a fluid of the consistence of syrup; and in two parts, a medium well calcu- lated for the union of dry powders. It is also soluble in pure alkalies and lime water, as well as in vegetable acids, especially vinegar, with which it forms a mucilage that may be used as a cement, like the watery solution, and possessing the advantage of not being sus- ceptible of mouldiness; it may be kept for years without change. It is insoluble in alcohol, as well as in ether and oils. Alcohof even precipitates it from mucilage; it renders a small quantity of oil or resin, by trituration, miscible with water. Strong acids decompose it. By the action of nitric acid upon it, it forms successively mucic, malic, and oxalic acids: and with chlorine, it forms citric acid. 4 A.—Acacia. Exposed to heat it does not melt, but softens, swells, and becomes charred and incinerated. Its products are carbonic acid, carbureted hydrogen gas, empyreumatic oil, and a considerable quantity ot acetic acidf combined with a little ammonia; Thompson asserts it to contain a small proportion of gluten. Medical use.—It possesses the powers of a mucilaginous demul- cent in a high degree. It is useful, 1. In all cases where there seems a natural deficiency of mucus in the intestinal canal, and was, therefore, recommended by Degner, Pringle, and others, dis- solved in milk, barley water, &c. to remove tenesmus and painful stools. Zimmerman gave it in glysters for the same purpose. 2. In cases of acrid poisons, or acrid substances in general, taken into the stomach, to envelop their particles, and mitigate their action. With the same view it is sometimes given along with acrid medicines. 3. In an irritable state of the respiratory passages, as catarrh, hoarseness and cough, used either in substance as a troche, or in a strong solution, as a linctus, and may be combined with a little opium. 4. In gonorrhoea, and ardor urinae. 5. In salivation after mercury. 6. In phthisis pulmonalis, both as being supposed by some to check haemorrhage, and as a light nourishment. Externally it is applied, 1. In powders to bleeding vessels of a small size, as a styptic, operating by gluing them up. 2. In solution, as an injection in gonorrhoea, &c Dose.—Almost ad libitum, in powder or solution, alone or com- bined with syrups, decoctions, &c. Adulterations.—Gum-Senegal is not unfrequently substituted fop it, but this may be distinguished by its clammy and tenacious nature, like the gum produced from the plum or cherry tree; whereas genu- ine Gum-Arabic, is dry and brittle. In a medicinal point of view, the fraud is of no consequence. (Ej'In the Pharmacopoeia of the United States this article is called by the name selected by the London College. 2. ACACIA CATECHU. Acaci.e Catechu Extractum, E. Catechu Extractum, L. Catechu. D. Catechu. The extract of the wood. Polygamia Monoecia. Nat. ord. Lomentacew, Linn. Leguminosse, Juss. Syn. Cachou, (F.) Katechu; Kaschu, (G.) Cato o Catecu, (I.) Cutt, (H.) Ajc*v&oc tdc Apia; ;£&>/>*?, Theophrast. This tree is a native of Hindostan. The extract of catechu, which was formerly termed, with peculiar impropriety, Japan Earth, is principally prepared in Bengal, from the internal coloured part of the wood, by decoction, evaporation, and exsiccation in the sun. But catechu is also prepared in India from several other species of acacia, and even from the woods, barks, and fruits of other gene- ra- In Bombay, it is chiefly prepared from the nuts of the Areca catechu. The nuts are taken as they come from the tree, and boilr A.—Acida. 5 ed for some hours in an iron vessel. They are then taken out, and the remaining water is inspissated by continual boiling, . The pro- cess furnishes the Kassu, or the most astringent terra japonica, which is black, and mixed with paddy husks, and other impurities. After the nuts are dried, they are put into a fresh quantity of water, and boiled again; and this water being inspissated like the former, yields the best or dearest kind of catechu, called Coury. It is yellow- ish-brown, has an earthy fracture, and is free from the admixture of foreign bodies. The Bombay catechu is of a uniform texture, and of a red-brown, tint, its specific gravity being generally about 1.39. The extract from Bengal is more friable and less consistent. Its colour is like that of chocolate externally; but when broken, its fracture presents streaks of chocolate and of red-brown.—Its specific gravity is about 1.28. Their tastes are precisely similar, being astringent, but leav- ing in the mouth a sensation of sweetness. They do not deliquesce, or apparently change by exposure to the air, and are not fusible. Qualities.—Of the two varieties above mentioned, are the same, differing only in the degree of austerity and bitter taste. Chemical composition*—Tannin', rather more than fifty per cent. A peculiar extractive matter, thirty-five per cent. Mucilage, six to eight per cent. Earthy impurities, five to seven per cent. Solubility.—Almost entirely dissolved both by water and spirit. Incompatible substances.—Its astringency is destroyed by alkaline salts, and precipitates are produced by metallic salts, especially those of iron. Medical uses.—A most powerful astringent in relaxed states of the uvula and fauces, ulcers and aphthae in the mouth, diarrhcea, &c. It forms an excellent dentifrice with equal parts of bark, and one-fourth of powdered myrrh. Dose, ten to twenty grains, or more. gCT* See Kerr, in the Med. Obs. and Inq. 5. p. 151. ICT Catechu of the Pharmacopoeia of the United States. ACIDA.—ACIDS. When by combination, any substances acquire a sour taste, the properties of converting vegetable blues to a red; and of saturating or destroying the characteristic properties of alkalies, earths or me* tals, they obtain the name of Acids. Every acid is not, however, possessed of all the above mentioned properties. Some of them form salts, by combining with the alka- lies, &c. but have neither a sour taste, nor do they change the vege- table blues to a red. One or more of the properties stated, is to°be considered essential to the constitution of an acid. In general, acids combine with water, in almost any proportion; and without any change of properties, beyond what is dependant on mere dilution. 6 A.—Acida. It is probable, that without the actual presence of water, none of the so called acids, are capable of evincing their peculiar effects. Some substances have the property of acids induced, by combina- tion with oxygen; others, by combination with hydrogen; and some are capable of undergoing the change, by uniting with either. Those acids formed by the conjunction of hydrogen are denominat- ed Hydracids. Acids have either simple or compound bases. Those with simple bases are the ai'senous, arsenic, boracic, carbonic, iodic, hydriodic, muriatic, nitrous, nitric, phosphorous, phosphoric, sulphurous, sul- phuric, hydro-sulphuric. There are, besides the above mentioned, several more of no use in medicine, and which do not consequently require to be here men- tioned. Acids with compound bases are either ternary or quaternary, that is, embracing three or four principles; they possess the properties of acids in general, but are distinguished from those with simple bases by their great alterability. Thejternary acids coincide nearly with the vegetable acids, and are characterized by being converted entirely into water and carbonic acid when completely decomposed by oxygen. They consist of various portions of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. To this, however, the Prussic acid, which is a ternary one, is an exception, its principles being carbon, hydrogen, and ni- trogen. The quaternary acids coincide nearly with the animal acids, and are characterized by furnishing ammonia, as well as water and car- bonic acid, when decomposed. Hence they contain, in addition, a portion of nitrogen. None of these are employed in medicine. Of the ternary, which are numerous, those principally employed in me- dicine are the acetic, benzoic, citric, gallic, succinic, tartaric. Some of the acids are solid; viz. arsenic and arsenous, benzoic, boracic, camphoric, citric, chromic, gallic, molybdic, oxalic, phos- phoric, succinic, tartaric, &c. Some are fluid; as the nitric, phos- phorous, sulphuric, &c. Some are gaseous, viz. carbonic, nitrous, muriatic, sulphurous, hydro-sulphuric, &c. The particulars of each acid employed in medicine, will be noticed under their respective heads. It may be observed here, that the word acid is derived from the Greek uki?, (ii acies, acumen: quod acida linguam pungendo velli- cent." Blanchard's Lexicon,) or from «|w5, acidus, from whence, in part, oxygen. A.—Acetum. * ACETUM. Acetum Vini. D. White-wine Vinegar. Acetum. Vinegar, L. E. Acidum Acetiqum Impurum. Impure Acetic Acid-. Acidum Acetosum. Acetous Acid. Syn. Vinaigve, (F.) Essig, (G.) Aceto, (I.), Vinagre, (S.) KhuU, (A.) Ukzus, (R.) This is the first acid of which we have any account. This acid is employed in three different states, distinguished from each other by peculiar names. When first prepared by the fermentation of vinous liquors, it is called vinegar; when purified by distillation, it assumes the name of distilled vinegar; and when concentrated as much as possible, by peculiar processes, it is called radical vinegar, or acetic acid. All of these are, however, properly speaking, the same; differing only by varied degrees of dilution, and the presence of some extraneous admixtures. There are, conse- quently, only one class of salts produced by them, viz. acetats. Qualities.—These are so well known as not to need description. Chemical Composition.-^-Common vinegar consists of acetic acid largely diluted with water; it contains also vegetable gluten, muci- lage, sugar, extractive matter, and frequently malic, phosphoric, and tartaric acids, together with small proportions of sulphat of lime, sulphat of potash, and alcohol. Its composition, however, varies, according to the fermented liquor from which it is obtained; viz. wine, cider, malt, &c.: thus wine yields a paler, purer, and stronger acid than fermented.malt liquors or solutions of sugar ; hence it is said the vinegar of France and Italy is superior to that prepared elsewhere. Mr. Chenevix found that English vinegar of 1.0042 specific gravity contained more water and mucilage, but less acid and spirituous liquor than French vinegar of 1.00721. It should be of a pale yellow colour, perfectly transparent, of a pleasant some- what pungent acid taste, but without any acrimony. It is liable to spontaneous decomposition, or .to become mouldy and ropy; and hence for pharmaceutical purposes, at least for some of them, it re- quires to be distilled ; as, however, the change depends upon the presence of gluten, it may, if boiled, be kept for a much longer time, especially in bottles completely filled and well corked. If powder- ed charcoal be added previously to boiling, it will become quite colourless, like distilled vinegar, and without being impaired in strength, as is the case with that subjected to distillation. This was long ago shown by Lowitz in\C cell's Cheni. Jour. 2. p. 237-248, and no doubt led to the introduction of an article under the name of Ace- tum purificatum into the American Pharmacopoeia.* It is a curious circumstance, that this is the only vegetable acid, except the Prussic, that rises in distillation in combination with water. Preparation or Manufacture.—This varies-in different countries, * It consists in boiling- an ounce of fresh burned powdered charcoal with a gallon of vinegar, and then straining and filtering the liquor. 3 A.—Acetum. from the greater facility of procuring the various articles from which it is prepared. We can obtain vinegar from wine, beer, cider, &c It is sufficient for the purpose to expose those liquids to the air. The following process is pursued at Orleans.—They begin by pouring 100 quarts, (litres,) of boiling vinegar into an open cask of 400 quarts capacity, placed in a manufactory whose temperature ought to be constantly at 18 or 20°, (Cent. = Fahrenheit 65 to 68°;) at the end of eight days, ten quarts of wine, whose dregs are depo- sited, are poured into it; eight days after ten quarts more of wine are added: this is continued every eight days, until the cask is full. Fifteen days after the cask is thus filled, the wine is found to be con- verted into vinegar; one-half of it is poured off, and they recom- mence the pouring in ten quarts of wine every eight days. If the fermentation is too rapid, which is known by the large quantity of foam with which a stick plunged into the cask is covered, more wine is added, and at shorter intervals. White vinegar is obtained from white wine, or from red wine which has been left to turn sour on the skins of white grapes. Red vinegar is made from red wine: it may be rendered colourless, as Figuier has shown, by filtering it several times through charcoal; when it is muddy, it is cleared with boiling milk; it is only neces- sary to pour a glassful into twenty-five or thirty quarts of the acid, and to strain the liquid to separate the coagulum. Adulterations.—Sulphuric acid, (not producing any"turbid appear- ance in vinegar,) is usually selected for sharpening its taste. WTe are not, however, to infer its presence from the mere occurrence of a precipitate by an acetat of barytes, (see acetic acid,) since the sul- phat of lime or of potash, so often present in common vinegar, would, equally with free sulphuric acid, produce with this test, precipitates insoluble in nitric acid. To avoid this fallacy, it must be assayed for sulphuric acid in the following manner. Saturate a given quan- tity with chalk, add distilled water, and throw the whole upon a nitre ; if any sulphuric acid is present, an insoluble sulphat of lime will be formed, recognisable by the usual tests. Vinegar is made to appear stronger, by infusing ir* it certain acrid vegetables, as grains of paradise, berries of spurge flax, capsicum, pellitory of Spain, &c. These may generally be detected by tasting the vinegar with attention, by which their pungency is per- ceptible. Medicinal and other uses.—Vinegar is much employed in domes- tic economy, for the purpose of pickling, &c. It would seem that its chief purpose is to abstract the water of vegetation from the ve- etable matter, and takes its place ; for the vinegar in which this is rst placed, loses so much of its strength, as to be unable to preserve the substance. A fresh quantity is therefore added, after removing the first portion. In medicine, its action on the system seems to be gently stimu- lant ; it promotes transpiration, and urinary discharge ; probably not more so, however, than an equal amount of aqueous fluid, with which, as a drink, it is always largely diluted. An ounce of vine- gar to a quart of water is a good proportion for this purpose. It A—Acetum. 9 has been used in scurvy, and to counteract the effects of narcotic poisons, (though incorrectly, according to Orfila,) and mephitic va- pours. It has been employed as a glyster in obstinate constipation, and in some diseases. Externally, it is used as a fomentation and bath, and its vapour is inhaled, by means of a funnel, in putrid sore throat, and other complaints of that and the adjacent parts. It is likewise sprinkled in the chambers of the sick to correct unpleasant smells, &c. Pyrolignous Acid. Vinegar is obtained under the name of pyrolignous acid, by de- composing wood in ovens of brick, or in large sheet-iron cylinders. The products of this distillation are charcoal, oil, acetic acid, water, carbureted hydrogen gas, gaseous oxyd of carbon, and carbonic acid.* The liquid product of this distillation is collected in a wooden reservoir; it consists of water, acetic acid, and a thick oil, resem- bling, in a certain degree, tar; it is left to itself until the greater part of the oil subsides; it is then poured off and saturated with chalk; an acetat of lime is produced, which remains dissolved, whilst the remaining oily matter comes to the surface and is skim- med off. The liquid containing acetat of lime is mixed with sulphat of soda; the two salts are decomposed, and give rise to an almost insoluble sulphat of lime, which falls to the bottom, and to a soluble acetat of soda; this last is evaporated, and yellow or brownish crys- tals are obtained, coloured by the oil, from which they may be se- parated by drying, and causing them to undergo the igneous fusion to destroy the oily matter; then redissolving them in water, and recrystallizing. These crystals, dried and gently heated in a dis- tilling apparatus with concentrated sulphuric acid, are decomposed, and afford pure and concentrated acetic acid; sulphat of soda re- mains in the retort. The most usual method of obtaining this acid, however, consists in dissolving acetat of soda in a quantity of water, and decomposing it with common sulphuric acid: the sulphat of soda crystallizes, and we can procure the acetic acid by,simple distillation. Acetum Distillatum. D. Distilled VinegarA Acidum Aceticum tknue. E. Weak Acetic Acid. Acidum Aceticum Dilutum. L. Acetic Acid. Syn. Vinaigre distill, (F.) Distillirter Essig, (G.) Aceto distillate,'(I.) Vinaigre distilado, (S.) Take of Vinegar, a gallon.—Distil from glass vessels on a sand bath. Throw away the first pint which comes over, and preserve the next six pints. L. The specific gravity of the distilled acid appears to vary in the for- mulae of the different colleges from 1004 to 1009. * For a description of the process as followed by Mr. Mollerat, at Choisi- sur-Seine, see Practical Chemistry, p. 136. f So named also in the Pharmacopoeia of the United States. The formula dif- fers in no essential point from the above. 10 A.—Acetum. In its qualities, its odour is fainter and less agreeable than that of common vinegar; in taste, less acid; and it ought to be colourless and entirely volatile. The reason why the distilled acid is weaker than common vinegar, appears to be, that the water being rather more volatile than the acid, comes over first; hence a considerable por- tion of concentrated acid is left behind in the retort, in order to pre- vent the empyieumatic taste which it would acquire if completely distilled over. The process may be performed either in a common still, or rather in a retort. The better kinds of wine vinegar should be used. In- deed, with the best kind of vinegar, if the distillation be carried on to any great length, it is extremely difficult to avoid empyreuma. The best method of preventing this inconvenience is, if a retort be used, to place the sand but a little way up its sides, and when some- what more than half the liquor is come over, to pour on the remain- der a quantity of fresh vinegar equal to the liquor drawn off. This may be repeated three or four times; the vinegar supplied at each time being previously heated. The addition of cold liquor would not only prolong the operation, but also endanger the breaking oi the retort. Lowitz recommends the addition of half an ounce of re- cently-burnt and powdered charcoal to each pound of vinegar in the still, as the best means of avoiding empyreuma. If the common still be employed, it should likewise be occasionally supplied with fresh vinegar, in proportion as the acid runs off, and this continued until the process can be conveniently carried no fur- ther. The distilled acid must be rectified by a second distillation in a retort or glass alembic; for although the head and receiver be of glass or stone-ware, the acid will contract a metallic taint from the pewter worm. The residuum of this process is commonly thrown away as useless, although, if skilfully managed, it may be made to turn to good ac- count, the strongest acid still remaining in it. Mixed with about three times its weight of fine dry sand, and committed to distillation in a retort, with a well regulated fire, it yields an exceedingly strong empyreumatic acid. It is, nevertheless, without any rectification, better for some purposes, as being stronger than the pure acid; par- ticularly for making acetat of potass or soda; for then the empyreu- matic oil is burnt out. If we desire to obtain an acid both purer and also much stronger, common vinegar may be subjected to the process of freezing in the winter; the watery parts consolidate as a spongy mass, whilst the acid remains diffused through it; and by breaking down the mass. the acid will drain from the ice, and with a corresponding increase of strength. I have thus obtained from one gallon of good wine vinegar, about two pints of acid of very great strength, the other three-fourths being the watery parts almost entirely. If this is boil- ed for a few minutes with charcoal, it loses its colour, and is an acetic acid of great power. , Mr. Phillips says, the best malt vinegar has a specific gravity 1.0204; that the first eighth part which it yields on distillation is of specific gravity 0.99712, has a decidedlyacid taste, and a fluid ounce decomposes from 4.5 to 5 grains of precipitated carbonat of lime; A.—Acetum. 11 whilst the subsequent six-eighths are of specific gravity 1.O023, and a fluid ounce decomposes 8.12 grains of carbonat of lime: hence he concludes that it is improvident to reject the first eighth, since it con- tains about one-twelfth of the acid obtained, and'there is no circum- stance rendering it necessary to have distilled vinegar either of very equal or of very great strength. Chemical Composition of distilled vinegar. Acetic acid more largely diluted than that in vinegar; with minute portions of uncom- bined mucilage and extractive. Solvent Powers.—It dissolves all vegetable principles that are soluble in water; and in some cases, as in squills, colchicum, seve- ral aromatics and narcotics, its acid appears to extend its solvent powers; at the same time, according to some, it often modifies or di- minishes the medicinal virtues of the substances, as those of narcotics, an opinion not adopted by other writers. When employed, a por- tion of spirit should be added, in order to obviate the spontaneous decomposition to which it is liable, and the access of the air should be guarded against. I have found that two ounces of pretty strong alcohol were not more than sufficient to prevent the mouldiness, &c. of a pint of acetic solution of opium, (one ounce to the pint,) during the summer season. Acetic acid has some action on the gum resins; but not on true resins. Dr. Powell states, (Transl. of Pharm, of Lond. 1815,,) that one fluid ounce ought to dissolve at least thirteen grains of white mar- ble, or, what is equivalent to it, 39.67 grains of crystallized sub-car- bonat of soda. Such acid corresponds very nearly with 6° of the British revenue acetometer, the proportions being as follow: 100 grains of Pharmacopoeia strength will saturate 8.68 grains of crys- tallized sub-carbonat of soda; 100 grains of acid of 6° of the aceto- meter will saturate 8.70 grains of that salt. Adulterations.—Sulphuric acid is detected by a white precipitate being produced, on adding acetat of barytes. Nitric acid, by satu- rating the suspected sample with pure potash, evaporating to dry- ness, and treating the product with highly concentrated alcohol; the acetat of potash is thereby dissolved, but no action is exerted on the nitrat; it is of course found in the residuum, and may be recog- nised by deflagrating when thrown on burning charcoal. Copper is detected by supersaturating the acid with ammonia, which produces a blue colour; and lead, by the dark-coloured precipitate produced by a solution of sulphureted hydrogen. Tin is said to be the more usual source of contamination, for no vegetable acid will act upon lead while any tin is present in the mixture; the latter being most oxydable, is exclusively dissolved. The pyrolignous acid, already adverted to, has lately been very generally made to supersede the distilled vinegar in medicine and the arts. It has been so completely separated from all foreign mat- ter, as to afford a perfectly pure acetic acid, invariable in acid powers, and constant in its chemical properties. Such an acid is now prepared by Messrs. Beaufoy & Co. of South Lambeth, (Lon- don,) and is sold under the name of improved distilled vinegar. It is said to be perfectly free from any unpleasant taste, colour or 12 A.—Acetum. sediment; and it forms a limpid colourless solution with ammonia. The common distilled vinegar of the shops varies essentially in strength as well as purity; its acid powers differing from thirty to forty per cent, in value; and it is sometimes 7°, at others less than 5° by the revenue acetometer;* and hence the difficulty of procuring an uniform article for medical application. This diffi- culty seems now obviated, as the pyrolignous acid may be procured of any degree of concentration, from 6° of the acetometer, or 2.898 per cent, of real acetic acid, to 130°, or 63.09 per cent, of acid; and even higher, if required; the common or proof acid about equals in strength that of the best malt vinegar, 100 parts of which, will satu- rate 14| parts of crystallized sub-carbonat of soda; and consequently contains somewhat less than five per cent, of real acid, requiring at least one-half part of water to reduce it to the strength of the best common distilled vinegar. It is found that acetic acid of forty-five per cent, real acid, dissolves camphor and the essential oils very readily. The British Colleges employ this distilled acid for most of the preparations in which the acetum purificatum of the American Pharmacopoeia is ordered. Indeed, as to any use made of it in that work, it might have been altogether omitted. ACIDUM ACETICUM. D. Acetic Acid. Acidum Aceticum forte. E. Strong Acetic Acid. Concentrated Acetic Acid. Radical Vinegar. 6'yn. Acide Acetique, (F.) Essigsaure, (G.) Acido Acetico, (I.) Take of sulphat of iron dried, one pound; acetat of lead, ten ounces. — Bub them together, put them into a retort, and distil in a sand bath, with a moderate heal as long as any acid comes over. E. This is one of the easiest processes for the purpose. Many others have been proposed, all of which are reducible to three classes, viz. 1. Decomposing metalline acetats by heat, as verdigris. 2. Decomposing acetats by sulphuric acid, as in the Dublin for- mula, viz. acetat of potash and sulphuric acid. 3. Decomposing acetats by means of sulphats; as in the formula above introduced from the Edinburgh College. The difference of the three classes is at once perceived. In the first case, the affinity of the metallic oxyd for the acid is broken up by the agency of heat; but the degree necessary is so great, that a part of the acid itself is generally decomposed, and the product has an unpleasant empyreumatic smell. In the second case, the acetic acid is driven from the base it was united with by the superior affi- nity of the sulphuric acid. A part of the sulphuric acid, if great care be not taken, is decomposed, and sulphurous acid passes over * The acetometer was invented by Messrs. Taylors for this particular pur- pose. The principle consists in first forming a neutral salt with dry hydrat of lime and the acid to be examined, and then taking the specific gravity of the solution. y A.—Acetica. 13 &nd ■ contaminates the product. This is a case of single affinity. The third, which is a case of compound affinity, is preferable, in being more economical, and in furnishing a purer acid. The acetat and sulphat are mutually decomposed; the acetic acid, being vola- tile, passes over, and is condensed in the receiver; the sulphuric acid combines with the oxyd of lead, and forms a sulphat of lead, which, with the oxyd of iron, are left in the retort. It is difficult to say why the Colleges have retained a process, the product of which is scarcely employed in medicine, at least in regular practice; although perhaps it might be useful, since its solvent powers are far superior to those of common or distilled vinegar. It is capable of dissolving camphor, resins, and essential oils, copiously, but they are precipitated by dilution. Acetic acid is a transparent and colourless fluid, of an extremely pungent smell, and a caustic acid taste, capable of reddening and blistering the skin. It is very volatile, and its vapour is highly in- flammable; it combines with water in every proportion; it combines with sugar, mucilage, volatile oils, alcohol; it dissolves boracic acid, and absorbs carbonic acid gas; it is formed by the acidification of sugar, and by the decomposition of some other ternary and quater- nary compounds by heat or acids. It is decomposed by the sulphuric and nitric acids, and by^ heat. The proportions of its constituents are not ascertained. In its ordinary state, it has only an acid taste, a pleasant odour; specific gravity, 1.0005; congeals and crystallizes at —22°, and is vaporised at 212°. It combines with alcohol, and forms a species of ether. Gold, platina, glass, and earthenware, can alone retain this concentrated acid without corrosion. Medical Use.—It is sometimes used as an analeptic remedy in syncope, asphyxia, hysteric affections, and head-ache. Applied to the skin, it acts as a stimulant and rubefacient. Common vinegar, is, however, more frequently the form in which it is thus employed. The only officinal preparation into which it enters, is the acidum aceticum camphoratum of the Edinburgh College. Vide Acetica. ACETICA. MEDICATED VINEGARS. These are infusions of vegetable substances in acetic acid. The action of the acid in this case may be considered as twofold. 1. It acts simply as water, in consequence of the great quantity of water which enters into its composition, and generally extracts every thing which water is capable of extracting. 2. It exerts its own peculiar action as an acid. In consequence of this, it sometimes increases the solvent power of its watery por- tion, or dissolves substances which water alone is incapable of dis- solving, and in a few instances it impedes the solution of substances which water alone would dissolve. As acetic acid, in itself sufficiently perishable, has its tendency to decomposition commonly increased by the solution of any vegetable matter in it, it should never be used as a menstruum, unless where 14 A.—Acetica. it promotes the solution of the solvend, as in extracting the acrid principle of squills, colchicum, &c. and in dissolving the volatile, and especially the empyreumatic oils, or where it coincides with the virtues of the solvend. Acidum Aceticum Aromaticum. E. Aromatic Acetic Acid. Aromatic Vinegar. Syn. Vinaigre antiseptique, (F.) Gewiirzessig, (G.) Take of tops of Rosemary, dried, leaves of Sage, dried, (each) four ounces; flowers of Lavender, dried, two ounces; Cloves, two drachms', distilled Acetic acid, two pounds.—Macerate for seven days, express the liquor, and fitter it. This is given as an improved preparation of the Vinaigre des qua- tre voleurs, which was supposed to be a certain prophylactic against the contagion of plague, and similar diseases. It is in fact a pleasant solution of essential oils in vinegar, which will have more effect in correcting bad smells than in preventing fever. Dose fjss. to fji. Acetum Colchici. L. Vinegar of Colchicum or Meadow Saffron. Take of fresh bulb of Meadow-saffon, sliced, one ounce; Acetic acid, one pint; proof Spirit, one fluid ounce.—Macerate the root with the vinegar, in a covered glass vessel, for twenty-four hours; then ex- press the liquor, and let it settle; lastly, add the spirit to the clear liquor. This is substituted for the oxymel of the former London Pharma- copoeia, and by some is considered to be a more convenient form for preserving. It is said to be powerfully diuretic. The acrid principle, in which #ie virtue of colchicum resides, seems to be more soluble in vine^ar'than in water. The diluted al- cohol is added to prevent its spoiling. In very warm weather, it is probably scarcely sufficient. * Dose, fluid half-drachm tofl5J. in any bland fluid. Acetum Scill.e. L. D.* Acidum Aceticum Scilliticum. E. Vinegar of Squills. . Syn. Vinaigre Scillitique, (F.) Meerzwiebelessig, (G.) Take of Squills, dried, half a pound; Wine-vinegar, three pints; proof Spirit, four ounces.—-Macerate the squills in the vinegar for four days, in a glass vessel, frequently agitating it; then express the acid; to which, poured from the faeces after they have subsided add the spirit. D. Vinegar of squills is a medicine of great antiquity. It is a very powerful stimulant; and hence it is frequently used, with great suc- * The name in the Pharmacopoeia of the United States is the same. The for inula is an old one of the Ed. Col. and may be found in the Ed. Dispens, 181° A.—Acetica. 15 cess, as a diuretic and expectorant. The dose of this medicine is from half a drachm to half an ounce: where crudities abound in the first passages, it may be given at first in a larger dose, to evacuate them by vomiting. It is most conveniently exhibited along with cin- namon, or other agreeable aromatic waters, which prevent the nau- sea it would otherwise, even in small doses, be apt to occasion, WThen kept, Vogel, (An. de Chim. V. 83. p. 157,) says the vinegar of squills deposits a precipitate, consisting of citrat of lime and tan- nin. It is to be regretted that the formulae of different Pharmacopoeias should vary greatly from each other; more especially in medicines, good in themselves, or which serve as the basis of otbers. It appears very desirable that all our preparations should be made as strong as possible. We can always modify the dose to meet existing circum- stances; but if originally weak, it demands a proportionate increase in the dose, which, in a remedy so nauseous as the one under notice,, it would be well to avoid. Acidum Acetioum Camphoratum, D. E. Camphorated Acetic Acid. Syn. Acide acetique camphre, (F.) Take of strong Acetic acid, six ounces; Camphor, half an ounce.— Trituratfthe camphor with a little alcohol; add it to the acid, and dissolve. The alcohol in this preparation is used merely to facilitate the re- duction of the camphor to powder; for the acetic acid is capable of dissolving even a larger portion of camphor than is directed in the above formula. This solution is a powerful analeptic remedy. Its vapour snuffed up the nostrils, which is the only method of using it, is one of the most pungent stimuli we possess. It is so extremely volatile, that it cannot be preserved without excluding it from the contact of the air; and it is so powerful a menstruum, that it corrodes cork, and almost all common metals except gold. It should therefore be kept in glass phials, with ground glass stoppers, or in small gold boxes, 9uch as are used for Henry's aromatic spirit of vinegar, for which it is in fact a simple substitute. Henry's aromatic vinegar is merely an acetic solution of camphor, oil of cloves, of lavender, and rosemary. A preparation of this kind may be made extemporaneously, by putting one drachm of acetat of potash into a phial with a few drops of some essential oil, and n\,xx of sulphuric acid. This is a patent nostrum. ACETUM OPII. Vinegar of Opium, or Black Drop. Take of Opium, half a pound; Vinegar, three pints; Nutmeg, bruised, one ounce and a half; Saffron, half an ounce.—Boil them to a pro- per consist e?icc, then add Sugar, four ounces; Yeast, one fluid ounce.—Digest for seven weeks, then place in the open air until it becomes a syrup; lastly, decant, filter, and bottle it up, adding a little sugar to each bottle. Am. - 16 A.—Acetica. In vol. ix. of the Philosophical Transactions of London, for 1674, p. 147, we have the mode of preparation of laudanum by Van Hel- mont, in a paper by Robert Boyle, (and the same is noticed in his Philosophical Writings, vol. i. 99, and iii. 648.) See also the Abridg- ment of the same by Dr. Pearson, vol. ii. 155. The prescription is said to have been given to Boyle by Van Helmont himself. It is highly commended, and seems, indeed, nearly to resemble in prepa- ration the celebrated black drop. It appears there were two kinds of Helmontian laudanum, one by the senior, the other by the son: the one here noticed is the latter. "Laudanum Helmontii Junior is. "Take of opium, one quarter of a pound, and of the juice of quinces four pounds at the least, [for near five pounds would per- haps dp better;] the opium being cut into very thin slices, and then as it were minced, to reduce it into smaller parts, is to be put into, and well mixed with the liquor, first made lukewarm, and ferment- ed with a moderate heat for eight or ten days,'rather more than less: then filter it, [omitted sometimes by Van Helmont,] and having in- fused in it, of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, of each one ounce, [sometimes Van Helmont used one ounce and a half of each;] let them stand three or four days more; if a full week the better; then filter, (or strain through a canvass bag,) once more, having let it boil a walme, [qu.? a little while,] or two after the spices are put in. This done, evaporate the superfluous water to the consistence of an ex- tract, or to what other consistence you please. Lastly, incorporate very well with it, two ounces of best saffron reduced to fine powder. [Instead of the powder, Van Helmont sometimes used as much ex- tract as can be obtained from that quantity.]- According to the consistence you desire to have it, you may order it so, as either to make it up into a mass of pills, or keep it in a li- quid form; in which case the evaporation must be less, after putting in the saffron. The dose is five or six to ten drops, according to circumstances; of the pills, somewhat less. Black Drop. If we may judge from the writings of William Salmon, 1676, we may well believe that acetic preparations of opium had been long celebrated. Hartmann, in his Tractatus Physico-medicus de Opio, (1615,) pre- ferred it to every other. The Anodynum Specificum Paracelsi seems to have been of the same nature. Salmon gives its formula thus: " R Theban opium, two ounces; juice of sour oranges and quinces a one ounce and a half; cinnamon, cloves, saffron, a one ounce.— Digest with a gentle heat for about an hour, strain and add musk one scruple; ambergrease four drachms; magistery, or corral and pearl, 5 one drachm.—Mix and digest awhile, then add of the quin- tessence of gold, one drachm. v A.—Aconitum. 47 "This is the specific anodyne of Paracelsus." The laudanum of Clossaeus was also an acetic preparation of opium. In Paris's Pharmacologia, p. 469, art. Opium, in relation to this article we have the following information: "The Black Drop, or the Lancaster or Quaker's Black Drop.— This preparation, which has been long known and esteemed, as being more powerful in its operation, and less distressing in its ef- fects, than any tincture of opium, has, until lately, been involved in much obscurity: the papers, however, of the late Edward Wal- ton, of Sunderland, one of* the near relations of the original proprie- tor,* having fallen into the hands of Dr. Armstrong, that gentleman has obliged the profession by publishing the manner in which it is prepared, and is as follows: 'Take half a pound of opium sliced; three pints of good verjuice, (juice of the wild crab, or the ex- pressed juice of unripe grapes,) and one and a half ounce of nut- megs, and half an ounce of saffron. Boil them to a proper thick- ness, then add a quarter of a pound of sugar, and two spoonsful of yeast. Set the whole in a warm place near the tire for six or eight weeks; then place it in the open air until it becomes a syrup. Lastly, decant, filter, and bottle it up, adding a little sugar to each bottle.' One drop of this preparation is considered equal to about three of the tincture of opium. P. L. It would appear that an acetat of Morphia is formed, which is more active and less distressing in its effects, than any other narcotic combination." " The above ingredients, agreeably to the experiments of a scien- tific friend, ought to yield, when properly made, about two pints of strained liquor, "t Dr. Paris likewise mentions a preparation very similar to the Black drop, from the French Codex, called Vinum Opiatum fer- mentatione paratum, or Guttse, seu Laudanum Abbatis Rousseau, made with honey in a state of fermentation, ACONITUM. ACONITE. Aconitum Neomontanum. D. Aconitum Napellus. L. E.% Large Blue Wolfsbane. Monkshood. Aconite. The leaves. Polyandria Trigynia. Nat. ord. Multisiliqux. Syn. Aconit, chaperon de moirie, (F.) Blauer-strumhut, (G.) Napello, (I.) Aconite, (S.) The Neomontanum, we are assured by Willdenow, is the species of aconite which has always been used in medicine, although it is almost universally known by the name of Aconitum Napellus in consequence of a botanical error of Stoerk, who introduced it into practice. It is a perennial plant, found in the Alpine forests of Carinthia, Carniola, and other mountainous countries in Germany, and culti- vated in our gardens. The fresh plant and root are very violent poisons, producing re- * Edward Tonstall, a medical practitioner of Bishop's Aukland, in the coun- ty of Durham, one of the Society of Friends, about a century ago. It is the formula of the United States' Pharmacopoeia, with scarcely a modification. Jp Thomson's Annals of Philosophy, ii. 232 ' Aconitum, Ph. II S- 4 IS A.—Acorus. markable debility, paralysis of the limbs, convulsive motions of the face, bilious vomiting, and cathasresis, vertigo, delirium, asphyxia, death. The fresh leaves have very little smell, but when chewed have an acrid taste, and excite lancinating pains, and swelling of the tongue. By drying, its acrimony is almost entirely destroyed. For medical use, the plant must be gathered before the stem shoots. Uses and Dose.—When properly administered, it acts as a pene- trating stimulus, and generally excites sweat, and sometimes an in- creased discharge of urine. On many occasions, it has been found a very effectual remedy in glandular swellings, venereal nodes, anchylosis, spina ventosa, itch, amaurosis, gouty and rheumatic pains, intermittent fevers, and con- vulsive disorders. We may begin by giving one or two grains of the dried leaves in powder, but it is commonly used in the form of an inspissated juice. As soon as the plant is gathered, the juice is expressed, and evapo- rated without any previous clarification, to the consistence of an ex- tract. It is an unfortunate circumstance, that the powers of this medicine vary very much, according to its age and the heat employ- ed in its preparation. When recently prepared, its action is often too violent, and when kept more than a year it becomes totally inert. It may therefore be laid down as an universal rule, in the employ- ment of this and of many other similar active medicines, to begin with very small doses, and to increase them gradually to the neces- sary degree; and whenever we have occasion to begin a new parcel of the medicine, we should commence with an inferior dose, and proceed with the same caution as at first. We may begin by giving half a grain of this extract, either form- ed into a powder with ten grains of white sugar, or made up with any convenient addition into a pill* twice or thrice a day, and gra- dually increase the dose: or a tincture of aconite may be prepared by digesting one part of the dried leaves in six parts of spirit of wine; the dose of which Will be at first five or ten drops, and may be gradually increased to forty and upwards. A decoction of the roots is said to destroy bugs, and to prove fatal to rats and mice. ACORUS CALAMUS. E. L. D.* Sweet Flag. The root. Hexandria Monogynia. Nat. ord. Piperitse. Syn. Acorns Odorant, (F.) Kalmuswurtzil, (G.) Calamo Aromatico, (I.t Acoro Calamo, (S.) Bach, (H.) Vacha, (San.) Knhu/mou ctpoo/uxTtKui, Dioscor. This plant is perennial, and, grows plentifully in rivulets and marshy places about Norwich, and other parts of England, of the canals of Holland, in Switzerland, and in other countries of Europe. It is also abundant in America. The shops have been usually sup- plied from the Levant with dried roots, which are not superior to those of our own growth. The root of acorus is full of joints, crooked, somewhat flatted on the sides, internally of a white colour, and loose, spongy texture: its smell is strong; the taste warm, acrid, bitterish, and aromatic- * Calamus, Ph. U. S. A.—Actea Spicata. 19 both the smell and taste are improved by exsiccation. This root is generally looked upon as a carminative and stomachic medicine, and as such is sometimes made use of in practice. It is said by some to be superior in aromatic flavour to any other vegetable that Is produced in the northern climes of Europe; which is by no means strictly true: it is, nevertheless, a sufficiently elegant aroma- tic. The fresh root, candied, is said to be employed at Constanti- nople as a preservative against epidemic diseases. The leaves of this plant have a sweet, fragrant smell, more agreeable, though weaker, than that of the roots. Neumann obtained by distillation about two scruples of fragrant. volatile oil from sixteen ounces of the dried root. It also rose in distillation with water, but not with alcohol. The spirituous ex- tract from two ounces weighed 370 grains, and water extracted from the residuum 190 grains. The watery extract from two ounces weighed 445 grains, and the residuum gave out to alcohol 43. Chemical Composition.—The principles in which its qualities re- side, appear to be essential oil and bitter extractive. The root contains also fecula, which is copiously precipitated by sub-acetat and acetat of lead from its infusion. Watery infusion extracts all its virtues, but decoction impairs them. Spirit is also an appropriate but less efficient solvend. It may be considered as a mild stomachic, carminative, and tonic; and may perhaps be usefully combined with some of the infusions of vegetables possessing similar powers. It may be given in doses of a cupful of the infusion of one drachm of the dried root to a pint of boiling water, or in powder, from one scruple to one drachm: but the Materia Medica would probably be no ways injured by its omission, as its place may be well supplied by ginger. ACTEA SPICATA. Herb Christopher. Baneberries. The root. This vegetable is perennial, growing in woods and shady places. It attains the height of about two and a half feet, and flowers in the months of May or June; and produces black, shining, pulpy berries in Autumn, about the size of peas, which are considered as poison- ous. On account of its fetid smell, this plant is said to be frequent- ed by toads. There are two varieties of this plant in the United States; one of which is thus described by the Rev. Dr. Cutler: "Christopher bane- berries. Blossoms white, berry red. In woodland and . shady places.—May. The berries are exceedingly poisonous. Dr. Wither- ing says, the plant is powerfully repellent; and that the root is useful in some nervous cases, but it must be administered with caution." Actea racemosa, (saysDr. Mease, Dom. Encyclop.) black snake root, or rich weed, is a very beautiful plant when in flower. The utility of the root of this plant is well known. It is an astrin- gent; and Dr. Barton says, it was used in the form of decoction as a gargle, with success, in a putrid sore throat, which prevailed in New Jersey, many years ago. A decoction of the root cures the itch. In North Carolina, it has been useful as a drench in the disease of cattle, called the murrain. 20 A.—Adeps. ADEPS. FAT, GREASE, TALLOW. Except in consistency, there appears to be no very considerable difference, in a medical point of view, between the different kinds of animal oils, or fats. They are known under different names, and are individually employed in different places, more probably from the facility of obtaining them, than from any actual superiority, the one above the other. The'greater consistency of some than of others, makes a change of proportion necessary sometimes, in winter and summer, for the preparation of ointments, &c. to the formation of which, all these animal oils may be considered as chiefly devoted. Adeps Anseris.—Goose Grease, from roasted geese, esteemed by many as highly emollient, and used occasionally in glysters. Adeps /forrams.—Human fat, said to be the most emollient of fats, and still used in the Russian hospitals. Adeps vel Pinguedo Ursi.—Bear's Grease. Adeps Suillus Piueparatus. D. Adeps Pr^eparata. L. Adeps Sui Scrof^e.—vulgo Axungia Porcina. E.* Prepared Hog's Lard, fat.—Axunge. Ab unguendo plaustri axe, (Plin.) from being used as the grease of wheels. Syn. Sain doux, (F.) Schweineschroalz, (G.) Lardo, (I.) Pingue, (S.) Punnil colupoo, {Tarn.) This is obtained like the other animal fats, from the raw lard, by chopping it fine, or rolling it out, in order to break the cells in which the fat is lodged, and then melting it in a water bath, or other gen- tle heat, and straining it whilst warm. Qualities.^-Consistence, soft, or nearly semi-fluid. Odour and taste, none, if pure; it melts at 97°. . Chemical composition.—It appears like other fats, to consist of two distinct bodies existing together in a state of mechanical mix- ture, viz. stearin, (from o-f*«f, tallow,) which is white, brittle, and somewhat resembling wax; and elain, (from eXxl0>, oil,) very simi- lar in appearance to vegetable oil, and liquid at 59°. According to Braconnot's experiments, the proportion of elain to that of stearin, m hog's lard, is as 62 to 38. For the method of procuring these sub- stances, see Practical Chemistry, p. 138. Solubility.—Insoluble in water and alcohol, but unites with alka- lies, and forms soaps. Table of Solubility of Fats in 100 parts of alcohol and sulphuric ether. By P. F. G. Boullay. * Alcohol, «p. gr. 0.828. *-.».<,.. Hog's lard . . . Vft . . "J-? «£ Mutton suet. . . 0.69 . . 139 TL Spermaceti ... 1.39 . . s!33 '. '. 20 * Adeps, Ph. U. S. A.—Adeps. 21 Proportion of Oils and Suet in various Fats, according to Braconnot. • Oil. Suet. Melted butter, summer . 60 . 40 winter 55 . 65 Hog's lard 62 . ! 38 Beef marrow . 24 , 76 Mutton marrow 74 . 26 Goose grease . . . 72 . 32 Turkey grease 74 . 26 Olive oil 72 . 28 Oil of almonds 76 . 24 -----colsa 54 . 46 Incompatible substances.—Extracts, spirituous preparations, tinc- tures, and infusions, are incapable of perfect union with lard, with- out some intermedium; the following substances, on the contrary, are capable of intimately combining with itt viz. all dry powders, whether vegetable or mineral; fixed and volatile oils, balsams, cam- phor, soaps. Adeps Ovillus. E. Sevum. L. D. A. Mutton Suet. Syn. Graisse de Mouton, (F.) Hammeltalg, (G.) Grasse duro, (I.) Grassa, (S.J This, as being firmer than the preceding, is employed, when greater consistency in ointments, &c. is required. It is the stiffest, and least fusible of the officinal fats. Adeps Bovis vel Sevum bovinum. Beef Suet, or Tallow. It possesses no properties different from the preceding; either may be employed indiscriminately. Adeps Cetageus. Spermaceti. Sperma Ceti. E. D. A. Cetaceum. L. Spermaceti. Syn. Spermaceti; Celine, (F.) Wallrath, (G.) Spermaceti, (I.) Esperntaceti, (S.) The spermaceti whale is characterized by his enormous head, great part of which is occupied by a triangular cavity of bone cover- ed only by the common integuments. In the living animal this cavity is filled with a white, fluid, oily substance, amounting sometimes to many tons in weight. On the death of the whale, it congeals into a white unctuous mass, from which a considerable quantity of very pure whale oil is obtained by expression. The residuum, afterwards freed from impurities, by washing with water, melting, straining, expression through linen bags, and, lastly, washing in a weak ley of potass, is the peculiar substance well known by the name of sperma- ceti. It is also contained in solution, in the common whale and other fish oils; for it is often found deposited, by a species of crystalliza- tion, in the reservoirs containing them. Spermaceti may be obtained crystallized in white argentine plates, of an unctuous feel and taste, and a vapid smell. It melts between 90° and 95°, and at a higher temperature may be sublimed almost unchanged. Its vapour is inflammable, and its flame is bright, clear, and without smell. By exposure to air it becomes rancid. It is solu- ble, especially by the assistance of heat, in alcohol and in ether. In its other properties it agrees with the fixed oils, with which it unites very readily by fusion. Muscular flesh by long maceration in water 22 A.—JEsculus Hippocastanum. is converted into a substance very analogous to spermaceti, but more fusible, melting at 82°; and biliary calculi often consist of another, which is much less fusible, requiring a heat of 192° for its fusion. For all these varieties, Fourcroy has proposed the generic name Adipocere. As a medicine, for internal use, it agrees with the fixed vegetable oils; and in the composition of ointments, &c. its place may be very well supplied by a mixture of oil and wax. It may be proper here, cursorily to notice the sebacic acid, or acid of fat, which, although it does not enter into the Materia Medica, must, doubtless, by its presence at times, influence the properties of many preparations, into which fat or tallow enter. It is probable it may tend to induce rancidity, if not itself a product of this pecu- liar change; and it is not impossible, that to its presence, may be owing the greater facility with which rancid fat, or old ointment, are enabled to kill quicksilver. Sebacic acid has no smell, and a slightly acid taste. It is crystal- lizable, melts like fat, and is notvolatile. It is so soluble in hot water, as to become solid on refrigeration. It is also very soluble in alcohol. It precipitates the nitrats of lead, silver, and mercury, and the acetats of lead and mercury. It does not precipitate the waters of lime, baryta, or strontia. This acid may be formed according to Plenck, (Hygrologia, p. 236, Lond. 1797,) by exposing tallow to a gentle heat, in a frying- pan, and mixed with one-third of quick lime. By continued agita- tion, a sebacic calx is formed. Boil this calx in twelve parts of water, filter, evaporate to dryness, and calcine the salt; distil with half the amount of sulphuric acid; a sulphat of lime remains, and pure sebacic acid passes into the receiver. See also, Practical Chemistry, p. 174. .ZEsculus Hippocastanum. D. Horse Chesnut. The bark. Heptandria Monogynia. Nat. Ord. Trihilatw, Linn. Acera, Juss. Syn. Marronier d'Inde, (F.) Ippocastano, (I.) This is a common and well-known tree. The fruit, which con- tains much amylaceous matter, has been used as food for domestic animals, and even for men, in times of scarcity. But its introduc- tion into the Pharmacopoeias, was probably owing to its having been used and recommended as a sternutatory in some cases of ophthal- mia and head-ache. With this view it was drawn up the nostrils in the form of an infusion or decoction. The bark has been proposed as a substitute for the very expensive and often adulterated Peruvian bark. Some successful experiments of its effects when given internally in intermittent and typhus fever, and also when applied externally in gangrene, sufficiently warrant future trials. Although chemical analysis is not yet sufficiently ad- vanced to enable us to determine from it the medical uses of any substance, it appears that the active constituent of this bark is tannin, which is incompatible with the presence of Cinchonin, the predo- minant, and probably the active constituent of Peruvian bark. In powder it may be given to the extent of a scruple and a half, or a drachm for a dose. Buchholz prefers a solution of a drachm of the A.—Alcohol. 23 extract in an ounce of cinnamon water, of which sixty drops are to be given every three hours. Agrimonia Eupatoria. D. Agrimony. The herb. Dodecandria Digynia. Nat. Ord. Senticosse. This plant is arranged in the Edinburgh New Dispensatory in the class Dodecandria Digynia.—Mr. Nuttall classes it in Icosandria. It is a native of the United States. It is said the Indians used an infusion of the roots in inflamma- tory fevers with great success; and, according to Kalm, the Cana- dians have great confidence in it for the same purpose. The leaves of this vegetable are said to be aperient, detergent, and to strengthen the tone of the viscera; hence they have been used in laxity of the intestines, in scorbutic, and other disorders arising from debility. Digested in whey, agrimony affords a diet-drink grateful to the pa- late and stomach, and was formerly supposed to be an effectual remedy for the jaundice. The leaves and Stalks, together with the closed flowers, afford a dark yellow decoction, which when previously impregnated with a diluted solution of bismuth, imparts a beautiful and permanent gold colour to animal wool. The herb, when fresh, has a pleasant smell, which however is lost on drying. Its taste is then bitterish and astringent. Lewis got from it an oil of a yellow colour. ALCOHOL. ALCOHOL. Alcohol Fortius. E. Spiritus Rectificatus. L.* Spiritus Vinosus Rectificatus. D. Alcohol. Rectified Spirit of Wine. Syn. Eau de Vie rectifie, (F.) Rectifizirter weingeist, (G.) Acquavite rettificata, (1.) Agua ardiente, (S.) Alcohol is a term of Arabian origin, and implies the purer part of a substance, separated from its impurities. The specific gravity, according to the London and Edinburgh Pharmacopoeias, to that of water, should be. 835, that of Dublin orders it at .840. The Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia has no process for the preparation of pure alcohol. The pure alcohol, which is directed to be prepared by the London and Dublin Colleges from the article under consideration, will be presently adverted to. In the preparation under notice, alcohol is in as high a state of concentration as it can readily be prepared in the large way for the purposes of trade. That of .835 specific gravity, at 60° Fahr. con- sists of 85 per cent, of pure alcohol and 15 of water. The other of .840 has only 83 per cent, of real alcohol. The various degrees of strength of ardent spirits is technically denominated by numbers, referring to an arbitrary strength, called in the English laws, proof spirit; a gallon of which weighs seven pounds eleven ounces and three drachms avoirdupois. When spirit "Alcohol, Ph. U. S. 24 A.—Alcohol. is said to be one to three over proof, it is meant, that one gallon of water added to three gallons of the spirit, will reduce it to proof: on the contrary, one in three under proof, signifies, that in three gallons of that spirit, there is contained one gallon of water, and the remaining two are proof spirit. By the same authority, a gallon of water weighs eight pounds seven ounces and five drachms avoir- dupois, so that the specific gravity of proof spirit is to that of water, as 910 to 1000. The spirit distilled from the wash or vinous liquor, until a glass of it, thrown upon the still head, does not take fire by a candle, is called low wines, and this being again distilled, is called spirit. Alcohol is the characteristic principle of vinous liquors. It arises from the decomposition of sugar by fermentation, and is found in greatest quantity in the wines of warm countries, prepared from thoroughly ripened fruit. In the south of France, some wines yield a third of brandy. It is the proportion of alcohol which renders wines more or less generous, and prevents them from becoming sour. The richer a wine is in alcohol, the less malic acid it contains, and therefore, the best wines give the best brandy, because they are free from the disagreeable taste which the malic acid imparts to them. Old wines give better brandy than new wines, but less of it. Alcohol is procured from wine by distillation; in conducting which, the following rules are to be observed: 1. To heat the whole mass of fluid at once, and equally. 2. To remove all obstacles to the ascent of the vapour. 3. To condense the vapour as quickly as possible. The distillation is continued until the liquor which comes over is not inflammable. Beaume mentions a very remarkable fact concerning the prepara- tion of alcohol. He distilled two pounds of alcohol, sp. gr. 832, in the water bath, and filled the refrigeratory with ice, and he obtained two pounds four ounces of an alcohol having only sp. gr. 862. This he ascribes to the water condensed from the air in the worm by the cold- ness of the ice, and he assures us from experience, that to get an alcohol of 827, it is absolutely necessary that the refrigeratorv be filled with water of 145° F. Distillers judge of the strength of their spirits by the size and durability of the bubbles it forms, when poured from one vessel into another, or in agitating it in a vessel partly filled. Another proof is, by the combustion of gunpowder: some of which is put in a spoon; it is then covered with the spirit to be tried, which is set on tire; if it kindle the gunpowder, it is supposed to be strong, and vice versa. But a small quantity of spirits will always kindle gunpowder, and a large quantity never. Another proof is, by the carbonat of potass, which attracts the water, and dissolves in it, while the alcohol swims above. But all these are uncertain; and dependence can only be put in the proof by hydrometers, or some such contrivance, for ascer- taining the weight of a given quantity at a given temperature. Different materials are employed in different countries to under- go the vinous fermentation, as the previous step to distillation, in order to separate the alcoholic parts thereby produced; thus, in France, Spain, &c. wine from, the juice of the grape is distilled for A.—Alcohol. 25 the purpose, affording the well known liquor brandy; called also Eau de Vie, Aqua Vitae, and Spiritus Vini Gallici. Some wines yield nearly one-third, and others less than one-eighth of brandy. Malt Spirit is made from barley and other grains infused in water, and suffered to ferment. When it is in a fit state, it is subjected to distillation. Rum—from the refuse of the raw sugar manufactories, mixed with molasses; or from the juice of'the sugar cane. Arrack—from the juice of the palm tree in Batavia, and from rice or millet in China. Koumiss—from mare's milk, by the Tartars, and a similar spirit, though weaker, has been obtained from the milk of the cow. Cider, Beer, and all other fermented liquors, are more or less proper for its extraction.* Alcohol Dilutius. E. Spiritus Vinosus Tenuior. D. Spiritus Tenuior. L. Diluted Alcohol. Spirit of Wine. Proof Spirit. This is a rectified spirit, diluted with a certain proportion of wa- ter. The specific gravity of the diluted alcohol of the London and Dublin colleges is .930,, that of Edinburgh .935. The diluted alcohol of the two first named colleges above, consists of forty-four per cent, of pure alcohol, and may be formed by mixing four parts by measure of rectified spirit, with three of water; the other, in which our own coincides, contains only forty-two per cent. of pure alcohol, and is made by mixing equal parts of rectified spirit and, (distilled,) water. In this state of dilution, alcohol is better adapted for taking up the principles of vegetables than rectified spirit. It acts upon bodies as a chemical compound, and will dissolve what neither of the ingredients would, if separately applied. Hence the necessity of uniformity of strength in the spirits we employ. Most of the spirit employed by Apothecaries is unfit for the purposes of pharmacy, being too often whiskey or some imperfect material, usually contaminated with some empyreumatic oil, which communi- cates a disagreeable flavour to the medicines. It is therefore correctly ordered by all the colleges, that rectified spirit, and the same diluted, should alone be used for the preparation of tinctures, &c. If common water be employed for diluting alcohol, the resulting spirit will be turbid, owing principally to the precipitation of sul- phuric salts. Dr. Paris states a curious fact noticed at the laboratory of the Royal Institution, viz: that diluted spirit becomes stronger by being kept in vessels that are carefully closed by bladder! Whence it would seem, he adds, that alcoholic vapour transpires through this animal membrane less freely than aqueous vapour, and which he thinks is probably connected with the different solvent powers of these two liquids, in relation to the animal membrane. This diluted alcohol is employed in the preparation of all the tinctures and distilled spirits, which are not expressly directed by the colleges to be prepared with alcohol. (Spiritus Vini Rectifica- * For some particular details on the subject of distilling spirits, consult Practical Chemistry, p. 148. 5 26 A.—Alcohol. tus.) This latter is the article used in the preparation of pure alcohol and of ether, &c. The following table exhibits the specific gravity of various mix- tures of alcohol and water, &c. Table of the Specific Gavities according to Gilpin, and degrees ac- cording to Beaume's hydrometer, and in Clark's hydrometer, which is used in the revenue, (Great Britain,) of various mixtures of alcohol and water. Water. Alcohol. Specific Gravities. Degrees. Sp. Gr. Clark's Hydrom. 60° 55° 55° 60° 0 100 .825 .82736 38 833 Spirit of Wine- 10 100 .84568 .84802 34 + 858 1 to 2 20 100 .86208 .86441 30— 881 3 30 100 .87569 .87796 29+ 891 4 40 100 .88720 .88945 27+ 896 5 50 100 .89707 .89933 25 + 900 6 60 100 .90549 .90768 23— 904 7 70 100 .91287 .91502 22 907 8 80 100 .91933 .92145 21— 909 9 90 100 , .92499 .92707 20— 910 10 100 100 .93002 .93208 19— 913 15 100 90 .93493 .93696 19+ 916 20 100 80 .94018 .94213 18 920 Proof Spirit. 100 70 .94579 .94767 17— 926 1 in 20 100 60 .95181 .95357 16— 928 15 100 50 .95804 .95966 16+ 932 10 100 40 .96437 .96575 15+ 933 9 100 30 .97074 .97181 14+ 934 8 100 20 .97771 .97847 13 + 936 7 100 10 .98654 .98702 12+ 938 6 100 0 .1 10 942 945 954 964 5 4 3 o Alcohol. Alcohol. L. D. Syn. Alcohol, (F.) Hbchst rektifizirter weingiest, (G.) Alcoole, (I.) Take of rectified Spirit of Wine one gallon; Pearl-ashes, dried at 300° Fahr. and still warm, one pound; Caustic kali, in powder, one ounce; Muriat of lime, dried, half a pound.—Mix the spirit and kali; add the pearl-ashes, previously reduced to powder, and digest the mixture for three days in a close vessel, frequently agitating it; then pour off the spirit, mix with it the muriate of lime, and distil with a moderate heat, until the residuum begins to grow thick. (D.) Spec. Grav. 815. L. D. The muriat of lime is readily obtained from the residuum left in the preparation of water of caustic ammonia. When any ardent spirit is redistilled to produce alcohol, the wa- ter bath is commonly used, which gives a more equal and temperate heat, and improves the product. Gren says, that the addition of four A.—Alcohol. 27 pounds of well burnt charcoal, and three or four ounces of sulphu- ric acid, previous to this rectification, destroys entirely the peculiar taste of malt spirit; and that a second rectification with one pound of charcoal, and two ounces of sulphuric acid affords an alcohol of very great purity.* But the affinity of alcohol for water is so very strong, that it cannot be obtained entirely free from it by simple dis- tillation. We must, therefore, abstract the water by means of some substance which has a stronger affinity for it than alcohol has. Car- bonat of potass was formerly employed; but muriat of lime is prefer- able, because its affinity for water is not only very great, but by be- ing soluble in alcohol, it comes in contact with every particle of the fluid. For this purpose, one part of muriat of lime, rendered per- fectly dry by having been exposed to a red heat, and powdered after it becomes cold, is put into the still. Over this, three parts of highly rectified spirits are to be poured, and the mixture well agitated*. By distillation with a very gentle heat, about two-thirds of the spirit will be obtained in a state of perfectly pure alcohol. The chemical properties of alcohol are as follow. Alcohol is a transparent colourless liquid, of an agreeable pene- trating smell, and pungent burning taste: specific gravity 0.8. It remains fluid in the greatest natural or artificial cold. It boils at 176°, and in vacuo at 56°. Alcohol unites with water, in every pr6- portion. During the combination, caloric i§ evolved, and the speci- fic gravity of the compound is greater than the mean of those of the components. Alcohol dissolves about 60 of sulphur, when they are firesented to each other in the state of vapour. It also dissolves a ittle phosphorus. These solutions are decomposed by water. It dis- solves the boracic and carbonic acids, ammonia, soda, and potass, and is the means employed to obtain the two last in a state of puri- ty. Its action on the salts is various. It dissolves the volatile oils, rgsins, soaps, balsams, camphor, sugar, tannin, extractive, and in part, the gummy resins. Alcohol is very inflammable, and when kindled it burns entirely away with a blue flame without smoke. The products of this combustion are carbonic acid and water. It is also decomposed by being transmitted in the state of vapour through a red-hot porcelain tube; by being heated with the fixed alkalies; and by the action of the sulphuric, nitric, oxy-muriatic and acetic acids. Chemical Composition.—In a state of purity, alcohol consists of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, in proportions not yet accurately de- termined. The preparation here described, contains seven per cent. of water. Lowitz and Saussure succeeded in obtaining it of specific gravity .791, which is nearly pure. Medical uses.—Which ever of the ardent liquors are employed, they are to be regarded as diluted alcohol, although each possesses a peculiarity of operation, owing to the modifying influence of the other elementary ingredients, &c. On the living body alcohol acts as a most violent stimulus. It coagulates all the albuminous and gela- tinous fluids, and corrugates all the solids. Applied externally, it strengthens the vessels, and thus may restrain passive haemorrha- ges. It instantly contracts the extremities of the nerves it touches, "* Although this is an old established fact in Europe, yet a patent has beeft obtained in the United States for the same employment; of charcoal!! 28 A.—Alcohol. and deprives them of sense and motion; by this means easing them of pain, but at the same time destroying their use. Hence employ- ing spirituous liquors in fomentations, notwithstanding the specious titles of vivifying, heating, restoring mobility, resolving, dissipating, and the like, usually attributed to them, may sometimes be attend- ed with unhappy consequences. These liquors received undiluted into the stomach, produce the same effects, contractifig all the solid parts which they touch, and destroying, at least for a time, their use and office: if the quantity be considerable, a palsy or apoplexy fol- lows, which ends in death. Taken in small quantity, and duly di- luted, they act as a cordial and tonic: if further continued, the senses are disordered, voluntary motion destroyed, and at length the same inconveniences brought on as before. Vinous spirits, therefore, in small doses, and properly diluted, may be applied to useful pur- poses in the cure of diseases; whilst in large ones they produce the most deleterious effects. Table of the different kinds of Spirits. Names. Agua ardiente - - Arrack - - - - Var. Mahivah Ar- rack. - - Tuba - - - Araka ----- Araki ----- Arika ----- Brandy* - - - - Var. Lau - - - Rakia - - - Rossolio - - Troster - - Sekis-kayavodka Genevat Hollands Materials from which they are distilled. Pulque, the fermented juice of the Agave Coarse palm sugar, named jaggery, fermented with the hark of the Mimosa leucophlea: also from rice and the fermented juice of the Palm - - - Flowers of the Madhuca tree, Bassia butrya- cea ................ Palm wine ------------- Kounrfs, fermented Mare's milk - - - - - Dates --------------- Fermented Cow's milk, a variety of Koumis - Wine, figs, peaches, Persiman apple, mulber- ries, and sometimes other fruits ------ Rice -----.....----- Husks of grapes, mixed with aromatics - - - A compound of brandy, Ros-solis, and other plants ■-'------.-•*---.. Husk of grapes, fermented with barley and rye Lees of wine and fruit --------- Malted barley and rye, rectified on Juniper ber- ries .........r...... Malted barley, rye, potatoes; rectified with tur- pentine --------------- Wheat, barley, and rye, rectified with aniseeds, cinnamon, and other spices -------- Machaleb cherry --.------... Macarska cherry ----------".. Cane Sugar and Molasses -------- Maple sugar --------.... A sweet grass ------.--... The lees of Mandarin, a wine made from boiled rice ----------.-.... Malted and raw barley, rye, oats, and potatoes Sloes ---......---..". The root of the Teeroot, baked, pounded, and fermented -------.-.... Countries producing them. Var. Gin\ Goldwasser Kirchwasser Maraschino Rum} Var. Slatkaia trava Show-choo - - - Whiskey|| India. India. Phillipine Islands. Tartary. Egypt. Tartary, Iceland. Europe, Asia, N. & S. America: wher- ever wine is made. Siam. Dalmatia. Dantzic. On the Rhine. Scio. Holland. England. Dantzic. Switzerland. Zara, capital of Dal- matia. West Indies and N. and S. America. North America. Kamschatka. China. Scotland, Ireland, & America. South of France. Sandwich Islands. * The best Brandy is that of Cogniac, the next of Bourdeaux and Rochelle. t Named from Genevre, the French for Juniper. i The quantity made in England annually exceeds 3,000,000 gallons $The appellation Rum is supposed to be derived from the terminal 'syWMe of the word «w*«, rum; but the native Americans called this liquor Uum. aacc/ia- || 2,499,880 gallons were distilled in Scotland* in 1822, 1,341,978 gallons of which were sent tn P™ land, unratified, for making Gin and compounds. In the sameyear, the quantity made in t Ji ^ ..me A .118 012 cm Inns. The name -iphiske,, io c,.v>„,>■,,>,! .„ 1___i_. • _'j »■_' ...____ ^.' """"= in Ireland A.—iEtherea. 29 jETHEREA.—Preparations of Ether. The action of several of the acids on alcohol produces an order of compounds, which possess both important chemical properties and medicinal virtues. They are named Ethers, and agree in certain ge- neral qualities, but differ in others, according to the acid used in the formation-—they are all extremely volatile, and require to be kept in close stopped vials, and in cool situations. We shall mention only those that are used in medicine. /Ether Sulphuricus, vel Vitriolicus. Sulphuric or Vitriolic Ether. L. E. D. Syn. Ether, (F.) Schwefelatther, (G.) Etere, (I.) Take of Rectified spirit, Sulphuric acid, of each one pound and a half. Put the spirit into a glass retort, and gradually add to it the acid, shaking them frequently, and taking care that the temperature during the mixture, do not exceed 120° Fahr. Then cautiously place the retort in a sand-bath, previously heated to 200°, so that the liquor may boil as quickly as possible, and the ether may be distilled over into a tubulated receiver, to which a vessel cooled with ice or snow is fitted. Continue the distillation, until a heavier fluid begin to come over, which is seen in the bottom of the re- ceiver, below the ether. Pour twelve ounces more of Rectified spirit upon the liquor remaining in the retort, and repeat the distillation of ether in the same manner. We have not, however, as yet, by the preceding process, obtained ether fitted for medical use. Powell tells us, it is " impregnated with some sulphurous acid, as is evident to the smell, and with some ethereal oil; and these require a second process, or rectification, to separate them." It contains, likewise a large amount of water and alcohol. To remove these, that process is recommended by all the colleges, which is called rectification, and is as follows, after the same college, from which the preceding formula is selected. iETHER Rectificatus. Rectified Ether. L. Take of Sulphuric ether, fourteen fluid ounces; fused potass, half an ounce; distilled water, two fluid ounces.—Dissolve the potass first in the water, and add the ether to it, shaking them constantly un- til they are mixed. Lastly, with a heat of about 120°, distil from a large retort into a cold receiver, twelve fluid ounces of rectified ether. Qualities.—Ether is a-colourless liquid, of specific gravity, (.739, Dr. Paris,) .765, Dublin; .758, Edinburgh Dispensatory. It has been obtained, by Lowitz, of only .632 specific gravity. (Thorns. Chem. 2. 443. 4th edit.) Odour.—Pungent and fragrant. It is highly volatile, and when properly freed from alcohol, it boils at 98°; its extreme inflamma- bility, is a circumstance which should be remembered, when it is poured out by candle light. Chemical Composition.—Like alcohol, it consists of oxygen, hy- drogen, and carbon. It is difficult to comprehend precisely the cir- cumstances of the difference of these two fluid?, their principles be- 30 A___iEtherea. ing the same. I think the explanation given by Thenard is one of the simplest, and may sufficiently elucidate the changes that ensue, when sulphuric acid is made to act upon alcohol. According to Thenard, there are two kinds or genera of ether, viz™ 1st. genus comprises only one ether, composed of hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen, and containing not a particle of acid; such is the case with sulphuric, phosphoric, arsenic, and fluoric ether, since it can be pro- cured with either of them. 2dly. Ethers of the second genus, are nine in number, viz. hydrochloric, nitrous, hydriodic, acetic, ben- zoic, oxalic, citric, tartaric, and gallic, and are regarded as consist- ing of alcohol and acid, in which the acid is more or less neutralized by the alcohol; or they may be considered as formed of the consti- tuent principles of the one or other of these bodies. Sulphuric ether, it is added, is the result of the action of concen- trated sulphuric acid on alcohol, at a boiling heat. Analysis shows that the elements of alcohol may be represented by Two volumes of olefiant gas, (percarbureted hydrogen,) Two do. of the vapour of water, (oxygen and hydrogen,) Th. de Saussure. and the elements of ether, according to Gay Lussac, may be repre- sented by Two volumes of olefiant gas, One do. of vapour of water, (oxygen and hydrogen,) from whence it follows, that to convert alcohol into ether, we must merely remove the half of the water it contains, or at least, of its elements, oxygen and hydrogen, in the proportion in which they form water; it is therefore evident, thakwnen alcohol and sulphuric acid are made to act on each other, this last, possessing a great af- finity for water, determines its formation at the expense of the oxy- gen and hydrogen of the alcohol, which by this is transformed into ether.—Vide Practical Chemistry, p. 151. Be this theory correct or not, it is the most simple I have met with, of the formation of ether; and any one interested in the con- sideration, will do well to consult the whole view of the subject as detailed in the work adverted to. The superiority of the plan there proposed by Mr. Boullay, is conspicuous; since that gentleman, it is affirmed, etherified twenty pounds of alcohol, with twelve of acid; whilst by the old process, we only etherify an equal weight to the acid employed. After detailing the processes for the other ethereal preparations. we shall introduce the observations of the Edinburgh Dispensatorv. which are well deserving of attention. Rectified ether, is one of the most powerful solvents known in ve- getable chemistry, as it dissolves balsams, resins, gum-resins, wax. camphor, extractive, &c. It takes up about one-twentieth its weight of sulphur, but exerts no solvent power upon the fixed alkalies. It may be given internally, in any liquid vehicle, in doses of from twenty drops, to two fluid drachms, and is highly valuable as a dif- fusible stimulant, narcotic, and antispasmodic. In order to produce its full effects, the remedy requires to be repeated at short intervals. In catarrhal and asthmatic complaints, its vapour is inhaled with atdvantage, by holding in the mouth a piece of sugar on which ether A.—JEtherea. 81 has been dropt. It is given as a cordial in nausea, and in febrile diseases of the typhoid type; as an antispasmodic, in hysteria, and in other spasmodic, and painful diseases; and as a stimulus in sopo- rose and apoplectic affections. Regular practitioners seldom give so much as half an ounce, much more frequently only a few drops, for a dose; but empirics have sometimes ventured upon much larger quantities, and with incredible benefit. When applied externally, it is capable of producing two very opposite effects, according to its management; for, if it be prevented from evaporating, by covering the place to which it is applied closely with the hand, it proves a powerful stimulant and rubefacient, and excites a sensation of burn- ing heat. In this way it is frequently used for removing pains in the head or teeth. On the contrary, if it be dropt on any part of the body, exposed freely to the contact of the air, its rapid evapora- tion produces an intense degree of cold; and as this is attended with a proportional diminution of bulk in the part to which it is applied, in this way ithas frequently facilitated the reduction of strangulated hernia. Ether, according to Dr. Reid, produces decided sedative effects on the spinal system, as he convinced himself, by giving it in the form of enema, to a patient who had not been able to swallow for two days, in consequence of tetanus. " In a few minutes the patient said he felt a warm glow within, the spasm totally relaxed, and he sat up and eat a bowl of jelly."—Med. Intellig. vol. ii. p. 214. Adulterations and impurities.—Its specific gravity affords the best indication of its purity. Sulphuric acid may be detected by a preci- pitation, on adding a solution of barytes, and by its reddening,the colour of litmus. Alcohol, by its forming with phosphorus, a milky, instead of a limpid solution. When long kept without disturbance, Gay Lussac has observed, that it undergoes spontaneous decompo- sition; and that acetic acid, perhaps some alcohol, and a particular oil, are produced from it. SPIRITUS iETHERIS SULPHURICI. L. ./Ether Sulphuricus cum Alcohole. E. Sulphuric Ether with Alcohol. Sweet Spirit of Vitriol. Liquor /Ethereus Sulphuricus. D. Sulphuric Ethereal Liquor. Take of Sulphuric ether, half a pint; Alcohol, one pint; Mix them. The ether of the United States' Pharmacopoeia, is, in every essen- tial particular, the same as this. Indeed, the Dublin college direct this preparation under the name of Sulphuric Ethereal Liquor, as preparatory to the production of pure ether, by rectification. The medicine has all the properties of ether, but in an inferioi; degree. Its dose is one to three fluid drachms. OLEUM iETHEREUM. L. Ethereal Oil. Oleum Vini. Oil of Wine.* Syn. Huile douce de vin, (F.) After the distillation of sulphuric ether, continue the process with. a gentle heat, until a black froth swell up. Immediately remove the retort from the fire, and pour water, (warm,) upon the liquor in • Oleum ^thereum, Pharm. U. S-. 32 A.—^Etherea. the retort. Skim off the oily matter, which swims upon the water, and mix it with as much lime water as will saturate the acid in it. Shake them together; and collect the ethereal oil after it has separated. LIQUOR jETHEREUS OLEOSUS. D. Oily Ethereal Liquor. Take what remains in the retort after the distillation of sulphuric ether. Distil to one-half, by a moderate heat. Both the above processes yield a thick oily matter of a yellow colour, less volatile than ether, soluble in ether and in alcohol, but insoluble in water. Its nature is not well understood. It is only used to prepare the compound spirit of sulphuric ether, an article supposed to resemble Hoffman's Anodyne liquor. SPIRITUS ^THERIS SULPHURICI COMPOSITUS. L. A. Compound Spirit of Sulphuric Ether. Hoffman's Anodyne Liquor. Syn. Alcool e"thereux par l'acide sulphurique, (F.) Anodino minerale dell' Hoffmann, (I.) Take of Spirit of sulphuric ether, one pint; Ethereal oil, two fluid drachms; Mix them. L. This preparation is intended as a substitute for the liquor anody- nus mineralis of Hoffman, although its composition was never re- vealed by him. Dr. Powell, in his translation of the London Phar- macopoeia, p. 263,1809, refers to "Obs. Phys. Chem. lib. ii. Dissert. de acido vitriol, vinos. Med. Rat. Syst. v. Hi." I have not been able to find any part of Hoffman's works in which if is particularly specified except possibly in vol. 4. lib. 2. Obs. 13, under the title of "de vero ol: vit: dulc. See also, vol. 4. p. 494.—Lieutaud, Mat. Med. vol. 2. p. 372. Also Crollius, in his Basil. Chym. p. 346. Vogel, Inst. Chem. p. 220. Sprengel, Histoire de la Med. vol. 5. p. 303. B. Hoffman, Med. Syst. torn. 3. S. 2. ch. 7. p. 575. It is sup- posed by many practitioners, to possess an anodyne property, and to allay irritation more effectually than any other preparation of ether. Its dose is from half a drachm to two drachms. Observations on the formation of Ether. The products arising from the decomposition of alcohol by the action of the acids are extremely curious and interesting. The theory of their formation was not understood until lately, when it was very ingeniously attempted by Fourcroy and Vauquelin, who endeavour to show that the acid remains unchanged, and that the alcohol is converted into ether, water, and charcoal. The most convenient way of mixing the ingredients, is to put the alcohol into a tubulated retort, and with a long-tubed funnel reach- ing down to the bottom of the retort, to pour in the acid. By cautious agitation the two fluids unite, and heat is produced, which may be taken advantage of in the distillation, if we have a sand bath pre- viously heated to the same degree, to set the retort into immediately after the mixture is completed; nor is there any occasion for a tubu- lated receiver, if we immerse the ordinary receiver, which ou°-ht to be large, in water, or bury it in broken ice. A—iEtherea. 33 The distillation should be performed with an equal and very gen- tle but quick heat; but Mr. Phillips says erroneously, for when the distillation of ten ounces of product was completed in three hours, its specific gravity was 0.791; but when it occupied almost nine hours, it was only 0.782. The juncture of the retort and recipient is to be luted with a paste made of linseed meal, and further secured by a piece of wet bladder. Immediately on mixing the acid with the alcohol, there is a consi- derable increased temperature, and a slight disengagement of alco- hol, somewhat altered, and having an aromatic odour. On placing the retort in the sand bath, a portion of pure alcohol first comes over: and when the mixture in the retort boils, the ether rises, and is con- densed in thin, broad, straight streaks, having the appearance of oil. Until the liquor which passes over into the receiver amounts to about half, or somewhat more than half, of the alcohol operated on, it consists almost entirely of alcohol and ether, and there has been no production of any permanently elastic fluid; but now the product of ether ceases; the sulphuric acid is decomposed; and sulphurous vapours begin to arise, which condense in irregular streaks, or in drops: we must therefore either put a stop to the process, or change the receiver. In the latter case the products are, sulphurous acid, acetic acid, water, and oil of-wine, as it was called, accompanied towards the end by a peculiar species of carbureted hydrogen gas, called by the Dutch chemists Olefiant gas; because when mixed with oxygenized muriatic acid, itforms an oil. At last the matter in the retort, which has now become thick and black, swells up, and pre- vents us from carrying the process further. If we stop the process before the sulphurous vapours arise, the whole acid, diluted with a proportion of water, and mixed with char- coal, remains in the retort: but if we allow the process to go on, there is a continual decomposition of the acid, which is therefore diminish- ed in quantity. Mr. Phillips has ascertained the specific gravity of the products at different periods of the distillation. From sixteen ounces of acid, specific gravity 1.837, and an equal weight of spirit, specific gravity 0.830, he got twelve ounces of product; four of etherial spirit of specific gravity 0.779; four more of specific gravity 0.753; then two and a half of yellow sulphurous spirit of specific gravity .784; and lastly, one and a half of heavy fluid of 0.981. According to Proust, the sulphuric acid may be obtained from the black residuum in the retort, by diluting it with twice its weight of water, filtering it through linen, and evaporating it till it acquire the specific gravity 1.84, then adding about one five-hundreth part of nitrat of potass, and continuing the evaporation until the acid be- come perfectly colourless, and acquire the specific gravity of 1.86. The residuum, however, may be more advantageously preserved, as the Edinburgh college direct, for preparing more ether, by repeating the process with fresh quantities of alcohol. Proust indeed denies that this residuum is capable of converting more alcohol into ether; but that excellent chemist has somehow fallen into error, for it is a fact that was known in the time of that no less excellent chemist Dr. Lewis, and inserted in his first edition of the Edinburgh Dispensa- 34 A.—iEtherea. tory, published in 1753, and not a recent discovery of Citizen Cadet, as Fourcroy would lead us to believe. If further confirmation be wanted, we shall instance Gottling, who says, that from three or four pounds of this residuum, he has prepared sixty or seventy pounds of the spirit of vitriolic ether, and more than twelve pounds of vi- triolic ether, without rectifying the residuum, or allowing the sul- phurous vapour to evaporate. Mr. Phillips, from a pound each of acid and of spirit, got seven and a half ounces of ether, specific gravity 0.768; and by a second distillation, after eight ounces more of spirit were added to the re- siduum, eight ounces of 0.887. The mixture of these gave a specific gravity about 0.788, whereas the former of these products alone constitute the Spiritics AZtheris Vitriolici of the late Pharmacopoeia. By adding the spirit ordered to convert it into Spiritus AZtheris Vitriolici, it acquires specific gravity 0.816, which is much weaker than the liquor of the same name in the former London Pharmacopoeia. The ether may be separated from the alcohol, water, and sulphu- rous acid, with which it is always mixed, by re-distilling it with a very gentle heat, after mixing it with potass, which combines with the acid, water and alcohol. The alkali ought to be added in sub- stance, according to the directions of the Edinburgh college, not in solution as prescribed by that of London. SPIRITUS iETHERIS NITROSI. E. A. Spiritus.ZEtherisNitrici. L. Spiritus.ZEthereusNitrosus. D. Spirit of Nitric Ether. Spirit of Nitrous Ether. Nitrous Ethereal Spirit. Spiritus Nitri Dulcis. Sweet Spirit of Nitre. Syn. Alcool ethereux par 1'acide nitrique, (F.) Atherischer salpeter spi- ritus, (G.) Spirito di nitro dolce, (I.) Take of Alcohol, two pints; Nitric acid, three ounces, by weight. Pour the acid gradually upon the spirit and mix them, taking care that the heat do not exceed 120°, and distil with a gentle heat, (not exceeding 212°,) 2A fluid ounces. L. The action of nitric acid upon alcohol is so energetic, that great care is necessary in preparing the above. A better mode of preparation, I think, is the following, which was given me some years ago by an experienced practical man of this city; who made the article very largely. Take of purified Nitre, ten pounds; Alcohol, six and three-quarters gallons; Sulphuric acid, six and a half pounds.—Digest them to- gether gently for six or eight hours, in the retort, and distil off six gallons. "" The superiority of this process must be apparent; the very active ingredients, mtnc acid and alcohol, do not come into immediate contact; but by the slow, progressing decomposition of the nitre by the sulphuric acid, the nitric acid in its nascent state, as it escapes is taken up by the alcohol, and passes over into the receiver as the product wanted; whilst a sulphat of potash is left behind. The only one of the British colleges which gives a formula for A.—J2therea. 35 Nitric or Nitrous Ether, is that of Dublin. Why it should have been thought necessary, I cannot well imagine, since it is not employed in medicine. It is true they employ the residuum for the forma- tion of the sweet spirit of nitre, by adding alcohol and distilling; but, altogether, it is troublesome, and the first part a hazardous process. It was not thought necessary to be introduced here. Any one desirous of making it, will find a more convenient process in Silliman's Journal, by Dr. Hare, Vol. II. The general remarks on the process for the sweet nitrous spirit as given in the Edinburgh Dispensatory, deserve attention. The action of alcohol and nitrous acid upon each other is much influenced by their proportions. If we use a small proportion of al- cohol, or pour alcohol into nitrous acid, there immediately takes place a great increase of temperature, and a violent effervescence and dis- engagement of red fumes. On the contrary, by placing the phials containing the alcohol and acid, in cold or rather iced water, they may be mixed without danger, in the proportions directed by the colleges, and if the acid be added in small quantities at a time, and each portion thoroughly mixed with the alcohol by agitation, no action takes place until heat be applied. It is therefore unnecessary to keep the mixture for seven days, but we may immediately proceed to the distillation, which must be performed with a very slow and well regulated fire; for the vapour is very apt to expand with so much violence as to burst the vessels; and the heat must at no time exceed 212°, otherwise a portion of undecomposed acid will pass over and spoil the product. Qualities of sweet spirit of nitre.—It is a colourless fluid of spe- cific gravity . 850. Odour, extremely fragrant. Taste, pungent and acidulous. It is very volatile and inflammable. Chemical Composition*—A portion of nitric ether and nitric acid combined with alcohol; for by diminishing the quantity of alcohol, we obtain a fluid having a similar relation to the spirit of nitrous ether, which sulphuric ether has to the spirit of sulphuric ether. By adding alcohol to the residuum of nitrous ether, the Dublin college, as we have stated, prepare their spirit of nitric ether, in the same way that spirit of sulphuric ether is prepared from the residuum of sulphuric ether; and by mixing nitrous ether with alcohol, we obtain a fluid exactly resembling spirit of nitrous ether. Solubility.—It is soluble both in water and alcohol. Incompatible substances.—With a solution of green sulphat of iron, it strikes a deep olive colour, owing probably to its holding in solu- tion a portion of nitrous gas; and with 'Tincture of Guaiacum it produces a green or blue coagulum. By age and exposure to the air, it is gradually decomposed, giving rise to the reproduction of nitrous acid, from which it may be rectified, by saturating the acid with lime water, and distilling off the etherial fluid. I have been told that this article, which, when properly prepared, is an excellent medicine, has been extemporaneously made, by adding a few drops of nitric acid to an ounce or two of alcohol; the action that ensues is necessarily productive of a small quantity of nitrous ether, which is held in solution by the alcohol; but this is a most 36 A.—Aletris—Alkali. fraudulent and injurious measure! |C7» It is also made of a quality proportionate to the price offered for it, by ample dilution!! Medical use.—Spirit of nitrous ether has been long deservedly held in great esteem. It quenches thirst, promotes the natural se- cretions, expels flatulencies, and moderately strengthens the sto- mach. It may be given in doses of from twenty drops to a drachm, in any convenient vehicle. Mixed with a small quantity of spiritus ammonias aromaticus, it proves a mild, yet efficacious diaphoretic, and bften remarkably diuretic; especially in some febrile cases, where such a salutary evacuation is wanted. A small proportion of this spirit added to malt spirits, gives them a flavour approaching to that of French brandy. ALETRIS FARINOSA. Star Grass. Star Wort. Professor Bigelow in his Medical Botany, says, "I know of no plant which surpasses the aletris farinosa in genuine, intense, and permanent bitterness. Neither aloes, gentian, nor quassia exceed it in the impression produced on the tongue." Vol. iii. p. 92. It appears that the root is highly resinous, and contains extrac- tive. That its alcoholic tincture is intensely bitter; its decoction moderately so. It possesses but little if any tannin or gallic acid, since chalybeate solutions undergo little change from its addition. It is used as a tonic and stomachic. ALKALI. An Arabian word introduced in chemistry, after it had long been applied to designate a plant which still bears the name of kali; hence the word above, is often very incorrectly spelled alkali. Three alkalies were formerly described, viz. two fixed and one volatile, under the names of Potass, .... or fixed vegetable alkali. Soda, . . . . or fixed mineral alkali. Ammonia, . . . or volatile alkali. It being, however, discovered that other substances possessed pro- perties analogous to those which characterize the above, they were by some chemists arranged in the same class of bodies ; such were barytes, strontia, lime, magnesia; and of late, several other princi- ples derived from vegetables, and of a compound nature, have been found to possess a right to a similar arrangement; such are mor- phine, strychnine, &c. These will be mentioned more particularly under their appropriate places. J As to the general properties of alkalies, they are defined to be in- combustible, soluble in water, caustic, and capable of neutralizing the acids, of combining with alcohol, oils, earths, sulphur and phos- phorus, and of changing vegetable blues and reds to green: But as many of these properties are possessed in a greater or less degree bv substances usually classed with the earths, and as there is a conti- nual gradation from the insipidity, insolubility, and infusibility of silica, to the causticity, solubility, fusibility, and comparative vola tility of potass, they may be classed together under the general name of Salifiable Bases s A.—Allium. 37 ALLIUM. 1. ALLIUM SATIVUM. E. L. D. A. Garlic. The root. Hexandria Monogynia. Nat. Ord. Spathacem, Linn. Asphodeli, Juss. Syn. Ail, (F.) Knoblauch, (G.) Aglio, (I.) Ajo Sativo, (S.) Lasuna, (San.) Lehsen, (H.) Inopofov, Theoph. and Dioscor. The garlic is a perennial bulbous-rooted plant, which grows wild in Sicily, and is cultivated in our gardens. The root consists of five or six small bulbs, called cloves, inclosed in one common membra- nous coat, but easily separable from each other. All the parts of this plant, but more especially the roots, have a strong, offensive, very penetrating and diffusible smell, and an acrimonious, almost caustic taste. The root is full of a limpid juice, of which it furnishes almost a fourth part of its weight by expression. The root loses about half its weight by drying, but scarcely any of its smell or taste. By Neumann's analysis, it lost two-thirds of its weight by exsicca- tion. By decoction from 960 parts, water extracted 380, and the re- siduum yielded 27 to alcohol, and was reduced to 40. Alcohol ap- plied first, extracted 123, the residuum yielded 162 to water, and was reduced to 40. In both cases the alcoholic extract was unctuous and tenacious, and precipitated metallic solutions. But the active ingredient was a yellowish, thick, ropy essential oil, according to Hagen, heavier than water, not amounting to more than 1.3 of the whole, in which alone resided the smell, the taste, and all that dis- tinguishes the garlic. Medical use.—Applied externally, it acts successively as a sti- mulant, rubefacient, and blister. Internally, from its very powerful and diffusible stimulus, it is often useful in diseases of languid cir- culation and interrupted secretion. Hence in cold, leucophlegmatic habits, it proves a powerful expectorant, diuretic, and, if the patient be kept warm, sudorific: it has also been by some supposed to be emmenagogue. For the same reason, in cases in which a phlogistic diathesis, or other irritability prevails, large doses of it may be very hurtful. It is sometimes used by the lower classes as a condiment, and also enters as an ingredient into many of the epicure's most favourite sauces. Taken in moderation it promotes digestion; but in excess, it is apt to produce head-ache, flatulence, thirst, febrile heat, and in- flammatory diseases, and sometimes occasions a discharge of blood from the hemorrhoidal vessels. In fevers of the typhoid type, and even in the plague itself, its virtues have been much celebrated. Garlic is with some also a favourite remedy in the cure of inter- mittents; and it has been said to have sometimes succeeded in ob- stinate quartans, after the Peruvian bark had failed. In catarrhal disorders of the breast; asthma, both pituitous and spasmodic; flatu- lent colics; hysterical and other diseases, proceeding from laxity of the solids, it has generally good effects: it has likewise been found serviceable in some hydropic cases. Sydenham relates, that he has known the dropsy cured bv the use of garlic alone; he recommends it chiefly as a warm strengthening medicine in the beginning of the disease. 38 A.—Allium. It is much recommended by some as an anthelmintic, and has been frequently applied with success externally as a stimulant to in- dolent tumours, in cases of deafness proceeding from atony or rheumatism, and in retention of urine, arising from debility of the bladder. Garlic may be either exhibited in substance, and in this way seve- ral cloves may be taken at a time without inconvenience, or the cloves cut into slices, may be swallowed without chewing. This is the common mode of exhibiting it for the cure of intermittents. The expressed juice, when given internally, must be rendered as palatable as possible by the addition of sugar and lemon juice. In deafness, cotton moistened with the juice is introduced within the ear, and the application renewed five or six times in one day. Infusions in spirit, wine, vinegar, and water, although containing the whole of its virtues, are so acrimonious, as to be unfit for general use; and yet an infusion of an ounce of bruised garlic in a pound of milk, was the mode in which Rosenstein exhibited it to children afflicted with worms. But by far the most commodious form for administering garlic is that of a pill or bolus conjoined with some powder, corresponding with the intention of giving the garlic. In dropsy calomel forms a most useful addition. It may also sometimes be exhibited with ad- vantage in the form of a clyster. Garlic made into an ointment with oils, &c. and applied external- ly, is said to resolve and discuss indolent tumours, and has been by some greatly esteemed in cutaneous diseases. It has likewise some- times been employed as a repellent. When applied under the form of a poultice to the pubes, it has sometimes proved effectual in pro- ducing a discharge of urine, when retention has arisen from a want of due action in the bladder. Sydenham assures us that among all the substances which occasion a derivation or revulsion from the head, none operate more powerfully than garlic applied to the soles of the feet: he was led to make use of it in the confluent small-pox: about the eighth day after the face began to swell, the root cut in pieces and tied in a linen cloth, was applied to the soles, and re- newed once a-day till all danger was over. The most powerful antidotes to the flavour of this tribe of vege- tables, are the aromatic leaves and seeds of the umbelliferae ; thus the disagreeable odour of a person's breath after the ingestion of an onion, is best counteracted by parsley; and if leek or garlic be mix- ed with a combination of aromatic ingredients, its virulence will be greatly mitigated and corrected.—Paris' Pharmacologia. 2. ALLIUM CEP A. D. Onion. The Root. Syn. Ognon, (F.) Swiebel, (G.) Cipolla, (I.) Cebolla, (S.) Palando, (San.) Pecaj, (H.) Bassul, (A.) Kpopvov, Dioscor. This is also a perennial bulbous-rooted plant. The root is a sim- ple bulb, formed of concentric circles. It possesses in general the same properties as the garlic, but in a much weaker degree. Neumann extracted from 480 parts of the dry root, by means of alcohol, 360 and then by water 30; by water applied first, 395, and then by alco- hol, 30: the first residuum weighed 56, and the second 64. By dis- A.—Aloe. 39 tillation the whole flavour of the onions passed over, but no oil could be obtained. Wiegleb says, that all this class of vegetables, as well as the acrid cruciform, owe their acrimony to a subtile essential oil, and that they contain combined ammonia, which can be obtained by dis- tillation with a solution of potash. Vauquelin ascribes its acrimony to volatile oil combined with sulphur, and its sweetness to uncrys- tallizable sugar with mucus, gluten, and animo-vegetable matter. Medical uses.'—Onions are considered rather as articles of food than of medicine: they are supposed to yield little or no nourishment, and when eaten liberally produce flatulencies, occasion thirst, head- aches and turbulent dreams; in cold phlegmatic habits, where viscid mucus abounds, they doubtless have their use; as by their stimulating quality they tend to excite appetite, and promote the secretions: by some they are strongly recommended in suppressions of urine and in dropsies. The chief medicinal use of onions in the present prac- tice is in external applications, as a cataplasm for suppurating tu- mours, &c. 3. ALLIUM PORRUM. L. Leek. The root. Syn. Poireau, (F.) Spanische lauch, (G.) Porro, (I.) «pt«r, Theoph. and Dioscor. The common leek is rather an article of the Materia Alimentaria, than of the Materia Medica. In its properties, it is. analogous to garlic, but weaker even than the common onion. A decoction of the beards or filaments of the bulbs is supposed by the vul°ar to be lithontriptic. ° ALOE.—ALOES. Hexandria Monogynia. Nat. ord. Coronarise, Linn. Asphodeli, Juss. Syn. Sue d'Aloes, (F.) Glausinde Aloe, (G.) Aloe, (S.) (I.) Elwa, (H.> Musebber, (A.) Axon, Dioscor. The London college now agree with that of Dublin, and with Thunberg, in indicating the Aloe spicata as the species which pro- duces the Socotorine aloes, and they assume as the source of the Barbadoes aloes, a species to be described under the name of Aloe vulgaris, m the great work of the late Dr. Sibthorpe, the Flora Graeca, now preparing for publication by Dr. Smith, who informed Dr. Powell, "- that the plant described under the above name is as- serted by Dr. Sibthorpe to be the true Aloe of Dioscorides, which is described as producing our officinal Barbadoes aloes by Sloane in hi- history of Jamaica." During the first four years that the Cape of Good Hope was in possession of the British, more than 300,000 pounds, the produce of that settlement, were imported into England; and as this quantity was infinitely greater than could be required for the purposes of medicine, it is not improbable, that, as Mr. Barrow states, its prin cipal consumption was by the London porter brewers. 40 A.—Aloe. ALOE SOCOTORINA. Z>.* Aloe Spicata. L. Aloe Perfoliata. E. The Gum resin or Extract, called Socotorine Aloes. Cape Aloes. Aloe Vulgaris. L. Aloe Hepatica. E. D. Common, or Barbadoes, or Hepatic Aloes. The extract. Socotorine AloesA—This species, which is the most esteemed, is brought, wrapt up in skins, from the island of Socotora in the Indian Ocean, also from the Cape of Good Hope. It is dark-coloured, of a glossy clear surface, and in some degree pellucid; in mass, of a yel- lowish red colour, with a purple cast; fracture unequal; easily pul- verisable; when reduced to powder, of a bright golden colour. It is hard and friable in the winter, somewhat pliable in summer, and growing soft between the fingers. Its taste is bitter and disagree- able, though accompanied with some aromatic flavour; the smell is not very unpleasant, and somewhat resembles that of myrrh. It is said not to produce haemorrhoidal affections so readily as Barbadoes aloes. It is prepared in July, by pulling off the leaves, from which the juice is expressed, and afterwards boiled and skimmed. It is then preserved in skins, and dried in August in the sun. According to others, the leaves are cut off close to the stem, and hung up. The juice which drops from them without any expression, is afterwards dried in the sun. Hepatic or Barbadoes Aloes, is of two kinds, the one from the East Indies, the other from Barbadoes. The former has a light brown, or reddish yellow colour, a clean fracture, and possesses nearly the same medical properties as the socotorine. Barbadoes aloes is not so clear and bright as the foregoing sort; it is also of a darker co- lour, more compact texture, and for the most part drier; though not so brittle. Its smell is much stronger and more disagreeable; the taste intensely bitter and nauseous, with little or nothing of the aromatic flavour of the socotorine. The best hepatic aloes from Bar- badoes is in large gourd shells, and an inferior sort of it, which is generally soft and clammy, is brought over in casks. In Barbadoes the plant is pulled up by the roots, and carefully cleaned from the earth and other impurities. It is then sliced into small hand-baskets and nets, which are put into large iron boilers with water, and boil- ed for ten minutes, when they are taken out, and fresh parcels sup- plied till the liquor is strong and black, which is then strained into a deep vat, narrow at bottom, where it is left to cool and to deposit its feculent parts. Next day the clear liquor is drawn off by a cock, and again committed to a large iron vessel. At first it is boiled briskly, but towards the end it is slowly evaporated, and requires constant stirring to prevent burning. When it becomes of the con- sistence of honey, it is poured into gourds or calabashes for sale, ♦Both these species are admitted into the Pharm. of the U. S. by the names of Aloe Socotrina and Barbadensis. ■J-This name, says Renodaeus, (1645,) "vel Succotrina, quasi succo-citrina, quod ejus pulvis citrinus sit, dicitur: aut, ut quidam volunt, Socotorina, quod ex Socotorina insula deferatur prxstantissima."—Dispensatorium, p. 351. A.—Aloe. 4 i and hardens by age. Barbadoes aloes is extremely apt to induce haemorrhoids; but it is generally preferred, because it is very diffi- cult to adulterate it without altering its appearance. There is a third kind found in commerce under the name of Caballine or Horse Aloes. It is easily distinguished from both the foregoing kinds by its strong rank smell; although, in other respects, it agrees pretty much with the hepatic, and is not unfrequently sold in its stead. Some- times the caballine aloes is prepared so pure and bright, as not to be distinguishable by the eye even from the socotorine, but its offensive smell, of which it cannot be divested, readily betrays it. Its fracture also resembles that of common rosin, with which it is often adulte- rated, whereas the fracture of socotorine aloes is unequal and irre- gular. Chemical Composition.—In this there appears to be some obscu- rity; Mr. Braconnot, (Ann. de Chim. torn. 68,) conceives it to be a substance, sui generis, which he terms "bitter resin;" whilst others regard it as composed of resin, gum, and extractive, the proportions of which are supposed to vary in the different species, but that their peculiar virtues reside in the extractive part. From sixteen ounces of aloes, Neumann extracted near fifteen by means of alcohol. From the residuum water took up one drachm, about an ounce of impurities being left; on inverting the procedure, and applying water first, he obtained but thirteen ounces and a half of watery extract, and from the residuum alcohol dissolved an ounce and a half. According to this analysis, 1000 parts of aloes contain about 7.8 soluble in water only, or analogous to gum, 94 soluble in alcohol only, or resinous matter, and 825 soluble both in alcohol and water or extractive. Tromsdorft* makes them consist of 25 resin and 75' extractive, and Lagrange of 52 resin and 86 extractive. Dr. Lewis also remarks, that decoctions of aloes let fall a precipitate, as they cool, probably from extractive being more soluble in boiling than in cold water. He also found the hepatic aloes to contain more resin and less extractive than the socotorine, and this less than the cabal- line. Tromsdorff, on the contrary, gives 81.25 extractive, 6.25 resin, and 12.50 albumen, as the constituents of hepatic aloes. Boulduc also found in socotorine aloes one-fourth, ana in hepatic aloes one- third of resin. The resins of all the sorts, purified by alcohol, have little smell; that obtained from the socotorine has scarce any per- ceptible taste; that of the hepatic, a slightly bitterish relish; and the resin of the caballine, a little more of the aloetic flavour. The ex- tractive obtained separately from any of the kinds is less disagreea- ble than the crude aloes: the extractive of socotorine aloes has very little smell, and is in taste not unpleasant; that of the hepatic has a somewhat stronger smell, but is rather more agreeable in taste than the extract of the socotorine: the extractive of the caballine retains a considerable share of the peculiar rank smell of this sort of aloes, but its taste is not much more unpleasant than that of the extractive obtained from the two other sorts. Medical use.—Aloes is a better stimulating purgative, exerting its 42 A.—Aloe. action chiefly on the rectum. In doses of from 5 to 15 grains it emp- ties the large intestines, without making the stools thin; and like- wise warms the habit, quickens the circulation, and promotes the uterine and haemorrhoidal fluxes* If given in so large a dose as to purge effectually, it often occasions an irritation about the anus, and sometimes a discharge of blood. It is to the slowness with which aloes is dissolved in the primae viae, that it is indebted for the medicinal properties which distin- guish it; by boiling water it is dissolved, but on cooling a precipita- tion occurs, and by long decoction it becomes quite inert; weak acids dissolve it more abundantly than water, but proof spirit is its most perfect solvent. Its solubility is increased by alkaline salts and soaps, but by such combination, aloes undergoes a material change in its medicinal properties; the bitterness is diminished, its purgative effects impaired, and it ceases to operate specifically upon the large intestines; a fact, the knowledge of which is valuable, as it enables us in certain cases to obviate its irritating action upon the rectum. It is frequently employed in cases of suppression of the menses, or of the haemorrhoidal discharge; but it is particularly serviceable in habitual costiveness, to persons of a phlegmatic temperament and sedentary life, and where the stomach is oppressed and weakened. For its use in typhus fever, scarlatina, cynanche maligna, marasmus, chlorosis, haematemesis, chorea, hysteria, and tetanus, Dr. Hamil- ton's excellent work on purgatives may be consulted. Aloes is also used as an anthelmintic, both given internally and applied to the abdomen in the form of a plaster. Dissolved in alcohol, it is em- ployed to check haemorrhagies in recent wounds, and as a detergent in ulcers. Aloes is administered either a. Simply, or b. In composition: 1. With purgatives. Soap, scammony, colocynth, rhubarb. 2. With aromatics. Canella. Hiera picra. 3. With bitters. Gentian. 4. With emmenagogues. Iron, myrrh. It is exhibited in the form of a. Powder; too nauseous for general use. b. Pill; the most convenient form. c. Solution in wine or diluted alcohol. From its extreme "bitterness, the form of pill is best adapted fol- ks employment. Aloes form the basis of most of the antibilious and purging pills sold as patent medicines, thus we have, Anderson's pills—Composed of Barbadoes Aloes, with a proportion of jalap and oil of aniseed. Hoopers pills—Composed of the pil. aloes cum myrrha, (the former pil. Rufi,) sulphat of iron and canella bark, with a portion of ivory black. J Fothergill's pills.—Aloes, scammony, colocynth, and oxyd of anti- mony. Cum multis aliis! A.—Ammonia. 43 ALTHiEA OFFICINALIS. E. Althaea. L. Marsh Mallow. The Root and Leaves. Monodelphia Polyandria. Nat. ord. Columniferx, Linn. Malvaceae, Juss. Syn. Guimauve, (F.) Eibisch, (G.) Altea, (I.) Malvarisco, (S.) ak^mo., Dioscor. The marsh-mallow is a perennial plant, which is found commonly on the banks of rivers, and in salt marshes. ^ , The whole plant, but especially the root, abounds with mucilage. The roots are about the thickness of a finger, long and fibrous. They are peeled and dried, and then are perfectly white. Medical, use.— It is used as an emollient and demulcent, in dis- eases attended with irritation and pain, as in various pulmonary com- plaints, and in affections of the alimentary canal and urinary organs; and it is applied externally in emollient fomentations, gargles, and clysters. It is about on a footing with gum Arabic, flaxseed, and the like. AMMONIA.—VOLATILE ALKALI. This very extraordinary substance was, for a time, considered a simple body. It was first discovered by Dr. Priestley. The arti- cle known by the name of ammonia, anterior to that period, was the carbonat. Ammonia consists oi* one part of nitrogen, with three of hydrogen by bulk, or of three of hydrogen and thirteen of nitrogen by weight. It exists in its purest form combined with caloric as a gas, which is perfectly transparent and colourless, elastic and compressible; spe- cific gravity 8 to hydrogen, or 100 cubic inches weigh eighteen grains. It has an urinous and acrid odour, irritating the nostrils and eyes, and an acrid and caustic taste; it does not dissolve animal substan- ces; is irrespirable; extinguishes flame; colours vegetable blues green; and is decomposed by being transmitted through a red-hot tube, and by the electric spark, into its constituent gases; and by oxygen and atmospheric air at a red heat; and by oxy-muriatic acid, it is converted into water and nitrogen gas. It is absorbed without change try porous bodies; it dissolves sulphur and phosphorus; and combines readily with water in all its states. Water at a mean temperature and pressure is saturated by 670 times its volume of gaseous ammonia, and is thereby increased in bulk, and acquires the specific gravity of 0.875. Ammonia combines with all the acids, forming neutral salts. It is formed during the putrefactive fermen- tation. Ammonia, in its gaseous form, is not an article of the Materia Medica: but if made to impregnate water, or alcohol, it then be- comes so, under the names of Aqua, and Spiritus Ammonias. Ammonije Murias. L. E. D. A. Muriat of Ammonia. Sal Ammoniac. Hydrochlorat of Ammonia. Syn. Sel Ammoniac, (F.) Salmiak, (G.) Sale ammoniaco, (I.) Sal armo- niaco, (S.) Nosader, (H.) Muriat of ammonia is found native, especially in the neighbour- 14 A.—Ammonia. hood of volcanos.* It was first prepared in Egypt from the soot of camel-dung by sublimation. But the greatest part of that now used, is manufactured in Europe, either by combining directly ammonia with muriatic acid, oc by decomposing the sulphat of ammonia by means of muriat of soda, or the muriats of lime and magnesia by means of ammonia. In commerce, muriat of ammonia occurs either sublimed in firm, round, elastic, concavo-convex cakes, or crystallized in conical masses. The latter commonly contain other salts, especially mu- riat of lime, which renders them deliquescent; and therefore the sublimed muriat of ammonia is to be preferred for the purposes of medicine. Muriat of ammonia has an acrid, pungent, urinous taste. It is so- luble in about three times its weight of water at 60°, and in an equal weight at 212°; During its solution, it produces 32 degrees of cold. It is also soluble in about 4.5 parts of alcohol. It is permanent in the ordinary state of the atmosphere. By a gentle heat, it may be de- prived of its water of crystallization, and reduced to the form of a white powder. At a higher temperature it sublimes unchanged. Its crystals are either six-sided pyramids, aggregated in a plumose form, or still more commonly four-sided pyramids. It consists of 42.75 muriatic acid, 25.00 ammonia, and 32.25 water. But in con- sequence of the present unsettled opinions respecting the nature of muriatic acid and ammonia, and the changes which they undergo by combination with each other, the composition of this salt is in- volved in much obscurity. According to Dr. Thomson, it consists of equal volumes of muriatic acid gas, and ammoniacal gas; or it may be a compound of chlorine and ammonium, the hypothetical base of ammonia. Unlike all other ammoniacal salts, it is not de- composed by heat; which may be regarded as strong evidence of its being a compound of chlorine, and an unknown base. Incompatible Substances.—The sulphuric and nitric acids unite with the ammonia, and expel the muriatic acid. On the contrary, ammonia is disengaged by the action of potash and its carbonat, car- bonat of soda, lime, magnesia, &c. which combine with the muriatic acid. All metallic salts, whose bases form insoluble compounds with muriatic acid, as silver, lead, are incompatible. Medical use.—Muriat of ammonia is now seldom used internally. It was formerly supposed to be a powerful aperient and attenuant of viscid humours. Externally applied, it is a valuable remedy. It may act in two ways. 1. By the cold produced during its solution. It is from this cause that fomentations of muriat of ammonia pro- bably prove beneficial in mania, apoplexy from plethora, and in vio- lent head-aches. When used with this intention, the solution should be applied as soon as it is made. 2. By the stimulus of the salt. On this principle we may explain its action as a discutient in in- * The eruption of Etna in 1811, afforded as much sal ammoniac as sunnli ed aU the manufactories and apothecaries' shops in Sicily. Ann. de mines torn. 5. ' A.—Ammonia. 45 dolent tumours of all kinds, contusions, gangrene, psora, ophthal- mia, cynanche; and in stimulating clysters. In some cases, as in chilblains and other indolent inflammations, both modes of action may be serviceable. When first applied, the coldness of the solu- tion will diminish the sense of heat and uneasiness of the part, and the subsequent stimulus will excite a more healthy action in the vessels. If pure, this salt should be entirely volatilized at a low heat. If sulphat of ammonia be present, which also is volatile, this may be detected by muriat of barytes. Muriat of ammonia is the salt from which all the principal phar- maceutic preparations are made. AQUA AMMONIA. E. A. Aqua Ammonia Caustics. D. Liquor Ammonite. L. Water of Ammonia. Water of Caustic Ammonia. Liquor of Ammonia. Syn. Dissolution d'Ammoniaque, (F.) Atzender Ammonium-liquor, (G.) Li- quore di Ajinmoniaco, (I.) Take of Muriat of ammonia, in powder, one pound; Lime, fresh burnt, one pound and a half; Water, one gallon.—Add to the lime, two pints of the water; let them stand until the lime is slacked, then put the lime into a glass retort, resting on a sand bath, to the beak of which is connected a large glass receiver, which is to be kept cold; add to the lime the muriat of ammonia, and the re- mainder of the water; and distil with a slow fire, until the liquid in the receiver amount to two pints. The formula here adopted, is apparently injudicious; the quantity of water being far greater than is required to absorb all the ammo- nia, renders it necessary to employ retorts of large size. It is true, the remaining muriat of lime, formed during the process, and left in the retort, is thereby retained in solution; but as it is one of the most soluble salts, a much inferior quantity would answer this end. The process differs from that recommended by the London college. chiefly in using more lime, and in this particular, it is preferable. In our opinion, the Edinburgh formula is superior to the others; in it, the ammonia passes over as a gas, which combines with the water placed in the receiver. Dorfurt, Bucholz, and Van Mons, agree in recommending nearly the following process, which resembles that of the Edinburgh college. Slake sixteen ounces of lime with a sufficient quantity of water to form a thick paste; put it into a cucurbit, and add sixteen ounces of sal ammoniac; lute on the capital, furnished with a bent tube, reaching to the bottom of a receiver containing twenty-four ounces of water, and draw off twenty-four ounces, so as to fill the space of forty-eight ounces, previously marked on the receiver, and keep it in phials perfectly closed, by dipping their necks when corked in melted wax. The specific gravity of the aqua ammoniae, as prepared by the Dublin college is .934, that of Loudon .960, and that of Edinburgh is .939. 46 A.—Ammonia. Table of the quantities of Real or Gaseous Ammonia in solutions oj different Specific gravities. (Dalton.) Specific Grains of ammo- Grains of am- Boiling point Volume of gas Gravity. nia in 100 water monia in 100 of the liquic condensed hi grain measures grains of li- a given vol. ot ofliquid. quid. Fahr. scale. liquid. .85 30 . 35.3 . 26° 494 .86 . 28 . 32.6 . 38 456 .87 u 26 . . 29.9 . - 50 419 .88 24 . 27.3 . 62 . . 382 .89 . 22 . 24.7 • 74 346 .90 \ 20 . 22.2 . 86 311 .91 ■. 18 . 19.8 . 98 . . 277 .92 . 16 . 17.4 . 110 . . 244 .93 . 14 . 15.1 . 122 . 211 .94 . # 12 . 12.8 . 134 180 .95 # 10 . 10.5 . 146 . . 147 .96 , 8 . 8.3 . 158 . . 116 .97 . m 6 . 6.2 . . 173 . . 87 .98 t 4 . 4.1 187 . . 57 .99 , , 2 . 2 196 . . 28 Sir Humphrey Davy's results were somewhat different. He found 100 parts of specific gravity 0.875, to contain 32.5 of ammonia; of specific gravity 0.9054, 25.37; and of specific gravity 0.9692, 9.5 of ammonia.^ For ordinary purposes it is useful to know, that a phial capable of containing 224 grains of distilled water, can hold no more than 216 grains of the strong solution. Water of ammonia decomposes many of the earthy, and all the metalline salts, and is capable of dissolving, or combining with many of the metallic oxyds, and even of oxydizing some of the me- tals. When pure, water of ammonia does not effervesce with any of the acids, or form a precipitate with alcohol. As it readily absorbs carbonic acid from the atmosphere, the Edinburgh college,'very pro- perly, order it to be kept in small phials. By neglecting this precau- tion in the shops, it becomes carbonated before the large bottles, in which it is often kept, be half empty, or it becomes weakened. Qualities.—Form, a limpid colourless fluid, specific gravity, .960, or one fluid ounce weighs about 438 grains. Odour.—Strong and pungent. Taste.—Extremely caustic. Chemical Composition —A solution of ammoniacal gas in water, varying considerably in strength, in the different pharmacopoeias. It is an active solvent of many vegetable principles. With alcohol it unites in every proportion. It assists the oxydizement of copper and zinc, and dissolves many of the metallic oxyds. Adulterations.—The aqua ammoniae should contain nothing but the volatile alkali; and if properly saturated, its specific gravity at 60° Fahr. will be about .905, free from carbonic acid. The carbonic acid is shown by a precipitation, on mixing the solu- tion with one of muriat of lime, which earthy salt is not precipitated by pure ammonia. If other salts are present, they may be discover- ed by saturating a portion with pure nitric acid, and adding the re- quisite tests. A__Ammonia. 47 Medical use.—-Rarely given internally; but in doses of five to twenty drops, largely diluted, it acts as a powerful stimulant. Ex- ternally, it is applied to the skin as a rubefacient, chiefly, however, combined with sweet oil, forming a saponaceous liniment. Aqua Ammonle Diluta. E. Diluted Water of Ammonia. Take of water of ammonia, one part; distilled water, two parts; mix them. This formula for a diluted solution of ammonia, we are told, is absolutely necessary; for water of ammonia, of the strength obtained by the direction of the colleges, is perfectly unmanageable. This is true, but it would seem unnecessary to introduce a specific for- mula for the mere purpose of dilution, which might always be done at the moment as heretofore. ALCOHOL AMMONIATUM. E* Ammoniated Alcohol. Spiritus Ammonite. L. D. Spirit of Ammonia. Spirit of Sal Ammoniac. Syn. Sp. Sails ammoniaci dulcis P. L. 1745. Alcohol ammoniacal, (F.) Gristiger ammonium liquor, (G.) Alcoole ammoniato, (I.) Take of Alcohol, two pints; Lime, recently burnt, one pound; Muriat of ammonia, in powder, eight ounces; water, six ounces. Add the water to the lime, let them stand till the lime is slacked; then put the lime into a glass retort resting on a sand bath, to the beak of which is connected a glass receiver, which is to be kept cold; add to the lime the muriat of ammonia and the alcohol, and distil with a slow fire, until the liquid in the receiver amounts to one pint and a half. It may be a question, why only a pint and a half of spirit are distilled over when two pints of alcohol are contained in the prescrip- tion; is there not a loss sustained? This preparation, which is a solution of ammoniacal gas, in spirit, in place of water, is not much employed as a medicine by itself; it is rather as the basis of some other compounds hereafter to be no- ticed. Tinctura Ammoniata Aromatica. E.i Ammoniated Aromatic Tincture. Spiritus Ammonite Aromaticus. D. L. Aromatic Ammoniated Tincture. Aromatic Spirit of Ammonia. Spiritus Ammoniae Compositus. Spiritus Volat. Aromaticus. Syn. Spiritus salis volatilis oleosus. Take of Ammoniated alcohol, half a pint; Oil of rosemary, one fluid drachm and a half; Oil of sassafras or lemons, one fluid drachm. Mix them that the oils may be dissolved. Medicines of this kind may be prepared extemporaneously, by dropping any proper volatile oil into ammoniated alcohol, which * Alcohol Ammoniatum, Ph. IT. S. 4 Tinct. Ammoniata Aromatica, Ph. U. S. 48 A__Ammonia. will readily dissolve the oil, if the ammonia in the solvent be caustic; for, if it be carbonated, such as it was when prepared according to the former directions of the London college, it does not dissolve the oils here ordered; and is therefore totally unfit for this preparation. Mr. Phillips says, that the oils as imported are commonly adulte- rated with fixed oil, which renders the aromatic spirit coloured and turbid, and that it is therefore the usual practice of chemists to distil the mixture of oils and tepirit. Medical use.— Ammonia, thus united with aromatics, is not only more agreeable in flavour, but likewise more acceptable to the stomach, and less acrimonious, than when uncombined. The dose is from five to six drops to sixty or more. Tinctura Ammoniata Ass^efoetidjE. E. Spiritus Ammonia Fostidus. L. D. Ammoniated Tincture of Assafoetida. Foetid Spirit of Ammonia. Alcohol Ammoniatum Foetidum. Take of Ammoniated alcohol, eight ounces; Assafoetida, half an ounce. Digest in a close vessel twelve hours; then distil off, with the heat of boiling water, eight ounces. • E. This spirit, which is easily prepared, is designed as an anti-hys- teric, and is undoubtedly a very elegant one. Volatile spirits, im- pregnated for these purposes with different fetids, have been usually kept in the shops; the ingredient here chosen, is the best calculated of any for general use, and equivalent in virtue to them all. The spirit is pale when newly distilled, but acquires a considerable tinge by keeping. It is not very evident why the different Pharmacopoeias order this to be distilled. The process is at best unnecessary. It is, however, an excellent remedy, and might, be employed with advan- tage to form some of the ammoniated tinctures, especially that of guaiacum. Its dose is the same as the preceding. Spiritus Ammonite Succinatus. L. Succinated Spirit of Ammonia. Syn. Eau de Luce. Take of Mastich, 3 drachms; Alcohol, 9 fluid drachms; Oil of La- vender, 14 minims; Oil of Amber, 4 minims; Solution of Ammo- nia, ten fluid ounces. Macerate the mastich in the alcohol; when dissolved, pour off the clear tincture; add the other Jngredients, and mix them by agitation. The preparation of the pharmacopoeia of 1787, under this name, did not preserve the milky appearance, characteristic of Eau de luce, for which it was substituted: the present formula is said to furnish a compound, capable of preserving its milkiness for a considerable time. It is stimulant and antispasmodic: and has been successful in India against the bite of snakes. Dose, ten minims to 3SS or more, in any convenient vehicle. A.—Ammonia. 49 AMMONITE SUB-CARBONAS. L. E. D.* Sub-carbonat of Ammonid. Ammonia Pr^parata. Sal Volatile, &c. Carbonat of Ammonia. Syn. Carbonate d'Ammoniaque, (F.) Kohlensaures Ammonium, (G.) Take of Muriat\ of ammonia, one pound; soft carbonat of Lime, dried, one pound and a half. Having triturated them separately, mix them thoroughly, and sublime from a retort into a receiver kept cool. L. The neutral carbonat or bi-carbonat of ammonia was formed by Berthollet, by impregnating a solution of sub-carbonat with carbonic acid gas. According to his experiments it is composed of Ammonia . . . 28.19 . . 100 . . 39.2 Carbonic acid . . 71.81 . . 255 . .100. 100. 355 139.2 From the known specific gravity of those two bodies, Gay Lussac has calculated that the neutral carbonat consists of exactly equal quantities by measure of the two gases, while the sub-carbonat is composed or two volumes of alkaline gas to one of carbonic acid gas. This is a case of mutual decomposition. The carbonat of ammonia formed, being volatile, passes over into the receiver; the muriat of lime remains in the retort. It is more generally made in the large way. The chalk employed should always be very carefully dried; as the presence of moisture injures the product. It requires a con- siderable heat to promote the mutual action of the substances on each other. Gottling says, that the sublimation must be conducted in the open fire, and therefore uses an earthenware cucurbit, with a tubu- lated capital. When a glass retort is employed, it should have a very wide neck; and the best form for the receiver is cylindrical, as it en- ables us to get out the carbonat of ammonia condensed in it without breaking it. The residuum which remains in the retort, furnishes muriat o/ lime by lixiviation and evaporation. Sometimes carbonat of potass or soda, is employed for the prepa- ration of carbonat of ammonia. The theory of the process is the same, and the decomposition is effected at a lower temperature. But as potass or soda are very rarely saturated with carbonic acid, part of the ammonia is evolved in the form of gas, which, if not permitted to escape, will burst the vessels. To prevent this loss, therefore, Mr. Gottling uses a cucurbit and, capital, furnished with a bent tube, which is to be immersed in a phial of water; by which contrivance, while the carbonat of ammonia is condensed in the capital, the gase- ous ammonia is absorbed by the water. The residuum contains either muriat of potass or soda. Qualities.—Form, white, semi-transparent masses, fibrous tex- ture, effervescing on exposure to air. Odour.—Pungent and peculiar. Taste.—Acrid, but cooling. Chemical Composition.—Varies materially, according to the tem- * Ammoniae carbonas. Phar. U. S. corrig'. sub-carbonas. 8 50 A.—Ammonia. perature employed in its preparation. As usually prepared, Mr- Phi Hips says it contains about half; its weight of carbonic acid; its composition being carbonic acid 50, ammoniac 39, water 11. It is, indeed, said to differ in the amount of alkali contained, from fifty to twenty per cent. As a medicine, this is a fact of infinite importance to its value. Solubility.—About three times its weight of cold water are re- quired to dissolve it. Increase of temperature augments its solubili- ty; approach to a boiling heat, volatilizes, and partially decomposes it. Insoluble in alcohol, and hence the addition of spirit to a strong solution, produces a dense coagulum. Incompatibles.—Acids, fixed alkalies and their carbonats, lime, magnesia, alum, super tartrat of potass, and all acidulous salts, sul- phat of magnesia, acetat of mercury, calomel, and corrosive subli- mate, super acetat of lead, tartarized iron, and sulphats of iron and zinc. If added to decoctions or infusions, they must be previously cooled. It is best exhibited in the form of a pill, or julep. Medical use.—It exactly resembles ammonia in its action, except that it is weaker, and its efficacy as a stimulant, must, therefore, de- pend on the excess of ammonia in it, that is, the unsaturated part. It is probable, a perfectly neutral carbonat of ammonia would be no more efficient, than an equal dose of acetat or muriat of the same salt. If it meets with an acid in the stomach, it is immediately de- composed, and a new salt will necessarily be produced. Unequal as it is in strength,* we are never certain of administering the same amount; it would therefore be well to dismiss it from use, and em- ploy the aqua ammonia in its place. Given as it usually is, in the low states of disease, with other powerful stimulants, as wine, brandy, &c. it is probably much overrated in practice. In large doses, (half a drachm to two scruples,) it is said to be emetic. It has been found useful in gastric affections, which super- vene habits of irregularity and debauchery; probably by its alkales- cent nature in neutralizing acid, which not unfrequently attends it. It is employed for smelling too, in syncope, hysteria, &c. and is used in preparing some other articles of medicinal employment. Its dose is from five to twenty grains. Adulteration.—It ought to be entirely volatilized by heat. If any thing remain, when it is laid on a heated iron, carbonat of potash or lime may be suspected; and this is not unlikely to be the case, if the salt be purchased in form of powder. Always purchase it in solid lumps. Sulphuric or muriatic salts, lime, iron, &c. may be discover- ed by adding to the alkali, saturated with nitric acid, the appropri- ate tests.t It ought to be free of every smell, excepting its peculiar ammoniacal odour. Dr. Paris asserts, that there is a large quantity * By Dalton's experiments on this subject, 100 grains of carbonat of amme^ nia lost as follows, by exposure to a temperature of 45°. In 4 hours, lost 20 grains. 8 43 11 48£ 18 49^ 24 50 f Muriat of Barytes, nitrat of silver, oxalat of ammonia, tincture of galls, &c. A.—Ammonia. 51 of an impure salt in the English market, manufactured from the re- siduum of the gas-light manufactories. AQUA CARBONATIS AMMONIA. D.* (Solutio, E.) Liquor Ammonije Subcarbonatis. L. Water of Carbonat of Ammonia. Solution or Liquor of Sub-Carbonat of Ammonia. Take of Muriat of ammonia; Carbonat of potass, each sixteen ounces; Water two pints. Having mixed the salts and put them into a glass retort, pour the water upon them, and distil to dry- ness in a sand bath, gradually increasing the heat. This is an old formula to be found in Duncan's seventh edition of the Edinburgh Dispensatory, for 1813. Why this trouble should have been taken for the formation of an article which can at once be made by dissolving the preceding salt in water, is difficult to say; certainly, it is by no means superior, if equal to that at present pur- sued, both by the Edinburgh and London colleges, viz. by dissolv- ing one part of the sub-carbonat in four of distilled water. This last is even more economical, since the muriat of potass left in the retort is of no use. The Dublin college employ soda instead of potash. A plan I have pursued, not unfrequently, to prepare this solution, is to impregnate the aqua ammoniae" placed in the middle vessel of Nooth's apparatus, with carbonic acid, evolved from marble, by mu- riatic acid. It is expeditious and easy of execution; but possesses no superiority over the common solution, of the solid sub-carbonat. The specific gravity of the solution, as given by the Dublin college, prepared by the present plan and followed by the pharmacopoeia of the U. S. is 1095. Dr. Henry, in his Chemistry, says it should have the specific gravity of 1150; that it should effervesce on the addition of acids; and should afford a strong coagulum on adding, (twice its bulk, Paris,) alcohol. This article is scarcely used in medicine, and might, without in- jury, have been omitted; the solid carbonat being amply adequate Its dose is twenty to sixty drops, still further diluted. Liquor Volatilis Cornu Cervini. D. Volatile Liquor of Hartshorn. Spirit of Hartshorn, 8j[c. Syn. Alkali volatil fluor, (F.) Take of Hartshorn any quantity. Distil with a fire gradually in? creased, the volatile liquor, salt, and oil. Repeat the distillation of the volatile liquor until it becomes as limpid as water, separat- ing by filtration, the oil and salt after each distillation. The liquor is more easily purified, if, after each distillation, except the first, we add one-sixth of wood charcoal, previously heated to red- ness, then extinguished, by covering it with sand, and powdered tvhile hot. If a sufficient quantity of hartshorn cannot be procur- ed, the bones of any land animals may supply its place. This is an impure sub-carbonat of ammonia, of no use in medi- *Aqua ammonix fsubj carbonatis, Ph. U. S. correctedr 52 A.—Ammonia. cine, which the preceding articles cannot supply; it is wisely reject* ed by the framers of the other Pharmacopoeias. So many repetitions of the same substance, (under different names,) might well expose the recommenders of them to ridicule. The wholesale dealers have very large pots for this distillation, with earthen heads, almost like those of the common still; for receiv- ers, they use a couple of oil jars, the mouths of which are luted to- gether; the pipe that comes from the head, is connected by means of an adopter with the lower jar, which is also furnished with a cock for drawing off the fluids condensed in it. The upper jar is entire, and in it is condensed the solid carbonat of ammonia. When a large quantity of the subject is to be distilled, it is customary to continue the operation for several days successively; only unluting the head occasionally, to put in fresh materials. When the upper jar be- comes entirely filled with carbonat of ammonia, it cracks. It is then to be removed, the salt to be taken out of it, and a fresh one sub- stituted in its place. When only a small quantity of spirit or salt is wanted, a common iron pot, such as is usually fixed in sand furnaces, may be employ- ed; an iron head being fitted to it, The receiver ought to be large, and a glass, or rather tin adopter, inserted between it and the pipe of the head. The distilling vessel being charged with pieces of horn, a mode- rate fire is applied, which is slowly increased, and raised at length almost to the utmost degree. At first water arises, which gradually acquires colour and smell, from the admixture of empyreumatic oil and ammoniacal salts; carbonat of ammonia next arises, which at first dissolves, as it comes over, in the water, and thus forms what is called the spirit. When the water is saturated, the remainder of the salt concentrates in a solid form to the sides of the recipient. If it be required to have the whole of the salt solid, and undissolved, the water should be removed as soon as the salt begins to arise, which may be known by the appearance of white fumes; and that this may be done the more commodiously, the receiver should be left unluted, till this first part of the process be finished. The white vapours which now arise, sometimes come over with such vehemence as to throw off or burst the receiver: to prevent this accident, it is convenient to have a small hole in the luting, which may be occa- sionally stopped with a wooden peg, or opened as the operator shall find proper. Lastly, the oil arises, which acquires greater colour and consistency as the operation advances. Carbonat of ammonia still comes over, but it is partly dissolved in the hot oily vapour. At the same time, there is a considerable disengagement of gas, consisting of a mixture of carbureted hydrogen often containing sul- phur and phosphorus, and of carbonic acid. All the liquid matters being poured out of the receiver, the salt which remains adhering to its sides, is to be washed out with a lit- tle water and added to the rest. It is convenient to let the whole stand for a few hours; that the oil may the better diseno-arre itself from the liquor, so as to be at first separated by a funnel, and after- wards more perfectly by filtration through wet paper. None of these products, except perhaps a small quantity of the A.—Ammonia. 53 water, exist ready formed in the matter subjected to the distillation, but are produced by a new arrangement of its constituents. For the production of ammonia, it is absolutely necessary that it contain nitrogen, or be what is called a quaternary oxyd. Although some vegetable, and most animal substances are of this kind, yet only the most solid parts of animals, such as bone and horn, are employed for the production of ammonia; because they furnish it less mixed with other substances, are easily obtained, and at little expense, and are very manageable in the distillation. On the application of heat, as soon as all the water which they contained is expelled, their elements begin to act on each other, and to form binary, or at most ternary compounds. Water is formed of part of the oxygen and hydrogen, ammonia of nitrogen and hydrogen, carbonic acid of car- bon and oxygen, then oil, of hydrogen and charcoal, while the super- fluous carbon remains in the retort in the state of (animal) charcoal. As the formation of these substances is simultaneous, or in immediate succession, they are not obtained separately, but are mixed with each other. The water is saturated with carbonat of ammonia, and im- pregnated with empyreumatic oil, while the carbonat of ammonia is discoloured with oil; and the oil contains carbonat of ammonia dis- solved in it. They may, however, be separated from each other in a great measure, in the manner already described. But a small por- tion of oil obstinately adheres both to the salts and its solution, which constitutes the only difference between salt and spirit of hartshorn as they are called, and the purer carbonat of ammonia, as obtained by the decomposition of muriat of ammonia. In the large way, this impure preparation may answer to form muriat of ammonia. Aqua Acetatis Ammonije. E. D. Liquor Ammonite Acetatis. L.* Water, or Solution of Acetat of Ammonia. Spirit of Mindererus. Take of Carbonat of ammonia, in powder, two ounces.—Add, by small portions, with frequent agitation, so much distilled Vinegar, as shall be sufficient exactly to saturate the ammonia. D. This is much better recommended, we think, as an, extempora"ne- ous prescription, than as a permanent article to be kept on the shelves of the apothecary. It is like other acetats in solution, liable to de- composition; and few persons will throw it away, even if spoilt, to form a fresh supply. By this process we obtain acetat of ammonia, dissolved in the water of the acetic acid; but as this is apt to vary in quantity, the solution also varies in strength, and the crystallization of the salt is attended with too much difficulty to be practised for pharmaceuti- cal purposes. Its crystals are long, slender, and flatted, of a pearly white colour, and of a cool sweetish taste, are very deliquescent, melt at 170°, and sublime at 250°. It is decomposed by the acids, alkalies, and several of the earths, and metalline salts; and when in solution, its acid is decomposed spontaneously, and by heat. Different proposals have been made to get a solution of greater strength and uniformity, than that still retained by the British *" Ammoniae acetas Uquidus, Phwm. U. S. 54 A.—Ammonia. colleges. Mr. Lowe saturates four ounces of carbonat of potass with distilled vinegar, and evaporates the solution to 36 ounces. He then mixes it with two ounces of muriat of ammonia, and dis- tils the mixture in a glass retort. Acetat of ammonia comes over. The last edition of the Prussian Pharmacopoeia prepares it by satu- rating three ounces of carbonat of ammonia with a strong acetic acid, (obtained by distillation from acetat of soda, dissolved in two parts of water, and decomposed by sulphuric acid,) and diluting the solution with water, so that it shall weigh twenty-four ounces. One ounce, therefore, contains the alkali of a drachm of carbonat of ammonia. Incompatible substances.—Acids, fixed alkalies, alum, lime-water, the sulphats of magnesia, zinc, copper, and iron, nitrat of silver, corrosive sublimate. Medical use.—Acetat of ammonia, when assisted by a warm regi- men, proves ah excellent and powerful sudorific; and as it operates without quickening the circulation or increasing the heat of the body, it is admissible in febrile and inflammatory diseases, in which the use of stimulating sudorifics are attended with danger. Its action may likewise be determined to the kidneys, by walking about in the cool air. The common dose is half an ounce, either by itself, or along with other medicines adapted to the same in- tention. This medicine may be made very readily and extemporaneously, by adding the acetic acid to the carbonat in a phial; by corking it, the carbonic acid is prevented from escaping; it unites in conse- quence of the pressure, with the acetat of ammonia, and forms a much more pleasant mixture. It is often very improperly prepared by apothecaries, with com- mon impure vinegar. The article is very unpleasant to many sto- machs. The Ph. U. S. employs the purified vinegar. HYDROSULPHURETUJM AMMONIA. E. D. A. Hydro-sulphuret of Ammonia. Hydro-sulphat of Ammonia. Take of Water of Ammonia, four fluid ounces ; subject it in a chemi- cal apparatus to a stream of the gas, which arises from Sulphuret of antimony, four ounces; Muriatic acid, eight ounces, previously diluted with two pints and a half of water.—Preserve the product in a close stopped glass vessel. Except in using sulphuret of antimony which the French have long employed, instead of sulphuret of iron, the above formula is that which is given by the Edinburgh college. Sulphureted hydrogen, or hydro-sulphuric acid, is capable of com- bining with different bases. In the present preparation it is combined with ammonia. It is obtained by decomposing a sulphuret, as of iron, with muriatic acid. As soon as the acid, by its superior affinity, se- parates the iron from the sulphur, the latter immediately re-acts on the water, the oxygen of which forms with one portion of it, sulphu- ric acid, while the hydrogen dissolves another portion, and forms sulphureted hydrogen gas. The combination of this with ammonia is facilitated by reduction of temperature, and by making it pass through a column of the water of ammonia by means of an apparatus. A.—Ammonia. 55 such as Woulfe's or Nooth's. The ammonia very readily assumes a Sreenish yellow colour, from the absorption of the sulphureted hy- rogen. Tromsdorff has proposed, that the sulphureted hydrogen gas should be obtained by the decomposition of sulphuret of potass; but in this way its formation is too rapid to be easily managed. Gottling says, that the acid should be added gradually, and that the whole must be constantly agitated. But these precautions are ren- dered unnecessary by diluting the acid in the degree directed by the Pharmacopoeia. Mr. Cruickshank, who first suggested the use of hydro-sulphuret of ammonia in medicine, directs the sulphuret of iron to be prepared by heating a bar of iron to a white heat in a smith's forge, and rubbing it against the end of a roll of sulphur. The iron at this temperature immediately combines with the sulphur, and forms globules of sulphureted iron, which should be received in a vessel filled with water. The above remarks may be useful, as sulphuret of antimony may not be always at hand. An easy mode of >preparing the sulphuret of iron is given in the Dublin Pharmacopoeia, as an accompaniment to the old process for the remedy we are considering, viz. Sulphuret of Iron. D. Take of purified filings of Iron, six ounces; Sublimed sulphur, two ounces; mix and expose them to a moderate degree of heat, in a covered crucible, until they unite in a mass. Medical use.—Hydro-sulphuret of ammonia, or more correctly, sulphureted hydroguret of ammonia, acts powerfully on the living system. It induces vertigo, drowsiness, nausea, and vomiting, and lessens the action of the heart and arteries. According to the doc- trine of the chemical physiologists, it is a powerful disoxygenizing remedy. It has only been used in diabetes by Dr. Rollo and others, under the name of hepatized ammonia, in doses of five or six drops three or four times a day, gradually increased till slight giddiness en- • sues, when no further augmentation should take place. The Dublin college have also given a process for preparing the Aqua Sulphureti Ammonite. D. Water of Sulphuret of Ammonia. Take of fresh burnt Lime, Muriat of ammonia, in powder, each, four ounces; Sublimed Sulphur, Hot water, each, two ounces.— Sprinkle the water upon the lime, placed in an earthen vessel, and cover it up until the lime falls to powder, which, as soon as it is cold, is to be mixed by trituration with the sulphur and muriat of ammonia, avoiding the vapours. Put the mixture into a retort, and distil with a sudden and sufficiently strong degree of heat. Keep the liquor thus obtained in a phial, accurately closed with a glass stopper. The product is, in fact, very little different from the former. The results of both may be regarded as the same.* In the former, the sulphureted hydrogen and ammonia, are presented to each other in • This last contains, it is asserted, a portion of uncombined alkali, to which it owes its fuming property, but which is speedily lost, if not kept accurately. It is decomposed by all acids, and most metallic solutions! 56 A.—Ammoniaeum. a fully formed state. In this, they meet each other in a nascent state. This is the Fuming Liquor of Boyle; and by the French, is called, (in conformity to this view of sulphureted hydrogen being an acid,) sulphureted hydro-sulphat of ammonia. AMMONIACUM. L. D. E. A. Gum Ammoniac. Heracleum Gummiferum. Gum-bearing Heracleum. Pentandria Monogynia. Nat. ord. Umbellatae. Syn. Gomme ammoniaque, (F.) Ammoniak, (G.) Gomma ammoniaco, (I.) Amoniaco, (S.) Ushok or Feshook, (Arab.) Ammoniaeum is a concrete, gummy-resinous juice, brought from the East Indies, usually in large masses, composed of little lumps or tears, of a milky colour, but soon changing, upon being exposed to the air, to a yellowish hue. Gum-ammoniac is now referred by the London College, on, the authority of Willdenow, to the Heracleum Gummiferum, which he raised from seeds taken out of the Ammoniaeum of the shops; and which, he is satisfied, is the plant that yields it, although he has not been able to procure it from the plants raised at Berlin. This plant is depicted in the Flora Berolinensis, and the question of its origin might be decided by comparing it with the figure given by Mr. Jackson in his account of the Empire of Morocco, who was perfectly familiar with it. He gives the following account of it: " Ammoniaeum, called Fes- hook in Arabic, is produced from a plant similar to the European fennel, but much larger. In most of the plains of the interior, and particularly about El Araiche and M'sharrah Rummillah, it grows ten feet high. The gum ammoniac is procured by incisions in the branches, which when pricked, emit a lacteous glutinous juice, which being hardened by the heat of the sun, falls on the ground, and mixes with the red earth below; hence the reason that gum ammoniac of Barbary does not suit the London market. It might however, with a little trouble, be procured perfectly pure; but when a prejudice is once established against any particular article, it is difficult to efface it. The gum in the above-mentioned state, is used in all parts of the country, for cataplasms and fumigations. The sandy light soil which produces the gum ammoniac, abounds in the north of Morocco. It is remarkable that neither bird nor beast is seen where this plant grows, the vulture only excepted. It is how- ever, attacked by a beetle, having a long horn proceeding from its riose, with which it perforates the plant, and makes the incisions whence the gum oozes out." Ammoniaeum has a nauseous sweet taste, followed by a bitter one; and a peculiar smell, somewhat like that of galbanum, but more grateful: it softens in the mouth, and acquires a white colour upon being chewed. It softens by heat, but is not fusible; when thrown upon live coals, it burns away in flame: it is in some degree soluble in water and in vinegar, with which it assumes the appearance of milk: but the resinous part, amounting to about one-half, subsides on standing. Such tears as are large, white, dry, free from small stones, seeds; A.—Amomum. 57 or other impurities, should be picked out and preferred for internal use; the coarser kind is purified by solution, colature, and careful inspissation; but unless this be artfully managed, the gum will lose a considerable deal of its more volatile parts. There is often vended in the shops, under the name of strained gum ammoniaeum, a composition of ingredients much inferior in virtue. Neumann extracted from 480 parts, 360 by alcohol, and then by water 105; by water applied first 410, and then by alcohol 60. Al- cohol distilled from it arose unchanged, but water acquired a sweet- ish taste, and the smell of the ammoniac. More modern chemists say that the spirit drawn from it by distillation smelt strongly of the gum, and that a small portion of a very pungent, strong smelling oil could be got from it. The solution in alcohol is transparent; but on the addition of water, becomes milky. It therefore seems to consist principally of a substance soluble both in water and in alcohol, com- bined with some volatile matter. Braconnot makes it consist of 700 resin, 184 gum, 44 gluten^ and 60 water. Medical use.—The general action of gum-ammoniac is stimulant. On many occasions, in doses of from ten to thirty grains, it proves a valuable antispasmodic, deobstruent, or expectorant. In large doses it purges gently, excites perspiration, and increases the flow of urine. It is used with advantage to promote expectoration in some pulmonary diseases; in dropsical affections, to augment the flow of urine, and to support the salivation of small-pox. It is also an useful deobstruent, and is frequently prescribed for removing obstruc- tions of the abdominal viscera, and in hysterical disorders occasion- ed by a deficiency of the menstrual evacuations. In long and obsti- nate colics, proceeding from viscid matter lodged in the intestines, this gummy-resin has produced happy effects, after purges and the common carminatives had been used in vain. Externally, it is sup- posed to soften and ripen hard tumours. A solution of it in vinegar has been recommended by some for resolving even scirrhous swellings. It is exhibited internally, a. In solution, combined with vinegar, vinegar of squills, assa- foetida, &c. b. In pills, with bitter extracts, myrrh, assa- foetida. c. And externally, combined with vinegar, tur- pentine, common plaster, &c. If rubbed with camphor, a mass is produced very suitable for pills, and vinegar renders it soft and fit for plasters. AMOMUM. 1. Amomum Cardamomum. D. Amomum Repens. E.* Elettaria Cardamomum. L. Lesser Cardamom. The Seeds. Monandria Monogynia. Nat. ord. Scitamineae, Linn. Syn. Petit Cardamome, (F.) Kleine Kardamomen, (G.) Amomo minore, (I.) Kahulah, Hal, (Arab.) PurbiandGuzratiClac^i, (H.) Ela, (San.) Kxffaiuupov, Hippoc. Both of the species of amomum are natives of India, growing on * Cardamomum, Ph. U. S.—Lately called Matonia, in the tenth volume of 'He Transactions of the Linnxan Society, after Dr. Maton. 9 58 A.—Amomum. the mountains above Cochin and Calicut. The Edinburgh College, on the authority of Sonnerat, has supposed these seeds to be the pro- duct of the repens, while the Dublin College, with Murray, Willde- now, and all the foreign pharmaceutical writers, ascribe them to the Cardamomum; and, to increase the confusion, the London College have referred this last to a new series; the reason for which is thus stated by Dr. Powell: " From an accurate description of the plant producing this valuable aromatic, (lesser cardamoms,) communicated to the Linnaean Society, by Mr. White, surgeon, Madras, (who, fol- lowing the example of the other botanical writers, improperly refers it to the genus amomum,) it has been thought necessary to place the cardamom under a new genus, which Dr. Maton has named Eletta- ria, from the appellation of Elettari, originally given to this tribe by Van Reede, in his hortus malabaricus." As this has not as yet received the sanction of the other colleges, it is deemed most prttdent still to retain it in its former place until its situation is definitively settled. Cardamom seeds are a very warm, grateful, pungent aromatic, and frequently employed as such in practice: they are said to have this advantage, that notwithstanding their pungency, they do not, like those of the pepper kind, immoderately heat or inflame the bowels. Both water and rectified spirit extract their virtues by infusion, and elevate them in distillation; with this difference, that the tincture and distilled spirit are considerably more grateful than the infusion and distilled water: the watery infusion appears turbid and mucila- ginous; the tincture limpid and transparent. From 480 parts Neu- mann got about 20 of volatile oil, 15 of resinous extract, and 45 of watery. The husks of the seeds, which have very little smell or taste, may be commodiously separated, by committing the whole to the mortar, when the seeds will readily pulverize, so as to be freed from the shell by the sieve: this should not be done till just before using them; for if kept without the husks, they soon lose a consider- able portion of their flavour. Medicaluse.—They are carminative and stomachic, and are grateful additions to bitter infusions. Dose of the powder, five to twenty grains. £0° Consult Trans. Linn. Soc. X. part 2d. Hort. Malab. IX. Asiat. Research. XI. p. 355. 2. Amomum Zedoaria. D. Long Zedoary. The Root. Curcuma Zedoaria. Thomson's Lond. Disp. Monandria Monogynia. Nat. ord. Scitamineas, Linn. Drymyrrhizae, Juss. Syn. Judwar, (Arab.) Nirbisi, (H. and Sans.) Banhaldi, (Beng.) It would appear that some late writers have rendered it probable that this plant should be removed from its former location as an amomum, to that of Curcuma. It is of little importance, for it is at present only retained by the Dublin College, although formerly much esteemed. See Linn. Trans. 8. p. 354. The Zedoary is perennial, and grows in Ceylon and Malabar. The roots come to us in pieces, some inches in length, and about a finger thick. Externally they are wrinkled, and of an ash-grey colour, but internally are brownish red. The best kind comes from A.—Amomum. 59 Ceylon, and should be firm, heavy, of a dark colour within, and neither worm-eaten nor very fibrous. It has an agreeable, fragrant smell, and a warm, bitterish, aromatic taste. In distillation with water, it yields an essential oil, heavier than water, possessing the smell and flavour of the zedoary in an eminent degree; the remaining decoction is almost simply bitter. Spirit like- wise brings over some small share of its flavour: nevertheless the spirituous extract is considerably more grateful than the zedoary it- self. From 7680 parts Neumann got 2720 of watery extract, and af- terwards 140 of almost insipid resin; by applying alcohol first, 720, and water afterwards, 2400, much bitterer than the original watery extract.—See Asiat. Research, xi- p« 165. 3. Amomum Zingiber. E. D. Zingiber Officinale. L.* Ginger. The dried Root. Preserved Ginger. Monandria Monogynia. Nat. ord. Scitaminese, Linn. Cannes, Juss. Syn. Gingembre, (F.) Ingwer; Imber, (G.) Zenzero, (I.) Gengibre, (S.) Sont'h, (H.) Sunt'hi, (San.) Ale, by the Brahmins. In the botanical arrangement of the well known plant which pro- duces the Ginger, the London College have followed Mr. Roscoe of Liverpool; who has given a new classification of the Scitamineous plants in the eighth volume of the Linnaean Society, in which he has separated the zingiber from the cardamom. "It has been well re- marked by Jussieu," says Mr. Roscoe, "that the zingibers flower in a dense spike near to the stem; the cardamoms in a lax panicle in the base of the stem. Such an uniform natural distinction in the habit of these plants, gave great reason to suppose that, by a closer examination, sufficient generic distinctions would be ascertained. This expectation has been fully confirmed. In the plants of the ginger tribe, it appears that the anthera-bearing filament is extended beyond the anthera, and terminates in an awl-shaped appendage, with a groove or furrow to receive the style after it has passed be- tween the lobes of the anthera, and which terminates with the stig- ma, a little beyond the extremity of the filament; but in the plants of the cardamom, or proper amomum tribe, the anthera-bearing fila- ment terminates in an appendage of three or more lobes, and differs also in other respects." Ginger is a perennial plant, indigenous in the East Indies, but now cultivated in the West India islands*". It is cultivated there very much in the same manner as potatoes are here, and is fit for digging once a-year, unless for preserving in syrup, when it should be dug at the end of three or four months, at which time it is tender and full of sap. Ginger is distinguished into two sorts, the black and the white. The former is rendered fit for preservation, by means of boiling water, the latter by insolation; and as it is necessary to select the fairest and roundest sorts for exposure to the sun, white ginger is commonly one-third dearer than black. Black ginger consists of thick and knotty roots, internally of an orange or brownish colour; externally of a yellow-grey. White gin- * Zingiber, Ph. U. S, 60 A.—Amomum. ger is less thick and knotty, internally of a reddish-yellow, and ex- ternally of a whitish-grey or yellow. It is firm and resinous, and more pungent than the black. Pieces which are worm-eaten, light, friable, or soft, and very fibrous, are to be rejected. Preserved ginger should be prepared in India from the young and succulent roots. WThen genuine, it is almost transparent. That ma- nufactured in Europe is opaque and fibrous. Ginger has a fragrant smell, and a hot, biting, aromatic taste. Neumann obtained by distillation with water from 7680 parts of white ginger, about 60 of a volatile oil, having the smell and distin- guishing flavour of the ginger, but none of its pungency. The wa- tery extract was considerably pungent, and amounted to 2720, after which alcohol extracted 192 of a very pungent resin. Alcohol ap- plied first, extracted 660 of pungent resin, and water afterwards 2160 of a mucilaginous extract, with little taste, and difficultly exsic- cated. The black ginger contained less soluble matter than the white. Medical use.—Ginger is a very useful spice in cold flatulent colics, and in laxity and debility of the intestines; it does not heat so much as the peppers, but its effects are more durable. It may also be ap- plied externally as a rubefacient. Lately, the powder of ginger, taken in very large doses in milk, was supposed to be almost speci- fic in the gout. Its best use is for gingerbread. Ginger Beer. A popular beverage in England, and lately intro- duced amongst us, is made as follows: Take of Lump sugar, half a pound; Cream of tartar, half an ounce; Bruised ginger, one ounce; Boiling water, one gallon.—Ferment for twenty-four hours, with yeast. Ginger Beer Powders. JVhite sugar, one drachm and two scruples; Ginger, five grains; Subcarbonat of soda, twenty-six grains.—In each blue paper.— Tartaric acid, thirty grains, in each white paper. These proportions are directed for half a pint of water. AMYGDALA DULCES. L. D. AMYGDALA AMARJE. Z.* Amygdalus Communis. E. Sweet and Bitter Almonds. Varieties of the Amygdalus Communis. Kernel of the Fruit and the Oil. Icosandria, Monogynia. Nat. Ord. Pomaceae, Linn. Rosacese, Juss. Syn. Amandes douces & ameres, (F.) Bittere und Siisse Mandeln, (G.) Man- dorli dolce & amare, (I.) Almendra, (S.) Lowz, (A.) rWoc, Theophr. The almond tree nearly resembles the peach. It originally came from Syria and Barbary; but is now much cultivated inthe south of Europe. The eye distinguishes no difference betwixt the trees which produce the sweet and bitter, or betwixt the kernels themselves; it is said that the same tree has, by a difference of culture, afforded both. * Amygdalus, Ph, U. S. A.—Amygdala. 61 The almond is a flatfish kernel, of a white colour, and of a soft sweet taste, or a disagreeable bitter one. The skins of both sorts are thin, brownish, unpleasant, and covered with an acrid powdery sub- stance. They are very apt to become rancid on keeping, and to be preyed on by a kind of insect, which eats out the internal part, leav- ing the almond to appearance entire. To these circumstances regard ought to be had in the choice of them. Sweet almonds are of greater use in food than as a medicine, but they are reckoned to afford little nourishment; and when eaten in substance, are not easy of digestion, unless thoroughly comminuted. They are supposed, on account of their unctuous quality, to obtund acrimonious juices in the primae vise: peeled sweet almonds, eaten six or eight at a time, sometimes give present relief in the heart- burn. Boullay has lately confirmed the analogy which Proust had stated to exist between the emulsion of sweet almonds and human milk, viz. the former consists of oil 54, albumen 24, sugar 6, gum 3, with traces of acetic acid; the indigestible property of the almond depends upon its albuminous matter. The bitter almond, in addition to those constituents, contains hydro-cyanic, (prussic,) acid, in union with a peculiar volatile oil, upon which its narcotic properties depend;* the leaves of the peach tree, the pips of apples and the kernels of many fruits, particularly of those which have the flavour of bitter almonds, all contain prussic acid. That peculiar odour of the peach blossom or bitter almond, is characteristic of the presence of prussic acid. It is said to be in the thin pellicle which envelops the kernel, that it is most^abundantly formed. The fleshy parts of the fruit do not contain it; and even the berries of the Lauro Cerasus may be eaten with impunity; yet the distilled water and oil of cherry laurel are the most destructive of all narcotic poisons.t The watery extract of laurel is harmless, since this acid is vola- tilized before the fluid can assume the state of extract For further remarks on prussic acid, vide Cyanogen. Both sorts of almonds yield, on expression, a large quantity of oil, which separates likewise upon boiling the almonds in water, and is gradually collected on the surface. The oils obtained by expression from both sorts of almonds are in their sensible qualities the same. They should be perfectly free from smell and taste, and possess the other properties of fixed oils. Medical use.—The general virtues of these oils are, to blunt acri- * Noyau, creme de noyau, a liquor of a very agp-eeable nature, but not de- void of danger; the late Duke Charles, of Lorraine, nearly lost his life from swallowing some " eau de noyau," (water distilled from peach kernels,) too strongly impregnated. Noyau is made thus: Bitter almonds blanched, one ounce; proof spirit, half a pound; sugar, four ounces. It is sometimes colour- ed with cochineal. f Although this fact was long known, it was not until within a few years that the identity of this destructive principle, and prussic acid, was fully proved. In the year 1782, Dr. Price, of Guilford, professed to convert mercury into gold, and his experiments were to be repeated before an adequate tribunal; but he put a period to his existence by swallowing laurel water, &c 62 A.—Amy rib. monious humours, and to soften and relax the solids: hence their use internally, in tickling coughs, heat of urine, pains and inflammations; and externally, in tension and rigidity of particular parts. On tritu- rating almonds with water, the oil and water unite together, by the mediation of the other matter of the kernel, and form an unctuous milky liquor. The milky solutions of almonds in watery liquors, commonly called emulsions, contain the oil of the subject, and participate in some degree of its emollient virtue; but have this advantage above the pure oil, that they may be given in acute or inflammatory disorders, with- out danger of the ill effects which the oil might sometimes produce; since emulsions do not turn rancid or acrimonious by heat, as all the oils of this kind in a little time do. As the bitter almond imparts its peculiar taste when treated in this way, the sweet almonds are em- ployed in making emulsions. Several unctuous and resinous substances, of themselves not mis- cible with water, may, by trituration with almonds, be easily mixed with it in the form of an emulsion; and are thus excellently fitted for medicinal use. The emulsion has been recommended as a local ap- plication or lotion in impetigo and some other cutaneous eruptions. In this form, camphor, and the resinous purgatives, may be commo- diously taken. For the article prussic acid, vide Cyanogen.—Consult also the writings of Fodere, Langrish, Orfila, Heberden, Watson, and more especially Dr. Granville's treatise on the hydrocyanic acid. AMYLUM. Starch. (See Triiicum.) * 1. AMYRIS ELEMIFERA. L. D. The Resin called Elemi. Octandria Monogynia. Nat. ord. Terebintacesc, Juss. Syn. Eleme, (F. G. I.) The tree which furnishes elemi grows in Carolina and Spanish America. In dry weather, and especially at full moon, incisions are made in the b.irk, from which a resinous juice flows, and is left to harden in the sun. It is brought to us in long, roundish cakes, gene- rally wrapped up in flag leaves. The best sort is softish, somewhat transparent, of a pale whitish yellow colour, inclining a little to green, of a strong, not unpleasant smell, resembling somewhat that of fennel. Dr. Wright says, that on wounding the bursera gummi- fera, a thick milky liquor flows, which soon concretes into a resin no way different from the elemi of the shops. Of 100 parts 94 dis- solve in alcohol, and part of its fragrance rises alon» with this v menstruum in distillation: distilled with water it yields 6.4 of pale- coloured, thin, fragrant, essential oil. Its only constituents, there- fore, are resin and essential oil. . It gives name to one of the offici- nal unguents, and is at present scarce any otherwise made use of; though it is certainly preferable for internal purposes to some others which are held in greater esteem. A.—Anchusa. 63 2. AMYRIS GILEADENSIS. E. Balsam of Gilead. A Liquid Resin. Syn. Balsamier de la Mecque, (F ) Opobalsamo, (I.) Balsamo, (S.) Akoo- yeelarsemoonroome, (Arab.) hnKa-a/uov fovtyov, Theoph. 8c Dioscor. This substance, which has also had the name of Balsamum Judia- r.um, Syriacum, de Mecca, Opo-balsamum, &c. is a resinous juice, obtained from an evergreen tree, growing spontaneously, particu- larly near to Mecca, on the Asiatic side of the Red Sea. The best sort of it is a spontaneous exudation from the tree; and is held in so high esteem by the Turks, who are in possession of the country where it is produced, that it is rarely, if ever, to be met with genu- ine among us. From the high price set upon it, many adulterations are practised. The true opo-balsamum, according to Alpinus, is at first turbid and white, of a very strong pungent smell, like that of turpentine, but much sweeter; and of a bitter, acrid, astringent taste: upon being kept for some time, it becomes thin, limpid, of a greenish hue, then of a gold yellow, and at length of the colour of honey. This balsam is in high esteem among the eastern nations, both as a medicine, and as an odoriferous unguent and cosmetic. It has been recommended in a variety of complaints. But in Europe it is never obtained genuine; and as all the signs of its goodness are fallacious, it has been very rarely employed. Nor need we regret it; for any of the other resinous fluids, such as the balsam of Canada or Copaiba will answer every purpose full as well. See Bruce's Travels, Appendix, for the best account of it. ANCHUSA TINCTORIA. E. Anchusa. D. Alkanet. False Alkanet. The Root. Pentandria Monogynia. Nat. ord. Asperifoliae, Linn. Boraginese, Juss. Syn. Orcanette, (F.) Alcanna, (I.) This plant is a native of Europe: it is sometimes cultivated in gar- dens; but the greatest quantities are raised in Germany and France, particularly about Montpelier, from whence the dried roots are usu- ally imported to us. The alkanet root produced in England, is much inferior in colour to that brought from abroad; the English being only lightly reddish, the others of a deep purplish red; and it has been suspected, but without sufficient foundation, that the foreign roots owe part of their colour to art. The cortical part of the root is of a dusky red; and imparts an elegant deep red to alcohol, oils, wax, and all unctuous substances, but not to watery liquors. Alkanet root has but little or no smell; when recent, it has a bit- terish, astringent taste; but when dried, scarcely any. As to its virtues, the present practice expects not any from it. Its chief use is for colouring oils, ointments, and plasters. As the colour is con- fined to the cortical parts, the small roots are best, having propor- tionally more bark than the large. According to John, of Berlin, the colouring matter is a peculiar 64 A.—Anethum. substance, soluble in alcohol, ether, and oils; not soluble in water; infusible, and not precipitated from alcohol by water as resins are. He calls it Pseudo-Alcannin, to distinguish it from the unexamined colouring matter of the real alkanet, furnished by the Lawsonia In- ermis, a native of India, Syria, and Egypt. ANDROMEDA MARIANA. Broad-leaved Moor-wort. JDecandria Monogynia, Nuttall. The different species of the andromeda are very nearly akin in botanical character to the rhododendron and kalmia, and are sus- pected by the late professor Barton to be poisonous. A decoction of the plant under consideration has been successfully employed as a wash, in a disagreeable ulceration of the feet, which is not uncom- mon among the slaves, &c. in the southern states, and which is known by the name of the toe-itch and ground-itch. The brown powder attached to the foot-stalks of the leaves of the andromeda, is considerably errhine. The powder about the seeds, in the seed-vessels, possesses a similar quality.* ANETHUM. 1. ANETHUM GRAVEOLENS. L. E. Dill. The Seed. Pentandria Digynia. Nat. ord. Umbellatae. Avaflov, Dioscor. Syn. Fenouil puant, ou persil odorant, (F.) Dill, (G.) Dill is an annual umbelliferous plant, cultivated in gardens, as well for culinary as medical use. The seeds are of a pale yellowish colour, in shape nearly oval, convex on one side, and flat on the other. Their taste is moderately warm and pungent; their smell aromatic, but not of the most agreeable kind. These seeds are re- commended as a carminative in flatulent colics. The most effica- cious preparation of them, are the distilled oil, and a tincture or ex- tract made with rectified spirit.—Dose 15 grs. to 5i. 2. ANETHUM F(ENICULUM. E. L. D. Sweet Fennel. The Root and Seed. Syn. Fenouil ou Anis douce, (F.) Fenchelsamen, (G.) Eneldo hinojo, (S.) This is a biennial plant, of which there are two varieties. The sweet fennel grows wild in Italy; but is cultivated in gardens in England. It is smaller in all its parts than the common, except the seeds, which are considerably larger. The seeds of the two sorts differ likewise in shape and colour: those of the common are round- ish, oblong, flatfish on one side, and protuberant on the other, of a dark almost blackish colour; those of the sweet are longer nar- * Barton's collection towards a Materia Medica, part 1st. A___Angelica. 65 rower, not so flat, generally crooked, and of a whitish or pale yel- lowish colour. The seeds of both the fennels have an aromatic smell, and a moderately warm, pungent taste: those of the fceniculum duke are in flavour most agreeable, and have also a considerable degree of sweetness. From 960 parts, Neumann obtained 20 of volatile oil, 260 of watery extract, and afterwards some alcoholic extract, which could not be exsiccated on account of its oiliness. By alcohol first, he got 84 resinous extract, 120 fixed oil, and then by water 129 of a bitter extract. ANGELICA ARCHANGELICA. E. Angelica. The Root. Pentandria Digynia. Nat. ord. Umbellatae. Angelica is a large biennial umbelliferous plant. It grows spon- taneously on the banks of rivers in Alpine countries; but for the use of the shops, it is cultivated in gardens in different parts of Europe. All the parts of angelica, especially the roots, have a fragrant aromatic smell; and a pleasant bitterish warm taste, glowing upon the lips and palate for a long time after they have been chewed. The flavour of the seeds and leaves is very perishable; particularly that of the latter, which, on bejng barely dried, lose the greater part of their taste and smell: the roots are more tenacious of their fla- vour, though they lose part of it with keeping. The fresh root, wounded early in the spring, yields an odorous yellow juice; which, slowly exsiccated, proves an elegant gummy resin, very rich in the virtues of the angelica. On drying the root, this juice concretes in- to distinct moleculae, which, on cutting it longitudinally appear dis- tributed in little veins; in this state, they are extracted by alcohol, but not by watery liquors. Angelica roots are apt to grow mouldy, and to be preyed* on by insects, unless thoroughly dried, kept in a dry place, and frequently aired. We apprehend, that the roots which are subject to this inconvenience, might be preserved by dip- ping them in boiling spirit, or exposing them to its steam, after they are dried. Baume says that it is only the roots gathered in the spring that are subject to this inconvenience, and that when ga- thered in the autumn, they keep good several years. Roots only worm-eaten are as fit as ever for making a tincture, or affording volatile oil. Angelica is one of the most elegant aromatics of European growth, though little regarded in the present practice. The root, which is the most efficacious part, is used in the aromatic tincture. The stalks make an agreeable sweetmeat. Johns analyzed the dried angelica root, and proved that it owed its peculiar properties to a considerable proportion of essential oil, and acrid resin. It also contained much gum and some inulin. 10 66 A.—Angustura. ANGUSTURA. D. A. Cusparia Febrifuga. L. Bonflandia Trifoliata. E. Angustura Bark. Cusparia BarK Bonplandia Bark. Pentandria Monogynia. Nat. ord. Quassias, Juss. Syn. Angusture, (F.) Angusturarinde, (G.) Angustura, (I.) The natural history of this bark was long but imperfectly known. The first portion of it was imported from Dominica to England, in 1788, with an account, " that it had been found superior to the Pe- ruvian bark in the cure of fevers." Subsequent importations from the Spanish Wrest Indies, either immediately or through the me- dium of Spain, gave reason to suppose, that it was the produce of South America. This has been fully established by the late travels of Humboldt in that country. He gave to Willdenow a dried spe- cimen of the tree of which it is the bark, and that eminent botanist discovered it to be a new genus, to which he gave the name of Bonplandia, in honour of the botanical companion of Humboldt's travels.—See Mem. de l'Institut. 184. Part I. p. 82. pi. 10. The London college, however, give this tree the name of Cuspa- ria Febrifuga, derived from Cuspa, the native appellation of the tree; but this name must be abandoned, for although it was inserted by Humboldt in the chart belonging to his geography of plants; that of Bonplandia Trifoliata is adopted by him in his Plantae iEquinoctia- les. The name Angustura bark is derived from the Spanish deno- mination, cascarilla, or corteza del Arigustura, which is the vulgar name of the town of St. Thomas, near the Straits of the Oronoco, where it forms a considerable article of commerce. The appearance of the bark varies, according as it has been taken from larger or smaller branches. It is only one or two lines in thick- ness, and is sometimes cracked externally. The outer surface is more or less wrinkled, and of a greyish colour, and the inner surface is of a dull dark brown. The bark of tlie younger branches is of a fine green colour, dotted with grejush tubercles. Its substance is of a yellowish brown colour. Its fracture is short and resinous. Its taste is intensely bitter, and slightly aromatic, leaving a strong sense of heat and pungency in the throat and fauces. The odour is peculiar. The powder is yellow. According to the experiments related by Mr. Brande, from 3840 parts of angustura, there were extracted by alcphol, 144 of resin, and 300 of an acrid unctuous substance, the residuum yielded to water 1500 of dry gummy extract. Treated first with water, it gave 2110 grains of a clear brown extract, bitter, but not acrid, and after- wards 161 of a resin of a light brown colour, and extremely acrid. By distillation it gave 26 of essential oil. The tincture is of a deep yellow colour, and reddens infusion of turnsole, and becomes turbid and white on admixture with water. By repeated filtration a brownish resin is separated; and the transparent fluid has a pale yellow colour. It is not precipitated by solution of gelatin, but by infusion of galls. It therefore does not contain tannin but cinchonin, and it has the peculiar property of acquiring a deep red colour with red sulphat of iron, and depositing a purplish slate-coloured pre- cipitate. A.—Angustura. 67 Dr. Rambach, of Hamburgh, first observed poisonous effects from some Angustura bark, and his observations have been fully confirm- ed by other accidents and by experiments on animals. The Austrian fovernment on this account, ordered all the Angustura bark in the ingdom to be destroyed, and interdicted its future importation. Other states have followed its example. It still has a place in the British Pharmacopoeias. It becomes necessary, therefore, to point out fully the means of distinguishing the genuine from the spurious sort, which Planche has called Angustura Pseudoferruginsea. Genuine. The produce of the Bonplandia trifoliata of Humboldt, a native of South America. Size from £ to £ of an inch broad; 2, 3, or 4 inches long; half a line thick. Outer surface uniform greyish-white, as if co- vered with an uneven mealy coat, which is easily removed, and exposes a brown surface be- neath. Inner surface greyish- yellow, or light-brown. Texture fine; very brittle. Fracture even; much darker and browner than the inner surface; somewhat shin- ing and evidently resinous. Smell aromatic; somewhat nauseous. Taste aromatic bitter, but not at all disgustingly bitter, or as- tringent, succeeded in some de- gree by an aromatic flavour like mace. Bark, on being chewed, be- comes dark-brown yellow. Pow- der, when fresh, yellow, like good rhubarb, becoming paler by keeping, with a more aromatic smell than the bark. Concentrated infusion clear, of a fine reddish-brown or orange colour, and a bitter, only slightly acrid taste. Diluted with water, its colour becomes yellow. Spurious. Unknown. Said by some to come from the East Indies; and one kind suspected by Planche, but contrary to probability, to be got from a variety of the Cincho- na magnifolia of Bonpland. Size generally of greater breadth than length; two lines thick. Outer surface covered with a web of distinct small white warts, not easily removed, or with an uniform rust-coloured lichen-like covering. Inner sur- face, dirty yellowish-white, or grey, or most commonly black, without visible fibres. Texture coarse; very brittle. Fracture even; partly white, or yellowish- white, or even clear brownish; not shining and resinous, but more mealy, and partly exhibit- ing two distinct layers. Smell resembling somewhat that of the genuine kind. Taste in the highest degree disgustingly bitter; very dura- ble, and not at all aromatic, or astringent. Bark, on being chewed, be-: comes paler. Powder clearer yellow. Concentrated infusion, not so clear, more of a dirty-brown co- lour, and of a most disgustingly bitter taste. When diluted, it does not be come vellow. 68 A.—Angustura. Genuine. On the addition of an alkaline carbonat it is changed to dark- red, and after some time depo- sites a clear citron yellow, some- what flocculent precipitate. A solution of persulphat or per- muriat of iron imparts to it a higher red colour, and after some time throws down a rose-coloured precipitate. Spurious. On the addition of an alkaline carbonat, it becomes greenish, and deposites a flocculent grey- ish-yellow precipitate, and the supernatant liquor becomes gra- dually dark-brown, beginning at the surface. A solution of persulphat or per- muriat of iron imparts to it a dark green colour, and soon throws down a copious satin black preci- pitate, verging somewhat to ash- grey, which is perfectly redis- solved by nitric acid, and forms an olive solution. Is not rendered turbid by solu- tion of gelatin. Saturated decoction, brownish- yellow, and, on cooling, depo- sites a very copious grey-brown precipitate. Saturated tincture, much paler; and, on the addition of distilled water, only gets a pale-yellowish opaline appearance, without be- coming red, or depositing any Is not rendered turbid by solu- tion of gelatin. Saturated decoction of a fine red brown, on cooling becomes turbid, a.id deposites a deep-yel- low powder. Saturated tincture, dark-red- brown, becoming very turbid by the addition of distilled water, and depositing a clear yellow re- sin. precipitate. The spurious angustura belongs to the same class of poisons as the Faba St. Ignatii, the Upas tieute, &c. Medical use.—As an aromatic bitter, it acts as a tonic and stimu- lant of the organs of digestion. It increases the appetite for food, removes flatulence and acidity arising from dyspepsia, and is a very effectual remedy in diarrhoea proceeding from weakness in the bow- els, and in dysentery, and it possesses the singular advantage of not oppressing the stomach, as cinchona is apt to do. It does not cure intermittents. It is exhibited, l.- In powder, in doses of from 5 to 20 grains, either alone or with rhubarb, magnesia, or carbonat of lime. 2. In infusion: the infusion of one drachm in four ounces of water may be used daily. 3. In tincture: one or two drachms in dyspepsia. 4. In watery extract. Humboldt informs us, that the Catalonian Capuchins, who possess the missions of Carony, prepare with great care an extract of this bark, which they distribute to the convents of Catalonia. For a more particular detail of its botanical history, consult the Eclectic Repertory, vol. iv. p. 135.* • See also more on the subject, in Orfila's Toxicology, 2d vol. and Lond Med. Repos. Brucme, the peculiar deleterious principle present in the SDurr otfs kind, is described in Ann. de Chim. et Phys. 12, p. 113. v A.—Anthemis. 69 ANTHEMIS. 1. ANTHEMIS N0B1LIS. E. L. Chamjemelum. D.* Common Chamomile. The Flowers. Syngenesia Superflua. Nat. ord. Composite Discoideae, Linn. Corymbiferae, Juss. Syn. Camomille Romaine, (F.) Roemische hamiller,~(G.) Camomilla Roma- na, (I.) Manganella de Botera, (S.) Chamaindoopoo, (Tarn.) AvQt/uK, Diosc. Chamomile is a perennial plant, indigenous to the south of Eng- land, but cultivated in most gardens for the purposes of medicine. The flowers have a strong, not ungrateful, aromatic smell, and a very bitter nauseous taste. These are so very generally employed in medicine, as to render their extensive cultivation in the United States well worthy of attention. The single variety is best. Their active constituents are bitter extractive, and essential oil. To the latter is to be ascribed their antispasmodic, carminative, cor- dial, and diaphoretic effects; to the former their influence in pro- moting digestion. Neumann obtained from 480 parts, 180 of alcoholic extract, and afterwards 120 of watery; and reversing the procedure, 240 watery, and 60 alcoholic. Medical use.—Chamomile flowers are a very common and excel- lent remedy, which is often used with advantage in spasmodic dis- eases, in hysteria, in spasmodic and flatulent colics, in suppression of the menstrual discharge, in the vomiting of puerperal women, and in the after-pains; in gout, in podagra, in intermittents, and in ty- phus. As chamomile excites the peristaltic motion, it is useful in dy- sentery, but is not admissible in all cases of diarrhoea. From its sti- mulating and somewhat unpleasant essential oil, chamomile is also capable of exciting vomiting, especially when given in warm infu- sion; .and in this way it is often used to assist the action of o*her emetics. A cold infusion made by suffering cold water to stand _.ver the flowers for eight or ten hours before use, forms a most delightful drink, being divested of that oil, which is very ungrateful to many, in the warm infusion. Externally, chamomile flowers are applied as a discutient and emollient; in the form of clyster or embrocation, in colic, dysentery and strangulated hernia, &c. Chamomile flowers are exhibited, 1. In substance, in the form of powder, or rather of electuary, in doses of from half a drachm to two drachms, either alone or com- bined with Peruvian bark, as for the cure of intermittent fevers. 2. In infusion, in the form of tea. This may either be drunk warm, for promoting the action of emetics, or cold, as a stomachic. 3. In*decoction or extract. These forms contain only the extrac- tive, and therefore may be considered as simple bitters. 4. The essential oil may be obtained by distillation. This pos- sesses the antispasmodic powers in a higher degree than the simple flowers, but on the contrary, does not possess the virtues depending on the presence of the bitter extractive. It is a most agreeable ad? dition to many pills. * Anthemis, Ph. U» S'. 70 A.—Antimonium. ft. ANTHEMIS PYRETHRUM. E. L. Pyrethrum. D. A. Pellitory of Spain. The Root. Syn. Pyrethre, (F.) Bertram Wurtzel; Zahn Wurtzell, (G.) Piretro, (I.) Anthemis pelitri, (S.) Akur kurha, (Arab.) riu/n6/>ov, Dioscor. This plant, though a native of warm climates, as Barbary, bears the ordinary winters of England, and often flowers successively from Christmas to May;'the roots also grow larger there than those with which the shops are usually supplied from abroad. They are seldom so big as the little finger, and the best are dry, compact, of a brown colour, and not easily cut with a knife. Pellitory root has no sensible smell: its taste is very hot and acrid, but less so than that of arum; the juice expressed from it has scarce any acrimony, nor is the root itself so pungent when fresh as after it has been dried. Neumann obtained from 960 parts of the dry root, only 40 of alcoholic extract, and afterwards 570 of watery; and by a reverse procedure, 600 of watery, and 20 of alcoholic ex- tract. Both the alcoholic extracts were excessively pungent. Its acrimony, therefore, is derived from a resin. Johns found much inu- lin in the watery extract. Medical use.—The principal use of pyrethrum in the present practice is as a masticatory, for promoting the salival flux, and eva- cuating the viscid humours from the head and neighbouring parts; by this means it often relieves the tooth-ache, some kinds of pains of the head, and lethargic complaints. A vinous infusion is also useful in debility of the tongue. ANTIMONIUM. Antimonium. Stibium. Antimony. Syn. Antimoine, (F.) Spiessglanz metall, (G.) Antimonie, (I.) Antimonio, (S.) 'S.rifA/xt, (Gr.) Antimony is white, very brilliant, lamellated; specific gravity 6.702; moderately hard; pulverizable; fusible at 809°; volatile when highly ignited; sensible taste and smell; unalterable in cold air; oxydizable by air and heat; oxyd fusible into a yellow brown glass; decomposes water when ignited; oxydized by the sulphuric and ni- tric acids; combines with phosphorus and sulphur. Oxyds are black, brown, orange, yellow, white; and they colour glass yellow or hya- cinthine. Antimony is found native. I. In its metallic state, at Stalbergin Sweden, and Allemontiit France, combined with silver and iron. II. Mineralized with sulphur. 1. Grey Sulphuret of antimony. a. Compact, b. Foliated, c. Striated, d. Plumose. 2. Red Antimony. III. Oxydized. While Antimony. IV. Acidified. 1. Muriated. 2. Phosphated. The grey ore of antimony is the state in which it is officinal, and also that in which it is most commonly found. A—Antimonium. 7i Antimony is obtained from its ores by gradually detonating in a large crucible four parts of sulphureted antimony, three of crude tartar, and one and a half of dry nitrat of potass, reduced to a fine powder, and intimately mixed. The detonated mass is then to be fused and poured into a heated mould, greased with a little fat, in which it is allowed to consolidate. It is then turned out, and the scoriae are separated from the antimony, which will weigh about one-fourth part of the sulphuret employed. The scoriae are a mix- ture of sulphuret of potass and of antimony, and may be preserved for other purposes. , Another method of obtaining antimony, is by melting three parts of sulphureted antimony, with one of iron. The sulphur quits the antimony, and combines with the iron. Antimonii Sulphuretum. E. L. D. A. Sulphuret of Antimony. Crude Antimony. Syn. L'antimoine sulfure, (F.) Spiessglanz, (G.) Sulfuro d'antimonio, (I.) Kohul, (Ar.) Surmeh, (H.) Saubira, (San.) Although sulphuret of antimony be a natural production, yet it is commonly sold in the form of loaves, which have been separated from the stony and other impurities of the ore by fusion, and a spe- cies of filtration. For the ore is melted in conical well-baked earthen pots, having one or more small holes in their apices. The fire is applied around and above these pots; and as soon as the sulphureted antimony melts, it drops through the holes into vessels placea beneath to receive it, while the stony and other impurities remain behind. \s antimony is very volatile, the mouths and joinings of the pots must be closed and luted. The upper part of the loaves thus obtain- ed is more spongy, lighter, and impure, than the lower, which is there- fore always to be preferred. These loaves have a dark grey colour externally, but on being broken, they appear to be composed of ra- diated striae, of a metallic lustre, having the colour of lead. The good- ness of the loaves is estimated from their compactness and weight, from the largeness and distinctness of the strise, and from their being entirely volatilized by a red heat. Lead has been sold for antimony; but its texture is rather foliated than striated, and it is not vaporiza- ble, nor easily powdered. The presence of arsenic, which renders the antimony useless for medical purposes, is known by its emitting- the smell of garlic when thrown upon live coals, and by other tests mentioned under arsenic. The presence of manganese or iron is known by their not being volatilized by a red heat. In composition, sulphuret of antimony consists of antimony 100, sulphur 35.572. It has been known from the time of Basil Valentine, to the present, in market, by the improper name of antimony, which is applicable only to the pure metal. It is now scarcely ever employ- ed in medicine, although formerly much so. Its chief use is in the preparation of other antimonial compounds, which are at present very limited in number, and might perhaps be still more so without any detriment to medicine. hi estimating the comparative value of antimonial preparations 72 A.—Antimonium. in medicine, we may attend to the following observations. All the metallic preparations are uncertain, as it entirely depends on the state of the stomach, whether they act at all, or operate with dan- gerous violence. The sulphuret is exposed, though in a less degree, to the same objections. Its dose is 5 to 50 grains. The preparations in which antimony is in the state of peroxyd, are perfectly insoluble in any vegetable or animal acid, and are also found to be perfectly inert when taken into the stomach. The remaining preparations of antimony, or those in which it is in the state of protoxyd, are readily soluble in the juices of the sto- mach, and act in very minute doses. Of its saline preparations, only those can be used internally which contain a vegetable acid; for its soluble combinations with the simple acids are very acrid and corrosive. In general, the surest and best preparations of antimony are those which contain a known quantity of the metal in the state of protoxyd. The general effects of antimonials are, in small doses, diaphore- sis, nausea: in large doses, full vomiting and purging. Some allege that antimonials are of most use in fevers when they do not pro- duce any sensible evacuation, as is said to be the case sometimes with James's powder. They therefore prefer it in typhus, and emetic tartar in synochus, in which there is the appearance at first of more activity in the system, and more apparent cause for eva- cuation. Various medicines are prepared from the Sulphuret of Antimony, viz. a. By trituration simply—Antimonii Sidphuretum prseparatum. b. By the action of heat—Antimonii Viirum. Antimonii Vilrum Ceratum. c. By the action of heat, with phosphat of lime—Antimonii oxy- dum cum phosphate calcis. d. By the action of alkalies—Antimonii Sulphuretum prsecipita* turn. e. By the action of acids—Antimonii Oxy dum Nitro-Muriaticum. Antimonium Tartarizatum. Antimonii Tartarizati Vinum. ANTIMONII SULPHURETUM PR^PARATUM. E. D. A. Prepared Sulphuret of Antimony. This is to be prepared in the same way as carbonat of lime, and is merely intended to fit the sulphuret for internal use. By reducing the sulphuret of antimony to the state of an impal- pable powder, it is both rendered much more active than it would otherwise be, and it is prevented from irritating the stomach me- chanically, of which there would be some danger from the sharp- ness of its spiculae. Even in this state, however, it is not a very certain remedy. In general, it operates as a very mild sudorific or cathartic; but sometimes, if it meet with much acid in the stomach, it becomes more active, producing vomiting or hypercatharsis. Therefore, it seems prudent to evacuate the primae viae before it be exhibited, and to combine it with an absorbent earth. A—Antimonium. 73 It is principally given in scorfula, glandular obstructions, cutane- ous diseases and rheumatism. Its dose is from 10 to 30 grains and upwards, and it is best exhibited in the form of a powder or bolus. It is said to constitute a quack remedy which has acquired some reputation in Ireland, for the cure of cancer, used externally as a dressing to the sore. OXYDUM ANTIMONII cum SULPHURE VITRIFICA- TUM. E* Vitrified Oxyd of Antimony. Vitrum Antimonii. L. Glass of Antimony. Take of Sulphuret of antimony, any quantity, beat it into coarse pow- der like sand. Strew it upon an unglazed shallow earthen vessel, and place it over a gentle fire, that the sulphuret of antimony may be slowly heated, at the same lime stirring the powder constantly, to prevent it from running into lumps. White vapours, having the odour of sulphur, will arise from it. When these cease with the degree of heat first applied, raise the heat a little, so that the vapours may arise again; go on in this manner, till the powder, brought to a red heat, exhales no more vapours. Melt this powder in a crucible, with an intense heat, till it assumes the appearance of melted glass; then pour it upon a heated brass plate. Ed. Some of the British Colleges, have rejected this old article from the catalogue of medicines, and consequently the next to be men- tioned, which depended on this for its preparation. It well deserv- ed to be retained for the purpose, if only half of the virtues ascrib- ed to it are correctly stated in the fifth volume of the Edinburgh Medical Essays and Observations. Glass of antimony, according to Proust, consists of one part of sulphuret of antimony, combined with eight of oxyd of antimony; now, by this process, the greatest part of the antimony is deprived of its sulphur, and is at the same tune converted into the protoxyd, which combines with the small portion of sulphuret that remains undecomposed. But as this preparation is not easily made in the manner here directed, unless in a furnace constructed on purpose; apothecaries may advantageously adopt the synthetical method of Bergmann, which consists in melting in a crucible, with one-twelfth or eight of its weight of sulphur, protoxyd of antimony prepared by deflagrating it with more than twice its weight of nitre. At the temperature necessary for melting it, part of the protoxyd of anti- mony loses its oxygen and is converted into sulphuret, and combines with the remaining protoxyd, in the proportions which form the glass of antimony. In whichever way prepared, the glass of antimony is transparent, and has a fine hyacinthine colour. On dissolving it in muriatic acid, it gives out sulphureted hydrogen gas. Its medical operation is so uncertain, that it is only used in making other preparations. A glass of lead, within a few years, was fraudulently sold in Lon- don, it was said, for this preparation. • Antimonii Oxydum Vitrifkaturo, U. S. Pli 11 74 A.—Antimonium. To discover so criminal an imposition, reference may be had to the colour of the two; that of antimony being of a rich brown or red- dish, with the usual transparency of coloured glasses. That of lead, is of a deeper and duller colour against the light, less transparent and sometimes quite opaque. Specific gravity of glass of antimony never exceeds 4.95 Specific gravity of glass of lead is 6.95 or in round numbers, their comparative weights are as 5 to 7. If these are insufficient, pursue the other methods laid down by Howard. See Philosophical Magazine, vol. xxxv. 236. OXYDUM ANTIMONII VITRIFICATUM CUM CERA. E. A. Vitrified Oxyd of Antimony with Wax. Cerated Glass of Antimony. Take of Yellow wax one part; Vitrified oxyd of antimony, eight parts. Melt the ivax in an iron vessel, and throw into it the pow- dered oxyd; roast the mixture over a gentle fire for a quarter of an hour, continually stirring it with a spatula: then pour it out, and, when cold, grind it into powder. Ed. The glass melts in the wax with a very gentle heat; after it has been about twenty minutes on the fire, it begins to change its colour, and in ten more comes near to that of Scottish snuff; which is a mark of its being sufficiently prepared; the mixture loses about one-ninth of its weight in the process. This medicine was for some time much esteemed in dysenteries. The dose is from two or three grains to twenty, according to the age and strength of the patient. In its operation, it makes some per- sons sick, and vomit; it purges almost every one; though it has sometimes effected a cure without occasioning any evacuation or sickness. It is now, however, much less used than formerly. It has been recommended of late in cases of cynanche trachealis, by Dr. Stearns, of the state of New York.* PULVlS antimonialis. l. d. a. Antimonial Powder. James's Powder. Oxydum Antimonii cum Phosphate Calcis. E. Oxyd of Antimony with Phosphat of Lime. Take of Sulphuret of antimony, in coarse powder, Hartshorn, in shavings, of each, equal weights. Mix and put them in a wide, red-hot iron pot, and stir the mixture constantly, until it be burnt into a matter of an ash grey colour, which is to be then removed from the fire, ground into powder, and put into a coated crucible,; lute to this crucible, another inverted over it, and perforated in the bottom with a small hole, and apply the fire, which is to be raised gradually to a white heat, and kept in that increased state for two hours; lastly, grind the matter, when cold, into a very fine pow- der. Ed. This is supposed to be nearly the same with the celebrated nos- * See Medical Museum. A.—Antimonium. 75 trum of Dr. James, the composition of which was ascertained by Dr. George Pearson, to whom we are also indebted for the above formula. By burning sulphuret of antimony and shavings of hartshorn in a white heat, the sulphur is entirely expelled, and the antimony, is oxydized, while the gelatin of the hartshorn is destroyed, and no- thing is left but phosphat of lime, combined with a little lime. There- fore, the mass which results is a mixture of oxyd of antimony, and phosphat of lime, which corresponds, at least as to the nature of the ingredients, with James's powder, which, by Dr. Pearson's analysis, was found to consist of 43 phosphat of lime, and 57 oxyd of anti- mony. M. Pulley also analysed some of James's powder, and found it composed of protoxyd of antimony 37, phosphat of lime 21, sulphat of potass 24, and potass combined with protoxyd of antimony 18. Phosphat of lime is most conveniently obtained pure by dissolving calcined bone in muriatic acid, and precipitating it by ammonia. If the ammonia be quite free from carbonic acid, no muriat of lime is decomposed. Mr. Chenevix also found, that this precipitate is en- tirely soluble in every acid which can dissolve either phosphat of iime or oxyd of antimony separately, and that about 0.28 of James's powder, and at an average, 0.44 of the pulvis antimonialis of the late London Pharmacopoeia, resist the action of every acid. In the new edition, twice the proportion of hartshorn shavings is used, which is said to obviate the inconvenience of the vitrification of part of the antimony when too high a temperature was applied, to render the process more manageable, and to furnish a whiter pro- duct; but it does not correspond with Dr. Pearson's analysis of James's powder, for which it was intended as a substitute, and alters materially the strength of an established preparation. Medical use.—The oxyd of antimony with phosphat of lime, how- soever prepared, is one of the best antimonials we possess. It is given as a diaphoretic in febrile diseases, in doses of from three to eight grains, repeated every third or fourth hour. In larger quantities, it operates as a purgative or emetic. From its being insoluble in water, it must be given either in the form of a powder, or made into a pill or bolus. SILPHURETUM ANTIMONII PRiECIPITATUM. L. E. A. Precipitated Sulphuret of Antimony. Sulphur AntimoniatumFuscum. D. Brown Antimoniated Sulphur. Sulphureted Hydro-sulphat of Antimony. Syn. Soufre dord d'antimoine, (F.) Gelber Spiessglanz schwefel, (G.) Zolfo dorato di antimonio, (I.) Take of Solution of potass, four pounds ; Water, three pints ; Pre- pared sulphuret of antimony, two pounds. Boil them in a covered iron pot, over a slow fire, for three hours, frequently stirring the mixture with an iron spatula, and adding water as it may be re- quired. Strain the. hot liquor through a doubled linen cloth, and add to it, when strained, as much diluted sidphuric acid as may be necessary to precipitate the sulphuret, which must be well wasli- ed with warm water. Ed. Within the compass of a few years the Pharmacopoeias had three 76 A.—Antimonium. f(reparations of antimony, which under different names, differed very ittle, in chemical or in medicinal properties. These were the cele- brated Kermes Mineral, the Sulphur Auratum Antimonii, and the Sulphur Antimonii Praecipitatum. If sulphuret of antimony and potash are united together, boiled in sufficient water, and filtered whilst hot, a portion of the oxyd of an- timony combined with sulphur, which at the temperature of boiling water could be held in solution, falls down as the solution cools, in a brown coloured precipitate. This first formed powder was the Kermes; after this was removed, a quantity of oxyd and of sulphur might still be produced, by adding to the solution almost any acid. This acid seizing on the potash, by which the antimonial oxyd and sulphur were maintained in solution, formed a salt which remained dissolved, whilst a bright orange coloured powder precipitated. This was the Sulphur Auratum Antimonii. If, instead of allowing the Kermes to precipitate of itself, and then by the addition of the acid producing the latter, the acid was added at once to the hot filtered liquor, it is obvious that a precipitate would ensue, which would consist of an intermixture of both the preceding, constituting the preparation above adopted by our Pharmacopoeia, which is not exactly analogous to the golden sulphur of antimony. Hydro-sulphuret of antimony is prepared either in the dry way, (Dublin,) or in the humid, as by the Edinburgh and London Colleges. When sulphuret of antimony is boiled in a solution of potash, water is decomposed, the hydrogen combines with the sulphur, and the an- timony is oxydized; and as long as the solution boils, it contains a mixture of hydro-sulphuret of potash and hydro-sulphuret of anti- mony. But, on cooling, a great part of the latter precipitates in the form of a red powder, (Kermes mineral.) In the dry way, when sulphuret of antimony and carbonat of po- tass are melted together, the carbonic acid is expelled with efferves- cence, and a sulphuret of antimony and potass is formed. On boiling this in water, water is decomposed, the antimony is oxydized, and the hydrogen combines with the sulphur. The sulphureted hydrogen thus formed, combines partly with the potass, and with the oxyd of antimony. Such is the present theory for the formation of kermes mineral. With regard to the practice; Lemery melted sixteen parts of sul- phuret of antimony, and one of sulphur, with eight parts of carbonat of potass. The last edition of the Prussian Pharmacopoeia directs two parts of sulphuret of antimony, and one of exsiccated carbonat of soda, to be melted, and afterwards boiled fifteen minutes in six or eight parts of water, which on cooling deposits a considerable quantity of kermes. The fluid from which the kermes has been de- posited may be again boiled in the residuum of the first decoction, and it will dissolve a fresh portion of kermes; and this process may be repeated as long as there remains any to dissolve. After this, the residuum, when melted, consists almost solely of antimony. It there- fore appears, that the alkali renders almost all the sulphur soluble, and only disposes the oxydizement of as much antimony as is capa- ble of combining with the sulphureted hydrogen. There appears to A.—Antimonium. 77 he no reason why the whole of the antimony should not be converted into kermes by employing a proper addition of sulphur and alkali. Kermes is also made in the humid way. Fourcroy boils, in twenty Earts of water, six parts of pure potass of commerce, and into the oiling solution throws about the twentieth part of the weight of the alkali, or 0.3 of a part of powdered sulphuret of antimony, and con- tinues the boiling for seven or eight minutes, then filters, and allows the kermes to precipitate by cooling. Hermbstadt uses very different proportions; for he boils twelve parts of sulphuret of antimony, and three of salt of tartar, in ninety-six parts of water, down to sixty- four, and then filters, &c. Gren employs four parts of sulphuret of antimony, sixteen of carbonat of potass, and sixty-four of water, and boils for several hours. Gottling boils eight parts of sulphuret of antimony, and two of sulphur, in a sufficient quantity of solution of potass down to one half. ' The precipitated sulphuret of antimony, like the kermes, may be prepared either in the dry or in the moist way. The latter mode seems to be the most universally employed on the Continent. Gott- ling boils two parts of sulphuret of antimony, and three of sulphur, in a sufficient quantity of a recent solution of potass, filters the so- lution and precipitates with sulphuric acid, diluted with twelve times its weight of water. The Prussian College use equal parts of sulphu- ret of antimony and of sulphur. Wiegleb treats in the same manner two parts of sulphuret of antimony with one of sulphur. But to his proportions it has been objected, that the product resembles kermes more than sulphur auratum. If this objection be just, it must apply in a still stronger degree to the formula of the British Colleges, in which no sulphur is added. In the dry way, two parts of sulphuret of antimony and three of sulphur may be melted with five or six of pure carbonat of potass in a covered crucible, as quickly as possible, poured into an iron mor- tar, reduced to powder, and dissolved by boiling the powder in wa» ter. The solution is to be filtered warm, diluted with a sufficient quantity of water, and precipitated with diluted sulphuric acid.y By some, the solution is allowed to remain at rest for twenty-four hours before it be filtered, and some precipitate with nitrous acid. The processes for making the golden sulphuret of antimony, de- pend on the property which the hydrogureted sulphuret of potass possesses, of dissolving, and retaining dissolved, even at ordinary temperatures, a portion of orange oxyd of antimony; and as the at- traction by which potass exists in this compound is weaker than its affinity for acids, on the addition of any acid, the potass unites with the acid; a portion of sulphureted hydrogen gas escapes; and the oxyd of antimony, combined with the rest of the sulphur and hydro- gen, are precipitated in the form of a light orange powder. When the acid is added gradually, the proportion of oxyd of antimony al- ways decreases, while that of the sulphur increases in each succes- sive portion of precipitate. Hence in the old manner of preparing this substance from the scoriae formed in reducing antimony from its sul- phuret, and which contained but little sulphur, the two first portions of precipitate, being dark coloured, were rejected, and only the pro- 78 A.—Antimonium. duct of the third precipitation retained for use. The want of eco- nomy in this process is sufficiently obvious, as well as the very great improvement in modern times of adding a sufficient quantity of sulphur, and precipitating the whole at once. Medical use.—In its action on the body, the hydro-sulphuret of antimony is an active substance, and, according to its dose, acts as a diaphoretic, cathartic, or emetic. Its use is, however,, in Great Bri- tain and America, in a great degree superseded by more certain preparations. To adults the dose is a grain to two or more. Adulterations.—It is said to be often sophisticated with chalk, &c. It ought not to effervesce with acids. It should be entirely vapori- zable by heat, and it ought to be of a bright orange colour. A spu- rious article has been sold in England, it appears, consisting of sul- phur and sulphuret of antimony coloured with Venetian red1. Oxydum Antimonii Nitro-Muriaticum. D. Nitro-Muriatic Oxyd of Antimony. Take of Prepared sulphuret of antimony, two ounces; Muriatic acid, eleven ounces by measure; Nitrous acid, one drachm, by measure. Add the sulphuret gradually to the acids, previously mixed in a glass vessel, avoiding the vapours. Digest with a heat gradually increased, until the effervescence cease, and then boil for one hour. Filter the liquor when cold, and receive it when filtered in a gal- lon of water. The oxyd of antimony will fall to the bottom. Wash this repeatedly in a sufficiently large quantity of water, until the liquor poured off is perfectly free from acid, as known by the test of litmus; and, lastly, dry the oxyd upon bibulous paper. Here, the antimony oxydized by the nitric acid, is dissolved in the muriatic; the muriat of antimony thus formed, is decomposed by water. According to Sir H. Davy, a portion of the water fur- nishes oxygen to the metal, and hydrogen to the chlorine, which are thus converted into protoxyd and muriatic acid, a supermuriat re- mains in solution, and an insoluble sub-muriat precipitates in white acicular or silky crystals, formerly known under the title of Pulvis Algarothi, the subject of the above prescription. That it is a sub- muriat is proved by its yielding a small proportion of muriat on distillation, according to Bergmann. It is only used in the prepa- ration of tartar emetic. Muriat of antimony was originally prepared by distilling sulphu- ret of antimony with muriat of quicksilver. Muriat of antimony, or butter of antimony, as it was called from its appearance when recent- ly prepared, passes over into the receiver, and black sulphuret of quicksilver remains in the retort; or, by increasing the heat, red sulphuret of mercury, which, when obtained by this process, was formerly termed Cinnabar of Antimony, is sublimed. But this mode of preparation is both expensive, and dangerous to the health of the operator. To avoid these inconveniences, Scheele prepared a sul- phureted oxyd of antimony, by deflagrating two parts of sulphuret of antimony with three of nitrat of potass in an iron mortar. The mass thus obtained is to be powdered, and one pound of it put into A.—Antimonium. 79 a glass vessel, on which is to be poured, first a mixture of three pounds of water and fifteen ounces of sulphuric acid, and afterwards fifteen ounces of powdered common salt. The whole is to be digest- ed for twelve hours, and stirred all the while, and the solution, when cool, strained through linen. On the residuum, one-third of the above menstruum is to be poured, and the mixture digested and strained. Mr. Stott says, that the digestion need not be continued longer than two or three hours, and that the heat must be kept mo- derate, as the muriat of antimony begins to evaporate before it boils. This process furnishes an easy, if not the best, mode of preparing the submuriat of antimony, but it does not give us the solution of the muriat in a state of purity. But in consequence of its volatility, we may easily separate it from the other salts by distillation. This was first proposed by Gmelin, and improved by Wiegleb, who distilled a mixture of one part of sulphuret of antimony, four of muriat of soda, and three of sulphuric acid diluted with two of water; but in this process, the product is rendered impure by the admixture of sulphur, and there is great danger of the vessels bursting from the immense quantity of sulphureted hydrogen gas disengaged. The Prussian Dispensatory pours upon two ounces of crocus of antimony, and six of dried muriat of soda, in a retort, four ounces of sulphuric acid, previously diluted with two ounces of distilled water, and distils. But we have already observed, that the oxyd of antimony made use of in this preparation, is seldom sufficiently oxydized or deprived of its sulphur, which occasions the production of much sulphureted hy- drogen gas; and from the concentrated state in which the materials are employed, the muriatic acid gas is sometimes disengaged, espe- cially if the heat be improperly applied, so rapidly, that it has not time to act upon the oxyd of antimony. At last, in 1797, Gott- ling, by substituting the glass of antimony for the crocus, diluting the sulphuric acid, and using the muriat of soda crystallized, re- moved these inconveniences. He introduces into a retort a mixture of four ounces of glass of antimony in powder, with sixteen of muriat of soda, and then pours into it twelve ounces of sulphuric acid, di- luted with eight of water. He lutes on a tubulated receiver with gypsum, and distils to dryness in a sand bath, with a heat gradually increased. By this process, he says, about twenty ounces of very strong fuming solution of muriat of antimony are obtained. The residuum in the retort is sulphat of soda, but unfit for internal use, on account of its being mixed with some antimony. Butter of antimony is crystallizable. It is remarkably deliques- cent, and forms a permanent solution; but if more than a certain proportion of water be added, it is decomposed, a large quantity of submuriat of antimony being precipitated, in the form of white silky crystals, while a super-muriat remains in solution. It consists, ac- cording to Mr. J. Davy, of 56 antimony, and 44 chlorine, or 1 pro- portion of antimony to 2 of chlorine.!. 80 A.—Antimonium. TARTARUM ANTIMONIATUM sive EMETICUM. D. Tartras Antimonii. E. Tartrat of Antimony. Antimonium Tartarizatum. L. A. Tartarized Antimony. Anlimoniated or Emetic Tartar. Tartras Antimonii et Potasste. Tartrate de potasse antimonie, (F.) Spiessglanz-weinstein, (G.) Tartaro An- timoniato, (I.) Take of JVitro-muriatic oxyd of antimony, two ounces; Crystals of tartar, in very fine powder, two ounces and a half; Distilled water, eighteen ounces.—Boil the water in a glass vessel, then gradually throw into it the oxyd and tartar, previously mixed, and boil for half an hour; then filter the liquor through paper, and crystallize by slow cooling. D. The tartaric acid is capable of combining, in many examples, with two bases at the same time, forming with them triple crystallizable salts. In the present instance, it is combined with oxyd of anti- mony and potass; and as the potass is essential to its constitution, and the real tartrat of antimony is a different salt, its name, on chemical principles, should certainly have been tartrat of antimony and potass. In the preparation of this salt, the different combinations of pro- toxyd of antimony have been employed. Any of them will afford a very pure salt. The crocus, precipitated oxyd, submuriat and glass, are all occasionally employed. The Edinburgh College uses the cro- cus. To this the principal objection is, that it is never found in the shops in a state fit for this purpose. Even when properly prepared, it is with difficulty acted upon by the supertartrat of potass, unless it be levigated and elutriated. Mr. Phillips found, that 100 parts of cream of tartar dissolved only six parts out of 100 of very finely powdered crocus, 16 when levigated, but 75 when it was elutriated; and in the last case, the liquor assumed a deep green colour, which, though proceeding from the presence of iron, is a test that a suffici- ent proportion of the metallic oxyd is dissolved, as it does not occur until the tartar has taken up three-fourths of its weight of the cro- cus. But, besides the expense of levigating and elutriating the crocus, it is liable to be mixed with carbonat of lime, derived probably from the stones employed in the levigation; and the crystals of tartarized antimony procured in this way, are consequently contaminated even with a larger portion of tartrat of lime than is furnished by the tartar. The glass is more easily soluble than the crocus, as, when finely powdered, 78 parts were dissolved, and gave the solution a dark green colour. But this oxyd is very expensive, and glass of lead is sometimes fraudulently substituted for it. When the glass or cro- cus is used, Mr. Phillips recommends, that after being powdered or levigated, they should be boiled in dilute sulphuric acid to remove any carbonat of lime, and that a small quantity of sulphuric acid should be added to decompose the tartrat of lime. To the oxyd of antimony, as prescribed by the London college, 1809, Mr. Phillips objected its great expense, its quantity being too small in propor- tion to the tartar, and that the crystals of tartar emetic formed with it, as well as with the crocus or glass, are contaminated with the A.—Antimonium. 81 tartrat of lime usually contained in the tartar. To the use of the submuriat, as directed by the Dublin College, this last objection does not apply, because the muriatic acid retains the tartrat of lime in solution when the tartrat of antimony crystallizes. Having criti- cized the processes of all the Colleges, Mr. Phillips proposed to substitute one of his own. The qualities requisite in an eligible me- thod of preparing tartar emetic, he says, are, the certainty of obtain- ing protoxyd of antimony, unmixed with peroxyd or sulphureted oxyd, yet not absolutely pure, but mixed with a substance capable of preventing the crystallization of the tartrat of lime; moderate expense, and the possibility of using iron vessels, both in preparing the oxyd of antimony and the tartarized antimony. These requisites Mr. Phillips thinks he has found, in employing the Sulphat of anti- mony prepared by boiling powdered metallic antimony, in twice its weight of sulphuric acid to dryness in an iron vessel over a common fire, and stirring it with an iron spatula. The greyish coloured pro- duct was thrown into water, and washed, till the uncombined sul- phuric acid was removed. * One hundred parts of the subsulphat thus procured were boiled in a solution of an equal weight of tartar; about 76 parts of the subsulphat were readily dissolved, and the so- lution, when filtered, afforded at the first crystallization rather more than 90 parts of crystals of tartarized antimony, perfectly white and unmixed with any extraneous salt. The solution, by further evapo- ration, furnished an additional quantity of crystals of emetic tartar, slightly incrusted with sulphat of lime, from which, however, they were completely purified by solution, and repeating the crystalliza- tion. A considerable quantity of sulphat of lime was also deposited and separated during the evaporation. This process Mr. Phillips as- serts to be neither tedious, difficult, uncertain nor unsafe. The pro- cess adopted in the present edition of the London Pharmacopoeia is of the same nature, depending upon the formation of a sulphat of antimony, although in a more complicated way.t Dr. Powell tells us that the new formula, which " has, after numerous trials, been adopt- ed, is due to Mr. Hume of Long-Acre, to whose practical skill it is right to acknowledge great obligation. It is necessary that the whole of the supertartrat of potass should be combined with the oxyd, and therefore, that there should be a full sufficiency of the latter, other- wise the first crystals, as it cools, will be of the supertartrat only; * This is the plan adopted by the Pharmacopoeia of the United States. We prefer, from our own experiments, the Dublin process. f In a comparison of the activity of tartar emetic^ as prepared by different formulae, by Mr. Henry, Sen. by ascertaining the amount of sulphuret of anti- mony precipitated by sulphureted hydrogen, from a given weight of various specimens, the comparison is strongJy favourable to the Dublin formula. Thus two parts of a standard preparation, gave of Sulph. of Antimony 1.04 Same amount of London Pharmacopoeia.....0.98 Do. Edinburgh....., ■ . 0.99 Do. Paris . . . . . , . . . 0.68 Do. Phillips, (Amer.)......0.74 Do. Dublin ........ 1.00 ~-Journ. de Pharm. July, 1825. Experiments on the impure or unrectified preparations.—North Amer. Med. ind Surg. Journ. No. L 12 82 A.—Antimonium. whilst, on the other hand, if a superabundance of oxyd of antimony be used, it will remain upon the filter, and not influence the crystals; the former inconvenience, therefore, is especially to be avoided, and for that purpose, more oxyd than may be strictly necessary, is di- rected. The evaporation must not be carried too far, as there ap- pears to be some tartrat of potass in the solution, whose crystals will, in that case, be mixed with the triple salt. The crystals ought always to be formed, for it is only when they are, that the proportions of the salt can be considered as precise." But whatever form of pro- toxyd of antimony may be preferred, the quantity of water employ- ed must be sufficient to dissolve the tartar emetic formed. The time during which ebullition is to be continued, is stated differently by different pharmaceutists. No harm can arise from continuing it longer than is absolutely necessary; but it is certainly a waste of time and fuel to protract it for hours. Another circumstance which renders tartar emetic variable in its effects, is, the mode of crystallization.' Some evaporate it to dry- ness; others to a pellicle, and set it aside to crystallize; and others again crystallize by slow evaporation. On account of the silica which is combined with the oxyd of antimony, and which, being held in solution by the potass, impedes the crystallization, and varies the- nature of the product, Vauquelin recommends that the solution be first evaporated to dryness, and that the saline mass obtained should be redissolved in boiling water, and then crystallized; for towards the end of the first evaporation, the silica separates, and becomes to- tally insoluble. In this way, he says, we obtain both a purer salt, and in larger quantify. If we employ an excess of supertartrat of potass, part of it will remain undecomposed, and will crystallize be- fore, or along with the tartar emetic. This source of impurity is easily avoided, by using an excess of the antimonial oxyd, which re- maining undissolved, occasions no error, and prevents the necessity of throwing away the crystals which form on the filtering paper, if the solution be saturated. The primitive form of the crystals of tartrat of antimony and po- tass seems to be the regular tetrahedron, but it assumes a variety of secondary forms. It has a styptic metallic taste. It is soluble in three times its weight of water at 212°, and in fifteen at 60°. As this statement of its solubility is very different from that of most writers, from Bergmann to Fourcroy, who say that it requires 80 parts of water at 60°, and somewhat less than 40 of boiling water, it is necessary to mention, that it was ascertained by careful experiment, with very fine crystals of tartar emetic, more than half an inch in length, and perfectly free from the admixture of any foreign salt. The crystals, by exposure to the air, become white and opaque, but do not readily fall to powder. The property of deliquescing, ascrib- ed to them by Gottling, must have arisen from the presence of other salts, as he does not prepare his tartar emetic by crystallization, but by evaporating the solution to dryness. The solution of tartar emetic slightly reddens tincture of turnsole. It is decomposed by acids, alkalies, alkaline carbonats, sulphureted hydrogen and its compounds, vegetable juices, decoctions and infusions, and many of the metals. A__Antimonium. 83 In its chemical composition there is still much obscurity; whether it be a triple salt, consisting of tartaric acidr oxyd of antimony and potash, or a mixture of tartrat of antimony and tartrat of potash, seems not yet fully agreed on. Others have even supposed that in this combination, the supertartrat of potash acts the part of a simple acid, which is by no means improbable.* Tartar emetic should always be purchased in crystals; a solution of it in distilled water, ought to furnish a copious gold coloured pre- cipitate with dilute sulphuret of potash or ammonia; a precipitate soluble in nitric acid, with acetat of lead; and with lime water, a white and extremely thick precipitate, dissolving with facility in pure nitric acid. If the crystals deliquesce, the presence of other salts may be inferred; and they ought to readily and totally dissolve in water, forming a clear solution both previous to, and after adding the wine, in making the antimonial wine. Incompatibles. Mineral acids, alkalies and their carbonats, many of the metals, soaps, hydro-sulphurets, and many infusions and de- coctions of bitter and astringent vegetables: thus, one fluid ounce of decoction of yellow bark, completely decomposes one scruple of tartar emetic and renders it inert; hence it is useful when an over dose has been taken. Rhubarb is equally incompatible, but gentian and wormwood, it is said, do not decompose it. Alkaline sulphats if neutral, are not incompatible; but if the acid is in excess, a white, insoluble sulphat of antimony is precipitated. Medical use.—In doses of from one to three grains it operates as an emetic, and sometimes as a cathartic. In smaller doses, it excites nausea, and proves a powerful diaphoretic and expectorant. • As an emetic, it is chiefly given in the beginning of fevers and febrile dis- eases, in chincough, and, in general, whenever we wish to evacuate the stomach quickly. When great debility is present, and in the ad- vanced stages of typhoid fever, its use is improper, and even some- times fatal. As a diaphoretic, it is given in small doses, or from an eighth, to a quarter of a grain; and as an expectorant, in doses still smaller. The only proper form for exhibiting it is in solution; and as the intensity of its action on the body is liable to variation, from differ- ences in its own strength, and in the constitution of the patient, it should almost always be given in divided doses, at short intervals, if we wish to excite vomiting; and at longer intervals, if we wish it to act only on the skin or lungs. This salt forms a most beneficial application as a rubefacient, in deep-seated inflammations, especially of the chest; it occasions a pustular eruption on the skin, of a very singular aspect, the cica- trices of which are permanent for a long time. It may be used in the proportion of one or two drachms, incorporated with one ounce of lard, or it may be dusted over a piece of leather spread with ad- hesive plaster, taking care to leave a margin untouched that it may adhere more firmly. * On this account, we apprehend, the well known name of Tartar Emetic should supersede every other denomination. 84 A__Antimonium. VINUM ANTIMONII TARTARIZATI. L. A. Solution or Wine of Tartarized Antimony. Vinum Tartratis Antimonii. E. LiquoR Antimonii Tartarizati. L. Antimonial Wine. Take of Tartarized antimony, two scruples; Boiling distilled water, two fluid ounces; White wine, eight ounces.—Dissolve the tartar- ized antimony in the boiling distilled water; then add the wine. L. This is a very important article of domestic medicine, and of con- sequence, therefore, ought to be of uniform strength. The English Col- leges formerly differed in this particular, that of Edinburgh containing only two grains to the ounce, whilst that of London was double the strength. They have latterly made it of the same standard, viz. two grains to the ounce. We have continued the stronger preparation of Four grains to the ounce, as formerly directed by the London College, and adopted, as to its strength, by the Pharm. U. S. In its employment and effects, it is analogous to a watery solutioi of tartar emetic of equal strength. Oxydum Antimonii cum Sulphure per nitratem Potass^e. E.* Oxyd, (formerly Crocus,) of Antimony. Take of Sulphuret of antimony; Nitrat of potass, of each equal weights.—After they are separately powdered and well mixed, let them be thrown into a red hot crucible. When the deflagration is over, separate the reddish matter from the whitish crust, and re- duce it to a powder, which is to be repeatedly washed with hot wa- ter, till the water remains insipid. This article is no longer retained by that name, nor even intro- duced as a separate preparation in the British Pharmacopoeias. It is now found under the head of Tartras Antimonii, as the preliminary part of the process for making tartar emetic by the Edinburgh col- lege. Why it is retained at all, being long since rejected by the London college for other more certain preparations, might be difficult t« say. In the process abovementioned, the nitric acid of the nitre, and part of the sulphuret, are mutually decomposed; the sulphur is aci- dified, and combines with the potass of the nitre, while the anti- mony is converted into protoxyd, which combines with the undecom- posed portion of the sulphuret, and forms a dark brown, opaque, vi- trified mass; so that after the scoriae and other saline matters have been removed by washing, the substance which remains, according to Proust, consists of three parts of oxyd of antimony, and one of sulphuret of antimony. With regard to the mode of preparation, Bergmann observes, that by the common process of throwing the mixture into an ignited un- covered crucible, there is sometimes a loss of nearly one-half; and * The Antimonii Oxidum, of the U. S. Pharm. p. 78, but altered in thr Corrigenda to Antimonii Oxidum Sulphuratum. A.—Aqua. 85 therefore advises the mixture to be put into a cold crucible, which is to be covered and heated until the matter melts, by which means there is very little loss. What is kept in the shops is almost universally prepared with less nitre than is here ordered. The consequence is, that too much sul- phur remains not acidified, the antimony is scarcely oxydized, and the preparation is unfit for uses to which it ought to be applied. When nitre has been thus culpably economized, the crocus has a steel grey, instead of a liver-brown colour. The sulphureted oxyd of antimony is a very uncertain prepara- tion, often operating with very great violence. Its internal use is therefore almost proscribed, or at least confined to maniacal cases, and veterinary practice. Antimonii Oxydium. L. Oxyd of Antimony. Take of Tartarized antimony, one ounce; Sub-carbonat of ammonia, ■ two drachms; Distilled water, what is necessary. Dissolve the salts separately in water, then mix the liquors, and boil until the oxyd of antimony be precipitated. Wash this with water, and dry it. This process, which was some time since introduced by the Lon- don College as a substitute for the numerous impure oxyds of anti- mony in preceding Pharmacopoeias, will furnish a very pure pro- toxyd of antimony, and does not seem liable to any objection. APOCYNUM ANDROS^MIFOLIUM. Dog's Bane. The Root. Pentandria Digynia. Nat. ord. Contortae, Linn. Apocineae, Juss. This is a perennial lactescent plant, found from Canada to Caro- lina. From the facts connected with it, it is concluded that it contains a bitter extractive principle, a colouring principle, soluble in water and not in alcohol, caoutchouc, and a volatile oil. Thirty grains of the root evacuate the stomach as effectually as two-thirds of the amount of ipecacuanha; by which name it is known in various parts of the eastern states. Its power is diminished by keeping, and is destrpyed by age. It is introduced into the secondary list of the United States' Pharmacopceiaj AQUA.- WATER. It is rather surprising that water, an article the most abundanth employed in medicine, should not have been regularly admitted into the lists of the Materia Medica. It is now introduced into the Phar- macopoeia of the United States; and in point of real efficacy, few will deny that it is equal to almost any other individual substance m the cure of disease. What should we anticipate from the use of our sudonfics, diuretics, &c. without the co-operation of this import- ant agent! how greatly would a want of it tend to baffle the most 86 A.—Aqua. anxious exertions of the practitioner! It is its universal distribution that has caused us to overlook the benefits we derive from its em- ployment on every occasion. Water chemically considered consists of hydrogen combined with oxygen in the proportion of 14.42, to 85.58, by weight, or two of hydrogen to one of oxygen, by volume. Water is transparent, colour- less, inodorous, and insipid. As water is assumed as the standard, or unity, in all tables of specific gravity, it is necessary to know that a cubic inch of it weighs, at 30 inches of the barometer, and 60° thermometer, 252^422 grains. At 32° it exists in a solid form, and is crystallized. At 212° it expands to 2000 times its bulk, and is converted into a very elastic vapour. It absorbs small quantities of the simple gases, especially oxygen. It dissolves several of the salifiable bases, and in some degree all saline bodies, and is essen- tial to their crystallization. It is composed and decomposed in many instances, and its chemical agency is almost universal. It is the only binary combination of hydrogen with oxygen, at present known with certainty. Water, from its extensive powers as a solvent, never occurs in a state of absolute purity; the nature and degree of its contamination must necessarily vary according to circumstances. It generally holds earthy matter in a state of mechanical suspension, or saline and other bodies in chemical solution. Celsus has laid down the follow- ing arrangement, &c. as it respects water, and it can scarcely be amended in the present day. " Aqua levissima pluvialis est; deinde fontana, turn ex flumipe, turn ex puteo; posthaec ex nive, aut glacie; gravior his ex lacu, gravissiina ex palude."* 1. AquA Pluvialis. Rain Water. This, when collected in the open fields, is the purest natural wa- ter, and of the least specific gravity. The only bodies which it holds in solution are carbonic acid, and minute traces of carbonat and mu- riat of lime. 2. Aqua Fontana,t. Spring Water. In addition to the substances detected in rain water, spring water generally contains a small proportion of muriat of soda, and fre- quently other salts; the larger the springs, in general, the purer; more especially those which occur in primitive countries, and in si- licious rocks or beds of gravel. The water of some springs dissolves soap, that of others decomposes and curdles it; the former are called soft, the latter hard water, and is a practical fact of some importance. Soft water is a more powerful solvent of all vegetable matters, and is preferable both for domestic and medicinal employment. Even animals instinctively prefer it. 3. AquA Fluvialis. River Water. This is derived from the conflux of numerous springs and rain wa- ter. It is generally pretty pure, although its transparency is often impaired from the mechanical suspension of earthy matter. ' Celsus, B. 2. c. 18. f Pharm. U. S. A.—Aqua. 87 4. AquA Putealis. Well Water. This is essentially the same as spring water, but more liable to impurity from its confinement, and slow infiltration through the walls, the soluble parts of which are carried along with it. Old wells are therefore generally superior to recent ones, and the more the wa.ter is drawn from it, the softer does it become. 5. AquA Nivata. Snow Water. This water from time immemorial has been deemed unwhole- some; but it would seem an unfounded supposition. There is nothing in its composition in which it differs from rain water, and our foun- tains and rivers owe much of their water to the melting of snow during the warmer seasons. 6. AquA ex Lacu. Lake Water. The accumulation of water in one place contaminated by the putrefying process of animal and vegetable bodies, must necessa- rily be less pure than those waters previously noticed. This will depend considerably also on the magnitude of the collection, and the degree of its stagnation. 7. AquA Paludosa. Marsh Wafer. As this is the most stagnant, so it is, generally speaking, the most impure of all water, and is more loaded with decomposing vegetable and animal matters. To what extent the impurities of water are capable of influencing their salubrity, has been a subject of inquiry from the remotest pe- riod. Too much importance has been attached to many of these na- tural contaminations. Unless in large amount, it is the height of affectation to suppose the quality of water can be rendered noxious by the presence of minute portions of such earthy salts as usually occur in solution. No persons are healthier than the inhabitants of limestone districts; habituated to the use of water strongly impreg- nated with that earth, they feel no ill effect from it, whilst a stran- ger is generally disordered by its use. All metallic contaminations with the exception perhaps of iron, are highly injurious, and should be carefully avoided. For the purification and preservation of water, numerous modes have been adopted. Mechanical impurities are removed by filtration in various ways; muddy water may also be cleared by adding a few grains of alum to each pint; and when water has contracted a putrid smell, it may be rendered sweet by passing it through charcoal, or by agitation with a small portion of magnesia, or with black oxyd of manganese, in the proportion of l£ parts to 250 of water. Water, when kept for a long time in casks, especially on long voy ages, is partially decomposed; carbureted hydrogen is evolved, which imparts to it its characteristic taste and smell. This is partly obviat- ed by charring the inside of the casks,- or by substituting, iron tanks for wooden vessels. In pharmacy, common water, if employed, should not be hard; fil- 'cred rain water will answer for most purposes. It is, however, thought 88 A.—Aqua. necessary on many occasions with an undue degree of refinement, to direct the use of AQUA DISTILLATA. E. L. D. A. Distilled Water. Syn. Eaudistillee,(F.) Einfaches distilleries wasser, (G.) Acqua Distillata, (I.) Agua Distillada, (S.) Let the watet be distilled in clean vessels until two-thirds have cdme over, which is to be kept in a glass bottle. Ed. This process is more especially required for chemical processes, in which the heterogeneous matters removed by distillation, might produce changes not desirable; but for infusions or decoctions, it cannot be deemed essential, if pure rain or river water is at hand. It is best to avoid all unnecessary rules, lest they be infringed, with- out the possibility of detection. Whenever in extemporaneous pre- scriptions, the following substances are employed, distilled water may correctly be ordered, for changes are often induced by the chemical action of the saline matters contained; viz. nitrat of silver, cuprum ammoniatum, corrosive sublimate, aqua ammoniae, sugar of lead, muriat of barytes, sulphuric acid, citric acid, tartar emetic, ferrum tartarizatum, &c. In order to test the purity of water, its transparency ought to be undisturbed by the nitrat of silver, muriat of barytes, or oxalat of ammonia. Of Mineral Waters. Although all waters that flow from the earth, are, inasmuch as they contain mineral bodies in solution, strictly speaking, mineral waters; yet custom has restricted the term to such only, as are dis- tinguished from those already mentioned, by a peculiarity in colour, taste, smell, or any obvious properties, or by the medicinal effects they are known to be capable of producing on the system. Whatever, however, may be strictly due to mineral waters as me- dicinal agents, certain it is, that far too much has been ascribed to them, and too little to the concurring circumstances of their exhibi- tion. There is scarcely a water found in nature which cannot be imi- tated by art, and even with much augmented strength; and yet it is sufficiently obvious, that drunk at home, they are not equally be- neficial, as when taken at their source. If this were not true, where is the necessity of ordering patients to take a long and perhaps in- convenient ana expensive tour, when our mineral fountains are at hand for their relief. A Variety of causes co-operate to render the journey expedient and useful, of which the mere drinking of the wa- ters constitutes the least part. The journey itself, of perhaps some hundred miles, is an active source of health; a cessation from the continued routine of domestic and official duties; a complete change of the habits of life; of scene; of company: perhaps the substitution of a wholesome beverage, Water, in place of excess in wine or ardent spi- rits. These and other causes which will occur upon reflection, will be found the most efficient sources of renewed health. In increasing the discharges from the various emunctories, the copious draughts of the mineral waters taken, undoubtedly are useful; but they are alone, inadequate to the end proposed. A.—Aqua. 89 Be this, however, as it may, it is usual to divide mineral waters into acidulous, cluxlybeate, sulphurous, and saline. Some springs are useful from the increased temperature which ac- companies them, rather than from any active ingredient in their com- position, and are called warm springs. Examples of which are found in every country. 1. Acidulje. Acidulous, Owe their properties chiefly to an excess of carbonic acid. They have an acid pungent taste, and sparkle like Champagne on being poured out. They generally contain some muriat of soda, and some earthy carbonats. They are considered tonic and diuretic* They are transiently exhilirating in large doses; and stimulant. They are considered serviceable in bilious complaints, atony of the stomach, nausea, vomiting, and fevers of a typhoid type. The most celebrated waters of this description, are those of Pyr- mont, Seltzer, Spa, on the continent of Europe; Cheltenham and Scarborough, in England; and Saratoga and Ballston, in the United States. 2. Chalybeate. Chalybeates. These contain iron in the form of sulphat, carbonat, or muriat. They have a styptic inky taste, strike a black colour with galls, oak bark, or other vegetable astringent: some of them, in which the iron is held dissolved by carbonic acid, are acidulous, and deposite the iron in form of an ochre, by boiling; as is the case with the Pyrmont and Spa water. Others, in which sulphuric acid is the solvent, re- tain their power of striking a black colour after being boiled and fil- tered. There is scarcely any country which does not largely abound with chalybeate springs. Tunbridge, Brighton, Bath, Scarborough, &c. in England; Carlsbad, Vichy, &c. on the Continent of Europe. With us, they are too numerous to mention. These waters are used as tonics in cases of debility, cachexia, ehlorosis, fluor albus, amenorrhoea, and nervous diseases. They sti- mulate and increase the circulation; and generally act as gentle lax- atives, from containing neutral salts. 3. Sulphured. Sulphurous. These derive their character from sulphureted hydrogen, (hydro- sulphuric acid,) either uncombined or united with lime, an alkali, iron, &c. as at Enghein, Aix-la Chapelle, Harrowgate, Moffat, and others in Europe. The sulphurous waters in our own country are also abundant. They are known by their stinking smell, resembling a rotten egg, or washing of a gun barrel; they blacken a piece of bright silver when placed in them. * Which last property w^e believe will be admitted to belong even to com- mon water, when drank as largely. Dr. Meade, in his account of the Saratoga Springs, &c. mentions, seventy-five glassfuls of the water to have been drank in a day!! If they had not fortunately proved diuretic, the person must have burst; for at the most moderate calculation of half pint glasses, it amounts to four gallons and a half, or the volume of a good sized demi-jon-n!! 90 A.—Aqua. These are chiefly used in cutaneous and glandular diseases; they are stimulant and heating, and operate on the skin and bowels. 4. Saline. Saline. These, for the most part, are purgative, from containing different saline, ingredients, such as common salt, which waters are known by their saltish taste; the formation of small crystals in cubes, by eva- poration; precipitating the nitric solutions of lead, silver, or mercury in white clouds. Some of the proper purging springs, such as Epsom, &c. have a bitter taste, precipitate the nitric solutions of silver, lead, and mer- cury, are not affected by acids, but afford precipitates with carbonat of potash. Others are of an alkaline nature, and turn blue vegetable colours to a green, they effervesce with acids, and yield a precipitate with alum water. Such are Carlsbad, Barege, and some others. They are used in diseases of the urinary organs, and in morbid acidity of the stomach, &c. Some are calcareous, as Matlock, Buxton, and all hard waters, called also petrifying waters; they contain carbonat of lime in solu- tion, which they deposite, by standing or boiling.—In general they may be considered unwholesome. The presence of lime may be dis- covered b\ means of the oxalat of ammonia. Purging waters derive their effects from the neutral salts they contain, especially the muriats of soda, lime, and magnesia, and sul- phats of soda and magnesia. They are frequently employed for a long time together, to keep the bowels open, by exciting the natural action, rather than to produce full purging; and they thus tend to increase the appetite, health, and strength. The following table gives the contents of the celebrated Springs at Ballstoum, Saratoga, and Lebanon, in New York, as analyzed by Dr. Meade. Names of the Springs. quan-tity of water. Gases. Carbonats of Muriates of o CO * s o > 0 ' c. crt e. deg. Car-bonic Acid. Nitrft-gen. atmos-pheric Air. Lime. Mag-nesia. ■v , CO s 3 fck.2 quail. cubic inehes cubic inches grs. grs. grs. grs. grs. grs. grs. Ballstovin. Lowes' Well -Public Well - 1 1 60i 61 2| 2-z - 13* n 11| 43 42 41 3* - 1 1 1008 1008 52 52 Saratoga. Congress Sp.. Flat Rock - - \ 66 66 2 1 i - 27J 17 1PJ 103 41 3J 4J 4 - i i 1012 1007 52 52 Lebanon - - - 1 2 - 13 8 5 - lj 1 - 11 - 1002 73 Table of the more celebrated Mineral Waters of Europe, showing the Ingredients contained in a given Quantity of each Water. Names of the Springs. quan-tity of Water. Gases. Carbonates of Sulphates of Muriates of <3 'co 4 a < •« Tem-pera-ture. Oxy-gen. Car-bonic Acid. Sulph. ! Nitro-Hydr. i* gen. Soda. Lime. Iron. Soda. Lime. £ 33 S s grs. e p M grs. Soda. grs. C e '<3 « ?! 1 o grains. cubic | cubic inches. ! inches. cubic cubic inches, inches. grs. grs. grs. grs. grs. * grs. l*grs. grs. grs. ---IF--- grs. grs. grs. (-Seltzer (1) - - -a s. Pyrmont (1) - -^g^Spa(l) - - . . <- Carlsbad (2) - -LKilburn (10) - - 8949 8950 8933 25320 138240 .435 13.068 19.6 .9.8 50. 84. 36. - 5.22 1.85 38.5. 78.3 4.3 1.85 12.5 2.4 6.32 9.8 4.35 1.25 0.70 0.70; 0.1J •31 66.75 18.2 8.38 13.0 1 5.44 91.0 ^ 13.74 1.7 0.21 32.5 6.0 0.6 2.8 2.25 - 6. cold. cold. cold. 165° cold. £ fHarrowgate (14) -2 A J Moffat (14) - - -'.£■§1 Aix-la-Chapelle (3) £ lEnghein(5) - -' —.—- 103643 i — 103643 •— 8940 — 92160 : — 8. 1. 18.5 19. 10. 13.06 70. 7. 4. = 18.5 15.25 21.4 5.5 5.89 1.35 - , ~ 33.3 . 0.5 5.8 - 615.5 3.6 2.4 3. 9.1 8.0 = . - = ~ cold. cold. 143" cold. grSeidlitz- - - -\s J Cheltenham (6) -to CPlombieres- - - 58309 103643 - 8. 30.3 3. 12. 4.4 6.7 1. 21. 12.5 5. 48.0 4.7 , 41.1 40. 1444 ^ 5. 0.5 - 36.5 12.5 ^ 2.6 3 cold. cold. cold. k£ rTunbridge (3) -"3 J 2 Brighton (4) - -£.2 C.Toplitz(7) - - 103643 58309 22540 1.4 10.6 18. — 4. 13.5 16.5 _ 1. 32.5 — 1.25 32.7 ~ 1L2 6.5 12.2 61.3 28.5 2.25 6. ^ 1.12 15.1 cold. cold. cold. „- aj (-Bath (8) - - - -g s | Buxton (9) - - -£ °-! Bristol (11) ... 2 ■£ | Matlock - - - 1 O g LMalvern - - - 15360 58309 58309 58309 58309 _ 2.4 30.3 1 2. = 1.6 10.5 13.5 - .004 3. 11.2 18. 2.5 11.7 portion - 6.6 L5 4. - 7.25 — 0.4 = — 114° 82° 740 660 cold. (1) Bergmann. (2) Klaproth. (3) Babington. (4) Marcet. (5) Fourcrov. (6) Fothergill. (7) John. (8) Phillips. (9) PearsoH. (10) Schmesser.—Phil. Trant. Lxxsii. 127. (11) Carrick. (14) Garnet.—Sanders on Mineral Waters, 514. 33. 92 A.—Aqua. We may class along with the foregoing, AquA Marina. Sea Water. This has heretofore been stated to contain large quantities of com- mon salt and Epsom salt. The discordant analysis of different chemists were wondered at, and showed the imperfection of that branch of inquiry, until the able researches of the late Dr. Murray evinced, that in the examination of a mineral water, or any com- pound saline solution, the substances obtained from it are not neces- sarily the original ingredients, but are frequently the products of new combinations established by the operation of analysis; and that con- sequently the nature of the results obtained, may vary according to the mode of analysis, or even the degree of dilution in which the saline substances exist. The elements of the salts contained in a pint of sea water, are Lime, ........................ 2.9 Soda, .........•..............96.3 Muriatic acid,............"97.7 Magnesia,..................•• 14.8 Sulphuric acid, •••■.......••• 14.4 Total 226.1 grains. Now supposing these elements to be combined in the mode which Dr. Murray's views appear to establish,* the saline contents of a pint of sea water may be thus expressed. Muriat of soda, ............159.3 Muriat of magnesia, ••♦••••• 35.5 Muriat of lime, .............. 5.7 Sulphat of soda,.............25.6 Total 226.1 grains. A small portion of potash has also been discovered in it. Besides such saline contents, it is contaminated with animal and vegetable bodies, which render it, by keeping, highly offensive. Sea water is well known to be purgative, and forms at sea an excellent clyster. It is taken to the amount of about a pint in the morning, as a cathartic, at two doses, with an interval of half an hour. This quan- tity contains half an ounce of purgative salt, of which nearly three- fourths are muriat of soda. A precaution should be attended to in procuring sea water, that it be not hastily drank, before the par- ticles of sand, &c. are allowed to subside; from neglect of which, it is asserted, serious consequences have been witnessed. Its chief use is, however, that of a bath. It may be observed, that in general, soluble salts are capable of exerting a much more powerful effect upon the animal economy, than those which are insoluble; on which account, the earthy muri- ats, especially that of lime, are amongst the most active ingredients of the mineral waters. Although chemical analysis has frequently * See Transactions of Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1816. A.—Aqua. 93 failed, from its own imperfection, in ascertaining their presence, it seems probable that muriat of lime, and sulphat of soda, exist in all those springs that furnish, by the usual methods of examination, sulphat of lime, and muriat of soda', for the same reasons it is equally probable, that iron, which from the analysis of certain waters, has been supposed to exist as a carbonat, is, in its native solution, a true muriat. For the investigation of the true composition of mineral water, Dr. Murray has furnished a simple and elegant formula: viz. „ Determine by precipitants, the weight of the acids and bases; sup- pose them united in such a manner that they shall form the most so- luble salts; and these salts will constitute the true saline constituents of the water under examination. To this we may add, that the quantity of salts contained in any mineral water may be estimated with considerable accuracy, by find- ing the difference of weight between a bottle filled to a certain mark with distilled water, and when filled with the mineral water. To this difference add one-fifth, and again another fifth: the weight will then denote that of the salts contained in the bottle of water. A square case bottle is well adapted for this purpose. Suppose the difference to be 79 grains: one-fifth is 15£ grains, another fifth, the same, = 3If, to be added to 79 grains, = 110-| grains, the amount of saline matter. Of the Medicinal effects of Water, and its general uses in Me- dicine, fyc. Water is an essential constituent in the organization of all living bodies: and as it is continually expended during the process of life, that waste must be also continually supplied, and this supply is of such importance that it is not left to reason or to chance, but forms the object of an imperious appetite. When taken into the stomach, water acts by its temperature, its bulk, and the quantity absorbed by the lacteals. Water at about 60° gives no sensation of heat or cold; between 60° and 45° it gives a sensation of cold followed by a glow and increase of appetite and vigour; helow 45 the sensation of cold is permanent and unpleasant, and it acts as an astringent and sedative; about 60 it excites nausea and vomiting, probably by partially relaxing the fibres of the stomach, for when mixed with sti- mulating substances it has not these effects. In the stomach and the intestines it acts also by its bulk, producing the effects arising from the distention of these organs, and as the intestinal gases con- sist of hydrogen gas, either pure or carbonated, or sulphureted, or phosphureted, it is probably in part, decomposed in them. It like- wise dilutes the contents of tne stomach and intestines, thus often diminishing their acrimony. It is absorbed by the lacteals, dilutes the chyle and the blood, increases their fluidity, lessens their acri- mony, and produces plethora ad molem. Its effects in producing plethora and fluidity are, however, very transitory, as it at the same time increases the secretion by the skin and kidneys. Indeed the effects of sudorifics and diuretics depend in a great measure on the quantity of water taken along with them. 94 A.—Aqua. The external use of water depends almost entirely on its tempe- rature, which may be 1. Greater than that of the body, or above 97° Fall. The hot bath. 2. Below the temperature of the body. a. From 97 to 85, the warm bath. b. From 85 to 65, the tepid bath. c. From 65 to 32, the cold bath. The hot bath is decidedly stimulant in its action. It renders the pulse frequent, the veins turgid, the skin red, the face flushed, the respiration quick, increases animal heat, and produces sweat. If the temperature be very high, the face becomes bathed in sweat, the arteries at the neck and temples beat with violence; anxiety, and a sense of suffocation are induced, and if persisted in, vertigo, throb- bing in the head, and apoplexy, are the consequences. It is very rarely employed in medicine, except where there are hot springs, as at Baden in Switzerland. The Russians and some other nations use the hot bath as an article of luxury. The effects of the affusion of hot water have not been ascertained* and it is probable that when the heat is not so great as to destroy the organization of the skin, the very transient application of the water would be more than counteracted by the subsequent evapo- ration. With regard to the action arising from their temperature, all baths below 97° differ only in degree, as they all ultimately abstract caloric from the surface, but with a force inversely as their tempe- rature. The warm bath excites the sensation of warmth, partly because our sensations are merely relative, and partly because its tempera- ture, though less than that of the internal parts of the body, is actu- ally greater than that of the extremities which are the chief organs of touch. But water being a much better conductor of caloric than air, and especially than confined air, as much caloric is abstract- ed from the body by water, which is only a few degrees lower than the internal temperature of the body, as by air of a much lower temperature. The warm bath diminishes the frequency of the pulse, especially when it has been previously greater than natural, and this effect is always in proportion to the time of immersion. It also ren- ders the respiration slower, and lessens the temperature of the body, relaxes the muscular fibre, increases the bulk of the fluids by absorp- tion, removes impurities from the surface, promotes the desquama- tion and renewal of the cuticle, and softens the nails and indurations of the skin. The stimulant power of the warm bath is therefore very inconsi- derable, and its employment in diseases will be chiefly indicated by preternatural heat of the surface and frequency of the pulse, rigidity of the muscular fibre, and morbid affections of the skin. It has ac- cordingly been found serviceable in many cases of pyrexia, both febrile and exanthematous, in many spasmodic diseases, and in most of the impetigines. It is contra-indicated by difficulty of breathing, and internal organic affections, and should not be used when the stomach is full. A.—Aqua. 95 The affusion of warm water very generally produces a considera- ble diminution of heat, a diminished frequency of pulse and respira- tion, and a tendency to repose and sleep; but its effects are not very permanent, and its stimulus is weak. It is recommended in febrile diseases depending on the stimulus of preternatural heat, and in those attended with laborious respiration, and in the paroxysms of hectic fever. As the tepid bath and affusion produce effects intermediate be- tween those of warm and cold water, it is unnecessary to enumerate them. The cold bath produces the sensation of cold, which gradually ceases, and is succeeded by numbness. It excites tremors in the skin, and shivering. The skin becomes pale, contracted, and ac- quires the appearance termed cutis anserina. The fluids are dimi- nished in volume; the solids are contracted, the caliber of the vessels is lessened, and therefore numbness and paleness are induced, and the visible cutaneous veins become smaller. There is a sense of drowsiness and inactivity, the joints become rigid and inflexible, and the limbs are affected with pains and spasmodic contractions. The respiration is rendered quick and irregular; the pulse slow, firm, regular, and small; the internal heat is at first diminished, but gradually and irregularly returns nearly to its natural standard; the extremities, however, continue cold and numb, or swollen and livid; the perspiration is suppressed, and the discharge of urine is render- ed more frequent and copious. If the cold be excessive on its ap- plication, long-continued violent shiverings are induced, the pulse ceases at the wrist, the motion of the* heart becomes feeble and lan- guid, there is a sensation of coldness and faintness at the stomach; and a rapid diminution of animal heat; and at last delirium, torpor, and death, are the consequences. If the application of the cold bath be not carried to an excessive length, on emerging from the water, the whole body is pervaded by an agreeable sensation of warmth, and the patient feels refreshed and invigorated. . The primary action of the cold bath is stimulant, and the degree of this action is in proportion to the lowness of its temperature. Much has been said as to the stimulant and sedative effects of cold, but being altogether theoretical, we pass it by, with the observation, that the action of cold is complicated, and varies according to its in- tensity, duration, and the state of the system to which it is applied. It acts, at first, as a stimulant in exciting sensation, then as a tonic in condensing the living fibre, and lastly, however paradoxical it may appear, as a sedative by preventing that distribution of blood in the minute and ultimate vessels, which is necessary for the existence of sensibility and irritability. The cold bath may be therefore so managed as to procure any of these effects, by regulating the length of time for which it is applied. It may be employed in fevers, and febrile paroxysms, when the heat is steadily above the natural standard, and in many disease? arising from relaxation and debility. It is contra-indicated when the heat of the body is below 97°, when there is any notable per- spiration from the surface, when there is general plethora, and when any internal organ is diseased. Irritable habits should bf 96 A__Aqua. defended from the violence of its action, by covering the body with flannel. Cold affusion, or the pouring of cold water over the body, is a very convenient way of applying the cold bath in many cases. In this way cold is very suddenly applied to the surface, its operation is instantaneous and momentary, but may be continued by repeated affusions for any length of time, and so as to produce its extreme effects. Where the effects of cold affusion may be thought too se- vere, sponging the body with cold water, or water and vinegar, may be substituted.* AQUiE DISTILLATE. Distilled Waters. In the distillation of essential oils, the water imbibes always a part of the oil. Tlie distilled liquors here treated of, are no other than water thus impregnated with the essential oil of the subject; whatever smell, taste, or virtue, is communicated to the water, or obtained in the form of watery liquor, being found in a concentrated state in the oil. All those vegetables, therefore, which contain an essential oil, will give over some virtue to water by distillation: but the degree of the impregnation of the water, or the quantity of water which a plant is capable of saturating with its virtue, are by no means in proportion to the quantity of its oil. The oil saturates only the water that comes over at the same time witli it: if there be more oil than is sufficient for this saturation, tlie surplus separates, and concretes in its proper form; not miscible with the water which arises after- wards. Some odoriferous flowers, whose oil is in so small quantity that scarcely any visible mark of it appears, unless fifty or a hun- dred pounds or more are distilled at once, give nevertheless as strong an impregnation to water as those plants which abound most with oil. Many have been of opinion, that distilled waters may be more and more impregnated with the virtues of the subject, and their strength increased to any assigned degree, by cohobalion, that is, by re-distilling them repeatedly from fresh parcels of the plant. Expe- rience, however, shows the contrary. A water skilfully drawn in the first distillation, proves on every repeated one not stronger but more disagreeable. Aqueous liquors are not capable of imbibing above a certain quantity of the volatile oil of vegetables: and this they may be made to take up by one, as well as by any number of distillations; the oftener the process is repeated, the ungrateful impression which they generally receive from the fire, even at the first time, becomes greater and greater. Those plants, which do not yield at first, waters sufficiently strong, are not proper subjects for this process. Most distilled waters, when first prepared, have a somewhat un- •For a particular account of the medical use of the cold bath, &c. see the valuable work of Dr. Currie of Liverpool, on that subject; and likewise an interesting treatise by Dr. Coffin of Boston, on the use of the warm and cold baths. A.—Aqua. 97 pleasant smell, which, however, they gradually lose: it is therefore advisable to keep them for some days after their preparation in ves- sels but slightly covered; and not to cork them up until they lose that smell. That the waters may keep the better, about one-twentieth part their weight of proof spririt may be added to each after they are dis- tilled. A respectable apothecary informed Dr. Duncan, that if the simple distilled waters be rectified by distilling them a second time, they will keep for several years without the addition of any spirit, which always gives an unpleasant flavour, and is often objectionable for other reasons. Distilled waters are employed chiefly as grateful diluents, as suit- able vehicles for medicines of greater efficacy, or for rendering dis- gustful ones more acceptable to the palate and stomach: few are depended on, with any intention of consequence, by themselves. These waters may be prepared extemporaneously, by adding to water what have been called essences, (that is, the essential oil dis- solved in alcohol,) or by rubbing any essential oil with ten times its weight of sugar, or what is said to be better, Magnesia. As thus prepared, they do not retain their transparency. The waters are to be .distilled from the dried herbs, unless other- wise ordered, because they are not to be had fresh at all times of the year. If used fresh, their weight is to be doubled. To every pint of these waters add half an ounce measure of proof spirit to preserve them, and keep in closed stopped vessels.—Dublin Pharmacopoeia. From amongst the number of distilled waters recommended by the foreign Pharmacopoeias, the following are selected, being those introduced into the Pharmacopoeia of the United States. AquA Citri Aurantii, (Corticis.) E. Water of Orange Peel. Eau d'Orange, (F.) Pomeranzen wasser, (G.) Acqua di Arancio, (I.) Take of Fresh orange peel*, two pounds.'—Pour upon it enough wa- ter to prevent empyreuma, and after due maceration, distil one gal- lon, to which add five ounces of diluted alcohol. In the same manner are prepared AquA, (Lauri. E.) Cinnamoni. L. D. Cinnamon Water. Syn. Eau de Canelle, (F.) Zimmt Wasser, (G.) Acqua di Cinamomo, (I.) From a pound of bruised cinnamon. AquA Mentha Piperita. E. L. D. Peppermint water. From three pounds of peppermint in flower.* AquA Rosarum. L. E. Rose Water. Syn. Eau des Roses, (F.) Rosin Wasser, (G.) Acqua di Rose, (I.) Aqua Rosada, (S.) From six pounds of fresh roses. * The Ph. U. S. introduces also Spearmint water, (Aqua Mentha Viridis,) it is prepared as the above. 14 98 A.—Aqua. AQUJE MEDICATE. MEDICATED WATERS. AquA Acidi Carbonici. Carbonic Acid Water, or Seltzer Water. This is made by impregnating any quantity of water with from six to ten times its volume of carbonic acid gas, by means of a forcing pump. It is obvious that the name of Seltzer water is altogether inappro- priate, for independently of the excessive amount of carbonic acid thus forced in, we find, under the analysis of the water of this cele- brated spring, that two pints and three-quarters contain Carbonic acid, 60 cubic inches—Carbonat of lime, 17 grains— Carbonat of Magnesia, 29.5—Carbonat of soda, 24—Muriat of soda, 109.5. This great difference is certainly deserving of notice. As every person, especially in the country, has not access to the mineral waters so largely prepared in the city, &c. the following for- mula of the Dublin college will not be misplaced. AquA Eris Fixi. D. Water impregnated with Fixed Air. Take of White marble in powder, three ounces; Diluted Sulphuric acid and water, of each a pound and a half. Mix them gradu- ally in a Nooth's apparatus, and let the air evolved, pass through six pounds of pure spring water, placed in the upper part of the apparatus; and let agitation be occasionally employed until the water shall have acquired a sub-acid taste. D. Carbonic acid may be separated from carbonat of lime a. By the action of heat alone. b. By an acid having a superior affinity for the lime. In the former way the carbonic acid is perfectly pure, in the latter it carries over a little of the stronger acid, which gives a slight de- gree of pungency. In this process the carbonic acid is separated from the carbonat of lime by the superior affinity of sulphuric acid. As it is disengaged, it assumes a gaseous form, and would be dissipated in the atmosphere, if it were not made to pass through water, which at a medium tem- Serature, is capable of absorbing about an equal bulk of this gas, and, y the assistance of pressure, a much greater proportion. Various contrivances have been made for this purpose. Of these the most easily managed, and most convenient for general use is the apparatus of Nooth; and for larger quantities, that of Woulfe, or some modification of it. By the proper application of pressure, M. Paul, of Geneva, now of London, is able to impregnate water with no less than six times its bulk of carbonic acid gas. Medical use.—Water impregnated with carbonic acid, sparkles in the glass, has a pleasant acidulous taste, and forms an excellent be- verage. It diminishes thirst, lessens the morbid heat of the body, and acts as a powerful diuretic. It is also an excellent remedy in increased irntability of the stomach, as in advanced pregnancy; and it is one of the best anti-emetics which we possess. A—Aralia Nudicaulis. 99 AquA Magnesia Supercarbonatve. Solution of Supercarbonated Magnesia,* commonly called Liquid Magnesia. This is made by adding three drachms of carbonat of magnesia to one gallon of water, and impregnating it as in making the simple carbonic acid water. AquA Potassa Supercarbonata. Solution of Supercarbonated Potass.^ Prepared in like manner from one ounce of subcarbonat of potasa AquA Soda Supercarbonata. Soda Water!l\ From two ounces of subcarbonat of soda. ARALIA NUDICAULIS. False Sarsaparilla. The Root. Pentandria Pentagynia. Nuttall. This is very mild, stimulant, and diaphoretic. It is not noticed in either of the works on Medical Botany by professors Bigelow and Barton. Dr. Mease, in the second volume of the Philadelphia Medical Museum, recommends the roots as a substitute for sarsaparilla. A watery infusion, he tells us is employed in some parts of this country for the shingles. It is useful also as a tonic, in a relaxed state of the stomach with loss of appetite, but is an addition of no importance to our Materia Medica. A secondary article of the Pharm. U. S. ARALIA SPINOSA. Angelica tree. Prickly Ash.% Tooth-ache tree. The Bark. This is a native of Virginia, and other southern states. The height to which this tree will grow, when the soil and situation wholly agree with it, is about twelve feet. It is a very ornamental shrub, and the stem, which is of a dark brown colour, is defended by sharp prickly spines. In the second volume of the Philadelphia Medical Museum, p. 161, Dr. Mease recommends a watery infusion of the inner bark and root to remove the pains of chronic rheumatism. It is consider- ably acrimonious, and affects tlie salivary glands. A weak infusion proves sudorific, and does not nauseate, which a strong one gene- rally does. •Aqua Magnesiae, of Ph. U. S. -{-Aqua Potassae and Aqua Sodae of Ph. U. S.! but subsequently altered in the list of corrigenda by adding after aqua magnesiae—potassae—sodae, the word supercarbonata! $This name, though often applied to the above, properly belongs to the Xan- thoxylum. The aralia spinosa is in the 6eeondaiy list of the Pharm. U. S. 100 A.—Arctium Lappa.—Argentum. The berries, and a tincture of them, have been successfully applied to obviate the aching of decayed teeth. A spirituous infusion of the berries is employed in Virginia in violent colic. ARCTIUM LAPPA. E. D. Burdock. Clit-Bur. The Root. This is a perennial plant, which grows wild in uncultivated places. The seeds have a bitterish sub-acrid taste: they are recommended as very efficacious diuretics, given either in the form of emulsion, or in powder, to the quantity of a drachm. The roots taste sweetish, with a slight austerity and bitterishness: they are esteemed aperi- ent, diuretic, and sudorific; and are said to act without irritation, so as to be safely ventured upon in acute disorders. Decoctions of them have of late been used in rheumatic, gouty, venereal, and other disorders: and are preferred by some to those of sarsaparilla. ARGENTUM. E. L. A. SILVER. Argentum, in laminas extensum. D. Silver Leaf. Syn. Argent, (F.) Silber, (G.) Argento, (I.) Plata, (S.) VilKe, (Tam.) Rupah, (H.) Fizzah, (A.) Silver is very brilliant, white, insipid, inodorous; specific gravity 10.474 to 11.091; hardness between iron and gold; elasticity be- tween gold and copper; has a strong acute sound; of considerable ductility and tenacity; hardening much under the hammer; a good conductor of electricity, caloric and galvanism; fusible at 28° Wedg- wood; crystallizable by cooling; unalterable in the air; changed into a greenish oxyd by long and violent heat, burning with a greenish flame, and instantly by the electric shock. Its phosphuret is granu- lated, brittle and fusible; its sulphuret grey, black, lamellated or striated and fusible; it unites but slightly with the acidifiable metals and iron; is hardened by gold, bismuth, antimony, tin, lead, and copper, and amalgamates with mercury. It is oxydized, and dis- solved by the sulphuric, sulphurous, and nitric acids, and combines with chlorine. Its oxyd is olive; reducible by light and heat, hydro- gen and the metals; it colours some glasses of an olive green, and is very soluble in ammonia. Silver is found, I. In its metallic state: 1. Pure, crystallized. Native silver. 2. Alloyed with gold. Auriferous silver ore. 3«------------antimony. Antimonial silver. 4.------------iron and arsenic. Arsenical silver. 5'---------— bismuth. Bismuthic silver. II. Combined with sulphur: 1. Sulphureted silver. Vitreous silver ore. Mass. Mvdlira 1 ('«illc»rc A__Argentum. 101 2.------------------with antimony, iron, arsenic and cop- per. Black or brittle silver ore. 3. ------------------with copper and antimony. Black sil- ver ore. 4. ------------------with lead, iron, and antimony. Wliitt silver ore. III. Oxydized: 1. Combined with carbonic acid and antimony. 2. --------------muriatic acid. Horn silver. a. Corneous silver ore, 6. Earthy silver Ore, c. Sooty silver ore. 3. Combined with sulphur and oxyd of antimony. Red silver ore. 4.--------------molybdi6 acid. Metallic silver has no action on the body. It is often used for sur- gical instruments. ARGENTI NITRAS. L. A. Nitras Argenti. E. D. Fused Nitrat of Silver. Lunar Caustic. Syn. Nitrate d'argent, (F.) Salpetersaures Silber, (G.) Nitrato di argento, (I.) Argentum nitratum. Take of Pure silver, flattened into plates, and cut into pieces, one ounce; Nitric acid, one fluid ounce; Distilled water, two fluid ounces. Mix the nitric acid and water, and dissolve the silver therein on a sand bath; then increase the heat gradually that the nitrat of silver may be dried. Melt the salt in a crucible over a slow fire, until the water being evaporated, it ceases to boil, and the mass flows like oil; then pour it quickly into moulds of conve- nient shape. Lastly, keep it in a glass vessel very well stopped, and secured from light. L. The acid employed must be very pure. If it contain, as the acid of commerce always does, sulphuric or muriatic acid, these re-act upon the nitrat as soon as it is formed, and a white precipitate, con- sisting of sulphat and muriat of silver, falls to the bottom. The method which the refiners employ for examining the purity of their aquafortis, (the name they gave to diluted nitrous acid,) and purifying it if necessary, is to let fall into it a few drops of a solution of nitrat of silver already made: if the liquor remain clear, it is fit for use; otherwise, they add a small quantity more of the solution, which immediately turns the whole to a milky white colour; the mixture being then suffered to rest for some time, deposites a white sediment; from winch it is cautiously decanted, examined again, and, if necessary, further purified by a fresh addition of this solution. ^ It is necessary to employ very pure water in this process, for the muriats and earthy salts which common water generally contains, precipitate part of the silver in a state of a muriat or oxyd. If dis- tilled water be not u^ed, the water should be added to the acid be- fore it be tried and puriiied by the nitrat of silver. The solution will go on the more speedily, if the silver, flatted 102 A.—Argentum. into thin plates, be rolled loosely up, so that the several surfaces do not touch each other. By this management, a greater extent of the surface is exposed to the action of the menstruum, than when the plates are cut in pieces and laid above each other. If the silver be alloyed with copper, the solution will have a permanent greenish blue colour, and acquire a bright blue on the addition of ammonia. If it contain gold, the gold is not dissolved, but is found at the bottom of the solution, in the form of a black or deep purple powder. The crucible ought to be of porcelain; as, with the common cruci- bles, the loss arising from the nitrat of silver sinking into their sub- stance is too great. It ought also to be large enough to hold five or six times the quantity of the dry matter; for it bubbles and swells up greatly, so as otherwise to be apt to run over. During this time, also, little drops are now and then spirted up; whose causticity i?. increased by their heat, against which the operator ought therefore to be on his guard. The fire must be kept moderate till this ebullition ceases, and till the matter becomes consistent in the heat that made it boil before: then quickly increase the fire till the matter flows thin at the bottom like oil, on which it is to be immediately poured into the mould; for if the heat be continued after this, the nitrat of silver begins to be decomposed, and the silver is reduced. In want of a proper iron mould, one may be formed of tempered tobacco pipe clay, not too moist, by making, in a lump of it, with a smooth stick, first greased, as many holes as there is occasion for: pour the liquid matter into these cavities, and when congealed take it out by breaking the mould. Each piece is to be wiped clean from the grease, and wrapt up in soft dry paper, not only to keep the air from acting upon it, but likewise to prevent its corroding or dis- colouring the fingers in handling. Nitrat of silver is crystallizable. Its crystals are brilliant plates, having a variable number of sides. Their taste is austere, and in- tensely bitter. They are very soluble in water, but permanent in the air, and not deliquescent. They are decomposed by heat, light, phos- phorus, charcoal, many metals, all the alkalies and earths, sulphuric, muriatic, phosphoric and fluoric acids, and by the salts they form. When deprived of water, and melted according to the directions of the colleges, it forms a black or dark grey coloured mass, which, when broken, appears to consist of radii, diverging from the centre. It is not deliquescent when free from copper, which is seldom the case. It may, however, be prepared perfectly pure, even from a solution containing copper, by evaporating and crystallizing it as long as it furnishes firm tabular crystals. These are then to be washed with a little distilled water, and melted with a gentle heat The nitrat of copper remains in the mother water, and the silver, which it contains, may be precipitated with muriatic acid. Its composition is 70 oxyd of silver, and 30 nitric acid. Soluble in an equal weight of water at 60°, also in alcohol. In using it, the following substances are incompatible: fixed alkalies and alkaline earths; muriatic, sulphuric, and tartaric acids, and their salts; soaps. arsenic, hydro-sulphurets, astringent vegetable infusions, and undis- tilled waters. Ammonia forms with it a very soluble salt, the ammo- niaco-nitrat of silver, which will be noticed under arsenic. A.—Arnica. 103 Nitrat of silver stains animal substances, &c. of an indelible black, and is employed as the basis of the permanent ink, for mark- ing linen. * Medical use.—It has been considered as tonic, and antispasmodic, and is much and deservedly celebrated as a manageable and efficacious caustic or escharotic for fungous excrescences, callous edges, warts, strictures in the urethra, &c. When the article is not at hand, an extemporaneous substitute may be formed by dipping the point of a probe, or any piece of silver into nitric acid, and applying it to the part. Internally taken, it has been much spoken of by many physicians in epilepsy, angina pectoris, and other diseases; but, whether the doses now given, compared to those of former times, (one-sixth of a grain, to six grains and more,) are too small to be effectual, it cer- tainly does not appear to deserve what has been said of it. It is highly probable, I think, that it is altogether undeserving of a place among our means of cure, when it is considered how readily it is decomposed by the fluids it meets with in the stomach. Muriatic and phosphoric acids are generally there present, which instantly form insoluble salts, which may be regarded as inert. That it does, how- ever, pass the route of the circulation in some shape, seems evident, since its long-continued use has given rise to a purple hue of a very singular appearance, on the surface of the patient; several cases of which are recorded.t Upon the whole, I am fully of opinion, that we have no sufficient facts in relation to it, to establish its claim to internal use in the small doses in which we employ it. If any apparent benefit has at- tended its employment, I am more disposed to ascribe it to the salts which have arisen from its decomposition, and would suggest the propriety of ascertaining the merits of the muriat and phosphat of this metal. ARNICA. D. A. Leopard's-bane. Mountain Arnica. The Flowers and Root. Arnica Montana. E. Flowers and Root. Syngenesia Superflua. Nat. ord. Composite discoidex, Linn. Corymbiferae, Juss. Leopard's bane is a very common perennial plant in the alpine parts of Germany, Sweden, Lapland, and Switzerland. The flowers, which are of a yellow colour and compound, consisting entirely of tubular florets, are distinguished from similar flowers, with which they are often mixed, from ignorance or fraud, by the common calyx, which is shorter than the florets, and consists entirely of lancet- shaped scales, lying parallel and close to each other, of a green co- • This preparation consists of a solution of nitrat of silver, thickened with sap-green or cochineal. The preparing liquid for wetting the linen previously, is a solution of carbonat of soda boiled with gum, or some animal mucilage. If potash is used for this purpose, the ink will run. f Eclectic Repertory, vol. vii. 206, &c. In this volume may also be seen an account of a patient, who, in two years and a half, took no less than thirty? three drachms and a half. 104 A.—Arnica. lour, with purple points. The calyx of the different species of Inula are composed of bristle-shaped scales, reflected at the points, and beset with hairs. The florets of the genus Hypochaeris are strap- shaped. These flowers have a weak bitterish taste, evidently combined with a degree of acrimony, and when rubbed with the fingers, have a somewhat aromatic smell. Their active constituents are not suffi- ciently ascertained. Mercier has endeavoured to show, that they owe their acrimony to the agency of insects upon them; and that naturally, they contain aromatic principle and modified tannin; but in their ordinary state they contain also an acrid resin, and an unexamined peculiar vege- table principle, as pointed out by Weber. We may judge what de- pendance is to be placed on the different analyses of vegetables, by what is said above, as in the former editions of Duncan's Dispensa- tory, we are told, " They evidently contain a great deal of resin, and some essential oil, and Bouillon Lagrange says, uncombined gallic acid!" Medical use.—In their effects they are stimulating, and supposed to be discutient. In small doses, and properly administered, they possess very beneficial effects, in raising the pulse, in exciting the action of the whole sanguiferous system, in checking diarrhoeas, in promoting expectoration, and, most particularly, in removing para- lytic affections of the voluntary muscles; but their use is frequently attended with no sensible operation, except that in some cases of paralysis, the cure is said to be preceded by a peculiar prickling, and by shooting pains in the affected parts. When given improperly, or in too large doses, they excite an insupportable degree of anxiety, shooting and burning pains, and even dangerous haemorrhages, vo- miting, vertigo, and coma. For these dangerous symptoms, vinegar is said to be the best remedy. They have been recommended, 1. In paralytic disorders, in chronic rheumatism, in retention of the urine from paralysis of the bladder, in amaurosis. 2. In intermittent fevers, combined with Peruvian bark. 3. In dysentery and diarrhoea, but in some cases they have had bad effects. 4. In putrid diseases. 5. In typhoid inflammations. 6. To promote the uterine discharge. 7. And in internal pains, and congestions from bruises. In the countries where they are indigenous, the flowers of the leopard's-bane have long been a popular remedy in these accidents. They are contra-indicated by an inflammatory diathesis, a predis- position to haemorrhages, and internal congestions. They are best exhibited in the form of infusion. One or two scru- ples may be infused with half a pound of water, and drunk at pro- per intervals. The flowers should be wrapt up in a piece of linen, as otherwise their down is apt to be diffused in the liquid, and to cause violent irritation of the throat. The dried root of this plant is about the thickness of a small quill. A—Arsenicum. 105 and sends out fibres along one side. Externally it is rough, and of a red brown colour, internally of a dirty white. Its taste is acrid, and slightly bitter. Neumann extracted from 960 parts, 840 watery extract, and 5 alcoholic, and inversely 270 alcoholic, and 540 watery. Medicaluse.—tt is exhibited in the same manner and circumstances as the flowers, but it is more apt to excite vomiting. In powder its dose is from five to ten grains. ARSENICUM.—ARSENIC. Syn. Arsenic, (F.) Arsenick, (G.) Arsenico, (I.) Apee James' Pharmacop. Univers. p. 202. 120 A.—Arum Triphyllum. asked him, what countryman he was? He answered Scoto-Bntun- nus. He asked him, if, in their metropolis, Edinburgh, they had not such a punishment as the boot, to extort confession from the stubborn criminals? He answered, yes. Why then, quoth Sylvius, take this plant in his luxuriant season, root and branch, and clap him into the boot, and squeeze it hard,, for without it confesses, I doubt neither thee nor /shall ever know what his virtues are." We apprehend, the trial of the boot might well apply to other plants than the one in question! ARUM MACULATUM. D. Wake-robin. > Cuckow-pint. Tlie recent Root. Monoecia Polyandria, Nat. Ord. Piperitae, Linn. Aroideas, Juss. Syn. Gouet, (F.) Arouswurzel, (G.) Aro, (I.) This is a perennial, solid, bulbous-rooted plant, which grows wild in shady situations, and by the sides of banks, in many parts of Bri- tain. The root is knotty, roundish, and white. When collected in spring before the leaves shoot, or in autumn after flowering, it con- tains a milky juice of very great acrimony. Applied to the tongue, it causes a burning heat which last for many hours, and excites con- siderable thirst. These disagreeable symptoms may be relieved by butter-milk or oily fluids. Rubbed between the fingers, it blisters and excoriates them; it is therefore a corrosive vegetable poison. In the state df dry powder, it is perfectly inert, but the roots may be preserved fresh for a year by burying them in a cellar in sand. It is also rendered perfectly mild by frequent washing with water. Its acrimony is therefore easily destructible; and, as it does not arise from the presence of an essential oil, it depends upon a vegetable principle different from all others, and not well understood. It does not rise in distillation either with alcohol or with water, and1 is not contained in its extraet, although the root is thereby deprived of it. Neumann obtained from 480 of the dry root 20 of alcoholic extract, and about 180 watery. The former had some slight pungency, and the latter none. Medical use.—In the recent root, the degree of acrimony is so very uncertain, and often so excessive, that its effects, as an inter- nal remedy, cannot be depended on. The dried root is perfectly in- ert, so much so, that the French prepare from it the harmless but high-priced cosmetic called Cypress powder; but the fresh root may be kept in a state fit for medical use, for a year, by burying it in a ' cellar in sand. It is given in chlorotic cachectic cases, and in a re- laxed state of the stomach supposed to arise from an accumulation of phlegm, and in some rheumatic affections, in the dose of ten or fifteen grains, three times a day, in the form of a conserve or bolui. ARUM TRIPHYLLUM. Indian Turnip. Dragon-root. Tl\e Root. * The acrimony of the recent root of this plant is well known. By drying, much of this is lost. It has been very beneficial in asthma, *Arum, Pharm. U. S. A.—Asarum Europseum. 121 especially in old people; in the croup and hooping cough. The re- cent root boiled in lard to the consistence of an ointment, has been found useful in tinea capitis; the fresh root boiled in milk has been advantageously employed in consumption. Dr. Mease recommends the following as the best form for exhibiting it: " Grate one dried root, and boil it in half a pint of milk." Some acrimony should be perceptible to the tongue and throat.in its exhibition. He says it never affects the general circulation, but acts solely on the parts just named; to the glands of which it is a powerful stimulus, causing a, copiou s secreti on of mucus. A fine sago has been prepared from the root, in the proportion of one part, to four of the root, freed from its exterior coat. For the particular details respecting this plant, see Bigelow and Barton's Medical Botany.- ASARUM EUROPIUM. E. L. D. Asarabacca. The Leaves. Dodecandria Monogynia. Nat. ord. Sermentaceae, Linn. Aristolochiae, Juss. Syn. Asaret; Cabaret,.(F.) Hazelwurtzel, (G.) Asaroon, (Ar.) Asaro, la bacchera, (1.^ Asaro de Europa, (S.) This perennial plant is a native of some places of England, although the dried roots are generally brought from the Levant. It grows in moiit and shady situations. It produces only two leaves, which arc uniform and very obtuse. The root is fibrous, of a grey brown co- lour externally, but white within. Both the roots and leaves1 have a nauseous, bitter, acrimonious, hot taste; their smell is strong, and not very disagreeable. In its analysis, it is said by Neumann to agree with ipecacuanha, but it seems to contain, besides its odorous principle, which is pro- bably camphor, a portion of the same acrid principle which has been noticed when speaking of arum. Upon this its virtues depend; and as this principle is volatile, we find accordingly that asarabacca loses much of its activity by decoction and long keeping. Medical use.—'Given in substance from half a drachm to a drachm, it evacuates-powerfully both upwards and downwards. It is said, that tinctures made in spirituous menstrua possess both the emetic and cathartic virtues of the plant: that the extract obtained by inspis- sating these tinctures acts .only by vomiting, "and with great mildness: that* an infusion in water proves .cathartic, rarely emetic: that aque- ous decoctions made by long boiling, and the" watery extract, have no purgative or emetic quality, but prove good diaphoretics, diuretics, and emmenagogues. The principal use of this plant is as a sternutatory. The root of asarum is perhaps the strongest of all the vegetable errhines, white hellebore itself not excepted. Snuffed up the nose, in the quantity of a grain or two, it occasions a large evacuation of mucus, and raises a plentiful spitting. The leaves are considerably milder; and may be used to the quantity of three, four, or five grains. Geoffroy relates, that after snuffing up aldose of this errhine at night,' he has fre- quently observed the discharge from the nose to continue for three 17 122 A___Asclepias Tuberosa. days together: and that he has known a paralysis of the mouth and tongue cured by one dose.' He recommends this medicine in stub- born disorders of the head, proceeding from viscid tenacious matter, in palsies, and in soporific distempers. ASARUM CANADENSE. Canada Snake-root. Wild Ginger, fyc. The Root.* Although approaching the preceding species in form, it differs from it in its effects on the human system. From the agreeable aromatic taste of the root, the names of Wild Ginger and Snake-root have been given it in different parts of the country. It is also known by that of Colt's Foot. By analysis, Dr. Bigelow obtained from the root a light coloured, pungent, volatile oil, a resin of a reddish colour and very bitter, faecula, and a gummy mucus. It is not emetic as usually asserted, even in doses of half a drachm. It is cpnsidered as a substitute for ginger, and it is said to act as a warm stimulant and diaphoretic Upon the whole, it may well be dispensed with for medical use. ASCLEPIAS TUBEROSA. Asclepias Decumbens, &c.t Butterfly weed. Pleurisy Root. Flux Root, 8,-c. The Root. Pentandria Digynia. This is one of our most beautiful perennial plants, flourishing best in a light, sandy soil, by the way side, under fences, and near old stumps in rye fields, &c. It abounds in the southern states. There are sometimes fifteen or twenty, or more stalks, the size of a pipe stem, proceeding from one root, rising from one to two feet in height, and spreading to a considerable extent, generally in a decumbent position. The stalks are round and woolly, of a reddish brown co- lour on the sun side; the leaves stand irregularly, and are spear, or tongue shaped, with a short foot stalk, and covered with a fine down on the under surface. The umbels are compact at the extremities of the branches, and formed like the common silkweed, but differing from it in the colour of the flowers, being of a beautiful bright orange colour, while those of the silkweed are of a pale purplish hue. The flowers appear in July and August, and are distinguished by their size and brilliancy from all the flowers of the field. These are suc- ceeded by long slender pods, containing the seeds, which have a de- licate kind of silk attached to them. • This is probably the only variety of asclepias that is destitute of a milky juice. The root is spindle, or carrot shaped, of a light brownish colour on the outer surface, white, coarse and striated within. It has been long celebrated in Virginia and the Carohnas, as a remedy in pleurisy, and in pneumo- nic affections in general. It is said to display a remarkable power of aflecting the skin, inducing general and plentiful perspiration without heating the body.' In the form of decoction it often induces a diaphoresis when other medicines have failed to produce that effect. The powdered root frequently acts as a mild purgative, but it is par- • Asarum, Pharm. U.'S. secondary. -j- Pharm. tj. s> SeCondary. A.—Asclepias Incarnata. 123 licularly valuable for its virtues as an expectorant, diaphoretic, and febrifuge, and in this respect its efficacy is amply confirmed by the testimony of Dr. Benjamin Parker, of Bradford, Massachusetts, from his own observation during an extensive practice of twenty-five years. In pneumonic fevers, recent colds, catarrhs and diseases of the breast in general, this remedy has in his hands proved ecfually efficacious.' He directs it to be given in the form of strong infusion, a tea-cupful every two or three hours. By many families in the country this root has lonq; been esteemed as a domestic medicine, and resorted to for the relief of pains of the stomach from flatulence and indigestion, hence the vulgar name of wind root, by which it is known in some parts of the country, and from its colour it is by some called white root. As a diaphoretic, Dr. Chapman speaks of it in a manner equally favourable. Dr. Bigelow has given an engraving of this plant in his medical botany, and very fully detailed all the information possessed re- specting it. . ASCLEPIAS SYRIACA.* Common Silkweed. The Root. From the abundance of its milky juice, this has also been called milk-weed. The leaves are spear or tongue shaped, larger than the preceding, and in August, its aggregate, reddish, or purple blossoms, are exhibited at the extremities of the branches and axillae of the leaves. The seeds are contained in large oblong pods, and are crowd- ed with down extremely fine and soft, resembling silk, which has occasioned the name of silkweed. This substance has been mixed with cotton and spun into candle-wicks. The stalk of this species is from three to six feet high, the leaves large, standing on short foot stalks. A milky juice exudes from the stems or leaves when broken. The root, as soon as it penetrates the earth, shoots off horizontally, and often sends out other stalks. The large roots are cortical and ligneous If abounds near fences on the road side in all parts of the country. Dr. Abijah Richardson, of Medway, Massachusetts, has been in- duced to try the effects of this species. He gave the cortical part of the root in powder, one drachm in a day, in divided doses, and also in strong infusion. An asthmatic patient was much benefited by its use. In one case of typhus fever^ with catarrhal affection of the throat and bronchiae, it rendered the expectoration more copious, and the matter thicker and more digested. In both cases it had an anodyne effect; the patients were relieved from pain, from dyspnoea and cough, and expectoration became easier and sleep more re- freshing. ASCLEPIAS INCARNATA.* Flesh coloured Asclepias. The Root. I know nothing of the virtues of this plant. The family of asclepias is very abundant^ and it is probable they are all possessed of the same properties in different degrees. Pharm. V S. secondary. 124 A.—Assafoetida. ASSAFOETIDA. E. L. D. Assafoetida. Gum Resbu Ferula Assafoetida. A. Pentandria Digynia, Nat. ord. Umbellatae. Syn. Assafoetida, (F.) Stiokender Asand, (G.) Assafetida, (L) Assafetida, (S.) • Hiltect, (Ar.) Hing, (H.) Hinga, (San.) Xtt^m /uutfwor, Dioscor. The plant which furnishes assafoetida is a Ferula, a perennial and native of Persia. The gum resin is procured from the roots of plants which are at least four years old. When the leaves begin to decay, the stalk is twisted off, and the earth removed from about their large tapering roots. The top of the root is some time afterwards cut off transversely; and forty-eight hours afterwards, the juice, which has exuded, is scraped off, and a second transverse section is made. Thia operation is repeated until the root be entirely exhausted of juice. After being scraped off, the juice is exposed to the sun to harden.* It is brought to us in large irregular masses, composed of various little shining lumps or grains, which are partly of a jvhitish colour, partly reddish, and partly of a violet hue. Those masses are account- ed the best which are clear, of a pale reddish colour, and variegated with a number-of elegant white tears. The colour of the tears seems in part, to depend on the action of oxygen; for beautiful white tears broken asunder, will frequently assume, in a short .time, on the fresh surface, the reddish tint, and then gradually turn to a brown. It is doubtless, when first exuding from the plant, altogether white This drug has a strong fetid smell, somewhat like that of garlic; and a bitter, acrid, biting taste. It loses some of its smell arid strength by keeping: a circumstance to be particularly regarded in its exhibition. Kaempfer says that he dare to affirm, that a singje drachm of the recent juice, would exhale a stronger fcetor than 100 pounds of the old, such as sold by the druggists. Chemical Composition.—Gum, (or,, according to Brugnatelli, ex- tractive,) 60, resin 30, essential oil 10 parts. From four ounces, Tromsdorff got thirty-three grains of volatile.oil, lighter than water, twenty of heavy oil, seven drachms twelve-grains of bright brown resin, and two ounces four drachms of ,brown bitter extract, of a nauseous, slightly alliaceous taste, which rises in distillation both with alcohol and water Solubility.—All its virtues yielded to alcohol and ether. By tri- turation with water it forms a milky but not permanent mixture, unless 5y th&aid of some intermedium, as the yolk of an egg to a drachm of the assafoetida. A permanent mixture is made by care- fully triturating it with a double weight of. mucilage. Half a drachm of camphor, triturated with six drachms of the assafoetida, forms a mass fit for piasters; and if rubbed with carbonat of ammonia, it is readily pulverized without any other ehange. Medical use.— It is the most powerful of all the fetid gums, and is a most valuable remedy. It acts as a stimulant, antispasmodic, ex- pectorant, emmenagogue and anthelmintic. Its action is quick and penetrating. * For a very full description of tlie plant and preparation of the drug, con- sult Ksmpfer, Amcen. Exot. 535. The plant described and figured by Dr. Hope in the 75th vol. Phil. Trans, as. that which yields the officinal assafcethla, is said to be the Ferula P&rsica, of VYilldenOw. A.—Aurum. 125 It is often serviceable, 1. In croup, and whooping cough. 2. In dyspepsia, amenorrhea and chlorosis. 3. In asthma, dyspnoea and hysteria. 4. In tympanites and worms. It is exhibited, 1. In substance, in the form of pills; in doses of from five to twenty grains, either alone, or combined with bitter ex- tracts or purgatives. £. Dissolved in some simple distilled water. 3. Dissolved in alcohol. 4. In the form of clyster, to the extent of about two drachms. Tlie goodness of this article is judged of by the strength of its characteristip odour. , When broken it ought to exhibit a bluish, red appearance, and it ought not to be brittle. AURUM. A.—GOLD. Gold is of a brilliant yellow colour, insipid, and inodorous; spe- cific gravity between 19.258 and 19.300; soft and flexible; little elasticity or sonorousness; rso ductile, that its surface may be ex- tended more than 650,000 times; of very great tenacity; easily hammer-hardened; a good conductor of caloric, electricity, and galvanism; fusing at 32° of Wedgwood; brittle when cooled too quickly; crystallizing in octohednwfe unalterable in the air; con- verted by a long and violent hear into a vitrified violet oxyd; oxydized and dispersed by electricity;.soluble in alkaline sulphurets; rendered brittle by phosphorus, arsenic, bismuth, tin, and antimony; less brittle by lead; soluble in mercury;'hardened by zinc, copper, iron, steel, and silver; oxydizable, of a purple colour, and slightly soluble in nitrous acid; readily oxydized and dissolved by nitro- inuriatic acid. Its oxyd is easily reduced by light and heat; colours glasses purple or topaz yellow, and forms a fulminating compound with annnomal AURIMURIA.S. Muriat of Gold! Take of Pure gold, any quantity. Dissolve it by means of a mode- rale heat, in a mixture formed by uniting one part of nitric qcid with two parts of muriatic acid; evaporate the solution to dryness by a gentle heat; add to the residuum an equal weight of muriat of soda, and mix them thoroughly together. Dissolve the mixture. in distilled wate'r, -and evaporate slowly to dryness. Collect the mass and keep it in a glass-stopped phial, tv/iich should be accu- rately closed, and preserved from the action of light. Pharm. U. S. The above preparation is not a muriat of gold simply considered, as the name imports. Dr. Chrestien, who proposes such a prepara- tion, speaks of it as a muriat with two bases. It is a soda-muriat of gold, and as a triple salt should receive its denomination. * * In the Codex Medieamentarius of the Faculty of Medicine of Paris, \\e liave a formula for the preparation of the muriat—the translation isas follows. 126 A.—Aurum. This metal was formerly supposed to possess medicinal properties, but its preparations were expunged from modern pharmacopoeias, as being considered unfriendly to the human constitution, or devoid of efficacy as a remedy in disease. In a publication printed at Paris, in 1811, by Dr. J. A. Chrestien of Montpelier, the medical faculty are again invited to investigate the properties of gold. The author proposes a preparation of this metal as a new remedy for the treatment of venereal and lymphatic disorders. His numerous experiments on the anti-syphilitic poyvers of the pre- parations of gold, have greatly elated his hopes, and rendered him so sanguine as to affirm, that their efficacy is equal if not superior to that of mercury; that they are capable of effecting a radical cure of the varied forms of this disease, without producing salivation, or any derangement of the functions of the body, and that no season, nor temperament, and no complication of the 'disease can create any ob- stacle to their efficacy. Of fhe above assertion we are not left destitute of corroborative evidence. Doctors Seaman and Pascalis of New York, have/experienced the anti-syphilitic virtues of the preparations of this, metal, and their observations, so far as they have extended, are in confirmation of the opinion of Dr. Chrestien. Gold may be employed, for this purpose, in the state—1. Of mi- nute division. 2. Of oxyd. 3. Of oxyd in combination with ammo- nia. 4. Of oxyd in combination with oxyd of tin. 5. Of muriat. The first of these, denominated by the author, " Or devise," was preparedly forming an amalgam of gold and quicksilver, and after- wards withdrawing the latter by exposing the compound to the.rays of the sun concentrated by a convex lens; to the heat of a fire, or to the action of nitric acid The gold remained in the form of an im- palpable powder. • The yellow oxyd of gold was obtained by precipitating it from its solution in nitro-muriatic acid by potash. The manner of effecting this he has not mentioned, and, as it will be seen below, there are some difficulties in the way of preparing it of an uniform strength. The oxyd precipitated from its solution by ammonia, was soon laid aside from the danger of its spontaneous explosion. The compound oxyd of gold and tin, may be obtained by piixing the solutions of these metals, or by adding metallic tin in filings to a diluted solution of gold. He prefers the latter. The muriat of gold, says Dr. Chrestien, procured by evaporating " Muriat of Gold. (~Chloruret of Gold of Modern Chemists. J Take of gold perfectly pure and beaten into leaves-and cut in pieces,vone part, (100,) pour over it in a phial or mattrass, (300,) 3 parts of nitro-muria- tic acid, composed of 1 part nitric acid of 32°, and 2 parts of muriatic acid of 22°—let the phial remain on sand moderately warm, until the gold is dis- solved. Then pour the liquor*iitto a flat plate of glass or porcelain, evaporate to dryness, at a very moderate heat, lest the gold should be revived. Preserve the muriat of gold thus prepared, in a glass stopped phial, and se- cluded altogether from the light. It may likewise be dissolved in water in such proportions that we can rea- dily calculate the dose." A.—Aurum. 127 the solution to dryness, was so deliquescent, and caustic, that I made but 'little use of it; but supposing a muriat with two bases might obviate these inconveniences, I combined the muriat of soda, with the solution of gold, and obtained the desired product. Numerous detailed cases are given in the subsequent part of his work on the effects of each of these preparations, in syphijis. They differ much from each other in activity, the oxyds producing more speedy effects than the powdered gold, and the fnunat more power- ful action than the oxyds. -They were all administered by friction on the tongue, cheeks, or gums. The or devise was thus prescribed to the extent of three grains in a day; the oxyd precipitated by pot- ash, in a dose of half a grain gradually augmented to two grains; the compound oxyd of tin and gold in rather smaller doses; and lastly, the soda-muriat of gold in the quantity of from one-fifteenth to one-tenth of a grain. On account of the superior activity of the lat- ter, he found it necessary to mix it with certain substances which were capable of diminishing its energy, without abstracting its oxy- gen. He employed for this purpose starch, charcoal, and painters lac. From the variety of cases brought forward by the author, to prove the activity and the anti-syphilitic virtues of gold, it appears thai within a moderate time, it cures chancres, warts, secondary ulcers, sore throats, and other forms of inveterate lues. This favourite remedy of Dr. Chrestien is said also to have effected important cures in cases of diseases of the uterus, of goitre, and other lymphatic diseases or obstructions. But assuredly we have not sufficient evidence in "its bethalf, in this country, to place it in the rank of a standard "article. Indeed it was long ago reported, that the cases said to be cured at New York, were obliged to return to the hospital, in consequence of a recurrence of syphilitic symptoms. Gold, in a state of minute division, may be procured with facility, by pouring into a diluted solution of this metal, a solution of green sulphat of iron; a brown or bluish brown powder will be precipitated, which is metallic gold minutely divided. The best proportions of the acids to dissolve this metal, according to Vauquelin, are, two parts of muriatic to one of nitric acid. Potash and soda, and their carbonats, do not decompose the solution at common temperatures; they merely give it a deep red colour with a little turbidness. The red substance when dried has the appearance of dried blood. It has a styptic metallic taste, and is slightly soluble in water. It is in- ferred to be a compound of oxyd of gold with a minute portion of muriat of gold. To precipitate the greatest quantity of oxyd from its solution, by means of the alkalies, we must manage so that no useless acid shall remain in the solution, in order that less of the triple salt may be formed; this is effected by evaporation to dryness, very cautiously conducted, the product being again dissolved in distilled water. 128 A.—Avena Sativa.—Azedaracii. AVENA SATIVA. L. E. Oats. The husked Seed. Groats, and the Meal. Triandria Digynia. Nat. ord. Gramina, Linn. Syn. Gruaii d'aveine, (F.) Habergriize, (G.) Acuna, (I. S.) Bpu/uoc, Dioscor. This is a well-known annual plant, which is very' generally culti- vated in northern countries, and in many places furnishes the prin- cipal subsistence. When simply freed from the husks, this grain gets the name of groats, but it is more frequently ground into meal. Groats are made into broths. Oat-meal'is baked with salt and water into cakes, or with the same additions, is boiled to form porridge. An infusidn of the husks in water, allowed to remain till it becomes acidulous, is,boiled down to a jeily, which is called sowins. in all these forms it is nutritious; and easy of digestion. Medical use.— Gruels or decoctions, either of groats or oat-meal, either plain or acidified, or sweetened, form an excellent drink in febrile diseases, diarrhoea, dysentery, &c. and from their demulcent properties, prove useful in inflammatory disorders, coughs, hoarse- ness, roughness, and ulcerations of the fauces. Porridge is also fre- quently applied to phlegmonous swellings* to promote their suppu- ration.' The Oat-meal is admitted into the Pharm. U. S. MELIA AZEDARACH.* The Bark. Poison Berry Tree. Pride of India or China. This is not 'a native of America, but is now completely naturaliz- ed to the States t)f Carolina and Georgia; where, it is highly valued for the beauty of its foliage, and agreeable shade, which it affords during the sultry season. In the city of Savannah the streets and public walks were ornamented by rows of this charming tree, but they have lately been demolished. The azedarach has also obtained considerable repute for the medicinal virtues which it is found tp possess. The late professor Barton says it is one of the most valu- able anthelmintics that has hitherto been discovered, and many re- spectable physicians in Savannah, repose the fullest confidence in its efficacy* To Dr. L. Kollpck, vice-president of the Georgia Medi- cal Society^ we are indebted for the following information. '-' It is a vermifuge of efficacy. Its use is in some measure general among the planters; and with many supersedes the use of all others. I have given it with success where all others in common use have failed of relieving. But when given in the months of March and April, while the sap is mounting into the free, it has sometimes been followed by stupor, dilatation of pffpil, stertorous breathing, subsultus, &c. But these symptoms, like those sometimes produced by spigelia, pass off without, any perceptible injury to the system. This article, like the spigelia, is also a useful febrifuge medicine, in those affections usually denominated verminous fevers, but where no worms are voided. Th*ev common form is that of decoction. A large handful, * Ranged under the secondary articles in the Pharm. U. S. by the name of Azedarach. } B.—Balsa in urn. 129 say about four ounces of the bark of the fresh root, is boiled in a quart of water, till.it acquire the colour, of strong coffee, i. e. to about a pint, of which from half an ounce to an ounce may be given every two or three hours till it operates. Given in this manner, its operation is powerful, sometimes both vomiting and purging. The strength of the decoction is however varied according to the inten- tion." The dried berries of this tree have been advantageously em- ployed as an anthelmintic, in Carolina; children being allowed to eat them at pleasure." The pulp of the fruit formed into an oint- ment with lard, it is said, has been successfully employed in tinea capitis. B. BALSAMUM.^BALSAM. Several articles employed in medicine, are known under the name of balsams. It has been agreed on, to consider those only as such, which contain benzoic acid. Yet copaiba, altogether deficient in it, still retains the name. In all of their principal properties, balsams resemble the resins, which will heareafter be noticed. 1. COPAIBA. L. A. Balsamum Copaiba. D. RESINA COPAIFER.E OFFICINALIS. E. Copaiba, Copaiva, or Capivi Balsam. Decandria Monogynia. Nat. ord. Dumosae, Linn. Leguminosas, Juss. Syn. Beaume de Copahu, (F.) Kopaiva balsam, (G.) Copayva, (S.) The Copaifera officinalis which produces this resin, is a native of the Spanish West Indies, and some parts of South America. It grows to a large size; and the resinous juice flows in considerable quantities from incisions made in the trunk. The juice ''s clear and transparent, of a whitish or pale yellowish colour, and agreeable smell, and a bitterish pungent taste. It is usually about the consistence of oil, or a little thicker; when long kept, it becomes nearly as thick as honey, retaining its clearness, but has not been observed to grow dry or solid, as most of the other resinaus juices do. The best resin of copaiva comes from Brazil; but we sometimes meet with a thick sort which is not at all trans- parent, or much less so than the foregoing, and generally has a portion of turbid watery liquor at the bottom. This is probably either adulterated by the mixture of other substances, or has been extracted by decoction from the bark and branches of the tree: its smell and taste are much less pleasant than those of the genuine resin. Pure resin of copaiva dissolves entirely in alcohol: the solution has a very fragrant smell. Distilled with water it yields a large quantity of a limpid essential oil, but no benzoic acid: it is there- 130 B.—Balsamum. fore not a balsam, but a combination of resin and essential oil. Neumann says that it effervesces with liquid ammonia. Medical use.—The resin of copaiva is an useful corroborating de- tergent medicine, but in some degree irritating. It strengthens the nervous system, tends to loosen the belly; in large doses proves purgative, promotes urine, and cleans and heals exulcerations in the urinary passages, which it is supposed to perform more effectually than any of the other resinous fluids. Fuller observes, that it gives the urine an intensely bitter taste, but not a violet smell as the tur- pentines do. ' This resin has been principally celebrated in gleets and the fluor albus, and externally as a vulnerary. The dose of this medicine rarely exceeds twenty or thirty drops, though some authors direct sixty or upwards. In this country it is said to have been given in doses of half an ounce and more, with great advantage in gonorrhoea. It may be conveniently taken in the form of an eleo-saccharum, or in that of an emulsion, into which it may be reduced, by triturating it with almonds, with a thick muci- lage of gum Arabic, or with the yolk of eggs, till they are well in- corporated, and then gradually adding a proper quantity of water.* Adulterations.—It is asserted, that much of that sold in London, is entirely factitious; and we are told a curious trial took place some time since, between the owner of certain premises that were burnt down, and the Sun Fire Office, which refused to indemnify the pro- prietor for his loss,'because the tire had been occasioned by his mak- ing balsam of copaiba. This article is also adulterated withmastiche and oil. Mr. Bucholz asserts, that if it does not dissolve in a mix- ture of four parts of pure alcohol and one of rectified ether, its adul- teration may be inferred. Rape oil is also frequently mixed with it, in which case, if dropped into water, the drops will not retain their spherical form, as they invariably will, if pure. 2. Balsamum Peruvianum. L. D. Balsamum Myroxyli Peruiferi. E. Peruvian Balsam. Decandria Monogynia. Nat. ord. Lomentaceee, Linn. Leguminosae, Juss. Syn. Baume de Perou, (F.) Peruvianischer Balsam, (G.) Balsamo de Quin- quica, (S.) The tree affording this balsam is the myroxylon peruiferum, and it grows in the Warmest provinces of South America, and is remark- able for its elegant appearance. Every part of it abounds with re- sinous juice, even the leaves are full of transparent resinous point* like those of the orange tree. This balsam as brought to us, is commonly of the consistence of thin honey, of a reddish brown colour, inclining to black, an agree- able aromatic smell, and a very hot biting taste. * Dr. Dover, (the inventor of Dover's powder,) gave it in doses of a table- spoonful, to aid the passage of a stone to the bladder, Physician's Legacy, p. 56. Dr. Darnel Turner, a writer not sufficiently appreciated at present, often administered it in very large doses; it was indeed his favourite remedy. See his Dissertation on the venereal disease, p. 73 and seq. B.—Balsamum. 131 It is very often adulterated, and sometimes what is sold for Peru- vian balsam, is a spurious mixture of resin and essential oil, flavour- ed with benzoin. These frauds are not easily detected, and fortu- nately they are of little importance. It is said to be obtained by boiling the cuttings of the twigs in water, and skimming off with a spoon the balsam which swims on the top. By ipcision this tree yields a much more fragrant white or colour- less balsam, which, when inspissated by the heat of the sun, forms the red or dry balsam of Peru; but it is very rarely to be met with in our shops. \ i Peruvian balsam consists of a volatile oil, resin, and benzoic acid. It is accordingly entirely soluble in alcohol, and in essential oils. Water dissolves part of the benzoic acid, and fixed oil combines with the resin. It may be suspended in water by trituration with mucilage and yolk of eggs. Medical use.—Balsam of Peru is a very warm aromatic medicine, considerably hotter and more acrid than Copaiva. Its principal ef- fects are, to warm the habit, and to strengthen the nervous system. Hence its use in some kinds of asthmas, gonorrhoeas, dysenteries, suppressions of the uterine discharges, and other disorders proceed- ing from a debility of the solids. It is also employed externally, for cleansing and healing wounds and ulcers, and sometimes against palsies and rheumatic pains. It may be given diffused in water, by means of mucilage, or made into pills with any proper vegetable powder. Its dose is from five to fifty drops. 3. Balsamum TolutanuM. L. D. Balsamum Toluifer.a£, Dioscor. This tree grows in the Levant, and in Italy and France. The storax flows from wounds made in the bark, in countries where the heat is sufficient, for neither in France nor in Italy does it furnish It is either in small distinct tears, of a whitish or reddish colour, or in large masses composed of such, or in masses of an uniform tex- ture and yellowish red or brownish colour; though sometimes like- wise interspersed with a few whitish grains. The common storax of the shops is in large masses, considerably 134 B.—Barytes. lighter and less compact than the foregoing; it appears on examina- tion to be composed of a fine resinous juice, mixed with a quantity of saw-dust. Storax has an agreeable smell, and an aromatic taste. Neumann got from 480 grains, 360 alcoholic, and 30 of watery extract; and inversely, 120 watery, and 240 alcoholic. In distillation it yielded benzoic acid. It is, therefore, a balsam, or natural combination of resin with benzoic acid,; and indeed it is only the variety of the tree, which leads to the separation of the storax and benzoin. The first being derived from the styrax officinale—the latter from the S. ben- zoin. Styrax Purificata. L. D. Purified Storax. Dissolve the storax in rectified spirit of wine, and strain the solution; afterwards reduce it to a proper thickness with a gentle heat. Storax is a balsam or combination of resin and benzoic acid, both of which are soluble in alcohol, and neither of them volatile in the heat necessary for evaporating alcohol. The process for purifying it is, therefore, not liable to any chemical objections. BARYTES. Syn. Baryte, (F.) Baryterde, Schwerede, (G.) Barite, (I.,) This substance, considered at one period as an earth, then classed by Fourcroy among the alkalies, seems at length to have found a resting place. The discovery of its metallic nature has ranked it now with chemists, as an oxyd; although in common acceptation, it still is called an earth. The metallic base, (Barium, or Barytum, as Mr. Murray properly suggested,) is a dark grey-coloured solid; lustre less than cast-iron,. heavier than sulphuric acid, decomposes water, and is oxygenized by exposure to the air. The result of this oxygenizement, however effected, is the oxyd of barium, or Barytes. It is obtained in small, grey, porous masses, of a tolerable solidity; its taste is acrid, urin- ous, and pungent; applied to the skin, it proves caustic, and it is deleterious when swallowed; its specific gravity is 4.; it is soluble in twenty times its weight of cold water, and in twice its weight of boiling water; depositing, on cooling, transparent, white, prismatic crystals; when slaked, it boils up with violence, becomes very hot, increases in bulk, and is changed into a spongy white mass. It changes vegetable blues to green: it is fusible; it combines will all the acids, sulphur, sulphureted hydrogen, and phosphorus. It pos- sesses the alkaline properties in a high degree. Barytes is found in nature, in combination with carbonic or sul- phuric acid, but never in an uncombined state. Carbonas Baryta. E. Carbonat of Barytes. W%therite. Syn. Carbonate de Baryte, (F.) Kohlonsaure Baryterde, (G.) This is rather a rare mineral. It was first discovered by Dr. With- B.—Barytes. 135 ering, hence the name of Witherite given to it by Werner. Its Co- lour is greyish-white, sometimes inclining to milk-white, and some- times with a slight tinge of yellow from a mixture of iron, seldom greenish, often invested with a red ochry crust/ It is found in solid masses, sometimes filling an entire vein, sometimes interspersed with sulphated baryta, frequently rounded or affecting that form, seldom crystallized. Texture, fibrous; fracture, conchoidal; frag- ments, long splinters; specific gravity, 4.3 to 4.338. Although it has no sen'sible taste, it is poisonous. In medicine it is only used for preparing the muriat of baryta. It is found at Anglesark, in Lancashire, at Alston-moOr, in Cumberland, in Scotland, and in Sweden. It is employed by the Edinburgh College to form the muriat, ac- cording to the following formula. Murias BarytjE. Ed. Take of Carbonat of barytes, Muriatic acid, of each, one part; Wa- ter, three parts.—Add the carbonat,, broken into little bits, to the water and acid, previously mixed. After the effervescence has ceased, digest for an hour, strain, the liquor, and set it aside to crystallize. Repeat the evaporation as long as any crystals are formed. The scarcity of the carbonat has, however, more generally led to the use of the other variety, the sulphat. BARYT^E SULPHAS. E. A. Sulphat of Barytes. Ponderous Earth. Heavy Spar. Syn. Sulfate de Baryte, (F.) Schwefelsaures Baryterde, (G.) Tungspat, (Swed.) Ossisolfato di Baryte, (I.) This salt is found abundantly in every country. Many varieties of it exist, both crystallized and amorphous. The foliated is gene- rally the purest. It is insoluble in water, and its specific gravity from 4.4 to 4.865. It decrepitates when suddenly heated. By being- formed into a thin cake with flour and water, and then heated to redness, it becomes phosphorescent. Heated to redness with char- coal, it is converted into a sulphuret; and it may be decomposed by the carbonats of potash and of soda. When the carbonat cannot be procured, the sulphat is employed to prepare the muriat, as follows: BARYTA MURIAS. E Muriat of Barytes. Take of Sulphat of barytes two pounds; Charcoal in powder, four ounces.—Roast the sulphat, that it may be more easily reduced to a very fine powder, with which the powdered charcoal is to be inti- mately mixed. Put the mixture into a crucible, and having fitted it with a cover, heat it with a strong fire for six hours. Then triturate the matter well, throw it into six pints of boiling water in an earthen or glass vessel, and mix them by agitation, prevent- ing as much as possible the action of the air.—Let the vessel stand in a vapour bath until the undissolved part shall subside, then pour off the liquor. On the residue pour four pint* more of boiling ivn 136 B.—Barytes. ter, which, after agitation, and deposition, are to be added to the former liquor. Into the liquor, when still warm, or if tt shall have cooled, again heated, drop muriatic acid as long: as it excites any effervescence; then strain it, and evaporate it so as to crystal- The theory of the above process which is adopted by the Pharm. of U. S. is as follows: The acid of the sulphat of barytes is decomposed at a very high temperature by charcoal. At such a temperature, charcoal has a greater affinity for oxygen than sulphur has; it therefore decom- poses sulphuric acid, by depriving it of its oxygen, and flies off in the state of carbonic oxyd or acid.gas, while the sulphur combines with the baryta. On adding water to the sulphuret thus formed, new combinations take place. A portion of sulphat of baryta is re- generated, while hvdrogureted sulphuret, and sulphureted hydrogu- ret of baryta remain in solution. This solution is exceedingly prone to decomposition, and must therefore be preserved from the action of the air as much as possible. It also crystallizes by cooling, and therefore should be kept at a boiling heat. On the addition of mu- riatic acid, there is a violent effervescence and disengagement of sulphureted hydrogen gas, which must be avoided as much as pos- sible, by performing the operation under a chimney, while very pure muriat of baryta remains in solution. When prepared in this way, it cannot be contaminated with any of the noxious metals, as their compounds with sulphur and hydrogen are not soluble. On this account, therefor^, it is the process adopted by the Edinburgh College. The decomposition of tlie sulphat'is sometimes effected by com- pound affinity, through the means of carbonat of potash, or muriat of lime. 1. With carbonat of potash, either in the dry or humid way. Klaproth boils sixteen ounces of finely powdered sulphat of baryta with thirty-two ounces of purified carbonat of potass, and five pounds of water, for an hour in a tin kettle, constantly agitating the mix- ture, and renewing the water as it evaporates. He then allows it to settle, pours off the fluid, which is a solution of sulphat of potass, and edulcorates tlie precipitate with plenty of water. He next dis- solves the carbonat of baryta, which it contains, in muriatic acid. The portion of sulphat which is not decomposed, may be treated again in the same manner. On the other hand, Van Mons mixes equal parts of sulphat of baryta and carbonat of potass with one-fourth of their weight of char- coal, all in powder, and heats the mixture to redness in a crucible. When it cools he washes out the sulphat and sulphuret of potass with water, then boils the residuum with a little potass, and washes it again. The carbonat of baryta thus obtained, be dissolves in mu- riatic acid. But by these methods of decomposing the sulphat of baryta, we do not get rid of the metallic substances which it often contains, and which often render the muriat thus prepared unfit for medical use. But the metalline muriats may be expelled, according to Westrumb, by heating the salt to redness as long as any fumes arise. B.—Barytes. 137 The pure muriat of baryta is then to be dissolved in water and crystallized. GSttling, with the same intention of getting rid of me- tallic substances, chooses sulphat of baryta, perfectly colourless, and treats it with muriatic or nitro-muriatic acid before he proceeds to decompose it. 2. La Grange has proposed a method of decomposing the sulphat of baryta, by means of muriat of lime, which he prepares from the residuum of the decomposition of muriat of ammonia by lime,* by dissolving it in a small quantity of hot water, and evaporating it to dryness. He mixes equal parts of this muriat with sulphat of ba- ryta in powder, and projects it by spoonfuls into a crucible previous- ly heated to redness. When it is all in complete fusion, he pours it out upon a polished stone previously heated. The matter, which cracks as it cools, has a whitish-grey colour, is very hard, sonorous, and deliquescent, is now to be boiled in about six times its weight of distilled water, its solution filtered, and the residuum boiled in a smaller quantity of water. The mixed solutions are then evaporated to a pellicle, and on cooling, furnish beautiful crystals of muriat of baryla, which, are to be washed with cold water, and purified by a second solution and crystallization. The mother water of the first crystallization still contains muriat of baryta, which may be sepa- rated from the muriat of lime, with which it is mixed, by repeated solutions and crystallizations. La Grange thinks that this process not only saves time, fuel, and muriatic acid, but that it furnishes a purer muriat of baryta. -With respect to the muriat of barytes, it commonly crystallizes in tables. It has a disagreeable bitter taste; is soluble in three parts of water at 60°, and in less boiling water. It is scarcely soluble in alcohol; and its solution burns with a yellow flame. It crystallizes by evaporation: its crystals are permanent; and by the action of heat decrepitate, dry, and melt,, spec. grav. 2.8257. When crystal- lized, it contains 20 acid, 64 baryta, and 16 water; when dried, 23.8 acid, and 76.2 baryta. According to present views it is rather a chlo- ride of barium, 100 p.irts of which contain, according to Davy, 66.04 of barium—33.96 of chlorine. It is decomposed by the sulphats, nilrats, and sulphites; and by the alkaline phosphats, borats, and carbonats. It is also decomposed by succinat of ammonia, nitrat of silver, acetat, nitrat and phosphat of mercury, acetat of lead, tar- trate of iron and antimony, burnt sponge, and Hermstadt's antimo- nial tincture, antimonial wine, soap, &c.; extracts of gentian, marsh trefoil, and the inspissated juices of aconite, hemlock, and hyos- eyamus. it is not decomposed by muriat of iron, or corrosive sublimate, and bears the addition of aromatic distilled waters, simple syrups, gum arabic mucilage, some simple extracts, pure opium, and similar substances, when they do not contain astringent matter. When pure it has no colour; does not deliquesce; does not burn with a red or purple flame, when dissolved in alcohol; and is not precipi- * An excellent mode of obtaining the muriat of lime, as large quantities of this salt in solution may be readily procured from those who prepare am- monia. 19 138 B.—Barytes. tated by gallic acid, prussiat of potass and iron, or hydro-sulphuret of ammonia. By washing with alcohol muriat of baryta, rendered impure by the presence of muriat of iron, the latter alone is dis- solved. It is commonly given in solution. SOLUTIO MURIATIS BARYTA. E. Solution of Muriat of Barytes. Terra Ponderosa Salita, This is a native of Carolina, West Florida, &c. and is thought to be one of the most powerful diuretics hitherto discovered. It also vomits severely. It is much esteemed by the southern Indians. * * Barton's Collections, part I. p 36. C.—Caryophylli. 165 CARYOPHYLLI. L. A. Caryophyllus Aromaticus. E. D. The Clove Tree. The Flower-buds or Cloves. Essential Oil. Syn. Cloves.—Clousele Girofles, (F.) Gewurz nefken, (G.) Garofano, (I.) Clavode espicia, (S.) Kerunfel, (Ar.) Laung, (H.) Lavanga, (San.) The Oi7.—Huil de Girofle, (F.) Nelkenohl, (G.) Olio di Girofano, (I.) Azeyte de Clavos, (S.) KapuoquxKa, Grsecorum. The Eugenia Caryophyllata is a beautiful tall tree, a native of the Molucca Islands. * The Dutch, from the desire of monopolizing the valuable spice produced by it, destroyed all the trees except in Am- boyna, where it is carefully cultivated. But their scheme has been frustrated, and the clove is now thriving in the Isle of France and other places. Every part of this tree is highly aromatic, but espe- cially the leaf-stalk. Cloves are the flower-buds, which are gather- ed in October and November, before they open, and when they are still green; they are then exposed to smoke for some days, and dried in the sun. Cloves have somewhat the form of a nail, consisting of a globular head, formed of the four petals of the corolla, and four leaves of the calyx not yet expanded; but this part is often wanting, being easily broken off; and a germen situated below, nearly round, but some- what narrower towards the bottom; scarcely an inch in length, and covered with another thicker calyx, divided above into four parts. Their colour should be of a deep brown; their smell strong, peculiar, and grateful; their taste acrid, aromatic, and permanent. The best cloves are also large, heavy, brittle, and when pressed with the nail, exude a little oil. When light, soft, wrinkled, dirty, pale, and with- out smell or taste, they are to be rejected. The Dutch, from whom we had this spice, frequently mix it with cloves from which the oil has been distilled. These, though in time they regain from the others a considerable share both of taste and smell, are easily distinguishable by their weaker flavour and lighter colour. Cloves yield by distillation with water about one-seventh of their weight of volatile oil; 960 parts also gave to Neumann 380 of a nauseous, somewhat astringent, watery extract. The same quantity gave only 300 of excessively fiery alcoholic extract. When the al- coholic extract is freed from the volatile oil by distillation with wa- ter, the oil that arises proves mild, and the resin that remains insi- pid. Its pungency therefore seems to depend on the combination of these principles. The Dutch oil of cloves is extremely hot and fiery, and of a reddish brown colour, but it is greatly adulterated, both with fixed oils and resin of cloves; for the genuine oil, when recently distilled, is comparatively quite mild and colourless, although it gradually acquires a yellow colour. It is heavier than water, and rises in distillation with some difficulty, so that it is proper to use a very low-headed still, and to return the distilled water several times upon the residuum. Vauquelin obtained from the leaves of the agathophyllum ravcn- sara, an essential oil in every respect similar to that of cloves. Medical use.—Cloves, considered as a medicine, are very hot, sti- * Icosandria Monogynia, Nat' Ord. Hesperidiar, Linn. Myrti, Just: 166 C.—Cassia. mulating aromatic?, and possess, in an eminent degree, the general virtues of substances of this class. DAUCUS CAROTA. E. L. D. Carrot. The Seeds. Pentandria Digynia. Nat. ord. Umbellatae. Syn. Carotte, (F.) Karotte; MohrrUbe, (G.) Carota, (I.) Zanahoria, (S.) Istufleen, (Ar.) Garjara, (San.) 2. Blessed Thistle. Leaves or Plant. Syngenesia ~i „ , C Composite Capitatae, Linn. Frustranea. 5 - ' c Cinarocephalae, Juss. Syn. Chardon benit, (F.) Kardo benediktenkraet, (G.) Curdo santo, (I.) Curdo bendito, (S.) Ajm/>v<*, Theophrasti. This is an annual plant, indigenous in the Grecian islands, and cultivated in gardens: it flowers in June and July, and perfects its seeds in the autumn. The herb should be gathered when in flower, quickly dried, ami kept in a very dry airy place, to prevent its rot- ting or growing mouldy, which it is very apt to do. The leaves have a penetrating bitter taste, not very strong or very durable, accom- panied with an ungrateful flavour, from which they are in a great * On this quickness of action a very important end in. practice may be attained, and which I have pursued with the best effect, viz. to apply a mus- tard cataplasm, (in pleurisy, &c.) for some time, when the disposition to vesication is so strongly excited, that an epispastic will rise in half its usual time, which in many cases is of the utmost consequence. C.—Cephaelis. 173 measure freed by keeping. Water extracts, in a little time, even without heat, the lighter and more grateful parts of this plant; if the digestion be continued for some hours, the disagreeable parts are taken up. A strong decoction is very nauseous and offensive to the stomach. Rectified spirit gains a very pleasant bitter taste, which remains uninjured in the extract. Neumann got from 1920 parts 270 alcoholic, and afterwards 390 watery extract, and inversely 600 watery and 60 alcoholic. Medical use.—The virtues of this plant seem to be little known in the present practice. The nauseous decoction is sometimes used to provoke vomiting; and a strong infusion to promote the operation of other emetics. But this elegant bitter, when freed from the offen- sive parts of the herb, may be advantageously applied to other pur- poses. Excellent effects have been frequently experienced from a slight infusion of carduus in loss of appetite, where the stomach was injured by irregularities. A stronger infusion made in cold or warm water, if drunk freely, and the patient kept warm, occasions a plen- tiful sweat, and promotes the secretions in general. r The extract, prepared by evaporating the expressed juice, with the addition of a little alcohol to prevent it from becoming mouldy, has been strongly recommended in the catarrh of children. The seeds of this plant are also considerably bitter, and have been sometimes used with the same intention as the leaves. CEPHAELIS. Spec Plant. Willd. i. 977. CI. 5. Ord. 1. Pentandria Monogynia. Nat. Ord. Aggregattc. Linn. G. 357. Flowers in an involucred head. Corolla tubular. Stigma two-parted. Berry two-seeded. Receptacle chatty. Species nova. Cephaelis yel Callicocca Ipecacuanha:* Ipecacuan, Linn. Soc. Trans, vi. p. 137. t. 2. Officinal. Ipecacuanha radix, Lond. Edin. Dub. A. The root ofIpecacuan. Syn. Ipecacflanne, (F.) Brechwerzel, (G.) Ipecacuana, (I.) Ipecacuanha, (S.) This plant is a perennial, found growing in shadowy moist situa- tions in the forests of the provinces of Pernambuqua, Bahia, Rio Janeiro, Paulensia, Mariannia, and other provinces of the Brazils: flowering in December, January, February, and March; and ripen- ing its berries in May. The root is simple, or somewhat branched, and furnished here and there with short radicles; it is roundish, three or four inches in length, and two or three lines in thickness; bent in different directions, externally brown, and annulated with prominent, unequal roughish rings. The stem is procumbent at the base, rising from five to nine inches in height, round, the thickness of a hen's quill; smooth, brown, leafless, and knotted in the lower part, but leafy towards the apex: after the first year it throws out runners, from which, about six inches apart, new erect stems arise. The in- ferior leaves are caducous, so that not more than eight generally re- * As Willdenow, following Swarts, has united the genus Callicocca with that of Cephaelis, we have referred the Ipecacuanha to this genus. 174 C.—Cephaelis. main at the summit of each stem when it flowers: they are almost sessile, opposite, spreading, ovate, pointed at both ends, three or four inches long, and less than two broad; of a deep green colour on the upper surface, and of a whitish green, downy, and veined on the under. At the base Of each pair of leaves are sessile, fimbriated, short, withering stipules embracing the stem. The flowers are ag- gregated in a solitary head, on a round, downy footstalk, terminating the stem, and encompassed by a four-leaved involucre. The florets are sessile, from 15 to 24 in number, interspersed with little bractes: the calyx, is very small, five-toothed, superior, and persistent; the corolla monopetalous, the expansion shorter than the tube, and divided into five ovate, acute, recurved segments: the filaments are short, capillary, inserted into the upper part of the tube, and bear- ing long erect anthers: the germen inferior, supporting a filiform style, with two obtuse stigmas the length of the anthers; becoming a soft one-celled berry, of a reddish-purple colour changing to black, and containing two oval seeds. According to Decandolle, the term ipecacuanha in South America implies generally vomiting root; and therefore it is applied to the roots of very different species of plants. The plant, however, which we have described from Professor Brotero's description published in the sixth volume of the Linnean Transactions, and the Psycotria emetica, which Mutis says yields the Peruvian grey ipecacuan, are the plants that yield the varieties of the root taken to Great Britain. * Thomson says he found very little of the white ipecacuan in any of the specimens of the ipecacuan of the shops which he had examined. Both the grey and the brown varieties of the root are brought to Great Britain packed in bales from Rio Janeiro. Both are in short, wrinkled, variously bent and contorted pieces, which break with a resinous fracture. The grey is about the thickness of a small quill, full of knots and deep circular fissures, that nearly reach down to a white woody vascular cord that runs through the heart of each piece; the external part is compact, brittle, and looks smooth; the brown is smaller, more wrinkled, of a blackish brown colour on the outside, and white within: the white is woody, and has no wrinkles. In choosing ipecacuanha, the larger roots, which are compact, and break with a resinous fracture, having a Whitish grey somewhat semi- transparent appearance in the inside of the cortical part, with a pale straw-coloured medullary fibre, are to be preferred. It is impossible to ascertain at what period the effects of this root were first known in America, where the Indians used it as an emetic before their connexion with Europeans: but although Piso described its uses fully in his Natural History of Brazil so early as 1618, and brought the root to Europe; yet it was scarcely used by Europeans before the year 1700. It was carried to France by a French physi- * The title of ipecacuan is generally given to the roots of the following plants, besides those mentioned above, in South America: Violaparviflora, V. Ipecacuanha, V. Calceolaria, Cynanchum Ipecacuanha, C. tomentosum, and Asclepias currassavica,- and sometimes to Euphorbia Ipecacuanha. Dorstenia Brasilicnsix, and D. arifolia. In St. Domingo several species of Ruellia, which provoke vomiting, are named false Ipecacuan. Novveau Dictionnaire d'His Loire Naiurelle, art. Ipecaatanha. C.—Cephaelis. 175 cian of the name of Le Gras in 1672; but it did not attract general notice until it was a third time introduced by a French merchant of the name of Grenier, who brought 150 lbs. of it from Spain in 1686, with which trials were made at the Hotel Dieu. Helvetius first made known its use in dysentery, and was rewarded by Louis XIV. with 1000/. sterling for the discovery. Qualities.—The entire root is inodorous, but the powder has a faint disagreeable odour. The taste is bitter, subacrid, and extremely nauseous. Water at 212° takes up rather more than eight parts in twenty of ipecacuan, but decoction destroys the emetic power of the root: alcohol takes up four parts, and proof spirit six and a half: and the alcoholic is more emetic than the aqueous solution. Various analyses of ipecacuanha have been made in order to detect its emetic principle, but the most satisfactory is that of M. M. Majendie and Pelletier * After digesting the powdered root in ether, in order to separate any fatty matter, the remainder was treated with highly rectified alcohol, until it ceased to become coloured even when aided by heat. These tinctures, after being allowed to cool, and to depo- sit some flakes of wax which were separated by filtration, were then evaporated to dryness, and the residue re-dissolved in water: acetate of lead being added to the watery infusion, a precipitate formed, which when edulcorated and diffused through water, was exposed to a current of sulphureted hydrogen gas, to separate the lead; after which the liquid being filtered and evaporated to dryness afforded a substance of a peculiar nature, which they termed Emetin, and on which it was experimentally demonstrated that the emetic properties of the root depend. Emetin,^ wrhen pure, is of a reddish brown co- lour, solid, and pulverulent, nearly inodorous, and has a slightly bitter, acrid, but not nauseous taste. Wiien exposed to a heat stronger than that of boiling water, it is decomposed, furnishing water, car- bonic acid, some oil, and acetic acid, charcoal being left. It is little soluble in water, and does not deliquesce in a moist atmosphere. It is soluble in alcohol, but not in ether. To detail the action of other chemical agents on this body is here unnecessary; the results are sufficient to characterize it as a substance sui generis. Besides emetin, ipecacuanha has been found, by the experiments of the above chemists, to contain oil, wax, gum, starch, and lignin. The medicinal value of ipecacuanha depends, undoubtedly, on the quantity of emetin it contains; and this varies in the three varieties of the root found in the shops. M. M. Majendie and Pelletier ob tained 16 parts of it in 100 of the cortical part of brown ipecacuanha, the root of the Psycotria emetica of Mutis,J 14 in 100 of the gray ipecacuanha, the root of the Callicocca ipecacuanha,^ and 5 only in * Vide Ann. de Chiin. et de Phys. iv. 172, and Lon. Med. Repository, viii. p. 252. \ The name is derived from tutu, vomo. $ The components procured from 100 parts of brown ipecacuanha were a? follows; of fatty and oily matter 2; emetic matter, (emetin,) 16; wax 6; gum 10; starch 42; and ligneous matter 20; the remaining 4 parts bein^ regarded as loss. § 100 parts of the gray variety yielded, of fatty matter 2; emetin 14; guir. 16; starch 18; woody matter 48; with merely a trace of wa\;, and 2 of loss. 176 C.—Cephaelis. 100 of the white ipecacuanha, the root of the Viola emetica.* The woody pith even of the brown variety contains very little emetin, and hence it should be separated in reducing the root to the form of powder. Experiments made with emetin on animals, prove that it is emetic and purgative, in doses of half a grain, and exerts a specific action on the lungs and mucous membrane of the intestinal canal, and has also marked narcotic properties: that it may be employed instead of ipecacuanha in every case in which this medicine is useful, the dose being more easily regulated, and the effects more certain. When taken in an over-dose, its action can be instantly paralysed by de- coction of galls. These experiments are at variance with those of Dr. Irvine, which led him to conclude that the watery solution of ipecacuan is more emetic than the alcoholic, the reverse being found to be the case. The powder of ipecacuanha is apt to become inert by keeping, and therefore it should be preserved in small phials, well corked, and not exposed to the light. Long-continued boiling also renders it inert. Medical properties and uses.—Ipecacuanha, when administered in large doses, is emetic; in smaller ones diaphoretic and expectorant; and in still smaller doses it acts as a stomachic, stimulating and giv- ing energy to the digestive organs. As an emetic, it is mild, safe, and certain in its operation; but it is a mistake, that when given in larger doses than are necessary it does not operate more violently, but only in a shorter space of time. It does not act so quickly as many other emetic substances; but it evacuates completely the contents of the stomach, and does not so much weaken it as antimonial emetics. It is given at the commencement of continued fevers, the progress of which is sometimes cut short by its operation; and it is also fre- quently found to stop the paroxysm of an intermittent, when given immediately before the accession of the cold stage. At the com- mencement of inflammation of the pharynx, larynx, and trachea, when the inflammation does not run very high; in cynanche ton- sillaris; and every case in which it is necessary to evacuate the sto- mach, ipecacuan has been found useful. As an emetic, however, it is contra-indicated when there is any reason for suspecting in- flammation of the encephalon, passive haemorrhagy, or hernia; and in the advanced stage of typhus fevers, when the pulse is feeble, and the strength much diminished, but in these instances all emetics are hurtful. In doses sufficient to excite nausea without producing vomiting, ipecacuan is given with excellent effects in dysentery,! and obstinate diarrhoea: in which cases its efficacy seems to arise in a great degree from the nausea, which is kept up by the repetition of the small doses diminishing the arterial excitement, and determining to the surface; and partly also, as Cullen supposed, from its pro- ducing a steady determination of the peristaltic motion of the intes- tines downwards. J Perhaps also to these first-mentioned effects of the nausea, may be attributed much of the benefit which results from * From 100 parts of the white ipecacuanha, were obtained of emetin 5; gum 35; vegeto-animal matter 1; and woody matter 57; besides 3 of loss. f Pino, Helvetius, Cleghorn, Pringle. t Materia Mid. ii. 477. C—Cephaelis. 177 the use of ipecacuan in spasmodic asthma, dyspnoea, pertussis, and epilepsy. In the first of these diseases its emetic power is taken ad- vantage of to relieve the paroxysm, after which it is given in repeat- ed small doses to prevent its return.* In nauseating doses also, owing to the nausea lessening the force of the circulation, it has been em- ployed with the best success in uterine and pulmonary hemorrhages As a sudorific, it is used in acute rheumatism, arthritic affections, dropsy, and other diseases in which sweating is necessary. It is generally given, in these cases, in combination with opium and neu- tral salts, according to the mode introduced by Dover; (see Pulvis Ipecacuanhae compositus.) But some affirm it is found in combina- tion with opium alone in a larger proportion, more efficacious, parti- cularly in rheumatism. Its expectorant powers have been found ex- ceedingly useful in catarrhal affections, pneumonia after bleeding, and in the early stage of phthisis, in which its diaphoretic effect is also beneficial. The use of ipecacuan, as an emetic, is contra-indicated, 1. Where there is a disposition to hemorrhagy. 2. Where there is an increased flow of blood towards the head. 3. In very irritable subjects. 4. In pregnant women, and persons afflicted with hernia. Ipecacuan is exhibited, 1. In substan.ce; in powder. Full vomiting will generally be produced in an adult by ten grains up to a scruple or half a drachm, and though less will answer the purpose, fortunately an overdose is scarcely attended with any inconvenience, as the whole of it is vomited with the contents of the stomach, as soon as it operates. The vomiting is promoted and facilitat- ed by drinking copiously of warm watery fluids. On the contrary, when vomiting is not intended, liquids must be rather drunk sparingly, and the dose mustbA diminished to a grain or less. In such small doses it is conveniently com- bined with any proper adjunct, in the form of powder, pill, or bolus. 2. In infusion. One drachm may be infused in four ounces of water, and taken in repeated doses till it operate. 3. Infused in wine. Ipecacuan not only checks the narcotic effects of opium, and is therefore one of the best antidotes for its poison, but reciprocally the emetic powers of ipecacuan are checked by the addition of opium, and the combination operates by increasing the cuticular dis- charge. It has recently been announced by Thomas Clark, M. D. an English physician, that a decoction of the root of ipecacuanha has been administered as injections in dysentery and internal piles with surprising success. The practice has been adopted by several phy- sicians, all of whom testify their confidence in the superior efficacy of the remedy. Dr. Clark directs for an adult affected with dysen- terv three drachms of the bruised root to be boiled in a quart of wa- tcr'down to a pint, strained, and given all at once as a lavement, * Akenside 24 178 C.—Cephaelis. and repeated if necessary. In cases of internal piles, half that quan- tity will be sufficient. This mode of administering ipecacuan is not however a new one.* Sprengel, in his Hist, de la Med. 5. 468, says, that Piso mentions it first. (De Indiae Utriusq. Renaturali & Med. fol. Amst. 1648.) In 1672, Legras carried a quantity from Brazil to France; but it was not extended through Europe until 1686, by Dr. J. A. Helve- tius, to whom it was made known by a druggist named Gamier. Helvetius, after testing its merits, sold it without discovering its nature, until several of the court and the dauphin, son of Louis 14th, were attacked with dysentery, and being cured by this remedy, its virtues became known and established; the secret was bought of Helvetius for 1000 louis d'ors, and he himself eventually was raised to the first medical honours of France. Helvetius wrote a treatise, (Remede contre le cours de Ventre, 12mo. Par. 1688,) to describe the use of ipecacuanha in diarrhoea and dysentery, by which we learn, that at first it was given in large doses, even to two drachms, in decoction, or even in glyster. It met with opposition, but soon carried all before it. It was soon after given in powder, though in still large doses, 30 grs. to Q. Of the three species, white, yellow, and brown, the latter is the best according to Piso, and this is confirmed by others. Valentini gave it in all species of ventral fluxes. Baglivi in 1696, Jean Mangetus, William Sherard, and others, considered it most certain in dysentery and haemorrhage. So scarce did it become, that a poisonous root was sold by its name, (Harris, Diss. Med. and Chirurg. 1725.) It was given in small doses, first, by J. D. Gohl, (Act. Med. Berol. 1720.) He denied it a specific in diarrhoea and dysentery, and ascribed its benefit to the vomiting it produced; he gave it in 1717, in grain doses in diarrhoea preceding small-pox. Geoffroy says, 6 to 10 grs. are sufficient to excite vomit- ing, (Tr. de la Mat. Med. 2. 161.) and S. Pye, in the Lond. Med. Ob. and Inq. 1. 240, gave it in still less doses; 4 to 6 grs. produced the desired effect. Gianella first employed it as nauseating in small doses in autumnal intermittents, to expel the saburral matters of the primae viae; and this was supported by Max. Stoll. (Rat. Med. 1.192.) Nich. Dalberg, in still smaller doses, Mem. of Swcd. Acad. 1770, p. 316, &c. in haemorrhage and pectoral affections produced by ob- struction of the abdominal viscera—succeeds perfectly. Dover, in Econom. and Med. Obs. p. 130, first combined it with * Solomon says there is nothing new under the sun. The fact seems ex- emplified on many occasions in relation to medicines. Helvetius, whom we have quoted as almost the first to bring the celebrated Ipecacuan into notice, in his " Traite des Maladies, &c." p. 170 and seq. (1707,) thus expresses him- self:— " On a fait dans la suite de nouvelles reflexions, & on a reconnu que les lavemens servoient a d'autres usages. On a eprouve qu'en y ajoiitant de Pavol on assoupissoit le malade; qu'on pouvoit le nourrir par des Lavemens de lioaillon, & qu'une decoction de Tabac faisoit plus d'effet que le plus violent Emetique. Pour moy, je me suis avise de faire des Lavemens avec la racine d'Hypecacuana, ce qui a parfaitement bien reussi en plusieurs occasions ou la Dysenterie avoit reduit le malade a la demiere extremite, & l'avoit mis hors d'etat de.> ouvoir prendre ce remede par la bouclie," &c. 0.—Cera. 179 opium, and thus obtained an excellent antispasmodic powder, bear- nig his name, which likewise favours cutaneous transpiration. It is first mentioned by Dr. Brockleby in 1760, and still maintains its rank. Dr. Akenside on dysentery, ascribed to ipecacuanha a calming vir- tue, and recommended it principally in convulsions and asthma. This antispasmodic property was confirmed by Paulitzky, who found it useful in rheumatism and uterine haemorrhage. CERA.—WAX. Syn. Cire, (F.) Wachs, (G.) Cera, (I. S.) Shuma, (Ar.) Mom, (H.) Med- huchhishta, (San.) Wax is a solid, of considerable consistence, granulated and crys- talline in its fracture, of a white colour, and without any remarkable odour or taste. It softens and becomes plastic when very slightly heated; at 140° it melts; at a higher temperature it is in part va- porized and decomposed, and its vapour is inflammable. It resists in a remarkable degree the action of the acids; but in most of its other properties it resembles the fixed oils. From its combustion it appears to consist of carbon 53.12, hydrogen 16.91, and oxygen 29.97; or, according to the former calculation, of 82.28 charcoal, and 17.72 hydrogen. It is chiefly procured, as is well known, from the bee; it is however produced, as a secretion by many plants, forming the silvery powder or bloom, which often covers their leaves and fruit. It is found in great abundance, combined with resin, covering the trunk of the wax-palm, (Ceroxylon Andicola,)* of South America, and encrusting the seeds of the Myrica cerifera, or wax tree of Louisiana, &c. the pe-la of the Chinese is an animal wax, and the White lac of India, appears to be a variety of wax. CERA FLAVA ET ALBA. E. L. D. A. Yellow or Unbleached Wax, and Wliite or Bleached Wax. Syn. Yellow wax. Cire jaune, (F.) Wachs, (G.) Cera gialla, (I.) Cera qualda, (S.) White wax. Cire blanche, (F.) Cera bianca, (I.) Cera blanca, (S.) For this useful substance we are indebted to the common honey bee, (apis mellifica,) an insect belonging to the class of Hymenoptera mellita of Cuvier. It is, however, a vegetable production, and is collected by the bees from the surface of leaves, and the antherae of flowers. They employ it to form the combs in which the honey and larvae are deposited. It is found in the shops in round cakes, which are formed by melt- ing the combs in hot water, after all the honey has been expressed from them. The wax swims above, and the impurities either sink to the bottom, or are dissolved in the water. When recent, it is tena- cious, but brittle, of a yellow colour, and sweet honey-like smell: * This palm grows to the height of 180 feet, with leaves 20 feet long. The waxy concretion covers the trunk about two inches thick, and consists of two- "hirds resin and one-third wax.—■Humboldt's PI. JEnuinoet. &c-. 180 C.—Cerevisise Fermentuffi. dry, not greasy to the feel; insoluble in water, alcohol and ether; soluble in the fat oils and alkalies; fusible and inflammable. In se- lecting it, we should observe that the cakes be brittle, have a plea- sant yellow colour, an agreeable smell, no taste, do not adhere to the teeth when chewed, and burn entirely away. When adulterated with resin, the fraud is detected by its taste, and the action of alco- hol, which dissolves the resin. When mixed with pease meal, or earthy substances, it is more brittle, of a paler colour, and may be separated from them by liquefaction and straining. When combined with tallow, it becomes less brittle, but at the same time softer, and has an unpleasant smell. Cera Flava Purificata. D. Purified Yellow Wax. Take of Yellow wax, any quantity. Melt it with a moderate heat, remove the scum, and after allowing it to settle, pour it cautiously off from the faeces. Yellow wax is so often adulterated, that this process is by no means unnecessary. Cera Alba. White Wax. The yellow colour of beeswax, and its peculiar smell, may be de- stroyed by the combined action of water, air, and the sun's rays. In the process for bleaching wax, we, therefore, extend its surface as much as possible, by melting it and forming it into thin plates, which are fully exposed to the sun's rays, upon linen stretched in frames, and repeatedly moistened, until it acquires the whiteness desired. It is then usually melted into thin disks. White wax is more brittle, less fusible, and heavier than yellow wax. It is some- times mixed with white oxyd of lead, or with tallow. For medical use, it has no advantage over yellow wax. Medical use.— When taken internally, wax agrees in its effects with the fat oils, and though less frequently prescribed in this way, it is preferable, it being less apt to become rancid. Poerner recom- mends it as an excellent remedy in diseases of the intestines, at- tended with pain, excoriation, and obstinate diarrhoea. He gave a scruple, or half a drachm of wax, three or four times a day, in the form of an emulsion, by melting it first with some fixed oil, and then mixing it with a decoction of groats by trituration with the yolk of an egg. But by far its principal use is for the formation of cerates, ointments, plasters, &c. CEREVISI^ FERMENTUM. L. E. A. Yeast. Barm. Syn. Leveure, (F.) Giischt, (G.) Barm or yeast has lately been much extolled as an antiseptic re- medy in putrid fevers. A table-spoonful is recommended to be given as a dose, in porter, or wine and water. It is also applied externally, in the form of a poultice, to foul and putrid sores. It may be pre- served by drying it to the consistence of a slightly cohesive paste, in which state it is sold in Paris. C.—Cornu Ustum. 18i Cervus Elaphus. E. D. L. Stag or Hart. The Horns. Cornu Ci;rvi. A. Syn. Cornede cerf, (F.) Ilirschorn, (G.) Exuqw, Aristot. Hist. Anim. 2. c. 7.18- The male has two round solid horns on his forehead, with several conical branches, the number of which ascertain the age of the ani- mal to which they belong. These horns fall off and are renewed every year. When first reproduced, they are soft, full of blood ves- sels, and covered with a velvety skin, but they soon lose their co- vering, and become hard, compact and bony. In their nature they do not seem to differ from bone except in containing a larger proportion of cartilage. They afford a very consi- derable quantity of gelatin by decoction with water, and hartshorn shavings are still employed in domestic economy for furnishing a nutritious and demulcent jelly. By the action of fire, their products are the same with those of animal substances in general; and they were formerly so much used for the preparation of ammonia, that it was commonly called salt or spirit of Hartshorn. By burning they are totally converted into phosphat of lime. Cornu Ustum. L. Burnt Horn. Pulvis Cornu Cervini Usti. D. Burnt Hartshorn.* Burn pieces of hartshorn till they become perfectly ititite; then re- duce them to a very fine powder. The pieces of horn generally employed in this operation, a it those left after distillation. In the burning of hartshorn, a sufficient fire and the free admis- sion of air is necessary. The potter's furnace was formerly di- rected for the sake of convenience: but any common furnace or stove will do. Indeed too violent a heat makes their surface under- go a kind of fusion and vitrification, which both prevents the inter- nal parts from being completely burnt, and renders the whole less soluble. If the pieces of horn be laid on some lighted charcoal, spread on the bottom of the grate, they will be burnt to whiteness, still retaining their original form. According to the analysis of Merat Guillot, hartshorn was found to consist of 27. gelatin, 57.5 phosphat of lime, 1. carbonat of lime, and there was a loss of 14.5 probably water. Now, as the gelatin is destroyed by burning, and the water expelled, the substance which remains is phosphat of lime, mixed with less than two per cent. of carbonat of lime. Fourcroy and Vauquelin have analyzed bones more accurately, and found that they contain phosphat of magnesia, iron, and manganese; and that human boues contain less of the first of these, and more of the two others than 'animal bones, which is probably owing to the constant excretion of phosphat of magnesia in human urine. In human bones there are also traces of alumine and silex. Medical use.—From its white earthy appearance, it was formerly considered as an absorbent earth. But since it has been accurately analyzed, that idea has been laid aside, and its use has been sug- gested as a remedy in rickets, a disease in which the deficiency of Mie natural deposition of phosphat of lime in the bones seems to b * Phosphas Calcis, Pharm. U. S. 182 0.—Chironia. the essential or at least most striking symptom. M. Bonhomme, therefore gave it to the extent of half a scruple, mixed with phos- phat of soda, in [several cases with apparent success. Whatever objections may be made to his theory, the practice certainly deserves a trial. CHENOPODIUM ANTHELMINTICUM. Worm Seed. Jerusalem Oak.* This plant grows plentifully in the United States, and is much used for worms. The whole plant has a powerful smell, of which it is very retentive. Its taste is bitter, with much aromatic acrimony. The whole plant may be employed. The expressed juice is used, in doses of a table-spoonful for a child of two or three years old. A de- coction of the plant made by boiling a handful of the green leaves in a quart of milk, for about one quarter of an hour, to which orange peel may be added, may be given to a child of four or five years old, in doses of about a wine-glassful two or three times a day. The seeds are more employed, reduced to a fine powder, and made into an electuary with syrup. Of this, a child of two or three years old may take a table-spoonful early in the morning; abstaining from nourishment for some hours: a like dose is given at night, or they may be strewed on bread and butter. It is often necessary to con- tinue this course for several days. Great numbers of lumbrici are frequently discharged after the use of a few doses of the medicine. Barton's Collections, Part I. p. 38, 60.—Dr. Mease mentions the essential oil of the seeds as being equally or more powerful. Its dose is from four to eight or ten drops rubbed up with sugar. Medical Museum, vol. II.—For a more particular account, see Dr. Wilkins' statement, in a paper in the fifth volume of the Medical Museum. Chironia Centaureum. E. L. D. Centaureum Minus. Smaller Centaury. The flowering heads. Pentandria Monogynia. Nat. ord. Rosaceae, Linn. Gentianae, Juss. Syn. Petite Centaure'e, (F.) This plant is annual, and grows wild in many parts of England on barren pastures. It flowers between June and August. The corolla is said to have no taste; and therefore the herb, which is intensely bitter, should be preferred to the flowering tops, which derive their virtues only from the stalks connected with them. It agrees in every respect with our pure bitters. Neumann got from 480 parts, 210 alcoholic, and 140 watery ex- tract; and inversely, 320 watery, 40 alcoholic. Chironia Angularis.! American Centaury. The Plant. As this plant wants the most distinguishing characters of chironia, with which it has heretofore been associated, it has been referred with propriety to the genus Sabbatia of Adanson. * Chenopodium, Pharm. U. S. f Sabbatia Angularis, Pharm. U. F. C.—Cinchona. 188 It is a beautiful annual plant, abundant in many parts of the United States. Every part of it is a pure and strong bitter, which property is communicated alike to alcohol and to water. It is devoid of astringency. It is an useful tonic and promoter of digestion, and has been employed in yellow, intermittent and remittent fevers. CINCHONA.- Spec. Plant. Willd. i. 957. CI. 5. Ord. 1. Pentandria Monogynia. Nat. ord. Contortae, Linn, Rubiaceae, Juss. G. 346. Corolla funnel-shaped. Capsule inferior, two-celled, bi partite with a parallel partition. Seed winged. * Corollas doivny, with the stamens included. Species 1. C. Lancifolia, Muiis. Papel Periodici de Santa Fe, p. 465. Rhode. Monog. Cinchonas Generis Tentamen, p. 513. Zea, Annates de Hisloria Natural, torn. ii. p. 207.t Flora Peruv. torn. ii. p. 50. t. 191. Humboldt. Plant ae aequinoctiales, p. 33. t. 10. Lambert's Description of the Genus Cinchona, plate 1. ibid. Illustration of the Genus, fyc. p. 2. Species 2. C Oblongifolia, Mutis. Per. de Santa Fe. Zea. 1. c. ii. 211. C. Magnifolia, C. lutescens. Flor. Peruv. ii. 53. t. 196. Quinologia, art. vi. 71. Species 3. C. Cordifolia, Mutis. Per. de Santa Fe. Zea. 1. c. ii. 214. C. purpurea. Flor. Peruv. 32. t. 193. C. ovata. Ruiz. Quino- logia. C. micrantha! Flor. Peruv. 52. t. 194. . Lambert, p. 21. plate ii.J Illustration, fyc p. 3. , This important genus, of which twenty-foUr species have been described, is not yet altogether freed from the ambiguity which has so long involved it; and although much has been effected by the in- dustry of the Spanish botanists, whom their government sent out to make enquiries concerning it, yet many species remain undescribed,§ from which it is very probable the bark-gatherers collect some part of the large cargoes which are annually sent to Europe. The three kinds medicinally used have been distinguished and named as above by Mutis, a celebrated botanist, who resides in the neighbourhood of Santa Fe de Bogota, as director of the exportation of bark;|| and * Supposed to be named after the Countess del Chinchon, wife of a viceroy of Peru, who introduced it into Europe, on her return to Spain in 1640. \ Zea adds the following synonymes: Quinquina. Condam. A.A. Paris, 1738 C. officinalis. Linn*. Syst. Veg. ed. 10. p. 929. Spec. Plant, p. 244. Gen Plant, ed. 7. p. 91. C. officinalis. Vahl. Act. Soc. Nat. Haum. 1. fasc. p. 17 t. 1. C. nitido. Flora Peruv. et Chil. ii. p. 30.1.191.: and Ruiz. Quinologia, 56 C. lanceolata. Flora Peruv. 51. C. Glabra. Ruiz. Quinol. art. iv. 64. C. rosto Flora Peruv. 54. C. fusca, Ruiz. Quinol. art. viii. 77. \ Besides these synonymes, Zea adds, C. officinalis, Linn. Suppl. p. 14 -. s. v. edit. Peersoon, p. 222. C. pubeseens. Act. Haum. 1. fasc. p. 17. t. 2. § In a large collection of dried specimens of the genus Cinchona in hU possession, which were collected in 1805, both near Loxa and Santa Fe, Thomson found many species which are not mentioned in the works of any of the Spanish botanists; nor even by Mr. Lambert, to whom he gave speci- mens of many of the species. |l Mutis is a native of Cadiz, and went to Santa F*.' in 1760, as physician to 184 C.—Cinchona. his observations have been fully detailed by his pupil Zea; whilst the travels of Humboldt and Bonpland have afforded them an oppor- tunity of ascertaining accurately, and describing the species first delineated by Condamine in 1738, in the Mem. de VAcademie,* and named by Linnaeus officinalis, under which term, however, no less than two very distinct species were confounded by that distinguished natu- ralist. Under this trivial name, officinalis, also, the British phar- macopoeias placed as varieties the three kinds of barks known in the shops; and this error is still retained by the Dublin college: but, in the last editions of their Pharmacopoeias, the London and the Edinburgh colleges have adopted the arrangement and the names of the three officinal species according to Mutis. Prior to the year 1772, all the Cinchona bark brought'to Europe was shipped at the ports of the Pacific; but since Don Jose Cele- stino Mutis discovered the Cinchona about Santa Fe, much of it has come by the way of Carthagena de Indias to Cadiz, t Before de- scribing the officinal species, it is proper to state, that although they are named from the form of their leaves, yet, as Humboldt justly remarks, " no tree varies more in the shape of its leaves than the Cinchona;" and, in examining dried specimens, he who has not seen them in their native forests, •* will be led to discover different species by leaves which are of one and the same branch;" a remark which Thomson says he is enabled to confirm, by the extensive col- lection of dried specimens of the genus in his possession. 1. Cinchona Lancifolia, Mutis.% Officinal. Cinchona Lancifolije cortex, Lond. Edin. Cortex Peruvianus, Dub. Lance-leaved Cinchona. The Pale Bark of the shops. Cinchona pallida, A. Syn. Quinquina orange, (F.) Gelbe Chinarinde, (G.) China, (I.) Quina Naranjada, (S.) This tree is found chiefly in the neighbourhood of the village Aya- vaca, at heights from 6250 to 8300 feet, where the mean temperature varies between 59 and 62 degrees, on a bottom of micaceous schist the viceroy Don Pedro Misia de la Cerda. He discovered the Cinchona, in the forests between Guaduas and Santa Fe, in 1772: although the credit of this discovery was attempted to be wrested from him by Don Sebastian Jose Lopez Ruiz; who, however, from his own documents transmitted by his bro- ther to Baron Humboldt, to prove the priority of his discovery, appears to have known the Cinchona about Honda, only since 1774. * Condamine made the first, and the only attempt that has been made to bring young Cinchona trees alive to Europe. He nursed them for eight months, during a passage of 1200 leagues, but the)' were washed out of the boat into the sea and lost, near Cape Orange, north of Para. Lambert's II- lust, of the genus Cinchona, 4to. 1821. p. 24. \ Humboldt informs us, that the quantity of Cinchona bark annually ex- ported from America is 12,000 or 14,000 quintals. The kingdom of Santa Fe furnishes 2,000 of these, which are sent from Cartbagena; 110 are furnished by Loxa; and the provinces of Huamanga, Cuenca, and Jean de Bracamoros, with the thick forests of Guacabamba and Ayavaca, furnish the rest, which is shipped from Lima, Guayaquil, Payta, and other ports on the South Sea. Plantas Equinoc. p. 34. % Synonymes, C. nititht, Ruiz. C. Condamine, Htimb. (:.. angustifolia, Ruiz. ''.'. tun:fa, Lopez. C.—Cinchona. 185 in the woods of Caxanuma, Uritusinga, Villonaco, and Monge.* It is a lofty, handsome tree, always in leaf; from thirty to forty feet in height, and standing generally single; whereas most of the other species are found in groups. It exudes, wherever it is wounded, a yellow astringent juice. The trunk is about eighteen feet in height and fifteen inches in diameter, erect, with a cracked, ash-coloured bark: the branches are round, in opposite pairs, erect, brachiated; with the younger ones obscurely quadrangular at the nodes. The leaves are of a lively green, shining, ovato-lanceolate, about four inches long, with a little pit in the axil las of the nerves on the under surface, which is filled with an astringent aqueous fluid, and having the orifice shut with hairs: they stand on footstalks one-sixth of their length, flat above, and convex below; but the form of the leaf varies according to the altitude at which it grows; particularly before the tree comes into flower. The stipules are two, acute, silky, conti- guous, and caducous. The flowers, which are odorous, of a whitish rose colour, and furnished with little bracteas, appear in terminal, brachiated, leafy, trichotomous panicles, supported on round pedun- cles and pedicels, that are powdered and silky. The calyx is of a globular bell-shape, five-toothed, powdered and silky like the pedun- cles, with the teeth ovate, acute, very short, contiguous, and viola- ceous. The corolla is somewhat salver-shaped, longer than the calyx, with the tube obscurely pentagonous, silky, more frequently of a rose colour; the limb wheel-shaped, with linear ianceolate segments, much shorter than the tube, white and woolly above. Tlie anthers are twice the length of the free portion of the filaments, and the free parts are two-thirds shorter than the adherent.t The germen is globular, changingtoan ovate, woody, longitudinally striated capsule, crowned with the calycinal teeth, two-celled, many-seeded, oppo- sitely twice-furrowed, and opening from the base to the apex with two valves. This tree affords the original cinchona of Peru, which is now very rare, 110 quintals only being cut, instead of 4000, which was the quantity in 1779, and reserved for the use of the Spanish govern- ment.:): Zea says it is the lancifolia of Mutis, under which we have placed it; and there is also a great affinity between it and the scro- biculata of Humboldt, according to that celebrated traveller. The bark of the lancifoliais the pale bark of the shops, the Quina Naran- jada and Cascarilla fina de Uritusinga of the Spaniards. It is known in commerce by the name of Calisaya;§ and is preferred in South America to all the other cinchonas. Two other varieties of it, pro- * As the Condaminea of Humboldt, notwithstanding the reasonings of this author to prove the contrary, is evidently a variety, if not the same specie9 meant by Mutis, we have availed ourselves of Mutis's accurate description. f Humboldt. i Estan raro, que apenas corresponde a uno par mil de las otras especies juntas. Ann. de Hist. Nat. torn. ii. p. 210. § The name Calisaya is that of a province producing this bark, in the most southern part of Peru, in the intendencia de la Paz; but the term is also used as a generic name by which the Peruvian Indians distinguish the superior barks. There are three varieties of Calisaya known in South American com- merce, 1. Calisaya arrollenda, rolled Calisaya; 2. Calisaya de plancha, flat Cu* lisaya; 3. Calisaya de Santa Ft, which is a thick bark MSS. of Dr. Devotl 186 C.—Cinchona. bably produced by distinct species, are also known in commerce by the names of lagatijada, (lizardlike,) and negrilla, (blackish,) from the colour of their epidermis. It has always been known in this country by the vague name of Peruvian or officinal bark. The branches are decorticated in the dry season, from September to No- vember, which is the period when all the kinds are barked, and the bark is carefully dried in the sun. The trees frequently die after the operation. The bark arrives in Europe packed in chests made of slips of wood roughly fastened together, and covered with skins; each of which contains about 200 lbs. weight, well packed, but generally contain- ing a quantity of dust and other heterogeneous matter. It consists of pieces eight or ten inches in length, some of them scarcely one- tenth of an inch in thickness; singly and doubly quilled, or rolled inward, the quills generally being in size from a swan's quill to an inch and a half;* and others of a coarser texture, thicker and nearly flat. It has a chopped, greyish or cineritious epidermis, often cover- ed with flat, sometimes stringy lichens;t and is internally of a pallid fawn or cinnamon hue. This colour is brightened when the bark is moistened, approximating to pale orange. Both the quilled and the flat varieties are evidently the bark of the same tree; the quilled sort being that of the smaller branches, and the flat that of the larger and of the trunk. But the chests probably contain similar barks obtained from different species. Qualities.—Good bark of this description has scarcely any odour when in substance; but during decoction the odour is sensible, and agreeably aromatic. The taste is bitter, but not unpleasant, slightly acidulous and austere, resembling in some degree that of a dried rose. It is light, and breaks with a close fracture, with the internal fibres somewhat drawn out. The powder of the quilled kind is paler than the bark, being of a uniform pale cinnamon hue; but the flat kind yields a deeper coloured and browner powder. The best speci- men of this bark which could be procured by Thomson, and subject- ed to experiment, gave the following results: Water at 212° extract- ed all its active principles; affording an infusion, when filtered, of a pale yellow or straw colour, which had the odour and taste of the bark. The infusion reddened litmus paper; was instantly and co- piously precipitated by solution of galls; and in a smaller degree, and more slowly, in yellowish flocculent flakes, by solution of isinglass. A solution of tartar emetic was rendered turbid, and slowly precipi- tated by it; but this effect was quickly and copiously produced by super-acetate of lead. Sulphate of iron changed its colour to bright olive-green, but was scarcely precipitated. Decoction affords a more saturated tincture, with a colour resembling the cold infusion of the yellow bark; and a yellowish precipitate is deposited. The powder macerated in sulphuric ether afforded a golden yellow tincture, which reddened litmus paper, and left a pellicle of bitter resin when eva- * The great desire of our bark merchants to procure quilled bark has in- duced the bark-gatherers often to produce this effect by heat, which always diminishes the virtue of the bark. MSS. of Don Felix Devoti of Lima, in the possession of Mr. Thomson. -{•On this account the inhabitants of Peru name it Quinacana, hairy Quina. C.—Cinchona. 187 porated on the surface of water, to which it gave the colour of the tincture. This coloured water had the flavour of the watery infusion, but differed from it, in not precipitating the solution of galls and of tartar emetic; and in throwing down a copious precipitate from the solution of sulphate of iron. With alcohol the powder afforded a tincture of a deep orange hue, which precipitated sulphate of iron, tartarized antimony, and tannin; became turbid when added to wa- ter, and let fall a light reddish precipitate. From the effects of these re-agents on the aqueous infusion of this bark, it appears to be the same as the 3d and 15th species examined by Vauquelin; which he names superiorgrey cinchona, and common cinchona of Peru.* Mutis and Zea regard this species of cinchona as directly febri- fuge; as chiefly applicable in intermittent fevers of long standing; and also assert that it never fails to cut short an ague when adminis- tered at its accession, t 2. Cinchona oblongifolia. Mutis.\ Officinal. Cinchona oblongifolia cortex, Lond. Edin. Cortex Peruvianus, Dub. Cinchona rubra, A. Oblong-leaved Cin- chona Bark. Red Bark. Syn. Quinquina rouge, (F.) Rothe Chinarinde, (G.) China, (I.) Quina Roxa, (S.) The tree yielding this bark is found on the Andes, growing in the woods on the banks of the mountain streams in great abundance, at Riobamba, Chinchao, Cuchero, and Chacahnassi; flowering in June and July. It rises to a very considerable height on a single, erect, round stem, which is covered with smooth, brownish, ash-coloured bark. The older branches are round, smooth, and of a rusty colour; the younger are obtusely four-cornered, leafy, and of a diluted red- dish colour. The leaves are opposite, large, the full-sized ones being one or two feet in length, of an oblong oval shape, and supported on short semi-round purple petioles. They are entire, pale, and shin- ing on the upper surface, on the under veined with veins that turn to a purplish colour; and at the base of each are numerous bundles of white bristles: the stipules are supra-axillary, interfoliaceous, op- posite, contiguous, united at the base, and of an obovate figure. The flowers appear in large, erect, much compounded terminal panicles, somewhat branched, on long brachiated many-flowered peduncles, the calyx is small, five-toothed, and of a purple colour; the corolla white and odorous, with the limb spreading, and hairy within: and the filaments are very short, inserted into the tube of the corolla, sup- porting oblong anthers, bifid at the base, and are situated below the middle of the tube of tlie corolla. The capsules are large, oblong, obscurely striated, slightly curved, and crowned with the calyx. § This tree is named in the vernacular Spanish Palo de requcson, and Cascarilla de flor de Azahar, from the flowers resembling in odour those of the orange. Its bark is the Quina roxa and colorada * Annates de Ckimie, lix. 116. f Annates de Historia Natural, ii. 609. i Synonymes, C Magnifolia, Flor. Peruv. Lambert denies its affinity with ritagnifolia. See Illustration, &c. p. 12; but from the Specimens in Thomson's possession he cannot admit this opinion. § Flora Peruv. ii. 53 ■ 196. 183 C.—Cinchona. of commerce. The bark is brought to England in chests, which con- tain from 100 to 150 lbs. each. It consists of various sized pieces, covered with a thin and rough entire reddish brown epidermis. The greater number of the pieces are flat, but some are partially quilled, as if taken from half the circumference of the branches to which they belonged. Under the epidermis there is an intermediate layer, which is dark coloured, compact, brittle, and seemingly resinous; and with- in it the internal part is woody, fibrous, and of a rust-red colour. The fracture, examined by a lens, consists of close, longitudinal, pa- rallel, needle-form fibrillae of a pale red colour, with a deep red ag- glomerated powder in the interstices. The powder is of a deeper co- lour than the internal part of the bark. Qualities.—Red cinchona bark has a weak peculiar odour; and its taste is much less bitter, but more austere and nauseous, than the barks of the other species The aqueous infusion has a pale ruby colour, a slight degree of bitterness, and a decided astringency. It lets fall a sediment of a brighter hue than that of the dry powder. It reddens litmus paper,* is slowly precipitated by the solution of galls, the supernatant liquor being perfectly colourless; and a very light, flocculent, ruby-coloured precipitate is produced by the solu- tion of isinglass: it is not altered by tartarized antimony, nor by the superacetate of lead; and the sulphate of iron makes it assume a dirty yellow olive colour only, little being precipitated. The ethe- real tincture is of the same colour and exhibits the same appearances as that of the two former species, when treated in a similar manner. The alcoholic is of a very deep brownish-red colour; when diluted with water a red flocculent matter falls down; and it precipitates the solutions of sulphate of iron, and of tartarized antimony, the former of a black colour, and the latter red. It comes nearest to the se- cond species examined by Vauquelin, which he calls Santa Fe Cin- chona; and differs from his Cinclwna magnifolia in reddening litmus paper, and precipitating tannin. This bark was introduced by Don Sebastian Josef Lopez Ruiz, in 1778; and is considered by Zea and Mutis as the least directly fe- brifuge of the three kinds we have described. It possesses powerful astringent and antiseptic properties: consequently its use is contra- indicated in inflammatory and bilious affections: but the Spanish physicians regard it as highly beneficial as an external application in suppurating and sphacelating ulcers. An extract prepared from it is much used in Spain, in putrid fevers. 3. Cinchona cordifolia. Mutis.} Officinal. Cinchona cordifolia cortex, Lond. Edin. Cortex Peruvianus, Dub. Heart-leaved Cinchona. The yellow bark of the shops. Cinchona flaVa, A. Syn. Quinquina jaune, (F.) Chinarinde, Rieberrinde, (G.) China, (I.) Quina amarilla, (S.) * Fourcroy found in it a portion of citric acid, some muriate of ammonia, and muriate of lime. See Thomson's Chem. v. 216. •j- Synonymes. C. pubescens, Vahl. C. ovata. Flor. Peruv. C. hirsuta. Flor. Peruv. But Lambert affirms that it is totally different from the hirsuta of the flora. Peruviana. See Illustration of the genus Cinehona, 4tQ. 1821. p. 4. C.—Cinchona. 189 The tree which affords this bark is found on the mountains of Loxa, in the kingdom of Quito, and those of Santa Fe, growing along their skirts, and on the plains, under the 4th degree of north latitude, on heights betwixt 900 and 1440 toises; flowering from May to September. It is a spreading tree, rising on a single* erect, round stem of no great thickness; and covered with a smooth bark, externally of a brownish-grey colour. The younger branches are quadrangular, smooth, leafy, sulcated, and tomentose: the leaves, which are about nine inches in length, are opposite, petiolate, spreading, of an oblong oval, cordate or egg-shape, entire, shining on the upper surface, ribbed and pubescent on the under: with the petioles flat on one side, and roundish on the other, about a thumb's breadth in length, and of a purple colour; but the leaves'of this spe- cies vary even more than those of lancifolia. The flowers appear in large, terminal, leafy panicles, supported on long compressed te- tragonous peduncles. The calyx is five-toothed, downy, and of a dull purple colour; the corolla internally tomentose; the tube of a diluted red colour; the limb shaggy, white above and purplish be- low; and the segments spreading, with reflected tips. The filaments are short, supporting linear anthers, bifid at the base, which reach as far as the upper part of the tube of the corolla. The germen is to- mentose, and changes to an oblong, narrow capsule, about one inch and a half in length, marked with ten striae, of a reddish-brown co- lour, and crowned with the calyx. The bark yielded by this tree is named Quina amarilla,* Casca- rilla de Loxa, and Cascarilla amarilla; and is the yellow bark of the shops. It is brought to England in chests containing about 90 to 100 pounds each; and consists of pieces about eight or ten inches in length, some quilled, but the greater part flatit The quilled pieces are less rolled and thicker than the quilled pale bark; and the epidermis, which is of a tawny greyish-brown colour, and covered with flat and stringy lichens, is more rough and chopped, easily se- parating, and often as thick as the bark itself, which is about one- eighth of an inch; while the interior is of a yellow colour, passing to orange. The flat pieces are generally without any epidermis, and considerably thicker than the quilled: both are mixed in the same chest. Qualities.—Yellow bark has nearly the same odour in decoction as the pale; the taste is more bitter, but less austere, and it does not afford any astringent feeling to the tongue when chewed. The in- ternal colour is golden cinnamon, or subdued orange-yellow, becom- ing when moistened a lively orange. The fracture is woody and fibrous, presenting, when examined by a lens, the appearance of pa- rallel, longitudinal, needle-like fibres, with a dry agglomerated pow- der in the interstices of a yellow colour. It is easily reduced to fine powder, and the powder preserves the colour of the bark, but is brighter. The sediment which the infusion lets fall in cooling is of * Yellow bark; but the adjective signifies both yellow and pale, or wan. The name appears to be used in contradistinction to naranjada, orange co- lour, which is applied to the first officinal species. t These are distinguished in commerce by the tenns with coat and wifho'.f mat. 190 C.—Cinchona. a brighter colour than the dry powder. The filtered aqueous infu- sion has a pale golden hue, with a shade of red; is clearer, and seemingly less mucilaginous than the former: it has all the bitter- ness of the bark, reddens litmus paper, and precipitates solution of galls; but the precipitate does not fall so instantaneously as in the infusion of the former species. With solution of isinglass a pinkish yellow precipitate is produced: superacetate of lead throws down a precipitate, and that with tartarized antimony is more copious than the pale bark affords, and in yellowish white flakes. A solution of sulphate of iron changes its colour to a bluish-green, and after many hours gives a precipitate of the same hue. The ethereal tincture has a golden colour, affords resin when evaporated, and is affected by the same re-agents as that of the pale cinchona; but the water on which it is evaporated is less highly coloured. The alcoholic tinc- ture appears to be in every respect the same as that afforded by the pale bark. It seems to agree in most of its properties with the first species examined by Vauquelin; which he states was brought to Spain in 1788, and, owing to ifs having been used for the royal fa- mily, got the name of royal cinchona. According to Mutis and Zea it is indirectly febrifuge only; but when genuine all its varieties are excellent remedies. The goodness of all the species depends on the proper age of the branches that are barked. The bark collectors, (cascarilleros,) decide on the maturity of these in the following manner. They strip off from each branch a small piece of bark; and if it immediately reddens on the inner side, they consider it sufficiently mature; but should the colour be not manifested in three or four minutes, it is rejected as being not yet in season.* As Cinchona bark occasionally varies in its powers, and is often adulterated with other inferior barks, even by the bark-peelers, (cascarilleros,) who gather it; arising either from ignorance, or from a fraudulent desire of more quickly completing their contracts,! it is of importance to be able to distinguish good bark, and the best varieties from those of an inferior description. Mutis informs us that the old trees furnish the best bark; and that the bark taken from the trunk and thicker branches, is superior to that from the younger branches. The following directions for choosing bark are those generally attended to in South America.:): The essential cha- racteristics are colour, taste, and smell; the secondary or accidental ones are exterior coat, fracture, weight, thickness, and quill. The best bark of. the. first class is of an orange yellow colour; and the goodness decreases as the colour varies from this to a very pale yellow. When of a dark colour between red and yellow it is al- ways to be rejected; as this colour designates either that it is of a bad species, or that it has not been well preserved from the air * Memoir on Quinquina, by M. Laubert, chief physician to the Spanish army: translated in Lambert's Elustration, 4to. 1821. p. 64. | Humboldt says, " We saw at Peru the barks of two new species of Wein- mania and Wintera mixed with those of Cinchona." Personal Nar. vol. v. p. 769. trans. i Extracted from a MSS. of Don Felix Devoti, a respectable physician at Lima, who has practised upwards of twenty-five years in South America. C.—Cinchona. ldl and moisture. This dark colour, however, must not be confounded with a red colour in the inside, which constitutes a distinct species. The taste of bark should be bitter, but not nauseous nor very astrin- gent, with a slight agreeable acidity just perceptible to the palate; and when chewed it should not appear in threads, nor of much length. The odour of any of the barks is not very strong; but when they have been well cured and preserved, it is always perceptible; and the stronger it is, provided it be pleasant, the better may the bark be considered. The appearance of the coat or epidermis has led to many mistakes. It is in many instances merely accidental; depending on the variation in height of the ground, and the expo- sure of the branches to the sun and air. Seven distinct appear- ances of the epidermis are remarked: 1. Negrilla, dark silver coat;* 2. Crespilla, short curled; 3. Pardo-obscura, dark open leopard grey;t 4. Pardo-clara, light open grey;t 5. Lagatijada, fine dark silver, lizard-coloured;§ 6. Blanquissima, very pale;|| and 7. Ceni- cienta, ash-coloured. The three first are the best, and belong to bark produced on the highest mountains: the others rank in the order of their arrangement; the epidermis being always cracked and rough in proportion as the trees have been exposed to a scorching sun. With regard to fracture, some of the worst barks break even and clean as if cut with a knife, and some of the best have always a more or less splintery fracture. If The fibres of the fracture being sharp and short, indicate the bark to have been gathered from mature branches; the long and thread-like from immature branches. The best barks are generally observed to be the heaviest. In point of thickness, very thin bark, is inert, owing to the branches from which it was taken having beeri too young; and very thick bark, particu- larly if it breaks like common wood, argues that the tree must have been sickly; yet bark exceeding a line in thickness may be good; for although it is disapproved of at Cadiz, under the name of quinon, yet, excellent effects have resulted from much thicker bark in Eng- land. The moderately thick and firm bark is always preferred at Lima. The quilling'of bark arises from the manner in which it is separated from the branches. This is effected by making a longitu- dinal incision in the branch, and passing under the bark a very fine knife. As the slip dries, it rolls up, owing to the internal surface shrinking more than the external: a feeble rolling, therefore, denotes that the bark is rather too old, or has been too slowly dried; too much quilling, that it is either too young or has been too hastily * This bark is occasionally found amongst the pale Cinchona sent to Eng- land. It is easily distinguished by its spotted surface. Ruiz says it must be ranked among those of a middling quality. •j- This is found mixed with the pale bark of the shops. It \s regarded as of middling quality. i This is a very rare bark, and is that of the C. fusca of Ruiz. It is call'eJ Asmonich by the natives of Puzuzu and Muna, where it is found. § The bark with this coat has the greatest affinity with the yellow bark of the shops. It is a good kind of bark. || This bark is little valued in Spain, and is seldom met with in commerce. 1 The idea of a resinous fracture being- the characteristic of good bark, originated when the virtue of burk was supposed to depend on the resin it contained. 192 C—Cinchona. dried. The moderate quill of bark certainly denotes it to be of the best kind, and that it has been taken from branches of a proper age, and well dried; but the bark collectors often produce this effect by fire, when there is a want of sun, as is frequently the case in some parts of the mountains. The fraud is known by the colour being much darker; and, when tlie bark is split, the inside exhibiting stripes of a whitish sickly hue. It should be preserved in cases, well secured from the air and humidity. The most complete examinations of cinchona, with the view of discovering on what principle its febrifuge properties depend, have been made by Vatrquelin and Fabroni. The former divides all the different species into three sections, according to their chemical pro- perties. * The first comprises those which precipitate tannin, but not animal gelatin; the second, those which precipitate gelatin, but not tannin; and the third, those which precipitate at the same time tannin, gelatin, and tartar emetic He conjectured, that on the prin- ciples producing these effects, particularly that which precipitates infusion of galls, the febrifuge properties of the barks depend, and that they are more or less febrifuge, in proportion to the quantity of these principles that are present. He asserts that the principle which precipitates tannin is of a brown colour and bitter taste; is less solu- ble in water than in alcohol; and it also precipitates tartarized anti- mony, but not glue.t It has some analogies with the resinous bodies, although it furnishes ammonia on distillation: whilst the principle which, in some cinchonas, precipitates glue has a bitter and astrin- gent taste; is more soluble in water than the principle which, in other kinds precipitates tan; and that it is also soluble in alcohol, and does not precipitate tartar emetic.J Fabroni conceives, that he is authorized in concluding from his experiments, that "the febrifuge virtue does not belong essentially and individually to the astringent, the bitter, or any other soluble principle, as the quantity of these increases by long boiling, while the virtues of the decoction decrease. Neither does the febrifuge virtue reside in that principle which de- stroys the emetic property of tartarized antimony, and precipitates iron, since the decoction contains more of it than the infusion, while its virtues are evidently less. "§ Hence we may conclude from these doubts, and many others that have been raised, that much is yet to be done before the principle of cinchonas effective in the cure of fevers be ascertained. || We may, however, venture to state the fol- * He examined seventeen different kinds, but was not able to ascertain the names of the trees from which they were obtained. f The effect of this principle was first noticed by Dr. Maton; and soon after by Seguin, who immediately concluded that it was gelatine; but this opinion was proved to be erroneous by Dr. Duncan, jun. who found that it was a principle sui generis, and named it cinchonin. Vide Nicholson's Journal, vii. 226. t Annates de Chimie, 1. c. 4 Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Review, ii. 338. || In consequence of a chemical theory of the mode in which cinchona acts on the living body, Fabroni made some curious experiments to ascertain the relative affinity of different cinchonas to oxygen. In imitating his experiments with the three officinal species, Thomson found that when half a drachm of each of these barks in powder wa« separately mixed with half a fluid ounce C.—Cinchona. 193 lowing as the known active constituents of- cinchonas; cinchonin, resin, extractive, gluten or ferment, volatile oil,* and tannin. Thom- son separated the resin in a pure state by evaporating the ethereal tincture on the surface of cold water; and the gluten Fabroni found was separable by water, occasioning the spontaneous fermentation of the decoction and infusion in summer, and decomposable by fer- meutation. They also contain several salts having lime for their basis, one of which, peculiar to yellow bark, Descamps, an apothe- cary at Lyons, discovered, and erroneously ascribed to it the febri- fuge property of the bark. Vauquelin found it to consist of lime, and a peculiar hitherto unknown acid, which he denominated kinic, and therefore termed the salt.a kinate of lime, t M. M. Alibert and Cabal demonstrated the presence of iron in cinchona, by incinerating the bark, dissolving the ashes in nitric acid and adding prussiate of potass, which precipitated prussiate of iron. The latest analysis of the cinchona barks, is that of M. M. Pelle- tier and Caventou. The following are the components of the three officinal species: 1. In pale bark they found acidulous kinate of cin- chonin, a green fatty matter, a red nearly insoluble colouring matter which they term red cinchonic, tannin, a yellow colouring matter, kinate of lime, gum, starch, and woody fibre. 2. In yellow bark they found that the alkaline base differs from cinchonin, in being incrystallizable, very soluble in ether, and forming salts with the acids different from those formed by cinchonin. The components of yellow bark are, an-acidulous kinate of this salt, which they have named quinine, a deep yellow fatty matter, red cinchonic, tannin, yellow colouring matter, kinate of lime, starch,' and woody fibre. 3. Red bark contains acidulous kinate of cinchonin, kinate of quinine, reddish fatty matter, red cinchonic, tannin, kinate of lime, yellow colouring matter, starch, and woody fibre. The two alkaline bodies, cinchonin and quinine, found in these barks, unite readily with the acids, and are specific in curing inter- mittents. Medical properties and uses.—Cinchona bark is a powerful and permanent tonic, possessing also antispasmodic and antiseptic powers; and is undoubtedly superior to all other remedies in coun- teracting febrile action, and restoring strength and vigour to mor- bidly weakened habits. The stories which are related regarding the discovery of its febri- fuge effects appear to be founded on fiction, and are unworthy of of strong nitric acid, in similar vessels, the temperature of the atmosphere at the time being 70°, and that of the acid 71°, in the space,of four minutes, the heat produced rose the mercury in the thermometer as follows: Common pale bark, —to 120°. --------yellow bark, — to 123°. --------red bark, — to 119°. The mixture in each vessel'was gradually swollen as the heat increased, and nitrous fumes were given out, showing the evident decomposition of the acid. * Dr. Irwin first obtained a small portion of this oil. f Annates de Chimie, lix. 1. c. The name of the acid is derived from Una, an old appellation of the bark. Dr. Duncan proposes to call it cinchonic acid, as the present name would lead to the supposition that it is procured from kino. 26 194 C.—Cinchona. notice. The Peruvians, it has been supposed, were acquainted with its powers before the conquest of their country by the Spaniards, and from them the knowledge of it might have been acquired by their conquerors: but Humboldt renders this idea improbable, and says that the use of the Cinchona bark "is entirely unknown to the Indians in Loxa, Guaneabamba, and far around.* They even regard it as poisonous; and in Malacatis 6nly, where many bark-peelers live, they begin to put confidence in the Cinchona bark."t The most probable history of the discovery of the febrifuge virtues of cinchona, is the following tradition, mentioned by Humboldt, in his Dissertation on the Cinchona Forests. The Jesuits, at the fel- ling of the wood, had taken notice of the considerable bitterness of the cinchona, and, " there being always medical practitioners among the missionaries, it is said they had tried an infusion of the cinchona in the tertian ague, a complaint which is Very common in that part of the countrv;" and having found it succeed in curing the disease, began to employ it as a febrifuge. J It was nevertheless little known by Europeans, until the countess of Cinchon, wife of Don Geronimo Fernandez de Cabrera Boba- della y Mendoza, count qf Cinchon, viceroy of Peru, introduced it into Europe, on her return to Spain, in 1640. Its fame soon spread, and it was taken to Italy in 1649. and through the means of cardinal De Lugo and the Jesuits, was distributed over the conti- nent^ It was in repute in England in 1658; but owjng to its high price,|| and some, prejudices formed against it, it was very little used, till Talbot, an Englishman, again brought it into vogue by the many cures he performed with it in France, under the name of the English remedy. His secret of preparing and exhibiting it was pur- chased by Louis .XIV. and made public. These circumstances throw light on the origin of some of the names by which it has been known: as, Cortex and Pulvis Comitissae; Cortex and Pulvis de Lugo; and Pulvis Jessuiticus or Pulvis Patrum. It was called also, Palos de calentura, or fever wood, on account of its effects; and, from the place whence it was brought, Peruvian bark. It was introduced into practice for the cure of intermittent fever, and still retains the reputation it acquired as a remedy for that dis- ease; although, owing to peculiar idiosyncrasies and other acci- dental causes, it has occasionally failed in agues, which were * Humboldt on the Cinchona Forests,- in Lambert's Illustration of the Genus Cinchona. Lond. 1821, 4to. p. 22. •f Humboldt says that the present people of South America have the most inveterate prejudices against the employment of the different kinds of cin- chona; and in the very country where this valuable Remedy grows, they try to cut off the fever by infusions of Scoparia dulcis, and hot lemonades prepared with sugar and the small wild lfme, the rind of which is equally oily and aro- matic. Personal Narrative, vol. v. p. 164. Trans- * Consult Sprengel, Hist de la Med. v. 5. p. 414, and seq. for much informa- tion relating to the bark. § Morton gives the above account on the authority of Bollus, a Genoese merchant, who had lived long in Peru, " autor fide dignus." De Febribus Intermit, c. vii. || It was sold at first by the Jesuits for its weight in silver; yet Condamine relates that, in 1690, several thousand pounds of it lay at Piura and Payta for want of a purchaser. Me'moires Acad. Roy. 1738. C.—Cinchona. 195 afterwards removed by other remedies, particularly arsenic. Some of these failures may perhaps have arisen from the kind of the bark employed: for notwithstanding the generally received opinion, that all the kinds of bark may be indifferently used, one for another, yet there is some reason for the assertions of the Spanish and Ame- rican physicians, that they vary in other respects besides their de- gree of activity. By them the pale bark, calisaya, quina naranjada,* is considered as directly febrifuge, and the best adapted for the cure of ague; the yellow bark, quina amarilla, as only indirectly so, and better fitted for slow fevers and chronic debilities: while the red, Colorado, quina roxa, is only fit to be used in cases of gangrene,t as its use is apt to be followed with disgustful nausea, severe vomiting, and insupportable colic. The differences of opinion with regard to the best time of giving it are now nearly settled. BoerhaaveJ and others recommended that the fever should be allowed to run on for some time before it was administered; but it is now generally agreed that the bark cannot be given too early after the stomach and bowels are cleared by an emetic and cathartic. Dr. Cullen recommended (he exhibition of it in a large dose or doses immediately before the accessions^ but Morton's method of giving it directly after the hot stage of the paroxysm ceases, and repeating it in increased doses during the intermission, until the cold stage again returns, is now generally adopted. It may be safely given, however, during the pa- roxysm, as practised by Dr. Clarke of Newcastle, but many sto- machs are apt to nauseate it at that time. In remittent fevers, Cinchona is found equally efficacious; but the excitement, however, particularly in the remittents of warm cli- mates, requires to be previously subdued by blood-letting, and the bowels to be kept open. It renders the remissions distinct, and by degrees checks altogether the febrile action. In other affections, de- pending on a similar state of habit, as hemicrania, periodical pains, spasms, chorea, hysteria, epilepsy, passive haemorrhagy, and in ha- bitual, frequently returning coughs, it is also found useful: but it does not prevent the continuance of those paroxysms of ague which form one of the constitutional symptoms of stricture of the urethra, and some other local affections; and Which can be cured only by re- moving the strictures and other sources of irritation. In the low stage of continued fevers of the typhoid type, parti- cularly when these are attended with symptoms of putridity, as in jail-fever, cynanche maligna, scarlatina maligna, confluent small- pox, and in putrid measles, the bark must be regarded as one of the most valuable remedies. The administration of it in pure typhus has been of late years judiciously delayed until the increased excite- * According to Condamine, this was the bark first introduced into Europe. lie says it yields by incision a yellow odorous "resin; and that the Jesuits of La Paz, (whence the best bark of this species is still obtained,) used to gather it with care, and send it to Rome, where it was specific in agues. But the Loxa bark coming to Europe soon after, the three kinds were confounded together. -(- Zea, Annales de Hist- Nut. 1. c. Rushworth discovered the efficacy of the red bark in gangrene. * Aphorism!, &c. 767- § Mat. Med. ii. 97. 196 C.—Cinchona. ment is presumed to be subdued, and symptoms of great debility make their appearance, or until the morbid heat be carried off, and the skin opened. Several eminent modern physicians,* however, re- commend it to be given early in the disease, and persevered in; but we are inclined to consider the former the safer practice, and believe that the best effects will be produced from the cinchona, when its use, in pure typhus, is not begun till the skin becomes moist, the tongue is in part cleaned, and the urine deposites a critical sediment. The best adjuncts in these cases are the diluted sulphuric, or the muriatic acids, and aromatics, particularly the tincture of capsicum. Cinchona was first conjectured to be useful in gout by Sydenham, and in some cases its efficacy is sufficiently evident. In rheumatism, also, Dr. Haygarth has lately strongly recommended it to be given, after the manner of Morton, Hulse, and Fothergill, from the com- mencement of the disease; the stomach and bowels being previously emptied by means of antimonial preparations. In his own practice, Thomson found it useful only after the liberal exhibition of calomel, tartarized antimony, colchicum and opium, when the pain has abat- ed, or assumed an intermittent character, and the pulse has become softer. Its efficacy in this disease is much increased by the addition of spirit of turpentine. In phthisis, bark is found beneficial when the accompanying hectic puts on more of the intermittent form than usual; when the debility is considerable, and blood is mixed in the sputa: and in several cases of pneumonia, when, after repeated large bleedings and evacuations, the pulse continued hard and.thrilling and the blood buffy; although the expectoration was'free and the skin open, yet bark has been seen to produce the happiest effects. In various cutaneous diseases, as, lichen agrius, and ljvidus; in purpura;! in impetigo erysipelatodes and scabida;,in some varieties of erysipelas, and in extensive ulcerations both from common inflam- mation and venereal affections;J in the termination of all acute dis- eases after the urgent symptoms are subdued; and in dyspepsia, chronic debility, and nervous affections, cinchona is found to possess great efficacy. As a local remedy, bark is sometimes used in the form of gargle in malignant sore throat and aphthous affections; and as a wash to foetid gangrenous sores: but in these cases the red bark is to be pre" ferred. Powerful effects also are said to have been produced upon the system by frictions with the extract, softened by saliva or oil, upon the thighs and other parts of the body. It may be efficaciously administered per anum, when it cannot be taken into the stomach: but Denman says he found no advantage from its use as a clyster in the low state of puerperal fever in which it has been highly extolled. Cinchona bark is administered in a variety of forms. (See Ex- tracts, Tinctures, fyc. Src.) In substance it is reduced to the state of an impalpable powder; and although it loses some of its activity dur- ing the process of pulverization, (qu?) yet, when it can be retained on the stomach, this is the best form of the remedy.^ If it excite nau- * Clarke. Heberden. -j- Willan. * Pearson. § Fabroni says, " Cinchona loses its solubility, and consequently its activity, C.—Cinchona. 197 sea or vomiting, or operate as a cathartic, or occasion costiveness, these inconveniences may in some degree be obviated by combining it with aromatics, opium, or a cathartic, as circumstances direct; or some of the lighter preparations, in which its active principles are supposed to be extracted, and free from the grosser parts, may be employed. The powder is given mixed in wine or in water; or, when the taste is an objection, in milk or syrup, or a solution of ex- tract of liquorice, all of which effectually cover the taste, provided the dose be taken directly after it is mixed.* The dose of the powder is from grs. v. to 3y\ or more. In inter- mittents the full dose is sometimes given at first; but in other dis- eases grs. v. x. or xv. are sufficient to commence with, the dose be- ing repeated every two, three, or four hours, and gradually increased, until one or two ounces, in some cases, be taken in twenty-four hours, t Singular effect of Peruvian Bark. A French merchant, at Guayra, named Delpech, in 1806, had oc- casion to receive several travellers, inhabitants of those countries. The apartments destined for visiters being filled, and the number of his guests increasing, lie was under the necessity of putting several of them in rooms occupied by cinchona. Each of them contained from 8 to 10 thousand pounds of that bark. One of his guests was ill of a very malignant fever. After the first day he found himself much better, though he had taken no medicine; but he was surround- ed with an atmosphere of cinchona, which appeared very agreeable to him. In a few days he felt himself quite recovered without any medical treatment whatever. This unexpected success led M. Del- pech to make some other trials. Several persons ill of fever, were by long exposure to the air, and by pulverization long protracted with the view of rendering it as fine as possible. From one twelve-hundredth to one sixteen- hundredth are obtained from bruised cinchona, which in fine powder yields only one sixdmndredth or one seven-hundredth to water." (Xj- Practitioners ought never to purchase bark in the state of powder, for in this state it is always found more or less adulterated. Dr. Paris, (~Pharmaco- logia,J mentions, that in a late officinal inspection of the shops of apotheca- ries and druggists, "the censors repeatedly met with powdered cinchona, having a harsh metallic taste." This may arise from the admixture of a species of bark, lately introduced into Europe from Martinique, resembling the Cin- chona floribunda; and which, by an analysis of M. Cadet, (Journ. de Pharm. vol. ii. p. 54,) Was found to contain iron. The Cinchona^oWfomfifaisboth eme- tic and purgative; and if this new bark possess the same'properties, it is unne- cessary to add, that it must prove injurious when combined with good cinchona. A less injurious, but equally fraudulent admixture, is the powder of bark which has been employed in makipg the extract; and of very inferior bark, much of which, it is said, is. imported into England for no other purpose. * Mutis conceiving that fermentation is the best method for extracting the active part of cinchona, has proposed to make a beer of it, by fermenting one part of the bark in powder with eight parts of honey or sugar, and 80 or 100 of water. And Allbert having persuaded a brewer to make some beer with cinchona, administered it to convalescents, weakened by protracted inter- mittents, with the best effects. _ • f Many persons suppose, and we believe with justice, that these very large doses are injudicious, if not hurtful; as the active principle constitutes but a few grains, the residuary woody fibre can only remain as an inert or heavy burden to the stomach! 198 C.—Cinchona. placed successively in his magazine of cinchona, and they were all speedily cured, simply by the effluvia of the bark. In the same place with the cinchona, he kept a bale of coffee, and some bottles of common French brandy. In some time M. Delpech, when visiting his magazine, observed one of the large bottles un- corked. He suspected at first the fidelity of a servant, and deter- mined to examine the quality of the brandy. What was his astonish- ment to find it infinitely superior to what it had been !—A slightly aromatic taste, added to its strength, and rendered it more tonic and more agreeable. Curious to know if the coffee had likewise changed its properties, he opened the bale, and roasted a portion of it. It was more bitter, and left in the mouth a taste similar to that of the effluvia of bark.—The bark which produced these singular effects was fresh. Would the cinchona of commerce have the same efficacy?* Observations and Experiments on several species of Peruvian Bark, by George W. Carpenter, of Philadelphia. " The apothecaries of this country and England distinguish the de- nomination of different species of bark by the colour of the powder, and it is a subject of still greater surprise to see the orders and pre- scriptions of some of our most intelligent physicians, in which the species of bark they wish to employ is designated by no other than one of the terms signifying red, pale, or yellow; thus reducing the ex- tensive genus cinchona of not less than twenty-five species into three varieties, and leaving it entirely to the discretion of the apothecary to give him any species of a colour correspondent to that Ordered. Independent of the great insufficiency of these terms to distinguish the numerous species, the colour of the powder is one of the most remote and inaccurate methods of classing or assorting cinchona, as under the same denomination the best species of bark, (Calisaya arrollenda,) would be confounded with ibe most inferior, (Cartha- gena,) as the colour of the powders are both yellow; hence a physi- cian writing for yellow bark, leaves it to the choice of the apothecary to send what species he may think proper of a correspondent colour, but varying in quality from Calisaya (to Carthagena, or in medicinal activity as from 12 to 1. "The importance, therefore, of adopting terms more definite to dis- tinguish the several species of Peruvian bark, must be obvious. The botanical nomenclature of these species is imperfect and inadequate for the purpose. The quality of Peruvian bark appears to be very much influenced by locality, produced by difference in soil, altitude of situation, exposure, or some other circumstances peculiar to the location; hence, the different provinces of Peru afford bark differing very materially in their physical characters, and particularly in the activity of their medical qualities; it would appear from these cir- cumstances that a nomenclature might be formed derived from the name of the provinces in which the bark grows. " The following is a description of some of the most important spe- * Essential Salt of Bark. The preparation sold under this empirical title, is an extract prepared by macerating the bruised substance of bark in cold water, and submitting the infusion to a very slow-evaporation. C—Cinchona. 199 ies which now occur in our commerce, which I have submitted to experiment, and have given to each the comparative proportion of quinine and cinchonine they respectively contain. The names which are given to distinguish these several species are derived from the provinces in which they grow, which at present, in consequence of the confusion in the botanical history and arrangement of cinchona, is the most direct and certain mode of distinguishing those species of bark which now occur in our commerce, and are found in our shops. Calisaya Bark, " Of this very important species there are two varieties of com- merce. - " 1st Calisaya Arr»lltndav (Quill Calisaya.)—This variety is in quills from three quarters of an inch to an inch and a half in diame- ter, and from eight inches to a foot and a half in length. "The epidermis is thick, and may be readily removed from the bark; hence you find in the seroons or cases a great proportion de- prived of this'inert part; it is generally imported in seroons weighing about 150 lbs. and very seldom comes in cases; it has many deep transversal fissures running parallel; the fracture is woody and shining; the interior layer is fibrous, and of a yellow colour; the taste is slightly astringent, and very bitter. " This species of bark will yield a much larger proportion of the active principle, (quinine,) than any other bark in commerce, and consequently may justly be considered the best. " 2d. Calisaya Planclia, (Flat Calisaya. ,^-This variety consists of flat, thick, woody pieces, of a reddish-brown colour, deprived of its epidermis, and the interior layer more fibrous than that in the quill. " This variety yields from twenty to twenty-five per cent, less qui- nine than the arrollenda, and is consequently a less desirable article. Superior Loxa, or Crown Bark. " Loxa is the name of the province and port where this bark is ob- tained, and from whence it is exported. It is in this province cin- chona was originally discovered. This bark has been highly esteem- ed by the royal family, and^is that which has been selected for their use; hence the name of crown bark. The following are the charac- ters which distinguish this bark. ."The Loxa bark occurs in small quills, the longitudinal edges fold- ing in upon themselves, forming a tube about the circumference of a goose-quill, and from half a foot to a foot and a half in length. It is of a greyish colour on the exterior, and covered with small trans- verse fissures or cracks; the interior surface is smooth, and in fresh or good bark of a bright orange-red; it is of a compact texture, and breaks with a short, clear fiacture; it is the bark of the cinchona condaminea, and is known at Loxa by the name of Cascarilla Fina. Yet notwithstanding this bark appears to have had the decided pre- ference to all other species, analysis indicates to the contrary, and proves that it is not equal in medicinal strength by at least twenty- five per cent, to that denominated Calisaya. This bark is more as- tringent and less bitter than the Calisaya. "This species yields from twenty-five to thirty per cent, less cin- 200 C__Cinchona. chonineand quinine, than the calisaya arrollenda does of quinine; and the proportion of cinchonine is much greater than the quinine. Cinchona Oblongifolia, (Red Bark.) " The above term appears to be more applicable to the species in question than any other which can be selected, as under that deno- mination the best red bark has always been well known; and as there is but one other species affording a red powder, which is strikingly different in physical, as well as medicinal qualities, it is not likely to be confounded. The inferior red bark, of which there is no small quantity in our^ market, i* no doubt, more frequently produced by colouring low priced yellow bark, than the product of a distinct species. "There is but one species of bark in addition to the oblongifolia, pro- ducing a red powder, which has been called Rosea, and as that spe- cies is seldom or never in bur commerce, there can be little or no powder produced by it; hence all the inferior kinds of red bark, of which there is no small quantity, (to the discredit of those who vend it,) must be either such of the oblongifolia which has been rendered almost inactive by age, weather, or some other exposure, or, as be- fore surmised, to be inferior yellow bark coloured; and as the pro- duct of the former must be small, it in* all probability proceeds from the latter source; hence the price of red bark is as various, and qualities correspondent to the prices, as the yellow bark, although the number of species Of which we are in possession is not one-eighth the number of,the latter. " The, cinchona oblongifolia is the magnifolia of the Flora Peruvi- ana, and is known in Spain by the name of Colorado, and is what constitutes the red bark of commerce; it occurs generally in large thick pieces, being the product of the largest tree of the genus cin- chona. " There are, however, two varieties of this species: " 1st. Coloraela Canan, ( Quill red bark,) occurs'm quills of various diameters, from one-fourth of an inch to two inches in thickness. The epidermis is white or greyish, with transversal fissures or warty con- cretions of a reddish colour; the interior is of a brick-red colour, and the short fracture is short and fibrous; the longitudinal fracture com- pact and shining, the taste not so bitter as the Calisaya. " 2d. Colorada Plancha, or Flat Red Bark.—This variety is in very large, thick pieces, from one half to two inches and upwards in thickness, and from one to two feet in length; the epidermis is brown, thick, and rugged, with cracks running in various directions: the fracture is very fibrous; the inside is of a deep brick colour; the taste is less bitter than the quill, and of course much less than the Calisaya. " These two varieties frequently come in the sameseroon, and from the,appearance are no doubt the product of the same species, or per haps the same tree; the quill produced by the branches, and the flat thick pieces from the trunk; or the former from young, and the lat- ter from older trees. " This bark is generally more scarce in our market than the yellow or pale barks, and commands a higher price when genuine than any other bark. From experiments on the oblongifolia I procured twenty per C.—Cinchona. 201 cent, less cinchonine and quinine in combination of quantity, than the quinine produced by the same quantity of Calisaya arrollenda bark, and the proportion of cinchonine was rather more than half of the product. " It will appear, therefore, from what has been said, that notwith- standing the prejudices which have so long existed in favour of the red bark, analysis satisfactorily proves that it is inferior to the Ca- lisaya, (yellow bark,) as the whole product, as before stated, of its active principles does not equal that of the Calisaya, and cinchonine constituting rather more than half the product, which, according'to Dr. Paris, is five times less active than quinine.* " From the preceding descriptions, the several species of Peruvian bark, most commonly met with at the present day may be readily recognised and distinguished from each other, as the physical charac- ters are prominent in each variety; after, however, selecting the best species of Peruvian bark by the several distinguishing and specific characters, one very important adventitious condition yet remains to be investigated. It is a fact established beyond controversy, that age is a very powerful and influential agent in modifying the condi- tion, and deteriorating the active properties of bark, insonruch that the best species of Peruvian bark, when old, is little superior, and sometimes even inferior to the Carthagena bark when fresh. In what manner, or by what process, age, or rather the circumstance connect- ed with it, acts upon bark, other than a combination with oxygen, or a volatilization of its active principle, I know not. Fabroni states with truth,.that cinchona loses its solubility, and consequently its activity by long exposure to the air, but does not give his opinion as to the manner it is thus affected. I cannot, however, conceive under existing circumstances, how the solubility of Peruvian bark can be diminished, except through the agency of oxygen, and it is by this means the extract of bark, prepared according to the common for- mula of our dispensatories, is devoid of utility; for owing to the oxy- disement of, the extractive matter, the solubility of the extract is so diminished during its formation that scarcely one-half is soluble in water. " From a number of experiments which I have made upon Peruvian bark of various species in different conditions, I have observed as an unequivocal result, that the same species of bark, which when fresh is very productive of quinine, when old, will produce little or none of that principle upon which alone its virtue as a medicine, resides. " It will appear, therefore, an important duty critically to examine the state of bark as to age, and it may perhaps be useful in this place to describe the character of bark in this condition. The prominent features which characterise old bark, and distinguish it from recent, are to be found in the colour, taste, smell, weight, &c. Old bark has lost nearly all that bitter and astringent taste and peculiar aro- matic odour which are such prominent characteristics of recent bark of good quality. * We do not consider Dr. Paris to be always confided in, in his assertions; certainly his works are not always correct—and we doubt much if fact will i?rove this extreme diff'^crce of power in quinine and cinchonine. Ed. 202 C__Cinchona. " The specific gravity is also sensibly diminished, and the fracture instead of being shining and compact, is dull, fibrous, and of a loose texture, and the colour very frequently passes from a bright orange to a pale yellow, and sometimes to a dull brown colour as the bark advances in age, particularly if much exposed. By attention to these few conspicuous characters, taste, smell, weight, fracture and colour, no mistake can arise in tlie selection of good bark, unless there is a gross deficiency of judgment." ICT" As it is of much importance to know if the sulphat of quinine we employ be genuine, the following properties will tend to deter- mine this, according to the observations of Dr. Barker, in the 4th vol. Trans, of the College of Physicians of Ireland, p. 271. "When exposed to heat on a slip of platina foil, it melts like wax; it then blackens, partly rises, and burns with flame. It requires at least 300 times its weight of water for, solution; much more of it is taken up by hot than by cold water, from which it crystallizes in prisms. It is much more soluble in alcohol than in water, dissolving in a quantity of rectified spirit, of specific gravity 840, amounting to about 40 times its weight. Its aqueous solution is decomposed by several reagents. Soluble barytic salts, as might be expected, ren- der it turbid; but I have not T>bserVed any reagent to produce So striking an effect as Iodine.. I have found a very minute quantity of this substance in water; for example, a grain of iodine heated in a drachm or two of water, to produce, in the watery solution of the sulphat of quina, a copious precipitate of a cinnamon-brown colour. This precipitate dissolves on heating the liquor; it is also soluble in rectified spirit, and is again thrown down by water. The tincture of iodine may be also applied as a test of the sulphat of quina; this tincture is partly decomposed by water, but the colour of the preci- pitate is quite different from that produced by the sulphat of quina, which in colour very much resembles the Peruvian bark. 44 By the preceding characters, viz. its fusion by heat, little solu- bility in water, greater solubility in alcohol, and the brown coloured precipitate it affords with iodine, it may be distinguished from other substances. To these characters may be added, its sensible quali- ties, particularly its strong bitter taste, which, if found to co-exist with the abovementioned chemical properties, will prove the sub- stance to be genuine." lO™ The Pharm. U. S. employs the Cinchona under the names of Cinchona pallida, rubra, and flava. CINCHONA CARIBjEA. E. Caribsean Cinchona. The Bark. This tree is found in the Caribsean islands. It grows to a very large size. Dr. Wright, to whom we are indebted for all our know- ledge of it, found some in the parish of St. James's, Jamaica, fifty feet high, and proportionally thick. The wood is hard, clouded, and takes a tine polish. The bark of the large trees is rough, the cuticle thick and inert, and the inner bark thinner than that of the young trees, but more fibrous. Tlie bark is'brought to us in pieces about a span in length, rolled together, and a line or half a line in thickness, of a brown colour on the surface, which is most commonly covered C.—Citrus Aurantium. 203 with white lichens: internally it is of a dark brown colour, and very fibrous in its fracture. It has at first a sweetish taste, but after being chewed some time, it becomes extremely nauseous and bitter. Dr. Wright says he made use of this bark in all cases where Peruvian bark was indicated, and with the greatest success. It has often been confounded with the cinchona floribunda, (Willdenow's seventh spe- cies,) so excellently analyzed by Fourcroy, under the title of the Cinchona of St. Domingo, and which, taken internally, is apt to ex- cite vomiting and purging. CITRUS. Polyadelphia Icosandria. Nat. ord. Pomacese, Linn. Aurantise, Juss. 1. Citrus Aurantium. E. L. D. Seville Orange* The leaves, flowers, distilled water and essential oil of the flowers, the juice and outer rind of the fruit, and the unripe fruit. Syn. Oranges, (F.) Pomeranzin, (G.) Arancio, (I.) Naranja, (S.) Narenj, (H.) Nagaranga, (San.) The orange treeus a beautiful evergreen, a native of Asia, but now abundantly cultivated in the southern parts of Europe and in the West India Islands. There are several varieties of this species, but they may all be referred to the bitter or Seville orange, and the sweet or China orange. The leaves are neither so aromatic nor so bitter as the rind of the fruit. The flowers, (flores naphae,) are highly odoriferous, and have been for some time past in great esteem as a perfume; their taste is some- what warm, accompanied with a degree of bitterness. They yield their flavour by infusion to rectified spirit, and in distillation both to spirit and water, (aqua florum naphae:) the bitter matter is dis- solved by water, and, on evaporating the decoction, remains entire in the extract. A very fragrant red-coloured oil, distilled from these flowers, is brought from Italy under the name of oleum or essentia neroli; but oil of behen, in which orange flowers have been digested, is frequently substituted for it. The fraud, however, is easUv detected, as the real oil is entirely volatile, and the adulterated is not. The juice of oranges is a grateful acid liquor, consisting princi- pally of citric acid, syrup, extractive and mucilage. The outer }rellow rind of the fruit is a grateful aromatic bitter. The unripe fruit dried are called Curacoa oranges. They vary in size from that of a pea to that of a cherry. They are bitterer than the rind of ripe oranges, but not so aromatic, and are used as a stomachic. Medical use.'—The leaves have been celebrated by eminent physi- cians as a powerful antispasmodic in convulsive disorders, and espe- cially in epilepsy; with others they have entirely failed. Orange flowers were at one time said to be an useful remed\ in convulsive and epileptic cases; but experience has not confirmed the virtues attributed to them. As by drying they lose their virtues, they may be preserved for this purpose by packing them closely in earthen 204 C.—Citrus Medica, vessels, with half their weight of muriat of soda. The juice is of con- siderable use in febrile or inflammatory distempers, for allaying heat, quenching thirst, and promoting the salutary excretions: it is like- wise of use in genuine scorbutus, or sea-scurvy. Although the Se- ville or bitter orange, as it is called, has alone a place in our phar- macopoeias, yet the juice of the China, or sweet orange, is much more employed. It is more mild, and less acid; and it is used in its most simple state with great advantage, both as a cooling medicine, and as an useful antiseptic in fevers of the worst kinds, as well as in many other acute diseases, being highly beneficial as alleviating thirst. Dr. Wright applied the roasted pulp of oranges as a poultice to fetid sores in the West Indies, with very great success. The rind proves an excellent stomachic and carminative, promot- ing appetite, warming the habit, and strengthening the tone of the viscera. Orange-peel appears to be considerably warmer than that of lemons, and to abound more with essential oil; to this circum- stance, therefore, due regard ought to be had in the use of these medicines. The flavour of the first is likewise supposed to be less perishable than thai of the latter. 2. Citrus Medica.* E. L. D. Lemon. The juice and outer rind of the fruit, and the volatile oil of the outer rind. Syn. Citropier, (F.) Citrone, (G.) Limone, (I.) Citri, (S.) LemSn, (Ar.) Lemu, (H.) Jambera, (San.) Muxta. /MiJ'tx.ti, Theoph. and Dioscor. The juice of lemons is similar in quality to that of oranges, from which it differs little otherwise than in containing more citric acid and less syrup. The quantity of the former is indeed so great, that the acid has been named from this fruit, Acid of Lemons, and is commonly prepared from it. The simple expressed juice will not keep on account of the syrup, extractive,• and mucilage, and quan- tity of water which it contains, which causes it to ferment. The yellow peel is an elegant aromatic and is frequently employ- ed in stomachic tinctures and infusions: it is considerably less hot than orange-peel, and yields in distillation with water a less quan- tity of essential oil: its flavour is nevertheless more perishable, yet does not arise so readily with spirit of wine; for a spirituous extract made from lemon-peel possesses the aromatic taste and smell of the subject in much greater perfection than an extract prepared in the same manner from the peels of oranges. Medical use.—Lemon Juice is a powerful and agreeable antiseptic. Its powers are much increased, according to Dr. Wright, by saturat- ing it with muriat of soda. This mixture he recommends as posses- sing very great efficacy in dysentery, remittent fever, the belly-a,che, putrid sore throat, and as being perfectly specific in diabetes and lienteria. Citric acid is often used with great success for allaying vomiting: with this intention it is mixed with carbonat of potass, from which it expels the carbonic acid with effervescence. This mix- ture should be drunk as soon as it is made: or the carbonic acid gas, on which actually the anti-emetic power of this mixture de- * Limon, Pharm. U. S. C.—Clematis. 205 pends, may be extricated in the stomach itself, by first swallowing the carbonat of potass dissolved in water, and drinking immediately afterwards the citric acid properly sweetened. The doses are about a scruple of the carbonat dissolved in eight or ten drachms of water, and an ounce of lemon juice, or an equivalent quantity of citric acid. Lemon juice, is also an ingredient in many pleasant refrigerant drinks, which are of very great use in allaying febrile heat and thirst. Of these, the most generally useful is lemonade, or diluted lemon juice, properly sweetened. Lemonade, with the addition of a certain quantity of any good ardent spirit, forms the well-known be^ verage punch, \vhich is sometimes given as a Cordial to the sick. The German writers order it to be made, with arrack; as rum and brandy, they say, are apt to occasion headache. But the fact is di- rectly the reverse, for, of all spirits, arrack is most apt to produce headache. The lightest and safest spirits are those which contain least essential oil, or other foreign matters, and which have been kept the longest time after their distillation. ACIDUM CITRICUM. Citric Acid. Acid of Lemons. Take of the juice of lemons, one pint; Carbonat of lime prepared, one ounce, or as much as may be sufficient to saturate the juice. Diluted sulphuric acid, nine fluid ounces. Add the carbonat of lime by small portions at a time to the juice, whilst boiling, and mix it by stirring; then pour off the liquor. Wash the citrat of lime which remains by repeated additions of fresh warm water, and then dry it. Add the diluted sulphuric acid to the dried pow- der, and boil it for ten minutes; then press ii strongly through a linen cloth, and afterwards filter it through paper. Let the clear liquor which has passed be evaporated in a gentle heat, so tjiat crystals may form as it gets cold. To render these crystals pure, dissolve them a second and a third lime in water, and after each solution filter the liquor, boil it down, and set it by to crystallize. Citric acid crystallizes in rhomboidal prisms, which suffer no change from exposure to the air, and have an exceedingly acid taste. When sufficiently heated, they melt, swell, and emit fumes, and are partly sublimed unchanged, and partly decomposed. Water, at ordi- nary temperatures, dissolves half of its weight of these crystals, and at 212° twice its weight. The solution undergoes spontaneous de- composition very slowly. Sulphuric acid chars it, and forms vinegar. Nitric acid converts it into oxalic and acetic acids. Citrats are decomposed by the stronger mineral acids, and also by the oxalic and tartaric, which form an insoluble precipitate in their solutions. The alkaline citrats are decomposed by a solution of barytes. For very particular details respecting the manufacture of citric acid, the reader is referred to Park's Chemistry applied to the Arts. -This acid is introduced into tlie Pharm. of U. S. CLEMATIS CRISP A—CLEMATIS VIORNA. The leaves of these species of clematis or virgin's bower, are ex- tremely acrid, and may be found useful in chronic rheumatism, palsy, 206 C.—Coccinella. old ulcers, and in fine, in all the diseases in which Stork found the clematis recta useful. It is necessary to use them in small doses. * CLEOME DODECANDRA. This plant is a native of Pennsylvania, New York, &c. and grows abundantly in the neighbourhood of Albany. The whole plant has an extremely fetid smell/ In some parts of the United States, the root is employed as an anthelmintic.t Common on the sandy shores of Lake Erie, near Buffaloe Creek—also along the margins of the Mississippi and the Missouri.—Nuttal's Gen. of North American Plants, ii. p. 73. COCCINELLA. D. Coccus (Cacti. E.) L. Cochineal. Syn. Cochenille, (F. G.) Coccinilia, (I.) Cochinilla, (S.) Cochined poo- chie, (Tarn.) Tpla, (Jews.) Kokkoc Btvputu, Dioscor. Cochineal is the dried body of the female of an hemipterous insect. It is found only in Mexico, chiefly in the province of Oaxaia, on the leaves of a non-descript cactus, according to HumboWt. There are two kinds of the cochineal insect, which live on difterent species of cactus. The wild^cochineal, grana sylvestra, which is covered with a silky or cottony envelope, and is found in many places, New Gra- nada, Quito, Peru, Mexico,, is less valuble than the cultivated or powdery cochineal, which is without that covering, grows to a larger size, and furnishes a finer and more permanent colour. The Spaniards endeavour to confine both the insect and the plant on which it feeds, to Mexico. But this attempt at monopoly will, we hope, be frustrated, by the exertions of some gentlemen in the East Indies, whither the insect was carried from Rio Janeiro in 1795, by captain Nelson. The male only is furnished with wings; tlie female has none, and re- mains constantly attached to the leaf of the cactus. During the rainy season, the Mexicans preserve these insects, with the succulent leaves to which they are attached^ in their houses; and after the rainy season is over they are transferred to the living plants, and in a few days they lay innumerable eggs, and die: Or the pregnant mothers are ra- pidly conveyed to the neighbouring mountains, where they are kept till October, when the rains cease in the plains and commence in the mountains. They are collected three times in the year, first, the dead mothers are gathered, as soon as they have laid their eggs, grana de pastle: in three or four months, the young, which have grown to suffi- cient size, are collected; and in three or four months more, all the young are collected, large and small indiscriminately, except those which they preserve for breeding next year. They are killed by throw- ing them into hot water, or by turning them over in heaps in the sun, or by placing them on mats in their furnaces; which last method, though least common, preserves upon the insect that whitish powder, which enhances their price at Vera Cruz and Cadiz. Good cochineal loses but two-thirds of its, weight by being dried. From a very dis- * Barton's Collections, Part II. p. 30. f Barton's Collections, Part I. p. 64. C.—Cochlearia. 207 tant perii-d, laws have existed against the adulteration of cochineal, and it is ordered to be exposed for sale in separate grains, not in agglu- tinated masses. 800,000 pounds are brought annually to Europe; and each pound contains at least 70,000 insects; Humboldt says, 32,- 000 arobas of 32 pounds each. From their appearance, when brought to us, they were long supposed to be the seed of some plant. They are small, irregular, roundish bodies, of a blackish red colour on the outside, and a bright purple red within. Their taste is acrid, bitter- ish, and astringent. They are used chiefly for the sake of the fine colour which they produce, and they are principally consumed by the scarlet dyers. It is worthy of notice, that not only the fruit, but even the green joints of several species of cactus, dye cotton, purple or red. In pharmacy, they are employed to give a beautiful red to some tinctures. Their colour is easily extracted, both by alcohol, water, and water of ammonia; and in the dried insect it is not im- paired by keeping for any length of time. " The true cochineal has been found in South Carolina, and Mr. Raphael Peale, of Philadelphia, asserts, that he has discovered it upon the island of Little St. Simons, on the coast of Georgia. It is extremely desirable that the insect, and the cactus coccinellifer plant on which it breeds, should be cultivated in the Southern States. The planters might find it a valuable source of revenue, when, from vicis- situdes in the season, their crops of rice or cotton should fail." Neumann got from 1920 grains, 1440 watery extract; and in an- other experiment, from the same quantity, 1430 alcoholic. The former was extremely gelatinous. The peculiar colouring principle of cochineal has been called coche- nelin. When perfectly pure, it is a very brilliant purple red powder, with a granular crystalline appearance. Carmina has been suggested as a better .title. Cochineal is said to be invariably adulterated with pieces of dough, formed in moulds, and coloured with cochineal, and that this fraud gives employment to a considerable number of women and children in London. By throwing the suspected sample into water, the spurious ones are dissolved, and the extent of the adulte- ration is ascertained. Medical use.—They have been lately recommended as an anodyne and antispasmodic in whooping cough. In pharmacy they are used for colouring tinctures and lip-salve. 1. COCHLEARIA ARMORACIA.* E. L. D. Horse-radish. The Root. Tetradynamia Siliculosa. Nat. ord. Siliquosse, Linn. Cruciferae, Juss. Syn. Cran; Raifort, (p.) Murrettich, (G.) Rafano rusticano, (I.) Marvisco, (S.) pxyavis crypt*, Dioscor. This perennial plant is sometimes found wild about river sides, and other moist places: for medicinal and culinary uses, it is culti- vated in gardens; flowers in June, but rarely perfects its seeds in Great Britain. Horse-radish root has a quick pungent smell, and a * Armoracia, Pharm. U. S* 208 C.—Coffea. penetrating acrid taste; it nevertheless contains in certain vessels & sweet juice, which sometimes exudes upon the surface. By drying, it loses all its acrimony, becoming at first sweetish, and afterwards almost insipid: if kept in a cool place, covered with sand, it retains its qualities for a considerable time. According to Neumann, 3840 parts were reduced by drying to 1000, and gave of watery extract 480, and 15 of alcoholic, and in- versely 420 alcoholic, and 480 watery; all these extracts were sweet- ish, without pungency. About fifteen of volatile oil, extremely pun- gent, and heavier than water, arose in distillation with water. Medical use.—This root is an extremely penetrating stimulus. It excites the solids and promotes the fluid secretions. It has frequently done service in some kinds of scurvies and other chronic disorders, proceeding from a viscidity of the juices, or obstructions of the ex- cretory ducts. Sydenham recommends it likewise in dropsies, par- ticularly those which sometimes follow intermittent fevers. 2. COCHLEARIA OFFICINALIS. D. Common Scurvy-grass. The Pldnt. This is an annual plant, which grows on the sea-shore of the northern countries of Europe, and is sometimes cultivated in gar- dens. As long as it is fresh it has a peculiar smell, especially wnen bruised, and a kind of saline acrid taste, which it loses completely by drying, but which it imparts by distillation to water or alcohol. It also furnishes an essential oil, the smell of which is extremely pungent. Medical use.—The fresh plant is a gentle stimulant and diuretic, and is chiefly used for the cure of sea-scurvy. It is employed exter- nally as a gargle in sore-throat, and scorbutic affections of the gums and mouth. It may be eaten in substance in any quantity, or the juice may be expressed from it, or it may be infused in wine or wa- Ter, or its virtues may be extracted by distillation. COFFEA. The Coffee Tree. The Seed. A shrub from twelve to eighteen feet high, originally a native of Arabia, but is now cultivated in the East and West Indies, and in several parts of America. The Arabian, or Mocha coffee, imported from the Levant, is far the most aromatic and resinous, and, on ac- count of its superior flavour is the most esteemed. Very various have been the opinions entertained by different physicians relative to the medicinal qualities of the coffee-berry; some inveighing agains* its use as a pernicious indulgence, others, pn the, contrary, are a? vehement in its praise. It has been suspected of producing palsies; and Dr. Percival assures us, from his own observations, that the suspicion is not altogether without foundation. According, however, to the experiments, and in the language of the same respectable au- thor, coffee is slightly astringent and antiseptic; it moderates alimen- tary fermentation, and is powerfully sedative. Its medicinal quali- ties seem to be derived from the grateful sensation it produces on C.—Cocos Butyracea. 209 the stomach, and from the sedative powers it exerts on the vis vitas. Hence it assists digestion, and relieves the head-ache; but in delicate habits it often occasions watchfulness, tremors, and many of those complaints denominated nervous. The celebrated Sir John Pririgle, bestows high encomiums on cof- fee, as a remedy in paroxysms of the periodic asthma. He directs, the best Mocha coffee, newly burnt, and made very strong imme- diately after grinding it, an ounce to one dish, without milk or sugar, to be repeated after the interval of a quarter or half an hour, until relief be obtained. We are assured also, that Sir John Floyer, during the latter years of his life, kept free from, or lived easy under this afflictive complaint, by the use of strong coffee. With respect to the medicinal properties of coffee, says Dr. Willich, it is in general excitant and stimulating, though we doubt whether it relaxes the animal fibres, as has by some authors been supposed. Its more or less wholesome effect greatly depends on the climate, as well as the age, constitution,' and other peculiarities of the individual. Hence it cannot be recommended to children, or persons of a hot, choleric, nervous, or phthisical habit; nor will it be so useful in warm, as in cold and temperate climates; but to the phlegmatic and sedentary, a cup of coffee, one or two hours after a meal, or, which is still better, one hour before it, may be of service to promote diges- tion, and prevent or remove a propensity to sleep. In cases of spas- modic asthma, hypochondriasis, scrofula, diarrhcea, agues, and par- ticularly against narcotic poisons, such as opium, hemlock, &c. cof- fee often produces the best effects; nor is there a domestic remedy, better adapted to relieve periodical head-aches which proceed from want of tone, or from debility of the stomach. The heaviness, head-ache, giddiness, sickness, and nervous affec- tions, which attack some persons in the morning, after taking an opiate at night, are abated by a cup or two of strong coffee. Dr. Barton recommends a strong infusion of coffee, with or with- out sugar and milk, in cases of retention or suppression of the menses, accompanied with very weak arterial action. He opposes its use in all cases of active hemorrhagies, and even in common fluor albus, when connected with febrile action. COCOS BUTYRACEA. E. The Mackaw Tree. The fixed oil of the nut, called Palm Oil. Moncecia Hexandria. Nat. ord. Palmae. Syn. Huile de cocobier du Bresil, (F.) This tree is a native of South America. The fruit is triangular, yellow, and as big as a plum. The nut or kernel yields the oleum palmae of the shops. It is first slightly roasted and cleaned, and then ground to a paste, first in a mill, then on a levigating stone. This paste is gently heated, and mixed with -fs its weight of boiling water, put into a bag, and the oil expressed between two heated plates of iron. It yields T7y or -f~s of oil. If coloured, this oil may be purified by filtration when melted. This oil has the consistence of butter, a 210 C.—Colchicum. golden yellow colour, the smell of violets, and a sweetish taste. When well preserved, it keeps several years without becoming ran- cid. When spoiled, it loses its yellow colour and pleasant smell. It is said to be often imitated with axunge, coloured with turmeric, and scented with Florentine iris root. It is rarely used in medicine, and only externally as an emollient ointment. It has of late been largely used in England, in the manufacture of toilette soap. COLCHICUM. L. A. Colchicum Autumnale. E. D. Meadow Saffron. The Root. (Bulb.) Hexandria Trigynia. Nat. 6rd. Spathaceae, Linn. Junci, Juss. Syn. Colchique, (F.) Zeitlozen, Weissen saffron, (G.) Tydeloosin, (Dutch.) Hundeded, (Dan.) Tidlbsa, (Swed.) Colchico autumnale, (I.) Zafran, (S.) Although the root is here ordered, it is more properly the bulb; for a number of stringy fibres proceed from the bottom of this bulb, which constitute the roots, but are of no use in medicine. Meadow Saffron is a perennial bulbous-rooted plant, which grows in wet meadows in the temperate countries of Europe. It flowers in the beginning of autumn, at which time the old bulb begins to de- cay, and a new bulb to be formed. In the following May the new bulb is perfected, and the old one wasted and corrugated. They are dug for medical use in the beginning of summer. The sensible qua- lities of the fresh root are very various, according to the place of growth, and season of the year. In autumn it is inert; in the begin- ning of summer highly acrid: some have found it to be a corrosive poison, others have eaten it in considerable quantity, without expe- riencing any effect. When it is possessed of acrimony, this is of the same nature with that of garlic, and is entirely destroyed by drying. Medical use.—Stoerck, Collin, and Plenck, have celebrated its vir- tues as a diuretic in hydrothorax and other dropsies. The expressed juice is used in Alsace to destroy vermin in the hair. It has of late years been asserted, that colchicum forms the basis of Husson's Eau Medicinale. A saturated vinous tincture is now used as its substitute in gout, rheumatism, dropsy, &c. and appa- rently with equal effects. It acts irregularly, probably from the dif- ferent periods at which it has been collected for use, and also from other roots having been sold for it, to those who are ignorant of its appearance. It generally combines an anodyne effect with a drastic operation as an emetic, purgative, or diuretic. At certain seasons, it seems absolutely inert. Orfila gave two or three bruised bulbs to dogs, without any bad effect. We seem yet to want more specific details as to its culture, and best time of collecting for medical use. The seeds have lately been highly extolled. The plant does not appear to produce them in America; although in England they are abundant. In the fifteenth volume of the London Medical Repository, is a paper by Mr. Williams, on the efficacy of colchicum seeds in syphi- litic rheumatism; also a review of a work on the subject by Mr. Hay- den, respecting its use in inflammatory diseases* C.—Colchicum. 211 In the London Medical and Physical Journal, No. 254, we are informed that the month of July is the proper time to take it up; and some account is given of alcoholic tincture of guaiacum being a test of the goodness of colchicum. In the fourteenth volume of the London Medical Repository, Mr. Battley gives particular information as to its growth, &c, with ex- periments on the subject, and his ideas as to the best mode of drying it. All these are but little known amongst us, and as the subject is highly interesting, I shall introduce them here. By an analysis of the bulb of colchicum, Pelletier and Caventon find it to consist of fatty matter, composed of elaine, stearine, vola- tile acid; acid gallate of veratrine; yellow colouring matter; gum; starch; inuline* in abundance; woody substance. The ashes are in too minute a quantity to merit attention. * From this examination, it appears that the cedavilla, veratrum album, and colchicum, owe their properties, in great part, to a new alkali, called veratrine. # Dr. Williams in a communication in the London Medical Repo- sitory, for June 1821, entitled, " Further remarks upon the Seeds of the Colchicum Autumnale," &c. recommends that their collection should depend rather upon their dark brown colour, than upon the exact season of the year, in order to obtain them in perfection. He ascertained that in a pound of the seeds gathered the latter part of June or early in July, eleven ounces in weight were lost by drying; whilst the same quantity collected at the end of July or beginning of August, lost only two ounces and a half. He also protests against bruising the seeds in their preparation as a medicine. Their value he states as residing chiefly in the husk, or cortical part; and he prefers Sherry wine to any other in the preparation; or what is preferable, proof spirit, in consequence of the very variable quality of the wine. His formula for the tincture, is two ounces apothecaries' weight of the unbruised seeds, macerated for ten days or a fortnight, in a fluid pint of proof spirit. It appears that the demand for colchicmn seed, has caused other seeds to be sold for them. In order to prevent mistake or imposi- tion, the following description of the seeds, is given by Mr. Gray, in the London Medical Repository for April, 1821. Semina Colchici Autumnalis. Seeds, ovate, globose, about one-eighth of an inch in diameter. Integuments, simple, soft, spongy, membranaceous, thin, dull reddish brown, closely adherent to the perisperm. Perisperm, or albumen, hard, rather cartilaginous, pellucid, pale, not in the least divided, of the same shape as the seed. Corculum, or embryo, very small, ovate, globose, not in the least , divided, whitish, placed nearly opposite to the hylum, or that part where the seed is affixed to the parent plant, but out of the axis of the seed. Base pointing to the hvluin, slender, apex very obtuse. * The inuline appears to exist in the root of colchicum, in inseparable com- bination with starch. 212 C.—Colchicum. The leaves of the colchicum autumnale are stated to be a mo.H destructive poison to cattle, producing first, a most violent purging, reducing them to excessive weakness; after which constipation en- sued, not to be removed by the usual remedies; and the cattle died the following day, in great pain: the stomach was much inflamed, and the villous coat entirely destroyed. If this is the case, it is most probable that they would likewise prove very active articles of the Materia Medica. Extracts from Practical Observations on Colchicum Autumnale, by Chas. Th. Haden, Esq. London, 1820, p. 72. " His ordinary form of prescription is a powder, composed of one part of powdered colchicum, three of carbonat of potash, and five of sulphat of potash. Of this powder, one drachm is to be taken three or four times a day with half a pint of warm water, in the state of effervescence, with tartaric or citric acid. To this is sometimes add- ed a dose of calomel at night; and, when the bowels are not freely moved before the second or third day, and the disease is violent, salts and senna to quicken its operation; but in very violent cases, more colchicum is required, whilst no more purgative medicine, can be borne; and then, pills of colchicum only, are given between the doses of the powder, or, in other cases of violence, pills of calomel, and from five to eight or ten grains of colchicum are given in the first instance, to be followed by the powders, as directed above. " In cases where bleeding is considered to be advisable, it is made to precede the exhibition of colchicum. It will usually happen that the medicine will produce some relief on the second day; but not its decidedly beneficial operation till the third day, when purging generally takes place. In some cases, indeed, no relief occurs, even on the third day, when full doses of opening medicine are required, or it is necessary to increase the dose of colchicum, &c. &c. " In children and weakly subjects, the dose of the powder, in all cases, varies from sixteen grains to two scruples; so as to give from two to five or six grains of the colchicum; the full drachm contain- ing about seven grains." He refers to the variation in strength of the article, according to the period of the bulbs being collected, and the care with which they are dried. *' Mr. Thomson thinks he has proved, that the bulb is in its high- est state of excellence in the month of July, or, at latest, early in August; and also, that drying the bulbs at a higher temperature than that of the atmosphere, materially tends to dissipate the appa- rently evanescent principle on which their efficacy depends. Mr. Battley has, however, published an answer to Mr. Thomson's paper in the Medical Repository for November, in which he advocates the advantage of drying the bulbs, after being sliced immediately on being gathered, at a temperature of 170° of Fahr. " Both these accounts cannot be right; indeed, the subject is still entirely subjudice." He adds, that "neither his father nor himself has found the different specimens which they have used, to vary very materially from each other in practice, although- they have been gathered both in spring and in autumn, or have been purchased C.—Colchicum. 213 from different druggists," &c. " The powder he is at present using is more powerful than he has before used, and it was gathered about the middle of September, when the plants were in flower, and was dried at least at 130° of temperature, on the day it was gathered, having been first cut into thin slices, and spread out on perforated trays; it was powdered on the day after." " From eight pounds of fresh bulbs, Mr. Bainbridge obtained two pounds fifteen ounces of dried slices; and from them two pounds ten ounces and a quarter of fine powder, with four ounces of hard, brown, outside scales, which latter were very difficult to powder and were not used." Mr. Haden thinks the tincture by no means comparable in utility to the powder, yet he admits he had not used the former extensively. JCJ* We think it proper here to mention that no writer has given the peculiar and distinctive character of the bulb of colchicum by whicb it may be recognised at once amongst 1000 different ones; this is a small projection, or nail-like process on one side at the bottom part, which makes it totally unlike every other bulbous root. Much dis- pute appears to have existed respecting the Hermodactyl and Col^ chicum. It is probable a knowledge of this process might have pre- vented this, as well as the discordant opinions respecting the colchi- cum itself, for which unquestionably other roots have* been substi- tuted. I have had the Heuchera Americana brought to me for the colchicum! Am. Ed. Preparations of Colchicum, from Gray's Supplement to the Phar- macopoeia. Vinum Radicum Colchici. Wine of Colchicum. R Rad. colch. sice. • • • ^ij. Vin. albi Hisp. • • • Jfeij. Infuse, filter, and add Sp. vin. rect. • • • ^ij. Used in gout, twenty drops at night. Vinum Seminum Colchtct. Wine of the Seeds of Colchicum. R Sem. colch. sice. • • • ^ij. Vin. albi Hisp. • • • foi. Infuse for ten days, and filter. One to three drachms, bis in die, in rheumatism. Eau d'Husson. Eau Medicinah. R Rad. colch. • • . • ^ij. Vini albi Hisp. • • • ^viij. Acetum Colchici. Vinegar of Colchicum. R Had. colchici. • • • • %\. Acct. distill. • • • • fti- Digest for a day, and express—add Proof spirit, • • • • ji. Diuretic, half a drachm to a. drachm, bis in die. 214 C.—Colchicum. Oxymel Colchici. Oxymel of Colchicum. R Fresh roots of colchicum, • • |i. Distilled vinegar, • « • • Jf^i. Soak for two days and press—to the liquor add Honey,........foij. And boil to a syrup. In asthma and dropsy, one drachm bis in die, gradually increased. Tinctuka Colchici. Tincture of Colchicum. Want's Eau d'Husson. R Rad. colchici, • • • ^ij. Proof spirit, • • • 5iv. Used in gout (£/* The following observations may possibly serve to explain some of the' differences which have been experienced in the Colchicum by different prac- titioners at all times. That other plants have been mistaken for it, I have no- ticed above. We cannot wonder then at such opposing testimonies. Colchicum.*—" The Ephemeron is also called Colchicum because it is abun- dant in Colchis. It is distinguished from the Crocus, which it otherwise re- sembles, by its size, its broad liliaceous leaves, and larger seminal vessels. It is not agreed by botanists, says Ray, whether Colchicum root be the officinal Hermodactyl, some affirming, others denying it. The most learned and skil- ful make them different, amongst whom, Bauhin proves the root of Colchi- cum not to be the Hermodactyl, because the dried Hermodactylremains white, not rugous, moderately hard, and gives a white powder, in all which the dried Colchicum is deficient. J. Bauhin adds, the root of Colchicum is poisonous; the Hermodactyl on the contrary may be safely tasted. Besides the Arabians have informed us that Colchicum is useful to those afflicted with the goutj and Ray found it so, when externally applied. It, however, is to be remark- ed with Chabraeus, that there are different species of Colchicum,- hence some have said Colchicum was poisonous; others have denied this from, mistaking the different species. Chabraeus has enumerated nineteen kinds of Colchi- cum. In speaking of them, therefore, he divides the Colchicum into poison- ous, and of course noxious, which has long roots, and is the Ephemeron of Dioscorides, Paulus, Galen, and Aetius; and into non-poisonous, which Me- sues says is better and more perfect, and is properly denominated Hermodac- tyl in the shops, and hence it appears that Tragus was deceived when he mis- took this last for the Colchicum; for I can truly say that I have often used the powdered Hermodactyl, and always with the happiest result. Sennertus also experienced before me, a like difference in the Ephemeron. This plant is, in all its parts, injurious to the human race: for being taken, immediately it corrodes and ulcerates the lips and stomach, for whether it abounds in acrid salino-volatile particles, of the highest penetration, so it is, that with its sharp and perforating points, it induces ei-osions and ulcerations, and excites such a strangulation, as if one had eaten a fungus; when it de- scends into the intestines, it in like manner corrodes and ulcerates them by means of the same particles, so that in a short time, blood and filaments of the intestines are discharged, not only by stool, but by vomiting of what resem- bles the washings of flesh; and these acrid particles being dispersed through the system, the patient suffers an intense itching throughout the body." * Lanzoni, Opera Omnia, v. 1. 194. Lausanne, 1738,4to, cap. 74. De Ephe- mero. C.—Colchicum. 215 Miscellaneous observations respecting Cokhicum. Name: from Colchis in Asia, $ Dioscor. Mat. Med. 4. c. 87. Grsecis Kokzuw t)ij. ' Alibert's Therapeutique, &c. 4th. ed. 1817, v. 1. 284, makes ita convolvulus —refers to Desfontaines in An. du Mus. d'Hist. Nat. says it grows in the garden of plants, from seeds brought from the United States by M. Bosc. It is known also, (says he,) that Michaux successfully multiplied the plant, in the national garden of Charleston. It grows on the eastern ridge of the Cordilleras, at the height of 13 or 1400 metres, on all the chain of mountains extending from the volcano of Orzibaba to the gulf of Pesoti. Humboldt and Bonpland did not find it near the town of Xalapa; but the neighbouring Indians brought them fine roots, collected near to Bandarilla, to the east of St. Miguel and Soldado. CONVOLVULUS PANDURATUS. Wild Potatoe. Tlie Root. This is supposed by Professor Barton to be the Mechameck or wild rhubarb of some of our Indians. In the state of Delaware it it called wild potatoe vine; and the root Kussauder, or Kassader, (a corruption of the word Cassada.) From one of our species of Con- volvulus, an extract has been procured, but little, if any tfrng in- ferior to the scammony of the shops. In Virginia, and some other parts of the United States, the root of this plant has been much re- commended in cases of gravel. It is used either in powder or in decoction. Dr. Harris, of New Jersey, has found an infusion or de- coction of the root very useful in his own case. He is persuaded, that it has enabled him to pass the calculous granules, with much facility." * Barton's Collections, Part I. p. 29. 54. Part II. 49. It is introduced into the Pharm. U. S. C—Cornus. 233 CORIANDRUM. L. D. A. Coriandrtjm Sativum. E. Coriander. The Seeds. Pentandria Digynia. Nat. ord. Vmbellatae. Syn. Coriandre, (F.) Koriander saamen, (G.) Coriandro, (I.) Ko^wvvov, Dioscor Coriander is an annual, umbelliferous plant, a native of the south of Europe, differing from all the others of that class in producing spherical seeds. These, when fresh, have a strong disagreeable smell, which improves by drying, and becomes sufficiently grateful: they are recommended as carminative and stomachic. COPTIS. Gold Thread. The Root. Coptis Trifolia. Nigella. This is an elegant little evergreen, found in the swamps of the northern parts of our continent and in Siberia. It was ranked with the hellebore, until Mr. Salisbury constituted it a new genus under the name of coptis. In botanical arrangement it follows the helle- bores in the class and order Polyandria, Polygynia. The bright yellow colour of the roots, running in every direction, gives the name of gbld thread to the plant. These roots are in- tensely bitter, which is not communicated to water by distillation. They abound in a bitter extractive matter, soluble in water and in alcohol. It is much used in Boston, from its supposed efficacy in aphthous and other ulcerations of the mouth, as a local application; a reputa- tion deemed unmerited by Dr. Bigelow; who, however, maintains its title to rank, as a pure tonic bitter, with most articles of that kind in use: resembling gentian, quassia and Colombo. A tincture made with half an ounce of the bruised root, with eight ounces of diluted alcohol, possesses the whole bitterness of the plant. It is given in doses of a tea-spoonful thrice a day, or of the powder from ten to twenty grains. This plant is introduced into the secondary list of the Pharm. U. S. 1. CORNUS FLORIDA. Dogwood. The Bark. This beautiful shrub is found in every part of the United States. In the New England states it is known by the name of Boxwood. The bark is considerably astringent, and has long been employed in intermittent fevers. A decoction of it has likewise been found use- ful in the yellow water of horses, so fatal within the few last years. An agreeable bitter is made by infusing the ripe fruit or berries in spirits or brandy. The Indians employ an infusion of the flowers in intermittents; and the same has been recommended in flatulent colic. The bark of the root, stem, and smaller branches, is employed. That of the root is deemed most efficacious. It is sometimes com- bined with the bark of the Liriodendron, either in decoction or in substance. * * Barton's Collections, Part I. p. 12. 45. 31 234 C.—Crocus. 2. Cornus Sericea. Swamp Dogwood. Red Willow. Rose Willow. The Bark. The bark of this shrub has been found but little inferior to the common pale Peruvian bark in intermittents. The bark forms a beautiful tincture with proof spirits, and is, as also the powdered bark of both species, deserving of a place in the shops. * For a particular account of these vegetables, the reader is referred to Dr. John M. Walker's "Experimental inquiry into the similarity in virtue between the Cornus Florida and Sericea, and the Cinchona Officinalis of Linnaeus, &c. &c. Philadelphia, 1803." 3. Cornus Circinata. Round-leaved Dogwood. The Bark. This plant has not been noticed in either of the Medical Botanies published by Professors Bigelow or Barton. These three species of Cornus are introduced into the Pharm. of the U. S.; the two last in the secondary list. COTULA. Mayweed. The Plant. Anthemis Cotula. Wild Chamomile. Although a strong bitter, it is so inferior to the officinal chamomile, that when this last can be obtained, few will be induced to employ it.—Introduced into the secondary list of the Pharm. U. S. CROCUS. L. D. A. Crocus Sativus. E. Common Saffron. The summits of the pistils. Triandria Monogynia. Nat. ord. Ensatae, Linn. Irides, Juss. Syn. Saffran, (F.) Safran, (G.) Zafferano, (I.) Azafran, (S.) Sapharan, (Ar.) Kponot, Dioscor. Crocus is a bulbous-rooted perennial plant, probably a native of the East, although it is now found wild in England, and other tem- perate countries of Europe. It is very generally cultivated as an ornament to our gardens, and in some places for the saffron, which is formed of the dried summits of the pistil, and not of the filaments, as stated by the Dublin College. Each flower has one pistil, the summit of which is deeply divided into three slips, which are of a dark orange-red colour, verging to white at the base, and are smooth and shining. Their smell is pleasant and aromatic, but narcotic; their taste a fine aromatic bitter, and they immediately give a deep yellow colour to the saliva when chewed. The flowers are gathered early in the morning, just before they open; the summits of the pis- tils are picked out, very carefully dried by the heat of a stove, and compressed into firm cakes. In Great Britain the saffron is superior to what is imported from other countries, and may be distinguished by its blades being broader. On the continent they reckon the Austrian, and the French from Gatinois the best. The Spanish is rendered useless, by being dipt in oil, with the intention of preserving it. Saffron should be chosen fresh, not above a year old, in close cakes, neither dry, nor yet very * Barton's Collections, Part I. p. 12. C.—Croton. 235 moist; tough and firm in tearing; difficultly pulveritable; of a fiery, orange-red colour; of the same colour within as without; of a strong, acrid, diffusive smell; and capable of colouring a very large propor- tion of water or alcohol. Saffron which does not colour the fingers when rubbed between them, or stains them with oil, has little smell or taste, or a musty or foreign flavour, is too tender, and has a whitish, yellowish or blackish colour, is bad. It is said that it is sometimes adulterated with the fibres of smoked beef, and with the flowers of the carthamus tinctorius, calendula officinalis, &c. The imposition may be detected by the absence of the white ends, which may be observed in the real saffron, by the inferior colouring power, and by the want of smell, or bad smell when thrown on live coals. By distillation with water, saffron furnishes a small proportion of essential oil, of a golden yellow colour, heavier than water, and pos- sessing the characteristic smell in an eminent degree. According to Hermbstadt, the soluble matter of saffron is extractive nearly pure. Neumann obtained from 480 dried saffron, 360 grains of watery ex- tract, which was soluble in alcohol, except 24 of a colourless matter like sand, and afterwards 20 of alcoholic; and inversely, 320 of al- coholic extract entirely soluble in water, and then 90 of watery. On account of the great volatility of the aromatic part of the saf- fron, it should be wrapt up in a bladder, and preserved in a box or tin case. Medical use.— Saffron is a very elegant aromatic: besides the vir- tues which it has in common with all the bodies of that class, it has been alleged that it remarkably exhilarates, raises the spirits, and is accounted one of the highest cordials: taken in large doses, it is said to occasion immoderate mirth, involuntary laughter, and the ill ef- fects which follow from the abuse of spirituous liquors. The medicine is also said to be particularly serviceable in hysteric depressions, or obstruction of the uterine secretions, where other aromatics, even those of the more generous kind have little effect. But some experi- ments made by Dr. Alexander serve to show that it is much less pow- erful than was once imagined: and it was given in the Edinburgh In- firmary, by Dr. Henry Cullen, even to the extent of half an ounce a day, in several hysterical cases, without any sensible effect whatever; so that of late the estimation in which it was held as a medicine has been on the decline! CROTON. Spec. Plant. Willd. iv. 531. CI. 21. Ord. 8. Monoecia Monadelphia. Nat. Ord. Tricoccae, Linn. Euphorbia?, Juss. G. 1718. Male. Calyx cylindrical, five-toothed. Corolla five-pe- talled. Stamens 10—15. Female. Calyx many-leaved. Corolla none. Styles three, bifid. Capsule three-celled. Seed one. Species 43. C. Eluteria.* Eleutheria. Med. Bot. 2d edit. 633. t. 223. _1____36* c. Tiglium. Purging Croton. Flor. Zeyl. 343. Rumph. Amboyn iv. p. 98. t. 42. Rheede Malab. ii. p. 61. t. 33. Ray. Hist. Plant. 167. Ainslic's Mat. Med. of Hindostan, 4to. pp. 96. 291. * It is the Clutia Eluteria of Linnaeus. 236 C—Croton. 1. Croton Eluteria Officinal. Cascarilla cortex,* Lond. Dub. A. Croton Eleuthe-» rije cortex, Edin. Cascarilla Bark. This tree is a native of the Bahama Islands, and has been also found in Jamaica by Dr. Wright. It is a small tree, seldom exceed- ing twenty feet in height, and branching thickly towards the top. The more tender branches, when broken, ooze out a thick balsamic liquor. The leaves are alternate on short petioles, ovate or cordate, lanceolate, and elongated towards the apex, which is blunt: entire, and on the upper surface of a bright green colour. The flowers are in axillary and terminal racemes. The petals are whitish; oblong, obtuse, and spreading. The male flower has ten subulate filaments, supporting erect, compressed anthers: the female produces a round- ish germen crowned with three bifid, spreading styles, with obtuse stigmas. The capsule is superior, trilocular, and contains a solitary shining seed. Cascarilla bark is imported chiefly from Eleutheria, one of the Ba- hama Islands, packed in chests and bales. It consists of pieces about six or eight inches long, scarcely one-tenth of an inch thick, quilled and covered with a thinv whitish epidermis. Qualities.—Cascarilla bark has a pleasant, spicy odour, and a bit- ter, warm, aromatic taste. The colour of the inside of the pieces is a reddish cinnamon hue, and their fracture close and short, of a dark reddish brown or purple colour. It is very inflammable, and is easily distinguished from all other barks by emitting, when burnt and ex- tinguished, a fragrant smell, resembling that of musk, but more agree- able. Its active constituents are partially extracted by alcohol and water, and completely by proof spirit. Ether takes up one and a half in ten parts; and, when evaporated on the surface of water, leaves a thick pellicle of bitter resin; and dissolved in the water, a small por- tion of almost colourless, pungent extractive. According to Troms- dorff, who analysed it, 4696 parts yielded the following products:— Mucilage and bitter principle 864j resin 688, volatile oil 72, water 48, and woody fibre 3024 parts.t The ethereal tincture shows extractive also to be present, of a greenish yellow colour, very fragrant and pungent. Medical properties and uses.— This bark is a valuable carminative and tonic. It was introduced into practice as such in 1690 by Pro- fessor Stisser; and was afterwards much used in Germany, particu- larly by the Stahleans, as a substitute for cinchona bark, in the cure of intermittent and remittent fevers: but although they over-rated its virtues, yet it is an excellent adjunct to the bark in these dis eases; rendering it, by its aromatic qualities, more agreeable to the stomach, and increasing its powers. It is successfully employed in dyspepsia, asthma, and flatulent colic; the latter stage of dysentery, and diarrhoea, particularly when occurring after measles: and in the * The London College erroneously refers this bark to the Cascarilla of t^nnaeus, the bark of which, however, has none of the sensible qualities of ^scarilla. Thomson's Lond. Disp. | Annales de Chimie, xxii. 219. and Thomson's Chemistry, 4th ed. v. 220, C.—Croton. 237 angrenous thrush peculiar to children.* The dose of the powdered ark is from grs. xij to 3ss, three or four times a day. 2. Croton Tiglium. Croton. Spec. Plant. Willd. iv. 531. CI. xxi. Ord. 8. Moncecia Monadelphia. Nat. Ord. Tricoccae* Linn. Euphorbia, Juss. G. 1718. Male. Calyx cylindrical and five-toothed. Corolla of five petals. Stamens ten to fifteen. Female. Calyx polyphillus. Corolla none. Styles three, bifid. Capsule trilocular. Seed one. Species 36. C. Tiglium. Purging Croton. Flor. Zeyl. 343. Rumph. Amb. iv. p. 98. t. 42. Rheed. Malab. ii. p. 61. t. 33. Ray's Hist. Plant. 167. Ainslie's Mat. Med. of Hindostan, 4to. p. 96. 291. Syn. Pinus Indica, Lignum Moluccense. Cadil avanacu, {Mai.) Nervalum cottay, {Tarn.) Jummal gotta, {Hind.) Dund, {Pers.) Batoa, (Arab.) Naypa- lum vittiloo, (Telingoo.) Jayapala, {Canarese.) Duntibeeja, Nepala, {Sans.) Officinal. Tiglii Oleum, Lond. Oil of Croton or Tiglium. Syn. Huile de Croton, (F.) ----Nervallum cottay unnay, (Tarn.) Iumma Golla ka tail, (Duknay.) Naypulum vittiloo noonay, (Telingoo.) The plant yielding the seed from which this oil is expressed, is a native of the Molucca Islands, and of the greater part of the penin- sula of India. It has an arboreous stem, covered with a soft, black- ish bark. The leaves are ovate-acuminate, serrated and smooth, with two glands seated at the base; and are supported on petioles shorter than the expansion of the leaf. The flowers are in terminal racemes. The seeds, which are contained in trilocular capsules, are oblong, about the size of a large coffee bean, four-sided, flatfish on two sides, and convex on the other, with four elevated ridges, running at equal distances from the base to the apex of the seed. The shell of the seed is black; but covered with a soft pale yellowish-brown epidermis. Croton seeds are imported into England in cases; and, owing to the rubbing of the epidermis, when the cases are not completely filled, have generally a mouldy appearance. In this state they were formerly known in Europe, under the name Molucca grains; but, a6 they were discarded from medical practice on account of their very drastic effects, arising from the imprudent manner in which they were exhibited, they ceased to be an article of commerce, until lately that the expressed oil has been introduced as a purgative: 100 parts of the kernels of the seeds when bruised yield 60 of acrid oil, and 40 of farinaceous matter. The acrid principle resides chiefly in the testa or skin of the cotyledons, and is mixed with the oil of the co- tyledons in its expression. The goodness of the oil, therefore, de- pends on the seeds being shelled before they are bruised. Qualities.— Croton oil is of a pale reddish-brown colour. Its taste is hot and acrid; and it leaves an uneasy feeling in the mouth and throat, which continues for many hours. Even a minute portion of the kernel of the seed when chewed leaves a hot, pungent sensa- tion on tlie tongue, which remains for twenty-four hours. Alcohol * Underwood, Diseases of Children, 4th ed. i. 79. 238 C.—Croton. takes up two parts out of three, and the solution possesses the acri- mony and the cathartic properties of the oil, whilst the undissolved portion is devoid of acrimony and inert when taken into the stomach. But much of what is taken up by the alcohol is fixed oil; and, from the experiments of Dr. Nimmo,* Croton oil is composed of 45 parts of an acrid principle, and 55 of fixed oil, resembling the oil of olives. Dr. Nimmo has suggested the following means of detecting adul- terations of Croton oil: pour into a phial, the weight of which is known, 50 grains of the oil; add alcohol, which has been digested on olive oil: agitate well; and having, poured off the solution, add more alcohol in the same manner until the dissolved portion is dif- fused in such a proportion of the alcohol that each half-drachm mea- sure shall contain equal to one dose of the Croton oil for an adult;— by placing the phial near a fire, to evaporate what remains of the alcohol in the bottle, if the remainder be to that abstracted by the al- cohol as 55 to 45 the oil is genuine. If it be adulterated with any fixed oil, the residuum will be larger; if with castor oil, it will be smaller than in the genuine oil.t Medical properties and uses.—Croton oil is a powerful hydra- gogue purgative, operating in a very short time after it is taken. - It has been given with great advantage in cases of obstinate constipa- tion, convulsions, mania, apoplexy, and other diseases which re- quire, along with the complete evacuation of the intestines, the les- sening the circulating mass. The small doses in which this oil pro- duces its effects, require the greatest caution to be observed in its administration, as it has occasionally induced the most dangerous hypercatharsis. In India, where it has been long used, ghee or butter with orange or rice water or cold butter-milk, and the exter- nal effusion of cold water, are employed to counteract its too violent effects, when these occur. It is, also, used in India, as an external application in rheumatic affections.:f Croton oil is generally administered in doses of from one to five drops, made into pills with crumb of bread; or combined with muci- lage of gum, sugar and almond mixture, in the form of emulsion. Dr. Nimmo recommends the saturated alcoholic solution* in the dose of fjss. rubbed up with simple syrup, and mucilage of gum, of each oz. ii., and oz. iv. of distilled water.§ Every part of this plant possesses some active property^ The root is a drastic purgative; and when shaven or rasped, in the dose of a few grains, or as much as can be lifted between the thumb and fore-finger, acts powerfully, and is regarded as a specific for dropsy, at Amboyna and Batavia. The leaves also are purgative; and when dried, reduced to powder, and externally applied, are said by Rheede, to be a remedy against the bite of the Cobra del Ca- pella; but the seeds have been chiefly employed for medicinal purposes. They were known as a purgative by the Arabian|| phy- sicians; and were formerly brought to Europe under the name of Molucca grains; but from the imprudent exhibition of them, and their very drastic effects, they were discarded from the Materia * Journ. of Sciences, vol. xiii. p. 66—9. \ Journ. of Sciences, vol. xiii. p. 66—9. $ Mat. Med. of Hindostan, 4to. Madras, 1813. % Journ. ofScmce, vol. xiii. p. 69 |l Scrap, c. 61. C.—Croton. 239 Medica: the oil of the seeds has, however, been again introduced into this country; and from the experiments which have been made with it, appears to be a purgative of great value, when cautiously and properly exhibited. Thomson has extracted the following notices regarding the medicinal employment of these seeds in India, from the work* of Dr. Whitelaw Ainslie; and detailed the properties of the oil as far as they have been lately ascertained by British prac- titioners. Dr. White, superintending surgeon of Guzerat, thus describes the Indian mode of preparing the nut for medical purposes. " Take the. seeds of Croton, (Croton Tiglia,) which, after having been each enveloped by a small ball of Merdu Bubali, about the size of a spar- row's egg, put them upon some burning charcoal until the dung is burnt dry; then removing them, and taking off"' the shells from the kernels, pound these, and divide into pills; viz. two out of each grain of the mass: two, or at most three, are sufficient for one dose to an able bodied man. Half a drachm of honey to two drachms of the mass, prove a good and convenient medium for uniting it. "t The intention of this process is to remove the shell, and to render the kernel pulverulent; and the torrifactions also lessen the natural acrimony of the nut. But if the kernel be too much burnt it should be rejected.^ From the trials of Dr. White, Mr. Marshall of the Bombay Esta- blishment, and of Mr. lngledow, in the Mysore, the croton-nut, prepared in the manner above described, acts as a certain and effectual purgative. " In a very short time after taking the pills," says Mr. Marshall,§ " perhaps m half an hour, the patient is sen- sible of a rumbling motion in his bowels; which often, in another half hour, is followed by a stool; this rumbling continues during the whole of the operation. The stools were invariably watery and copious. In about one case in ten, the medicine produces griping; and about one in thirty, nausea." Mr. lngledow gave the nut, in * Materia Medica of Hindostan, 4to. Madras, 1813. f The following are other modes of preparing the croton nut, practised by the native doctors. a. Boil the seeds, freed from the shells, in milk, until they become soft; then pound them, and form the mass into pills by means of lime-juice, at the rate of one pill from each. seed. The acrimony of the nut appears to be greatly diminished by this process, as two of these pills are said to be " an ordinary dose." b. Pound the raw kernels; then form them into a mass with honey, and divide it into pills at the rate of two for each kernel. In the Guzerat, one of these suffices for a drastic purge; a gill of warm water being taken immer diately after swallowing the pill. c. In Suratthe seeds are first shelled; and the kernels beingtied up in a piece of cloth or a bag, are boiled in as much cow-dung water as will cover the bag. They are then split in two, and the testa or coat, which is said to be poison- ous, is peeled off"; after which they are pounded, and formed into a mass in conjunction with catechu, in the proportion of gij for every gj of the croton. The mass is divided into two grain pills; two of which are sufficient for one dose. The catechu is said to prevent griping. See Mat. Med. of Hindostan, Append. i The unroasted seeds, when ground into powder and scattered on stag- nant waters, are used in India for killing fish. % Mat. Med. of Hindostan, Appendix. 240 C.—Croton. substance, in doses of one grain, combined with two grains of cam- phor;* and regards it as a valuable and safe purgative: but he adds, *' I have not ventured to give it either to children under seven years of age, nor to any individual advanced in life."t When it produces too violent effects, the native Indian practitioners give, internally, ghee or butter, with orange or rice water, or cold butter- milk; and apply, externally, effusions of cold water. The expressed oil of the seed, which has lately been brought into England, produces still more powerful effects as a hydragogue purgative than the torrified seeds. In some cases, the merely touch- ing the tongue with a drop of it has produced many loose watery stools; and, in others, doses of one or two minims have excited the most frightful hypercatharsis, although some individuals have taken it to the extent of" even ten minims without any very sensible effect.! Experience would lead us, however, to be very cautious in exhi- biting this oil, at first, in larger doses than one or two minims, to adults. In apoplexy, convulsions, mania, and other diseases, which require, along with the complete evacuation of the primae viae, the lessening the circulating mass, the croton oil is likely to prove a medicine of great value. § Croton oil is generally given in the form of pill, made up with crumb of bread; but, as in this state, the oil is applied, as it were, concentrated to the stomach. It is best given rubbed up with muci- lage of acacia gum, sugar and almond emulsion; in which combina- tion its acrimony is obtunded; and its operation, while equally cer- tain, is much less violent than When it is exhibited in the form of pill. From the probability of even small doses producing alarm- ing effects on some habits, it would be well to bear in remembrance the method adopted in such cases by the native practitioners of Hin- dostan. Oleum Tiglii or, Croton Oil has within a short time become so ce- lebrated amongst us as a safe and efficacious purgative, in extremely small doses, that it is necessary to enlarge a little on it. It appears to have been long known and employed in the east, of which the plant producing it is a native. It is a species of ricinus, being one of eighty-two species of the genus croton, according to Mr. Frost, (Lond. Med. Rep. June, 1822.) The plant is found in Malabar, and in the Island of Ceylon, and in the Antilles, where it is cultivated for use. Pomet in his history of drugs, (4th ed. 143.) says the plant grows to the height of a fig tree, and somewhat resembles it, and he adds, that the wood and leaves yield a milky juicei It has various names by different writers. Herman distinguishes it as ricinus arbor, fructu glabro, grana tiglia officinis dicto, (Parad. Bat. Prod.) * -The native practitioners in India combine it with pepper, ginger, and borax. j- Edinburgh Med. and Surg. Journ. xxiii. p. 259. * Mr. lngledow gave the newly expressedoil in doses of n^v, in 1815: but he soon laid it aside as too violent in its operation. § The expressed oil is called Nervalum unnay in India, and is regarded " as a valuable external application in rheumatic affections*" Mat. Med. of Hin- dostan, p. 95. C.—Croton. 241 In the Horlus Malabaricus, it is called Cadel Avanacu. Casp. Bau- hin, (Pinax,) calls it Lignum Moluccense; foliis malvae, fructu avel- lanae minore, cortice molliore et nigricante.—Pavana incolis—also Pinus Indica, nucleo purgante. It is the Ricinoides Indica, folio lu- cidp, fructu glabro of others, (Burm.)—and the croton, foliis ovatis acuminatis serratis, caule arboreo of Linnaeus.—Dale, in his Pharma- cologia, (p. 70, Ricinoides, A. 4,) gives a great number of other names from different sources. Lewis speaks of it in his Mat. Med. 3d ed. p. 539; and Bomarre, in his Diet. Rais. Universel de Mat. Medicale, 1763, v. 6. p. 30, describes it particularly and gives,.a figure of it. The fruit or seed is called the seed of the Indian ricinus, grains of Tilli or Molucca, the Indian or Barbary kernel, nuts of the Mo- lucca pine or purging nuts, and grana tiglia. They are also called Tyle seed or Tilli berries, and it is added that the seed of Palma Christi are sometimes sold for them, (Pomet.)* The fruit is of the shape and size of a middling nut, and black when fully ripe;—it is composed of three capsules, each including a white kernel, covered with a black cartilaginous film. Some ascribe its purgative powers to this film—and say that the internal white nut may be eaten without inconvenience. Pomet says the kernels are one of the most powerful purgatives, and are proper only for strong bodies.in doses of six to eight or ten grains; that the expressed oil, called oleum de kerva, oleum cici- num, and oleum ficus infernalis, purges by only rubbing the sto- mach and belly with it; he says it kills the worms, cures the itch, deterges old ulcers, and allays the suffocation of the womb. Vogel says, the seeds purge violently upwards and downwards; they act so powerfully as to disturb the animal economy and cause vertigo; and it was very generally considered as too violent in its operation to be given on all occasions. Cohausen found it successful in evacuating the taenia. The dose of the seed is about four grains, mixed with sugar, and drinking milk to aid its operation. He also tells us that the expressed oil is employed by friction on the abdo- men in constipation. Bomarre says, the wood, when fren-h and green, purges off the se- rous humours by vomiting and stool, in a way surpassing even colo- cynth, inflaming the esopnagus and the anus by its acrid nature; but that when dry, it is. less virulent; the dose is from twenty-four to thirty-six grains. Of the seeds, the dose is from three to five grains—each grain pro- curing at least one stool, if aided by warm water or broth, but the * References.—Linn. Spec. Plant, p. 1426.—3d edit. Mat.Med. p. 207.—Hort. Malab. torn.'2, p. 61.—Rumphius, Herb. Amboin. torn. 4. p. 98.—Dr. Fleming, Asiat. Res. vol. 2.—Flor. Zeylan. 343.—Bauh. Pin. 393. 490.—Rheed. Mai. 2. p. 61.—Ray. Hist. Plant. 2d, 167, supplement, 112.666.—Ray says it bears flow- ers and fruit twice a year, in January and July; that the leaves triturated with water prove purgative; and that their powder, sprinkled over the wound, is useful in bites of the cobra de capello; that mixed with certain other flowers and leaves and honey, they form an ointment for pustules on the head, and that a single seed triturated with water, proves purgative.—Med. Intellig. vol. 2. p. 476. 531. 643. 716.—vol. 3! p. 17. 74. 173. 191. 231. 248. 4-'2. 477 518. 583. 242 C.—Croton. belly is instantly bound if cold water be drank, or the extremities be dipped therein. The seeds are very acrid. The Indians boil the seeds in urine or vinegar. It is said by some that liquorice corrects their violence, also sweet almonds, lemon juice, fat broths, or roasting them. They, as also the wood, have been recommended as specific in dropsy, leucophlegmasia, and many chronic diseases. The expressed oil is given in one grain doses. It is with this oil the Indians prepare the royal purging apple, whose odour alone, it is said, will purge delicate persons. It is made by macerating an orange or lemon in the croton oil for a month, when it is removed. If it be strongly rubbed in the hands till heated, and the odour be forcibly inhaled, purgation soon ensues, equally as if a purgative had been taken. John Andrea Murray, in his Appar. Medic. (Got. 1787,) 4. 149, which may be regarded somewhat as a Bibliotheca Mat. Med. in speaking of the grana tiglia, gives the principal names from differ- ent authors, and mentioning the seeds, he says, that tasting the ker- nel, he did not perceive any acrimony, but shortly after, he felt a disagreeable burning sensation, continuingforalongtime, and scarce- ly removed by dining. The whole tree—the leaves the most, very acrid, affecting the mouth, lips, and fauces with inflammation and heat, extending even to the anus. (Rumph.) Formerly the seeds were used in India to purge dropsical patients, producing at the same time emetic effects in weak stomachs. Two .grains sufficed in the strongest, in others one and a half. Four grains, according to Rum- phius, were given by ill disposed women, to kill their husbands. In many other diseases where the strongest purgatives were indicated, they were also employed in India. Fishes are destroyed by the seeds thrown into the water. A single drop of the expressed oil taken in Canary wine, is a common purge in India—and lie blames Lewis for saying, that Geoff'roy had inadvertently written one grain of the oil for a dose, instead of 3i« The covering of the seed is also purgative, and the oil applied to the umbilicus purges. The seed, in doses of four grains with 3ss. of sugar, taken four alternate days in warm milk—drinking milk in case of tormina and tenesmus, was found very- serviceable in expelling taenia.—Cohausen, Act. Nat. Cur. ix. p. 39. Murray adds, that it is banished from present practice. Although the qualities of the seed and oil appear to have been for- merly so well established, yet it continued a stranger to us until within the last three or four years, when Messrs. Perry, Nimmo, Frost, and others recalled attention to it, in the medical periodical publications of Great Britain. According to Mr. Perry, the action of the oil is directly purgative. In half minim doses it generally produces about six evacuations, without pain or inconvenience. In very obstinate costiveness in two minim doses, formed into a pill with crumb of bread, it succeeds after other articles have failed. Dr. Nimmo, (Lond. Med. 8? Phys. Journ, May, 1822,) says— {acrid purg. matter 27parts. fixed oil 33 farinaceous matter 40 The Off do. < acrid principle - 45 £ fixed oil - 5;> C.—Cubeba. 243 Alcohol dissolves the first and leaves the second—he recommends giving it dissolved in this fluid. Mr. Frost, in the Lond. Med. Rep. June, 1822, gives the bota- nical history of the croton tiglium. The oil, he says, is a violent and certain purgative; that it is often adulterated with olive oil, &c. j that it is rendered less violent by aromatic and volatile oils, or roasting the seeds before expression. When pure, it is said to produce numb- ness of the hand, &c. dryness of the throat, thirst, head-ache for seve- ral hours, even by applying it to the tip of the fingers—the dose is one drop, or one seed. He says, the oil found under the external covering of castor oil berries, much resembles that of the croton tig- lium in its action. He gives also extracts from several authors on the subject Mr. Thomson, Lond. Med. Rep. October, 1822, gives one seed for a dose, with ginger. Of the oil one drop, but more if necessary, even to eight or ten, producing only more immediate vomiting and purging. Externally applied, he says it produces a crop of pustules. Mr. Dendys, Lond. Med. Rep- April, 1823, gives the case of a young woman of sixteen, with an obstinate constipation of three weeks, after all the usual cathartics, eneinata, and warm bath had been employed—just before using the oil, she had taken ?-| of jalap, two ounces of castor oil^and a box of Scott's pills, without ef- fect; half a drop of the oil every third hour, and after the third dose combined with castor oil, promoted several profuse evacuations, and she soon became convalescent. Some of the practitioners of this city have found it not less useful as an hydrogogue in many affections of the brain; in constipation, &c. It is considered here as a powerful and certain purgative, acting ge- nerally without harshness or griping, and as best administered in pills, with bread, or rhubarb, or with syrup, in doses of one drop.—< One of the best formula in habitual costiveness is 3i. of assafoetida— 5i. of aloes—six drops of croton oil. Mix well—and make into twenty-four pills. A mild and useful laxative. , Upon the whole, we may consider this article as a very important acquisition or rather re-acquisition to the Materia Medica—and as it is dear, it is certainly desirable to ascertain whether it might not be possible, in some part of our extensive territory, to raise the plant and procure the oil amongst ourselves. It becomes solid in cold weather. The oil from the husk of the seeds of castor nut is probably the same, CUBEBA. L. A. Piper Cubeba. The Fruit. Cubebs. Diandria Trigynia, Nat. ord. Piperita;, Linn. Vrlicae, Juss. $yn. Cubebes, (F.) Kubeben, (G.) Kobebar, (Swed.) Koebeben, (Dutch.) Cubebi, (I.) Cubebas, (S.) Cobibas, (Port.) Cubab chinie, (Hind.) Komu- chus, (Batav.) Val. millaghoo, (Tarn.) Komronkoos, (Malay.) Koba- beh, (Ar.) What new virtues have been latterly found amongst us in this old remedy, to entitle it to a place amongst the standard and approved articles of the Materia Medica, I know not. It may be well to know, that formerly cubebs were considered to "strengthen a cold and mois> 244 C.—Cucurbitulae. stomach, expel wind, ease the spleen, cleanse the breast of tough humours, help colds, asthmas, coughs, shortness of breath, hoarse- ness; warm and comfort a cold womb, strengthen the head, heart and brain, &c." (Salmon.) In vain did they possess those panaceal powers; they were suffered to sink into oblivion; but at length are resuscitated in a more congenial hemisphere! It may be proper to state, that lately this article has been ushered into practice for the cure of gonorrhoea, with all the extravagance of praise which usually attends the revival of an old, or the introduc- tion of a new remedy. It has been pronounced to be a specific in this complaint; but it is probable that experience will not warrant these assertions. It is a native of Java, Batavia, Guinea, and the Isle of France. On their various virtues, consult Lond. Med. Repos. 1820, and a treatise entitled "Practical Observations on the use-of Cubebs in Gonorrhoea." Lond. 1821—also Med. Chir. Trans, vol. xii. CURCUMA LONGA-* Turmeric. The Root. The British Colleges have discarded it from use. Turmeric is a perennial plant, a native of the East Indies. The roots are tuberous, knotty, and long; wrinkled, externally of a pale yellow colour, and internally of a shining saffron brown. They have a weak aromatic smell, and a slightly bkter aromatic taste. They contain a very little essential oil; and Neumann got from 960 parts, 320 watery, and afterwards 50 alcoholic extract, and inversely 150 alcoholic, and 210 watery. Medical use. —-Turmeric, when taken internally, tinges the urine of a deep yellow colour, and acts as a gentle stimulant. It has been celebrated in diseases of the liver, jaundice, cachexy, dropsy, inter- mittent fevers, &C; But its internal use in Great Britain is almost confined to its being a principal ingredient in the composition of curry powder, in which form it is used in immense quantities in the East Indies. It is a valuable dye-stuff; and also an excellent chemi- cal test of the presence of uncombined alkalies; for the yellow colour of turmeric is changed by them to a reddish-brown. CUCURBITULAE. Cups. Cupping-glasses. The use of these instruments, to effect local depletion from, or pro- duce a gentle stimulus upon various parts of the body, as well as their modus operandi, must be familiar to most of our readers; their application indeed, is very ancient, as we find them mentioned by Celsus, and others of his time, and even by Hippocrates himself. Within the last year, however, the result of numerous experiments made by Dr. David Barry upon their effects on poisoned wounds, has been laid before the public, by which we shall be led in future to re- gard them as agents of the highest importance in the treatment of such accidents. With prussic acid, strychnine, upas tiente, arsenic, and other poisons whose fatal activity has been well ascertained, he * Curcuma, in the secondary list of the Pharm. U.S. C.—Cuprum. 245 experimented upon living animals, as dogs and rabbits; having gene- rally two of them placed under similar circumstances, except that the piston-cupping-glass was applied to one, whilst the other was left to ils fate. The one abandoned, invariably perished within the pe- riod stated. The animal to which the vacuum was applied, never showed the slightest symptom of poisoning, although the deleterious matter remained in contact with the wounded surface, during the space of one, two, and sometimes five hours consecutively.' When the animals were bitten by vipers, nearly the same results followed. Those bitten by one, two, or three vipers, when the cupping-glass was applied for half an hour, suffered no symptom whatever of con- stitutional poisoning, whilst those that were left to nature, were in- variably attacked with convulsions, stupor, and the dogs with vomit- ing. A minute drop of blood marked each puncture made by the fangs, followed upon the application of the glass, by a drop of trans- parent amber-colouredliquid, and a considerable quantity of reddish serum. It would appear from many passages in his works, that Celsus placed the cucurbitulae decidedly at the head of all preventive and re- medial measures in cases of recently poisoned wounds, and to him, therefore, perhaps belongs the merit of priority, in their application to these cases—certainly to no modern; and Dr. Barry does not claim it, but awards high praise to Celsus for his success in their treat- ment. The following are Dr. Barry's conclusions: " 1. That neither sound, nor wounded parts of the surface of a living animal, can absorb when placed under a vacuum. "2. That the application of the vacuum, by means of a piston- cupping-glass, placed over the points of contact of the absorbing sur- face, and the poison which is in the act of being absorbed, arrests or mitigates the symptoms caused by the poison. "3. That the application of a cupping-glass for half an hour, de- prives the vessels of a part over which it had been applied, of their absorbing faculty, during the hour or tlvo immediately succeeding tlie removal of the glass. " 4. That the pressure of the air forces into the vacuum, even through the skin, a portion of the matter introduced into the cellu- lar tissue by injection; that is, if the skin of the animal be not too dense, as in the dog." CUPRUM.—COPPER. Syn. Cuivre, (F.) Kupfer, (G.) Rame, (I.) Cobre, (S.) Nehass, (Ar.i Tamba, (H.) Tamra, (San.) This metal is of a bright red colour,disagreeable taste and smell when rubbed or heated; sp. gr. 7.79? ductile; of great tenacity: sono- rous: fusible at 27° Wedgwood; granulated texture, and subject to blisters; a good conductor of caloric, electricity, and galvanism; be- comes brown, and at last green in the air; when heated, turns blue, yellow, violet, deep brown; when ignited and plunged into water. forms brown, brittle scales of oxyd. Its phosphuret is brilliant, brit- 246 C.—Cuprum. tie, hard and fusible; its sulphuret, brown, fusible, and very phos- phoric; its alloy with arsenic is white, with bismuth reddish, with antimony violet, mercury deep red, with zinc forms brass, and with tin is orange; it is oxydized and dissolved by the sulphuric, nitric, and muriatic acids; its oxyd is brown, brittle, and soluble in ammo- nia, producing a beautiful blue. Copper is found in many countries, a. In its metallic state:—1. Crystallized; 2. Alloyed with arse- nic and iron; 3. Sulphureted. b. Oxydized:—4. Uncomblned; 5. Combined with carbonic acid; 6. With sulphuric acid; 7. With arsenic aeid; 8. With muriatic acid; 9. With phosphoric acid. Copper has a more perceptible smell and taste than almost any other metal. Its effects when taken into the stomach are highly deleterious, and often fatal. It particularly affects the primae viae, exciting excessive nausea, vomiting, colic pains, and purging, some- times of blood, or, though more rarely, obstinate constipation. It also produces agitation of the mind, head-ache, vertigo, delirium; renders the pulse small and weak, the countenance pale, and causes fainting, convulsions, paralysis, and apoplexy. When any of these symptoms occur, we must endeavour to obviate the action of the poison by large and copious draughts of oily and mucilaginous liquors, or to destroy its virulence by solutions of potass, or sulphu- ret of potass. Poisoning from copper is most commonly the effect of ignorance, accident, or carelessness; and too many examples are met with of fatal consequences ensuing, upon eating food which had been dress- ed in copper vessels not well cleansed from the rust which they had contracted by lying in the air; or pickles, to which a beautiful green colour had been given, according to the directions of the most popu- lar cookery books, by boiling them with halfpence, or allowing them to stand in a brass pan until a sufficient quantity of verdigris was formed. Great care ought to be taken that acid liquors, or even waters, designed for internal use, be not suffered to stand long in vessels made of copper, otherwise they will dissolve so much of the metal as will give them dangerous properties. But the sure preventive of these accidents is to banish copper utensils from the kitchen and laboratory. The presence of copper in any suspected liquor is easily detected by inserting into it a piece of polished steel, which will soon be coated with copper, or by dropping into it some carbonat of ammonia, which will produce a beautiful blue colour if any copper be present. But although copper be thus dangerous, some preparations of it are, in certain cases, used with great advantage both externally and internally. The chief of these are, 1. The sub-acetat of copper, or verdigris. 2. The sulphat of copper, or blue vitriol. 3. The sub-sulphat of copper and ammonia. 4. The muriat of copper and ammonia. C.—Cuprum. 247 3. A solution of the sulphat of copper, and supersulphat of alu- mina in sulphuric acid. The two first of these are never prepared by the apothecary, but are bought by him from the manufacturer. Copper in its metallic state is inactive on the system. Sufficient evidence of this exists in cases of its accidental swallowing, and when taken with suicidal intentions. Dr. Paris mentions the case of a young woman who swallowed six copper pennies; she was attended in the Westminster Hospital for two years, for a disease considered visceral, but which was the effect of the mechanical obstruction of the coin. She voided them after a lapse of five years, and during that long period, not a symptom arose, which could be attributed to the poisonous influence of the copper. In another case of a child, a halfpenny swallowed remained in the intestines six months; and for- merly, the metallic filings were taken in drachm doses with impunity as a remedy for rheumatism. Sub-Acetas Cupri. E. A. ^Erugo. L. D. Sub-Acetat of Copper. Verdigris. Syn. Vert de gris, (F.) Grunspan, (G.) Verdegrise, (I.) Cardenillo, (S.) Zunjar, (Ar.) Pitrai, (H.) Pitalata, (San.) The preparation of this substance was .almost confined to Montpe- lier in Fiance; owing chiefly to an excellent regulation which existed, that no verdigris could be sold until it had been examined and found of sufficiently good quality. For since that regulation has been abo- lished, Chaptal informs us, that so many abuses have crept into the manufacture, that the Montpelier verdigris has lost its decided su- periority of character. It. is prepared by stratifying copper plates with the husks and stalks of the grape, which have been made to ferment after the wine has been expressed from them. In from ten to twenty days, when the husks become white, the plates of copper are taken out and their surfaces are found to be covered with de- tached and silky crystals. They are now placed on edge, with their surfaces in contact, in the corner of a cellar, and alternately dipt in water, and replaced to dry every seven or eight days, for six or eight times. By this management, the plates swell, and are every, where covered with a coat of verdigris, which is easily separated with a knife. In this stateit is only a paste, and is sold by the manufac- turers to commissioners, who beat it well with wooden mallets, and pack it up in bags of white leather, a foot high and ten inches wide, in which it is dried by exposing it to the air and sun, until the loaf of verdigris cannot be pierced with the point of a knife. Sub-acetat of copper should be of a bluish green colour, dry and difficult to break, and should neither deliquesce, have a salt taste, contain any black or white spots, nor be adulterated with earth or gypsum. Its purity may be tried by diluted sulphuric acid, in which the sub-acetat dissolves entirely, and the impurities remain behind. Verdigris, as it comes to us, is generally mingled with stalks of the grape; they may be separated, in pulverization, by discontinuing the operation as soon as what remains seems to be almost entirely composed of them. Acetat of copper is readily prepared by adding 248 C__Cuprum. acetat of lead to sulphat of copper, both in solution; an insoluble sulphat of lead precipitates; and by evaporating the supernatant fluid the verdigris is procured in very beautiful crystals. Medical use.—Verdigris is never, or rarely used internally. Some writers highly extol it as an emetic, and say that a grain or two act as soon as received into the stomach; but its use has been too often followed by dangerous consequences to allow of its employment. Ver- digris, applied externally, proves a gentle detergent and escharotic, and is employed to destroy callous edges, or fungous flesh in wounds. It is also advantageously applied to scorbutic ulcers of the mouth, tongue, or fauces, and deserves to be carefully tried in cancerous sores. With these intentions it is an ingredient in different officinal compositions. The best remedy forepersons poisoned by verdigris or any cupreous salt, appears to be sugar, largely administered. (Sec Orfila's Toxicology, vol. 1.) Admitting this to be absolutely the case, (which is denied by some,) it may be worth the trial, whether the cupreous salts may not prove of service in cases of diabetes; inde- pendently of its tonic powers in small doses, it probably may tend to destroy the disposition existing in that disease, to produce the saccharine matter which is found in thj>urine. JErugo Prjeparata. D. Cupri Sub-acetas Prjeparatum. . .#. Prepared Verdigris: Prepared Sub-Acetat of Copper. Take of Verdigris, any quantity. Grind it to powder, and separate the minute particles as directed for the preparation of carbonat of lime. The intention of this process is merely to obtain the sub-acetat of copper in the state of the most minute mechanical division. , AMMONIARETUM CUPRI. E.A. Cuprum Ammoniatum.' L. D. Ammoniaret of Copper. Ammoniated Copper. Take of Sulphat of copper, two parts,- Sub-carbonat of ammonia, three parts. Rub them together in a glass mortar, until the effer- vescence has ceased, and they unite into a violet coloured mass. This must be wrapped up in blotting paper, and first dried on a chalk stone, and afterwards by a gentle heat. The product must be kept in a well stopped glass phial. Ed. The term ammoniar^, employed by the Edinburgh College, &c. ought to be ammomuret, in strict conformity with the nomenclaturai exposition of Lavoisier. It may seem strange, that particular directions should be given concerning the manner of drying a mixture, which is prepared by rubbing two dry substances together. But such a phenomenon is by no means uncommon, and arises from the quantity of water of crys- tallization contained in the ingredients being greater than what is required in the new compound formed: As soon, therefore, as the ingredients begin to act upon each other, a quantity of water is set at liberty which renders the mass moist. The nature of this compound, and consequently the name which C.—Cuprum. 249 should be given it, is not yet sufficiently ascertained. Prepared ac- cording to the directions of the colleges, it evidently contains oxyd of copper, ammonia and sulphuric acid. If these substances be chemically combined, it should be denominated the sulphat or sub- sulphat of copper.and ammonia. By exposure to the air during its exsiccation, and by keeping, it is apt to lose its blue colour en- tirely and become green, and is probably converted into carbonat of copper. It should therefore be prepared in small quantities at a time. Medical use.— Ammoniuret of copper has been strongly recom- mended in epilepsy; but, from its good effects sometimes ceasing after it has been used for some time, a want of success in some cases, and the disagreeable consequences with which its use is some- times attended, it lias not lately been much prescribed. In the prac- tice of some, its success, it is said, has been almost uniform and astonishing. It is employed by beginning with doses of half a grain twice a day, and increasing them gradually to as much as the. sto- mach will bear. Dr. Cullen sometimes increased the dose to five grains. It is evident, that in prescribing this salt, as a combination of am- monia and copper, the sulphuric acid has been overlooked, as to any use it might have had in establishing the powers of the remedy. It would not be amiss to compare its merits directly with those of an ammoniuret of copper, formed by digesting the copper in aqua am- monias, and evaporating to crystallization. AQUA, (LIQUOR. L.) CUPRI AMMONIATI. 7V Solution of Ammoniaret of Copper. Solution (Water) of Ammoniated Copper. Take of Lime water, eight ounces; Sal ammoniac, two scruples; Prepared verdigris, foUr grains. Mix and digest them for twenty- four hours, then pour off the clear liquor. D. In this preparation the lime water decomposes, the muriat of am- monia and forms muriat of lime; while the ammonia disengaged im- mediately re-acts upon the oxyd of copper contained in the verdigris, and renders it soluble. But as the quantity of lime employed is not sufficient tirdecompose all the muriat of ammonia, the solution con- tains muriat of ammonia, muriat of lime, and ammoniuret of copper, forming probably a triple salt, with the acetic acid. Mediccd use.—This compound solution is applied externally for cleaning foul ulcers, and disposing them to heal. It has been recom- mended also for taking off specks and films from the eyes; but when used with this intention, it ought to be diluted with some pure water, as in the degree of strength in which it is here ordered, it irritates and inflames the eyes considerably. It is the best test of arsenic, which changes its blue colour into green. If this preparation is considered simply as the preceding salt in solution, it would obviously be preferable to dissolve a definite quantity of that salt in a given amount of water; but from what is * ^'Hpri Ammoniareti Liquor of the Pharm. U. S, .33 250 C.—Cuprum. xvu a^0ve' ** 's evWently a solution of a very compound nature. vv hat the action of the other articles in it may be, in a medical point of view, can only be learned by careful comparative experiments with the simple ammoniuret and this. CUPRI SULPHAS. E. L. D. A. Cuprum Vitriolatum. Vitbiolum Cieruleum. Sulphat of Copper. Blue Vitriol. Blue Stone. Syn. Sulphate de cuivre, (F.) Schwefelsaures Kupfer, (G.) Zungbar, (Ar.) Tuteya, (H.) Tutt'ha, (San.) This metallic salt is rarely formed by combining directly its com- ponent parts, but it is obtained, either by evaporating mineral waters which contain it, or by acidifying native sulphureted copper, by ex- posing it to the action of air and moisture, or by burning its sulphur. When pure it has a deep blue colour, and is crystallized generally in long rhomboids. It effloresces slightly in the air, is soluble in four parts of water at 60°, and in two at 212°, and is insoluble in alcohol. By heat it loses, first its water of crystallization, and afterwards all its acid. It is decomposed by the alkalies and earths, and some of the metals, the alkaline carbonats, borats, and phosphats, and some metallic salts. When treated with sulphuric acid, no effervescence occurs, by which this salt is at once distinguished from aerugo. It is composed of 42 parts of an hydro-oxyd of copper, 33 sulphuric acid, and 25 water of crystallization. The hydro-oxyd consists of 24 parts of cop- per, 8 oxygen, and 10 water. Medical use.—The sulphat of copper has a strong, styptic, metallic taste, and is chiefly used externally as an escharotic for destroying warts, callous edges, and fungous excrescences, as a stimulant appli- cation to ill-conditioned ulcers, and as a styptic to bleeding surfaces. Taken internally, it operates, in very small doses, as a very power- ful emetic. It has, however, been exhibited in incipient phthisis pulmonalis, intermittent fever, croup, and epilepsy; but its use is not free from danger. SOLUTIO SULPHATIS CUPRI COMPOSITA. E. Compound Solution of Sulphat of Copper. Take of Sulphat of Copper, Sulphat of Alumina, each three ounces; Water, two pounds; Sulphuric Acid, one and a half ounce. Dis- solve the Sulpliates in the water, filter the liquid, and add the acid. The Pharmacopoeia of the U. S. has a formula under the title of Cupri Sulphatis Liquor. Solution of Sulphat of Copper, which we suppose is intended as a simplification of the preceding. Whether it is equally useful as a styptic, we should much doubt. The sulphat of copper being already a super salt, the sulphuric acid is probably an unnecessary addition, as no chemical action ensues between the substances employed. It is thus made, Take of Sulphat of copper, three grains; Sulphuric acid, ten minims; Distilled water, two fluid ounces. Mix the articles, and effect a solution by shaking them. C-—Cyanogen. 251 Medical use.—It is chiefly used as a styptic for stopping bleedings it the nose; and for this purpose, cloths or dossils, steeped in the liquor, are to be applied to the part. CYANOGEN. This is the name given by Gay Lussac to the compound of carbon and nitrogen, (a carburet of nitrogen.) It is a colourless gas, of a strong disagreeable smell, which burns with a purplish blue flame, and is not decomposed by exposure to a red heat. Its sp. gr. is 1.8064. It is absorbed by water and alcohol, and its sblutions redden litmus. It is called cyanogen from #j>«ve$, (color coeruleus,) as being the base of that acid which in combination with iron, &c. gives rise to the blue pigment, known by the name of Prussian blue. AVhen the above base, (cyanogen,) is combined with hydrogen in certain relative proportions, a very singular acid is produced called Hydrocyanic, or Prussic Acid. This is a colourless fluid of a strong smell, like that of bitter almonds or peach kernels; of a sweetish pungent taste. It does not redden vegetable blues. It consists of carbon, nitrogen and hydro- gen, and is easily decomposed by light, heat, and chlorine. It does not act upon the metals, but forms coloured and generally insoluble combinations with their oxyds. It is obtained from animal substances by the action of heat, nitric acid, fixed alkalies and putrefaction. It exists in some peculiar state of combination in bitter almonds, and most of the bitter seeds, as black cherry, &c. also in the leaves of the prunus lauro-cerasus, peach, &c. from which it may be obtained by distillation, as laurel water, black cherry water, &c. This singular base, (cyanogen,) is also acidified by combining with some other substance; thus, in union with black oxyd of iron, which seems to form an acidifying principle to it, it constitutes the Ferro- Cyanic Acid, which is of a pale lemon colour, without smell, and is decomposed by a gentle heat or strong light. It forms directly with alkalies and earths, the salts heretofore called triple prussiats. With sulphur, cyanogen constitutes the Sulpho-Cyanic Acid, which is colourless or pinkish, and with a pungent smell like strong acetic acid. Both these acids were discovered by Mr. Porrett. With chlorine, cyanogen constitutes the Chloro-Cyanic Acid. Hydrocyanic or prussic acid forms too important a subject in the lists of medicine at present, to be cursorily passed over. The use of laurel water had been long known for domestic purposes, as a cordial, and to give flavour to various articles of cookery, and was supposed to be perfectly harmless. Ray, whose large botanical work was published in 1686, speaking of the Lauro Cerasus, (vol. 2. p. 1519,) says " De viribus hujus arboris ejus que fructuum in me- dicina, nihil traditum invenio." Hence no suspicion of any danger from its use in any way appears to have existed, before its fatal effects were suddenly exemplified in a young woman, whose case is record- ed by Dr. Ruttv. in one of the early volumes of the Philosophical 252 C.—Cyanogen. Transactions of Great Britain. Several similar cases successively appeared—one of which, a girl of 18 years of age, well and hearty, took less than two spoonsful of the first runnings of the simple water of laurel leaves. Within half a minute she fell down, was convulsed, foamed at the mouth, and died in a short time. Experiments multiplied in respect to this distilled water, and have at different times been largely pursued; but no idea was entertained that its poisonous property arose from the presence of prussic acid, until the experiments of Bohn proved its existence, by actually forming the Prussian blue, through the agency of chemistry, from this and analogous distilled waters. It was indeed impossible that it should be otherwise, for prussic acid itself was unknown until the time of that most illustrious of chemists of any age or country, Scheele, whose extent of discoveries in his favourite science, is only equalled by the apparently inadequate means he possessed for this. But let us not anticipate. In the year 1710, the beautiful.pigment called Prus- sian blue, was accidentally discovered at Berlin in Prussia—-hence its name of Berlin or Prussian blue—a name by which it is generally known even at this time. For 15 years the process seems to have been kept a secret—at length the preparation was given in the Phi- losophical Transactions, by which it appeared to be formed of an alkali with blood—to a lixivium of which, after roasting, green vitriol and alum were added; a precipitate was produced of a greenish co- lour, which by the addition of muriatic acid, assumed the blue ap- pearance. For a time this lixivium was known by the name of Prussian alkali. Its composition was, however, but slightly comprehended, until Scheele, finding that when Prussian blue was boiled with pure alkali, it lost its blue colour, whilsf the alkali acquired the property,of precipitating solutions of iron of a blue colour; concluded that it had become saturated with the colouring matter; and as it was then capable of crystallization or of forming a salt, that it was of the na- ture of an acid. What it was he knew not; but he discovered that it was of a volatile nature, and that by exposure to the air it escaped. Many were the experiments which he performed in order to procure it in an insulated form—at last he succeeded, and has left the fol- lowing process as the most accurate and correct.—It is the one I think, if properly pursued, which is best adapted to give an uniform preparation for the purposes of medicine. It is not, like that of some later processes, so readily decomposed by light and other accidental causes. His process was as follows:. \ Sect. IX.—To two ounces of powdered Prussian blue, and one ounce of calx of quicksilver, prepared by means of nitrous acid, I added six ounces of water in a cucurbit; I boiled this:mass for some minutes with constant agita- tion, when it assumed a yellowish grey colour. I then poured it out on a filter, and upon what remained in the filter I poured a couple of ounces of hot water, in order to elixjviate the whole thoroughly. The strained mercu- rial solution was then poured upon^ an ounce and a half of iron-filings, free from rust, and contained in a glass vessel, there being added three drachms of concentrated vitriolic acid. The whole mass was well agitated, during which, in a few minutes, it was turned quite black by the reduced quicksilver, and thereby completely lost its quicksilver taste. It, at the same time, acquir- ed the peculiar smell of the colouring matter. I left the mixture a few minutes at rest; then poured off the clear liquor into a retort; and distilled the fourth C.—Cyanogen. 253 part of it off into a well luted receiver. Here I obtained the same colouring matter as from the neutral salt (§ VI.) It is sufficient to distil off one-fourth; for this matter is much more volatile than water, and goes over first. Sect. X.—A slight vestige of vitriol easily appears in this, (§ IX.) as well as in the preceding distillation of the neutral salt (§ VI.) This little vitriolic taint must consequently be likewise separated from the colouring matter. I have remarked (§ I.) that aerial acid is capable of dislodging this matter from alkali and lixivium sanguinis. The same thing happens if this matter be com- bined with lime. It is therefore not difficult to separate,the vitriolic acid from it. - I mixed a little pounded chalk with the distilled water impregnated with this matter, and distilled the mass a second time by a gentle fire. The vitriolic acid united during this process with the chalk, and the colouring matter went over in its greatest purity. In order to hinder, as much as possible, the escape of this volatile matter through the lute, and in order to prevent the air in the receiver from absorbing too much of it, I make use of a small receiver, pour- ing a little distilled water into it, and place it so that the greatest part of the receiver during the operation, shall be immersed in cold water. This matter ha9 a peculiar, but not disagreeable smell, a taste somewhat approaching to sweet, and warm in the mouth, at the same time exciting cough.—Scheele's Chemical Essays, Lond. 1786. p. 333. The Pharm. of the U. S. directs its formation upon the above prin- ciples, but with some variations that are by no means calculated to insure its purity. We therefore venture to recommend close atten- tion to Scheele's plan. The continuance of Scheele's experiments soon led him to conclude that this acid is a compound of ammonia, or of itsv elements, with carbon. Thus he formed it by passing ammoniacal gas through a red hot tube containing charcoal, and thereby proved its composition, both synthetically and analytically. Vauquelin's mode of obtaining prussic acid, is given in the 14th vol. p. 43, of the London Medical Repository. Into a solution of two ounces of prussiat of mercury in sixteen ounces of water, pass as much sulphureted hydrogen gas as will serve to decompose the salt, leaving an excess of the gas. Filter the liquor to separate the sulphuret of mercury formed, and treat the filtered liquid with excess of sub-carbonat Of lead; shake the bottle until the excess of sulphureted hydrogen is absorbed—filter again, and the remaining liquor is diluted hydrocyanic acid, of a proper strength for medical purposes. The plan adopted at Apothecaries' Hall, is to take one .pound of prussiat of mercury, one pound of muriatic acid, and five pounds of water; distil off four pounds, and rectify through chalk. The acid thus procured has been severely animadverted on by Dr. Granville. Gay Lussac first obtained this acid in a state of absolute puritj: his process was to distil prussiat of mercury in a small tubulated retort with muriatic acid; a tube intervening between it and the re- ceiver. The first part of the tube was filled with marble, to arrest any muriatic acid; the latter part with dry muriat of lime, to retain N the moisture. The receiver was placed in snow and salt, and the acid passed over into it by a moderate heat. (See Practical Chemis- try, p. 175.) This is the substance that demonstrates the surprising activity which belongs to the acid. It is that with which the experiments of Magendie were made; a single drop producing instant death in ani- mals 254 C.—Cyanogen. According to Gay Lussac's views of this acid, it consists of one volume of carbon, half a volume of nitrogen, and half a volume of hydrogen—all condensed into one volume; or of one atom of cyano- gen, and one of hydrogen. In a review of Dr. Granville's " Practical Treatise on the internal use of hydrocyanic (prussic) acid, in Pulmonary Consumption," &c. an observation is made by tlie reviewer, which we suspect will come home forcibly to the feelings of many practitioners. " We remember the time, when the sanguine hopes held out by this new remedy, would have caused our hearts to palpitate with joy, at the prospect in which suffering humanity might reasonably indulge; but twenty-five years of observation have somewhat chilled our feel- ings on these occasions, and we have long been convinced that a care- ful study of the causes, seat, nature, and indications of a disease, will enable the attentive practitioner to effect most of what can be effected, by even a very few of the common remedies now in use."* The virtues of this powerful article, it seems to be now conceded, have been greatly over-rated. Dr. Elliotson, in his treatise on the hydrocyanic acid, affirms, that he had not found it, in pectoral com- plaints, deserving of the encomiums bestowed upon it: but he extols its virtues in dyspepsia, and functional disorders of the stomach. He found it of use in simple dry cough, and in spasmodic asthma; but in pneumonia and whooping cough, altogether useless. In phthisis it produced a slightly soothing effect, occasionally. In hemorrhages, in palpitations of the heart from organic derangements, and in all other disorders, where it is desirable to diminish the force of the blood's motion, our author apprehends the prussic acid will prove of little avail. Several hysteric, epileptic, and maniacal patients, took it without the smallest benefit; but it presently wrought a cure in the only case of chorea to which it was applied. In rheumatism it proved totally inert: but there is some ground for supposing it possessed of anthelmintic qualities. In the proportion of one or two drachms to a pint of water, it has appeared to allay the irritation of the prurigo pudendi, and some other cutaneous affections. To adults, Dr. E. generally gave it in doses of a single minim, thrice repeated in 24 hobrs; and provided neither nausea nor giddiness-, (its first sensible effects,) nor ofher inconvenience ensued, he gradually augmented to two, three, and even six minims. "Almost any adult will bear one or two minims, few more than five; three are generally borne and required, and very frequently four. One woman took seventeen minims, three times a day, without inconvenience, or benefit; eigh- teen brought on vomiting and giddiness." To the youngest infant may be given one-fourth of a minim, (i. e. half a drop, one minim being nearly two drops.) An overdose will produce vomiting, pain, and tightness at the stomach, with fainting; and if the quantity be immoderately large, convulsions and death. Decisive indications of the purity of the article, we are told, are, that the fluid should be colourless, and perfectly transparent, powerfully emitting the odour, and leaving on the tongue the flavour of bitter almonds. At the temperature of 60°, its specific gravity to distilled water is .9931 tf> * Medico-Chirurgical Review, March, 1821. C—-Cyanogen. 255 1.—If it appears turbid, or deposit anv sediment, its genuineness may be suspected. It is recommended to Iteep it in a dark and cool situ- ation, as in an earthenware vessel, filled with water, and covered over.—Medico-Chirurgical Review, March, 1821; The physical properties of this acid, as detailed by Dr. Granville, are: 1. Liquid, at common temperature, colourless, transparent, strong smell of bitter almonds; peculiar pungent bitter taste, at first bland •and sweetish. 2. Volatilized at 20° Cent. (= 68° F.) boils at 26°, (78°, F.) and at 15° below 0, (5° F.) it becomes concrete, and crystallizes in needles like nitrat of ammonia. 3. Specific gravity, 0.70583; when concrete, only 0.600; that ot its vapour, 0.947. 4. Odour so strong and characteristic, as to produce almost im- mediate pain in the head, with deafness, unless largely diluted with air or water, as in the case of the acid prepared for medicinal pur- poses; otherwise it is the same smell with peach flowers or bitter al- monds. 5. Great tendency to assume a gaseous form; decomposed by high temperature, or by the contact of light: carbonic acid, volatile alkali, and carbureted hydrogen gas, are given out, a carbonaceous matter remaining behind. 6. When brought near a body in a state of combustion, it instantly inflames and burns with a blue flame. Water and alcohol dissolve it readily. In the London Medical Repository, vol. 15, April, 1821, Mr. R. Maguire has given a new mode of obtaining the hydrocyanic (prussic) acid, with a sketch of the apparatus employed. It is apparently a very simple and easy process, and if uniformly adopted, will afford a preparation of the same strength. Four ounces of distilled water are placed in a receiver, surround- ed with ice, and the acid evolved from one ounce of pure crystallized cyanuret (prussiat) of mercury, by the addition of pure colourless muriatic acid, is made to impregnate it. Three drops of this solution every three hours, produced all the sedative effects described by Dr. Granville so decidedly, as' to cause a temporary suspension of its use. Perhaps the following remark of the reviewer of Dr. Granville's work on prussic acid, may serve an useful purpose at the conclusion of this subject: " Whilst we can make allowances for the partialities of an inven- tor, or reviver, of a favourite remedy, we think it the most friendly act to draw the author's (every practitioner's) attention, repeatedly towards the fallacious nature of medical evidence, as proved by all historical records. At the same time, we are not among those who discourage the introduction of every new remedy, as a dangerous in- novation. "—Medico-Chirurgical Review, 1821. Prussiat of Iron.—Prussian Blue. It is not necessary to enter into a detail of the manufacture of this article, which is more an object of paintiDg than of medicine. It is, 256 D.—Daphne Mezereum., as above stated, employed in the formation of prussiat of mercury a= the preparatory step to making the prussic acid. It is introduced to notice here, as having been successfully employed in uterine hemor- rhage.—All that is known to me on this subject, is contained in the following extract of a letter from Dr. T. Thomas, of Maryland, to his son, then pursuing his medical studies in our university. " I was induced to use the prussiat of iron in uterine hemorrhage, from a paper written by Dr. Hall of Baltimore, and published in the Lyceum, a periodical work of that city. He details several violent ■ cases of that disease, in which the prussiat of iron produced instant and most happy effects. Dr. Young, of this county, read a paper on this subject before our district Medical Society; he stated several cases successfully treated by it, and in all such cases he depends entirely upon this remedy. On the recommendation of these gentle- men, I was induced to use it, and was quite gratified with the result. I give ten grains mixed in a cup of milk, once every two hours: I have seldom had occasion to give more than three doses, before the disease yielded. One or two cases have occurred in which the re- medy failed, though it had five effect of lessening the violence of the disease. A lady, in September last, in the seventh month of her pregnancy, on rising from her bed in the morning, was suddenly seized with a severe uterine hemorrhage. She was put to bed imme- diately, and ten grains of the prussiat of iron were given in a cup of milk; rest and quietness enjoined, and cold applications were order- ed to the pubes. The medicine was repeated every two hours, until three doses were taken: she then complained of nausea and it was omitted: the discharge at this time was considerably lessened and finally ceased. In three days afterwards, on her using a little exer- tion, it was again brought on. Sacch. saturn. and opium were direct- ed without any permanent effect., After employing all theremedies usually recommended in this disease with only a temporary effect, the lady was directed to remain in bed and trust to rest. She went her full time, had an easy labour, and has never had so good a con- finement." In the American Journal of Science and Arts, vol. 3. p. 187, will be found an interesting article, entitled " Reports and Memoranda of cases in which the Prussic Acid has been administered." , It is well worthy the perusal of every physician. D. DAPHNE MEZEREUM. E. D. MEZEREON. L. A. Common Mezereon. Spurge Olive. The Bark of the Root. Octandria Monogynia. Nat. ord. Vepreculae, Linn. Thymelese, Juss. Syn. Laureole gentile, (F.) Kellerkals, (G.) Mezereo, (I.) a«v», Theophr. et Dioscor. Mezereon is a shrub which grows in woody situations in the north- ern parts of Europe, and is admitted into our gardens from its flow- ering in winter. The bark, which is taken from the trunk, larger D.—Datura Stramonium. 25*7 branches, and root, is thin, striped reddish, commonly covered with a brown cuticle, has no smell, and when chewed, excites an insup- portable sensation of burning in the mouth and throat. When appli- ed to the skin in its recent state, or infused in vinegar, it raises blis- ters. Its acrid principle is said to be soluble in ether. Medical use.—The root was long used in the Lisbon diet-drink, for venereal complaints, particularly nodes and other symptoms re- sisting the use of mercury. The bark of the root contains most acri- mony, though some prefer the woody part. Mezereon has also been used with good effects in tumours and cutaneous eruptions not ve- nereal. Dr. Cullen says that it acts upon the uririe, sometimes giving it a filamentous appearance, and upon the perspiration, without dimin- ishing the strength remarkably; and that in irritable habits it quick- ens the pulse, and increases the heat of the whole body. But Mr. Pearson, of the Lock Hospital, says, that excepting a case or two of lepra, in which a decoction of this plant conferred temporary bene- fit, he very seldom found it possessed of medicinal virtues, either in syphilis, or in the sequelse of that disease. In scrofula, or in cutane- ous affections, it is employed chiefly under the form of decoction; and it enters the decoctum sarsaparillae compositum of the London college; but it has also been used in powder, combined with some inactive one, as that of liquorice-root. It is apt to occasion vomiting and purging; so must be begun in grain doses, and gradually in- creased. It is often combined with mercury. The berries are still more acrid than the bark, and they have even been known to produce fatal effects on children, who have been tempted by their beauty to eat them. It is said that they are some- times infused in vinegar, to make it more pungent, and appear stronger. DATURA STRAMONIUM. E. STRAMONIUM. D. A. Thorn-Apple. Jamestown Weed, $c. The Leaves and Seed. Pentandria Monogynia. Nat. ord. Solanaceae, Linn. Solaneac, Juss. Syn. Pomme Epineuse, (F.) Stechapfel, (G.) Stramonio, (I.) The Thorn-apple is an annual plant, a native of America, but now growing wild On dry hills and uncultivated places in England and other parts of Europe. The leaves are dark green, sessile, large, egg-shaped, pointed, angular, and deeply indented, of a disagreeable smell and nauseous taste. Every part of the plant is a strong nar- cotic poison, producing vertigo, torpor, death. The best antidote to its effects is *aid to be vinegar. Crystals of nitrat of potash shoot in the extract as prepared by Stoerck, when kept several months. Beverley, in his history of Virginia, (1722, p. 121,) speaking of this plant, says, '-This being an early plant, was gathered very young for a boifed sal lad, by some of the soldiers sent thither to quell the rebellion of Bacon, and some of them eat plentifully of it; the effect of which was a very pleasant comedy; for they turned natural fools 258 D.—Datura Stramonium. upon it for several days; one would blow up a feather in the air, another would dart straws at it with much fury, and another stark naked, was sitting up in a corner, like a monkey, grinning and ma- king mows at them; a fourth would fondly kiss and paw his com- panions, and sneer in their faces, with a countenance more antic than any in a Dutch droll. In this frantic condition they were con- fined lest they should in their folly destroy themselves, though it was observed that all their actions were full of innocence and good nature.. Indeed, they were not very cleanly, for they would have wallowed in their own excrements, if they had not been prevented. A thousand such simple tricks they played, and after eleven days, returned to themselves again, not remembering any thing that had passed." ^ Medical wse.—Dr. Stoerck first tried it as a remedy in mania and melancholy with considerable success. Several cases of the same diseases were also cured or relieved by it, under the direction of different Swedish physicians;<«nd although in other experiments it frequently failed, it deserves the attention of practitioners, and well merits a trial, in affections often incurable by other means. Besides maniacal cases, the stramonium has been also employed, and sometimes with advantage, in convulsive and epileptic affec- tions. It is not only taken internally, but has'also been used ex- ternally. An ointment prepared from the leaves of the stramonium has also been said to give ease in external inflammations and hae- morrhoids. The inspissated juice of the leaves has been commonly used, but its exhibition requires the greatest caution. At first, one-fourth of a grain is a sufficient dose. The powder of the leaves or seeds promises to furnish a more certain or convenient formula than the inspissated juice. According to the late professor Barton, the stramonium is a south- ern plant, which is gradually diffusing itself, where, a few years since, it was entirely unknown. In 1797, the Doctor adds, he was shown a solitary plant, at Wilkesbarre, in the Wyoming settlement, where it was deemed a great curiosity, and a new-comer. Taken in large quantities, this vegetable sometimes, induces tetanus. Dr. Bartou mentions the cases of three British soldiers, who ate the stramonium by mistake for lamb's quarters, (Chenopodium album.) One became furious and ran about like a madman. A second was seized with genuine tetanus, of which he died. The fate of the third person is not remembered. Dr. Barton considered the stramonium as a medicine of great and invaluable powers. He began its use, in doses of a few grains, in- creasing it in a few days to 15 or 20 grains. In one case of mania he gave it to the extent of 60 grains, at a dose. In a case, in which it was exhibited to 30 grains, it dilated the pupil of one eye, and produced palsy of the palpebra of the same, which was removed by a blister.* Hufeland gave it in the form of a tincture, prepared of two ounces » Barton's Medical and Physical Journal, Vol. I. p. 146.—Collections, Part. I. p. 46. See also Dr. Cooper's "Inaugural Dissertation on the properties and effects of the Datura Stramonium &c. Philadelphia, 1797." D.—Datura Stramonium. 259 of the seeds in four ounces of wine, and one of diluted alcohol, in diseases of the mind. The inspissated juice of the leaves has been most commonly used; but its exhibition requires the greatest cau- tion. At first, a quarter of a grain is a sufficient dose. The bruised leaves, according to Plenck, soften hard and inflamed tu- mours, and discuss tumours in the breasts of nurses, from indurated milk. The smoke of the stramonium has lately been much extolled for the cure of asthma. Its use in this manner has been derived from the East Indies, where, however, other species of datura, the fatuosa andferox, are employed. Dr. Anderson, of Madras, recommended these to General Gent, who made the practice known in Britain, where the stramonium seems first to have been substituted by Mr. Sills. This gentleman received so much benefit from inhaling its smoke, that he published his case in the Monthly Magazine, and recommended it very freely. According to all those who have em- ployed it, it is the root only and the lower part of the stem which is to be used. These arer to be dried as quickly as possible, cut into slips, and beat so as to divide the fibres. The manner of using them is by filling the bowl of a tobacco pipe, as with tobacco, and inhaling the smoke. The saliva excited, is directed to be swallowed, but its safety may be considered doubtful. Used in this way, it is however said to excite a sense of heat in the chest, followed by copious ex- pectoration, and sometimes attended with temporary vertigo or drowsiness, and rarely nausea. It frequently gives relief when a pipe is thus smoked upon a paroxysm being threatened, or even after its commencement: the patient falls asleep, and awakes recovered from the paroxysm. In some cases^a perfect cure is effected, but more commonly the relief, is only temporary. It seems, however, valuable as a palliative, and the direct application of the remedy to the seat of the disease is rational at least. Dr. Marcet, of London, has lately spoken well of the stramonium in the Medico-Chirurgicai Transactions, vii. p. 551. He used the extract, the preparation of which is thus described by Mr. Hudson, of the Hay Market. "One pound of the seeds of stramonium, after being well bruised, are boiled with three gallons of water down to one gallon. The de- coction is strained, and,the seeds are again boiled, with one gallon more of water, to two quarts. This second decoction is strained, and being mixed with the former, the whole is allowed to stand for twelve hours. The liquor is then drawn off, free from fecula and oil, and evaporated to a proper consistence, the latter part of the evapo- ration being performed in a water-bath. A considerable portion of oil is separated from the seeds by boiling, which is troublesome in the extract, if allowed to remain, and does not appear to add in any degree to its effect. *' The quantity of extract, yielded by one pound of seeds, is from one ounce and a half to two ounces, being liable to some variation from the state and quality of the seeds. . " An analogous extract is obtained by a process exactly similar, by substituting the whole plant cut into small pieces, instead of the seeds; but in this case none of the oily matter abovementioned ap- 260 D__Decocta. pears. The proportion of extract, when prepared from the whole plant, has not been ascertained " Dr. Marcet adds, "that from the few comparative trials I have made of the two kinds of preparations, the extract obtained from the seeds has appeared to me considerably more active than that prepared from the whole plant; and the impression made upon my mind from these trials is, that the extract from the seeds is more certain, in its effects than the other, and that one part of the former is at least equal in power to two parts of the latter. But though the one appears to be so much stronger than the other, I am not able to point out any other difference between the two preparations." Dr. Marcet states the result of his experience in the following sentences: "I do not by any means pretend to have yet acquired a competent knowledge of the properties of this medicine: but if I were called upon to express, in a few words, the general opinion which I feel inclined to form from the opportunities I haVe had of studying them, I should say that the most common effect of stramo- nium, when administered in appropriate doses, (one-eighth of a grain to a grain,) in cases, of chronic disease, attended with acute pain, is to lessen powerfully, and almost immediately, sensibility and pain; to occasion a sort of nervous shock, which is frequently attended with a momentary affection of the head and eyes, with a degree of nausea, and with phenomena resembling those that are produced by intoxication; to excite in many instances nervous sensations, which are referred to the oesophagus, or bronchia, or fauces, and which sometimes amount to a sense of suffocation; to have rather a relaxing than an astringent effect upon the bowels; to have no marked influ- ence upon the frequency of the pulse, though in a few instances it has appeared to render it somewhat slower; to produce but a transi- tory and inconsiderable dilatation of the iris and pupil; and to have but little immediate tendency to induce sleep, except from the state of comparative serenity and ease, which generally follows the symp- toms I have just described." Its use was first suggested to Dr. Mar- cet by the son of Mr. Norwood, of Ashford, as used by his father. It would appear that the activity of stramonium depends on a certain alkaline principle, which Mr. Brandes has succeeded in extracting from its seeds, and which he has named Daturine or Daturium. (Journ. de Physique, xci. p. 144.) ~ DECOCTA.—DECOCTIONS. Decoctions differ from infusions only in the action of the menstruum being assisted by a boiling heat. At the sanie time, however, that the increase of temperature facilitates and expedites the solution of some fixed principles, it gives others a tendency to decomposition, and dissipates all volatile matters. Decoction, therefore, can only be used with advantage for the extraction of principles which are nei- ther volatilized nor altered by a boiling heat. To promote the action of the menstruum, infusion is sometimes premised to decoction. D.—Decocta. 261 In compound decoctions it is sometimes convenient not to put in all the ingredients from the first, but in succession, according to their hardness and the difficulty with which their virtues are extracted; and if any aromatic, or other substances containing volatile princi- ples, enter into the composition, the boiling decoction is to be simply poured upon them, and covered up until cool. Decoctions should be made in vessels sufficiently large to prevent any risk of boiling over, and should be continued without interrup- tion, and gently: and as they are liable to spoil, they should always be made in small quantities, and never used after two days old, es- pecially in summer. DECOCTUM ARALIA NUDICAULIS. Decoction of False Sarsaparilla. Take of False Sarsaparilla, bruised, six ounces; Water, eight pints. Digest for four hours," and then boil down to four pints; press out and strain the decoction. Pharm. U. S. It is somewhat remarkable that the Pharmacopoeia of the United States should have introduced into it a problematical article, as the chief part of a standard formula; for the aralia nudicaulis is only on its secondary list of medicines. Its virtues may be learned by re- ference to the plant. It is most probable, that in preparing this de- coction, all the virtues of the plant would be abstracted either by the four hours digestion, or the boiling to one-half. Certainly there is an unnecessary waste of time and fuel for very little purpose. DECOCTUM CINCHONA. L. A. Decoctum Cinchona Lancifolia. E. Decoctum Corticis ClNCHON-E. D. Decoction of (Cinchona) Peruvian Bark. Take of Peruvian bark, in powder, one ounce; Water, one pint and a half. Boil for ten minutes, in a covered vessel and strain the liquor while hot. Ed. The Edinburgh College, whose formula is followed in the Phar- macopoeia of the United States, mentions the lance-leaved cinchona, and so does the London. If it was intended to be optional, this should have been mentioned, as the present plan produces a dilem- ma, and a want of uniformity; for if there is a difference in the powers of the three species, there will be the same, probably, in the decoction from them. Cinchona bark readily yields its active principles to the action of boiling water, and in greater quantity than cold water is capable of retaining dissolved; therefore when a saturated decoction cools, it becomes turbid, and there is always a deposition of a yellowish or reddish powder, while the supernatant liquor is reduced to the strength of a saturated cold infusion. Decoction therefore presents us with an easy means of obtaining immediately an active prepara- tion of cinchona bark, and with one of greater strength than a cold or even a warm infusion, provided it be drunk while tepid, and be- fore it forms any deposition, or if the precipitate be diffused by agi- 262 D.—Decocta. tation, after it is formed. As the precipitate contains no woody fibre. or other inert matter, it is extremely probable that in very small doses it would prove, if dried, a very powerful preparation of cin- chona bark. Formerly it was supposed that the strength of a decoction of cin- chona bark, and similar substances, was increased by continuing the boiling for a great length of time; but this is now known to be a mis- take; and indeed after a certain time the decoction becomes weaker instead of stronger, because water at different temperatures is capa- ble of dissolving only a determinate proportion of its active princi- ples, and therefore, as soon as it is saturated, any further decoction is unnecessary. But moreover, these principles, when dissolved in water, are liable to be decomposed and become inert, by the absorp- tion of atmospheric oxygen, and this decomposition is increased by increase of temperature; and as boiling constantly presents new surfaces to the action of the air, it is evidently hurtful when pro- tracted longer than what is just necessary to saturate the water. Ten minutes are supposed by the colleges to be sufficient for that purpose. Every purpose for which this decoction is intended, may be equally attained by preparing it as we do the common tea, viz. by adding the boiling water to be powdered bark, in a tea-pot, and suffering it to stand till cool: all the soluble and active parts are thus held dissolv- ed, and the inactive, ligneous matter is left behind. DECOCTUM COLOMBO COMPOSITUM. A. Compound Decoction of Colombo. Take of Colombo, bruised, Quassia, rasped, of each, two drachms; Orange peel, one. drachm; Rhubarb in powder, one scruple; Carbo- nat of potass, half a drachm; Water, twenty fluid ounces. Boil to a pint, and add half a fluid ounce of tincture of lavender. We presume this is a very good tonic, but not superior to that which might be prepared from the three first ingredients only. No particular advantage would seem to be anticipated from the addition of the rhubarb and carbonated potash. DECOCTUM DULCAMARA. L. A. Decoction of Bitter Sweet, or Woody JVightshade. Take of Stalks of Bitter sweet, sliced, one ounce; Water, one pint and a half. Boil down to a pint, and strain. L. Its use may be learned by referring to Dulcamara. DECOCTUM GUAIACI COMPOSITUM. E.* (Compound) Decoction of Guaiacum. Decoction of the Woods. Take of Guaiacum wood, rasped, three ounces; Raisins, stoned, two ounces; Sassafras, sliced, Liquorice, bruised, of each, one ounce; Water, ten pints. Boil the guaiacum and raisins in the water, over a gentle fire, down to five pints, adding the roots towards the end of the boiling; then strain the liquor. Ed. * Decoctum Guaiaci of Pharm. U. S.. D.—Decocta. 263 This decoction is of use in some rheumatic and cutaneous affec- tions. It may be taken by itself, to the quantity of a quarter of a pint, twice or thrice a day, or used as an assistant in a course of mercurial or antimonial alteratives; the patient in either case keep- ing warm, in order to promote the operation of the medicine. DECOCTUM HORDEI. E. L. D. A. Decoction of Barley. Barley Water. Take of Pearl-barley, two ounces. Having first washed the barley in cold water, boil it for a short time in about half a pint of water; throw away this water; then pour upon the barley five pints of boil- ing water; boil it next until half the quantity of the water be eva- porated, and afterwards strain it. Ed. DECOCTUM HORDEI COMPOSITUM. L. D. A. Compound Decoction of Barley. Take of Decoction of Barley, four pints; Rai&ins, stoned, two ounces; Figs, sliced, tivo ounces; Liquorice, bruised, half an ounce. Boil to the consumption of one-half of the liquor; first adding the raisins, then the figs, and a short time before the process is finished, the liquorice; lastly strain. D. These liquors are to be used freely, as diluting drinks, in fever* and other acute disorders: hence it is of consequence that they should be prepared so as to be as elegant and agreeable as possible; for this reason they are inserted in the pharmacopoeia, and the several cir- cumstances which contribute to their elegance set down: if any one of them be omitted, the beverage will be less grateful. However trivial medicines of this class may appear to be, they are of greater importance in the cure of acute diseases than many more elaborate preparations. Barley water, however, is much more frequently prepared by nurses than apothecaries, particularly in its simple state. DECOCTUM LICHENIS. E. L. D. A. Decoction of Iceland Liverwort. Take of Iceland moss, one ounce; Water, one pint and a half. Boil down to a pint, and strain with compression. L. As in the present preparation the bitter principle is not removed, it may have some action as a tonic; but it renders it at the same time too nauseous to be used in sufficient quantity to have much effect as an article of diet. DECOCTUM (DAPHNES, E.) MEZEREI. A Decoction of Mezereon. Take of Mezereon, two drachms; Liquorice, bruised, half an ounce; Water, three pints. Boil with a gentle heat to two pints, and strain. Ed. From four to eight ounces of this decoction may be given four times a day, in some obstinate venereal and rheumatic affections. It operates chiefly by perspiration. 264 D.—Decocta. DECOCTUM SARSAPARILLA. E. D. L. A. Decoction of Sarsaparilla. Take of Sarsaparilla, sliced, six ounces; Water, one gallon. Digest for two hours with a heat of about 195; then take out the sarsapa- rilla, and bruise it; put it back into the same liquor, boil down to four pints, express and strain the decoction. Ed. Its diaphoretic effects are probably owing to its being drunk warm. It is totally incapable of curing syphilis, but by some it is thought useful in the sequelae of that disease, and in syphiloid af- fections. DECOCTUM SARSAPARILLA COMPOSITUM. D. L. A. Compound Decoction of Sarsaparilla. Take of Sarsaparilla, sliced and bruised, one ounce and a lialf; Guaiacum wood, rasped, Sassafras, Liquorice, bruised, of each two drachms ; Mezereon, one drachm; Boiling water, three pints. Digest in the water, with a gentle heat, for six hours, the sarsapa- rilla, guaiacum, and sassafras ; then boil down to one half, adding towards the end of the boiling, the liquorice and mexeteon ; and strain the liquor. D. This compound decoction is an elegant mode of preparing an arti- cle once highly celebrated under the title of the Lisbon diet-drink, which, for a long time after its first introduction into Britain, was kept a secret; but an account of the method of preparing it was at length published in the Physical and Literary Essays of Edinburgh, by Dr. Donald Monro. It operates as a diaphoretic, and may be given with advantage in rheumatic cases, and in some of the sequelae of syphilis. Three or four ounces may be taken four times a day. DECOCTUM SCILLA. A. Decoction of Squill. Take of Squill, three drachms; Juniper, four ounces ; Seneca Snake root, three ounces ; Water, four pints. Boil t4 the consumption of one half the liquor ; then strain and add, Spirit of nitrous ether, four fluid ounces. Its powers depend principally, we should conceive, on the seneca and the sweet spirit of nitre. DECOCTUM SENEGA. L. E. A. Decoction of Seneca'Snake Root. Take of Seneca snake root, one ounce; Water, two pints. Boil down to a pint, and strain, L. E. The virtues of this decoction will be easily understood from those of the root from which it is prepared. The dose in hydropic cases, and rheumatic or arthritic complaints, is two ounces, three or four times a day, according to its effect. It is recommended in affections of the lungs, attended with debility, and inordinate secretion. D—Decoeta. 265 DECOCTUM VERATRI. L. A. Decoction of White hellebore. Take of White hellebore, bruised, one ounce; Water, two pints; Al- cohol, two fluid ounces. Boil the hellebore in the water down to a pint, and strain the decoction; then after it has cooled, add the al- cohol. L. This decoction is only used externally as a wash in tinea capitis, lepra, psora, &c. When the skin is very tender, it should be diluted with an equal quantity of water. Decoctum AlthjejE Officinalis. E. Decoction of Marsh Mallows. Take of dried Marshmallow roots, four ounces; Raisins of the sun, stoned, two ounces; Water, seven pounds.—Boil to five pounds; place apart the strained liquor till the feces have subsided, then pour off the clear liquor. Marshmallow roots contain nothing soluble in water except muci- lage, which is very abundant in them. This decoction is therefore to be considered merely as an emollient, rendered more pleasant by the acidulous sweetness of the raisins. Decoctum ChamjEMEli. E. D. Decoction of Chamomile. Decoction for Fomentations. Take of the leaves of Southernwood, dried, the tops of Sea-worm- wood, dried, Chamomile flowers, dried, each one ounce; Bay leaves, dried, half an ounce; Distilled water, six pints.—Boil them a little, and strain. This decoction is merely a solution of bitter extractive, combined with essential oils. In making it, the aromatic substances should not be added until the decoction is nearly completed; for otherwise their flavour would be entirely dissipated. It must, however, be acknowledged, that these impregnations are for the most part unnecessary for the purpose of clysters; and in or- dinary cases, the bulk and warmth produce a discharge before these medicines can have any effect. As fomentations, their virtues are also in a great measure to be ascribed to the influence of the warm water: and when the herbs themselves are applied, they act only as retaining heat and moisture for a longer time. Decoctum Digitalis. D. Decoction of Foxglove. Take of Foxglove leaves, dried, one drachm; Wafer, as much as will furnish a strained decoction of eight ounces, by measure.—Place the vessel upon a slow fire, and as soon as the liquor boils, remove it. Digest for a quarter of an hour, and strain. This decoction, according to the proportion employed, is twenty times weaker than that so much praised by Dr. Darwin; but with a medicine of such great activity, it is an advantage to be able to re- gulate the doses easily; and it is probable that the strength of decoc- tions is not increased in proportion as the quantity of the menstruum is diminished. 35 266 D.—Delphinium Staphisagria. Decoctum Geoffr^^ Inermis. E. Decoction of Cabbage Tree Bark. Take of Bark of the cabbage-tree, powdered, one ounce; Water, two , pounds.—Boil it with a gentle fire down to one pound, and strain. Ed. This is a powerful anthelmintic. It may be given in doses of one table-spoonful to children, and four to adults. If disagreeable symp- toms should arise from an over-dose, or from drinking cold water during its action, we must immediately purge with castor-oil, and dilute with acidulated drinks. Decoctum Ulmi. E. L. D. Decoction of Elm. Take of the fresh inner bark of Elm, bruised, four ounces; Water, four pints.'—Boil to two pints, and strain. L. Under this form, the elm, bark has been employed for combating those cutaneous eruptions, against which it has of late been so highly celebrated. Experience, however, in actual practice, by no means confirms the very favourable account which some have given of its use. We freely confess we think this numerous list of decoctions better adapted to the meridian of a sick chamber, as extemporaneous pre- scriptions, than as the regular formulae of standard Pharmacopoeias, and we should be glad to see them removed altogether, or with few exceptions, from our compounds. DELPHINIUM STAPHISAGRIA. L. D. E. Stavesacre. The Seed. Polyandria Trigynia. Nat. ord. Multisiliquac, Linn. Ranunculaceas, Juss. Syn. Staphisagre, (F.) Stafisagria, (I.) Piojenta, (S.) 2t*elow that of boil- ing; four grains only were dissolved. B. " The solution was intensely bitter, of a brownish ye.llow colour, and was not in the least disturbed by alcohol, although a solution of iodine produced a blue colour; the solution therefore contained no gum, and only slight traces of starch. C. " The solution, after standing twenty-four hours, yielded a pellicle of insolu- ble matter, which when burnt appeared to resemble gluten. D. " The six grains which were insoluble in water, were treated for forty-eight hours with alcohol of the specific gravity .817, at 66° of Fahrenheit,- a green solution was obtained, but by slow evaporation only half a grain of solid green matter was procured. The insoluble residue obstinately adhered to, and coat- ed the filtre like a varnish, and completely defended the mass from the action of the alcohol; it is probable that it consisted principally of fecula. Experiments. Series 2d- E. " Ten grains of Eiaterium, from the same sample, were treated with alcohol of the specific gravity .817, at 66° Fah. for twenty-four hours; upon being filtered, and the residuum washed with successive portions of alcohol, the eiaterium was found to have lost only 1.6 of a grain. The high specific gra- vity of the alcohol in this experiment, was important; had it been lower, dif- ferent results would have been produced. F. " The alcoholic solution obtained in the last experiment, was of a most brilliant and beautiful green colour, resembling that of the oil of cajeput, but brighter; upon slowly evaporating it, 1.2 grains of solid green matter was ob- tained. G. "The solid green matter of the last experiment was treated with boiling distilled water, when a minute portion was thus dissolved, and a solution of a most intensely bitter taste, and of a brownish yellow colour, resulted. H. " The residue, insoluble in water, was inflammable, burning with smoke, and an aromatic odour, not in the least bitter; it was soluble in alkalies, and was again precipitated from them unchanged in'-colour; it formed with pure alcohol, a beautiful tincture, which yielded an odour of a very nauseous kind, but of very little flavour, and which gave a precipitate with water; it was soft, and of considerable specific gravity, sinking rapidly in water; circumstances which distinguish it from common resin; in very minute quantities it purges. It appears to be the element in, which the purgative powers of the eiaterium .ire concentrated? and which I have denominated elatix. .4 2.6 2.8 .5 2.5 1.2 276 E.—Eiaterium. i. "The residuum, insoluble in alcohol, weighing 8.4 grs. {Expt. E.) was boiled in double distilled water, when 5.9 grs. were dissolved. J. " The above solution was copiously precipitated blue by a solution of iodine, and scarcely disturbed by the per-sulpkat of iron. K. "The part insoluble, both in alcohol and Water, which was left after expe- ' riment I., amounted to 2.5 grains; it burnt like wood, and was insoluble in alkalies. " It appears that the whole of the elatin does not separate itself from its native juice by spontaneous subsidence, and that, on this account the supernatant liquor possesses some powers as a cathartic. We cannot be surprised, therefore, that the eiaterium of commerce should be»a very variable and uncertain medicine; for, independent of the great temptation which its high price holds out for adulterat- ing it, which is frequently done with starch, it necessarily follows, that where the active principle of a compound bears so small a pro- portion to its bulk, it is liable to be affected by the slightest variation in the process for its preparation, and even by the temperature pf the season; where pressure is used for obtaining the juices, a greater or less quantity of the inactive parts of the cucumber will be mixed with the elatin, in proportion to the extent of such pressure, and the eiaterium will of course be proportionally weak.* There is one curious result obtained in my experiments which deserves notice, viz. that there is a bitter principle in the eiaterium, very distinct from its extractive matter, and totally unconnected with its activity, for I diluted the solution obtained in experiment G. and swallowed it, but it produced upon me no effect, except that which I generally experience upon taking a powerful bitter—an increased appetite; and yet, notwithstanding this fact, when in combination with elatin it is far from being inert, since this latter body is considerably quick- ened by its presence.—The solution B. was given to a person, but no effect whatever ensued. Dose of good eiaterium, as it occurs in commerce, is about two grains, or it is better to give it only to the extent of a half a grain at a time, and to repeat that dose every hour until it begins to operate. It is probably, when thus managed, the best hydragogue cathartic which we possess; it differs, however, from ,the class of remedies to which it belongs, for it excites the pulse and whole animal system, so as to produce a considerable degree of febrile action. It was strongly recommended by Sydenham, Lister, and * When it has a dark green colour, approaching to black, is compact, and very heavy, and breaks with a shining resinous fracture, we may reject it as an inferior article. Since the publication of my experiments upon the ordinary eiaterium of commerce, I have been favoured by Mr. Barry, wjth the results of his trials upon the eiaterium made by W. Allen & Co. according to the improved pro- cess of Dr. Clutterbuck; of the first sample, he found that out of ten grains," 5.5 were soluble in spirit of the specific gravity 809, of the second 6.2, and of the third 6.4; of that prepared by the same process at Apothecaries' Hall, 6 grains were soluble. The residue, insoluble in the spirit, was administered to a patient, and ascertained to be perfectly inert. This report confirms be- yond a,doubt the great superiority of the eiaterium when prepared without pressure, according to the suggestion of Dr. Clutterbuck. E___Electricitas. 277 Hoffman, and all their cotemporaries and immediate successors, as a valuable remedy in dropsy, but in consequence of some fatal results from its improper application, it was driven from practice with a vio- lence that marks prejudice rather than conviction; one author in des- canting upon its virulence, exclaims " Eiaterium esse in catalogo diaboli quo necat homines." ELECTRICITAS. Electricity. When we consider the great activity of the electric fluid, and the important agency it exercises in the operations of nature, we cannot be surprised that its first discovery should have been hailed as lead- ing to a vast accession in the healing art. So exaggerated, however, were the encomiums bestowed upon it, by those who first advanced its claims to a standing as, a means of cure, that, subsequent experi- ence not verifying it, it sank into unmerited disuse. In the first accounts of Mussenbroeck of the effects of the Leyden vial, surprise and terror usurped the place of judgment; and led a man of the most philosophic and candid character to give to Reaumur such a detail of its power, that we are lost in astonishment at the effects of the ima- gination. Electrifying a glass of water, and attempting to take a spark from the chain still left in the water, the glass being held in the hand, a shock was experienced^Mussenbroeck assures Reaumur, " qu'il fut tellement frappe sur les bras, sur les epaules etdans la poitrine, qu'il en perdit la respiration, et qu'il fut plus de deux jours avant de re- venir des eft'ets du coup et de la frayeur; et lorsqu'il il ajoute qu'il ne voudroit pas la repeter une seconde fois pour la couronne de France."— Sigaud de la Fond, precis d,Electricite.<—212. The first effects of almost every important remedy, have generally been over-rated; and it requires time for the real character of the article to be duly estimated. Except in the hands of a few medical electricians, the powerful energy of" this wonderful agent appears still to be unknown to the generality of physicians. The details, however, given in various volumes of the Philosophical Transactions of Great Britain; in the treatises on Electricity, by Adams, by Birch, Cavallo, Cuthbertson and others, are amply sufficient to demonstrate its importance in the healing art. To those treatises the reader is referred as affording tlie best evidence that we are too neglectful of its benefits. From them we learn that it has been successfully employed in rheumatism, deafness, tooth-ache, swellings and inflammations of different parts, in gutta serena, fistula lacrymalis, paralysis, hemi- plegia, ulcers, eruptions, chorea, scrofula, abscesses, nervous head- aches, dropsy, gout, intermittents, suppression of the menstrual dis- charge, and several other forms of diseased action. Cases are par- ticularly detailed of most of these, by which the reader will be en- abled to draw his own deductions. In the United States, we are not altogether deficient in similar proofs. Mr. Tucker, of this city, has been very successful in relieving many persons by the means of 278 E.—Eryngium. Electricity; and we would hope that more attention will be in future bestowed by regular practitioners to the employment of this powerful agent. The best means of regulating its use, may be acquired by re- ference to the authors abovementioned. We have considered it pro- per to direct the attention of practitioners once more to a nearly ob- solete practice. ERIGERON CANADENSE.J Canada Flea-bane. The Plant. What the particular virtues of this plant are, which caused its in- troduction into the secondary list of the United States' Pharmaco- poeia, I know not. It is not noticed by either Professors Bigelow or Barton. It is however, probably allied in virtues to the fol- lowing. ERIGERON PHILADELPHICUM. j Scabious. Skevish. Philadelphia Flea-bane. The Plant. This is one of the most common plants in many parts of the Uni- ted States. It has been used in decoction or infusion in Philadelphia for gouty and gravelly complaints, and in some instances with much benefit. It operates powerfully as a diuretic and sudorific. It is known by the name of Skevish, in Pennsylvania, which Dr. Barton suspects to be a corruption of the word Scabious. This plant is employed by the Cochin-Chinese, according to Father Lureiro; who speaks of it is an active emmenagogue. * ERYNGIUM AQUATICUM4 Water Eryngo. Button Snake Root. The Root. This plant is nearly allied to the contrayerva of the shops, and acts more especially as a sudorific. It is used in decoction by the southern Indians.! Eryngium Maritimum. D. Sea Holly. Sea Eryngo. Tlie Foot. This plant grows plentifully on some of the sandy and gravelly shores of Great Britain: the roots are slender, and very long; of a pleasant sweetish taste, whicb, on chewing them for some time, i? followed by a slight degree of aromatic warmth and acrimony. They are accounted aperient and diuretic, and have also been celebrated as aphrodisiac: their virtues however, are too weak to admit them under the head of medicines. * Barton's Collections, Part II. p. 46. f Barton's Collections, Part I. p. ?0 t All these are secondary articles in the Pharm. U. S. E.—Eupatorium. 279 ERYTHRONIUM AMERICANUM.* Common Erythronium. The Plant. From all I can learn of this plant, it seems better calculated to afford a supply of farinaceous aliment, than of an active medicine; for although in its green, or recently dried state, it acts as an emetic in doses of twenty-five to forty grains; yet when fully and thoroughly dried, and when exposed to heat, it appears to lose this property. I cannot well see why it is added to our list of supernumeraries. EUPATORIUM. 1. Eupatorium Aya-Payna. This plant has of late excited attention amongst the French Phy- sicians, through the means of Captain Augustin Baudin, by whom it Was carried from Brazil to the Isle of France. In Brazil it has re- ceived the name of the miraculous plant, from its many real or at- tributed virtues in the cure of disease. This plant is particularly described by Mr. De Ventenat, in his superb work, entitled "Le Jardin dela Malmaison." He refers it to the genus Eupatorium. It belongs to the Corymbiferae of Jussieu, and to the Polygamia aequalis of Linnaeus. It grows plentifully on the river of Amazons; and is easily propagated by slips. It is reputed to be an alexipharmic, emmenagogue, diaphoretic, &c. It is also said to possess lithontriptic virtues. It is chiefly on account of its first mentioned property that it is so highly esteemed by the South Americans; in confirmation of which, numerous well authenticated cases have been published. In two cases, the one of the sting of a scorpion, the other from the prick of the fish called the Last, in fish- ing, both detailed in the Colonial Gazette, the application of the pounded leaves to the wounded parts, speedily removed the pain and inflammation, and the persons were soon restored. The latter case is particularly remarkable, since it is said so dangerous is the wound of the Last, and so generally considered as mortal, that the only reme- dy hitherto employed was excision or amputation. It has been successfully employed as a diuretic in ascites; and is eminently useful in rheumatism and in gout. Its external application produces redness and inflammation. As yet we know too little of this plant to credit the high enco- miums bestowed upon it; yet they are fully sufficient to induce a wish to see the plant naturalized amongst us; and it is to be hoped that by the intermedium of our captains or physicians who visit Bra-- zil, the Aya-Payna may not be long a stranger to us. 2. Eupatorium Perfoliatum.! Thoroughwort. The Herb. This plant is known by the name of Thorough-stem, Cross-wort,, Bone-set, and Indian sage. It is one of the remedies of the Indians; and acts powerfully as a sudorific and emetic, and has been success fully employed in intermittents and other fevers, either in decoction, * In the secondary ljst of the Pharm. U. S. \ Pharm. of the U. s 280 E.—Eupatorium. or the leaves in powder. The aya-payna, so celebrated of late, is a species of the same family. Every part of the eupatorium may be advantageously employed, though the flowers appear most active. A watery infusion of the leaves is a powerful and not disagreeable bit- ter, and the flowers are deemed superior in this respect to those of the anthemis nobilis, by Dr. Bartop.* This is a native annual plant, flourishing abundantly in wet mea- dows and other moist places. The stalk is hairy, and rises from two to four,feet, perforating the leaves at each joint, from which it is sometimes called thorough stalk or stem. The flowers are white and appear in July and August, forming a corymbus, at the termination of the branches. The leaves at each joint are horizontal, serrated, and rough, from three to four inches long, and about an inch broad at their base, gradually lessening to a very acute point, of dark green, and covered with short hairs. Thoroughwort certainly possesses ac- tive properties, and deserves the attention of American physicians. It acts powerfully as a sudorific and emetic, and sometimes as a pur- gative, and has been successfully employed in intermittents and other fevers, either in decoction or the leaves in powder. Every part of the plant may be advantageously employed, though the flowers appear most active. A watery infusion of the leaves is a powerful and not disagreeable bitter, and the flowers are deemed superior in this respect to those of chamomile, and ought to be kept in the shops. The dried leaves in powder, or made into pills with lenitive elec- tuary, given in doses of twelve or fifteen grains, are of excellent effect as a mild laxative, obviating costiveness without inducing de- bility or heat; correcting bile and promoting perspiration. This plant is frequently employed in the country as a drench in diseases of cattle. There are several species in the United States. According to the experiments of Dr. A. Anderson of New York, this plant contains, firstly, a free acid; secondly, tannin; thirdly, extractive matter; fourthly, a gummy matter; fifthly, a resin; sixthly, azote; seventhly, lime, probably the acetat of lime; eighthly, gallic acid, probably modified; ninthly, a resiniform matter, soluble in water and alcohol, and which seems to contain a bitter principle. Hence he deems it warrantable to conclude that this plant possesses active medicinal properties: that many of them are similar to those which characterize the cinchona officinalis, the anthemis nobilis, and other valuable articles of the materia medica; but that these virtues reside in greatest quantity in the leaves. ' As pharmaceutical preparations of this plant, the author recom- mends the decoction of the flowers and of the leaves; infusions of the same parts; the leaves in substance pulverized; and a tincture of the flowers and of the leaves, prepared with proof spirits. This last form is the most pleasant and convenient, and at the same time the most powerful, for proof spirits were ascertained to be the best menstruum. Our author does not hesitate to assert that the chemi- cal properties of E. Perfoliatum, as deduced from experiment, are in very many respects exactly similar to the Peruvian bark; and that for its active medicinal virtues, particularly as a sudorific and as a * Barton's Collections, Part I. p. 52. Part II. p. 22. E.—Eupatorium. 281 tonic, it will not suffer by comparison with any of the articles drawn from the vegetable kingdom. In addition to his own opportunities of witnessing the employment of this plant, in different diseases in the New York Alms-house, he appeals to the observations and expe- rience of several distinguished practitioners, particularly of Dr. Bar- ton and of Dr. Hosack, for the importance and efficacy of this reme- dy in the treatment of most febrile disorders, particularly in inter- mitting and remitting fevers, yellow fever, and in other disorders; in many cutaneous affections, and in diseases of general debility. It may, however, be observed, that if it be exhibited as a warm de- coction, it often proves emetic, and acts especially upon the skin, in producing diaphoresis: if in the form of cold infusion or decoction, or in substance, it acts as a powerful tonic. Dr. Anderson proceeds to detail six cases of intermittent fever in which, after a single eva- cuant, the thoroughwort effected radical cures, and adds, that the same remedy was administered in almost all the instances of inter- mittents that occurred in the New York Alms-house in the year 1812, to the exclusion of thePeruvian bark, and with uniform suc- cess. It was given either in decoction, or in powder from 20 to 30 grains every second hour during the intermission. In remitting fever, as a sudorific it produced the most salutary effects, and in those cases where tonics were indicated it proved no less advanta- geous. In the treatment of yellow fever, he adduces the high autho- rity of Dr. Hosack and Dr. Bard, who after proper evacuations placed almost exclusive dependence on sudorifics, and among this class of medicines the eupatorium administered in the form of de- coction was deservedly considered of great value. The disease called by some the petechial or, spotted fever, and by others the malignant pleurisy or typhoid peripneumony, has been more successfully treated by the class of remedies denominated sudorifics than by any other, and in many cases of this epidemic which occurred in the city of New York in the winter of 1812-13, after the proper evacuations had been employed, the eupatorium was resorted to, and its sudo- rific, its tonic, and its cordial properties were clearly demonstrated, and much benefit was derived from its use. In some obstinate cuta- neous diseases, according to Dr. Barton, eupatorium has produced very beneficial effects. During the author's attendance in the New York Alms-house in the year 1812, very liberal recourse was had to this remedy in diseases arising from general debility. In anasarcous affections of the extremities, and in ascites when it may be consi- dered as a disease of debility, the alcoholic tincture of eupatorium may be safely recommended as an excellent tonic; and in addition to its tonic effects, the properties of a diuretic render the employ- ment of it still more advantageous in cases of this description. 3. Eupatorium Teucrifolium.* Wild Horehound. The Herb. This appears to correspond with what is said of Eupatorium pilo- yum, as introduced in the preceding editions of the American Dis- pensatory, viz. • Pharm. U. S S7. 282 E.—Euphorbia. This species of Eupatorium is also an annual plant; it rises from one to two feet. It grows wild in abundance in the southern states, where it has acquired great repute as a domestic remedy in the pre- valent fevers of that climate. We are indebted to the honourable George Jones, Esq. president of the Georgia Medical Society, for the following sketch of its medical virtues. " It serves as an excel- lent substitute for the Peruvian bark; indeed, among the planters on or near the sea-board, it supersedes the use of the bark in the cure of fevers." It is tonic, diaphoretic, diuretic, and mildly cathartic, and does not oppress the stomach as the Peruvian bark is apt to do; hence it may often be exhibited where the cinchona is inadmissible. It is usually exhibited in the form of infusion; one ounce of the dried leaves, infused in a quart of water, may be taken daily in doses of from two to four ounces every hour or two. It may be advantageously eombined with Peruvian bark; and although it may sometimes fail of producing the desired effect, it well deserves a station among the articles of the Materia Medica. 4. Eupatorium Purpureum.* Gravel Root. The Root. Of this article I know nothing, but presume its name of gravel root is derived from its real or supposed efficacy in calculous affec- tions, &c. EUPHORBIA IPECACUANHA.! Ipecacuanha Spurge. The Root. This species of Euphorbia is common in the sandy soils of the Middle and Southern States. The root runs into the sands, some- times to the depth of six feet. From its analysis, by Professor Bigelow, he infers it to contain caoutchouc, resin, mucus, and pro- bably faecula. It is a powerful emetic, both safe and certain in its operation; and applicable to most cases in which emetics are demanded. In small doses of 5 to 10 or 15 grains, it proves emetic, but up to 20 it also proves cathartic. Larger doses produce, in addition, heat, vertigo, indistinct vision, and prostration of strength. Although it may be considered as an useful addition to our native materia me- dica, it cannot be esteemed as equal to the officinal ipecacuan. EUPHORBIA C0R0LLATA4 Large Flowering Spurge. The Root. This plant, in its chemical relations, is very similar to the pre- ceding. It grows abundantly in most of the States; it is used some- times as an emetic by the country people, and is esteemed in the cure of dropsy. It is by some thought not inferior to the officinal ipecacuan, and, like it, is said to form a valuable diaphoretic in combination with opium and sulphat of potash. In its recent state, the root excites inflammation and vesication. * Pharm. U. S. secondary list. f Pharm. U. S. * Pharm. U. S E.—Euphorbia. 283 The dose is from 10 to 20 grains; occasionally it excites catharsis* An extract from it may be given from 5 to 8 grains. Dr. M'Keen, in his experiments with this article, found the re- quisite doses to be from 3 to 12 grains; and in every instance it ope- rated as a cathartic. Nausea, in most of the cases, occurred, but only in three did vomiting follow. He thinks it a certain purgative, and about double the strength of jalap. Its real merits are still to be ascertained, since the above contradictory statements tend to neutralize each other. Euphorbia Officinarum. L. Officinal Euphorbia. The Gum Resin. Dodecandria Trigynia. Nat. ord. Tricoccse, Linn. Euphorbias, Juss. Syn. Euphorbe, (F.) Euphorbium, (G.) Euphorbio, (S.) Euforbio, (I.) Saynd kadood, (H.) Ukeil nefsch, (Ar.) Asvityov tv$op0iov, Dioscor. The London College have restored this drastic and corrosive sub- stance to the list of officinals. It is produced from several species of the African genus Euphorbia: such as the E. officinarum of the Cape of Good Hope, the E. antiquorum which grows in Egypt, Arabia, and the East Indies, and which is said to have furnished the Euphorbium of the ancients, and the E. canariensis. Mr. Jackson, in his account of Morocco, has described it, but unfortu- nately not in the language of science. Furbiune, he says, is the Arabic name of this gum, which is produced by a very curious suc- culent plant, growing on the Atlas mountains, and called by the Shellahs and Arabs, Dergmuse. From the main body of the plant, proceed several solid leafless branches, about three inches in cir- cumference and one in diameter, from the top of which shoot out similar ones, each bearing on its summit a vivid crimson flower; these branches are scolloped, and have on their outer side small knots, from which grow five extremely sharp pointed thorns, about one-third of an inch in length. The stalk i6 at first soft and succu- lent, but becomes hard in a few years, when the plant assumes the abovementioned form, and may then be considered as at its matu- rity. The inhabitants of the lower regions of Atlas make incisions in the branches of the plant with a knife, from which a corrosive lacteous juice issues, which, after being heated by the sun, becomes a substance of a whitish yellow colour, and in the month of Septem- ber drops off, and forms the gum Euphorbium. The plants produce abundantly only once in four years; but this fourth year's produce is more than all Europe can consume; for, being a very powerful cathartic, it is there little used. The people who collect the gum are obliged to tie a cloth over their mouth and nostrils, to prevent the small dusty particles from annoying them, as they produce in- cessant sneezing. The branches are used in the tanning of Mo- rocco leather, and it is in great request among the women as a depi- latory. The gum is brought to us immediately from Barbary, in drops of an irregular form; some of which, on being broken, are found to contain little thorns, small twigs, flowers, and other vegetable mat- ters; others are hollow, without any thing in their cavity; the tears, in general, are of a pale yellow colour externally, but somewhat 284 E___Extracta et Spissata. white within: they break easily between the fingers. Braconnot has analysed euphorbium. He got from 100 parts, 37 of resin, 19 of wax, 20.5 of malate of lime, 2 of malate of potass, 13.5 of woody matter, 5 of water, and there was 3 of loss. Euphorbium is ex- tremely troublesome to pulverize; the finer part of the powder, which flies off, affecting the head in a violent manner. The acri- mony of this substance is so great, as to render it unfit for internal use. It burns with an agreeable smell and a bright flame. When applied to the tongue, it seems at first to have no taste, but on be- ing held some time in the niouth, it excites a very violent biting and burning, which lasts a long time, and cannot be abated by washing the mouth. EXTRACTA ET SPISSATA. EXTRACTS AND INSPISSATED JUICES. Extract, in pharmacy, has long been used, in the common and true acceptation of the term, to express a thing extracted, and therefore it was applied to substances of all kinds which were extracted from heterogeneous bodies, by the action of any menstruum, and again reduced to a consistent form, by the evaporation of that menstruum. Lately, however, Extract has been used in a different and much more limited sense, as the name for a peculiar principle, which is often indeed contained in extracts, and which before had no proper appellation. It is in the former sense that we employ it here, and in which we wish it to be only used, while a new word should be invented as the name of the new substance. Till a better be pro- posed, we shall call it Extractive. , The London College have also added to the confusion in their last edition, by applying the term extract to what are commonly called inspissated juices, where no menstruum is employed. Extracts are of various kinds, according to the nature of the sub- stances from which they are obtained, and the menstruum employed: but they commonly consist of gum, sugar, extractive, tannin, cin- chonin, gallic acid,.or resin, or several of them mixed in various proportions. The menstrua most commonly employed are water and alcohol. The former is capable of extracting all the substances enu- merated, except the resin, and the latter all except the gum. Wine is also sometimes employed, but very improperly; for as a solvent it can only act as a mixture of alcohol and water, and the principles which it leaves be'hind, on evaporation, are rather injurious than of advantage to the extract. Water is the menstruum most economically employed in making extracts, as it is capable of dissolving all the active principles except resin, and can havte its solvent powers assisted by a considerable de- gree of heat. Watery extracts are prepared by boiling the subject in water, and evaporating the strained decoction to a thick consistence. It is indifferent, with regard to the medicine, whether the subject E—Extracta et Spissata. 285 be used fresh or dry; since nothing that can be preserved in this process will be lost by drying. With regard to the facility of ex- traction, however, there is a very considerable difference; vegetables in general giving out their virtues more readily when dried than when fresh. In many cases, it is necessary to assist the action of the men- struum by mechanical division, but it should not be carried so far as to reduce the substance to a very fine powder; as Fabroni found that cinchona, at least, yielded a larger proportion of extract when only coarsely powdered. The quantity of water ought to be no greater than is necessary for extracting the virtues of the subject. This point, however, is not very easily ascertained; for, although some of the common princi- ples of extracts be soluble in a very small proportion of water, there are others, such as the tannin, of which water can dissolve only a certain proportion, and cannot be made to take up more by any length of boiling; besides, we have no very good method of knowing when we have used a sufficient quantity of water; for vegetable sub- stances will continue to colour deeply successive portions of water boiled with them, long after they are yielding nothing to it but co- louring matter. One of the best methods is, to boil the subject in suc- cessive quantities of water, as long as the decoctions form a consid- erable precipitate with the test which is proper for detecting the sub- stance we are extracting, such as a solution of gelatin for tannin, of alum for extractive, &c. The decoctions are to be evaporated after they have been filtered boiling hot, without any further depuration; because some of the most active principles of vegetable substances, such as tannin, are much more soluble in boiling than in cold water, and because almost all of them are very quickly affected by exposure to the atmosphere. There- fore, if a boiling decoction, saturated with tannin, be allowed to cool, the greatest part of the very principle on which the activity of the substance depends, will separate to the bottom, and, according to the usual directions, will be thrown away as sediment. The same objec- tion applies more strongly to allowing the decoction to cool and de- posit a fresh sediment, after it has been partially evaporated. Be- sides, by allowing the decoctions to stand several days before we proceed to their evaporation, we are, in fact, allowing the active prin- ciples contained in the decoction, to be altered by the action of the air, and to be converted into substances, perhaps inactive, which also are thrown away as sediment. The evaporation is most conveniently performed in broad shal- low vessels; the larger the surface of the liquor, the sooner will the aqueous parts exhale. This effect may likewise be promoted by agitation. When the matter begins to grow thick, great care is necessary to prevent its burning. This accident, almost unavoidable if the quantity be large, and the fire applied, as usual, under the evapora- ting basin, maybe effectually prevented, by pouring the extract, when it has acquired the consistence of a syrup, into shallow tin or earthen pans, and placing these in an oven with its door open, moderately heated; which, acting uniformly on every part of the 286 E.—Extracta et Spissata. liquid, will soon reduce it to any degree of consistence required. This may likewise be done, and more securely, by setting the evapo- rating vessel in boiling water; but the evaporation is in this way very tedious. Dr. Powell has figured a modification of the common tin sauce-pan for this purpose. It is nothing but putting a tin evaporating dish over a sauce-pan filled with water, which is made to boil. Alcohol is much too expensive to be employed as a menstruum for obtaining extracts, except in those cases where water is totally inade- quate to the purpose. These cases are, 1st, When the nature of the extract is very perishable when dis- solved in water, so that it is liable to be decomposed before the eva- poration can be completed; especially if we cannot proceed imme- diately to the evaporation. Qdly, When water is totally incapable of dissolving the substance to be extracted; and, 3dly, When the substance extracted can bear the heat of boiling alcohol without being evaporated, but would be dissipated by that of boiling water; that is, when it requires a heat greater than 176° and less than 212°, for its evaporization. In the last case, the alcohol must be perfectly free from water, because the heat necessary to evaporate it at the end of the process would frustrate the whole operation. Hence, also, the subject itself ought always to be dry: those substances, which lose their virtue by drying, lose it equally on being submitted to this treatment with the purest alcohol. In this way the alcoholic extract of some aromatic substances, as cinnamon, lavender, rosemary, retain a considerable degree of their fine flavour. In the second case, the alcohol need not be so very strong, because it is capable of dissolving resinous substances, although diluted with a considerable proportion of water. In the first case, the alcohol may be still much weaker; or rather, the addition of a small proportion of alcohol to water will be suffi- cient to retard or prevent the decomposition of the decoction. The alcohol employed in all these cases should be perfectly free from any unpleasant flavour, lest it be communicated to the extract. The inspissation should be performed from the beginning, in the gentle heat of a water-bath. We need not suffer the alcohol to eva- porate in the air: the greatest part of it maybe recovered by collect- ing the vapour in common distilling vessels. If the distilled spirit be found to have brought over any flavour from the subject, "it may be advantageously reserved for the same purposes again. When diluted alcohol is employed, the distillation should only be continued as long as alcohol comes over; and the evaporation should be finished in wide open vessels. In this chapter we have also included the processes intended for purifying inspissated juices and resinous substances. Pure resins are prepared, by adding, to spiritous tinctures of re- sinous vegetables, a large quantity of water. The resin, incapable of remaining dissolved in the watery liquor, separates and falls to the bottom: leaving in the menstruum such other principles of the plant E.—Extracta et Spissata. 287 as the spirit may have extracted at first along with it. But this is only practised for the purpose of analysis. Under the head of Extracts, the United States' Pharmacopoeia includes the extracts and inspissated juices of former Pharmaco- poeias. Succi Expressi. Expressed Juices. The juices of succulent plants are obtained by expression. They are of a very compound nature, consisting of the sap, the secreted fluids, and fecula, mixed together. When first procured, they are very high coloured, turbid, and loaded with parenchymatous matter. They may be separated by rest, filtration, heat, and clarification. Rest may be employed when the juice is very fluid, does not contain volatile matter, and is not susceptible of alteration. It is, however, employed with advantage with sub-acid juices, as that of lemons. By rest they undergo a kind of slight fermentation, and all their mucilaginous and other viscid parts, separate. Filtration is perhaps the most perfect, but it is tedious, and applicable only to very fluid juices. In many instances it may be facilitated by the addition of water. The action of heat is more expeditious, and is employed for juices which are very alterable^ or which contain volatile matters. It is performed by introducing the juice into a matrass, and im mersing it in boiling water for some minutes. The feculae are coagu- lated, and easily separated by filtration. Clarification by white of egg can only be used for very viscid mucilaginous juices, which con- tain nothing volatile. The white of two eggs may be allowed to each pint of juice. They are beat to a fine froth, the juice gradually mixed with them, and the whole brought to ebullition. The albumen coagulating, envelops all the parenchymatous and feculent matters, and the juice now passes the, filter readily. By this process juices are rendered sufficiently fine; but the heat employed deepens their colour, and manifestly alters them, so that it is not merely a defe- cating, but a decomposing process. When depurated, juices are yellow or red, but never green. The fluids thus extracted from succulent fruits, whether acid or sweet; from most of the acrid herbs, as scurvy-grass and water- cresses; from the acid herbs, as sorrel and wood-sorrel; from the aperient lactescent plants, as dandelion and hawkweed, and from sundry other vegetables, contain great part of the peculiar taste and virtues of the respective subjects. The juices, on the other hand, extracted from most of the aromatic herbs, have scarcely any thing of the flavour of the plants, and seem to differ little from decoctions of them made in water, boiled till the volatile odorous parts have been dissipated. Many of the odoriferous flowers, as the lily, violet, hyacinth, not only impart nothing of their fragrance to their juice, but have it totally destroyed by the previous bruising. From want of sufficient attention to these particulars, practitioners have been frequently deceived in the effects of preparations of this class: juice of mint has been often prescribed as a stomachic, though it wants those qualities by which mint itself and its other preparations ope- rate. There are equal differences in regard to their preserving those 288 E.—Extracta et Spissata. virtues, and this independently of the volatility of the active matter, or its disposition to exhale. Even the volatile virtue of scurvy-grass may, by the above method, be preserved almost entire in its juice for a considerable time; while the active parts of the juice of the wild cucumber quickly separate and settle to the bottom, leaving the fluid part inert. Juices of arum root, iris root, bryony root, and other vegetables, in like manner allow their medicinal parts to settle at the bottom. If juices are intended to be kept for any length of time, about one fortieth part of their weight of good spirit of wine may be added, and the whole suffered to stand as before; a fresh sediment will now be deposited, from which the liquor is to be poured off, strained again, and put into small bottles which have been washed with spirit and dried. A little oil is to bef poured On the surface, so as very nearly to fill the bottles, and the mouths closed with leather, paper, or stopped with straw, as the flasks are in which Florence oil is brought to us: this serves to keep out dust, and suffers the air to escape, which in process of time arises from all vegetable liquors, and which would otherwise endanger- the bursting of the glasses; or being imbibed afresh, render their contents vapid and foul. The bot- tles are to be kept on the bottom of a good cellar or vault, placed up to the necks in sand. By this method some juices may be preserved for a year or two; and others for a much longer time, though, what- ever care be taken, they are found to answer better when fresh; and from the difficulty of preserving them, they have of late been very much laid aside, especially since we have been provided with more convenient and useful remedies. Succi Spissati. Inspissated Juices. This is a very convenient form for the exhibition of those sub- stances which are sufficiently succulent to afford a juice by expres- sion, and whose virtues do not reside in any very volatile matter. By inspissation, the bulk of the requisite dose is very much dimi- nished; they are reduced to a form convenient for making Up into pills; and they are much less apt to spoil than the simple expressed juices. The mode of their preparation is not yet, however, reduced to fixed principles. Some direct the juices to be inspissated as soon as they are expressed; others allow them previously to undergo a slight degree of fermentation; some defecate them before they pro- ceed to inspissate them, and lastly, Baume prepares his eiaterium by inspissating the defecated juice of the wild cucumber, while the colleges give the same name to the matter which subsides from it. The nature of the soil, of the season, and many other circumstances, must materially alter the quantity or nature of the product. In moist years Baume got from thirty pounds of elder berries, four or five pounds of inspissated juice, and in dry years only two, or two and a half. From hemlock he got in October, 1769, 7.5 per cent, of inspis- sated juice, and in May of the same year, only 3.7; on the contrary, in August, 1768, 4 per cent, and in May, 1770, 6.5; but in general the product in the autumn months was greatest. E.—Extracta et Spissata. 289 EXTRACTUM ACONITI. L. A. Succus Spissatus Aconiti Napelli. E. Extract (Inspissated Juice) of Aconite, or Wolfsbane. Take of fresh Aconite a pound.—Bruise it in a stone mortar, and having sprinkled on it a little water, press it strongly in a hempen bag till it yields its juice. Evaporate this immediately in fiat ves- sels, in a bath of boiling water saturated with muriat of soda, till it is brought to the consistence of thick honey. During the latter part of the process it should be stirred with a wooden spatula. After the mass has become cold, it must be put up in glazed earthen vessels, and moistened with alcohol. E. In the same manner are prepared Extractum Belladonna. L. D. A. Extract (Inspissated Juice) of Deadly Nightshade. From the leaves. Extractum Conii. L. A. Succus Spissatus (Cicutve. D.) Conii Maculati. E. Extract of Hemlock. From the leaves, Extractum Hyoscyami. L. D. E. A. Extract of Henbane. From the plant. Extractum Stramonii. A. Extract of Thorn Apple. From the leaves. Succus Spissatus Sambuci Nigri. E.* Extract (Inspissated Juice) of Elder (berries.) Take ripe Elder berries, five parts; bruise them and press out the juice through a hempen or linen bag; to this add one pound of sugar, and evaporate to the consistence of thick honey. E. This is the old rob of elder, yet, although of very ancient date, it would be difficuVt to point out any real medicinal powers of import- ance in it. The juice of black currant, lemon, &c. may be prepared in the same manner. These inspissated juices contain the virtues of. the respective ve- getables, in a very concentrated' state. Those of the elder, black currant, and lemon, are acidulous, Cooling, and laxative, and may be used in considerable quantities, while those of the wolfsbane, hemlock, deadly nightshade, henbane, and poisonous lettuce, are highly narcotic and deleterious, and must be given only in very small doses. » Extractum Sambuci, Pharm. V S 38 290 E.—Extracta et Spissata. EXTRACTS MADE WITH WATER. All simple extracts, unless otherwise ordered, are to be prepared according to the following rule. The vegetable matter is to be boiled in eight times its weight of water, to one half; the liquor is then to be expressed, and, after the faeces have subsided, to be filtered; it is-then to be evaporated with a heat between 200 and 212°, until it becomes thickish; and, lastly, it is to be evaporated with a heat less than 200°, and frequently stirred, until it acquire a consistence proper for forming pills. All extracts, when they begin to thicken, ought to be frequently stirred with a clean iron spatula. They may be reduced to a proper thickness by means of a stove heated on purpose. They ought to be preserved as much as possible from the contact of air, and the softer ones should be sprinkled with rectified spirit. D. Extractum Aloes Purificatum. L. Purified Extract of Aloes. Take of Socotorine aloes, in powder, half a pound; Boiling water, four pints.—Macerate in a gentle heat for three days, then strain, and set it at rest till the faeces subside. Pour off the clear liquor9 and evaporate to a proper thickness. This is supposed to be less irritating than the aloes itself, but it appears to be an unnecessary refinement. Extractum Anthemidis. L. A. Extract of Chamomile. Take of dried Chamomile, one pound; Water, one gallon.—Pour the water upon the chamomile, boil down to four pints, and strain the liquor while hot, with compression. Evaporate the decoction immediately to the consistence of thick honey in a bath of boiling ivater. In like manner are prepared Extractum Gentians. L. E. D. A. Extract of Gentian. Extractum H^ematoxyli. L. E. D. A. Extract of Logwood. Extractum Hellebori Nigri. E. D. A. Extract of Black Hellebore. Extractum Juglandis. A. Extract of Butternut. From the inner bark of the root. Extractum Quassia. A. Extract of Quassia. From the rasped wood. The following watery extracts are prepared by the British Col- leges, but have not gained admission into the United States' Phar macopceia. E.—Extracta et Spissata. 291 Extractum Cinchona. D. L. Extract of Cinchona, or Peruvian Bark. Take of lance-leaved Cinchona, in coarse powder,one pound; Water, six pints.—Boil, for a quarter of an hour, in fl vessel almost co- vered ; filter the decoction while hot through linen, and set it aside. Boil the residuum again, in the same quantity of water, and filter it in the same manner. This may be repeated a third time, and all the decoctions are to be mixed and reduced to a proper degree of thickness by evaporation. This extract ought to be kept in two states ; one soft, adapted for making pills ; and the other hard, ca- pable of being pulverised. D. Extractum Colocynthidis. L. Extract of Colocynth. Take of pulp of Colocynth, one pound; Water, one gallon.—Boil to four pints, and filter the liquor while hot. Lastly, evaporate to a proper thickness. Mr. Phillips says, that it is scarcely possible to boil the colocynth in the assigned quantity of water, and that the extract obtained is remarkably spongy, and very soon becomes hard and mouldy. Extractum Glycyrrhizje. L. Extract of Liquorice. Take of Liquorice root, sliced, one pound; Boiling water, one gallon. Macerate for twenty-four hours; then boil down to four pints, and filter the liquor while still hot; lastly, evaporate it to a proper thick- ness. Extractum Humuli. L. Extract of Hops. Take of Hops, four ounces ; Boiling water, a gallon.—Boil down to four pints, strain the hot liquor, and evaporate it to a proper con- sistence. In the former edition, 1809, the quantity of hops was half a pound, in regard to which Mr. Phillips says, that the proportion of water ordered was considerably too small. It has accordingly been corrected. Extractum Opii. D. L. Extract of Opium. Take of Opium, two ounces; Boiling water, one pint.— Triturate the opium in the water, for ten minutes ; then, after waiting a little, pour off the liquor, and triturate the remaining opium" with the same quantity of boiling water, pouring off the infusion in the same manner. This may be, repeated-a third time. Mix the decanted liquors, and expose the mixture to the air, in an open vessel, for two days. Lastly, filter through linen, and, by slow evaporation, form an extract. Extractum Papaveris. L. Extract of Poppy. Take of Poppy heads, bruised without the seeds, one pound ; Boiling water, a gallon.—Macerate for twenty-four hours ; then boil to four pints: strain the liquor while hot, and evaporate to a proper thick- ness. 292 E.—Extracta et Spissata. Extractum Sarsaparilla. L. Extract of Sarsaparilla. Take of Sarsaparilla root, sliced, one pound; Boiling water, one gallon.—Macerate for twenty-four hours; then boil to four pints, and filter the liquor while hot; lastly, evaporate to a proper thick- ness. Extractum Taraxaci. L. Extract of Dandelion. Take of Fresh dandelion root, bruised, one pound; Boiling water, one gallon.—Macerate for twenty four hours; then boil to four pints, and filter the liquor while hot; lastly, evaporate to a proper thickness. Extractum Valeriana. D. Extract of Valerian. Take of Valerian root, in coarse powder, six ounces ; Boiling water, three pints.—Mix and digest, with a moderate heat, for twenty- four hours, in a covered vessel; then express the liquor, and evapo- rate it to a proper thickness. ALCOHOLIC EXTRACTS. EXTRACTUM CINCHONA LANCIFOLIA. L. E.* Extract of Cinchona or Peruvian Bark. Take of Peruvian Bark, in powder, one pound ; Alcohol, four pints. —Digest for four days, and pour off the tincture. Boil the.residuum in five pints of distilled water, for fifteen minutes, and strain the decoction boiling hot, through linen. Repeat this decoction and filtration, with the same quantity of distilled water, and reduce the liquor by evaporation to the consistence of thin honey. Draw off the alcohol from the tincture by distillation, until this also becomes thick ; then mix the liquors thus inspissated, and evaporate them in a bath of boiling water, saturated with muriat of soda, to a proper consistence. Cinchona bark is a medicine of very great importance ; but, un- fortunately, the proportion of woody fibres, or inert matter, which enters into its composition, is so great, that weak stomachs cannot bear it, when given in quantity sufficient to produce any very pow- erful effects. On this account, the preparation of an extract, which may contain its active principles in a concentrated form, is a desira- ble object. On this subject there is still much room for experiment. The London College, in its former Pharmacopoeia, certainly erred in two important particulars; in the first place, in desiring the decoc- tion to be continued until the greatest part of the menstruum wa9 evaporated; and, in the second place, in separating, by filtration, the powder which separated from the decoction after it had cooled. The first error probably originated in the idea, that, by continuing the boiling for a great length of time, more of the bark would be dissolved; but it is now known, that water is incapable of dissolving * Extractum Cinchona:, Pharm. U. S, E.—Extracta et Spissata. 293 more than a certain quantity of the active principles of cinchona; and that after the water has become saturated, by continuing the decoction we diminish the quantity of the menstruum, and therefore also diminish the quantity of bark dissolved. It is not easy to account for the second error; for, according to the old idea, that the powder which separated, on cooling, from a saturated decoction of cinchona, was a resinous substance, it surely ought not to have been rejected from what were supposed to be resinous extracts. This precipitate is now known to be caused by the much greater solubility of its active principles in boiling than in cold water; so that the precipitate is not different from what remains in solution. Accordingly, it has been ascertained, by experiment, that cinchona gave at least one-half more extract when the decoction was conducted according to the directions of the Edinburgh College; and the Lon- don College, in their present Pharmacopoeia, have improved their processes on the same principles. Extractum Colocynthidis Compositum. L. D. A. Compound Extract of Colocynth. Take of Colocynth, sliced, Six drachms; Socotorine aloes, powdered, one ounce and a half; Scammony, powdered, half an ounce; Car- damoms, powdered, one drachm; Boiling water,* two pints.—Di- gest the Colocynth in the water, for four days in a gentle heat; strain the solution, and add to it the aloes and scammony; then evaporate until the mass has acquired a proper consistence, and about the end of the inspissation, mix in the cardamoms. L. Extractum Jalapa. L. E. D. A. Extract of Jalap. Take of Jalap, powdered, one pound; Alcohol, four pints; Water, eight pints.—Macerate the Jalap in alcohol for four days, and pour off the tincture; boil the remaining powder in the water until it be reduced to two pints; then strain the tincture and decoction separately, and let the former be distilled, and the latter evaporated, until each begins to grow thick. Lastly, mix the two together, and reduce to a proper consistence by evaporation. Let this ex- tract be kept in a soft state fit for forming pills, and in a hard one so that it may be reduced to powder. L. In the same way is prepared Extractum Podophylli. A. Extract of May Apple. The following Alcoholic Extracts are not noticed in the United States' Pharmacopoeia. Extractum Rhei. L. Extract of Rhubarb. Take of Rhubarb root, in powder, one pound; Proof spirit one pint; Water, seven pints.—Macerate, with a gentle heat, for four days; then filter and set it aside, until the fseces subside. Pour off the liquor clear, and evaporate to a proper thickness. * The Pharm. U. S. employs instead of water, one pint of diluted alcohol, 294 F—Ferrum. Extractum Cascarilla Resinosum. Dt Resinous Extract of Cascarilla. Take of Cascarilla, in coarse powder, one pound; Rectified spirit of , wine, four pints. —Digest for four days; then pour off the tincture, and strain; boil the residuum, in ten pints of water, to two; evapo- rate the filtered decoction, and distil the tincture, in a retort, till both begin to grow thick; then mix them, and evaporate them to a state fit for making pills. Lastly, they are to be intimately mixed. The real advantage of so expensive an agent as alcohol, in pre- paring any of these extracts, has not been demonstrated; and it is said to be seldom employed even in preparing what are called Re- sinous Extracts. F. FERRUM.— IR OM Syn. Per, (F.) Eissen, (G.) Ferro, (I.) Hierro, (S.) Loha, (H.) Ayas, (San.) Iron is of a bluish-grey colour; texture either fine-grained, fibrous, or dense plates; sapid and odorous; specific gravity 7.600; the hard- est and most elastic and most tenacious metal; very ductile; fusing at 158° Wedgwood; fusion at first clammy, afterwards very fluid; igniting by strong percussion, and inflaming by the collision of flint; magnetic. It is oxydized slowly in the air, especially when moist; when heated in contact with air, it is changed to a black oxyd, con- taining 20 to 27 of oxygen; fusible, hard, brittle, lamellated, still attracted by the magnet; afterwards into a brown, red, fine, pulve- rulent oxyd, not attracted by the magnet, containing 0.40 to .49 of oxygen. It burns with splendour and deflagration in oxygen gas, and is converted into a fused, black oxyd; it decomposes water slowly, and when ignited, very rapidly. In some instances it is dissolved in hydrogen gas* Carbon united to iron, converts it into steel. Steel is of a grey colour, brilliant and granular in its fracture; specific gravity 7.795; harder than any of the metals, and more elastic, ductile, malleable, and fusible at a lower temperature than pure iron. Its characteristic property is, that after being heated, if suddenly plunged into cold water, it becomes harder, more elastic, less pliable and brittle; but by being again heated and cooled slowly, it acquires its former softness, pliability and ductility. Steel con- tains only some hundreth parts of carbon, and is known chemically, by letting a drop of acid fall upon it, which produces a grey or black spot. Plumbago consists-of about 0.1 of iron, combined with carbon in its first degree of oxydizement. The phosphuret of iron is white, granulated, brittle, permanent in the air. Its sulphuret is yellow, hard, brittle, and very fusible, oxydizing slowly in a humid atmos- phere. Iron forms alloys with arsenic, cobalt, manganese, bismuth, antimony, zinc, and tin. Iron is oxydized and dissolved by almost F.—Ferrum. 295 all the acids; oxyds, black, brown, red. It gives glasses a brown, smoky, deep green or black colour. Iron is the most common of all metals. It seems even to be a con- stituent of organic substances, and is the only metal which, when taken into the body, exerts no deleterious action upon it. The nu- merous ores of iron which are found in every part of the globe may be reduced to the following genera. 1. Native iron. Immense isolated masses of this have been found in Siberia and in South America. Their origin is still perfectly pro- blematical. 2. Carbureted iron. Plumbago. 3. Sulphureted iron. Pyrites. 4. Oxydized iron. a. Protoxyd. Magnetic iron ore; colour black or grey; b. Pe- roxyd. Not magnetic; colour red or brown; c. Carbonated; d. Ar- seniated; e. Tungstated; /. Phosphated; g. Chromated; h. Sul- pha ted. As its mechanical division is extremely difficult, it is directed to be kept in the shops in the state of filings or wire, and the scales of black oxyd, which are found around the smith's anvil. Soft malle- able iron is the only kind fit for internal use, as steel and cast iron always contain impurities, and often arsenic. FERRUM. E. L. D. Iron. Iron Filings. Iron Wire. Ferri Limatura Purificata. E. A. Purified Filings of Iron. Place a sieve over the filings, and apply a magnet, so that the filings may be attracted upwards through tlie sieve. E. This process does not fulfil the purpose for which it is intended; for the adhesion of a very small particle of iron renders brass and other metals attractable by the magnet. The filings of iron got from the shops of different artificers, which are always mixed with solder, and other metals, cannot be purified in this way, so as to render them fit for internal use; and indeed the only way they can be ob- tained sufficiently pure, is by filing a piece of pure iron with a clean file. Perhaps the borings of cannon would supply an ample amount of iron in its purest state for all the purposes to which metallic iron is applied. Medical use.-—The general virtues of this metal, and the several preparations of it, are, to constringe the- fibres, to quicken the circu- lation, to promote the deficient secretions in the remoter parts, and at the same time to repress inordinate discharges into the intestinal tube. After the use of them, if they take effect, the pulse is very sen- sibly raised; the colour of the face, though before pale, changes to a florid red; the alvine, urinary, and cuticular excretions are increas- ed. Fetid eructations, and the faeces voided of a black colour, are marks of their taking due effect. 296 F.—Ferrum. When given improperly or to excess, iron produces head-ache, anxiety, heats the body, and often causes hemorrhages, or even vo- miting, pains in the stomach, and spasms and pains in the bowels. Iron is given in most cases of debility and relaxation. 1. In passive hemorrhages. 2. In dyspepsia, hysteria, and chlorosis. 3. In most of the cachexiae. 4. In general debility produced by disease, or excessive he- morrhage. Where either a preternatural discharge, or suppression of natural secretions, proceed from a languor and sluggishness of the fluids, and weakness of the solids; this metal by increasing the motion of the former, and the strength of the latter, will suppress the flux, or remove the suppression; but where the circulation is already too quick, the solids too tense and rigid, where there is any stricture or spasmodic contraction of the vessels, iron, and all the preparations of it, will aggravate both distempers. Iron probably has no action on the body when taken into the sto- mach, unless it be oxydized. But during its oxydizement, hydrogen gas is evolved; and accordingly we find that fetid eructations are con- sidered as proof of the medicine having taken effect. It can only be exhibited internally in the state of filings, which may be given in doses of from five to twenty grains, either in the form of powder, with some aromatic, or made into an electuary or bolus or pills with any bitter extract. Iron-wire is to be preferred for pharmaceutical preparations, both because it is the most convenient form, and because it is always made of the purest iron. Ferri Oxydum Nigrum. E. Ferri Oxydi Squama. D. Scales of Iron, or of the Oxyd. Finery Cinder. When iron is heated to redness in the smith's forge, to render it more malleable, its surface becomes oxydized by the action of the atmospheric air; and as the oxyd formed does not adhere to the iron, it is easily separated by percussion on the anvil, and flies oft" in the state of sparks, which, on cooling, constitute the scales of iron. In these the iron is oxydized to that degree in which it is soluble in acids without the production of hydrogen gas; therefore, when taken into the stomach, they do not produce the distention and flatulence occasioned by the use of the filings. Oxydum Ferri Nigrum (Purificatum. E.) D. Purified Black Oxyd of Iron. Let the scales of the oxyd of iron, which are to be found at the foot of the blacksmith's anvil, be purified by the application of a mag- net—For the magnet unll attract only the smaller and purer scales, and will leave those which are larger and less pure. E. Here the application of the magnet is useful, because these scales contain no foreign metal, but are mixed with earthy and other impu- rities, which could be separated in no other way. F.—Ferrum. 297 Oxydum Ferri Rub rum. E. D. A. Red Oxyd of Iron. Colcothar. Take of Sulphat of iron, any quantity.—Expose it to the action of a moderate heat in an unglazed earthen vessel, until it becomes white and perfectly dry. Then increase the heat, until it is converted jnto a very red powder. By the violent heat applied in this preparation, the sulphat of iron is completely decomposed, and copious white fumes are expelled. The iron is converted into the red oxyd; part of the sulphuric acid is therefore reduced to the state of sulphurous acid, and the rest of the acid is expelled in a very concentrated state. This process wai formeily employed in Great Britain, and still is employed in Ger- many for the preparation of sulphuric acid; which, however, from the presence of -he sulphurous acid, was possessed of some peculiar properties, such as emitting fumes and crystallizing. The residuum is composed of red oxyd of iron, combined with a little red sulphat of iron, which renders it deliquescent. To obtain the oxyd perfectly pure, the residuum must therefore be washed with water, and dried quickly, to prevent the absorption of carbonic acid. Ferri Sulphas. E. D. L. A. Sulphat of Iron. Green Vitriol. Copperas. The sulphat of iron of commerce is commonly obtained by the spontaneous oxydizement of sulphureted iron, and subsequent lixi- viation and crystallization. It is never pure, and often contains zinc or copper. The copper may be separated by adding some metallic iron to the solution, but we have no means of separating the zinc. Although the native sulphat of iron may be purified by solution, filtration and crystallization, sufficiently for many purposes, yet it cannot, it is said, be procured perfectly pure except by the direct union of sulphuric acid and iron; and as it is of consequence that it should be pure when administered internally, directions for its pre- paration have been given. The following is the formula of the Edin- burgh College. Sulphas Ferri. L. Sulphat of Iron. Salt of Iron. Sal Martis. Take of Purified filings of iron, six ounces; Sulphuric acid, eight ounces; Water, two pints and a half.—Mix them, and after the effervescence ceases, digest the mixture for some time upon warm sand; then strain the liquor through paper, and after due evapora- tion set it at rest to crystallize. E. The crystals of sulphat of iron are transparent rhomboidal prisms, of a fine green colour. They are soluble in two parts of cold, and in less than their own wreight of boiling water. They are insoluble in alcohol. 39 298 F.—Ferrum. o > 36 Green hydro-oxyd of iron 26 Sulphuric acid. 38 Water of crystallization. 100 Green sulphat of iron is decomposed by all the earths and alka- lies, and by those salts whose base forms an insoluble compound with sulphuric acid. It is also decomposed by exposure to the air, especially when in solution, and by all substances which part readily with their oxygen. The oxyd of iron absorbs oxygen, and passes to the state of red oxyd, which forms a red sulphat, possessing proper- ties very different from those of the green sulphat. Taken internally, the green sulphat is apt to excite pain in the stomach, and spasms in the bowels; and in large doses it causes vomiting. In small doses, however, of from one to three grains it is sometimes given as a tonic, astringent, or anthelmintic. Sulphas Ferri Exsiccatus. E. D. Dried Sulphat of Iron. Take of sulphat of iron, any quantity.—Expose it to the action of a moderate heat in an unglazed earthen vessel, until it becomes white and perfectly dry. E. The heat applied here must not be so great as to decompose the sulphat of iron, but only to deprive it of its water of crystallization. Sub (Carbonas. A.) Ferri Praparatus. E. Rubigo Ferri. D. Rust of Iron. Carbonat (Subcarbonat) of Iron Prepared. Moisten purified filings of iron frequently with water, that they may be converted into rust, which is to be ground into an impal- pable powder. E. Iron is one of the most easily oxydized of the metals. It is ca- pable of attracting oxygen from the air, and of decomposing water even in the cold. By exposure at the same time to air and mois- ture, it is very quickly oxydized, while it also absorbs carbonic acid, and is converted into a reddish brown pulverulent substance, well known by the name of rust of iron. For medical use it is pre- pared as the other substances insoluble in water. CARBONAS FERRI PRiECIPITATUS. E. A. Ferri Subcarbonas. L. Precipitated Carbonat of Iron. Take of sulphat of iron, eight ounces; subcarbonat of soda, six ounces; boiling water, a gallon.—Dissolve the sulphat of iron, and subcarbonat of soda, separately, each in four pints of water; next mix the solutions together, and set the mixture by, that the powder may subside; then pour off the supernatant liquor, wash the carbonat of iron with hot water, and dry it upon bibulous paper in a gentle heat. L. They are composed of Black oxyd of iron, Water of composition, F.-—Ferrum. 299 On mixing the solution of these salts together, there is an imme- diate mutual decomposition. Sulphat of soda is formed, which re- mains in solution, and carbonat of iron, which is precipitated of a green colour. The precipitate when first formed, is the carbonat of black oxyd of iron, or contains the iron in the state of black oxyd, the state in which it exists in the green sulphat. of iron; but in the process of drying, it absorbs more oxygen, becomes of a red colour, and is converted into the carbonat of red oxyd of iron. As the pre- cipitate is extremely light and bulky, it is not easily separated by allowing it to subside, and pouring off" the clear liquor; filtration should therefore be employed. The carbonat of soda is used in preference to the carbonat of potass, on account of the greater so- lubility of sulphat of soda than of sulphat of potass, which renders the subsequent ablution of the salt more easy. Mr. Phillips found very great differences in the results, from very slight differences in conducting the process, as appears from the following table, to which is added the results when subcarbonat of potass was employed instead of subcarbonat of soda. 'Hot w. -Hot w. "steam. 3 « ru.s c c the air. 14.5 •a I Cold w. *►, steam. 1.5 V Coluw. Hot w. — 8.0 l< Cold w. -a- 1.0 a. '£ the air. "5 none '3 Water kept near 3 ce Pi 212° for an hour. steam. ■e 1.3 .< . . Subcarbonat of soda. Chocolate br. Yellowish br. Orange br. Purplish br. Reddish br. Ochre yel. Blackish br. Subcarbonat of . Potass. 7 Orange br. Brick red. Orange br. These differences indicate the precipitates to be mixtures of per- oxyd, protoxyd, and subcarbonat of protoxyd of iron, in various pro- portions. The peroxyd is deep red or yellow, as the oxygen is quickly - or slowly absorbed; the protoxyd is black, and its carbonat brown. When cold water only is used in this process, carbonat of iron re- mains in the solution, from which the oxyd has been precipitated; when hot water is used, part of the carbonic acid is expelled, the subcarbonat is precipitated mixed with oxyd; but when heat is long applied, the subcarbonat itself is decomposed, and the precipitate is chiefly oxyd. Mr. Phillips concludes, that it is more economical to use hot water in every part of the process, and to use potass instead of soda in the preparation. Medical, use.—The carbonat of iron is an excellent and safe chaly- beate. It may be given in doses of from five grains to sixty; but all chalybeates answer better in small doses, frequently repeated, than in large doses. Q. E. D. Aqua Ferri iERATi. D. Water of Aerated Iron. It is prepared in the same manner as the water of fixed air, by sus- pending in the water half an ounce of iron wire. D. This is a very elegant chalybeate. The iron is in the state of black oxyd, and is dissolved by means of carbonic acid. It was first pie- 300 F.—Ferrum. i pared by Bergmann, in imitation of the natural chalybeate waters, and it forms an excellent substitute for them. LIQUOR FERRI ALKALINI. L. A. Solution of Alkaline Iron. Take of Iron, two drachms and a half; Nitric acid, two fluid ounces; Distilled water, six fluid ounces; Solution of Sub-carhonc* of pot- ass, six fluid ounces.—Mix the water and acid, and pour them upon the iron. As soon as the effervescence has ceased, pour off the acid solution; add this gradually, and at intervals, to the solution of sub-carbonat of potass, shaking it occasionally, until it become of a. dark red colour, and no more effervescence be excited* Lastly, let it stand for si.v hours, and pour off the solution. L. This preparation of iron is so entirely different from all others in its nature, that Dr. Duncan thinks the London College right in in- troducing it into their Pharmacopoeia. The chemical nature of the composition has not been accurately ascertained, and the preparation is attended with considerable difficulty and uncertainty. Dr. Powell says, that the solution of the iron should be made slowly, and ;iat it ought not to be nearly saturated, but have an excess of acid; that it ought to be clear, and slightly greenish, and if, by excess of iron, it have a reddish-yellow colour, a little acid is to be added, wKch will bring it to the proper state; that the acid solution shoind be added gradually to the alkaline, although it will succeed the other way; and that, although the proportions are pretty near'y given, they require to be checked by occasional examination, especially by the taste, which should be slightly alkalescent. He also adds, that after standing, nitrat of potass generally crystallizes, from which the clear deep red solution is to he poured off. Mr. Phillips, in his remarks upon this'preparation, says, that there is no danger of iron beir.:; dis- solved in excess, as the acid is .capable of dissolving more than twice the quantity of iron ordered; and the solution thus obtained, though so nearly saturated as to excite little effervescence when added to the solution of carbonat of potass, answers perfectly well for making this preparation; but even when the proportions of the College are adopted, the quantity of alkali is too small; and it is necessary to use about one-twelfth more than is directed, in order to dissolve the oxyd of iron, although more than requisite to saturate the acid, and to give a decided alkaline taste. Mr. Phillips considers it as a solution of peroxyd of iron in sub-carbona, Hippocr. This plant is perennial, and grows in Africa. It abounds with a milky juice, which sometimes exudes from the joints of the old plants, but is more frequently obtained by cutting them across some inches above the root. The juice which flows from the wound soon hardens, and is the galbanum which is brought to us from Syria, and the Levant. The best sort of galbanum consists of pale coloured pieces, about the size of a hazel nut, which on being broken, appear to be com- posed of clear white tears, of a bitterish acrid taste, and a strong pe- culiar smell. But it most commonly occurs in agglutinated masses, composed of yellowish or reddish and clear white tears, which may easily be torn asunder, mixed with seeds and leaves, of the consist- ence of firm wax, softening by heat, and becoming brittle by cold. What is mixed with sand, earth, and other impurities, and is of a brown or blackish colour, interspersed with no white grains, of a weak smell, and of a consistence always soft, is bad. Galbanum is almost entirely soluble in water, but the solution is milky; neither does wine nor vinegar dissolve it perfectly. Alcohol, according to Hagen, has very little action upon it. It is not fusible; but furnishes a considerable proportion of essential oil when distilled with water. Neumann obtained from a pound of galbanum by dis- tillation with water, six drachms of oil, besides what was dissolved in the water. The watery extract amounted to about three ounces. It had somewhat of a nauseous relish, but could not have been re- cognized as a preparation of galbanum. From the same quantity al- cohol extracted upwards of nine ounces and a half of a hard, brittle, insipid, inodorous substance, (resin?) Medical use.—Galbanum agrees in virtue with gum ammoniaeum; but is generally accounted less proper in asthmas, and more so in hysterical complaints. It is exhibited in the form of pills or emul- • Galbanum, Pharm. U. S. G.—Gallse. 309 sions, to the extent of about a drachm. Applied externally, it is sup- posed to resolve and discuss tumours, and to promote suppuration. GALEGA VIRGINIANA. Virginia Goats-rue. The Root. This is one of the most beautiful of the known North American plants of the class Diadelphia. It is common in many parts of Penn- sylvania, New Jersey, &c. It is called cat-gut in Jersey, from the resemblance of its roots to that article. A decoction of the roots is said to be a powerful anthelmintic. * GALLJE. E. D. L. A. Nut-galls. The Nest of the Cynips Quercifolii. Moncecia Polyandria. Nat. ord. Amentacese. Syn. Noix de Galles, (F.) Gallapfel, (G.) Galnoot, (Dutch.) Galla, (I.) Agalla, (S.) Maju P'hal, (H. San.)' Olivier has, in his travels in the Ottoman empire, given us an accurate botanical description of the oak winch produces the gall-nut, and which, he says, was till then unknown to botanists. He calls it Quercus infectoria, (Dyers'1 oak^) and characterizes it foliis ovato oblongis, sinuato dentatis, glaberrimis, deciduis; fructibus sessilibus, longissimis. It is scattered through all Asia Minor, from the Bos- phorus to Syria, and from the shore of the Archipelago to the fron- tiers of Persia. It has a crooked stem, and seldom reaches the height of six feet. It oftener has the appearance of a shrub than of a little tree. The gall-nuts come at the shoots of the young boughs, and are produced by the puncture of diplolepis gallse tinctorise to depo- site an egg. They acquire from four to 'twelve lines in diameter, and are generally round and covered with tuberosities. They are in perfection when they have acquired their full size and weight, but before the insect has pierced them, after which they get a brighter colour, and lose some of their weight. The harvest takes place about the middle of Messidor. The galls first picked are laid apart, and are known under the name of Yorli, and in commerce are called black and green galls. Those gathered later are called white galls, and are very inferior in value. In commerce they occur of differ- ent sizes, smooth or knotty on the surface, of a whitish, reddish, or blackish colour, and generally penetrated with a small hole. Inter- nally they consist of a spongy, but hard, more or less brown sub- stance, and they have a very rough astringent taste. Good galls are of a blackish-grey, or yellow colour, heavy, and tuberculated on the surface. They are the most powerful astringents we possess; and since the discovery of the tanning principle by Mr. Seguin, have very much engaged the attention of chemists. Neumann got from 960 grains of coarsely powdered galls, 840 watery extract, and af- terwards only 4 alcoholic; and inversely, 760 alcoholic, and 80 wa- * Barton's Collections, Part I. p. 64, 310 G.—Gallse. tery. But the most minute analysis is that of Sir H. Davy, who found that 500 grains of good Aleppo galls gave, by lixiviating them until their soluble matters were taken up, and evaporating the solu- tion slowly, 185 grains of solid matter, which, when examined by analysis, appeared to consist of, Tannin,*...................130 Mucilage, and matter rendered insoluble by evaporation,..............12 Gallic acid,t and a little extractive matter, • • 31 Remainder, calcareous earth and saline matter,,« 12 From his experiments, Dr. Duncan is disposed to think that Sir H. Davy has under-rated the tannin of nut-galls; for by simple re- peated infusions in hot water, the residuum of 500 grains in one ex- periment amounted only to 158, and in another only to 136 grains. The quantity of tannin, estimated in Sir H. Davy's way, amounted, in the first, to 220 grains, and in the second, to 256. The great dif- ference in these results from Sir H. Davy's, must be entirely ascrib- ed to some differences in the galls themselves, or in the mode of operation. A saturated decoction of galls, on cooling, deposites a copious pale yellow, precipitate, which seems to be purer tannin than what can be got by any other process; but it still requires and de- serves a more minute examination. In Dr. Duncan's experiments, a very weak infusion of nut-galls was precipitated by sulphuric acid, lime-water, sub-carbonat of potass, acetat of lead, sulphat of copper, nitrat of silver, sulphat of iron, tartrat of antimony, nitrat of mer- cury, infusion of officinal cinchona, and solution of gelatin; it was not precipitated by nitrous acid, ammonia, sulphat of zinc, muriat of mercury, infusion of quassia, or infusion of saffron. To what principles these precipitates are owing, remains still to be ascer- tained. Vauquelin justly observes, that the infusions of nut-galls and of cinchona agree in precipitating both gelatin and tartrat of antimony, but that they precipitate each other. Another factr equally curious, occurred in Dr. Duncan's experiments: a mutually saturated mixture of the infusions of nut-galls and cinchona, still precipitates gelatin; but these infusions, separately saturated by gelatin, do not act on each other. Hence it appears that the action of these infusions on each other, depends on principles contained in * Tannin, when completely dried, is a brittle substance, of a black colour, and vitreous fracture; it is soluble in alcohol; it is much more soluble in hot than in cold water. The solution has a dark brown colour, astringent taste, and peculiar smell; it is precipitated by acids, in the form of a viscid fluid like pitch; it is also precipitated by carbonat of potass in yellow flakes; it forms an insoluble elastic precipitate with gelatin, and dark blue or black precipi- tates with iron. | Gallic acid crystallizes in brilliant colourless plates, of an acid and some- what austere taste, and of a peculiar odour when heated. It may be sublim- ed without alteration, although a strong heat decomposes it in part. It is not altered by exposure to the air, is soluble in 1 1-2 of water at 212°, and in 12 waters at 60°, and in four times its weight of alcohol. It has a strong affinity foT metallic oxyds, especially iron. It precipitates gold, copper and silver brown, mercury orange, iron black, bismuth yellow, and lead white. Gallats have not been examined. G.—Gambogia. 311 each, compatible with the presence of tannin, but re-acting on each other, and that gelatin precipitates these principles along with the tannin. Sir H. Davy has concluded that tannin and gelatin unite in fixed proportions, viz. 46 of tannin with 54 gelatin: were this cor- rect, it would very much facilitate the analysis of astringents, but unfortunately Dr. Duncan's experiments do not confirm it. A twelve hours' infusion of 500 grains of nut-galls in twelve ounces of water, precipitated successively with equal quantities of solution of gelatin, containing each twenty-four grains, gave precipitates weighing 98, 64, 48, and 36 grains: hence, if we suppose the whole gelatin used to be contained in each precipitate, these consisted of 24 grains of gelatin, and 74, 40, 24, and 12 grains of tannin; so that, from the weight of the precipitate alone, we cannot estimate the tannin. Dr. Bostock has drawn the same conclusions from a set of experiments which he made, without any knowledge of Dr. Dun- can's. It has been generally asserted, that the precipitate of tannin and gelatin is insoluble in water, either cold or hot; but Dr. Duncan found that in boiling water it not only becomes soft and viscid, but a certain portion is dissolved, which separates again when the solu- tion cools. He also remarks, that if the precipitate be dried without any heat, it has a yellowish-white appearance, opaque, and without lustre; but if exposed to a very moderate increase of temperature before it be dry, it seems to undergo a kind of fusion, and acquires transparency, a dark brown-red colour, and a resinous lustre; with a higher temperature, even when almost dry, it will become so fluid as to pass through filtering paper. Mr. Davy discovered that it is soluble in excess of gelatin. It is also extremely soluble in ammonia, forming a red solution. Medical use.—An infusion or decoction of galls may be used with advantage as an astringent gargle; and an ointment of one part of finely powdered galls to eight of any simple ointment is applied with success in haemorrhoidal affections. GAMBOGIA. E. D. L. A. Gamboge. Tlie Gum Resin of Stalagmifis Gambogioides,* and some other trees. . \ Syn. Gomme Gutte, (F.) Gummigutt, (G.) Gomma Gotta, (I.) Ossara rewund, (Ar.) ' The tree which furnishes the gamboge is of middling size, and grows wild in the kingdom of Siani and in Ceylon. In Siam the gum- resin is obtained in drops by breaking the leaves and young shoots; hence probably its name gummi-guttae; but in Ceylon it is extracted from the wood of the tree in the form of a juice, which soon becomes solid. Gamboge, or at least a very similar substance, is also got in the same way from different species of Garcinia, especially the Gambogia, (the Gambogia Gutta of Linn.) Willd. g. 938, sp. 3. Dodecandria Monogynia, and from different species of Hypericum, especially the Bacciferum. It is brought from the East Indies in large cakes or rolls. The best sort has a deep yellow or orange colour, * Staiagmttis, Polygamic Mmtcecia. Nat. ord. Tricoccv, 312 G.—Gaultheria. shining fracture, and is free from impurities. It has no smell, and very little taste, unless kept in the mouth for some time, when it impresses a slight sense of acrimony. Neumann got from 16 ounces, 14 of alcoholic extract, and one of watery; and inversely, 13 of watery, and two of alcoholic. He also found it almost entirely so- luble in water, impregnated with a moderate proportion of fixed alka- line salt. According to Dr. Duncan's experiments, which confirm these observations, the watery solution is opaque and yellow. With alcohol it forms a transparent solution of a bright golden colour; and the residuum is totally soluble in water. The alcoholic solution is decomposed by water, becoming yellow and opaque; but the pre- cipitate remains long suspended, and cannot be separated by com- mon filtering paper. Ammoniated alcohol dissolves gamboge with similar phenomena. Gamboge is readily soluble in solution of po- tass, acquiring a bright red colour the moment it is thrown into it, and forming a dark-coloured solution which is not decomposed by water; but the addition of any acid immediately produces a copious yelloTy precipitate, very soluble in excess of acid. Gamboge is also very soluble, but with decomposition, in acids. The acid solution is precipitated by water. Braconnot says it consists of one-fifth of gum, and four-fifths of an acidiferous resin, from which he extracted, by analysis, 22.5 dry muriatic acid, 35 charcoal, 42 gases. This re- quires to be confirmed. Medical use.—Gamboge evacuates powerfully, both upwards and downwards; some condemn it as acting with too great violence, and occasioning dangerous hypercatharsis; while others are Of a contrary opinion. Geoffroy seems particularly fond of this medicine, and in- forms us, that he has frequently given from two to four grains, with- out its proving at all emetic; that from four to eight grains both vomit and purge without violence; that its operation is soon over; and that if given in a liquid form, and sufficiently diluted, it does not need any corrector; that in the form of a bolus or pill, it is most apt to prove emetic, but very rarely has this effect if joined along with calomel. He nevertheless cautions against its use where the patients cannot easily bear vomiting. It has been used in dropsy with cream of tartar or jalap, or both, to quicken their operation. It is also recommended by some to the extent of fifteen grains, with an equal quantity of vegetable alkali, in cases of the tape-worm. This dose is ordered in the morning; and if the worm is not expelled in two or three hours, it is repeated even to the third time with safety and efficacy. It is asserted, that it has been given to this extent even in delicate habits. It is an ingredient, and probably the active one, in most of the nostrums for expelling taeniae. GAULTHERIA.* Mountain-tea. Partridge-berry. The Leaves. It. is also called berried-tea, grouse-berry, and deer-berries; and * In the secondary list of the Pharm. U. S. G.—Gentiana. 313 is one of the principal articles of the Materia Medica of some Indian tribes. It is extensively spread over the more barren, mountainous parts of the United States. In infusion it possesses a stimulant and anodyne quality, and is said to be useful in cases of asthma.* GENTIANA. L. D. Gentiana Lutea. E.\ Gentian. The Root. Pentandria Digynia. Nat. ord. Rosaces, Linn. Gentianse, Juss. Syn. Gentiane jaune, (F.) Enzian, (G.) Genziana, (I.) Genciana, (S.) TiiTtcLvx, Dioscor. Gentian is a perennial plant, which grows upon the Alps, Pyre- nees, Appenines, and other mountainous situations in the temperate parts of Europe. The roots are long, thick, externally of a brown colour, and wrinkled; internally spongy, and of a yellow colour, without any remarkable smell, but surpassing in bitterness all other European vegetables. Alcohol dissolves only the bitter extractive, water both the extractive and mucilage. It is largely devoured by a small insect. Neumann got from 960 grains 390 alcoholic, and afterwards 210 insipid watery extract, and inversely 540 watery, and only 20 alco- holic. Medical use.—Gentian possesses the general virtues of bitters in an eminent degree, and is totally devoid of astringency. On dead animal matter it acts as an antiseptic. Taken into the stomach, it proves a powerful tonic, and in large doses it evacuates the intes- tines. It is useful in debility of the stomach, in general debility, and in gout. Combined with astringents it cures intermittents. Ex- ternally, it is applied to putrid ulcers. GENTIANA CATESB^I.J Blue Gentian. The Root. This plant is pre-eminent in the bitterness of its roots, which are branching, and somewhat fleshy. When dried, it has at first a mu- cilaginous and sweetish taste, which is soon followed by an intense bitter, nearly approaching that of the officinal gentian. This quality, according to Professor Bigelow, appears to reside in a bitter extrac- tive principle, soluble both in water and in alcohol. A little resin is also present. Both the alcoholic and watery solutions exhibit the bitterness more powerfully than the root in substance. It has no astringency. It is used in the Southern states in decoction, in pneumonia, as a tonic and sudorific. Its tincture is used in dyspepsia, from two drachms to half an ounce. It may be considered as useful in all cases where a pure and simple bitter is indicated. * Barton's Collections, Part I. p. 19. \ Gentiana, Ph. U. S. *Ph. U. S 41 314 G.—Geranium.—Geum. GEOFFROYA INERMIS. E. D. Cabbage-tree. The Bark. Diadelphia Decandria. Nat. ord. Papilionacese, Linn. Leguminosx, Juss. Syn. Umari de la Jamaique, (F.) Geoffrunrinde, (G.) The bark of this tree, which grows in the low savannas of Jamaica, is of a grey colour externally, but black and furrowed on the inside. The powder looks like Jalap, but is not so heavy. It has a mucila- ginous and sweetish taste, and a disagreeable smell. Medical use.—Its medical effects are much greater than its sensi- ble qualities would lead us to expect. It is given in cases of worms, especially for lumbrici, in form of powder, decoction, syrup and ex- tract. The decoction is preferred; and is made by slowly boiling an ounce of the fresh dried bark in a quart of water, till it assume the colour of Madeira wine. This, sweetened, is the syrup; evaporated, it forms an extract. It commonly produces some sickness and purg- ing; sometimes violent effects, as vomiting, delirium, and fever. These last are said to be owing to an over-dose, or to drinking cold water; and are relieved by the use of warm water, castor oil, or a vegetable acid. GERANIUM MACULATUM.* Cranes-bill. Spotted Geranium. The Root. This is improperly called crow-foot in some parts of the United States. It grows plentifully about Philadelphia. The root, boiled in milk, is an excellent medicine in the cholera of children. In Ken- tucky it has been collected for the tormentil of the shops. It is called in some of the north-western parts of the United States, Racine a Becquet, after a person of this name. The western Indians say it is the most effectual of all their remedies for the cure of the venereal disease. An aqueous infusion of the roots forms an excellent injection in gonorrhtea, and old gleets.t Dr. Mease mentions its efficacy in stopping bleedings, by apply- ing the root to the bleeding orifice. J GEUM RIVALE.§ Water Avens. The Root. Geum Urbanum. D. Common Avens. Herb Bennet. The Root. Icosandria Polygynia. Nat. ord. Senticosae, Linn. Rosacea:, Juss. Avens is a common perennial plant in shady uncultivated places, and flowers from May to August. The root is fibrous, externally of a dark red colour, internally white, and has the flavour of cloves, with a bitterish astringent taste. Its virtues are said to be increased • Geranium, Ph. U. S. -j- Barton's Collections, Part I. p. 8,43. Part II. p. 1 * Philadelphia Medical Museum, vol. ii. p. 163. §Geum, Pharm. U. S G___Gillenia. 315 by cultivation, and the large roots are preferred to the smaller fibres. It must be dug up in the spring, when the leaves begin to appear, for the smell is then strongest; indeed it is hardly to be perceived when it flowers. It must be dried in the air, but not with a strong heat, as its flavour would be dissipated, and its virtues diminished. It tinges both water and alcohol red. Half an ounce yielded 30 grains of resinous, and 20 of gummy extract; the former had the smell of the root, the latter was without smell, and merely astrin- gent. Water distilled from it has a pleasant flavour, and carries over a little thickish essential oil. It has been more recently ana- lyzed by Melandri and Moretti, who got from two ounces 118 grains of tannin, 181 extractive, 61 of saponaceous extract and saline mat- ter, 92 of mucous extract, 23 of resin, 496 of woody fibres, and 76 of volatile oil, water and loss. Medical use.—Avens is an old febrifuge mentioned by Ray, but again brought into notice by Buckhave. It is recommended as a substitute for cinchona, in intermittent fevers, dysentery, and chro- nic diarrhoeas, flatulent colic, affections of the primge vise, asthmatic symptoms and cases of debility. Haifa drachm or a drachm of the powder may be given four times a day, simply, or made up into an electuary with honey or rhubarb. Two table-spoonsful of the decoc- tion may be given every hour; or a table-spoonful of a tincture, made with an ounce of the root to a pint of alcohol, three or four times a day. GILLENIA (Spirjea) Trifoliata.* Common Gillenia. Indian Physic, <$"C fyc. This shrub grows plentifully in the United States, and is one of the few active plants of the class Icosandria. The root, the part employed, consists, like that of the officinal ipecacuanha, of a bark, and woody part. The active power seems to reside exclusively in the bark. It is a safe and efficacious emetic in doses of about 30 grains. It also seems to possess a tonic power, and has accordingly been thought peculiarly beneficial in intermittent fever. It is some- times very injudiciously employed by the country people, insomuch that they are obliged to apply for medical aid to remove the debility induced by the large doses of the root which they employ. Another species, it is said, grows in Kentucky, which is still more valuable, as an emetic, than the one under notice.t Professor Bigelow in speaking of the gillenia, - says, he can add his own testimony to its possessing properties analogous to those of ipecacuan. It requires, however, (he adds) a larger dose, and he has not been satisfied, that it is at all certain in its operation. In small doses, like ipecacuan, it appears to possess a tonic power; there does not seem any reason, from what is stated of this article, to conclude that it can supersede the foreign ipecacuan. Indeed, some experiments made in this University, deny it any extraordi- nary powers as an emetic, even in very large doses. * Gillenia, Ph. US. j Barton's Collections, Part I. p. 26 Part II. p. 59. 316 G___Glycyrrhiza. GLYCYRRHIZA. E. L. D. A. Liquorice. The Root and Extract. Diadelphia Decandria. Nat. ord. Papilionaceac, Linn. Leguniinosae, Juss. Syn. Beglisse, (F.) Sussholzwurzel, (G.) Legorizia, (1.) Regallza, (S.)Ussu- lussoos, (Ar.) Jet'himad'h, (H.) Yastimadhuca, (San.) TMHVfpifa Dioscor. Liquorice is a perennial plant, and a native of the south of Eu- rope, but it is cultivated in considerable quantities in England for medical purposes; and the roots which are raised there, are prefer- red to those imported from abroad, which are very frequently mouldy and spoiled, which this root is extremely apt to be when not well preserved in a perfectly dry place. The roots are very long, about an inch thick, flexible, fibrous, externally of a brown colour, internally yellow, and, when fresh, juicy. Their taste is very sweet, combined with a slight degree of bitter, when long kept in the mouth. They are prepared for use by peeling them, cutting away all the fibres and spoiled or mouldy parts. The powder of liquorice usually sold is often mingled with flour, and perhaps also with substances not quite so wholesome: the best sort is of a brownish yellow colour, the fine pale yellow being gene- rally sophisticated, and it is of a very rich sweet taste, much more agreeable than that of the fresh root. Neumann got from 960 parts of dried liquorice, 300 alcoholic ex- tract, and afterwards 210 watery, and inversely 540 watery, and only 30 alcoholic. The original alcoholic extract is the sweetest. Robiquet obtained from liquorice root, 1. Amylaceous feculum; 2. A saccharine substance having no resemblance to sugar; 3. A new crystalline substance; 4. A resinous oil, which is the cause of the acrimony in the decoctions; 5. Phosphat and malat of lime and magnesia; 6. Woody fibre. Medical use.—Its predominant constituents being saccharine and mucilaginous matter, its only action is that of a mild demulcent, and as such it is frequently used in catarrh, and in some stomach com- plaints, which seem to arise from a deficiency of the natural mucus, which should defend the stomach against the acrimony of the food, and the fluids secreted into it. > On account of its bulk it is rarely exhibited in substance, but more frequently in infusion or decoction. Extractum Glycyrrhizje. Extract of Liquorice. As this extract is never prepared by the apothecary, but common- ly imported from other countries, the Edinburgh college have insert- ed it in their list of the Materia Medica. It is imported in cylin- drical rolls, covered with bay leaves. It should be perfectly black, brittle when cold, and break with a smooth and glossy fracture, have a sweet taste, without empyreuma, and be entirely soluble in water. It is prepared from the fresh roots by expression, decoction, and inspissation. The best foreign extract of liquorice is prepared in Catalonia, but it is not so pure or so agreeable as the refined liquorice sold in the shops in small cylindrical pieces, not thicker than a goose-quill. This article is much employed in cases of catarrh, &c. in combi- G.—Granatum. 317 nation with other substances, as paregoric elixir, &c. to allay the couo-h. It is troublesome to dissolve it in water in the solid masses in which we receive it. An excellent mode of keeping it for use, is to pulverize it in very cold weather, and mix it with about one-fifth part of the powdered root, which prevents its agglutinating; and a mixture is readily made with it, even in cold water. Neumann got from 480 parts of Spanish extract, 460 watery ex- tract, and the residuum was not affected by alcohol; and inversely he got 280 alcoholic, and 180 watery extract. In this last case the alcoholic extract contained all the sweetness, the watery having scarcely any taste. From.the similarity of their taste, Dr. Thomson has made it a species of his new genus sarcocoll, but Neumann's more accurate analysis shows that it is a compound. The extract possesses the same properties with the root, and is used for the formation of several kinds of troches. The use of liquorice in preventing the tormina from senna, has been adverted to. GRANATUM.* L. D. Punica Granatum. E. Pomegranate. The Rind of the Fruit. The Double Flowers called Balaustine. D. Icosandria Monogynia. Nat ord. Pdmaceae, Linn. Myrtae, Juss. Syn. Le Grenadier, (F.) Granatass felschale, (G.) Gran ado, (S.) Porno Gra- nato, (I.) Rana, (Ar.) Anar, (H.) Darim, (San.) 'P**, Dioscor. Han Xe lien, (Chin.) The pomegranate is a low tree, or rather shrub, growing wild in Italy and other countries in the south of Europe; it is sometimes met with in our gardens; but the fruit, for which it is chiefly valued, rarely comes to perfection. This fruit has the general qualities of the other sweet summer fruits, allaying heat, quenching thirst, and gently loosening the belly. The rind is a strong astringent, striking a permanent blue with sulphat of iron, and as such is occasionally made us of. The bark of the root is stated by Dr. Buchanan to have been long used with success in the East Indies for the cure of taenia. Dr. Duncan also made some trials of it and of catechu in Great Britain, on the supposition that it was the astringent principle which acted chemically on the gelatinous body of the worm, but the introduction of the oil of turpentine prevented him from prosecuting the experiment. Mr. Breton, (Med. Chir. Tr. 2. p. 301.) gave it in powder in 9i doses, and in decoction of two ounces of the bark, to one gallon of water, reduced f Jix—a glass full, cold, every half hour till four doses taken. The worm was generally voided alive, a few minutes after the last dose. Celsus, (lib. iv. cap. xvii.) speaks of the use of pomegranate stalks for the broad worm. The flowers are of an elegant red colour, in appearance resembling a dried red rose. Their taste is bitterish and astringent. They are recommended in diarrhoeas, dysenteries, and other cases where astringent medi- cines are proper. * Granatum, Pharm. U. S. 318 G.—Guaiacum. GUAIACUM. A. Lignum et Resina. Guaiacum Wood or Lignum Vilse, and Resin of Guaiacum. Guaiacum Officinale. E. L. D. Guaiac. The Wood and Gum Resin. Decandria Monogynia. Nat. ord. Gruinales, Linn. Rutaceae. Juss. Syn. Guyac, (F.) Guajakgummi, (G.) Guajaco, (I.) Guayaco, (S.) lbiraee, id est Lignum dulce, (Piso, Rist. Nat. et. Med. p. 146, Ed. 1658.) This tree is a native of the West Indies, where it grows to a mid- dling size. The wood is heavier than water, verv hard, resinous, and of a greenish black colour. Its taste is bitterish, and when kin- dled it gives out a pleasant smell. It is brought either in pieces, which are sometimes covered with a pale yellow alburnum, or al- ready rasped, when by division its colour appears greenish, brown, or yellow. The bark is thin, of an ash-grey or blackish colour, and apparently composed of several laminae. It is less resinous than the wood. Neumann got from 7680 parts of the wood, 1680 alcoholic, and 280 watery extract, and inversely 740 watery, and 960 alco- holic; from 3840 of the bark he got 560 alcoholic, and 320 watery, and inversely 620 watery, and 240 alcoholic. The resin exudes spontaneously in tears, but is principally obtained by sawing the ■wood into billets about three feet long, which are then bored with an auger longitudinally. One end of these is laid upon a fire, so that a calabash may receive the melted resin, which runs through the hole as the wood burns. It may be also obtained by boiling the chips or sa wings of the wood, in water and muriat of soda. The resin swims at the top, and may be skimmed off. Guaiac resin has a brownish yellow colour externally; when held against the light is transparent, breaks with an uniform smooth shin- ing fracture, of a bluish green colour, is pulverizable, and the powder has a white colour, gradually becoming bluish-green; is fusible in a moderate heat, but not softened by the heat of the fingers; without proper smell and taste, but when thrown on hot coals diffusing an agreeable odour, and when swallowed in a state of minute division, causing an insufferable burning and prickling in the throat. Its spe- cific gravity is 1.23. Neumann got from 480 parts, 400 alcoholic, and only 10 watery extract; and inversely, 80 watery, and 280 alco- holic. Mr. Brande has more lately investigated this substance with much care. Digested with water, about one-tenth of it is dissolved, the water acquiring a sweetish taste and greenish brown colour. The liquid, when evaporated, leaves a brown substance, soluble in hot water and alcohol, but scarcely in sulphuric ether, and precipi- tating the muriats of alumina and tin. Alcohol readily forms with guaiac a deep brown-coloured solution, rendered milky by water, and precipitated pale green by the muriatic and sulphuric acids, brown by the nitric, and pale-blue by the oxy-muriatic, but not by the acetic acid or by alkalies. The solution in ether exhibits nearly the same properties. Guaiac is soluble in about 15 parts of solution of potass, and in 38 of ammonia; and the solutions are precipitated by the nitric, muriatic, and diluted sulphuric acids. Sulphuric acid dis- solves it, and nitric acid converts it into oxalic acid. On being burnt it leaves a large proportion of charcoal. Dr. Wollaston has disco- H.—Hamamelis. 319 vered a curious property of guaiac. By exposure to air and light, it acquires a green colour. This effect is produced in the greatest de- cree by the most refrangible rays. In the least refrangible rays it is cleoxydized, and the yellow colour is restored. The same effect is produced by hot metal. According to this analysis, it differs from the resins in the changes of colour produced on it by air and light, and the action of the acids; in not forming tannin, but oxalic acid when treated with nitric acid; and in the large proportion of char- coal it affords when burnt. It is sometimes adulterated with colo- phony or common resin; but the fraud is easily detected by the smell of turpentine emitted when thrown on live coals. Medical use.—Taken internally, guaiac commonly excites a sense of warmth in the stomach, a dryness of the mouth, with thirst. It in- creases the heat of the body, and quickens the circulation. If the patient be kept warm, it produces diaphoresis; if exposed freely to the air, an increased flow' of urine. In large doses it is purgative. Guaiac is a useful remedy, 1. In rheumatism and gout. 2. In certain venereal symptoms, as in foul indolent ulcers, and a thickened state of the ligaments or periosteum, remain- ing after the body is reduced by a mercurial course. Gua- iac will also suspend the progress of some of the secondary symptom; but it is totally incapable of eradicating true syphilis. 3. In cutaneous diseases. 4. In ozena, and scrofulous affections of the membranes and ligaments. The wood is always exhibited in decoction. From the resinous nature of the active constituent of this substance, this cannot be a very active preparation, as the menstruum is totally incapable of dissolving, though it may suspend a little of the resin. The decoc- tion of an ounce may be drank in cupfuls in the course of a day. The resin may be exhibited, 1. In substance, either made into pills, or suspended in water in the form of an emulsion. In this way from 10 to 60 grains of the resin may be taken in the day. 2. In solution in alcohol. About half an ounce of the tincture, with three ounces of water, is a sudorific dose for an adult, if he attend to keeping himself warm. 3. Combined with an alkali. H. HAMAMELIS VIRGINIANA. Witch Hazel. Tlie Bark. This tree is a native of the United States. The leaves are nearly inversely ovate. Blossoms, yellow: stand three or four together on short flower stalks. In loamy land. Blossoms, September and Oc- tober. This singular shrub does not commonly bloom until its leaves are destroyed by frost, when its numerous blossoms make a gay and. 320 H,—Helleborus. agreeable appearance, and continue until the weather becomes very cold, often until snow falls. The germen endures the severity of our winters uninjured; for the fruit does not ripen until the next Sep- tember, the time of its blossoming again, when ripe fruit and blossoms will be found on the same tree. The Indians consider this tree as a valuable article in their Materia Medica. They apply the bark, which is sedative and discutient, to painful tumours and external inflammations. A cataplasm of the inner rind of the bark, is found to be very efficacious in removing painful inflammations of the eyes. The bark chewed in the mouth is, at first, somewhat bitter, very sensibly astringent, and then leaves a pungent sweetish taste, which will remain for a considerable time. The specific qualities of this tree seem by no means to be accurately ascertained. It is probably possessed of valuable properties. HiEMATOXYLON. E. D. L. H^matoxylon Campechianum. A. Logwood. The Wood. Decandria Monogynia. Nat. ord. Lomentacex, Linn. Leguminosae, Juss. Syn. Bois de Campeche, (F.) Kampesch-holz, (G.) Campeggio, (I.) This tree was introduced from the Honduras into Jamaica, where it is now very common. The wood is firm, heavy, and of a dark red colour. Its taste is sweet, with a slight degree of astringency. It forms a precipitate with solution of gelatin, very readily soluble in excess of gelatin, and Dr. Duncan says, that with sulphat of iron it strikes a brighter blue than any other astringent he tried. It is used principally as a dye-wood, but also with considerable advantage in medicine. Its extract is also sweet and slightly astringent; and is, therefore, useful in obstinate diarrhoeas, and in chronic dysentery. 1. HELLEBORUS FCETIDUS. L. A. Helleboraster. D. Bears-foot. Stinking Hellebore. Settiswort. The Leaves. Polyandria Polygynia. Nat. ord. MuUisiliquse, Linn. Ranunculaceas, Juss. Syn. Hellebore fcetide, (F.) Stinkende Niesswurzell, (G.) This species is a native of England. It is perennial, and grows in shady places, and under hedges. The leaves have an acrid, bitter, nauseous taste, and unpleasant smell, especially when they are fresh. When dried, they are frequently given as a domestic medi- cine to destroy worms; but they must be used sparingly, being so violent in their operation that instances of their fatal effects are re- corded. Dose of the powder 6 to 20 grains. 2. HELLEBORUS NIGER. E. L. D. A. Melampodium. Black Hellebore. The Root. Syn. Hellebore, (F.) Schwartze Niesswurzel, (G.) This plant, formerly called Melampodium, is perennial, and grows wild in the mountainous parts of Austria, and on the Pyrenees and H.—Heracleum Lanatum. 321 Appenines: the earliness of its flowers, which sometimes appear in December, has gained it a place in gardens. The roots consist of a black furrowed roundish head, about the size of a nutmeg, from which short articulated branches arise, send- ing out numerous corrugated fibres about the thickness of a straw, from a span to a foot in length, deep brown on the outside, white, or yellowish-white within, and of an acrid, nauseous and bitterish taste, exciting a sense of heat and numbness in the tongue, and of a nause- ous acrid smell. These fibres only are used in medicine, and the head and decayed parts are rejected. For the roots of the real black hellebore, the roots of the Adonis vernalis, Trollius Europaeus, Ac- taea spicata, Astrantia major, Helleborus viridis foetidus, Veratrum album, and Aconitum neomontanum, are often substituted. The last is a most virulent poison, and may be distinguished by its roots being fusiform, or nearly globular, sending out numerous very brit- tle fibres, of a greyish black or brown colour, as thick as a man's finger, and repeatedly divided. But the surest way to avoid mistakes, is by the apothecary cultivating the plant itself in his own garden. Neumann got from 2880 grains, 380 alcoholic, and 181 watery ex- tract; and inversely 362 watery and 181 alcoholic. Medical use.—In large doses, hellebore is a drastic purgative; in smaller doses it is diuretic and emmenagogue. It is principally used as a purgative in cases of mania, melancho- ly, coma, dropsy, worms and psora, and as an emmenagogue. But its use requires very great caution, for its effects are very uncertain, and affected by many circumstances. It is commonly exhibited in the form of extract, although its ac- tivity be much dissipated by the preparation. An infusion or tinc- ture certainly promise to be medicines of more uniform powers. Willdenow says, that the black hellebore of the ancients is his fifth species, the Helleborus orientalis, and not the eAAe/3e/»a« ^sa*?, of Hippocrates, as commonly supposed. It is chiefly used in tincture or extract. HERACLEUM LANATUM.* Maslerwort. The Root. Heracleum Sphondylium. Common Cow Parsnip. Nuttall says the two species here mentioned are scarcely distinct. The present article was brought into notice by the late Dr. Joseph Orne, of Salem. In a communication to the Massachusetts Medical Society, October, 1803, he thus describes it: Common Cow Parsnip. (Sphondylium vulgare hirsutum. Park. C. B.) It grows in hedges; the stalk is large and tubular, invested with a down which also covers the leaves, that are large and jagged, five on each stalk, and of the colour of wormwood; it is umbelliferous, and flowers in June; the root is divided into several long and fibrous brandies, resem- bling a large parsley root; and the height of the plant, in its matu- rity, may be from two to four feet: the root has a rank strong smell, * Pharm. U. S. Secondary. 42 322 H.—Heuchera.—Hirudo Medicinalis. and a pungent and almost caustic taste; it should be carefully distin- guished from tlie common parsnip, that grows wild in gardens, and hedges; and, indeed, it has a very different appearance. The particular disease in which Dr. Orne commends the cow parsnip, is that of epilepsy. Three of the five cases which are ex- hibited in his communication, were cured by the use of this medi- cine. The author judiciously observes, that in the three successful cases the patients were remarkably liable to flatulence, with symp- toms of morbid sensibility of the stomach, and date their first relief from the sensation of a more firm and healthful tone of that organ, and the carminative effects of the medicine. He commonly pre- scribed two or three drachms of the pulverized root, to be taken every day for a great length of time, and a strong infusion of the leaves and tops to be drunk at bed-time. In the hands of other practitioners, this plant has manifested con- siderable efficacy, exerting its peculiar powers immediately on the stomach, as an excellent carminative; and, if it does not cure epi- lepsy, it generally mitigates the distressing symptoms attending that disease. In some cases of dyspepsia, accompanied with flatu- lencies and cardialgia, a strong decoction of this plant has been given by Dr. Mann with satisfactory success. HEUCHERA CORTUSA, vel AMERICANA.* Alum Root. American Sanicle. The root is an intense astringent; and is the basis of a powder which has lately acquired some reputation in the cure of cancer. > It is one of the articles in the materia medica of our Indians. They apply the powdered root to wounds, and ulcers, and cancers.* This root has been collected and sold instead of the colchicum! HIRUDO MEDICINALIS. D. The Leech. Only one species of leech is used in medicine. It has a flat and slimy body, composed of rings, tapering towards the head, which is turbinated, commonly about two or three inches long, and of the thickness of a goose-quill, but capable of elongating or contracting itself very much. Its back is of a dull olive-green colour, divided into three nearly equal parts by four yellow longitudinal lines, the two lateral entire, the two central broken with black. Besides these, between the lateral and central lines on each side, there are two others, resembling a chain of black and yellow. The belly is turkey blue, irregularly marked with yellow spots. It attaches itself to solid substances by either end, being furnished with a cir- cular sucker at the anal extremity, and a horse-shoe one at the head, with a triangular mouth in the centre. They should be collected in summer, in waters having a clear sandy bottom, as the bite of those found in stagnant waters and marshes is said to cause pain and inflammation. For the same rea- • Heuchera, Pharm. U. S. f Barton's Collections, Part I. and II. H—Hirudo Medicinalis. 323 son, the horse leech, which is entirely brown, or only marked with a marginal yellow tine, is commonly rejected, although they are used frequently in the north of Europe, and during the late scarcity of leeches have occasionally been employed, without any bad conse- quences, in England. The vulgar story of their drawing the whole blood out of the body, by evacuating it at one end as fast as they sucked it in at the other, if true, would give them a superiority over the others, as when a sufficient quantity of blood was drawn, there could be no difficulty in making them quit, even without passing a ligature round their necks. Leeches are best preserved for use in a bottle half filled with pure spring or river water, and covered with gauze or muslin, although they are said not to die even in an exhausted receiver, nor in a vessel filled with oil. It is advisable frequently to change the water in which they are kept, although there are instances of their being many months and even years in the same water; and it is remarkable, that water in which they are, keeps much longer sweet, than by itself. It is scarcely necessary to observe, that whenever the water becomes turbid or foul, or gets an unpleasant smell, or any of the leeches die in it, it should be changed. They should always be kept in a moderate temperature, about 50° Fahr. Some recommend throwing a little bran into the water; but it is so well ascertained that they will live for years without any such ad- dition, that it is better not to attempt to feed them, until we are better acquainted with their natural food. Though apparently so hardy, leeches are sometimes subject to great mortality from un- known causes, as in 1798 and 1799. Infection, in some cases, seems evident. To avoid danger from this source, they should be kept rather in several small vessels, than in one large reservoir; and when fresh leeches are procured, they should always be kept by themselves, and their health ascertained, before they are added to the general stock. When they have gorged themselves with blood, they frequently die of indigestion, and cause a great mor- tality even among those who have not been used. To avoid this danger, leeches which have recently sucked, should also be kept by themselves, until they have recovered their usual vigour. The treatment of the individuals which have performed their office, has been the subject of some controversy. One recommends using no means to make them disgorge the blood they have sucked, but only to immerse them for half an hour in milkwarm water, and to change their water regularly every second day for some time; others advise stripping them, as it is called, that is, taking hold of the tail be- tween the finger and thumb of the left hand, and drawing the ani- mal through those of the right, so as to evacuate the blood; while others, again, apply salt to their heads until they vomit all the blood they have sucked. Leeches change their skin frequently. At that time they are subject to indisposition, and will not bite. The re- moval of the old cuticle may sometimes be assisted by wiping them witli a bit of soft linen. Medical use.—Leeches are a very old and useful remedy in every case requiring local blood-letting. They cause less irritation than cupping, and can often be applied nearer to the part. 324 H.—Hordeum. They are used, 1. In inflammation of all kinds, ophthalmia, phrenitis, cynanche, rheumatismus, odontalgia, podagra. 2. In some cases of rubeola and scarlatina. 3. In suppressed natural or habitual haemorrhagies, especially piles. 4. In plethora of the head, chincough, in mania from suppressed discharges. 5. Dysuria phlogistica. 6. In the head-ache of the first or inflammatory stage of continual fever. The application of leeches is sometimes attended with difficulty. When changing their skin they will not bite, and are averse to it in cloudy rainy weather, and in the evening. When kept out of the water some minutes before they are applied, and allowed to crawl on dry linen, they are said to bite more eagerly. The part to which they are to be applied should be very well washed,, first with soap and water, and afterwards with water, or milk and water, and if covered with strong hairs should be shaved. When they are not inclined to bite, the part may be moistened with milk, or a little blood drawn from it, by a scratch with a lancet. When they fix, they inflict without causing much pain, a wound of three minute flaps meeting at equal angles, from which they suck blood until they are gorged, arid drop off spontaneously, or are forced to quit their hold by sprinkling on them a little salt. A large leech will draw about half an ounce of blood: but the quantity may be much increased by bathing the wounds with tepid water, or applying over them cupping glasses. Sometimes it is more difficult to stop the bleeding; but it will always cease on applying a little lint, and continuing pressure a sufficient length of time. It is said their acti- vity is improved by putting them into porter! |C7" Sundry references on the subject of Leeches— Leeches—references for.—First used by Themison, Geoffroy.Mat.Med. xiv. 84. Sprengel, Hist, de la Medicine, ii. 22. Horn, on their history, &c. Med. and Chir. Rev. v. 574. Leeches swallowed, Med. and Phys. Jour. ix. 242. ----Epistaxis from, id. xi. 549. ----Facts respecting, id. xiv. 78, 186. —— Mortality of, id. xii. 219. ----Management of, id. xii. 349. —— Do. Med. Sped. i. 397. ---- Account of, Geoffroy. Mat. Med. xiv. 75.----Nat. Hist, of, Month. Mag. xxiii. 320. ----Do. Tilloch's Mag. v. 34. ---- Anatomy of, Lond. Phil. Trans. six. 722.--- Noticed by Ancients, Hoffm. Prctct. iii. 577. ----Observations on, Gent. Mag. Ixxxvii. 290. Eel. Rep. viii. 70.---- Hirudo, ab hauriendo, Lanzoni, Op. Om. i. 126. ----Inconveniences of its use, id. i. 127.----Ap- plied to the uterus in suppressed menses, id. iii. 480. ----Fatal effects from, Sennertus, &c. id. i. 126, &c. ---- Its use advocated and opposed, id. i. ----Three reasons against its use, id. i. ----Death from swallowing, id. i. 127. ----Salt water recommended if swallowed, id. i. ---- Gangrene and death from, externally, id. i. Treatise on the Medical Leech, &c. by James Rawlinson, 1816, (London.) Further Observations on the Medical Leech, by do. 1825. Article Sangsue, Diet, des Sc. Med. par M. Merat. Treatise on the Utility of Sanguisuction, by Rees Price, 1822, (London.) Also, Pliny the naturalist, Aretseus, JEtius, JEg'meta, Zacutus Lusitanus, Dr. Noble of Ver- sailles, &c. 8cc. H.—Humulus. 325 HORDEUM. L. A. Barley. Hordeum Distichon. E. D. The decorticated Seeds. Pearl Barley. Triandria Digynia. Nat. ord. Gramineae. Syn. Orge, (F.) Gerstengraupen, (G.) Barley is an annual plant, cultivated in almost every country of Europe. Linnaeus says that it is a native of Tartary, but without adducing sufficient proof. Pearl barley is prepared by grinding off the husks of rough barley, and forming the grain into little round granules, which appear of a kind of pearly whiteness. In this state barley consists almost solely of amylaceous matter, and when boiled forms an excellent article of nourishment; while a decoction of it properly acidulated, is one of the best beverages in acute, diseases. Barley meal, according to Fourcroy and Vauquelin, contains a little unctuous coagulable oil, sugar, starch, an animal substance partly soluble in water, and partly in glutinous flocculi; phosphat of lime and magnesia, silica, iron, and a little acetic acid. Common barley will answer every purpose to which this more ex- pensive article is applied in medicine. HUMULUS. L. E. A. Humulus Lupulus. The Hop. Tlie dried Strobiles. Dicecia Pentandria. Nat. ord. Scabridse, Linn. Urticae, Juss. Syn. Houblon grimpant, (F.) Hopfen, (G.) Suppulo, (I.) Hoblon, (S.) The hop is an indigenous perennial climbing plant, cultivated to a great extent in Kent, and some other counties in England, for its leafy tops, which are used in the brewing of ale and porter; and as a very considerable revenue arises from the duty imposed on them, the use of all other bitters, such as quassia, &c. is prohibited by act of parliament; as, indeed, hops themselves once were. In the north of Europe, the young shoots are eaten instead of asparagus. Hops are intensely bitter, aromatic, and astringent. By simple in- fusions the aroma is extracted; by short boiling the bitter, and by long continued boiling, the aroma is dissipated, and the astringency predominates. The aroma resides in a volatile oil, and the astrin- gency in a species of tannin, for sulphat of iron is blackened by it. It also contains a resin from which it has its bitterness, and a nau- seous mucilaginous extractive, which alcohol precipitates from the infusion. Crystals of nitrat and muriat of potash appear in a long kept extract. The old writers say, that hops are added to malt li- quors on account of the lithontriptic virtues which they were sup- posed to possess; thus Ray affirms, that since the Londoners added hops to their beer, they have been less subject to calculous com- plaints; and if we were to believe Lobb, a very hard urinary calcu- lus was softened by a decoction of hops. Their evident effects are to impart an aromatic bitter, and to retard the acetous fermenta- tion; for malt liquors keep longer in proportion to the quantity of hops added, and the bitterness decreases as the liquor becomes ripe, and disappears as it verges to acidity. Bergius supposes that the sweetness of the malt would hurt the stomach, were it not cor- 326 H.—Humulus. rected by the bitterness of the hop. It also probably communicates a narcotic quality. A pillow stuffed with hops is said to have long been a popular remedy, and recent experiments have confirmed the fact, and led to the employment of various preparations of hops in medicine. The dose of the powder is about three grains, although it may be remarked that it is very difficult to powder. It produced sleep, in the experiments of Dr. De Roches, in rheumatic, syphilitic, and pectoral complaints. The tincture seemed to possess the same anodyne virtues, but it was not so uniform in its action. Dr. Maton gave it in the form of tincture and extract, with the-best effects, in articular rheumatisms. He did not observe that it had any influence in relaxing the bowels, but the contrary; and he is disposed to be- lieve tiiat the pulse is reduced in frequency, and increased in firm- ness by this medicine, in a very direct manner. An ointment com- pounded with the hop, is said, by Mr. Freake, to have eased the vio- lent pain in the last stage of cancer, when all other applications were ineffectual. The hop is indigenous in America. It occurs wild in the Atlantic States, and was found by Mr. Nuttall on the banks of the Missouri. An excellent and most interesting series of experiments have been lately published on this plant, by Dr. Ives of New York, in which he has successfully shown, that the virtues of the hop reside in a semi-resinous substance, in the form of minute, yellow, transparent globules, appearing on the outside of the scales of the calyx and corolla,-near their base. According to Dr. Ives, it consists of tannin, extractive matter, a bitter principle, wax, resin, and a woody fibrous substance, besides the aromatic principle, which he could not separate in the form of volatile oil. Dr. Ives' first views on the subject may be learned from the fol- lowing extract of a letter to me, whilst prosecuting his researches. A much more ample detail is given in his communication in Profes- sor Silliman's Journal, and in Professor Bigelow's Medical Botany. " As you have been interested in the subject of Materia Medica, you may perhaps be gratified to know the result of my experiments on the hop. Lest I should be suspected of an intemperate enthusiasm, it is necessary to observe, that I have not been particularly, or rather, exclusively, devoted to the examination of this article. I have for some months past been engaged in reviewing the proximate princi- ples and medicinal virtues of the indigenous plants, and the hop among others. .'" I think I have demonstrated, that the virtues of this article exist exclusively in the pollen. It is easy to procure an ounce of the pol- len from a pound of merchantable hops, and to obtain from it about half an ounce of alcoholic extract. This will be composed of resin, a bitter principle, wax, tannin, and an/extractive matter. I think the narcotic property resides in the resin. It is but sparingly, if at all yielded to water. The alcoholic infusion is aromatic and intensely bitter. I think it a useful and elegant medicine. " I am not yet prepared to say, that the pollen can be all separated from the petals by threshing; but were I to conclude from the ease with which I have obtained it, and the inert extract obtained H__Hydrargyrum. 327 from hops from which the pollen has been completely separated, 1 should presume there was as little propriety in carrying hops to market in the chaff, as corn, beans, or wheat. I shall say no more at present on the subject, as I hope, you will ultimately see the re- sult of my labours in a more eligible form, and opinions are always to be distrusted which are formed during the ardour of novel inves- tigations." HYDRARGYRUM. L. D. E. A.—MERCURY. Argentum Vivum'. Quicksilver. Syn. Mercure, (F.) Quicksilber, (G.) Mercuric, dOA^gue, (S.) Abue, (Ar.) Para, (H.) Parada, (San.) T- cess however is far too expensive for general adoption. The Italian Jews purify quicksilver for their barometers, by digesting it in dilute sulphuric acid, which is by no means an improper process. The mode directed for the purification of mercury by the London Col- lege, (Hydrargyrum Purificatum,)\s unable to separate it completely from its more deleterious contaminations. It is a general opinion in Germany that mercury boiled in water will impart to it an anthel- 330 H.—Hydrargyrum. mintic virtue; this, if it happens, can only depend upon the impuri- ties of the mercury; but large draughts of cold water are in them- selves anthelmintic. HYDRARGYRUM PURIFICATUM. E. L. D. A. Purified Mercury. Take of Mercury, six parts; Iron filings, One pound.—Rub them to- gether and distil the mercury from an iron retort. E. The quicksilver of commerce is often adulterated with lead, tin, or other metals, which renders it. unfit for internal use, and for many preparations. It therefore becomes necessary to purify it, and for- tunately its comparatively great volatility supplies us with an easy process. The Dublin College distil it simply without any addition; but, lest towards the end of the process the mercury should elevate any impurities along with it, they draw off' but two-thirds. The prin- cipal objection to this process is the want of economy; for although the remaining third may be used for some purposes, its value is very much depreciated. As iron has a much stronger affinity for almost all the substances with which quicksilver may be adulterated than quicksilver has, by adding iron-filings we may draw off the whole quicksilver by distillation, without any fear of the impurities rising along with it. Glass retorts are inadmissible in this distillation; because when the mercury begins to boil, the concussion is so great, that they would certainly be broken. Iron retorts are the best, although strong earthen ones may be also used. The receiver may be of the same materials, or of glass, if we wish to inspect the progress of the operation; but in this case we must interpose an adopter between the retort and re- ceiver, and fill the receiver nearly full of water, that the mercury may not crack it by falling hot into it. The retort employed should be so large, that the quicksilver should not fill above one-third of it. A bended gun-barrel will answer for small quantities. Acetas Hydrargyri. D. E. Acetat of Mercury. Take of purified quicksilver, three ounces; Diluted nitrous acid, four ounces and a half, or a little more than may be required for dissolv- ing the mercury; Acetat of potass, three ounces; Boiling water, eight pints.—Mix the quicksilver with the diluted nitrous acid; and after the effervescence has ceased, digest if necessary with a gentle heat, until the quicksilver be entirely dissolved. Then dissolve the acetat of potass in the boiling water, and immediately to this solution, still hot, add the former, and mix them by agitation. Then set the mixture aside to crystallize. Place the crystals in a funnel, and wash them with cool distilled water; and, lastly, dry them with as gentle a heat as possible. Glass vessels must be used through- out. E. This process of the Edinburgh College was ascertained by very careful experiment, and if its directions be accurately followed, the preparation succeeds admirably. Nitrat of mercury is decomposed by acetat of potass; and the products are acetat of mercury and nitrat of potass. The nitrat of potass being much more soluble than the H__Hydrargyrum. 331 acetat of mercury, remains in solution after the latter is separated by crystallization. Mercury is capable of forming different combina- tions'with nitric acid, which possess each their characteristic pro- perties. When we employ a sufficient quantity of acid to dissolve the mercury without the assistance of heat, and to retain it in solu- tion, there is always an excess of acid; and therefore it is a solution, of super-nitrat of mercury. If we evaporate this solution very gently, or if we employ a larger proportion of mercury at first, and assist the action of the acid by a gentle heat, we obtain nitrat of mercury crystallized in various forms. In these the mercury is in the state of protoxyd. But if we assist the action of the acid by boiling, the mercury is converted into peroxyd, and a larger quantity is dissolved. This solution is very apt to crystallize, both on cooling and by the diminution of the quantity of acid during the process; and if we at- tempt to dilute the solution with water, a copious precipitate of sub- nitrat of mercury immediately takes place, and the solution contains super-nitrat of mercury. If the dilution be made with cold water, the sub-nitrat has a white colour, which, by a very slight .application of heat, passes to a beautiful yellow, the colour which it has at first when separated bv boiling water. For making the acetat of mercury, the nitrat is prepared with a verv gentle heat, and with excess of acid, that it may be retained in perfect solution, and that there may be no possibility of any admix- ture of sub-nitrat with the acetat formed. A larger proportion of acid is used by the Edinburgh College than by the other Colleges, but by careful experiment it was ascertained to be necessary for the success of the process. In mixing the solutions, we must be careful to pour the mercurial solution into that of the acetat of potass, be- cause, by adopting the contrary procedure, the sub-nitrat of mer- cury will be precipitated undecomposed, if any peroxyd be contained in the mercurial solution. For dissolving the acetat of potass, the London College only use as much water as is capable of retaining the nitrat of potass in solution; the acetat of mercury is therefore precipitated, and is purified by again dissolving it in boiling water and crystallizing it. This part of the process is simplified by the Edinburgh and Dublin Colleges, who use as much water for dissolv- ing the acetat of potass, as is capable of retaining, as long as it is hot, the acetat of mercury in solution, and of allowing it to crystal- lize as it cools. In this way, therefore, it is procured at once suffi- ciently pure. The exsiccation of the acetat of mercury is an opera- tion of great delicacy; for it is so spongy, that it retains the moisture with great obstinacy; and it is decomposed so easily, that heat can scarcely be employed. It is best dried by compressing it between several folds of bibulous paper. The Prussian Dispensatory directs acetat of mercury to be pre- pared by dissolving two ounces of the red oxyd of mercury in about seven oiinces of concentrated acetic acid, and evaporating the solu- tion to dryness: but this process affords a salt of a very difterent na- ture from' that prepared according to the directions of the British Colleges, the latter containing protoxyd. and being crystallizable; and the former the peroxyd and not crystallizable. Acetat of mercury is scarcely soluble in cold water, but dissolves 332 H.—Hydrargyrum. readily in boiling water. It generally crystallizes in micaceous plates, and is extremely easy of decomposition. It is supposed to be a mild preparation of mercury, and was the active ingredient of the celebrated Keyser's pills. In solution it has also been recommended externally, to remove freckles and cuta- neous eruptions. HYDRARGYRI OXVMURIAS. L. A. Murias Hydrargyri Corrosivum. D. Murias Hydrargyri Corrosivus. E. Corrosive Muriat of Mercury, Corrosive Sublimate. Oxymuriat of Mercury, or Quicksilver. Syn. Muriate de Mercure Corrosif, (F.) Murias Hydrargyri. Muriat of Mer- cury. Permurias Hydrargyri. Permuriat of Mercury. Mercurana. Deuto- chloruret of Mercury. Per-chloride of Mercury. Take of Purified mercury, two pounds; Sulphuric acid, thirty ounces; Dried muriat of soda, four pounds.—Boil the mercury with the sulphuric acid in a glass vessel, until the sulphat of mercury is left dry. Rub this, when it is cold, with the dried muriat of soda in an earthenware mortar; then sublime it in a glass cucurbit, in- creasing the heat gradually. L. By boiling the quicksilver to dryness with sulphuric acid, the me- tal is oxydized by the decomposition of part of the acid, and com- bines with the rest to form sub-sulphat of quicksilver. In the second part of the process, this sub-sulphat is decomposed by dried muriat of soda; corrosive sublimate sublimes, and sulphat of soda remains behind. In Holland it is manufactured by subjecting to sublimation a mixture of dried sulphat of iron, nitrat of potass, muriat of soda, and quicksilver. In the former editions of the Edinburgh Pharma- copoeia, the mercury was oxydized by boiling it to dryness in nitrous acid, and then subliming with muriat of soda and sulphat of iron. Bergmann recommends the sublimation of sub-nitrat of mercury and muriat of soda, and Mr. Murray seems inclined to prefer it to the new process. If a person should want this salt immediately, and be so situated as to be unable to procure it, it may be readily made by boiling mu- riatic acid over red precipitate, to dryness; dissolving the soluble part of the mass, and evaporating to crystallization.—It would pro- bably be the readiest mode of formation even in the large way; for it requires no sublimation. Medical use.—Muriat of mercury is one of the most violent poi- sons with which we are acquainted. Externally it acts as an escha- rotic or a caustic; and in solution it is used for destroying fungous flesh, and for removing herpetic eruptions; but even externally it must be used with very great caution. It has, however, been recom- mended to be given internally, by the respectable authorities of Boerhaave and Van Swieten; and it is the active ingredient of all the empirical antivenereal syrups. Were it really capable of curing the venereal disease, or equal in efficacy to the common modes of administering mercury, it would possess many advantages over H.—Hydrargyrum. 333 them in other respects: but that it cannot be depended upon, is al- most demonstrated by its use as an antivenereal, being very much confined to the quacks, and by the testimony of the most expe- rienced practitioners. Mr. Pearson says, that it will sometimes cure the primary symptoms of syphilis, especially if it produce con- siderable soreness of the gums, and the common effects of mercury; but that it will often fail in removing a chancre; and where it has removed it, that the most steady perseverance will not secure the patient from a constitutional affection. It is on some occasions, however, a useful auxiliary to a mercurial course, in quickly bring- ing the system under the influence of mercury, and in supporting its action after the use of frictions, and is peculiarly efficacious in relieving venereal pains, in healing ulcers of the throat, and in promoting the desquamation of eruptions. Corrosive sublimate in solution is often useful in croup, to excite screatus and vomiting, according to Dr. Barton. It is to be given for this purpose gut- tatim. As this is a most important article of the Materia Medica, the following extract from Dr. Paris' Pharmacologia, will not be mis- placed. "Qualities.—Form, a crystalline mass which is easily pulverized, and undergoes a slight alteration by exposure to air, becoming on its surface opaque and pulverulent. Odour, none. Taste very aqrid, with a metallic astringency. " Chemical Composition.—According to the latest views, it is a Bichloride of mercury, consisting of one proportional of mercury, to two proportionals of chlorine. In the French codex, it is termed " Deuto-Chloruretum Hydrargyri." " Solubility.—It is soluble in eleven parts of cold, and in three of boiling water, and in four parts of alcohol; it is also very soluble in ether; indeed, this latter liquor has the curious property of ab- stracting it from its solution in water, when agitated with it. Its solution in water is greatly expedited by the addition of a few drops of rectified spirit, or of muriatic acid. In a solution of muriat of ammonia it is thirty times more soluble than in water; no decompo- sition however arises; it is, therefore, probable, that a triple salt is formed; it is also soluble in the sulphuric, nitric, and muriatic acids, and may be obtained again unaltered, by simply evaporating the solutions. Its watery solution is said to change to green, vegetable blues, but this is an optical fallacy. " Incompatible Substances.—The carbonats of the fixed alkalies precipitate it of a yellow hue, but the precipitates are not pure oxyds; ammonia forms with it a white triple compound. Lime water decomposes it more perfectly than any alkaline body, occa- sioning a precipitate of a deep yellow colour,* which is a peroxyd of mercury containing a little muriatic acid; this result forms a useful lotion to ill-conditioned ulcers, and has been long known under the title of aqua phagedenica; one fluid ounce of lime water should be employed for the decomposition of twogiaius of the salt. Tartarized * "If the quantity of lime water be small, the precipitate will assume a red colour, and will be found to be a sub-muriat of the peroxyd." 334 H.—Hydrargyrum. antimony, nitrat of silver, acetat of lead, sulphur, sulphuret of potass, and soaps, decompose it. Iron, lead, copper, bismuth, and zinc, in their metallic state, also decompose it, producing precipi- tates which consist of an amalgam of the metal employed, with calo- mel; hence mortars of glass or earthenware should be used for dis- pensing this article; when triturated with olive oil, the oil becomes white; and when boiled with it, calomel is precipitated; the same happens if sugar be substituted for the oil; the volatile oils reduce it. The following vegetable infusions produce precipitates, viz. the in- fusions and decoctions of chamomile, horse-radish root, columba root, catechu, cinchona, rhubarb, senna, simarouba, oak-bark, tea and al- mond emulsion. Swediaur observes, that "many authors have re- commended sublimate combined with bark, but that a reciprocal decomposition is thus produced, by which the energies of both re-. medies are alike annulled;" to this ignorance, however, he thinks that many patients have been indebted for their lives; for, says he, "I see every day examples of weak and very delicate persons of both sexes, to whom ignorant practitioners prescribe, and some- times in very large doses, the corrosive sublimate, with a decoction of bark, certainly without curing the syphilis, but at the same time without occasioning those grave and dangerous symptoms, which that acrid medicine would certainly produce, if given alone, or without that decoction." "It is one of the most acrid and active of all metallic prepara- tions; in well directed doses, however, it is frequently of service in secondary syphilis, and in cases of anomalous disease,- when it would be improper to administer the other forms of mercury;* its * "As this salt has been supposed to arrest the progress of syphilis more rapidly, and, at the same time to excite the salivary glands less than any other preparation of mercury, it generally forms the basis of those dan- gerous nostrums, which are advertised for the cure of syphilis, without mer- cury. The contrivers hope also to elude detection by the density and.colour of the preparation. " Gowland's Lotion.—It is a solution of sublimate in an emulsion formed of bitter almonds, in the proportion of about gr. jss. to one fluid ounce. A so- lution of this mercurial salt in spirit of rosemary, is also sold as an empirical cosmetic. " Norton's Drops.—A disguised solution of corrosive sublimate. " Ward's White Drops.—This once esteemed antiscorbutic was prepared, by dissolving mercury in nitric acid, and adding a solution of carbonat of am- monia, or frequently they consisted of a solution of sublimate with carbonat of ammonia. " Spilsbury's Antiscorbutic Drops.—Of corrosive sublimate two drachms; prepared sulphuret of antimony one drachm; gentian root and orange peel, equal parts, two drachms; shavings of red saunders, one drachm, made with a pint of proof spirit into a tincture, which is to be digested and strained. " The Jntivenereal Drops, so famous at Amsterdam, were analysed by Scheele, who found that they were composed of muriat of iron, with a small proportion of corrosive sublimate. " Marsden's Antiscorbutic Drops.—A solution of sublimate in an infusion of gentian. " Green's Drops.—The basis of these also is sublimate. " Solomon's Anti-Irnpetigines.—A solution of sublimate. "Rob Anti-syphiliilque, par M. Laffecteur, Medicin Chemiste.—This popu- lar nostrum of the French contains, as a principal ingredient, corrosive subli- H.—Hydrargyrum. 335 exhibition should be accompanied with mucilaginous drinks; when an overdose has been taken, the white of egg, diluted with water, is the best antidote, for Orfila has found that albumen decomposes it, reducing it to the state of mild muriat, whilst the compound which it forms with it is inert. More recently, vegetable gluten, as exist- ing in wheat flour, is said to answer as well as albumen; for the ad- ministration of which all that is required is to give wheat flour and water. "Dose.—One-eighth to half a grain. " Caution.—The salt, as it is partially decomposed by light, should be kept in opaque bottles. "Adulterations.— It ought to be volatilized byheat; it is frequently met With in commerce, contaminated with muriat of iron, sometimes with arsenic; the presence of calomel is at once discovered from its insolubility. "Tests of its presence.—If any powder be suspected to contain this salt, expose it to heat in a coated tube, as directed in the treat- ment of arsenic, but without any carbonaceous admixture, When cor- rosive sublimate, if present, will rise and line the interior surface with a shining white crust. This crust is then to be dissolved in dis- tilled water, and assayed by the following tests; 1st, lime water will produce, if the suspected solution contains this salt, a precipitate of an orange yellow colour. 2d, a single drop of a dilute solution of sub-carbonat of potass will at first produce a white precipitate, but on a still further addition of the test, an orange coloured sediment will be formed. 3d, sulphureted water will throw down a dark co- loured precipitate, which when dried and strongly heated may be volatalized without any alliaceous odour. A very ingenious applica- tion of galvanic electricity has been also proposed by Mr. Silvester, for the detection of corrosive sublimate, which will exhibit the mer- mate. A strong decoction of the arundo phragmitis, (the bullrush,) is made, with the addition of sarsaparilla and aniseeds towards the end, which is eva- porated and made into a rob, or syrup, to which the sublimate is added. " Sirop de Cuisiniere.—This consists of decoctions of sarsaparilla, burrage flowers, white roses, senna, and aniseed, to which sublimate is added, and the whole is then made into a syrup with sugar and honey. " Terre Feuillete'e Mercurielle of Pressavin.—This is tartarized mercury, for it is made by boiling the oxyd of mercury, (obtained by precipitating it from a nitric solution, by potass,) with cream of tartar. " Felno's Vegetable Syrup.—There is great obscurity with respect to the genuine composition of this nostrum; it is supposed to consist of sublimate rubbed up with honey and mucilage. I have reason, however, to believe that it contains antimony, and the syrup of marsh mallows. Swediaur says, that volatile alkali enters into it as an ingredient; this alkali was proposed by Dr. Peyrile, as a substitute for mercury, and it constitutes the active ingre- dient of the following composition, which was proposed by Mr. Besnard, physician to the king of Bavaria. " Tinctura Ansisyphilitica.—Sub-carb. potass, one pound, dissolved in aq. cinnam. one pint; opii puri, two ounces, dissolved in spir. cinnamon, four fluid ounces; mix these separate solutions, and put them on a water bath for three weeks, taking care to shake the vessel frequently; to this add gum arabic, two ounces; carb. ammonix, one ounce, dissolve in aq. cinnamomi; mix, filter, and keep for use. Dose, twenty-four drops three times a day, in a glass of the cold decoction of marsh mallow root. " The external use of these drops is also advised for local syphilitic com- plaints!" 336 H__Hydrargyrum. cury in a metallic state. A piece of zinc or iron wire about three inches in length, is to be twice bent at right angles, so as to resem- ble the Greek letter n, the two legs of this figure should be distant about the diameter of a common gold wedding ring from each other, and the two ends of the bent wire must afterwards be tied to a ring of this description. Let a plate of glass, not less than three inches square, be laid as nearly horizontal as possible, and on one side drop some sulphuric acid, diluted with about six times its weight of water, till it spreads to the size of a half-penny. At a little distance from this, towards the other side, next drop some of the solution supposed to contain corrosive sublimate, till the edges of the two liquids join together; and let the wire and ring, prepared as above, be laid in such a way that the wire may touch the acid, while the gold ring is in contact with the suspected liquid. If the minutest quantity of corrosive sublimate be present, the ring in a few minutes will be covered with mercury on the part which touched the fluid. Brugnatelli* has proposed the following method of detecting corro- sive sublimate and arsenic:—Take a quantity of fresh wheat starch, mix with water, and add a sufficient quantity of iodine to give the liquid a blue colour; if corrosive sublimate or arsenic, be added to this liquor, the colour is alike destroyed, and it becomes reddish, but if the change has been effected by the latter substance, a few drops of sulphuric acid will restore the blue colour, but if by the former it is not recoverablcby such means. LIQUOR HYDRARGYRI OXYMURIATIS. L. A. Solution of Oxymuriat of Mercury. Take of oxymuriat of quicksilver, eight grains, Distilled water, fif- teen fluid ounces; Rectified spirit, one fluid ounce.—Dissolve the oxymuriat of quicksilver in the water, and add to it the spirit. L. This.solution contains in each fluid ounce, half a grain of the oxy- muriat of quicksilver. The spirit is added to preserve the solution from spoiling. The addition of the alcohol is absolutely useless, at least with the intention for which it is said to be added. Corrosive sublimate is, of all other articles, the best preventive against this result, and a simple aqueous solution would remain free of change until complete- ly evaporated. HYDRARGYRI SUBMURIAS. L. A. Sub-muriat of Mercury. Submurias Hydrargyri Mitis. E. Mild Sub-muriat of Mercury, or Calomel. Submurias Hydrargyri Sublimatum. Sive Colomelas. D. Sublimed Sub-muriat of Mercury, or Calomel. Calomelas. Calomel. Sun Muriate de Mercure doux, (F.) Proto Chloruret, (Chloride,) of Mercury. Muriat of Mercury. Muriat of Black Oxyd of Mercury. Mercurane. Draco Mitigatus. Aquila Alba. Aquila Mitigata. Manna Metallorum. Panchyma- cotnim Minerale, vel Quercetanum. Sublimatum Dulce, &c. &c. Amidst all these varieties of names, there is not one, as Dr. Pariv * Ann. de Chimie et Phys. iv. 334. H.—Hydrargyrum. 337 lias properly observed, so objectionable as that selected by the Lon- don College, and adopted by our National Pharmacopceia. It certainly would have been better to have selected a name which had no connexion with any of the doctrines of muriatic acid or chlo- rine, inasmuch as, if they are found incorrect, a corresponding change of name again becomes essential; but the present name is not ap- propriate on either theory; if a muriat at all, it is a. perfect muriat of the black oxyd of mercury; corrosive sublimate being equally a perfect muriat of the red oxyd; the only difference between the two, therefore, being dependent on the degree of oxydizement of the mercury, which is at a minimum, (protoxyd,) in the calomel, and at a maximum, (peroxyd,) in sublimate; and on the relative quantities of .muriatic acid, which these oxyds are respectively able to sa- turate. According to the new views of chlorine, calomel consists of one proportion of chlorine in union-with one proportion of the metal, forming a chloride or pro to-chloride of mercury; whilst corrosive sublimate consists of one proportion of the metal, and two propor- tions of chlorine; it is, therefore, likewise a chloride, or bi-chloride of mercury. Under these difficulties of selecting names founded on true chemical principles^and at the same time sufficiently distinct from each other, to prevent the possibility of mistaking calomel and corrosive sublimate for each other; it is submitted with confidence, that none superior to those just mentioned, (calomel and corrosive sublimate,) can be pointed out. They are concise, unconnected with any theory of past, present, or future times, and the dangerous one is additionally guarded by a corresponding epithet. The pride of science ought unquestionably to yield to utility on such an occasion; and it is to be hoped, that ere long, the medical men 6f every coun- try will be satisfied to reject all the numerous synonymes of the two salts in question, and employ solely those above mentioned. To return from this digression, to the preparation itself. Take of Corrosive sublimate, one pound; Purified mercury, nine ounces.—Rub them together in a glass' or Wedgwood mortar till the metallic globules disappear; then sublime; reduce the sublimed mass to*powder, and sublime it in the same manner. Lastly, bring it into the state of a very fine powder, by the same process which has been directed for the preparation of carbonat of lime, until the solution no longer lets a precipitate fall, by the addition of carbonat of potash. D. When quicksilver is triturated with muriat of quicksilver, it ab- stracts from the oxydized quicksilver of the muriat a part of its oxygen, and the whole mass assumes a blackish grey colour. When this is exposed to a degree of heat sufficient to convert it into va- pour, the action of the different portions of quicksilver upon each other, and upon the muriatic acid, is much more complete: and the whole is converted into a solid white mass, consisting of mercury, in a state of less oxydizement, and combined with less acid than in the muriat, or of about twice the quantity of mercury, with the same quantity of oxygen and acid. According to Sir H. Davy's theory, in the first part of the process, the additional mercury is merely me- 44 338 H.—Hydrargyrum. chanically divided, and by the sublimation twice the quantity of mercury is combined with the same quantity of chlorine. The trituration of the corrosive sublimate is a very noxious opera- tion, as it is almost impossible to prevent the finer particles from rising and affecting the operator's eyes and nostrils. To lessen this evil, the Edinburgh College directs the addition of a little water. In the second part of the process, when the heat is applied, a small portion of quicksilver and undecomposed corrosive sublimate first arise, and condense themselves in the highest part or neck of the phial; then the calomel rises, and being less volatile condenses in the upper half of the body, Avhile a small quantity of quicksilver, in a state of considerable oxydizement, remains fixed or near the bottom. The Edinburgh College separates the calomel from the other matters, and sublimes it again. The London and Dublin Colleges triturate the whole together again, and re-sublime it twice. As in the first sublimation, a portion of the quicksilver and of the corrosive subli- mate always rise undecomposed, a second sublimation is necessary, especially if we triturate the whole products of the first sublimation together: but any further repetition of the process is perfectly use- less. 'Lest any portion of corrosive sublimate should have escaped de- composition, the calomel must be edulcoratea with boilingdistilled wa- ter, until the water which comes off"forms no precipitate with alkalies. Calomel is generally obtained in the form of a white solid mass, but is capable of crystallizing in tetrahedral prisms termi- nated by pyramids. It has no taste, and is scarcely soluble in wa- ter or in alcohol. It is less volatile than corrosive sublimate. It is blackened by light; and becomes brown or black when triturated with lime-water or the alkalies. It is converted by oxymuriatic acid into corrosive sublimate. According to Mr. Chenevix, it consists of 79 quicksilver, with 9.5 oxygen, and 1.15 muriatic acid;, and ac- cording to Mr. Zaboada, of 85 quicksilver, with 4.4 oxygen, and 10.6 muriatic acid. From Mr. Chenevix's analysis, we should conclude that 54 parts of quicksilver were sufficient to convert 100 of corrosive sublimate into calomel; but, according to Zaboada's, 75 are necessary, which is exactly the proportion directed by the Colleges, and is also more con- formable to Sir H. Davy's view of their composition; for he considers the corrosive sublimate, mercurana, as consisting of one proportion of mercury 380, and two of chlorine 134, and the calomel, mercu- rane, of one of mercury 380, and one of chlorine 67; which gives us 73.9 as the quantity of mercury necessary to convert 100 of corrosive sublimate into calomel. Medical use.—Calomel is one of the best mercurials we possess. By proper management it may be made to increase, in a remarkable manner, almost any of the secretions or excretions. One grain mixed with sugar and snuffed up the nostrils, is recommended as a powerful errhine in amaurosis. The same mixture is blown into the eye, to re- move specks from the cornea. Given in doses of one grain morning and evening, or in larger doses combined with opium, to prevent it from acting as a purgative, it excites ptyalism. In larger doses of five grains and upwards, it is an excellent purgative. Combined with diuretics, it proves diuretic, and, with sudorifics, sudorific. H.—Hydrargyrum. 339 It is one of the preparations of mercury which is capable of curing syphilis in every form. It also produces very powerful and salutary effects in obstructions and chronic inflammations of the viscera, especi- ally of the liver; and, in general, it is applicable to every case in which mercurials are indicated. Corrosive sublimate may be detected, if present, in calomel, by precipitation being produced by the carbonat of potash, in a solution made by boiling the suspended sample with a small portion of muriat of ammonia in distilled water. Calomel ought also, when rubbed with pure ammonia, to become intensely black, and not to exhibit any trace of an orange hue. Incompatible substances.—Alkalies and lime-water decompose it and turn it black, in consequence of abstracting the acid, and leaving free the black oxyd. It is also decomposed by soaps, sulphurets of potash and antimony; and by iron, lead and copper; hence metallic mortars should be avoided in its preparations. If calomel be boiled for a few minutes in distilled water with alcoholized potash, it is completely decomposed, a muriat of potash, and black oxyd of mer- cury being the results.* Submurias Hydrargyri Pr^ecipitatus. E. D. Precipitated Sub-muriat of Quicksilver. Precipitated Calomel. Take of Diluted nitrous acid, Purified quicksilver, each, eight ounces; Muriat of soda, four ounces and a half; Boiling water, eight pounds. —Mix the quicksilver with the diluted nitrous acid, and towards the end of the effervescence digest with a gentle heat, frequently shaking the vessel in the mean time. But it is necessary to add more quicksilver to the acid than it is capable of dissolving, that a perfectly saturated solution may be obtained. Dissolve at the same time the muriat of soda in the boiling water, and into this solution pour the other while still hot, and mix them quickly by agitation; pour off the saline liquor after the precipitate has subsided, and ivash the sub-muriat of quicksilver by repeated affusions of boiling water, which is to be poured off each time after the deposition of the sub-muriat until the water come off tasteless. E. This prescription differs but little from that originally laid down by its inventor Scheele; and if due attention is paid to the directions given, I believe, from comparative trials, that no difference will be discovered between this and the common process. It is infinitely superior on account of its simplicity. In the first part of this process, a perfectly saturated solution of nitrat of quicksilver is formed. In the second, there is a mutual decomposition of this nitrat, and of the muriat of soda; nitrat of soda is formed, and muriat of quicksilver with excess of oxyd: or, according to Sir H. Davy, the chlorine of the sodane combines with * Calomel is thus made in India under the name of Rascapur:— Take of Mercury, Bole arrnoniac, Alum, for blue vitriol, J Rock salt, of each, nine parts.—Rub them together in a mortar with wider, and let the mass harden. Put it into a glazed earthen vessel, and invert another over it, luting them toge- ther,- keep them three days and three nights in a fire of cowdung.—Asiatic Re- searches, 11.191. 340 H.—Hydrargyrum. the mercury of the nitrat, forming mercurane, while the hydrogen of the muriatic acid and the oxygen of the mercurial oxyd combine to form water, nitric acid, and soda. In this preparation, our object is to obtain the insoluble compound which results from the combination of the protoxyd of mercury with muriatic acid. In this view, the application of heat, in dissolving the mercury in the nitrous acid, is improper; for a portion at least of the mercury is converted into its peroxyd, which occasions, in the first place, the formation of a little sub-nitrat of mercury, when poured into the saline solution; and, secondly, the formation of a proportion of muriat of mercury, (corro- sive sublimate,) which must be washed away. Accordingly, Mr. Murray has found, that more of mild, and less corrosive muriat of mercury are formed, when the solution is made slowly and in the cold, than when the directions of the Colleges are complied with. In Sir H. Davy's view of the subject, according to which calomel and corrosive sublimate are compounds of metallic mercury, with different proportions of chlorine, the object of this preparation is to get the largest quantity of mercury dissolved in the nitrous acid, so that in decomposing muriat of soda, the smallest quantity of chlorine may be set at liberty; and as the peroxyd contains twice as much oxygen as the protoxyd, and acids seem to combine with a certain quantity of oxygen in oxyds, whatever be the quantity of metal united with them, the nitrat of the protoxyd of mercury will contain twice as much mercury as the nitrat of the peroxyd, and will of course give a double proportion of mercury to the chlorine set at liberty by the acid and oxygen. When properly prepared, the sub-muriat obtained by precipitation scarcely differs from that obtained by sublimation. Gottling found no other difference than that the precipitated sub-muriat became grey, when triturated with lime-water, whereas the sublimed sub- muriat becomes black. But he exposed to heat half an ounce of the precipitated sub-muriat in a subliming apparatus; scarcely a grain of a reddish matter remained fixed; and the sublimed matter now be- came black when triturated with lime-water, and differed in no res- pect from sub-muriat prepared in the ordinary way by sublimation. It therefore would seem to be an improvement in the process, to sub- lime the sub-muriat after it is precipitated; especially as by that operation it would be most effectually separated from any sub-nitrat which might be mixed with it. There is still another way of preparing the sub-muriat of mercury, without using corrosive sublimate, which must be noticed. It was contrived by Hermbstaedt, and is recommended by Moench with the confidence derived from experience, as the very best process for preparing the sub-muriat of quicksilver. Take of Pure quicksilver, seven ounces and a half; Sulphuric acid, four ounces; Dried muriat of soda, five ounces and a half.—Dis- til in a glass retort the sulphuric acid, with four ounces of the quicksilver, until they be converted into a dry white mass. Tritu- rate the sulphat of mercury thus formed, with the remaining three ounces and a half of quicksilver, until the globules disappear; then add the muriat of soda; mix them and sublime. As the product of the first sublimation still contains un-oxydized quicksilver, it is H.—Hydrargyrum. 341 to be again triturated and sublimed. The sublimate being washed, is now pure sub-muriat of quicksilver, and weighs about six ounces. The theory of this process is the same with that of the formation of the muriat of quicksilver. The difference between the two pro- ducts arises from the proportion of quicksilver being greater, and that of the muriat of soda employed being less. We are not pre- pared to state the comparative economy of the processes described, for preparing sub-muriat of quicksilver; but of the last process, we may observe, that according to Mr. Chenevix's analysis, seven ounces and a half of quicksilver should furnish nine ounces and a half of sub-muriat of quicksilver; and according to M. Zaboada's nearly nine; so that there is evidently a considerable loss, which must be owing either to the formation of muriat of quicksilver, or of exyd of quicksilver. Hydrargyrum Pr^cipitatum Album. L.* Ammoniated Sub-muriat of mercury. Whiteprecipitated Quicksilver. Take of oxymuriat of quicksilver, half a pound; Muriat of ammonia, four ounces; Solution of sub-carbonat of potass, half a pint; Dis- tilled water, four pints.—Dissolve first the muriat of ammonia, and afterwards the oxymuriat of quicksilver, in the distilled water, and add to these the solution of sub-carbonat of potass. Wash the pre- cipitate until it become insipid, and then dry it. L. ,- The Dublin College employs the following formula; which is cer- tainly to be preferred, if the calomel is made by the process of pre- cipitation. Submurias Hydrargyri Ammoniatum. D. Ammoniated Sub-muriat of Quicksilver. Add to the liquor decanted from the precipitated sub-muriat of quick- silver, as much water of caustic ammonia as is sufficient to preci- pitate the whole metallic salt. Wash the precipitate with cold dis- tilled water, and dry it on blotting paper. Muriat of quicksilver is about thirty times more soluble in a so- lution of muriat of ammonia than in pure water; and, during the solution, there takes place a considerable increase of temperature. Now, as these facts sufficiently prove a reciprocal action of the two salts, and as there is no decomposition, it is evident that they must have combined to form a triple salt; especially as they cannot be again separated either by sublimation or crystallization. This com- pound may, therefore, with propriety, be termed muriat of mercury and ammonia. It is the sal alembroth of the alchemists. It is very soluble in water, and is sublimed by heat without decomposition. When to a solution of this salt we add a solution of an alkaline carbonat, either of potass, as directed by the London College, or of soda, as by that of Berlin, there occurs a partial decomposition. The alkali combines with a portion of the muriatic acid, and reduces the * Hydrargyri Submurias Ammoniatus, Pharm. U. S 342 H.—Hydrargyrum. muriat of mercury and ammonia to the state of a sub-muriat, which being insoluble, falls to the bottom of the solution. The proportion of muriat of ammonia has been reduced in edition11815 to one-half, probably in consequence of a remark of Mr. Phillips. The process of the Dublin College is new and well contrived, as it converts to use the washings of the precipitated sub-muriat, and thus partly obviates the objection of want of economy in the direc- tions given by the college for preparing it. By the simple addition of ammonia, the whole muriat of mercury contained in the wash- ings is precipitated, in the form of sub-muriat of mercury and am- monia. The sub-muriat of mercury and ammonia thus precipitated, has at first an earthy, and afterwards a metallic taste. It is not soluble in water. It is decomposed by heat, furnishing water, ammonia, and nitrogen gas, while 0.86 of sub-muriat of mercury remain behind. Sulphuric and nitric acids partially decompose it, and convert it into muriat of mercury, and triple salts of mercury and ammonia. Muriatic acid dissolves it, and converts it into muriat of quicksil- ver and ammonia. According to Fourcroy's analysis, it congists of 81 oxyd of mercury, 16 muriatic acid, 3 ammonia. 100 It is only used for ointments; and its principal recommendation is its white colour. It may seem extraordinary that a combination of this salt and of corrosive sublimate, should prove more efficacious in some cutaneous diseases, than either separately. Mr. Ring, surgeon in London, I believe, first recommended this conjunction; and I have in very many instances derived benefit from it, when no advantage was ex- perienced from the separate ingredients. The following formula is that he recommends, and which I have made use of, occasionally varying the proportions. Take of Wliile precipitate, one scruple; Corrosive sublimate, ten grains; Hog's lard, one ounce.—Mix them thoroughly. I think it might well take the place of the ointment of white pre- cipitate, as a standard. HYDRARGYRI OXYDUM CINEREUM. L. E. A. Pulvis Hydrargyri Cinereus. D. Ash-coloured Oxyd (Powder) of Quicksilver. Grey Oxyd of Mercury. Take of Sub-muriat of mercury, one ounce; Lime-water, one gallon.— Boil the sub-muriat of mercury in the lime-water, constantly stir- ring until a grey oxyd subsides. Wash this with distilled water, and then dry it. L. This process is intended to furnish a substitute for the black oxyd of quicksilver, on which the efficacy of the mercurials most fre- quently employed, and most certainly useful, depends. In these H.—Hydrargyrum. 343 the mercury is oxydized by trituration, in contact with the atmos- phere; but this operation is both so tedious and troublesome, that it is often imperfectly performed, or assisted by improper means. When properly prepared, it is the protoxyd of mercury, but as frequently found in the shops, it contains a mixture of the triple salt, consisting of oxyd, ammonia and nitric acid. In using calomel for its preparation, as above, the precipitated calomel in its edulco- rated state, but not dried, should be preferred. This oxyd is said, however, by M. Braamcamp and Sigueira-Oliva, to be prepared in the greatest purity, by boiling the ash-coloured oxyd of the Edinburgh College, long and violently in water, until the triple salt be dissolved or decomposed. The proportion of oxy- gen, which protoxyd of mercury contains, has been very differently estimated by different chemists. Mr. Chenevix makes 100 parts of mercury unite with no less than twelve of oxygen; the Portuguese chemists with 8.1; M. Fourcroy with 4.16; M. Sefstrom and Sir H. Davy with 3.95; which last, besides the remarkable coincidence, is the most probable from other reasons. The Prussian College directs a black oxyd of mercury to be pre- pared, by mixing four ounces of mercury with six ounces of nitrous acid, diluted with two ounces of distilled water, and occasionally, agitating them, without heat, until the acid be saturated. The solu- tion is then to be diluted with distilled water, and water of caustic ammonia to be dropt into it, as long as the precipitate formed is black. HYDRARGYRI NITRICO-OXYDUM. L. A. Nitric Oxyd of Mercury. Oxydum Hydrargyri Rubrum per Acidum Nitricum. E. Olim, Mercurius Pr^cipitatus Ruber. Oxydum Hvdrargyri Nitricum. D. Red Oxyd of Mercury by Nitric Acid. Nitric Oxyd of Mercury. Red Precipitate. Take of Purified mercury, three pounds; Nitric acid, by weight, one pound and a half; Distilled water, two pints.—Mix in a glass vessel. Boil the mixture until the mercury is dissolved, and eva- porate the solution with a gentle heat, to a dry white mass; which after being ground into powder, is to be put into a shallow glass cucurbit. Then apply a gradually increased heat, until the mat- ter be converted into very red scales. E. In the first part of this process a fully saturated nitrat of mercury is formed. In the second part, the metal is oxydized to the maxi- mum by the decomposition of the acid. When a sufficient heat is applied, the nitrat of mercury first melts, then exhales nitric oxyd o-as, and changes its colour successively to yellow, orange, and bril- liant purple red. If well prepared, it should have a crystalline scaly appearance; and it is entirely volatile at a red heat, and soluble without any residuum in nitrous acid. According to Fourcroy, it contains no nitrous acid, unless a sufficient heat has not been ap- plied, but according to most other chemists it contains some nitrous 344 H.—Hydrargyrum. acid; and differs from the red oxyd prepared by the action of heat alone, in always being more acrid. This is an extremely difficult operation, and skilful operators not unfrequently fail to obtain it of that brilliant crystalline appearance which is esteemed. M. Paysse, who paid great attention to this pre- paration in Holland, where it is manufactured in large quantities, gives the following directions:—Dissolve 100 pounds of pure mer- cury in 140 of pure nitrous acid, of specific gravity 1.3 to 1.37, pro- moting their action by a sand-bath; evaporate by distillation, and, when the formation of nitrous gas indicates the decomposition of the nitrat of mercury, remove the receiver, and apply a steady and moderate heat for about eight hours, until a match which has been just blown out, inflames, on being introduced into the matrass, which is a proof that the operation is finished. To its success it is neces- sary, 1. That the nitrous acid be not mixed with muriatic; 2. That it be sufficiently strong; 3. That the evaporation be conducted with a moderate heat; 4. That the vessel be sufficiently large and flat, so that a large surface be exposed, and the whole equally heated; 5. That the heat be gradually augmented; and, lastly, That it be steadily maintained the whole time. Turf is said to be the fittest fuel. Medical use.—It is only used as an escharotic, and care must be taken that it is finely levigated, otherwise it only irritates, without destroying the parts to which it is applied. It is a very common application in chancres. Hydrargyri Oxydum Rubhum. L. Oxydum Hydrargyri. D. (Red) Oxyd of Quicksilver. Precipitate per se. Take of Purified quicksilver, any quantity.—Put it into an open glass vessel, with a narrow mouth and wide bottom. Expose this to about the six-hundredth degree of heat, until the metal be con- verted into red scales. D. This is an extremely tedious and therefore expensive operation, because mercury is incapable of absorbing from the atmospnere the quantity of oxygen necessary to convert it into the red oxyd, except when in a state of vapour. But as the form of a vessel, which will prevent the dissipation and loss of the mercurial vapour, will at the same time hinder (he free access and frequent renewal of the air, the operation can only proceed slowly. The vessel most advantage- ously employed, is a wide flat bottomed matrass, with a very nar- row, almost capillary neck. Only so much mercury is introduced into it as will cover the bottom of the matrass; and the vessel is not inserted in the sand deeper than the mercury stands within it. A degree of heat is then applied sufficient to cause a gentle ebulli- tion in the mercury, which is thus alternately converted into vapour, and condensed again in the upper part of the vessel. While in the State of vapour, it absorbs the oxygen of the air contained in the vessel: by which means it is gradually changed into a black, and then into a red, powder, but a complete conversion into the latter state is not effected in less than several months. Red oxyd of quicksilver, thus prepared, consists of small crystal- line grains of a deep red colour, and very brilliant sparkling ap- H.—Hydrargyrum. 345 pearance. By heat, it may be sublimed in the form of a beautiful ruby-coloured vitrified substance. At a red heat it is decomposed, giving out. oxygen gas, while the metal is revived, and is imme- diately volatilized. It is soluble in several of the acids; and during its solution, it does not decompose them or water. It is easily dis- oxydized. It consists, according to Chenevix, of 100 of mercury and 17.65 oxygen; Zaboada, 11.11; Fourcroy, 8.69; and M. Sef- strom and Sir H. Davy, 7.9; which last is the most probable esti- mate. Medical use.—It is not only an acrid substance, violently purga- tive and emetic, but even caustic and poisonous. Its internal use is proscribed; but it is applied externally as an escharotic, being pre- viously triturated to a very fine powder; or it is formed into a sti- mulating ointment with unctuous substances. Hydrargyrus cum Creta. L. D. Quicksilver with Chalk. Take of Purified quicksilver, three ounces; Prepared chalk, five ounces. —Triturate them together until the globules disappear. L. Quicksilver has a strong affinity for oxygen, and absorbs it slowly from the atmosphere. But the combination may be considerably ac- celerated by agitation, and still more by triturating quicksilver with any substance which promotes its mechanical division, and thus in- creases its surface. With this view, quicksilver is triturated with viscid substances, as fats, honey, syrup, &c, or with pulverulent substances, as the chalk in the present example. The black oxyd is the mildest, but at the same time the most effi- cacious of the preparations of mercury. Combined with chalk it is not in general use; but in the form of the common mercurial pill and ointment, it is more employed than any other preparations of the same metal except calomel. Hydrargyrum cum Magnesia. D. Quicksilver with Magnesia. Take of Quicksilver, Magnesia, each, one ounce; Manna, half an ounce.—Triturate the quicksilver with the manna, in an earthen- ware mortar, adding some drops of water, to give the mixture the consistence of a syrup, until the metallic globules become no longer visible. Then add, with constant trituration, a drachm of the mag- nesia. After they are thoroughly mixed, rub into them a pint of warm water, and shake the mixture: then let the liquor rest, and decant from the sediment as soon as it subsides. Repeat this wash- ing twice, that the manna may be totally washed away, and, with the sediment still moist, mix the remainder of the magnesia. Last- tyi dry the powder on blotting paper. D. HYDRARGYRI SUBSULPHAS FLAVUS. E. A. Oxydum Hydrargyri Sulphuricum. D. Turpethum Minerale. Turpeth Mineral. Yellow Sub-Sulphat of Quicksilver. Sulphuric Oxyd of Quicksilver. Take of Purified quicksilver, four ounces; Sulphuric acid, six ounces. __pul them into a glass cucurbit, and boil them in a sand bath to dryness. Throw into boiling water the white matter, which is left 346 H.—Hydrargyrum. in the bottom, after having reduced it to powder. A yellow powder will, immediately be produced, which must be frequently washed with warm water. E. The action of sulphuric acid on mercury has been examined with considerable attention by Fourcroy. In the cold they have no action on each other, but on the application of heat, the sulphuric acid be- gins to be decomposed, sulphurous acid gas is extricated, and the metal is oxydized, and combines with the undecomposed acid, form- ing with it a white saline mass, covered with a colourless fluid. In this state it reddens vegetable blues, is acrid and corrosive, does not become yellow by the contact of the air, and is not decomposed by water either warm or cold. It is therefore a super-sulphat of quick- silver, and the proportion of the acid in excess is variable. By washing the saline mass repeatedly with small quantities of water, it is at last rendered perfectly neutral. It no longer reddens vegetable blues. It is white; it crystallizes in plates, or fine pris- matic needles; it is not very acrid; it is not decomposed either by cold or boiling water: but is soluble in 500 parts of the former, and in about 250 of the latter. It is much more soluble in water acidu- lated with sulphuric acid. The following estimates of its composi- tion have been made: Fourcroy. Braamcamp and Sigueira. Quicksilver, . . . 75 .. . . . 57.42 Oxygen,.....8 . . . . 6.38 Sulphuric acid, ... 12 ... . 31.8 Water,.....5 . . . . 4.4 100 100 But if, instead of removing the excess of acid from the super-sul phat of quicksilver, by washing it with water, we continue the action of the heat according to the directions of the colleges, there is a co- pious evolution of-sulphurous acid gas, and the saline residuum is converted into a white mass, which therefore evidently contains both a larger proportion of mercury, and in a state of greater oxydize- ment, than the salt from which it was formed. But this white saline mass is further analyzed by the infusion of hot water; for one por- tion of it is dissolved, while the remainder assumes the form of a beautiful yellow powder. The portion dissolved is said to contain excess of acid. The yellow powder is, on the contrary, a sub- sulphat. The sub-sulphat of quicksilver has a bright yellow colour, a con- siderable acrid taste, is soluble in 2000 parts of cold water, is also soluble in sulphuric acid slightly diluted, and is decomposed by the nitric acid, and forms muriat of quicksilver with the muriatic acid, while the neutral sulphat forms sub-muriat. It oxydizes quicksilver, and is converted by trituration with it into a black powder. At a red heat it gives out oxygen gas, and the metal is revived. It consists of 76 mercury, 11 oxygen, 10 sulphuric acid, and 3 water. Medical use.—It is a strong emetic, and with this intention ope- rates the most powerfully of all the mercurials that can be safely given internally. Its action, however, is not confined to the primae H.—Hydrargyrum. 347 vise; it will sometimes excite a salivation, if a purgative be not taken soon after it. This medicine is used chiefly in virulent gonor- rhoeas, and after venereal cases, where there is a great flux of hu- mours to the parts. Its chief use at present is in swellings of the testicle from a venereal affection; and it seems not only to act as a mercurial, but also, by the severe vomiting it occasions, to perform the office of a discutient, by accelerating the motion of the blood in the parts affected. It is said likewise to have been employed with success, in robust constitutions, against leprous disorders, and ob- stinate glandular obstructions: the dose is from two grains to six or eight. It may be given in doses of a grain or two as an alterative and diaphoretic. It is an excellent errhine, mixed with snuff, or the powder of Asa- rum; and has been usefully employed as such in affections of the eyes and ears. It is stated by Dr. Barton to have produced saliva- tion in two cases under his care, by such topical application. This medicine was lately recommended as the most effectual pre- servative against the hydrophobia!! HYDRARGYRUM SULPHURETEM NIGRUM. D. L. E. A. Black Sulphuret of Mercury. Mthiop>s Mineral. Take of Purified quicksilver, Sublimed sulphur, of each, equal weights.—Grind them together in a glass or earthen mortar with a glass pestle, till the mercurial globules totally disappear. E. D. It is also prepared with twice the quantity of quicksilver. E. This process, simple as it appears, is not, even in the present ad- vanced state of chemistry, perfectly understood. It was formerly imagined, that the quicksilver was merely mechanically divided, and intimately mixed with the sulphur. But that they are really chemically united, is indisputably proved by the insolubility of the compound in nitrous acid. Fourcroy is of opinion, that during the trituration, the mercury absorbs oxygen, and is converted into the black oxyd, and that in this state it is slightly combined with the sulphur. The editors of Gren also suppose it to be in the state ot black oxyd, but that it is combined with hydrogureted sulphur, and they direct a little water to be added during the trituration, that by its decomposition it may facilitate the process. The black sulphuret of quicksilver, thus prepared by trituration, has a pulverulent form, is insoluble in nitric acid, is totally soluble in a solution of potass, and is precipitated unchanged from this so- lution, by acids. It is not altered by exposure to the air; and when heated in an open vessel, it emits sulphurous acid gas, acquires a dark violet colour, and, lastly, sublimes in a brilliant red mass, composed of crystalline needles. The combination of quicksilver with sulphur may be much more speedily effected by the assistance of heat, by pouring the mercury, previously heated, upon the sulphur in a state of fusion, and stirring them until they cool, and form a consistent mass, which may be afterwards powdered. The sulphuret prepared by fusion, differs, however, from that prepared by trituration; for it is not soluble in a solution of potass, but is converted by long ebullition in it into 348 H.—Hydrargyrum. the red sulphuret, and it also reddens spontaneously in course of time from the action of the air. Black sulphuret of mercury may be also prepared in the humid way, as it is called, by precipitation, or even by direct solution. According to Berthollet, mercury agitated with sulphureted hydro- guret of ammonia, forms a black sulphuret exactly resembling that prepared by trituration; but if hydrogureted sulphuret of ammonia be used, the black precipitate formed gradually assumes a red co- lour and the solution contains sulphureted hydroguret of ammonia. The same phenomena take place with all the mercurial salts. As a medicine, black sulphuret of quicksilver possesses no very conspicuous effects. It is principally used as an alterative in glan- dular affections, and in cutaneous diseases. It has been commonly given in doses of from five to ten grains; but even in doses of several drachms, and continued for a considerable length of time, it has scarcely produced any sensible effect. iEthiop's Mineral.—See Dr. Cheyne in his "English Malady," p. 343, 344, for the immense extent in which he himself took it—viz. daily for four months, and to the amount of one hundred and twenty ounces. "My legs," says he, "broke out all over in scorbutic ulcers, the ichor of which corroded the very skin, when it lay any time, and the fore parts of both legs were one continued sore. I had the ad- vice and care of many of the most eminent surgeons in England: none of whom could heal them up, even in three years. Tired out at last, I took iEthiop's Mineral for four months, in the midst of winter: half an ounce at least, twice a day, and a purge with 12 grs. of calomel once a week. After this course, my legs healed perfectly, with common dressings, and have continued sound ever since: my health was likewise very good for four or five years after." HYDRARGYRI SULPHURETUM RUBRUM. D. L. A. Red Sulphuret of Mercury. Cinnabar. Take of Purified mercury, forty ounces; Sublimed Sulphur, eight ounces.—Having melted the sulphur over the fire, mix in the mer- cury, and as soon as the mass begins to swell, remove the vessel from the fire, and cover it with considerable force, to prevent com- bustion; then rub the mass into powder, and sublime. L. As soon as the mercury and sulphur begin to unite, a considera- ble explosion frequently happens, and the mixture is very apt to take fire, especially if the process be somewhat hastily conducted. This accident the operator will have previous notice of, from the matter swelling up and growing suddenly consistent; as soon as this happens, the vessel must be immediately close covered. During the sublimation, care must be had that the matter does not rise into the neck of the vessel, so as to block up and burst the glass. To prevent this, a wide-necked bolt head, or rather an oval earthen jar, coated, should be chosen for the subliming vessel. If the former be employed, it will be convenient to introduce at times an iron wire, somewhat heated, in order to be the better assured H.—Hydrargyrum. 349 that the passage is not blocking up; the danger of which may be prevented by cautiously raising the vessel higher from the fire. If the ingredients be pure, there is no residuum. In such cases, the sublimation may be known to be over, by introducing a wire as before, and feeling with it the bottom of the vessel, which will then be perfectly smooth: if any roughness or inequalities be perceived, either the mixture was impure, or the sublimation is not completed; if the latter be the case, the wire will soon be covered over with the rising cinnabar. M. M. Tucckert and Paysse have described, from actual observa- tion, the process followed in the manufactory of M. Brand at Am- sterdam, where 48,000 pounds of cinnabar are annually prepared. 150 pounds of sulphur are mixed with 1080 pounds of mercury, and exposed to a moderate heat in a bright iron-kettle, one foot deep, and two and a half in diameter. The black sulphuret of mercury, thus produced, is reduced to powder, and put up in earthen pots capable of containing about a quart of water. The subliming appa- ratus consists of three large coated crucibles, bound with iron, and surmounted with domes of iron, through the top of which the black sulphuret is introduce .. These are built into a furnace, in such a manner that two-thirds of each apparatus is exposed to the action of the flame, which circulates freely around them. The fuel made use of is turf, which is found preferable to all others, probably from its affording a steady and moderate heat. The fire is kindled in the evening; and when the crucibles have become red, the pots con- taining the black sulphuret are emptied into them successively, at first one into each, and afterwards two, three, or more, at a time, according to the violence of the inflammation which succeeds. Sometimes the flame rises four, or even six feet above the domes; when its violence is a little abated, the aperture is covered closely up with a lid of iron. In this manner the whole quantity is intro- duced into the three crucibles in about thirty-four hours. The fire i9 steadily supported in a proper degree for thirty-six hours, and the sublimation assisted by stirring the matter every quarter of an hour with a triangle of iron, until the whole is sublimed, when the fire is allowed to expire. The colour of the flame changes during the pro- cess from a dazzling white to a yellow white, orange-yellow, blue and yellow, green, violet, and blue and green. WThen it acquires a fine sky-blue, or indigo colour, and rises only an inch or two above the aperture, the aperture is closed hermetically, and luted with clay and sand. After the apparatus has cooled, 400 pounds of sub- limed red sulphuret of mercury are found in each, so that there is a loss of 30 pounds on the 1230 of materials employed. The process by which cinnabar is converted into vermilion, is kept a secret by the Dutch; but M. Paysse discovered, that by keeping some leviga- ted cinnabar in the dark, covered with water, and stirred frequently for a month, it acquires the brilliant colour of Chinese vermilion. Triturating the vermilion with urine, appears to increase the beauty of its colour. When taken out of the subliming vessels, the red sulphuret of quicksilver is a brilliant crystalline mass, and first acquires its very rich colour when reduced to the form of a fine powder by tritura- 650 H.—Hydrargyrum. tion. It has neither smell nor taste, and is insoluble in water and in alcohol. In close vessels it sublimes entirely unchanged, but re- quires for this purpose a pretty great degree of heat. It is not solu- ble in any acid, and is only decomposed by the nitro-muriatic, which dissolves the quicksilver, and separates the sulphur. It is not decomposed by boiling it with solutions of the alkalies, but is de- composed by melting it with potass, soda, lime, iron, lead, copper, antimony, and several other metals. Proust has proved it to consist of 85 quicksilver, and 14 or 14| sulphur, and that the quicksilver is not oxydized to a maximum, as had been falsely supposed, but is in its metallic state. His analysis is confirmed by the other methods by which cinnabar may be prepared. Thus the black sulphuret of quicksilver, by fusion, is converted into the red sulphuret, by boiling it in a solution of potass which can only act by dissolving the sul- phureted hydrogen and superfluous sulphur. Sub-muriat, or sub-sul- phat of mercury, sublimed with sulphur, furnish red sulphuret of mercury, and muriat or sulphat of mercury. Medical use.—Red sulphuret of quicksilver is sometimes used in fumigations against venereal ulcers in the nose, mouth and throat. Half a drachm of it burnt, the fume being imbibed with the breath, has occasioned a violent salivation. This effect is by no means owing to the medicine as a sulphuret; for when set on fire, it is no longer such, but mercury resolved into vapour, and blended with the sul- phurous acid gas; in which circumstances this mineral has very pow- erful effects. Mr. Pearson, from his experiments on mercurial fumigation, con- cludes, that where checking the progress of the disease suddenly, is an object of great moment, and where the body is covered with ulcers or large and numerous eruptions, and, in general, to ulcers, fungi, and excrescences, the vapour of mercury is an application of great efficacy and utility; but that it is apt to induce a ptyalism rapidly, and great consequent debility, and that for the purpose of securing the constitution against a relapse, as great a quantity of mercury must be introduced into the system, by inunction, as if no fumiga- tion had been employed. Factitious cinnabar is prepared in India under the name of Shen- gerf, by the following process: Mercury and sulphur are triturated together to a black sulphuret; they are then sublimed in a glazed earthen pot, with another inverted over it, and both luted together. Asiatic Researches, 11. 190. Phosphas Hydrargyri. Phosphat of Mercury. Take of sulphuric acid, eight ounces; water, four pounds.—Mix them carefully in a capacious glass vessel, and add white calcined bones powdered, 14 ounces. Place the vessel in a temperature of 60° for three days to digest, stirring the mixture frequently with a glass rod, then filter the whole through fine linen, washing the residuum with distilled water till completely edulcorated. Evaporate to dryness, and dissolve in the smallest possible quantity of lukewarm water, by which a considera- ble portion of gypsum will remain undissolved. After straining off H.—Hydrargyrum. 35 i all the liquor, again dilute with distilled water and a solution of the purest potass, till it be completely saturated. The small portion of gypsum still held in solution will thus be decomposed, and some calcareous earth precipitated, which must be separated by filtration. Evaporate to a proper consistence, and expose in a cool place to crystallize. A small portion of vitriolated tartar first appears from the decomposition of the gypsum; but if the liquor be again evapo- rated, the phosphorated potass will be produced in rhomboidal pris- matic crystals. Dissolve these in distilled water, and decompose by a super-saturated solution of mercury in the nitric acid. The pre- cipitate after complete edulcoration with warm distilled water should be slowly dried, and is the purest phosphat of mercury. The above is Bergmann's method of procuring the phosphat of mercury. It may be also obtained, by adding phosphoric acid in a liquid form to a solution of mercury in nitric acid. * Phosphat of mercury is a very active preparation, and requires to be used with great caution, as it is otherwise apt to produce nausea, violent vomiting, ptyalism, &c. even in doses not exceeding half a grain. The following formula is employed to prevent these effects. Take of phosphat of mercury, four grains; powdered cinnamon, four- teen grains; white sugar, half a drachm.—Mix and make into eight powders, of which one is to be taken every morning and even- ing, unless ptyalism is induced, when it must be suspended. Some bear from one to two grains, without inconvenience. This remedy heals inveterate venereal ulcers in a short time, espe- cially such as are seated about the pudenda. In venereal inflamma- tions of the eyes, chancres, rheumatisms and chronic eruptions, it has proved of eminent service. It is a most valuable medicine in the hands of a judicious practitioner. It is particularly preferable over other mercurial preparations in an inveterate stage of syphilis, especially in persons of torpid insensible fibres; in cases of exostosis, as well as of obstructions in the lympha- tic system; and in chronic complaints of the skin, &ct ICT" If we look into the works of antiquity, as to the use of mer- cury in medicine, we are left in the dark. Aristotle, in his fourth book, ch. 8. on meteorology, mentions xpyvpos %vres—but nothing of its use. Also Theophrastus, (de'lapidibus, Ed. Heins. p. 400. Galen, (de simpl. medicam. facult. 1. ix. c. 3.) states that he had not experimented with it—and (in Hippoc. de Morb. Vulg. 1. 6. Com. 6. ad. No. 5.) affirms it to be deleterious, and which never was useful to the sick or well. (In lib. 4. c. 19. de simpl. med. facult.) he considers it to kill, by eroding. (Lib. 5. c. 19.) he contends that it is altogether contrary to us, and if taken in the smallest amount, is necessarily injurious. * An easier method appears to be the union of a solution of phosphat of soda, and nitrat of mercury. The superior affinity of the nitric acid to soda, causes it to leave the mercury, whilst the phosphoric acid unites with the mercury in the form of a fine white precipitate, which is the phosphat of mercury, and which must be thoroughly edulcorated with boiling distilled water.—Am. Editor. t London Medical and Physical Journal. 352 H.—Hydrargyrum. Oribasius, (Medicinal. Collect. L. 13.) states more clearly than Theophrastus how it is extracted, &c. but makes no mention of its powers. Others have pronounced it a poison, &c. Dioscorides, (de Mat. Med. L. 5. cap. ex.) affirms it to gnaw the interior by its weight. Pliny, (Hist. Nat. L. 33. cap. 6.) considers it a true poison; and (in L. 20. c. 5.) states the opinion of Heraclides to be the same; and (in L. 22. c. 13.) the same of Nicander. JEtius, (Tetrabib. 1. serm. 1.) affirms the astringent and caustic powers of $ • Paulus Mgineta, (de re Medica, L. 5. c. 64.) employs the words of jEtius—and in L. 7.—although he does not mention it as being much used in medicine, since it was poisonous, yet he adds, that mixed with other remedies it was occasionally swallowed in colic and volvulus. Actuarius, (Method. Medend. lib. 5. c. 13.) repeats the words of JEtius. Isidorus, (Origen. L. 16. C. 18.) mentions the opinion of Diosco- rides as to its powers. Mercury began to recommend itself to the physicians of the mid- dle age. The Arabians were the first who ventured to apply it ex- ternally to diseases. Serapion, (de simpl. med. C. 375.) states from Aben-Mesue, Abugerig and Rhazes, its external use against lice and scabies; he even states from Abugerig, that the salivating effects of g were not unknown. Mesue, (Grabadin. L. 1. p. 185.) employed it as an ointment in scabies. Avicenna, (Canon. Med. Ii. 2. tr. 1. p. 119,) praises $ killed with oil for lice, nits, scabies and ulcers. The more timid European physicians, blinded by the authority of Galen, with difficulty admitted the light elicited by the Arabians. Although in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, some writers praised the ointment in cases of lice, or different species of scabies. See Astruc, 3. de Morb. Vener. L. 2. c. 7.-—though the greater number of them were diffident of its employment. It was not until a new disease, (lues venerea,) sprang up, that it became at length more fully appreciated. The first year of this event is difficult to state. Sanchez, (Jour, de Medic, t. 11. p. 372.) proves from a poem of Pacificus Maximus, published at Florence in 1489, that the symptoms induced by this disease were then known. Its origin from America seems then less established, since Columbus left Eu- rope in 1492. The real cause of this disease remained long con- cealed from physicians, many of whom deduced the new disease from the influence of the stars—some from an occult quality of the air—some from a cold humour—some from an adust choler, mixed with melancholy—some from phlegm and melancholy—and some from putridity and a salt phlegm—hence, from analogy only, with various cuticular eruptions, was the cure attempted, by a medicine which was known to cure the most obstinate cutaneous diseases. See Fallopius de Morb. Gallico. cap. 76. wherein he states Jac. Carpus as first using mercurial friction with this intent, by which he realized a large estate. It has been said that the use of £ in the cure of lues, H.—Hydrastis Canadensis. 353 arose from a workman, who in his profession used this metal, and was cured of the complaint with which he was afflicted, the know- ledge of which reached the physicians. No one more employed 5 in the cure of disease than Paracelsus, who lived in the sixteenth century. By his example and precepts, and connecting chemistry with his practice, physicians became acquainted with the nature of $ , and it was speedily tried in the cure of various diseases, with the ( happiest results. Many years elapsed, however, before it was internally given. The circulation of the blood being yet unknown, it was not suspected that tlie medicine externally applied reached the blood, and thence was conveyed to every part; and that taken by the mouth, it would pass through the same channels as the food. Hence physicians did not dare to give it internally, but devised various plans for its ex- ternal application—unction—mercurial vapours—by cinnabar, &c. Previous to the darly part of the sixteenth century, no mention is made of its internal employment. Matthiolus first used it, in form of red precipitate well edulcorated, from five to seven grains—and Bayrus in 1537 first administered $ pills. The $ was killed by saliva—or fat—or some metal—absorbent earths—and sulphur, &c. Many had a private prescription for their pills—hence those of Bar- barosa, Bellost and others. Other preparations shortly came into notice—as its saline prepara- tions—such as Turpeth mineral—to which some united gold. Sen- nertus, Instit. L. 5. P. 3. S. 3. C. 8. Its preparations by means of ni- tric acid were numerous, and those with muriatic acid. Mention is made of corrosive sublimate in a letter to Avicenna, (see Theat. Chym. vol. 4.) and in Ab. Ibn-Tsina, (Avicenna.) Canon. Med. L. 2. P. 2. p. 219. Rhazes knew it—see Serapion, (de Simpl. Med. c. 375.) It was prepared by the Venetians, see Tachenius, Hippoc. Chym. p. 215. Other modes are mentioned in Csesalpinus de Metal. p. 195.—by Kunckel, Laborat. Chym. 242.—by Lemery, Act. Ac. Reg. Sc. &c. 1705.—by Le Mort, Fac. Chym. Purif. 146.—Mercu- rius dulcis, if frequently sublimed, was called Calomel, or Panacea Mercurialis, {Zwolffer, Mantis. Spargyr. 352.) Those preparations with vegetable acids were various, as well as those with alkalies, &c. Turner, (on syphilis, p. 99.) is the first who mentions the solution r>f corrosive sublimate in spirits to cure syphilis. HYDRASTIS CANADENSIS. Yellow Root. This is a common plant in various parts of the United States. The root is a very powerful bitter. When dried it has a strong and virose smell. A spirituous infusion of the root is employed as a tonic bitter in the western parts of Pennsylvania. A cold infu- sion of the root in water is also used as a wash in inflammation of the eyes. The Cherokee Indians employ a plant in the cure of cancer,, which is thought to be the Hydrastis. The root supplies us with a most brilliant yellow colour, which will probably be found a most valuable dye. * ' Barton's Collections, Part I. p. 2. Part II. p. 13. 46 354 H.—Hyoscyamus. HYOSCYAMUS. L. D. A. Hyoscyamus Niger. E. Henbane. Common Henbane. The Plant. The Herb and Seeds. Pentandria Monogynia. Nat. ord. Luridx, Linn. Solaneee, Juss. Syn. Jusquiame, (F.) Belsenkraut, (G.) Giusquiamo nero, (I.) Khoras- sanie ajooan, (H.) Sickran, (Ar.) Toe X"*!"0** Hog-Bean. Henbane is an annual plant which grows in great abundance in most parts of Britain, by the road sides, and among rubbish, and flowers in July. Its smell is strong and peculiar, and when bruised, something like tobacco, especially when the leaves are burnt; and on burning, they sparkle, as if they contained a nitrat: when chewed, however, they have no saline taste, but are insipid, mild, and muci- laginous. Henbane, in a moderate dose, often produces sweat, and sometimes an eruption of pustules, and generally sound sleep, suc- ceeded by serenity of mind, and recruited vigour of the body; butlike the other narcotics, instead of these, it sometimes gives rise to ver- tigo, head-ache, and general uneasiness. With particular individuals, it occasions vomiting, colic pains, a copious flow of urine, and some- times purging. In excessive doses, its effects are fatal; general de- bility, delirium, remarkable dilation of the pupils of the eyes, convulsions, death. Upon the whole, like opium, it is a powerful anodyne; and like cicuta, it is free from any constipating effect, having rather a tendency to move the belly. Medical use.—From the writings of Dioscorides and others, it ap- pears, that different species of henbane have been long used in the {iractice of medicine By Celsus it was applied externally as a col- yrium in ophthalmia; for allaying the pain of the tooth-ache; and he gave it internally as an anodyne. Its use, however, was for a long period entirely relinquished, un- til revived by Dr. Stork of Vienna, in those cases where an anodyne is requisite, and where there are objections to the use of opium. It is employed in wandering rheumatic pains, in indurations of the mammae from retained milk, painful swellings, whether scirrhous or not, scrofulous and cancerous ulcers, inflamed piles, and spasms of the bowels from increased irritability; under the form of a cataplasm of the bruised leaves, with bread and milk; of an ointment, made of the powder of the leaves, with wax and oil; of a simple powder, sprinkled on the sore, or of a decoction in milk as an injection. An infusion prepared by digesting the bruised leaves in olive oil, is also usefully applied in inflammation of the bowels, kidneys, testicles, urethra, painful retention of urine, and in blind piles. An extract from the leaves, or from the seeds, is the form in which it is given internally; and it has been used with advantage in a variety of nervous affections, as mania, melancholia, epilepsy, hysteria, tris- mus, and spasms from injured nerves, in rheumatism and arthritis, in glandular swellings, in obstinate ulcerations, and in every case where it is desirable either to allay inordinate action, or to mitigate pain, its dose may be gradually increased from half a grain. Collin pushed it to the length of 30 grains for a dose. The extract of henbane has been lately much used by oculists for dilating the pupils of the eyes, in order to facilitate the extraction or breaking down of the cataract, to diminish sensibility, to destroy I.—Ichthyocolla. 355 adhesions, to reduce protrusions of the iris, and to dilate contraction of the pupil. The mode of application is by dropping a few drops of solution of the extract in the eye, or applying them with a camel s hair brush. The greatest effect is produced in about four hours, and it is generally over in twelve. Vision is not impaired during its action. HYSSOPUS OFFICINALIS. E. D. Common Hyssop.. The Herb and Leaves. Didynamia Gymnospermia. Nat. ord. Verticillatae, Linn. Labiatae, Juss. Syn. Hyssope, (F.) Isop, (G.) Isopo, (I.) Hysopo, (S.) Zufaiy yeabus, (Ar.) Hyssop is a perennial herb, which grows wild in Germany. Its leaves have an aromatic smell, and a warm pungent taste. Iheir virtues depend entirely on an essential oil which rises in distillation both with water and alcohol. Besides the general virtues of aroma- tics they were formerly recommended in humoral asthmas, coughs, and'other disorders of the breast and lungs, and were said to pro- mote expectoration. I.J. ICHTHYOCOLLA. D. A. Isinglass. Fish-glue. Isinglass is prepared from many species of Acipenser. The Dub- lin College specify the A. Huso or Beluga, and the A. Ruthenus or Sterlet; besides which, a great deal is obtained from the A. btuno, the Sturgeon, and A. Stellatus, the Serruga. The preparation of isinglass is almost peculiar to Russia. It is made in all places where the large species of sturgeon are caught, as on the Dnieper, the Don, and especially on the Caspian sea, also on the Volga, the Ural, the Oby, and the Irtysh. That prepared from the sturgeon is reckoned the best, and next to it that from the beluga. It also varies according to the mode of preparation. On the Volga and Ural, the sounds are watered while fresh, and dried to a certain degree. The outer skin is next taken off, and the inner glossy white membrane is twisted into proper shapes, and then completely dried. The best is usually rolled into the form of a snake or heart; the se- cond folded in leaves, like a book; and the worst is dried without anv care. In other places, as at Gurief, fish-glue is extracted from the sounds by boiling. This is cut into slabs or plates, is perfectly transparent, and has the colour of amber. On the Okka, where the sterlet only is to be had, the sounds are beat just as they are extract- ed from the fish, and dried into glue. It appears that this valuable article is likely to become an article of domestic manufacture; Mr. Waldronof Westchester county, New York, asserts that the vesicula natatoria of a certain fish frequent on the coast of the United States affords it. Good isinglass is white, in some degree transparent, diy, conv posed of membranes not too thick, aDd without any smell. 356 1.—Infusa. The properties of isinglass depend entirely on the gelatin,* of which it principally consists. One hundred grains of good isinglass were found by Mr. Hatchett to contain rather more than 98 of mat- ter soluble in water. A nutritious jelly may be prepared from it. A watery solution of it is used as a test of the presence of tannin, and for the clarification of spirituous liquors. Mr. Davy's solution for the former purpose consists of 120 grains of isinglass dissolved in twenty ounces of water, and if properly made, at temperatures be- low 50° Fahr. it has a tendency to gelatinize. It is also said to be employed for the preparation of English court- plaster. 1NFV8A.—INFUSIONS. Infusions are solutions made from vegetables either with hot or cold water, without boiling. If hot water is employed, the infusion must be carried on in covered vessels, and in a warm place. Infusions should be prepared only a short time before they are used, and seldom more than half a pint at once. The term infusion is confined to the action of a menstruum, not assisted by ebullition, or any substance consisting of heterogeneous principles, some of which are soluble, and others insoluble, in that menstruum. The term is generally used in a more extensive, but we are inclined to think, a less correct sense: thus, lime water and the mucilages, which are commonly classed with the infusions, are in- stances of simple solution, and the chalk mixture is the mechanical suspension of an insoluble substance. When the menstruum used is water, the solution is termed simply an infusion; but when the men- struum is alcoholic, it is called a tincture; when wine or vinegar, a medicated wine or vinegar. Infusions in water are extremely apt to spoil, and are generally extemporaneous preparations. Infusum Anthemidis. E. L. A. Infusion of Chamomile. Take of Chamomile, two drachms; Boiling water, half a pint.— Macerate for ten minutes in a covered vessel, and strain. * . • * Gelatin, when exsiccated, is a hard, elastic, semi-transparent substance, resembling horn, having a vitreous fracture: unalterable in the air, soluble in boiling water, and forming with it a gelatinous mass on cooling; it is also solu- ble, but less readily, in cold water. It is completely insoluble in alcohol, and is even precipitated by it from its solution- in water; it is soluble in acids, even when much diluted, and also in the alkalies;, but its most characteristic pro- perty is its affinity for tannin, with which it forms a thick yellow precipitate, which soon concretes into an adhesive, elastic mass, readily drying in the air, and forming a brittle substance, of a resinous appearance, exactly resembling overtanned leather, very soluble in ammonia, and soluble in boiling water. It is also precipitated copiously by carbonat of potass. The solution of gelatin in water first becomes acid, and afterwards putrid. When decomposed by nitric acid or heat, its products show that it contains only a small proportion of nitrogen. It is principally contained in the cellular, membranous, and tendinous parts of animals, and. forms an important article of nourishment. Glue and isinglass, which are much employed in, the arts, are almost pure gelatin. I.—Infusa. 357 Infusum Cusparia. L.* Infusion of Angustura or Cusparia. Take of Angustura bark, bruised, two drachms; Boiling water, half a pint.—Macerate for two hours, in a loosely covered vessel, and strain. L. A stimulating febrifuge. Infusum Armoracia. L. A. Infusion of Horse-radish. Take of Fresh Horse-radish, sliced, Mustard, bruised, of each, one ounce ; Boiling water, one pint.—Infuse for two hours' in a cover- ed vessel, and strain. L. Infusum Cascarilla. L, A. Infusion of Cascarilla. Take of Cascarilla bark, bruised, half an ounce ; Boiling water, half a pint.—Macerate for two hours, in a loosely covered vessel, and strain. L. An aromatic stimulant. Infusum Colombo. E, L. A. Infusion of Colombo. Take of Colombo root, sliced, one drachm; Boiling water, half a pint.—Macerate for two hours, in a loosely covered vessel, and strain. A stomachic bitter. Infusum Cinchona. L. A. Infusum Cinchona Lancifolia. E. Infusion of Peruvian Bark. Take of Peruvian bark, bruised, half an ounce ; Boiling water, half a pint.—Infuse for two hours in a covered vessel, and strain. L. Infusum Cinchona sine Calore. D. Cold Infusion of Cinchona. Take of Peruvian bark, in coarse powder, one ounce ; Cold water, twelve ounces by measure.—Triturate the bark with a little of the water, and add the remainder during the trituration. Macerate for twenty-four hours, and decant the pure liquor. This is a very elegant form of exhibiting the active principles of cinchona bark, and that in which it will sit lightest on weak and deli- cate stomachs. The trituration directed by the Dublin College will promote the solution. The residuum of the cold infusion may be afterwards employed in making other preparations, especially the extract, for its virtues are by no means exhausted. But it must never be dried, and sold, or exhibited in substance, for that would be a culpable fraud. Infusum Cinchona cum Aqua Calcis. Infusion of Peruvian Bark with Lime Water. Take of Peruvian bark, in powder, one ounce; Lime water, one pint.— Add the lime water gradually, and rub them well together for fifteen minutes. Let them stand for one hour, then filter. Pharm. U. S, * Infusum Angustura, Pharm. tT. S 358 I.—Infusa. What peculiar benefit is anticipated from the lime, we are unable to discern. If the lime is not converted'into a carbonat during the process, the amount at least, (about sixteen grains of lime,) seems too insignificant to expect much from its use. Skeete in his Essay on Peruvian bark, recommends such a preparation. Infusum Cinchona cum Magnesia. Infusion of Peruvian Bark with Magnesia. Take of Peruvian bark, in powder, one ounce; Magnesia, one drachm; Cold water, one pint.—Add the water gradually, and rub them well together for fifteen minutes. Let the infusion stand for one hour, tlienfilter.' Pharm. U. S. We should be glad to know what becomes of the magnesia as a medicine, after the filtration! It is indeed by some supposed, that the magnesia improves the preparation of the bark, by its alkaline properties; this is, however, problematical. Skeete recommends such a preparation, but it is difficult to see on what principle. The fol- lowing remarks are perhaps applicable in this place. Critical inquiry into the principal Pharmaceutical preparations of bark, by Messrs. Pelletier and Caventon. Med. Intelligencer, 2. 449—from Journal de Pharmacie, March, 1821. " An alkali has occasionally been prescribed in combination with the tincture of bark. In such cases the combination of the kinic acid and cinchonine is torn asunder, and the acid unites to the alkali employed. There can be no objection to the practice, however, as cinchonine is fully soluble in alcohol. Not so in regard to the aqueous decoction; for here, the presence of an alkali would infallibly precipitate the febrifuge principle, and if the liquid be ordered to be filtered afterwards, a most inert preparation would be obtained. In this respect therefore, the formulae 96 and 97 of Dr. Paris' phar- macologia, must be considered as unchemical preparations of bark. The addition of an acid to the decoction of bark, is on the contrary, a proper one." Messrs. Pelletier and Caventon, speak of a magnesian syrup of bark, which is clear and transparent; but which they condemn as an unfit preparation of that substance, because the presence of magne- sia renders the cinchonine insoluble. Infusum Cinchona cum Sucoo Limonum. Infusion of Peruvian Bark with Lemon Juice. Take of Peruvian bark, in powder, one ounce ; Juice of lemons, two fluid ounces; Opiated tincture of camphor, three fiuid drachms ; Cold water, one pint.—Macerate for twelve hours in a covered vessel, and strain. Pharm. U. S. Infusum Digitalis. L. E. A. Infusion of Foxglove. Take of Foxglove, dried, one drachm; Boiling water, half a pint; Spirit of cinnamon, one fluid ounce:—Infuse the fox glove for four hours in a covered vessel, strain, and add the tincture of cinna- mon. E. I___Infusa. 359 This is the infusion so highly recommended by Withering. Half an ounce, or an ounce of it, may be taken twice a day in dropsical complaints. The spirit of cinnamon is added to improve its flavour, and to counteract its sedative effects. Infusum Eupatorii. Infusion of Thoroughwort. Take of Thoroughwort, one ounce; Boiling water, one pint.—Infuse for two hours in a covered vessel, and strain. Pharm. U. S. The virtues of this may be learned by reference to the article Eu- patorium. Infusum Gentiana Compositum. E. L. D. A. Infusum Amarum. Compound Infusion of Gentian, or Bitter Infusion. Take of Bruised gentian root, half an ounce; Dried peel of Seville oranges, Coriander seeds, of each a drachm; Diluted alcohol, four ounces; Water, one pint.—First pour on the alcohol, and three hours thereafter, add the water; then macerate without heat for twelve hours, and strain. E. This infusion is an extremely good bitter, and is of great service in all cases where bitters in general are necessary. It strengthens the stomach, and increases the appetite; besides acting as a tonic on the other parts of the body, and on the vascular system. Infusum Lini. E. L. A. Infusion of Linseed.—Flaxseed Tea. Take, of Linseed, bruised, one ounce ; Liquorice root, sliced, half au ounce; Boiling water, two pints.—Macerate for four hours near the fire, in a loosely covered vessel, and strain. L. This is a mucilaginous emollient liquor, much used in gonorrhoea, strangury, and in pectoral complaints. Infusum Quassia. E. L. A. Infusion of Quassia. Take of Quassia, rasped, half a drachm; Boiling water, half a pint. —Macerate for two hours, and strain. Dose, one to two ounces.—A cold infusion of one drachm to halt a pint of water, is recommended in the Pharm. U. S. Infusum Quassia cum Sulphate Zinci. Infusion of Quassia with Sulphat of Zinc. Take of Quassia, rasped, one drachm ;' Sulphat of Zinc, eight grains: Cold water, half a pint.—Macerate for twelve hours, and strain. Pharm. U. S. Infusum Rosa Compositum. L. D. A. Infusum Rosa Gallica. E. Compound Infusion of Roses. Take of Roses, dried, half an ounce; Boiling water, two pints and 36G I.—Infusa. a half; Diluted sulphuric acid, three fluid drachms; White sugar, one ounce and a half.—Pour the water upon the roses in a glass vessel; then mix in the acid, and infuse for half an hour. Lastly, strain the infusion, and add the sugar to it. L. In this infusion the rose leaves have very little effect, except in giving the mixture an elegant red colour. Its sub-acid and astrin- gent virtues depend entirely on the sulphuric acid. Altogether, how- ever, it is an elegant medicine, and forms a very grateful addition to juleps in hemorrhagies, and in all cases which require mild coolers and sub-astringents: it is sometimes taken with boluses or electuaries of the bark, and likewise makes a good gargle. Infusum Senna. E. L. D. Infusion of Senna. Take ofSenna^ three Drachms; Ginger,powdered, half a drachm; Boiling water, as much as will yield a filtered infusion of six ounces.—Macerate them for an hour, in a covered vessel, then fil- ter. D. Infusum Senna. E. D. (Compositum. L. A.) Compound Infusion of Senna. Take of Senna, one ounce and a half; Ginger, one drachm ; Boiting water, one pint.—Infuse for an hour in a covered vessel, and strain. L. The Pharm. U. S. add to this formula—Super-tartrat of potass, two drachms. The amount of senna is infinitely too large—half an ounce would be fully adequate. Infusum Senna et Tamarindi. E. D. A. Infusion of Senna and Tamarinds. Take of Senna, one drachm; Tamarind, one ounce; Coriander, bruised, half a drachm ; Brown sugar, half an ounce ; Boiling water, half a pint.—Infuse for four hours, with occasional agitation in a close earthen vessel, not glazed with lead, and strain. E. These are all excellent purgatives in doses of One or two ounces, and repeated if necessary. The extract of liquorice will tend greatly to prevent the griping of the senna, if added to the solution. Infusum Serpentaria. Infusion of Virginia Snake-root. Take of Virginia Snake-root, half an ounce ; Boiling water, half a pint; Infuse for two hours in a covered vessel, and strain. Pharm. U. S. Infusum Spigelia. Infusion of Carolina Pink. Take of Carolina pink-root, two drachms; boiling water, half a pint.— Infuse for four hours in a covered vessel, and strain. Pharm. U. S. Infusum Tabaci. L. A. Infusion of Tobacco. Take of Tobacco, one drachm ; Boiling water, one pint.—Infuse for one hour in a covered vessel, and strain. L. I.—Infusa. 361 Infusum Ulmi. Infusion of Slippery Elm. Take of Slippery elm bark, sliced, one ounce ; Boiling water, one pint.—Infuse for twelve hours in a covered vessel, near the fire, with frequent agitation, and strain. Pharm. U. S. Infusum Valeriana. D. A. Infusion of Valerian. Take of Valerian, two drachms ; Boiling water, seven ounces, (half a pint, Pharm. U. S.)—Infuse for an hour in a covered vessel, and strain. Infusum Aurantii Compositum. L. Compound Infusion of Orange-peel. Take of Orange-peel, dried, two drachms; Lemon-peel, fresh, one drachm; Cloves, bruised, half a drachm; Boiling water, half a pint.—Macerate for ten minutes, in a loosely covered vessel, and strain. A stomachic infusion. Infusum Caryophyllorum. L. Infusion of Cloves. Take of Cloves, bruised, one drachm ; Boiling water, half a pint.—■ Macerate for two hours in a vessel loosely covered, and strain. An aromatic stimulant. Infusum Mentha Compositum. D. Compound Infusion of Mint. Take of the leaves of spearmint, dried, two drachms; Boiling water, as much as will afford six ounces of the infusion, when filtered.— Digest for half an hour, in a covered vessel; strain the liquor when cold, and then add of Double refined sugar, two drachms ; Oil of spearmint, three drops, dissolved in Compound tincture of carda- moms, half an ounce. Mix. This infusion is slightly stimulating and diaphoretic, and forms a very agreeable herb-tea, which may be used in any quantity in diet, or as a vehicle for more active remedies. Infusum Acacia Catechu; vulgo Infusum Japonicum. E. Infusion of Catechu, commonly called Japonic Infusion. Take of Extract of catechu, two drachms and a half; Cinnamon, half a drachm; Boiling water, seven ounces; Simple syrup, one ounce.— Macerate the extract and cinnamon in the hot water, in a covered vessel, for two hours, then strain it, and add the syrup. Extract of catechu is almost pure tannin. This infusion is there- fore a powerfully astringent solution. The cinnamon and syrup render it a very agreeable medicine, which will be found serviceable in fluxes proceeding from a laxity of the intestines. Its dose is a spoonful or two every other hour. As this preparation will not keep above a day or two, it must always be made extemporaneously. The two hours' maceration, therefore, becomes very often extremely in- convenient; but it may be prepared in a few minutes by boiling, without in the least impairing the virtues of the medicine. Infusum Rhai. E. L. Infusion of Rhubarb. Take of Rhubarb, bruised, half an ounce; Boiling water, eight 362 I.—Inula. ounces ; Spirit of cinnamon, one ounce.—Macerate the rhubarb in a close vessel with the water,for twelve hours; then having added the spirit, strain the liquor. E. This appears to be one of the best preparations of rhubarb, when designed as a purgative; water extracting its virtues more effectually than either vinous or spirituous menstrua. Infusum Simarouba. L. Infusion of Simarouba. Take of Simarouba bark, bruised, half a drachm; Boiling water, half a pint.—Macerate for two hours in a loosely covered vessel, and strain. A bitter aromatic. INULA.* Enula Campana. D. Helemum. L. Elecampane. The Root. Syngenesia Superflua. Nat. ord. Compositae discoideac, Linn. Corymbiferae, Jus< Syn. Inula Lalenerie, (F.) Alantwurzel, (G.) Usululrason, (Ar.) MLmwjv, Dioscor. This is a very large downy perennial plant, sometimes found wild in moist rich soils. It flowers in July and August. The root, espe- cially when dry, has an agreeable aromatic smell: its taste, on first chewing, is glutinous, and as it were, somewhat rancid; in a little time it discovers an aromatic bitterness, which by degrees becomes considerably acrid and pungent. Neumann got from 480 grains of the dry root, 390 watery, and 5 alcoholic extract, and inversely 150 alcoholic, and 300 watery. In distillation alcohol elevated nothing, but the distilled water was first observed by Geoffroy to be milky, and mixed with flocculi of a cine- ritious concrete volatile oil, partly swimming, and partly sinking in the water. He also ascertained that it was fusible, and compares it to camphor or benzoic acid. Neumann likewise examined it, and con- siders it as a peculiar substance, having some resemblance to cam- phor. He found that it melts with a gentle heat, and when cold, appears softer and more unctuous: that it never assumes a crystalline form, but when dry proves opaque and crumbly; that laid on burn- ing coals it totally exhales; that it is soluble in alcohol, but insolu- ble in water; and that by keeping, it gradually loses the smell of elecampane. It has also been discovered by Rose to contain a mat- ter having some analogy with starch, the properties of which have been described under the title of Inulin. According to Funk's analysis, elecampane root contains, 1. A crystallizable volatile oil; 2. A peculiar feculum; 3. An extractive matter; 4. Free acetic acid; 5. A crystallizable resin; 6. Albumen; 7. Fibrous matter. The ashes contain carbonats of lime and magne- sia, silica, and a trace of iron. Medical use.—It is a gently stimulating medicine, nearly similar in its action to angelica. The extract is merely a slight bitter, as the essential oil is totally dissipated. * Pharm. U. S. I.—Iodine. 363 IODINE Is of a black grey colour, resembling plumbago, and crystallized either in micaceous plates, or broad and brilliant rhomboidal plates, or long octohedrons. Its fracture is lamellated and greasy. It is very friable, and may be reduced to impalpable powder. It destroys vegetable colours, and stains the skin of a deep orange—not very permanent. Specific gravity 4.948. Not a conductor of electricity. Melts at 225° Fahrenheit, and boils between 335 and 355°. Its va- pour is of a beautiful violet colour, resembling chlorine in smell, but weaker. Its taste is acrid, hot and durable, and it acts as a poison, although from Orfila's experiments it can scarcely be considered a violent one. Administered to dogs, in doses of one and a half to nearly three drachms, death did not ensue for several days; and taken by himself up to six grains, no permanent ill effects resulted. Iodine has little affinity to water, which is said to dissolve only, a seven-millionth part of its weight: when combined with water, it is vaporized along with it, at 212°. It combines with combustible bodies, forming compounds called iodides, or iodurets. It combines with oxygen, forming the iodic acid, which is analogous to chloric acid. It is a white semi-transpa- rent solid, inodorous: of a strong astringent sour taste. Specific gravity considerable; boils at 600°, without decomposition. It is de- liquescent, and very soluble in water, rising unchanged with it. It alters vegetable colours, detonates.with inflammables, and corrodes metals. Iodine combines also with hydrogen, forming hydriodic acid, and with chlorine, constituting chloriodic acid. Within a few months, Dr. Coindet has recommended iodine as a remedy in brochocele. The following is extracted from the Quar- terly Journal of Science and the Arts, No. 22. "Iodine, on its application as a Medicine.—An abstract was given at page 191, vol. 10, of this Journal, from a paper, by Dr. Coindet, of Switzerland, on the application of iodine to the dissipation of the goitre. In consequence of the importance of any effectual remedy for this disease, in a country where it is so frequent, much attention has been drawn towards Dr. Coindet's dis- covery, and considerable opposition made to it. It happens, also, that from the number of cases in which it has been applied, much information, with regard to the general medicinal effects of this substance, has been obtained. These, with other reasons, have induced Dr. Coindet to publish a second paper on the subject, which, as it contains some very interesting matter ne- cessary to be known before the publication of the remedy can be said to be completed, we are induced to abstract at this time, though from the rarity of the disease in this country, it has not that high interest here it possesses in that part of the world. "After having dwelt upon the necessity in every case of using prudence in the administration of a powerful medicine, especially when that medicine is new, and its action but little understood, Dr. Coindet mentions the circum- stance that at Geneva alone one hundred and forty ounces of iodine have been sold since he first made known its use in this disease; consequently that above one thousand persons have used it; and, he remarks,, that fewer accidents have happened in the application of this quantity, than happens in a similar application of almost any powerful medicine. "As the Iodine in different states will act differently as a medicine, Dr. Coindet states, that of all the preparations he prefers the iodureted hydrio- date of potassa. This is prepared by dissolving thirty-six grains of the hy- 364 I.—-Iodine. driodate, and ten grains of iodine, in one ounce of distilled water; from six to ten drops in half a glass of water, sweetened, is given three times a day, di- minishing or increasing the dose according to the effects. " Dr. Coindet prepares the hydriodate of potassa by saturating potassa with hydriodic acid. The acid he prepares previously by passing sulphureted hy- drogen gas through water holding iodine in suspension, or through a solu- tion of iodine in alcohol. The sulphur is then filtered out, and the liquor heated to drive off the free sulphureted hydrogen. A much simpler mode of preparing the hydriodate would be, to saturate a strong solution of potassa with iodine, evaporate to dryness, and fuse the salt out of contact with air in a covered platinum crucible or glass flask, until the portion of iodate formed is decomposed and converted into iodide^ the whole is then iodide of potas- sium, and only requires to be dissolved in water to form the hydriodate of po- tassa. " Whilst attentively observing the action of this substance on the animal economy, it soon appeared, that if given in excess, it seemed to saturate the body, and then produced particular symptoms, which Dr. Coindet calls iodic. This never happens before an effect has taken place on the goitre-, and, as the further addition and action of iodine, beyond the dissipation of the mass, is injurious, a stop is immediately put to its administration when these effects appear. After eight or ten days its use is resumed, and continued until the symptoms are again observed, when it is discontinued, and again resumed after an interval of time, which is to be more or less, according to the state of the patient, and the effect of the medicine on him. "The iodic symptoms, when strong, are as follows: accelerated pulse, pal- pitation, frequent dry cough, want of sleep, rapid loss of flesh and strength; with some, there is produced only a swelling of the legs, or tremblings, or a painful hardness of the goitre, sometimes diminished breasts, continued in- crease of appetite, and in all that Dr. Coindet had seen, a very rapid diminu- tion and disappearance of the goitre. "At those times Dr. Coindet forbade iodine, and prescribed milk, especial- ly that of asses, warm baths, valerian, kino, carbonat of ammonia, preparations of opium, and other antispasmodics. In painful hardness of the goitre, leeches, and emollient fomentations. "The rapid disappearance of the goitre, which accompanies these symp- toms, shows the'm to be occasioned by an excess of iodine: from eight to ten weeks is considered the mean time of proper treatment. "The iodine should not be administered indiscriminately in all cases of goitre: some are inflammatory, and some are accompanied by a bilious dispo- sition of the body; in these cases, leeches should be applied on the goitre, and medicines administered as the case requires, before the iodine be given. If similar symptoms arise during the application of iodine, then those indica- tions should be attended to, and proper medicines given with the iodine. "Iodine should never be employed in cases where the patient is of a gross disposition, or tending to menorrhagia, or in cases where diseases of the breast threaten to, or have commenced, or in slow fevers. It should also be refused to persons who are nervous, delicate, and of a feeble constitution. "Dr. Coindet then states his reasons for believing that iodine may be use- fully employed in cases of amenorrhea, in chronic diseases cf the uterus, of indolent tumours of the lymphatic glands of the breast, cases of scrofula with- out fever, and where the enlarged glands of the neck are indolent; and con- cludes by expressing a strong wish that no person will resort to this remedy without the advice and observation of a physician."—Bib. Univ. xvi. p. 140. The following observations on iodine, are taken from the Appendix of Thomson's London Dispensatory, 1824. " This substance is procured by first lixiviating powdered kelp with cold water; then evaporating the ley till a pellicle forms, and setting it aside to crystallize. On separating the crystals, the mother water is to be evaporated to dryness, and to the mass, put into the flask of an alembic, is to be added half its weight of sulphuric acid, and the same weight of black oxyd of man- I.—Iodine. 365 ganese; and, after adapting a capital and receiver to the flask, the mixture is to be distilled with a gentle heat, as long as violet vapours arise, which condense chiefly in the capital, in the form of opaque crystals, with a metallic lustre. These are Iodine. Various other methods have been employed for procuring Iodine, the best is the following, proposed by Dr. Ure. Take eight fluid ounces of the brown liquid, which drains from the salt which the soap- makers, who employ kelp, boil up and evaporate to dryness, heat it to 230° Fahrenheit, and add one fluid ounce of sulphuric acid diluted with its own bulk of water. When the mixture cools, separate the crystals of the salts,* which will form in it by filtration through a woollen cloth, and add to the fluid poured into a matrass, 830 grains of black oxyd of manganese in powder. A glass globe is then to be inverted over the mouth of the matrass, and the heat of a charcoal chaffer being applied, Iodine will sublime in great abun- dance. It must be washed out of the globe with alcohol, then drained and dried on plates of glass; and purified by a second sublimation from dry quick- lime, f Iodine has been procured from sponge by M. Straub of Hofwyl;^ and from various sea plants; for instance, Fucus saccharinus, digitatus, serratus, vesicu- losus, siliquosis, filum, rubens, cartilagineus, membranaceus, and filamentosus; Ulva pavonia, and U. tinza. The discovery of Iodine is due to M. Courtais, a French chemist, who first obtained it in 1811; but its nature was not known to the philosophical world till 1813, when it was announced to the French institute by M. Clement. Its properties and chemical affinities were afterwards, determined by the ex- periments of Gay Lussac,§ Sir H. Davy,|| Vauquelin, f Colin, Gaulthier de Claubry,** and M. Pelletier. ff Qualities.—Iodine, when properly prepared, is a crystallized substance of a greyish black colour, having a specific gravity of 4.948, and a metallic lustre: its smell is disagreeable, not unlike that of chlorine, and its taste acrid and hot. It is usually obtained in rhomboidal plates, which show a lamellated fracture; are scarcely soluble in water, but more so in alcohol, and still more in sulphuric ether. It melts at 224° Fahrenheit, and is volatilized at a temperature between 347° and 356°. Its vapour is of a beautiful violet colour, (whence its name from ;W>ic, violet.) Medicinal properties.—From the fact that burnt sponge forms the basis of all the remedies that have been productive of any benefit in the treatment of bronchocele, Dr. Coindet of Geneva, supposing that Iodine was the active principle of the sponge, proposed to employ it in different combinations for the cure of that disease. He gave it in the form of tincture, made by dis- solving forty-eight grains of Iodine in a fluid ounce of alcohol; and, also in the form of hydriodate of potass. The hydriodate is made by dissolving Iodine in a solution of pure potass. Both an iodate and a hydriodate are formed; the first of which being much less soluble than the second, falls to the bottom of the solution in the form of small grains; the second, (the hy- driodate,) remains dissolved in the liquid, which assumes a bright yellow co- lour if the iodine be not in excess, but a deep, brownish yellow, if it be in excess. Numerous cases of the beneficial results of the exhibition of both these preparations of Iodine in bronchocele and in scrofulous swellings, have been published by Dr. Coindet and others: but, in this country, (Eng- land,) the remedy has been too little used to determine its real value. The hydriodate of potass is the form of the medicine now generally preferred. * These are sulphat of soda, sulphat of potass, hydriodate of soda and sulphur. ^Phil. Magazine, 1. p. 161. t Journ. of Science and the Arts, vol. x. p. 456. § Gay Lussac's experiments were published in November 1813. Vide Ann. de. Chim. t. 88. p. 319. II Sir H. Davy's experiments were published in December 1813. 1 Ann. de Chimie. t. 91. ** Journ. de Phys. Aout. 1814. H Bulletin de Pharmacie, t. vi 366 I.—Iodine. Much caution is requisite in the administration of Iodine. In delicate ner- vous habits, it is apt to bring on palpitations, dry cough, tremors, and other febrile symptoms. The dose of the tincture is from ten to fifteen drops for an adult, given in a glassful of sugared water, or of syrup of capillaire and water, three times a day, and of that of the hydriodate, from six to ten drops, in the same vehicle. Besides the use of Iodine as a curative agent, it has been employed as a test of the presence of oxyd of arsenic and of corrosive sublimate. Brugnatelli, who first proposed its employment for this purpose, directs as much Iodine to be added to recently boiled starch as will give it a blue colour, and then as much distilled water to be mixed with this coloured starch as will bring it to the state of an aqueous solution. A few drops of an aqueous solution of oxyd of arsenic added to this solution, changes its colour at first to a red- dish hue, which gradually disappears, leaving the mixture colourless; but the blue colour is restored by the addition of a few drops of sulphuric acid. The same effects, with the exception of the restoration of the blue colour by the acid, are produced by Iodine on a solution of corrosive sublimate.* Iodine, found in the wafers of a lake—see Silliman's Journal, Jan. 1824. Employment of Iodine for the Relief of Cancer.—We have heard that Iodine, in the form of alcoholic solution, duly diluted with simple syrup, has been used with success in one of the Paris hospitals, in allaying the pain and in- crease of a cancerous tumour in the breast; but we have been unable to ob- tain from our correspondent any satisfactory particulars of the case; we, therefore, merely throw out the rumour for the consideration of our medico- chirurgical readers.—Journal of the Royal Institution, No. 27. Dr. Manson's medical researches on the efficacy of iodine in bronchocele, &c. &c. see Med. Chir. Rev. Jan. 1826, No. 7. New Series. Since March, 1821, he has prescribed upwards of 180 ounces of iodine, externally and internally. Bronchocele is in woman to man as seven to one nearly; he gave z\. of iodine to §2^ rectified spirit, .916 sp. gr. or half the strength of Coindet's—10 to 30 drops, ter die—116 cases are detailed by him, viz.— Males - - 15 Cured .... 10 Relieved .... 1 Discharged ... 1 Improving - - - 3 Females - 101 Cured - ... 66 Relieved - - - 9 Not relieved - . - 2 Discharged - - - 10 Improving - - - 14 It is necessary to keep the bowels open, and he employed the following lini- ment, Lin. Sap. comp. ,gi. Tinct. Iodinse, 3L M.—This to be rubbed into the tumour once or even twice a day. He tells us also that he used it in paralysis satisfactorily. In chorea do. In scrofula do. In fist, lachrym. do. In deafness do. In dysphagia do. - In white swelling do. - - H do. Jj3 Caution however seems requisite in the use of iodine, as it seems to act on the female breast—and in one case, at least, nearly removed it. 11 cases.. 9 do. 11 do. 9 do. * Jiorn. di Fisica. ix. p. 465. J.—Juglans. 367 IRIS FLORENTINA.* E. Florentine Orris. The Root. Triandria Monogynia. Nat. ord. Ensatse, Linn. Iridae, Juss. This is a perennial plant, a native of the south of Europe. The dried roots are imported from Italy. They are white, flatfish, knotty, and have a very slightly bitter taste, and an agreeable smell, re- sembling that of violets. Neumann got from 480 parts, 77 alcoholic, and afterwards 100 watery; and inversely 180 watery, and 8 alcoholic. The distilled water smells a little of the root, but exhibits no appearance of oil. They are chiefly used as a perfume. IRIS VERSICOLOR.! Blue Flag, or Flower de Luce. The Root. This is an active cathartic, and was used as such by the Indians. It occasions a distressing nausea, with prostration of strength; and is not likely to supersede other remedies of this nature. It is said to be an useful diuretic. JUGLANS CINEREA. Butternut, or White Walnut. The inner bark of the root. This is an abundant tree in the United States. Its sap affords a sugar equal to the maple. An extract of the inner bark, especially of the root, is an efficacious and mild laxative in doses of from ten to twenty grains. During the American war, the extract, made from the inner bark of this tree, attracted the attention of Dr. Rush, and other medical men in our military hospital; and being frequently administered to patients under the operation of inoculated small-pox, it was proved to be an excellent substitute for jalap or other cathartics. It is now esteemed as a valuable purgative, in doses from ten to thirty grains, not occasioning heat or irritation; and is greatly commended in cases of dysentery. Conjoined with calomel it is rendered more active and efficacious, especially in bilious habits. As this extract is often very carelessly prepared by the country people, it ought to be pre- pared by the apothecaries, or practitioners themselves; and as a domestic medicine of considerable importance, it should be adopted by every physician. The bark of the root of this tree will excite a blister; and the bark and shells of the nuts dye a good brown colour. A decoction of the inner bark is advantageously employed as a ca- thartic in the disease of horses, called the yellow water. The ex- tract should be made from the bark in the month of May or June. It is now introduced into the Pharm. U. S. * Pharm, U. S. secondary. f Pharm. U. S. secondary. 368 J.—Juniperus. JUNIPERUS. 1. Juniperus Communis. E. L. D.' Juniper. Common Juniper. The Berries and Tops. The Oil. Dicecia Monodelphia. Nat. ord. Coniferw. Syn. Genevrier ordinaire, (F.) Wachholder beeren, (G.) Sevenbroom, (Dutch.) Ginepro, (I.) This is an ever-green shrub, growing on heaths and hilly grounds in all parts of Europe: the berries are brought from Holland and from Italy, t The Italian berries are in general reckoned the best. Juniper berries have a strong not disagreeable smell, and a warm pungent sweet taste, which if they are long chewed, or previously well bruised, is followed by a bitterish one. Their predominant con- stituents are essential oil, and a sweet mucilaginous matter. This shrub is also a native of the Northern States, seldom more than two or three feet high. The berries are said to be considerably inferior in strength and flavour to those of Europe. Medical use.—To the oil they are indebted for their stimulating, carminative, diaphoretic, and diuretic properties. They are most commonly used in the form of infusion, as a diuretic drink in dropsy. The essential oil may be separated by distillation. It possesses the same properties in a higher degree, and imparts them to ardent spirits. The peculiar flavour, and well known diuretic effects of Hollands, are owing to the oil of Juniper. The decoction and ex- tract are very inert preparations, of the class of bitters. Every part of the plant contains the same essential oil; therefore an infusion of the tops is likewise diuretic. The wood, also, was for- merly officinal. In warm countries a resin exudes from the juniper- tree. It is called sandarac, and is often mixed with mastich. It is not a pure resin, for, according to Mr. Giese, about one-fifth of it is not soluble in water or in alcohol, but in ether; resembling in these respects copal. 2. Juniperus Virginiana.J Red Cedar. The Leaves. This species rises into a tree of considerable size, which Mi- chaux found from Maine to the Cape of Florida; and its botanical distinction from the Juniperus Sabina, is by no means easy; in sen- sible and medicinal properties, they are said to be equally allied. It is frequently known throughout the country by the name of savin, and has long been used for the same purposes. The fresh leaves boiled for a short time in about twice-their weight of lard, with a little wax, form an excellent cerate of peculiar efficacy as a perpe- tual epispastic; producing a change in the discharge from a serous to a puriform appearance. Internally, the effects of the leaves are very similar to those of sa- vin, as an emmenagogue, and general stimulant and diaphoretic in rheumatism. They have also had some reputation as a diuretic in dropsy. * Juniperus, Pharm. U. S. \ The berries of the Juniper might be collected with little trouble, in suf- ficient quantities to prevent their importation into the United States. * Pharm. U. S. K.—Kalmia Latifolia. 369 Similar as it is in its effects, it would seem unnecessary to retain both it and the savin in our lists of medicines. S. Juniperus Lycia.* E. L. D. Olibanum. Gum Resin. Olibanum is principally collected in Arabia, and brought from Mecca to Cairo, from whence it is imported into Europe. It consists of transparent brittle grains of different sizes, not larger than a chesnut, of a red or yellow colour, having little taste, and a peculiar aromatic smell. Neumann got from 480 grains, 346 alcoholic, and 125 watery extract, and inversely 200 watery, and 273 alcoholic. The distilled spirit and oil both smell of olibanum, but no oil sepa- rated. It forms a transparent solution with alcohol, and a milky fluid when triturated with water; it is not fusible, but inflammable, and burns with an agreeable smell. It is the frankincense of the an- cients; and the diffusion of its vapour around the altar still forms part of the ceremonies of the Greek and Roman Catholic churches. 4. Juniperus Sabina. E. Sabina. L. D. A. Savin. The Leaf and Oil. Syn. Sabine, (F.) Sadebaum, (G.) Sabina, (I. S.) BpaByc, Dioscor. This is an evergreen shrub, a native of Siberia and Tartary, but not unfrequent in our gardens. ; The leaves have a bitter, acrid, biting taste, and a strong disagreeable smell: distilled with water, they yield an essential oil, in considerable quantity. Medical use.—Savin is a warm stimulating medicine, capable of producing diaphoresis, and increasing all the secretions, but apt to excite hemorrhagy, especially from the uterus. It is also recommend- ed as an anthelmintic, and said to be very efficient in the cure of gout. Internally, a conserve of the fresh leaves is exhibited in doses of from half a drachm to a drachm. Externally, the leaves are applied in the form of powder or infu- sion, to warts, carious bones, and ulcers; and in cases of gangrene, psora, and tinea. The essential oil is a very active remedy. This plant is much employed by Farriers. A tincture of it is also some- times used. K. KALMIA LATIFOLIA. Broad-leaved Laurel, tyc. This plant kills sheep and other animals. The Indians use a de- * Juniperus Lycia.—" Olibanum, says Thomson, (Lond- Disp. p. 198.) was supposed on the authority of Linnaeus, to be the production of the Juniperus Ly- cia, (ai€*vc<:, Dioscoridis,) but this opinion appears to be erroneous; for Mr. Cole- broke has observed, "this speciesof Juniper isanativeof the south of France," and the French Botanists deny that it yields the resinous gum in question. (~Asiat. Research. 9. p. '377. J on this account, therefore, and influenced by other proofs brought forward by Mr. C. we have been induced to regard Oli- banum, at least that brought from India, as the production of the Boswellia serrata of Roxburgh, although it is still referred to the /. Lycia, in the British Pharmacopoeias."—We follow those authorities for the present. Ed. 48 370 K.—Krameria. coction to destroy themselves. The powdered leaves are employed with success in tinea capitis, and in certain stages of fever. A decoc- tion of it is used for the itch, but it should be cautiously applied. The brown powder attached to the footstalks of the leaves, and about the seeds, is errhine. The powdered leaves with lard form an ointment in herpes. In syphilis this plant has seemed useful. A saturated tincture of the leaves in proof spirit, is an active remedy.* KRAMERIA. Spec. Plant. Willd. i. 693. CI. 4. Ord. 1. Tetrandria Monogynia. Nat. ord. Rosaceae. G. 253. Calyx none. Corolla, four petals: the superior Nectary three parted; and inferior two leaved.t Berry dry, echinated, and Containing one seed. Spec. 1. K. triandria. Triandrous Krameria. Flor. Peruv. torn. i. p. 61. Icon, xciii. Officinal. Krameria Radix, Lond. Krameria or Ratanhy Root Syn. Ratanhie, (F.) Ruiz para los dientes, (S.) Ratanhia, (Huanaco,) Ma- pato, (Tarma.) This plant is a native of Peru, growing on the argillaceous, sandy, and acrid acclivities of the mountains in the provinces of Huanuco, Tarma, Canta, Xauxa, Caxtambo, and Huamalies, and very abun- dantly near the city of Huanuco. It was also found by Humboldt in the province of Guancabunba in Peru. It flowers throughout the year; but is in the height of blossom in October and November. It is a shrub, with very long, much branched, spreading roots, of a Blackish-red colour exteriorly, red interiorly, and having an intensely bitter, styptic taste. The stem is procumbent, round, and divided into numerous branches, which when young are white and silky, but as they grow they become naked below, and acquire a black colour. The leaves are sparse, sessile, oblong-obovate, pointed, entire, and covered with a white, silky pubescence on both surfaces. The flowers are terminal, solitary, and pedunculated. The corolla, for there is no calyx, is subpapilionaceous, consisting of four lake-coloured pe- tals, the inferior larger than the others, seriaceous externally, but internally smooth and shining: the nectary is tetraphyllous, the two upper leaflets being spathulate, the two lower roundish, concave, and scale-like. The stamens are three, each composed of a flesh-coloured filament, inserted between the germen and the superior leaflets of the nectary, and an urceolate anther, terminated with a pencil of very short hairs, and perforated with two holes at the apex. The style is red, awl-shaped, supporting a simple stigma, and seated on an ovate germen, which changes to a dry, hirsute drupe. Ratanhy root is collected for medicinal purposes after the rains. As imported, it consists of pieces of various sizes; but seldom ex- ceeding half an inch in thickness. The root breaks short, exhibiting • See Thomas's Inaugural Dissertation, 1802. Barton's Collections, Part. I. p. 18, 24, 48, Part II. p. 26. ■f This part of Wildenow's character applies solely to K. Ixina; the pentape- tala of the Flora Peruviana, the only species which he describes. The name Ratanhia, signifies trailing plant. K.—Krameria. 371 in the fracture a woody centre, and an easily separable, fibrous, dark- red bark. Qualities.—The bark of Ratanhy root, when chewed, tastes bitter, astringent, and at first nauseous; but the impression left in the mouth is sweetish and astringent, not unlike that produced by catechu. The woody centre is nearly insipid, and perfectly inert as a remedy. Ratanhy root yields its properties to boiling water, affording a dark- brown infusion, which emits an odour not unlike that of a raw potatoe, tastes astringent and very bitter, and leaves the same impression in the mouth as the bark of the root. All the mineral acids throw down copious precipitates when added to the infusion, but no precipitate is caused by acetic, citric, or oxalic acid. The pure alkalies produce no precipitate, but deepen the colour of the infusion to a rich claret brown. Lime-water throws down a very copious pinkish precipitate, which is soluble in muriatic acid. Solution of sulphate of iron strikes a black colour, with infusion of ratanhy root; that of acetate of lead, throws down a pale-brown precipitate, leaving the infusion nearly colourless and limpid; and that of iodine a copious fawn-coloured precipitate. Alcohol produces 'no effect on the infusion. Solution of isinglass separates tannin. Ratanhy root digested in alcohol yields a deep reddish-brown tinc- ture, which when evaporated, leaves a deep red, brittle resin. When this tincture is poured into water, it throws down the resin of a pink colour. In ether the tincture is less deep coloured, and when the ethereal tincture is evaporated on water, it leaves a pellicle of dark red resin on the surface, and a small quantity of extractive is diffused through the water, colouring it a light-brown. From these experi- ments we may conclude, that the bark of ratanhy root contains a large proportion of tannin, some gallic acid, gum, fecula, and resin. From the effects of the mineral acids on the infusion, they may be regarded as incompatible in prescriptions with this root. Vogel states, that he found the constituents of 100 parts of the root, to be 40.00 of a peculiar principle, 1.50 of mucilage, 0.50 starch, 48.00 fibrine, and 10.00 of water and loss. Medical properties and uses.—Ratanhy root is powerfully astrin- gent. It has been long esteemed in Peru as a remedy in dysentery, attended with bloody stools; as a detergent in ulceration of the gums, and a stomachic corroborant. It is also employed for fixing the teeth, when they become loosened by the receding of the gums;* and for giving a fine red colour to the gums and lips. It is powerfully styp- tic when applied to wounds, and on this account has been used in internal haemorrhages, particularly hematuria. Alibert states that it has been used with success in France, in cases of leucorrhcea. It is little known in Great Britain as a medicine, although it has been long known to those who manufacture port wine; andlarge quanta ties of its extract is prepared solely for this purpose in South Ame- rica. It is certainly likely to prove a valuable addition to the Materia Medica, in intermittents, diarrhoeas, haemorrhages, and all cases in which astringents are indicated. It has, also, been found useful in chronic rheumatism; in gastrodynia, attended by dyspepsia, head* * An excellent tooth powder may be composed by mixing one part of finely powdered Ratanhy root, with three parts *»f powdered charcoal, T. 372 L»—Lactuca. ache, and vertigo; and in all diseases of the digestive organs, in which the powers of the stomach are impaired; and when there is great debility of the nervous system, it operates as powerfully and more immediately than the Cinchona bark; whilst in cases of general asthenia, its invigorating effects are very evident. Ratanhy root may be exhibited in substance, or in the form of extract, or in infusion and decoction. The dose in substance is from gr. x. to ^ss.: of the infusion made with 5ss. of the bruised root to fzvj. of boiling water, from fjx. to f^ij.: and of the decoction, made with ^ij. of the bruised root, and Oj. of distilled water, from f ^j. to fSij. On the continent it is exhibited in the form of tincture, made by digesting for twelve days 5iij. of the powdered root with 5ij. of orange peel, ^ss. of serpentana root, and 5j- of saffron, in Oij. of rectified spirit of wine. The extract is also much used. L. LACTUCA. SyngenesiaJEqualis. Nat. ord. Compositae semi-flosculosae,L.inn. Cichoraceae, Juss. 1. Lactuca Virosa. E. Strong-scented Lettuce. Leaves. This plant is biennial, and grows wild on rubbish and rough banks in many places in Great Britain. It smells strongly of opium, and resembles it in some of its effects; and its narcotic power, like that of the poppy heads, resides in its milky juice. Medical use.— An extract prepared from the expressed juice of the leaves of the plant, gathered when in flower, is recommended in small doses in dropsy. In dropsies of long standing, proceeding from visceral obstructions, it has been given to the extent of half an ounce a-day. It is said to agree with the stomach, to quench thirst, to be gently laxative, powerfully diuretic, and somewhat diaphoretic Plentiful dilution is allowed during its operation. Dr. Collin of Vi- enna asserts, that out of twenty-four dropsical patients, all but one were cured by this medicine. 2. Lactuca Elongata.* Wild Lettuce. The Plant. We presume its properties are analogous to the preceding. It seems an unnecessary addition to our lists. 3. Lactuca Sativa. E. L. Garden Lettuce. The concrete milky juice. Lactucarium. E. A. Lettuce Opium. Syn. Laitue, (F.) Lattich, (G.) This plant, so valuable as an article of diet, abounds with a milky juice, which possesses all the characteristic properties of the opium of the shops, and may be procured from it in sufficient quantity to repay any labour bestowed on it for this purpose. A series of com- * Pharm. U. S. secondary. L.—Lactuca. 373 parative experiments instituted for the purpose, and detailed in the fourth volume of the American Philosophical Transactions, 27 years ago, have assured me of the identity of the opium procured from the poppy and from this species of the lettuce. These experiments were made on frogs, as well as on the human subject. The laudanum from the opium of the lettuce, increases the pulse in force and fre- quency, and produces the same effects as result from similar doses of common laudanum. It has been used with advantage in allaying the pain of chronic rheumatism and colic; in checking the frequent stools accompanying diarrhoea; in allaying cough, &c.; and doubt- less the plant might be advantageously cultivated for medical pur- poses, especially as the opium is procured after the period in which the plant is useful for the table., Dr. Duncan has published some observations on its various preparations. The milky juice, if secured in closely stopped vials, and filled completely vrith it, does not change its colour, or but very little; I have two or three vials full, which are above 12 years old, and though exposed to the light, have evinced little alteration. I presume there- fore the change of colour which exposure produces, is dependent on the absorption of oxygen. This juice has been analyzed by Mr. John, of Berlin, and found to consist of water, caoutchouc as its principal constituent, a trace of resin, a small quantity of bitter extractive, and phosphats, muriats and sulphats. This analysis may however be doubted of; since in every particular it is found identical with opium. Although it is so long since I first demonstrated this fact, and the facility with which the opium might be procured from the plant; little notice was taken of it, until the venerable Dr. Duncan, sen. took up the subject in 1810, in a paper read to the Caledonian Hor- ticultural Society, entitled " Observations on the preparation of so- porific medicines from common garden lettuce." This paper maybe seen in his observations on pulmonary consumption, in an appendix, and amply proves the value of the article in question. He has not, however, given me any credit for my anterior remarks in the Ame- rican Philosophical Society's Transactions, or in the first edition of this Dispensatory, published in 1806; and to which I may claim a title. He has, indeed, in another communication to the same so- ciety in 1811, spoken of. my observations and experiments; but in a way that might readily lead to the supposition, that his observations preceded mine. I shall here introduce from his observations on consumption, the "Method of preparing the Inspissated Juice of Lettute, or the Succus Spissatus Lactucse recentis. "Take any quantity of the leaves and stalks of the lettuce, when the plant is nearly ready to flower. Bruise them well, and including them in a hempen bag, compress them strongly till they yield their juice. Let this juice be evaporated in flat vessels, heated with boil- ing water. Let the evaporation be continued till the expressed juice be reduced to the consistence of thick honey. " According to the trials which I have made, twelve pounds of lettuce will yield about eight ounces of inspissated juice. 374 L.—Lactuca. " Method of preparing the Tincture of Lettuce Leaves; or the tinctura foliorum siccatorum Lactucse Sativae. "To one ounce of the dried leaves and stalks of the lettuce cut down, add eight ounces of the diluted alcohol of the Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia. Let the vessels containing this mixture be kept for a week in a warm place, shaking it frequently. Let the liquor then be strained through paper, and kept for use. About fifty drops may be taken for a dose." The following additional preparations he afterwards added in an- other essay. 1. " Solutio sued spissati lactucse.—Prepared from the inspissated juice spontaneously exuding from the plant when wounded. 2. " Lactucarium.—An extract prepared by evaporating the above solution or tincture. 3. " Tinctura lactucarii.—Prepared by dissolving lactucarium in proof-spirit of wine. 4. " Succus spissatus lactucse.—Prepared by inspissating the ex- pressed juice of the recent plant. 5. " Tinctura foliorum lactucse.—Prepared by extracting the ac- tive powers of the lettuce, from the leaves of the dried plant, by warm infusion in proof-spirit." The following observations on the method of obtaining Lactuca- rium, or lettuce opium, from the lactuca sativaof Linnaeus, the com- mon garden lettuce, by Mr. John Young, Surgeon in Edinburgh, will not be irrelevant; as they come from a gentleman who has largely devoted himself to the subject. "In collecting lactucarium last year, according to the method re- commended by Dr. Duncan, sen. in the Memoirs of the Caledonian Horticultural ^Society, I found, that it not only occupied much time, but that I was often disappointed of the substance which I expected to obtain; from its being washed off by rain. It occurred to me, that the milky juice of the lettuce might be immediately collected from the plant in great abundance, by absorbing it on cotton soon after it exudes from the plant, and while it yet continues in a liquid state; and by afterwards inspissating it by a moderate heat, communicated from a water or vapour bath. "I accordingly adopted that method this year, (1816.) I had the ice lettuce planted in rows; and when the top of the stem was about a foot above the ground, I then cut off about an inch from the top of each plant. The milky juice immediately began to rise above the wounded surface. I cut off the tops of all the plants before I began to collect. But after the portion which had exuded was removed by the cotton, I found that the milky juice ceased to exude, until I had made another wound. I began to collect, at the end of the border, where I made the first incision, and then cut off a thin cross slice from the stem of each plant, leaving fresh wounds as I went along. These I found covered with milky juice each time when I returned to where I set out. But after going round the plants about five or six times, in the way mentioned, they ceased to give out any more milky juice at that time. But this process may be repeated two or three times in a day. L.—-Laurus. 875 " In the manner above described, I have collected more of the milky juice in one day, than I did last year in five days, when it was not removed till it had acquired a dry state and black colour. Having mentioned to a friend my mode of collecting the milky juice in its recent state, by means of cotton, he suggested the use of a wet sponge for that purpose. This, I find, answers better than the cotton; the juice being both more completely removed from the plant, and more easily expressed, than from the cotton. The milky juice collected in this way into a "tea-cup, or any similar vessel, soon acquires a dark-brown colour, like opium obtained from the papaver somniferum, and has all its other sensible qualities. Hence it may justly be distinguished by the title of lettuce-opium, although, per- haps, less confusion would arise, from employing the name which Dr. Duncan has adopted, that of lactucarium. "From what I have observed respecting this method of collecting the milky juice from the lactuca sativa, it is my opinion, that in the same manner, opium might be procured in this country from the pa- paver somniferum, equal, if not superior, to any foreign opium. Dr. James Howison, who was for some time employed by the Honoura- ble East India Company to superintend the preparation of opium in Bengal, has published an essay on that subject in the first volume of the Memoirs of the Caledonian Horticultural Society, page 368, which contains many important observations respecting the prepa- ration of opium in Britain. But the method of collecting the milky juice from the plant by means of cotton or a sponge, possesses many advantages which cannot be obtained by the flask which he proposes, or by the knife and cup of the Hindoos: for by their method of col- lection, a considerable quantity of the milky juice, exuding from the head of the poppy, must be lost. But by preparing opium in Britain, a still greater advantage would -accrue. It would be obtained in a perfectly pure state, which is by no means thti case with the opium which is brought to us from abroad." LAURUS. Enneandria Monogynia. Nat. ord. Oleracex, Linn. Lauri, Juss. 1. Laurus Nobilis. E. L. Bay Tree. Common Sweet Bay. Leaves, Berries, Oil. This tree is a native of the south of Europe, but bears the winters of Great Britain perfectly well. Both leaves and berries contain a considerable quantity of essential oil, which renders them aromatic stimulating substances. The berries are generally brought from the Mediterranean, and are more pungent than the leaves. In Spain and Italy a considera- ble quantity of oil is obtained by expression from the fresh berries. It has a green colour, and strong aromatic taste and smell. As it, therefore, is not a fixed oil, but a mixture of fixed and essential oil, and as its peculiar properties depend entirely on the presence of the latter, it is incorrectly stated to be a fixed oil by the Edinburgh Col- 376 L.—Laurus. lege. It should rather have been denominated, from the mode of its preparation, an expressed oil. Medical use.—It is only used us a stimulant. 2. Laurus Sassafras. E. Sassafras. L. D. A. Sassafras. Bark of the Root. The Root and Wood. Essential Oil. This tree is a native of N. and S. America and Cochin China, and is cultivated in Jamaica. It is the root which is commonly employed. It is brought to us in long branched pieces. It is soft, light, and of a spongy texture; of a rusty white colour; of a strong pleasant smell, resembling that of fennel; and a sweetish aromatic, sub-acrid taste. The bark is ro.ugh, of a brown ash colour on the outside, and ferru- ginous colour within; spongy and divisible into layers, and of a stronger taste and smell than the wood. Neumann got from 480 grains, 80 of alcoholic, and afterwards 60 of watery extract, and inversely 120 watery and 7.5 alcoholic. In distillation the alcohol elevates nothing; but water a ponderous es- sential oil, in the proportion of about 10 from 480. Medical use.—Sassafras, from the quantity of volatile oil it con- tains, is a gently stimulating, heating, sudorific, and diuretic re- medy. It is best given in infusion. The decoction and extract are mere bitters, as the oil is dissipated by the preparation. The essential oil may be obtained separate by distillation. It is of a whitish yellow colour, and sinks in water. It is highly stimulating and heating, and must be given only in very small doses. The bark is useful in intermittents; and the oil is said to be effi- cacious applied externally to wens. *—It forms a very delightful ad- dition to the volatile tincture of guaiacum, and gives a pleasant fla- vour to pills. 3. Cinnamomum. L. D. A. Laurus Cinnamqmum. E. The (inner) Bark, and its essential oil. This valuable tree is a native of Ceylon, where it was guarded with unremitting jealousy by the Dutch, that they might monopolize the commerce of its productions. They failed, however, in the at- tempt; and cinnamon trees are found, not only in other parts of the East Indies, but also in Jamaica, and other islands of the West In- dies. Ceylon now belongs to the British, and Captain Percival has published a very interesting account of the cinnamon tree. It is found in greatest perfection in the immediate neighbourhood of Co- lumbo, and grows from four to ten feet high, very bushy. The leaves resemble those of the laurel, and have the hot taste and smell of cloves when chewed. The blossom is white and very abundant, but diffuses no odour. The fruit resembles an acorn, and a species of fixed oil is ^obtained from it. There are several different species of cinnamon trees, or trees resembling them, in Ceylon, but four only are barked by government; the honey cinnamon, the snake cinna- mon, the camphor cinnamon, which is inferior to these, and yields * Barton's Collections, Part. I. p. 19. 49. L.—Laurus. 377 camphor from its roots, and mixed with gum from incisions made into it, and the cabatte cinnamon, which is harsher and more astrin- gent than the others. The bark is collected at two seasons; the grand harvest lasts from April to August, the little harvest is in December. Such branches as are three years old are lopped off, the epidermis is then scraped off, the bark slit up, loosened and removed entire, so as to form a tube open at one side. The smaller of these are inserted within the larger, and they are spread out to dry. They are then packed up in bundles. The tasting of these bundles to ascertain their quality is a very disagreeable duty imposed on the surgeons, as it excoriates the tongue and mouth, and causes such intolerable pain as renders it impossible for them to continue the preparations two or three days successively. In their turns, however, they are obliged to resume it, and they attempt to mitigate the pain by occasionally eating a piece of bread and butter. It is then made up into large bundles about four feet long, and eighty pounds in weight. In stow- ing the bales on ship-board, the interstices are filled up with black pepper, which is supposed to improve both spices. The best cinnamon is rather pliable, and ought not much to ex- ceed stout writing paper in thickness. It is of a light yellowish co- lour; it possesses a sweet taste, not so hot as to occasion pain, and not succeeded by any after-taste. The inferior kind is distinguished by being thicker, of a darker and brownish colour, hot, pungent when chewed, and succeeded by a disagreeable bitter after-taste. The Dutch were accused of deteriorating their cinnamon by mixing it with a proportion of real cinnamon, but which had been deprived of its essential oil by distillation. This fraud could only be detected by the weaker smell and taste. It is also often mixed with cassia bark. This last is easily distinguishable by its breaking over smooth, and by its slimy mucilaginous taste, without any thing of the rough- ness of the true cinnamon. By distillation with water, it furnishes a small quantity of very pungent and fragrant oil; the water itself remains long milky, and has a strong flavour of cinnamon. The watery extract in Neumann's experiment amounted to 720 from 7680 parts. With alcohol the oil does not rise in distillation, but remains in the extract, which amounts to 960. The essential oil of cinnamon has a whitish yellow colour, a pun- gent burning taste, and the peculiar fine flavour of cinnamon in a very great degree. It should sink in water, and be entirely soluble in alcohol. It is principally prepared in Ceylon. Medical use.—Cinnamon is a very elegant and useful aromatic, more grateful both to the palate and stomach than most other sub- stances of this class. Like other aromatics, the effects of cinnamon are stimulating, heatipg, stomachic, carminative and tonic; but it is rather used as an adjunct to other remedies, than as a remedy itself. The oil is one of the most powerful stimulants we possess, and is sometimes used as a cordial in cramps of the stomach and in syn- cope; or as a stimulant in paralysis of the tongue, or to deaden the nerve in tooth-ache. But it is principally used as an aromatic, to cover the less agreeable taste of other drugs. 37S L.—Lavandula. 4. Laurus Cassia.* E. L. D. A. Cassia Tree. The Bark and Floioer-buds gathered before they open. Syn. of the Bark: Casse, (F.) Casia, (G.) Cannellina, (I.) Seleckheh, (Ar.) Tej, (H.) Twacha, (San.) Syn. of the Buds. Fleur de la Cannelle, (F.) Cassia Bloemen, (D.) Tejpatka konpul, (H.) Sirnagapoo, (Tarn.) This tree is very similar f o that of the Laurus Cinnamomum. The bark, which is imported from different parts of the East Indies and from China, has a very exact resemblance to the cinnamon. It is distinguishable from the cinnamon, by being of a thicker and coarser appearance, and by its breaking short and smooth, while the cinna- mon breaks fibrous and shivery. It resembles cinnamon still more exactly in its aromatic flavour and pungency than in its external appearance, and seems only to differ from it in being considerably weaker, and in abounding more with a mucilaginous matter. Cassia buds are the flower-buds which are gathered and dried be- fore they expand. They have the appearance of a nail, consisting of a round head, about the size of a pepper-corn, surrounded with the imperfect hexangular corolla, which gradually terminates in a point. They have a brown colour, and the smell and- taste of cinnamon. Medical use.—Both the bark and buds of cassia possess the same properties with cinnamon, though in an inferior degree. The bark is very frequently, and sometimes unintentionally, sub- stituted for the more expensive cinnamon; and the products obtain- ed from cassia bark and buds by distillation, are in no respect infe- rior to those prepared from cinnamon. LAVANDULA. L. I). A. Lavandula Spica. E. Lavender. The Flowers. Didynamia Gymnospermia. Nat. ord. Verticillatae. Syn. Lavande, (F.) Lavandelblumen, (G.) Lavanda, (I.) Alhuzema, (S.) Iqvoy, Theophr. Lavender is a well-knoWn small, shrubby, perennial plant, a na- tive of the south of Europe, but frequently cultivated in our gardens for the sake of its perfume. There are two varieties. The flowers of both have a fragrant, agreeable smell, and a warm, pungent, bitterish taste, the broad-leaved sort is the strongest in both respects, and yields in distillation thrice as much essential oil as the other, its oil is also hotter and specifically heavier; hence, in the southern fiarts^of France, where both kinds grow wild, this only is used for the distillation of what is called Oil of spike. The narrow-leaved is the sort commonly met with in our gardens. Medical use.—Lavender is a warm stimulating aromatic. It is principally used as a perfume. * Kcttro-tx, Dioscor. Darwul Kurundu, (Cingalese.) Cannella Matto, (Port.) Wilde Canule, (Dutch.) L.—Lichen. $79 LEONTODON (TARAXACUM. L. D.) E. Dens Leonis. Common Dandelion. Root and Leaves. Syngenesia JEqualis. Nat. ord. Compositae semiflosculosi, Linn. Cichoraceae, Juss. Syn. Dent de Lion; Pissenlit, (F.) Lowenzahn Wurzel, (G.) This perennial plant is very common in grass fields and unculti- vated places. The whole plant contains a bitter milky juice, which, however, is most abundant in the roots before the flower-stem shoots. The bitterness is destroyed by drying, and therefore the recent roots only should be used. Medical use.—Its vulgar name in all languages shows a popular belief of its possessing diuretic properties; and it was lately a very fashionable remedy in Germany, and given in the form of an ex- pressed juice or decoction, or extract prepared from either of them; but it seems to be merely a mucilaginous bitter. LICHEN. Iceland Moss, or Eryngo-leaved Liverwort. Tlie Plant. 1. Lichen Islandicus. L. E. D.* Cryptogamia Algae. Nat. ord. Algae. This is a perennial lichen, very common in Iceland, but also found in the forests and dry sterile woods of Switzerland and Germany, growing upon stones and on the earth. It has dry coriaceous leaves, divided into lobes and laciniae, which are again notched and subdi- vided with elevated margins, beset with short, very minute, rigid, parallel hairs, and marked with white spots, reddish towards the points. Amongst the leaves are found peltated, somewhat excava- ted, shining, viscid bodies, internally of a brown colour: these are the pericarpiums. When fresh the colour of this lichen is greenish yellow, or greyish brown; but, when dried, greenish white or grey. In Sweden principally, and in Germany, a variety is found, with smaller, tenderer, crisper leaves, destitute of hairs on the margin, of a paler lead colour, orange beneath. It is gathered in rainy weather, because it is then more easily detached from the stones. In the countries where it abounds, it is used for the nourishment both of cattle and of man. Mr. Proust has analyzed it with much success. A pound of dry lichen, immersed in cold water, soon re- sumed its fresh colour, and weighed two pounds two ounces, gave out a pale fawn colour, but none of its bitterness. When previously powdered, it gives out a bitter, pale, yellow juice, losing about three per cent, in cold, and six in boiling water. This bitterness resides in an extractive, which is employed in Iceland to dye a brown colour. By boiling lichen a quarter of an hour, it becomes sufficiently ten- der for use as an esculent vegetable. Lichen cooked jn this manner, has a kind of membranous elasticity, peculiar to some of the algse and fungi; and, after being dried, has only to be moistened with boiling water to resume this elasticity. Its appearance is not very prepossessing, having an unequal yellow colour, and a slight marine *.Lichen, Pharm, IT, S 380 L—Lichen. smell. A pound of dry lichen, by boiling weighs three pounds,'and when dried again is reduced to two-thirds of a pound. The decoction has a clear yellow colour, and a slightly bitter taste, which, even when made with eight waters, on cooling becomes a tremulous jelly, without any viscidity. This jelly, on standing, contracts, expresses the water, cracks, and dries into transparent angular fragments of a deep red colour, insoluble in cold water, so- luble in boiling water, from which it is precipitated by infusion of galls. By nitric acid it is converted into oxalic acid. The insoluble part dissolves readily in nitric acid, forming oxalat of lime and oxa- lic acid, and is converted into a gelatinous pulp by potass. According to this analysis, one hundred parts of dried lichen give of— Bitter extractive, 3 Matter soluble in hot water, 33 Matter insoluble in hot water, 64 = 100 The last substance has much analogy with gluten, and the second with starch, particularly in the remarkable property of being preci- pitated by infusion of galls. It differs from it, however, in not being glutinous, and in the solid matter of the jelly contracting and sepa- rating from the fluid as curd does from whey. Medical use.—From the analysis of this lichen, it appears to con- sist principally of a nutritious substance, combined with a bitter; and on the combination of these, its medical virtues probably de- pend. It is used, according to Arnemann, 1. In cough with expectoration, threatening to terminate in con- sumption; after neglected catarrhs, the consequence of peri- pneumony, when the expectoration becomes more copious and purulent. 2. In emaciation from measles, (Schoenheide;) from wounds and ulcers with great discharge, (Plenck;) after salivation; and from actual ulcers in the lungs, when there is no fever, (Scopoli;) especially after neglected colds, or from translat- ed morbid matter. In a high degree of the disease it does little good, but the night sweats are diminished by it, (Mil- lin.) In pituitous phthisis it is of great service. 3. In haemoptysis, (Frize.) 4. In chincough, (Tode.) 5. In diabetes, as a tonic and palliative remedy. It is commonly exhibited in decoction with water, broth, or milk, after the bitter has been extracted from it by steeping it in warm water; or, in substance, boiled in chocolate or cocoa, or made into a jelly with boiling water. Half an ounce, or an ounce, must be used daily, and continued for some time. Proust disbelieves its specific virtues, but recommends it strongly as an article of diet in times of scarcity, and as a very convenient anti-scorbutic vegetable in long sea voyages. 2. Lichen Rocella vel Orcella. D. Litmus. Turnsole. Syn. Orchel, Orseille, (F.) ' This lichen is found in Guernsey and Portland island, but it is L.—Linum. 381 from the Canary islands that it is chiefly obtained. It is not sold in the state of the plant merely dried, but manufactured by the Dutch into a paste, called Litmus, Orseille en pate. It is sold in square masses, about an inch in length, and half an inch in breadth and thickness, hard and brittle, having the appearance of a violet-co- loured earth, with white spots. It has a violet smell, probably from the addition of orris root powder; and, when tasted, speedily tinges the saliva, and gives a sense of heat in the mouth. This paste is prepared by making the lichen undergo a kind of fermentation in vats with urine and lime-water, forming the whole into a pulp, and then dividing it into squares to dry. Litmus is chiefly used as a dye-stuff, and by chemists as a very valuable test of the presence of uncombined acids. I must con- fess my ignorance of the grounds upon which the Dublin College have introduced it into their Materia Medica. The translator of the Pharmacopoeia merely says, " It has been used medicinally with an intention of allaying the tickling attendant on phthisis, and in hys- terical coughs." 1. LINUM. D. A. LINUM USITATISSIMUM. E. L. Common Flax. The Seed and Oil. Pentandria Pentagynia. Nat. ord. Gruinales, Linn. Caryophylleas, Juss. This valuable annual plant, is said to have come originally from those parts of Egypt which are exposed to the inundations of the Nile. It now grows wild among the fields, in the south of England, and many other parts of Europe, and is cultivated in large quanti ties, both there and in the United States. Linseed contains about one-fifth of mucilage, and one-sixth of fixed oil. The mucilage resides entirely in the skin, and is separated by infusion or decoction. The oil is separated by expression. It is one of the cheapest fixed oils; but is generally rancid and nauseous, and unfit for internal use. The cake which remains after the expression of the oil, contains the farinacious and mucilaginous part of the seed, and is used in fattening cattle, under the name of Oil-cake. Linseed is considered as emollient, and demulcent. The entire seeds are only used in cataplasms. The infusion is used as a pecto- ral drink, and in ardor urinae, nephritic pains, and during the exhi- bition of corrosive sublimate. 2. Linum Catharticum. D. L. Purging Flax. Mill-mountain. The Herb. This is an annual plant, found wild on dry meadows and pastures in Britain. Its virtue is expressed in its title: an infusion in water or whey of a handful of the fresh herb, or a drachm of it in substance when dried, is said to purge without inconvenience. 382 L.—Liriodendron. LIRIODENDRON.* Tulip Tree. Tulip-bearing Poplar. Tlie Bark. This is closely allied to the magnolias. It is a native and well known tree in the United States, called also American poplar, white wood, and in some parts of New England improperly called cypress tree. It attains to a very large size, rising as high as any forest tree, apd makes a noble and beautiful appearance when in flower, about tlie middle of May. This tree is remarkable for the shape of its leaves, having the middle lobe of the three truncate, or cut tranversely at the end. The flowers are large and bell-shaped; calyx of three leaves, six petals to the corolla, marked with green, yellow, and red-spots; and many lance-shaped seeds, lying one over another, and forming a sort of cone. The bark of the root has long been employed by me- dical men in the United States, as a tonic, and when joined with various proportions of prinos verticillatus, and cornus florida, has afforded a remedy of equal efficacy with Peruvian bark. It is a strong bitter, and considerably aromatic and antiseptic, and has been found particularly beneficial in the last stage of dysentery. The powdered root combined with steel dust is an excellent remedy in relaxation of the stomach. According to Dr. Barton, the bark is used in some parts in gout and rheumatism. A decoction of it is said to be a com- mon remedy in Virginia for botts in horses. " The Liriodendron tulipifcra, tulip or poplar tree, grows through- out the United States of North America. The best time to procure the bark for medicinal purposes, is in the month of February; as the sap at this time being more confined to the root increases its virtue. It possesses the qualities of an aromatic, a bitter, and an astringent; the bitter quality is greater, the astringent less than in the Peruvian bark. It likewise possesses an aromatic acrimony; hence, I infer, it is highly antiseptic and powerfully tonic. I have prescribed the poplar bark in a variety of cases of the intermittent fever; and can declare from experience, it is equally efficacious with the Peruvian bark, if properly administered. In the phthisis pulmonalis attended with hectic fever, night sweats, and diarrhoea, when combined with laudanum, it has frequently abated these alarming and troublesome symptoms. I effectually cured a Mr. Kiser, fifty years of age, who was afflicted with a catarrh and dyspeptic symptoms for five years, which baffled the attempts of many physicians, and the most cele- brated remedies, by persevering in the use of the poplar bark for two weeks. "I can assert from experience there is not in all the Materia Me- dica, a more certain, speedy and effectual remedy in the hysteria, than the poplar bark combined with a small quantity of laudanum. I have used no remedy in the cholera infantum but the poplar, after cleansing the primae viae, for these two years. It appears to be an excellent vermifuge. I have never known it fail in a single case of worms which has come under my'observation. I prescribed it to a child when convulsions had taken place. After taking a few doses, several hundreds of dead ascarides were discharged with the stools. * Pharm. U. S, L__Lobelia. 383 The dose of the powder to an adult, is from a scruple to two drachms; it may likewise be used in tincture, infusion, or decoction; but its virtues are always greatest when given in substance." The foregoing is part of a letter addressed to Governor Clayton of Delaware, in 1792, by Dr. J. T. Young, of Philadelphia. (American Museum, Vol. 12.) In his reply, the governor observes, "During the late war the Peruvian bark was very scarce and dear. I was at the time engaged in considerable practice, and was under the neces- sity of seeking a substitute for the Peruvian bark. I conceived that the poplar had more aromatic and bitter than the Peruvian, and less astringency. To correct and amend those qualities I added to it nearly an equal quantity of the bark of the root of dogwood, (cornus florida or boxwood,) and half the quantity of the inside bark of the white oak tree. This remedy I prescribed for several years, in every case in which I conceived the Peruvian bark necessary or proper, with at least equal if not superior success. I used it in every species of intermittent, gangrenes, mortifications, and in short in every case ' of debility. It remains to determine whether the addition of those barks to the poplar increases its virtues or not; this can only be done by accurate experiments in practice." A further account of the analysis and virtues of this medicine is given by Professor Rush in the transactions of the College of Phy- sicians of Philadelphia, and in a paper published in one of the vo lumes of Tilloch's Magazine. LOBELIA INFLATA.* Indian Tobacco. * The Herb. Monodelphia Pentandria. The Lobelia inflata is indigenous, and annual, rising to one or two feet with branched stems. The leaves are oblong, alternate; slightly serrated and sessile. The blossoms are solitary, in a kind of spike, of a pale blue colour. It is found common in dry fields, among barley and rye stubble, and flowers in July and August; its capsules are inflated, and filled with numerous small seeds. The leaves chewed are at first insipid, says Dr. Cutler, but soon become pungent, occasioning a copious discharge of saliva. If they are held in the mouth for sometime they produce giddiness and pain in the head, with a trembling agitation of the whole body; at length they bring on extreme nausea and vomiting. The taste resembles that of tartar emetic. A plant possessed of such active properties, notwithstanding the violent effects from chewing the leaves, may possibly become a valuable medicine. It was employed by the aborigines as an emetic, and also by those empirics who affect to deal in Indian remedies only. As a new arti- cle it has lately excited much speculation in the New England States, and its properties have very frequently been subjected to the test of practical experiment. It is found to operate as a speedy and active mvtic, and it often induces a most profuse perspiration immediately ' Lobelia, Pharm. U. S, 384 L—Lobelia. after being received into the stomach. It has proved serviceable in cases of colic, where emetics were indicated. In a variety of instances it has been administered as a remedy in asthmatic affections, and on competent authority we are assured, that it has in general manifest- ed considerable efficacy, and sometimes proved more beneficial in this distressing disease than any other medicine. From some of its effects, says an eminent physician, lobelia seems to be related to the narcotic plants; to the mouth and first passages it proves acrid and highly stimulant; its stimulus appears to be of the diffusive kind, as Dr. Cutler, on taking it experienced an irritation of the skin over the whole body, it is probably one of the most powerful vegetable substances with which we are acquainted, and no rational practi- tioner will have recourse to it, but with the greatest precaution. The melancholy consequences resulting from the use of lobelia inflata, as lately administered by the adventurous hands of a noted empiric, have justly excited considerable interest, and furnished alarming ex- amples of its deleterious properties and fatal effects. The dose in which he is said usually to prescribe it, and frequently with impu- nity, is a common tea-spoonful of the powdered seeds or leaves, and often repeated. If the medicine does not puke or evacuate power- fully, it frequently destroys the patient; and sometimes in five or six hours. Even horses and cattle have been supposed to be killed by eating it accidentally. The specific qualities of this highly active plant, promising to be of utility as a remedy, should be particularly inves- tigated by ingenious and intelligent men, that its rank in the Materia Medica may be clearly ascertained. The following highly interesting observations are from the Rev. Dr. M. Cutler. - When I was preparing my botanical paper, says the Doctor, I had given it, (the lobelia,) only a cursory examination, and having some doubt about its specific characters, I suspected it to be a new species. Accidentally ascertaining its emetic property, I inserted it with the specific name, emetic weed. By chewing a small part of it, common- ly no more than one or two of the capsules, it proves a gentle eme- tic. If the quantity be a little increased, it operates as an emetic, and then as a cathartic, its effects being much the same as those of the common emetics and cathartics. It has been my misfortune, (the author observes,) to be an asthmatic for about ten years. I have made trial of a great variety of the usual remedies with very little benefit. In several paroxysms I had found immediate relief more frequently than from any thing else, from the skunk-cabbage, (Dracontium fce- lidum, Linn. Arum Americanum, Catesby. See that article in this volume.) The last summer I had the severest attack I ever experi- enced. It commenced early in August, and continued about eight weeks. Dr. Drury, of Marblehead, also an asthmatic, had made use of a tincture of the Indian tobacco, by the advice of a friend, in a severe paroxysm early in the spring. It gave him immediate relief, and he has been entirely free from the complaint from that time. I had a tincture made of the fresh plant, and took care to have the spirit fully saturated, which, I think, is important. In a paroxysm, which, perhaps, was as severe as I ever experienced, the diffiulty of L.—Lobelia. 385 breathing extreme, and after it had continued for a considerable time, I took a table-spoonful. In three or four minutes my breathing was as free as it ever was, but I felt no nausea at the stomach. In ten mi- nutes I took another spoonful, which occasioned sickness. After ten minutes I took the third, whicli produced sensible effects upon the coats of the stomach, and a very little moderate puking, and a kind of prickly sensation through the whole system, even to the ex- tremities of the fingers and toes. The urinary passage was percepti- bly affected by producing a smarting sensation in passing urine, which was probably provolked by stimulus upon the bladder. But all these sensations very soon subsided, and a vigour seemed to be re- stored to the constitution, which I had not experienced for years. I have not since had a paroxysm, and only a few times some small symptoms of asthma. Besides the violent attacks, I had scarcely passed a night without more or less of it, and often so as not to be able to lie in bed. Since that time I have enjoyed as good health as, perhaps, before the first attack. I have given this minute detail of my own case, from an appre- hension that this plant, judiciously employed, may approach nearer to a specific in this most distressing complaint, than any other that has been yet discovered. But I am aware much further experiment is necessary to ascertain its real value. Several medical gentlemen have since made use of the tincture in asthmatic cases with much Buccess, but the effects have not been uniformly the same. In all instances of which I have had information, it has produced imme- diate relief, but the effects have been different in different kinds of asthma. Some patients have been severely puked with only a tea-spoonful, but in all cases some nausea seems to be necessary. The asthma with which I have been afflicted, I conceive to be that kind which Dr. Bree, in his Practical Inquiries on disordered Res- piration, &c. calls the first species—" a convulsive asthma from pulmonic irritation of effused serum." My constitution has been free, I believe, from any other disorder, than what has. been occa- sioned by an affection of the lungs, anxiety of the praecordia, and straitness of the breast, and other symptoms produced by that affection. The result of subsequent practical observation has amply con- firmed the utility of lobelia inflata in various diseases. In nume- rous instances of asthma it has procured the most essential relief, though in general its effects were only temporary and palliative. As a pectoral it has been found useful in consumptive and other coughs depending on mucus accumulated in the bronchial vessels, by exciting nausea and expectoration. From its very speedy operation as an emetic, and its stimulating effects on the mouth and fauces, beneficial results might be expected from its use in croup and whooping cough; and on some trials our expectations have been realized in this re- spect. It may perhaps be anticipated to supersede seneka as a re- medy in the former, and antimonials in the latter affection. More extensive practical knowledge of the properties of this plant, and the various forms and circumstances of its administration, is still, however, a most desirable object. The leaves should be collected in August, while the plant is in 50 386 M.—Magnesia. blossom, and carefully dried and preserved for use. From ten to twenty grains of the powdered leaves will in general be found a suit- able dose as an emetic for an adult, or it may be repeated in smaller quantities. As a pectoral, it may be given in powder or pills alone, or combined with other remedies, repeated in small doses, till an / evident good result is observable. Of the saturated tincture, twenty, forty, or even sixty drops may be safely given children of one or two years old, increasing as occasion may require." LYTHRUM SALICARIA. D. Purple-spiked Willow-strife. Loose-strife. The Herb. Dodecandria Monogynia. Nat. ord. Calycanthemae, Linn. Salicariae, Juss. This perennial plant grows in marshes, &c. in Great Britain. The dried leaves have an herbaceous taste, somewhat astringent, and when moistened soon give out a ropy mucilage. Hence it is difficult to swallow the powder mixed with water. An ounce of the plant yielded to Sagar three drachms of watery, and twenty-four grains of spirituous extract, and the former was more disagreeably austere and exsiccative. The decoction of this plant has been long celebrated in Ireland in diarrhoeas. In the same disease, it is a popular remedy in Sweden; and De Haen and Stork and others have given it with success in laxity of the intestines from an accumulation of sordes. After pre- mising a purgative, a drachm or more of the powder may be given morning and evening, or three times a day. A decoction also of the plant or root may be given in diarrhoea or dysentery. Its properties are evidently mucilaginous and astringent. M. MAGNESIA.—MAGNESIA. Magnesium, the base of magnesia, is only obtained as a dark grey metallic film; less fusible than plate glass, burning with a red light when strongly heated, and decomposing water slowly. Magnesia is obtained in light, white, friable masses, or very fine Eowder; to the touch it is very fine; its taste is not very sensible, ut peculiar and pleasant; its specific gravity is 2.33. It is inso- luble in water, but forms with it a paste without ductility. It is apyrous; slightly alters vegetable blues to green; forms soluble com- pounds with most acids, and unites with sulphur. The fossils in which it predominates are generally soft, and have an unctuous feel. The principal are talc, steatites, asbestus, &c. Hydrat of magnesia is the state in which it is obtained by preci- pitation from its solution in an acid, by potass or soda. M—Magnesia. 387 MAGNESIA (Usta. D.) E. L. A. Magnesia. Calcined Magnesia. Take of carbonat of magnesia, any quantity.—Heat it to redness in a crucible, and keep it in this state for two hours. Then inclose it in close-stopped glass bottles. E. Its specific gravity is 2.33, and when sprinkled with water, heat is produced, and it absorbs 18 per cent. Magnesia decomposes alum, borax, tartrat and succinat of ammonia, tartrat of potash, tartrat of potash and soda, and all the officinal metallic salts. Medical use.—It is used for the same general purposes as the car- bonat. In certain affections of the stomach, accompanied with much flatulence, magnesia is preferable, both because it contains more magnesia in a given bulk, and, being deprived of its acid, it neu- tralizes the acid of the stomach, without any extrication of gas, which is often a troublesome consequence when carbonat of magnesia is employed in these complaints; but unless an acid is present, or is given in the form of drink, we apprehend the calcined magnesia is far inferior to the carbonat—if indeed it is not absolutely injurious. MAGNESIA (SUB. L.) CARBONAS. A. E. Magnesia. D. Magnesia. Carbonat of Magnesia. Take of Sulphat of Magnesia, four parts; Sub-carbonat of potass, three parts.—Dissolve them separately in double their quantity of warm, water, and let the liquor be strained qr otherwise freed from their feces: then mix them, and instantly add eight times their quantity of warm water. Let the liquors boil for a little on the fire, stirring it at the same time; then let it rest till the heat be some- what diminished; after which strain it through linen: the carbo- nat of magnesia will remain upon the cloth, and it is to be washed with pure water till it become altogether void of saline taste. E. In this process there is a mutual decomposition of the two salts employed. The potass unites itself to the sulphuric acid, while the carbonic acid combines with the magnesia. The large quantit}r of water used is necessary for the solution of the sulphat of potass formed; and the boiling is indispensably requisite for the expulsion of a portion of the carbonic acid, which retains a part of the magnesia in solution. One hundred parts of crystallized carbonat of potass are sufficient for the decomposition of 125 parts of sulphat of mag- nesia; and from these quantities about 45 parts of carbonat of mag- nesia are obtained. The ablutions should be made with very pure water; for nicer purposes distilled water may be used, and soft water is in every case necessary. Hard water for this process is peculiarly inadmis- sible, as the principle in waters, giving the property called hardness, is generally a salt of lime, which decomposes the carbonat of mag- nesia, by compound affinity, giving rise to carbonat of lime, while the magnesia unites itself to the acid of the calcareous salt, by which the quantity of the carbonat is not only lessened, but is rendered impure by the admixture of carbonat of lime. Another source of impurity is the silica which the sub-carbonat of potass generally con- 388 M.—Magnesia. tains. It is most easily got rid of by exposing the alkaline solution to the air for several days before it is used. In proportion as it be- comes saturated with carbonic acid, the silica is precipitated, and may be separated by filtration. The carbonat of magnesia thus prepared, is a very light, white, opaque substance, without smell or taste, effervescing with acids. It is not, however, saturated with carbonic acid. By decomposing sul- phat of magnesia by an alkaline carbonat, without the application of heat, carbonat of magnesia is gradually deposited in transparent, brilliant, hexagonal crystals, terminated by an oblique hexagonal plane, and soluble in about 480 times its weight of water. The crys- tallized carbonat of magnesia consists of 50 acid, 25 magnesia, and 25 water; the sub-carbonat consists of 48 acid, 40 magnesia, and 12 water; and the carbonat of commerce of 34 acid, 45 magnesia, and 21 water. It is decomposed by all the acids, potass, soda, baryta, lime, and strontia, the sulphat, phosphat, nitrat, and muriat of alu- mina, and the super-phosphat of lime. A solution of super-carbonat of magnesia, prepared in imitation of the super-carbonat of soda, has been lately introduced into commerce by Mr. Murray, a surgeon of Belfast, which answers very well the purposes for which it is adapted. Medical use.—Carbonat of magnesia is principally given to correct acidity of the stomach, and in these cases to act as a purgative; for solutions of magnesia in all acids are bitter and purgative; while those of the other earths are more or less austere and astrin- gent. A large dose of magnesia, if the stomach contain no acid to dissolve it, neither purges nor produces any sensible effect: a mo- derate one, if an acid be lodged there, or if acid liquors be taken after it, procures several stools; whereas the common absorbents, in the same circumstances, instead of loosening, bind the belly. When the carbonat of magnesia meets with an acid in the stomach, there is extricated a considerable quantity of carbonic acid gas, which sometimes causes uneasy distention of the stomach, and the symptoms of flatulence. In such cases, therefore, magnesia is preferable to its carbonat; but on other occasions good effects arise from the action of the gas evolved, as in nausea and vomiting. It has of late been recommended highly, in small doses, in calculous cases. It affords great satisfaction to announce that the manufacture of this article on an extensive scale has been commenced by Mr. William Dunn, apothecary and chemist of Boston. His apparatus is connected with an extensive salt-work. He calculates to make thirty thousand pounds a year, sufficient to supply the United States and any other demand which may be made. From each gallon of bittern about five or six ounces of magnesia is obtained. When first formed it is very pure, but by exposure to the air it attracts carbonic acid; and has then all the appearance of the carbonat of magnesia of the shops. Some specimens of it have been examined, and pronounc- ed equally as pure as that imported. Connected with the apparatus, kettles are prepared for burning the carbonat to form the pure mag- nesian earth. Dr. Thomson found six per cent, of gypsum in a specimen of this M__Magnolia Glauca. 389 salt, and others have also detected this adulteration. Gypsum may be detected, by boiling a sample in distilled water, and assaying the solution by a barytic or oxalic test. Chalk, by adding dilute sulphu- ric acid to the suspected portion; if any be present, the solution will be loaded with a white and insoluble precipitate. The incompatible substances with carbonat of magnesia, are acids and acidulous salts, alkalies and neutral salts, alum, cream of tartar, nitrat of quicksilver, acetat of mercury, corrosive sublimate, super- acetat.of lead, sulphats of zinc, iron and copper. MAGNESIA SULPHAS. E. L. D. A. Sulphat of Magnesia. Epsom Salt. Bitter Purging Salt. This salt is found abundantly in some caves of Tennessee. It is also contained in several mineral springs, and also in sea water, from which it is obtained by evaporation. It crystallizes in tetrahedral prisms. It has a very bitter taste. It is soluble in its own weight of water at 60°, and three-fourths of its weight of boiling water. Sul- phat of magnesia when perfectly pure, effloresces, but that of com- merce generally contains foreign salts, such as the muriat of magne- sia, which renders it so deliquescent that it must be kept in a close vessel or bladder. By the action of heat it undergoes the watery fusion, and loses its water of crystallization, but does not part with its acid. It is decomposed by baryta, strontia, the alkalies, and all the salts formed by these salifiable bases, excepting the alkaline mu- riats; and by the nitrat, muriat, and carbonat of lime. Medical use.—It is a mild and gentle purgative, operating with sufficient efficacy,'and in general with ease and safety, rarely occa- sioning any gripes, sickness, or the other inconveniences which pur- gatives of the resinous kind are too often accompanied with. Six or eight drachms may be dissolved for a dose in a proper quantity of common water; or four, five, or more, in a pint or quart of the purging mineral waters. These liquors may likewise be so managed as to promote evacuation by the other emunctories; if the patient be kept warm, they increase perspiration; and by moderate exercise in the cool air, the urinary discharge. Some allege this salt has a pe- culiar effect in allaying pain, as in colic, even independently of eva- cuation. It is principally used for the preparation of the carbonat of mag- nesia. MAGNOLIA GLAUCA.* Small Magnolia. The Bark; also the bark of the M. Acuminata and M. Tripetala. The M. glauca, in Massachusetts, is called simply magnolia; in the middle states, swamp sassafras and beaver tree; in the southern states, sweet bay and white bay. The bark has a bitter taste, combined with an aromatic pungency approaching that of sassafras and calamus. This aroma resides in a * Pharm. U. S. secondary. 390 M.—Manganesium. volatile portion, which is lost when the bark is kept for some time. It affords a little resin and a bitter extractive substance. As a medicine, it is an aromatic tonic, approaching to cascarilla, canella, &c. It possesses the properties of a warm stimulant and diaphoretic, and has been useful in chronic rheumatism, in the form of tincture. It has also been used in the cure of intermittent and remittent fevers, as well as in the fevers of a typhoid type. Upon the whole, it will probably not be deemed necessary to re- move it from the class of secondary remedies. MALVA SYLVESTRIS. E. L. Common Mallow. Leaves and Flowers. Monadelphia Polyandria. Nat. ord. Columniferae, Linn. Malvaceae, Juss. The whole plant abounds with mucilage. The leaves were for- merly of some esteem, in food, for loosening the belly; at present, decoctions of them are sometimes employed in dysenteries, heat, and sharpness of urine, and in general for obtunding acrimonious humours; their principal use is in emollient clysters, cataplasms, and fomentations. MANGANESIUM. Manganese. Small whitish grey globules; specific gravity 6.850; very hard and very brittle; very difficult of fusion; very oxydizable by exposure to air; decomposes water rapidly; is oxydized by the sulphuric and nitric acids; burns when strongly heated in oxygen or chlorine; com- bines with many metals. According to Berzelius, it forms five oxyds, containing 1, 2, 4, 6, and 8 proportions of oxygen, to one of metal. These oxyds colour glass brown, violet, or red, and destroy the co- lour of glass coloured by iron. Manganese is found, I. Metallic. 1. Native manganese, (Perouse.) II. Oxydized. Grey ore, containing its black oxyd. 1. Foliated grey ore. 2. Radiated. 3. Compact. 4. Earthy. III. Sulphureted. The black ore. IV. Carbonated. The red ore. Manganesium. D. Black Oxyd of Manganese. This metallic oxyd is now, for the first time, introduced into the Materia Medica. It is to be regretted that the Dublin College has given as the officinal name of the oxyd, that which scientifically be- longs to the metal. The varieties of the grey ore are the most common. It is found in its greatest purity at Exeter, and at Howth near Dublin. It is chiefly used for destroying the colour which iron imparts to glass, and has M.—Manna. 391 hence been called glass-maker's soap, and for preparing the oxymu- riatic acid, now so much used in bleaching. The recent application of the same acid to the destruction of contagion, and to other medi- cal purposes, has procured the black oxyd of manganese a place in the list of the Materia Medica. One ounce and an half of this oxyd added to the cask of water, i? said to preserve it at sea. Annals of Philos. Dec. 1819. MANNA. L. D. E. A. Manna. The concrete juice of the Fraxinus Ornus, or Manna Ash. Polygamia Dicecia. Nat. ord. Sepiarix, Linn. Jasminex, Juss. Syn. Manne, (F.) Manna, (G. I.) Mana, (S.) Ms\<<*, Dioscor. Manna is obtained from other species of fraxinus besides the or- nus, and especially from the rotundifolia. It is principally collected in Calabria, Apulia and Sicily. In the warmest season of the year, from the middle of June to the end of July, a clear juice exudes from the stem and branches of these trees, which, when naturally concreted on the plants and scraped off, is called manna in the tear: but if allowed to exude on straws, or chips of wood fastened to the tree, it is called canulated or flaky manna. The common, or fat manna, is got by incisions made after the spontaneous exudation is over, and is in larger masses and of a redder colour. The best Ca- labrian manna is in oblong, light, friable pieces or flakes, of a whitish or pale yellow colour, and somewhat transparent. The inferior kinds are moist, unctuous, and dark coloured. Denon, in his travels in Sicily, has given an account of the manna produced there, which, though less known, is dearer than that of Ca- labria, and preferred to it. As soon as the trees are seven or eight years old, and about eight feet high, horizontal incisions are begun to be made in the bark one over the other, from the surface of the earth to the top of the tree. The operation is repeated every two days, from the 15th July, until the rains or fogs of autumn suspend the circulation or deteriorate the quality of the saccharine juice which exudes. The liquor first appears like a white froth extremely light, pleasing to the palate, and of a very agreeable flavour. The heat of the sun coagulates this frothy juice, and gives it the form of stalactites. The glutinous and more high coloured liquor that now distils from the wounds, is received on leaves of the Indian fig, filaced for the purpose at the foot of the tree. This too becomes at ength congealed by the sun, and being then taken up in lumps, forms what is called fat manna, which is heavier, more purgative, and of much less value. The wood of the manna-ash is hard, heavy, and bitter, and the decoction of it is said to be aperient, ahd of. great efficacy in the dropsy. Olivier mentions different kinds of manna found in Persia, one called Cherker, more purgative than Calabrian manna, got from the North of Khorassan and Little Tartary; another very good to eat, which must be* collected before sunrise, because it melts with the. heat of the sun, and a third, called Therenjabri, the product of the 392 M.—Manna. Hedysarum alagi, in the warmest provinces of Persia and Arabia. It is gathered during a month at the end of summer. It is found in all parts of the plant, especially the young shoots, in little round grains, which have the taste and consistence of well-crystallized su- gar, and like it crackle under the teeth. It is very common, and found in all the druggists' shops of Persia, but commonly mixed with leaves and other impurities. It is not more purgative than honey, but is much used as a pectoral. Manna appears often to be formed and deposited by insects. Manna is said to be sometimes counterfeited by a composition of sugar and honey, mixed with a little scammony: there is also a fac- titious manna, which is white and dry, said to be composed of sugar, manna, and some purgative ingredient, boiled to a proper consist- ence. This may be distinguished by its weight, solidity, and trans- parent whiteness, and by its taste, which is different from that of manna. According to Neumann, manna dissolves in alcohol. On setting the solution in a digesting heat, it gradually deposites 5-8ths of the manna,'of a fine white colour, light, spongy, and in some degree crystalline, melting instantly upon the tongue, and impressing an agreeable sweet taste, without any of the nauseousness of the manna. By further evaporation l-4th more is obtained, similar to manna; and on continuing the evaporation, a thick extract is formed, of the consistehce of a balsam, which can scarcely be fully exsiccated, but continues moist, and resembles civet grown brown by age. This ex- tract, which is about l-8th, contains all the nauseous matter of the manna. The experiments which Dr. Duncan has made verify these observations. The quantity of matter which a hot alcoholic solution of manna deposites on cooling is various: a saturated solution con- cretes into a perfectly dry, white, spongy, crystallized mass. When much less concentrated, it deposites a congeries of most beautiful snow white acicular crystals. A saturated solution in boiling water also forms a solid crystallized mass on cooling. Fourcroy says, that when a solution of manna is clarified with whites of eggs, and suffi- ciently concentrated, crystals of sugar may be obtained from it. But with Dr. Thomson the experiment did not succeed: its crystals were always acicular, and more difficultly formed. Medical use.—Manna is a mild agreeable laxative, and may be given with safety to children and pregnant women: nevertheless, in some particular constitutions, it acts very unpleasantly, producing flatulency, and distention of the viscera: these inconveniences may be prevented by the addition of any grateful warm aromatic. Manna operates so weakly as not to produce the full effect of a cathartic, unless taken in large doses; and hence it is rarely given by itself with this intention. It may be commodiously dissolved in the purg- ing mineral waters, or joined with the cathartic salts, senna, rhu- barb, or the like. Dose, 31 to 34 for children; |i to 52 for adults. M__Maranta. 393 MARANTA ARUNDINACEA.* Arrow Root. Fecula of the Root. This plant is a native of Jamaica and other West India Islands, and of the continent of South America. Bv a letter from Mr. E. L. M'Call, to Dr. Barton, (Philadelphia Medical and Physical Journal, vol. II.) it appears that the soil ef the southern sea-coast is well adapted to it; and, he adds, that Campbell Wylly, Esq. of Sapelo Island, in Georgia, asserted, " that a spot of land on his plantation, not remarkable for its fertility, yielded arrow-root sago in the proportion of 1480 lbs. to the acre." The extensive use of this article in the United States, in the diseases of the bowels, &c- renders this information of great importance. This plant was originally the production of the East Indies, and is now cultivated in Jamaica, and other West India islands, and in South America. Arrow root agrees with sago, salep, and tapioca in its general nutritious property, but is reckoned to excel them, so far as to afford a much larger proportion of mucilage than any ve- getable hitherto discovered. Hence it is of superior utility as an article oT diet for the sick and invalids, and particularly in cases of acrimony, either in the general habit, as in hectic fever or consump- tion; or in particular secretions, as in affections of the urinary pas- sages, namely, inflammation, stone, or gravel; and also in affections of the bowels, as in looseness and dysentery. It furnishes also an excellent remedy for the bowel complaints, which so commonly pre- vail in the United States during the warm season, especially among children. The jelly is made by adding to a table-spoonful of the powdered root as much cold water as will make it into a soft paste, then pour on boiling water, stirring it at the same time briskly, until it become a clear jelly, which may be seasoned with sugar and nut- meg, or a little wine or lemon juice may be added. For children it may be prepared with milk, and if it ferment on the stomach, the addition of a little animal jelly will obviate that effect. Prepared in the form of pudding, the arrow root powder is far preferable to any of the farinaceous substances; and affords a delicate and very proper food for convalescent patients. According ti\ Dr. Wright, of Jamaica, a decoction of the fresh root makes an excellent ptisan in acute diseases. In a pamphlet published in 1796, by Mr. T. Ri- der, we find the culture of this valuable article highly recommended to the West Indian planters, and the new African colonists, as an object of commerce, and the most eligible substitute for starch made of wheat. By the author's computation eight millions of pounds weight of starch are made annually in Great Britain alone from that valuable grain. It appears also by the same authority that arrow root starch is of the finest quality, and that one pound of it is equal to two pounds and a half of that prepared from wheat. Fortunately the arrow root has of late years been introduced into the States of South Carolina and Georgia, and by practical experiment it is ascer- tained that the soil of the southern sea-coast is well adapted to it. John Cooper, Esq. an opulent planter on St. Simon\ and CampbeP * Maranta, Pharni. TT.' S. =51 394 M.—Mel. Wylly, Esq. of Sapelo Island, have, it is understood, so far suc- ceeded in their attempts, as to afford the most flattering encourage- ment, that this important article may be added to the numerous sources of wealth enjoyed by our southern planters. No produc- tion, it is presumed, can promise a more ample remuneration, to stimulate the planter to attempt its cultivation; and when it is con- sidered, that, in proportion to the produce, the demand will be ex- tended, its claim as a rival staple with rice and cotton may, perhaps, be anticipated. MARRUBIUM. L. (Vulgare. E. D.*) (White) Horehound. The Herb, the Leaves. Didynamia Gymnospermia. Nat. ord. Verticillatae, Linn. Labiatae, Juss. This is a perennial plant, which grows wild on road sides, and among rubbish. The leaves have a very strong, not disagreeable smell, and a roughish, very bitter taste. Neumann got from 480 grains, 270 watery, and 30 alcoholic extract, and inversely 150 al- coholic, and 140 watery. They promote the fluid secretions in ge- neral, and liberally taken, loosen the belly. MEL. E. L. D. A.—HONEY. Sun. Miel, (F. S.) Gemeiner Honig, (G.) Mele, (I.) Ussub, (Ar.) Medhu, (H. San.) . . This is a well known substance, and although it is most probably of vegetable origin, we do not procure it in any quantity except as an animal excretion, from the bee, (apis mellifica.) This industrious insect, in the summer time, flies from flower to flower to collect the sweet juice secreted in them. When sufficiently loaded, it returns to its hive, where it deposits it, as a winter's supply, in the cells of the comb it had prepared of wax to receive it. What change it un- dergoes in the body of the insect is unknown; but it is certain that honey varies very much, according to the nature of the plants from which it is collected. In some situations, where poisonous plants abound, it is even deleterious. The best honey is that which is freest from colour, and contains the largest grains when it concretes. For medical use, it should also be as free of flavour as possible. That obtained from young bees, and which flows spontaneously from the combs, is the purest and finest, and is known by the name of virgin honey. When separated from the wax by expression, it is less pure; and there is another sort still inferior, obtained by heating the combs before they are put into the press. Honey consists principally of sugar, but it also probably contains mucilage and an acid, and is often impregnated with the essential oil of the flowers from which the bees have gathered it, as in the perfumed honey of the Crimea. In some parts of Asia and America, poisonous honey is met with, from the bees feeding on poisonous * Marrubium, Pharm. U, S. f Secondary.J M._-Mel. 395 flowers. Neumann exsiccated honey in the water bath; the vapour which arose, he says, took fire on the approach of a candle, and dif- fused its smell widely, and the liquor which was condensed was manifestly impregnated, both with the smell and taste of honey, and amounted to three ounces upon eight of honey. Dissolved in water, it undergoes the vinous fermentation, forming mead. Treated with alcohol, Proust says it may be separated into two kinds, one liquid, and the other crystalline. Cavellazzi obtained crystals of sugar from it, by saturating its acid with carbonat of lime; and it is converted into oxalic acid by the action of nitric acid. Medical use.'—From the earliest ages it has been employed as a medicine. Besides the general properties of saccharine bodies, it possesses others peculiar to itself, probably depending on the pre- sence of an acid. For internal use, sugar is always to be preferred, as honey in some constitutions, produces gripes and colic pains. From its stimulus however, it forms an excellent gargle, and facili- tates the expectoration of viscid phlegm, and is sometimes em- ployed as an emollient application to abscesses, and as a detergent to ulcers. MELLITA—PREPARED HONEYS. MEDICATED HONEYS. Mel Despumatum. L. D. A. Clarified Honey. Melt the honey in a water bath, and remove the scum as it rises. L- In this simple process, the honey is rendered so liquid by the heat of the boiling water, that the wax, and other lighter impurities, which it commonly contains, rise to the surface in the form of a scum, which is easily removed. At the same time, sand, or any heavier mixture of that kind, sinks to the bottom. Honey was supposed to be peculiarly balsamic, and was therefore at one time much used in pharmacy. But as its saccharine matter is absolutely of the same nature With that, of sugar, and as the extra- neous matters which it always contains, make it disagree with the stomachs of many individuals, the number of medicated honeys has been much diminished, and their place in some instances supplied by syrups. Medicated honeys are known to be of a proper consistence, by allowing a small quantity to cool on a plate, if when divided by the edge of a spoon, the portions do not immediately unite, or if the specific gravity when hot, be 1.26, or 1.31, when cold. Oxymel. D. E. Oxymel Simplex. L. Oxymel. Simple Oxymel. Take of Honey, two pounds; Distilled vinegar, one pound by weight. —Boil in a glass vessel with a gentle fire to the consistency of a syrup, skimming it. This was once in great repute as a cooling and attenuating medi- cine: it is scarcely used in modern practice, except in colds attend- ed with coughs, and in sore throats, for which, when diluted with some aromatic or astringent infusion, as sage tea, rose-flowrer tea. &c. it makes useful gargles. 396 M.—Mel. Mel Boracis. L. Mel Sub-boratis Sod^. E. Honey of Borax. Take of Sub-borat of soda, powdered, one drachm; Clarified honey, one ounce.—'Mix them. L. This is an useful formula, much employed as a detergent in aphthae and ulcers of the mouth. Oxymel Colchici. D. Oxymel of Meadow Saffron. Take of the fresh root of Meadow saffron, cut into thin slices, one ounce; Distilled vinegar, one pint; Clarified honey, two pounds. —-Macerate the root of meadow saffron, with the vinegar in a glass vessel, with a gentle heat, for forty-eight hours. Strain the liquor, pressed Out strongly from the root, and add the honey. Lastly, boil the mixture, frequently stirring it with a wooden spoon to the thickness of a syrup. This is an active preparation, but its use may be entirely super- seded by the syrup of the same root. Mel Ros«. D. L. Honey of Roses. Take of dried Red-rose petals, four ounces; Boiling water, three pints; Clarified honey, five pounds.—Macerate the rose leaves in the water for six hours; then mix the honey with the strained li- quor, and boil the mixture to the thickness of a syrup. L. This preparation is not unfrequently used as a mild cooling de- tergent, particularly in gargarisms for ulcerations and inflammation of the mouth and tonsils. The rose-buds here used should be hastily dried, that they may the better preserve their astringency. The Dublin College, in making this and other similar prepara- tions, use unclarified hpney, with the idea, probably, that it may be equally well clarified in the course of the preparation itself. This is no doubt true, but as We do not know what effect the clarification may have on the active substances added to the honey, we think that the use of clarified honey, as directed by the London College, is preferable. Oxymel Scillje. L. D.* Acetated Honey of Squill. Oxymel of Squills. Take of Clarified honey, three pounds; Vinegar of squill, two pints. —Boil them down, in a glass vessel, to a proper consistence, over a gentle fire. L. « The dose, one to three drachms; in larger amount it proves emetic. Syrupus SciLL-E CoMPOSITUS.t Compound Syrup of Squill; vulgo, Hive Syrup. Take of Seneka snake root, bruised, Squills, dried and bruised, of each half a pound; Water, eight pounds.—Boil together over a * Mel Scills Acetatum, Pharm. U. S. f Mel Scillae Compositum. Compound Honey of Squill. Pharm. U. S. M.—Mel. 397 slow fire, till the water is half consumed—strain off the liquor, and then add of strained honey, four pounds.—Boil tlie honey and the strained liquor to six pounds, or to the consistence of a syrup, and add to every pound of this syrup, sixteen grains of tartar emetic; that is, one grain to the ounce. The dose varies from ten drops to one or more tea-spoonsful, every quarter, half, or one hour, according to the age of the patient, or the violence of the disease. It operates by purging, vomiting, and sweat. This is an original prescription of my own, and adopted by our Pharmacopoeia, which takes only half the amount of ingredients; I am persuaded from very sufficient experience, that it is better made in proportion to the amount formed at once. This article, as sold in the shops, is not what it ought to be, not being boiled down suffici- ently, nor adequately depurated from its feces by standing. When properly made, it is not disgusting to children, but as commonly sold, it is very much so. In consequence of the great inattention to its preparation, I have induced one of my sons, Dr. Edward Jenner Coxe, to prepare and keep it constantly on hand, for those who may require it. I here insert the original notice I gave respecting it in the Ame- rican Medical Museum. " From the misfortune of having all my children, seven in number, from their birth, subject to attacks of trachitis or the hives, I found it very necessary to turn my particular attention to that disease. All the common remedies, as syrup of squills, decoctions of seneka, &c. having been found of little advantage; at length I fell upon the plan of combining the virtues of the remedies most celebrated, into the form of syrup, which I denominated hive syrup. As I have been frequently asked for it, by those who have in their families experienced its effi- cacy, I have here given the receipt, which will enable every one at a trifling expense to prepare it for themselves as a domestic medicine. It is far superior to every other form of hive syrup I have ever tried, and is equally superior to them in common colds, whooping cough, and those other complaints for which syrup of squills, &c. are so constantly employed. I may add, that as it sometimes ferments in the hot months, all that is necessary is merely to boil it down a little, which prevents the continuance of the fermentative process, without diminishing the efficacy of the remedy." Oxymel (Linimentum. L.) ^Eruginis. D. Oxymel or Liniment of Verdigris. Take of Prepared verdigris, one ounce; Vinegar, seven ounces; Cla rifled honey, fourteen ounces.—Dissolve the verdigris in the vine- gar, and strain it through linen; then add the honey, and boil the whole to a proper thickness. This is used only externally for cleansing foul ulcers, and keeping down fungous flesh. It is also often serviceable in venereal ulcera- tions of the mouth and tonsils: but there is some danger from its ap- plication to places from the situation of which it is apt to be swal- 398 M.—Melissa Officinalis. lowed; for even a small quantity of verdigris passing into the stomach may be productive of distressing, if not deleterious effects. MELALEUCA LEUCADENDRON. E. D. Melaleuca Cajuputi. L. Broad-leaved Cajeput Tree. The essential Oil. Cajeput Oil. Polyadelphia Icosandria. Nat. ord. Hesperidae, Linn. Myrti, Juss. The tree which furnishes the cajeput oil is frequent on the moun- tains of Amboyna, and the other Molucca islands. Drs. Maton and Smith have lately examined specimens of this tree, which correspond with Rumphius, tab. 17, vol. ii.; and, as an unclassified species, have named it Melaleuca cajuputi. But, as Thunberg says, it is got from the leucadendron, perhaps both species yield it. Indeed, Rum- phius himself would lead us to the same opinion. The oil is obtained by distillation from the dried leaves, and is prepared in great quan- tities, especially in the island of Banda, and sent to Holland in cop- per flasks. As it comes to us, it is of a green colour, very limpid, lighter than water, of a strong smell, resembling camphor, anda strong, pungent taste, like that of cardamoms. It burns entirely away, with- out leaving any residuum. It is often adulterated with other essen- tial oils, coloured with the resin of milfoil. In the genuine oil, the green colour depends on the presence of copper; for, when rectified, it is colourless. Medical use.— Like other aromatic oils it is highly stimulating, and is principally recommended in hysteria, epilepsy, flatulent colic, and paralysis of the tongue. The dose is from one to four drops on a lump of sugar. It is applied externally where a warm and peculiar stimulus is re- quisite; and is employed for restoring vigour after luxations and sprains, and for easing violent pain in gouty and rheumatic cases, in tooth-ache, and similar affections. MELISSA OFFICINALIS. E. Balm. The Herb. Didynamia Gymnospermia. Nat. ord. Verticillatae, Linn. Labiatae, Juss. Syn. Melisse, (F. G.) Melissa, (I.) Balsamina, (S.) M.i\io-trona;er preparation of the collyrium of sulphat of zinc! 408 M.—Moschus. Enema Catharticum. D. Purging Clyster. Take of Manna, one ounce.—Dissolve in ten ounces, by measure, of Compound decoction of chamomile; then add of Olive oil, one ounce; Sulphat of magnesia, half an ounce.—Mix them. Enema Fo;tidum. D. Fetid Enema. Is made by adding to the former two drachms of the tincture of assa- foetida. These are very useful extemporaneous preparations. MORUS NIGRA. L. Mulberry Tree. The Fruit. This tree, which is supposed to have come originally from Persia, bears the cold of the winters, and ripens its fruits in England. The fruit has the same properties with other sub-acid fruits. Its juice contains tartaric acid. MOSCHUS. E. L. D. A. Musk. The musk animal, Moschus moschiferus, is an inhabitant of the most elevated region of Asia, particularly of the Altayan Alps, and the mountains which divide Thibet from China. It is a gentle and timid animal, and its chase is difficult and dangerous. Its general form resembles the deer tribe, and it is about three feet in length. In the male, behind the navel and before the prepuce, there is situated an oval bag, flat on one side and convex on the other, about three inches long and two broad, projecting about an inch, and having a small open orifice, beset with short hairs, which is empty in the young animal, but in the adult is filled with a secreted matter, known by the name of musk. When the bag becomes too full, the animal ex- presses part of its contents by rubbing itself against stones or trees. The musk expressed in this manner is said to be the purest, but none of it probably reaches this country. The best musk is brought from Tonquin, an inferior sort from Agria and Bengal, and a still worse from Russia. Fine musk comes to us in round thin bladders, which are generally / about the size of a pigeon's egg, covered with short brown hairs, lined with a thin brown membrane, well filled, and without any appear- ance of haying been opened. The musk itself is dry, with a kind of unctuosity, of a dark reddish brown, or rusty blackish colour, in small round grains, with very few hard black clots, and perfectly free from sandy or other visible foreign matter. If chewed and rubbed with a knife on paper, it looks smooth, bright, yellowish, and is free from grittiness. Laid on a red-hot iron, it catches flame, and burns almost entirely away, leaving only an exceeding small quantity of light greyish ashes. The largest and fullest bag scarcely contains more than two drachms of musk. Its taste is somewhat bitterish, and its smell extremely powerful and peculiar. Neumann got from 30 grains of musk, 12 of watery M.—Moxa. 409 and 4 of alcoholic extract; and inversely, 10 of alcoholic and 6 of watery. Its smell and taste were elevated in distillation with water, but not with alcohol. Neither the fixed nor volatile oils dissolved it. The very great price of musk has given rise to many modes of adulterating it. To increase its weight, sand, and even particles of lead, are introduced through very small openings into the bags. The real musk is frequently abstracted from the bag, and its place sup- plied with dry and coarsely powdered blood, or some mixture with asphaltum. These adulterations are to be detected by discovering that the bag has been opened. The presence of blood is also known by the fetid smell it emits when heated sufficiently, and by the for- mation of ammonia when rubbed with potass. Asphaltum is known by its shining fracture and melting on hot iron, while musk is con- verted into charcoal. But there are even artificial bags filled with a composition containing some real musk. These are in general thicker, and covered with longer hair, and want the internal brown mem- brane which lines the real musk-bag. Medical use.—-Musk is by many still believed to be a medicine of very great efficacy, and for which, in some cases, there is hardly any substitute. When properly administered, it sometimes succeeds in the most desperate circumstances. It raises the pulse, without heating much; it allays spasms, and operates remarkably on the brain, increasing the powers of thought, sensation, and voluntary motion. It is, however, generally prescribed in combination with the most powerful stimuli! It may be employed in every instance of typhus fever, especially when attended with delirium, or spasmodic affection of any particu- lar organ, or of the whole system, or subsultus tendinum, &c. It is also used with the greatest benefit in exanthematous and phlegmonic diseases, accompanied with typhoid fever; and in many spasmodic affections, as chincough, epilepsy, trismus, &c. It is most conveniently given in substance in powder, in doses of three grains or upwards, repeated every one or two hours. Its best preparation is the tincture. Chemical Composition.—Resin combined with volatile oil, and a mucilaginous extractive matter, with small portions of albumen, ge- latine, muriat of ammonia and phosphat of soda. The best form of exhibition is that of bolus, combined with am- monia, camphor, or some similar remedy. The musk mixture of the London College, in which it is followed by our Pharmacopoeia, has not a sufficient quantity of gum in its composition to retain the musk in suspension; it requires five times its weight of mucilage for that purpose. Dose, from ten to thirty grains. MOXA. The Egyptians by the application of fire, seem to have cured dis- eases which have latterly been deemed incurable. The Chinese still greatly employ fire in the treatment of disease—red hot iron and moxa are employed by them. This last is a woolly kind of substance or down, of a species of mugwort; of this small cones are formed,. 410 M.—Moxa. about an inch broad at the base. In using it, a cone is attached to the skin by means of a little gum arabic; fire is put to the top, the ignition gradually descends, and reaches the skin, which it burn-* like the actual cautery, but as some say, with less pain. If this first burning is insufficient, a second, third, or more, are repeated. Smaller cones are also made, scarcely larger than a pea, intended for weak and delicate people; the effect is proportionably feeble. The sore is commonly dressed with basilicon. By these means, which are universal throughout the East, the in- habitants are enabled to cure the most obstinate rheumatic, gouty, or other pains; dispel apoplexy, epilepsy, and other diseases, which are curable by powerful and prompt revulsion.* The place of moxa maybe readily supplied by cotton, flax, hemp, the pith of elder, sunflower, &c. For a long time the employment of moxa seems to have been for- gotten in Europe. It was, however, formerly employed, and has, within a few years, been again taken up. In the Quarterly Journal for Foreign Medicine and Surgery, No. 8, October, 1820, several cases are related of its employment, as, of rickets attended by lateral curvature of the spine, chronic ophthalmia, chronic pulmonary ca- tarrh, rheumatic sciatica, and other rheumatic pains, facial neural- gia and maxillo-dental neuralgia, all of which were cured by its ap- plication. In the London Medical Repository, Nov. 1820, we have also se- veral instances of its efficacy in chronic phlegmasia of the respira- tory organs. In the Journal Generale de Medicine, Jan. 1821, we have also a case, in which one of the abdominal extremities, had by violent spasmodic contractions, been shortened more than an inch. Moxa applied on the ilium of the diseased side, succeeded in re- moving the complaint. And in the Journal Complementaire of the same date, is a case of general palsy, cured by its application. Baron Larrey, in the Recueil de Memoires de Cnirurgie, 1821. has given a memoir on the use of moxa. After a description of it, and the mode of application, its properties are descanted on, and its peculiar advantages over the actual cautery. The effects of the latter are said to be confined to the spot to which it is applied, un- less that be of considerable extent and duration, which is sometimes dangerous, very painful, and apt to destroy the sub-cutaneous nerves, Sic. of which instances are given, and the contrast drawn is highly favourable to the moxa. The moxa requires frequent repetitions at intervals of several days. He cites a great number of diseases in which he had seen its efficacy established, and others in which.no benefit had accrued. Its most astonishing effects were obvipus in scrofulous diseases, or such as are considered as the results of a scrofulous taint, phthisis, diseased spine, disease of the hip joint, &c. and he employed it with marked advan- tage in chronic and organie affections of the abdominal viscera. This work of Larrey's was translated into English by Mr. Dungli- son; it is reviewed in the London Medical Repository, September, 1822, where it is highly spoken of. He gives particular instructions * Lieutaud, Mat. Med. 2, 148. M.—Mucilagines. 411 how it is to be employed. Moxa is not to be applied on those parts where tendons or important organs are near the skin; the pain of its application is said to be instantly relieved by the application of liquor ammonias; not more than one or two cylinders should be applied at the same time. Besides its use, the best general treatment for each disease, is to be conjoined. We are informed that the moxas used by Baron Percy are made of the stalk of the great sunflower, steeped in a solution of nitre, and afterwards well dried: cotton, it is added, steeped in nitre answers the purpose very well. It would on the whole, appear, that as a counter-irritant, moxa is a valuable addition to our external applications, and it is to be de- sired that American practitioners should endeavour to ascertain more fully its actual merits, by their own experimental pursuits on the subject. $CT* References for Moxa.—Intelligencer, I. 31, 310, 362.—IL 190, 372.—III. 49, 433, 560, 578. Kaempfer, amoen. exot. MUCILAGINES.—MUCILAGES. Mucilago Amyli. D. E. L. Mucilage of Starch. Take of Starch, half an ounce; Water, one pound.—Triturate the starch, gradually adding the water; then boil them a little. The mucilage thus formed is very useful in those cases where a glutinous substance is required; it is often successfully employed as a clyster, in diarrhoeas depending on acrimony in the intestines. Mucilago Astragali Tragacanthje. E. Mucilago Gummi Tragacanthje. D. Mucilage of Gum Tragacanth. Take of Tragacanth, half an ounce; Distilled water, ten ounces by measure.—Macerate them with a gentle heat, till the tragacanth be dissolved. Gum Tragacanth is difficultly soluble in water. When macerated in it, it swells, but does not dissolve. To effect the solution it must be beaten into a paste with some of the water; and the rest of the water must be added gradually, and incorporated with the paste by beating them together. Gum tragacanth is a very tenacious sub- stance, and requires a very large proportion of water to form a fluid mucilage. Mucilago Acacia. L. Mucilago Acaci-e Arabics. E. Mucilago Gummi Arabici. D. Mucilage of Gum Arabic. Take of Gum Arabic, in powder, one part; Boiling water, two parts. —Digest with frequent agitation until the gum be dissolved; then pass the mucilage through linen. It is very necessary to pass the mucilage through linen, in order to free it from pieces of wood and other impurities, which always ad here to the gum, the linen may be placed in a funnel. 412 31—Murias. Mucilage of gum arabic is very useful in many operations in pharmacy; it is also much used for properties peculiar to those sub- stances of its own class, and of all the gums it seems to be the purest. The incompatible substances with this mucilage, are strong acids and alcohol, sulphuric ether, tincture of muriated iron, sub-acetat of lead, volatile alkali, hard calcareous waters. Gum arabic contains an astringent principle, which is capable of decomposing some of the metallic salts; thus, ten grains of nitrat of silver are decomposed by two drachms of gum arabic. The pharmaceutical use of this mucilage depends upon its ren- dering expressed and essential oils, balsams, resins, gum-resins, re- sinous tinctures and fatty bodies, miscible with water, but if a syrup be added, the union will be more perfect; the proportions necessary vary according to the nature of the substance; thus, oils require about three-fourths of their weight, balsams and spermaceti an equal part, resins a double quantity, and musk five times its weight. Decoctum Cydoni^e. L. Decoction of Quince Seeds. Take of Quince seeds, two drachms; Water, one pound.—Boil with a slow fire for ten minutes; then pass it through linen. L. This mucilage, though sufficiently agreeable, is perfectly super- fluous, especially as it is apt to spoil, from being mixed with the other principles of the seeds soluble in water. It is besides never so transparent as mucilage carefully prepared from gum arabic, is not cheaper, and is unfit for many purposes, being coagulated by acids. MURIAS.—MURIA T. Muriat is the generic term for those secondary compounds which contain muriatic acid. The muriats have a more or less pure salt taste. They are not acted upon by any combustible body. They are all soluble in water, and are the most volatile and most difficultly decomposed by heat of the neutral salts. They emit white fumes with the sulphuric acid, and oxy-muriatic acid gas, (chlorine,) with the nitric. The officinal muriats are those of ammonia, soda, baryta, lime, mercury and an- timony. According to Davy's view of muriatic acid and chlorine, the first only is a muriat, the others are chlorides of the respective metals. The muriats may be divided into three families: 1. Alkaline muriats, soluble in water, fusible and vaporizable without decomposition, forming no precipitate with alkaline car- bonats. 2. Earthy muriats, soluble in water in general, decomposable by heat, forming a white precipitate with alkaline carbonats. 3. Metalline muriats. The muriatic acid is capable of combining with many metals, in two states of oxydizement. The muriats which M.—Murias. 413 contain the metal in the state of protoxyd, are in general very acrid, and soluble both in water and alcohol. The muriats which contain the metal in the state of peroxyd are often insoluble, have a white colour, and contain an excess of base, or are sub-muriats. The mu- riats are also the most volatile metalline salts, and often rise unde- composed in sublimation or distillation. ACIDUM MURIATICUM. E. L. D. A. Muriatic Acid. Hydrochloric Acid. Take of Dried muriat of soda, two pounds; Sulphuric acid, by weight, twenty ounces; Distilled water, a pint and a half—First mix the acid with half a pint of the water in a glass retort, and add to the mixture after cooling the muriat of soda. Pour the rest of the water into the receiver; then, having fitted on the retort, distil the muriatic acid over into this water, with the heat of a sand bath, gradually increased until the retort become red. The specific gravity of this acid is 1160 to distilled water at 1000. 100 grains of this acid are saturated by 124 of crystals of sub-car- bonat of soda. L. If a piece of limestone be put into a fluid ounce of this acid dilut- ed with water, 220* grains should be dissolved. In this process the muriat of soda is decomposed, and the muria- tic acid disengaged by the superior affinity of the sulphuric acid. But as muriatic acid is a permanently elastic fluid, the addition of the water is absolutely necessary for its existence in a fluid form. The London and Edinburgh Colleges put a portion of water into the receiver, for the purpose of absorbing the muriatic acid gas, which is first disengaged, and which would otherwise be lost for want of wa- ter to condense it: the Dublin College, however, orders the whole of the water to be previously mixed with the sulphuric acid; and it is indispensably necessary that the mixture of acid and water be allowed to cool before it be added to the salt; for the heat produced is so great, that it would not only endanger the breaking of the re- tort, but occasion considerable loss and inconvenience, by the sud- den disengagement of muriatic acid gas. Dr. Powell thinks it is an improvement to add the salt to the diluted acid, but it is less conve- nient. Mr. Phillips has given us a tabular view of the results of the pro- cesses of the London Pharmacopoeias, 1809 and 1787, and of a mo- dification of the latter. Mur. Sulpb. Water. Cost. Product. Sp.gr. Marble. soda. acid. decomp. 1787 . . . 35 . . 21 . . 17.5 . . 56 . . 29.75 . . 1.188 . . 15.09. Modif. . . 35 . . 21 . . 22. . . 56 . . 35. . . 1.174 . . 16.43. 1809 . . . 32 . . 24 . . 39.4 . . 56 . . 43.68 . . 1.142 . . 17.16. It may be observed, that, according to these experiments, the new process does not produce an acid nearly of the strength ordered by the college, its specific gravity being 1.142 instead of 1.160, and the fluid ounce decomposing only 204 instead of 220 grains of marble, * 204 grains only according to Thomson, Lond. Disp. p. 571. 414 M—Murias. while muriatic acid from Apothecaries' Hall is of specific gravity 1.158. The difference of strength from the statement in the edition 1809 was greater, as the specific gravity was said to be 1.170, and the solvent power 240; it may now-be accounted for by some varia- tion in the manipulation, especially as Dr. Powell quotes the present statement as the result of experiment. At any rate, the new process is more economical, as at a given expense it produces a greater sol- vent power.1 The muriat of soda, which should be of the kind called Bay Salt, is directed by Dublin and Edinburgh to be heated to redness, before it be introduced into the retort, that the whole of the water of crys- tallization may be expelled, which being variable in quantity, would otherwise affect the strength of the acid produced; and besides, with- out this precaution, the acid obtained is too high coloured. The London College use the salt dried but not decrepitated. The charge should not occupy more than half the body of the re- tort; and if a common retort and receiver be employed for this dis- tillation, they must not be luted perfectly close, for if any portion of the gas should not be absorbed by the water employed, it must be allowed to escape; but the process will be performed with greater economy, and perfect safety, in a Woulfe's, or some similar appara- tus. The muriatic acid gas, on its condensation, gives out, accord- ing to Dr. Powell, a considerable heat, so that it is necessary to keep the receiver cooled during the process. The residuum in the retort consists principally of sulphat of soda, which may be purified by solution, and crystallization; and to save the retort, Dr. Powell directs it to be filled with boiling water, after the process is over, and it has cooled down to 212°. If properly prepared, the muriatic acid is perfectly colourless, and possesses the other properties already enumerated; but in the shops it is very seldom found pure. It almost always contains iron, and very frequently sulphuric acid or copper. The copper is detected by the blue colour produced by super-saturating the acid with am- monia, the iron by the black or blue precipitate formed with tinc- ture of galls or prussiat of potass. The sulphuric acid may be easily got rid of by re-distilling the acid from a small quantity of dried muriat of soda. But Mr. Hume discovered, that muriat of baryta is precipitated when poured into pure muriatic acid, from the acid at- tracting the water of the salt. Medical use.—In its effects on the animal economy, and the mode of its employment, it coincides with the acids already mentioned, which almost proves, that they do not act by oxygenizing the sys- tem. On the contrary, according to Sir H. Davy's view of its con- stitution, it contains no oxygen, and can only act chemically by im- parting chlorine or hydrogen to the system, or withdrawing from it oxygen or some other principle which has an affinity for chlorine or hydrogen. Acidum Muriaticum Dilutum. D. Diluted Muriatic Acid. Take of Muriatic acid, Distilled water, each one pound.—Mix. One hundred parts contain about fourteen of real acid. The specific gravity is 1080. M.—Murias. 415 This diluted acid of a fixed strength, is convenient for apportion- in"- its dose; and as it is now introduced by the Dublin College, it is to be hoped that the same proportions will be adhered to by the others. Table of the quantity of real Acid in 100 parts of Liquid Muriatic Acid, at the temperature of 60°. Dalton. Atoms. Acid. Water. 1 1 1 1 1 1 I 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 I 1 1 1 1 I 1 1 + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + ■ + + + + + + 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 20 25 30 40 50 100 200 Acid per cent, by weight. 73.3 57.9 47.8 40.7 35.5 31.4 28.2 25.6 23.4 21.6 20.0 18.7 17.5 16.4 15.5 12.1 9.91 8.40 6.49 5.21 2.65 1.36 Acid per cent, by measure. 71.7? SO. 5 27.5 25.2 Specific gravity. 23 21 19 18 17 13 10.65 8.93 6.78 5.39 2.70 1.37 1.50 1.199 1.181 1.166 1.154 1.144 1.136 1.127 1.121 1.094 1.075 1.064 1.047 1.035 1.018 1.009 Boiling Point. 60°. 120 145 170 190 212 217 222 228 232 228 225 222 219 216 214 Table of the quantity of Muriatic Acid Gas in solutions of different Specific Gravities. Sir H. Davy. At temperature 45° Fahrenheit Barometer 30. 100 parts of solu- tion of muriatic acid gas in water, of specific gravity 1.21 1.20* 1.19 1.18 1.17 1.16 1.15 1.14 1.13 1.12 1,11* Of muriatic ack) gas, parts 42.43 40.80 38.38 36.36 34.34 32.32 30.30 28.28 26.26 24.24 22.3 At temperature 45° Fahrenheit. Barometer 30. - 100 parts of solu- tion of muriatic acid gas in water, of specific gravity 1.10 1.09 1.08 1.07 1.06 1.05 1.04 1.03 1.02 1.01 Of muriatic acid gas, pai'ts 20.20 18.18 a 16.16 +j 14.14 o 12.12 10.10 8.08 6.06 4.04 2.02 416 M__Murias. Aqua Alcalina Oxymuriatica. D. Oxymuriatic Alkaline Water. Take of Dried muriat of soda, two pounds; Manganese, in powder, one pound; Water, Sulphuric acid, each two pounds.—Mix the muriat of soda and manganese; put them into a matrass, and pour on the water. Then, by means of a proper apparatus, add the sul- phuric acid gradually, and at different times, and pass the gas thus extricated through a solution of four ounces of carbonat of potass, in twenty-nine ounces, by measure, of water. Towards the end of the operation, heat the matrass moderately. The specific gravity is 1087. This is commonly considered as a solution of the oxygenated muriat of potass; the oxymuriatic acid is disengaged in the matrass by the action of the sulphuric acid on the muriat of soda, and black oxyd of manganese, which latter furnishes the additional dose of oxygen to the muriatic acid disengaged from the former; and the oxymuriatic acid gas thus formed, readily combines with the potass of the solution of the alkaline salt, through which it is made to pass while the carbonic acid is expelled. But, according to Sir Humphrey Davy, this is a combination of chlorine with potass: the hydrogen of the muriatic acid in the muriat of soda combining with the oxygen of the black oxyd of manganese, the chlorine is set at liberty, and combines with the potass dissolved in the water through which it is made to pass. Oxymuriat of potass in solution was some years ago strongly re- commended as an antisyphilitic remedy, and its use extended to other cutaneous diseases, and finally to fever and spasmodic dis- eases, as a general stimulant. It was given in the dose of from three to ten grains, four times a day, gradually increasing to 25 or 30. At the time, many singular cures performed by means of it were re- corded, but it has fallen into disuse, and we do not now hear of its employment; although its introduction so lately into the Dublin Pharmacopoeia would lead us to presume that it is still used in Ire- land. It sometimes acted as a diuretic, always as a stimulant; and it is singular, that in some cases, in which it produced little or no effect, it passed off undecomposed in the urine. In these cases Mr. Cruickshank proposed to remedy the defect, by giving, after each dose, 10 or 15 drops of muriatic acid. Aqua Oxymuriatica. D. Oxymuriatic Water. Is prepared by transmitting, in a proper apparatus, the superfluous gas of the preceding process through a pint of water. The specific gravity is 1003. The oxygenated muriatic acid was also, when the chemical patho- logy was fashionable, recommended as an antisyphilitic remedy, and it certainly seemed, in some instances, to effect cures, but it has since been laid aside. Mr. Braithwaitealso recommended it strong- ly in scarlatina. He gave, according to the age of the patient, from half a drachm to a drachm, in the course of the day, mixed with eight ounces of distilled water; but it is advisable to divide it into doses, in different phials, as it loses every time the phial is opened, and it should be kept in a dark place. Dr. Willan confirms its use M.—Musica. 417 in cynanche maligna. The vapours of this powerfully decomposing acid have been recommended by Morveau as the best means of destroy- ing contagion. As, however, they are deleterious to animal life, they cannot be employed in every situation. Where applicable, they are easily disengaged by mixing together ten parts of muriat of soda, and two parts of black oxyd of manganese in powder, and pouring upon the mixture, first four parts of water, and then six parts of sulphuric acid. Fumes of oxygenized muriatic acid (chlorine) are immediately disengaged. Morveau has since contrived what he calls Dis-infecting or Pre- servative phials. If intended to be portable, 46 grains of black oxyd • of manganese, in coarse powder, are to be put into a strong glass phial, of about 2s cubic inches capacity, with an accurately ground stopper, to which must be added about T^ of a cubic inch of nitric acid of 1.4 specific gravity, and an equal bulk of muriatic acid of 1.134; the stopper is then to be replaced, and the whole secured by inclosing the phial in a strong wooden case, with a cap which screws down so as to keep the stopper in its place. They are used by simply opening the phial without approaching it to the nose, and shuttingit as soon as the smell of the muriatic gas is perceived. A phial of this kind, if properly prepared, will preserve its power during many years. For small wards, strong bottles, with ground stoppers an inch m diameter, of about 25 or 27 cubic inches of capacity, may be used, with 372 grains of the oxyd, and 3.5 inches of each of the acids, and the stopper kept in its place by leaden weights; or for larger wards, very strong glass jars, about 43 cubic inches in capacity, containing an ounce of the oxyd, and six inches of each of the acids. These jars are to be covered with a plate of glass, adjusted to them by grinding with emery, and kept in its place by a screw. In no case is the mixture to occupy more than one-third of the vessel. MUSICA.—MUSIC. " Music, as acalmant or anodyne, (says Lieutaud, 1. 621.) has the faculty of diminishing the impetuous motion of the animal spirits— of moderating the passions, of rendering pain more supportable, and of procuring sleep. We see by the writings of the ancients that they were not unacquainted with this agreeable mode of calming the spirits; for according to Pindar and Galen, they not only employed instruments, but likewise singing in the treatment of disease; hence music has been called Incantatio Morborum. According to Plato, the gods have given us music, not solely for pleasing the ears, but also to calm and regulate the passions of the mind by its charms. Music, he adds, regulates our conduct, and moderates anger, and this power is shown by what Homer says, that Achilles was accus- tomed to assuage his anger, by playing*on the harp. Whoever has read the sacred scriptures, knows, that Saul, in his periods of in- sanity, was cured by the soft and melodious sounds of the harp. It was by the skilful use ofnnusic, that Xenocrates and Asclepiades cured frenzy and folly, and that Clineas, a celebrated Persian phi- 418 M.—Myristica. losopher, moderated and terminated accessions of rage. Pythagoras employed the Dorien music to restore those who had lost their em- pire over their senses, and of drunken people who exceeded the bounds of prudence. Who does not admire the sagacity of Timo- theus the Milesian, who, by the variation of his notes, compelled Alexander to assume or to quit his arms! Cassiodorus has ascribed to music, not only the power of healing the diseases of the mind, but that of even causing the rise of virtues: what he says of the effects of ancient music is beyond belief: the Dorien music or measure, says he, renders us prudent and chaste; the Eolian measure moderates the violent passions; the Ionian, calms pain and allays anger; the Lydian, dissipates uneasiness; and the Phrygian gives activity to the idle, and courage to the coward. Music alone cured a disease, which in the last centuries, was known by the name of the dance of St. Wit; a state similar to that affecting the ancient Corybantes. Theophrastus relates, that Ismenias failed not to allay the torments of Sciatic gout, by the soft sound of his flute. A professor mentioned by Pechlin, found no method to render supportable his violent attacks of gout but harmonious sounds. According to Gassendi, Peiresc was recalled from the gates of death, by the harmonious singing of an ode. Men- tion is made in the Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences, of several professional musicians who were speedily restored from a febrile delirium, by a concert in their apartment: it has been'stated by many persons, that certain tunes cured such as were bitten by the tarantula by causing them to dance—and we have daily proof of the efficacy of music, in the lulling of infants by the songs of their nurses, although,but little melodious. Pain and insomnolescence. have been allayed by music—and many similar facts in the records of medicine, prove that sounds have a most powerful influence as a medicinal agent. Nor is its influence absolutely limited to man-— the brute creation is likewise powerfully affected by sounds of dif- ferent kinds." The French, during the revolution, found their national tunes of the Chant du Depart, and Ca Ira, &c.,, of great avail—and our own Yankee Doodle has had a powerful influence on the American people. MYRISTICA. L. A. Myristica Moschata. E. D. Nutmeg Tree. The Nutmeg, and its Oil. Mace and its Oil. Diaecia Monadelphia. Nat. ord. Lauri, Juss. Syn. of the Nutmeg. Noix Muscade, (F.) Moskatnuse, (G.) Nosce Moscata, (I.) Neux Moscada, (S.) Jaephal, (H.) Syn. of the Mace. Moshat blumen, (G.) Macis, (I.) Macias, (S.) Jawatri, (H.) Jatipatri, (San.) The tree which furnishes this elegant spice is a native of the Mo- lucca islands. It is not, however, cultivated in any of them except Banda, from which all Europe has been hitherto supplied with mace and nutmegs. The entire fruit is about»the size of a peach, and is marked with a longitudinal furrow. The external covering is smooth, M.—Myristica. 419 fleshy, and bitter. As the fruit ripens, this bursts and discloses the mace, which is an oily membranous pulp, of a dark-red colour and aromatic flavour, divided into narrow branched slips. Within the mace is inclosed the nut, which consists of a brown, thin, hard shell, and a fat parenchymatous kernel, of an oval shape. The fruit is ga- thered three times a year. The external covering is separated on the spot, and the mace and nut carried home, where they are care- fully dried in the sun. After they are dried, the nutmegs are dipt in lime water, and the mace is sprinkled with salt water, probably to preserve them from the attacks of insects. Mace by drying acquires a reddish-yellow colour. When good, it is flexible, thin, oily, of a deep colour, strong agreeable smell, and an aromatic, bitterish, acrid taste. When brittle, divided into fewer slips of a whitish or pale yellow colour, and of little smell or taste, it is to be rejected. Neumann got from 7680 parts of mace, 2160 alcoholic, and 1200 watery extract; and inversely, 1920 watery, and 1440 alcoholic ex- tract, with 300 of volatile oil heavier than water, which arose during the inspissation of the watery extract. The expressed oil of mace is less consistent than that of nutmegs. Nutmegs are oval, flattened at both ends, of a grey-brown colour, and reticularly furrowed on the outside, of a yellow colour within, variegated with brown undulating lines, solid, hard, unctuous to the feel, and easily cut with a knife; and have a balsamic smell, and agreeable aromatic taste. The small round nutmegs are better than the large oval ones; and they should have a strong smell and taste, and should neither be worm-eaten, musty, nor variegated with black lines. Their activity is, however, confined to the dark-coloured veins which are not apt to be worm-eaten. Neumann got from 1920 parts of nutmeg, 480 of an oily alcoholic extract, and 280 watery, with 320 fixed oil: these two last were both insipid: and inversely 600 watery extract, with 50 of fixed oil, which rose to the surface during the inspissation, and 10 of volatile oil which distilled over; and afterwards, 120 unctuous alcoholic ex- tract, and 300 more of fixed oil. By expression, 1920 gave 540 of oil, and afterwards 480 of watery extract, a pretty strongly tasted dis- tilled water, and 80 unctuous alcoholic extract, with 60 of insipid fixed oil. Volatile Oil of Nutmeg. By distillation nutmegs yield a considerable quantity of essential oil, of a whitish yellow colour, lighter than water, and possessing the aromatic taste and smell in an eminent degree. In doses of a few drops it is a powerful carminative stomachic. Expressed Oil of Mace. Nutmegs also yield by expression a considerable quantity of lim- pid yellow oil, which on cooling concretes into a sebaceous consist- ence. They are previously beaten to a soft paste in a warm mortar, then enclosed in a linen bag, exposed to the vapour of hot water, and squeezed in a press, of which the plates have been heated. It is a mixture of the volatile oil, on which their flavour depends. 420 M.—Myrrha. and of a fixed oil, of a white colour, without taste or smell; and as the properties which characterize it depend on the presence of the volatile oil, the denomination of Fixed Oil, applied to it by the Edin- burgh College, is less correct than that of Expressed Oil, given to it by the other Colleges, from the manner of its preparation. In shops we meet with three sorts of unctuous substances called Oil of Mace, though really expressed from the nutmeg. The best is brought from the East Indies in stone jars; this is of a thick consist- ence, of the colour of mace, and an agreeable fragrant smell: the second sort, which is paler coloured, and much inferior in quality, comes from Holland in solid masses; generally flat and of a square figure: the third, which is the worst of all, and usually called Com- mon Oil of Mace, is an artificial composition of suet, palm oil, and the like, flavoured with a little genuine oil of nutmeg. 7680 of the second sort yielded to Neumann 330 volatile oil heavier than water, 2880 of fluid expressible oil, and 4560 of solid but fusible sebaceous matter, perfectly insipid, inodorous, and of a chalky whiteness. Medical use.—Both mace and nutmegs are rather to be considered as aromatic spices than as articles of medicine. From the essential oil they contain they are heating and stimulating, and they are add- ed to other medicines for the sake of their agreeable flavour. MYRRHA. E. L, D. A. Myrrh. The Gum-Resin of a non-descript Tree. Syn. Myrrhe, (F.) Myrrhen, (G.) Mirra, (I. S.) Murr, (Ar.) B61, (H.) Bola, (San.) Ipvpa., Dioscor. The tree which produces this gum-resin, is not yet ascertained. Mr. Bruce has given some reasons for supposing that it is a mimosa; but we may observe, that all the mimosas with which we are suffi- ciently acquainted furnish a pure gum, and not a gum-resin. The best myrrh is brought from Troglodytitia, a province of Abyssinia, on the borders of the Red Sea; but what we receive comes from the East Indies, and is produced on the eastern coast of Arabia Felix. The best myrrh is in the form of tears. It should be of a yellow, or reddish-yellow colour, becoming redder when breathed on, light, brittle, of an unctuous feel, pellucid, shining; presenting white semi-circular striae in its fracture; of a very bitter aromatic taste, and a strong, peculiar, not unpleasant odour. It is not good if whitish, dark-coloured, black, resinous, ill-smelled, or mixed with impurities, which is too commonly the case. Neumann ascertained that water and alcohol are both of them capable of taking up the whole of the taste and smell of the myrrh, the extract, made by either after the other, being insipid. The alco- hol distilled from the tincture elevated none of the flavour of the myrrh; but during the inspissation of the decoction a volatile oil arose, containing the whole of the flavour of the myrrh, and heavier than water, while the extract was merely bitter. From 7680 parts " of myrrh, he got 6000 watery extract, 180 volatile oil, and 720 al- coholic: and inversely, 2400 alcoholic, and 4200 watery. Bracon- not found that myrrh chiefly consisted of a gum, differing from all M.—Myrtus Pimento. 421 others. 1. It acquires cohesion by heat, which renders it partly insoluble in water, when the solution is evaporated. 2. It furnishes ammonia by distillation, and nitrogen with nitric acid. 3. It pre- cipitates lead, mercury, and tin, from their solution. Myrrh also contains 2.3 parts in the 100 of a bitter, very fusible, resinous mat- ter. The tincture is transparent, and when poured into water, forms a yellow opaque fluid, but lets fall no precipitate, while the watery solution is always yellow and opaque; myrrh is not fusible, and is difficultly inflammable. Mr. Hatchett found it soluble in alkalies. Vauquelin obtained from the root of the Andropogon Schoenanthus, by means of alcohol, a thick brown oil, having an acrid, burning taste, like an essential oil, and exactly the smell of myrrh. It differs from myrrh chiefly in having less solidity; but Vauquelin thinks, that if it was united to a gummy matter, it would exactly resemble it. He does not suppose, however, that this is the plant which produces the myrrh of commerce, but considers it as a proof that myrrh is formed in various vegetables. Medical use.—Myrrh is a heating, stimulating medicine. It fre- quently occasions a mild diaphoresis, and promotes the fluid secre- tions in general. Hence it proves serviceable in cachectic diseases, arising from inactivity of the system, and is supposed to act espe- cially upon the uterine system, and to resist putrefaction. It is exhibited, 1. In substance; in the form of powder,' or made up into pills, in doses of ten to sixty grains. 2. Dissolved in water, as in Griffith's famous but unchemical myrrh mixture. 3. Dissolved in alcohol. MYRTUS PIMENTO. E. PIMENTA. L. D. A. Pimento. Allspice. Jamaica Pepper. The Berries. Icosandria Monogynia. Nat. ord. Hesperidae, Linn. Myrti, Juss. Syn. Poivre de Jamaique, (F.) Nelhenpfeffer, (G.) This is a native of Jamaica, and grows in all the woodlands on the north side. Soon after the trees have blossomed, the berries become fit for gathering; the fruit not being suffered to ripen, as in that state it is moist and glutinous, and therefore difficult to cure, and when dried becomes black and tasteless. The berries are dried by spread- ing them on a terrace, exposed to the sun, for about seven days, during which time they gradually lose their green colour, and become of a reddish brown. The smell of this spice resembles a mixture of cinnamon, cloves, and nutmegs; its taste approaches to that of cloves, or a mixture of the three foregoing, whence it has received the name of allspice. Neumann ascertained that its flavour resides entirely in a volatile oil heavier than water, and its pungency in a resin or a substance soluble in alcohol and insoluble in water. From 480 parts, he got 120 watery extract, 30 volatile oil, and 20 alcoholic extract; and inversely, 66 alcoholic, and 100 watery. 422 N.—Nicotiana Tabacum. Medical use.—Pimento is a warm aromatic stimulant, and is much used as a condiment in dressing food. As a medicine, it is advan- tageously substituted for the more costly spices, especially in hospi- tal practice. N. NICOTIANA TABACUM. E. D. TABACUM. L. A. Tobacco. The Leaves. Pentandria Monogynia. Nat. ord. Luridae, Linn. Solaneae, Juss. Syn. Tabac, (F.) Taback, (G.) Tabacco, (I.) Tobaco, (S.) Bujjirbhang, (Ar.) Tambacu, (H.) Tamracuta, (San.) Petun; Pete-ma, (Yucatan, S. Am.) This is an annual plant, a native of America, from whence it was first carried to Europe, about the year 1560; where it is now some- times cultivated for medicinal use in gardens; but in general it is exported from America in large quantities. The leaves are about two feet long, of a pale green colour whilst fresh, and when carefully dried, of a lively yellowish cast. They have a strong, disagreeable, narcotic smell, and a very acrid burning taste. The active constituent of tobacco is an essential oil; for, by long boiling, the decoction and extract of tobacco become almost inert; and by distillation an oil is obtained from it, so active, that small animals are almost instantly killed when wounded by a needle dip- ped in it. Vauquelin has lately analyzed tobacco, both in its fresh and pre- pared state. The expressed juice is manifestly acid, and contains a great quantity of albuminous matter, super-malat of lime, acetic acid, nitrat and muriat of potass, muriat of ammonia, a red matter, soluble in alcohol and in water, which swells and becomes charred by heat, and an acrid principle on which its peculiar properties de- pend. The infusion of prepared tobacco is alkaline, and contains beside the same principles, carbonat of ammonia, and muriat of lime, proceeding from the mutual decomposition of the muriat of ammonia and lime which is added to give it pungency. The principle to which the acrimony of tobacco is owing, is soluble in alcohol and in water, is volatile, but still may be concentrated by slowly evaporating its solution in water, and still more easily its tincture. Its volatility is also diminished by the malic acid with which it is combined. It is obtained in a state nearest to purity in the distilled water of the in- fusion of the dry, or of the expressed juice of the fresh plant. This water is colourless, but has the acrid smell and taste of tobacco smoke: with acetat of lead and nitrat of mercury, it forms white precipitates, soluble in acids, and with infusion of galls one soluble in alcohol and the alkalies. The principle on which the properties of tobacco depends, seems not easily destructible, as it is the same in the dry and in the fresh plant, and is not destroyed by oxymuria- tic acid. . Medical use.—On the living body, whether taken into the stomach in substance or solution, or into the lungs in the form of smoke, or N.—Nitras. 423 applied to abraded surfaces, tobacco is capable of producing delete- rious effects. It often proves violently cathartic or emetic, and oc- casions intolerable cardialgia, anxiety and vertigo. The system becomes easily habituated to the action of tobacco; and many people use very large quantities of it in various ways as a luxury, without experiencing any other bad effect than what arises from their being unable to relinquish it after the habit is confirmed. As a medicine it is exhibited in various forms: 1. In substance. When chewed, it causes an increased flow of saliva, and sometimes relieves the tooth-ache; and reduced to powder, it proves an excellent errhine and sternutatory, when snuffed up the nostrils. 2. In infusion in water or wine. Taken in such small doses as to have little effect on the stomach, it proves powerfully diu- retic, and was employed by Dr. Fowler with very great suc- cess in cases of dropsy and dysuria. It is also applied ex- ternally for the cure of psora, tinea, and other cutaneous dis- eases. 3. In the form of smoke, it is injected into the anus by means of bellows of a peculiar construction. By acting as a stimulus to the rectum, it sometimes succeeds in reviving the vital powers in some kinds of asphyxia, and in evacuating the in- testines in cases of obstinate constipation.* It has likewise been employed with advantage as a bougie in re- moving strictures of the urethra, t NITRAS__NITRAT. Nitrat is the generic term for secondary compounds, which con- sist of nitric acid, combined with any base. The Nitrats, by the action of fire, furnish impure oxygen gas, mixed with nitrogen, and are reduced to their bases. By the action of concentrated sulphuric acid, they emit a white vapour; and they are capable of supporting combustion. • There are three families of nitrats. 1. Alkaline nitrats;—soluble in water; solubility increased by in- crease of temperature; crystallizable; forming no precipitate with al- kaline carbonats. 2. Earthy nitrats;—soluble in water; forming a white precipitate with alkaline carbonats. 3. Metallic nitrats;—generally soluble, both in wafer and in alco- hol; decomposable by heat, furnishing nitric oxyd gas and leaving the metal oxydized to a maximum. * See Dr. Brailsford's Inaugural Dissertation on Tobacco. f See an account, by Dr. Shaw, in the Philadelphia Medical Museum, Vol. II. 424 N.—Nitras. Potassa Nitras. L. E. A. Nitrum. D. Nitrat of Potass. Nitre. Saltpetre. Syn. Nitrate de Potasse, (F.) Salpetersaures kali, (G.) Salpeter, (Dutch.) Nitro, (I. S. Port.) Shora, (H.) Yavac Shora, (San.) Nitrat of potass is annually produced on the surface of the earth in many countries. For this production,*the presence of a calcareous base, heat, and an open, but not too free, communication with dry atmospheric air, are requisite. The putrefaction of organic, especi- ally animal substances, is not necessary to, but accelerates the for- mation of this salt, by affording the nitrogen in a state in which it combines readily with the oxygen of the atmosphere, and forms the nitric acid. Accordingly, in Germany and France, nitrat of potass is prepared, by exposing mixtures of putrefying animal and vegetable substances, and calcareous earths, to the action of the atmosphere. The salt is afterwards extracted by lixiviation and crystallization. The nitre used in Great Britain is chiefly imported from the East Indies. It is found abundantly in several parts of the United States. As it occurs in commerce, it often contains a little muriat of potass and muriat of soda, from which it is easily purified by dissolving it in boiling water, and filtering it; on cooling, the nitrat of potass crystallizes, and the other salts remain dissolved. Nitrat of potass has a sharp, bitterish, cooling taste. It shoots in pretty large crystals, which are generally six-sided prisms, terminat- ed by six-sided pyramids; very brittle, and permanent in the atmo- sphere; soluble in seven times their weight of water at 60°, and in an equal weight at 212°; melting when exposed to a strong heat, giving out at first oxygen, and afterwards nitrogen gas, until the whole acid be decomposed, and the potass alone remain behind. It deflagrates more or less violently with all oxygenizable substances, oxydizing or acidifying them. When dried in a temperature of 70°; it consists, according to Kirwan, of 44 nitric acid, 51.8 potass, and 4.2 water. - It is decomposed by the sulphuric acid and baryta, by the muriat and acetat of baryta, and the sulphats of soda, ammonia, magnesia, and alumina. Medical use.—Taken to the extent of from a drachm to half an ounce in the course of a day, in repeated doses, it diminishes the heat of the body, and the frequency of the pulse, and operates by stool, and acts upon the secretion of urine, but is apt to produce pains in the stomach. In large doses, such as an ounce, taken at one time, it produces 'the most dreadful symptoms, constant vomiting, purging, mixed with blood, convulsions, and death. Accidents of this kind have happened from its4>eing sold by mistake for sulphat of soda. It is best given in small doses, as 5 to 20 grains frequently repeat- ed, and is only admissible in inflammatory diseases. Externally it is used in gargles for inflammatory sore throats. AcinuM Nitrosum. E. D. Nitrous Acid. Take of Nitrat of potass, bruised, two pounds; Sulphuric acid, six- teen ounces.—Having put the nitrat of potass into a glass retort, pour upon it the sulphuric acid, and distil in a sand bath, with a N.—Nitras. 425 heat gradually increased, until the iron pot begins to be red hot. Tlie speciflcpravity of this acid is to that of distilled water as 1520 to 1000. E. It has been a subject of controversy whether an acid, entitled to this denomination, and holding the same relation to the nitric, which the sulphurous bears to the sulphuric, has really existence. That the acid, obtained from nitre, has different states of oxygenation, and contains a less quantity pf oxygen in proportion to the depth of its colour is generally admitted. But it has been contended that we are to consider all these varieties as nitric acid, holding in com- bination variable proportions of nitrous gas; and the principal argu- ment in favour of this theory is that the substance, occasioning the colour, may be separated by the mere application of heat. Sir H. Davy has given the following table, showing the proportion of nitrous gas in nitrous acid of different colours. 100 parts by weight contain r ----^ Sp. Gr. Real Acid. Nit. Gas. Water. Pale yellow, • . • 1.502 • • • 90.5 • • • 1.2 • 8.3 Bright ditto, • Dark orange, • ... 1.50 - • • 88.94 • . • 2.96 • • • 8.1 • • 1.480 • • • 86.84 • ... 5.56- • 7.6 Light olive, • • 1.479 • • • 86. • • • 6.45 •'• 7.55 Dark olive, • . 1.478 • • • 85.4 • • . 7.1 • • • 7.50 Bright green,- • • 1.476 • • • 84.8 • • - 7.76 • • 7.44 Blue green, • • 1.475 • . • 84.6 • • . 8. • • • 7.40 Mere dilution with water is sufficient to vary these colours. Thus the dark orange-coloured acid, by dilution, passes through the shades of blue, olive, and bright green. Nitric acid, also, by absorbing nitrous gas, has its specific gravity diminished. Colourless acid, for example, when rendered of pale yellow, becomes lighter in the pro- portion of 1.51 to 1.502. It has been argued by Gay Lussac,* that the nitrous acid is as much a distinct and peculiar compound, as any other of the combina- tions of nitrogen and oxygen. It is formed, he observes, whenever we mix oxygen and nitrous gases in such proportion, that the ni- trous gas predominates, viz. about one measure of the former to four of the latter. It is of no consequence which is first added; for the result is invariably a condensible red vapour, containing by measure one of oxygen gas, and three of nitrous gas; or by weight, Nitrogen, 34.49—Oxygen, 65.51 = 100. Acidum Nitricum. E. L. A. Nitric Acid. Take of Nitrous acid, any quantity.—Pour it into a retort; and having adapted a receiver, which must be kept cold, apply a very gentle heat until the reddest portion shall have passed over, and the acid which remains in the retort shall have become nitric acid. E. Nitrous acid is of a brown or red colour, exceedingly volatile, and ^mittin0, an intolerable and suffocating odour. By the addition of * Memoires d'Arcueil, ii. 55 126 N.—Nitras. water, its colour is successively changed to blue, green, and yellow. In the state of vapour, it is absorbed by water, oil,, and sulphuric acid. It consists of about 70 parts of oxygen, and 30 of nitrogen, or rather of nitric acid and nitric oxyd. It forms nitrites.* The nitrites are characterized by their emitting the nitric acid in orange fumes, on the addition of sulphuric acid. In this process, the sulphuric acid, by its superior affinity, com- bines with the potass of the nitre to form sulphat of potass, while nitric acid is separated, and is not only converted into vapour by the application of the heat to the retort, but is also partially decom- posed. A portion of oxygen escapes in a gaseous form, and the nitric oxyd gas combines with the nitric acid; so that the liquor condensed in the receiver is nitrous and not nitric acid. In performing this process, we must take carje!, in pouring in the sulphuric acid, not to soil the neck of the retort. Instead of a com- mon receiver, it is of advantage to use some modification of Woulfe's apparatus; and as the vapours are extremely corrosive, the fat lute must be used to connect the retort with it. The London College, intending that the product should be nitric acid, directs us to con- tinue the process only until red fumes appear; but there are red fumes from the very first. Mr. Stocker says, that by careful distillation, the London process affords nine ounces of straw-coloured nitric acid, specific gravity 1.5404; after which the fumes become deeper red, and the product darker, inclining to orange; but the total ^product is but slightly coloured, amounts to ten or eleven ounces, and has the specific gravity required. The London College formerly used no more sulphuric acid than what was necessary to expel all the nitric acid, and the residuum was a neutral sulphat of potass, so in- soluble, that it could not be got out without breaking the retort. The Edinburgh and Dublin Colleges order as much sulphuric acid as renders the residuum an acidulous sulphat of potass, easily soluble in water, and the London College now employs a still larger quantity. The manufacturers of nitric acid use rough nitre, with one-half its weight of sulphuric acid. Nitrous acid is frequently impure. The presence of sulphuric acid is detected by nitrat of barytes; but before applying this test, the acid must be diluted, as otherwise the salt itself is precipitated in consequence of the acid attracting the water in which it is dissolved. Sulphuric acid is easily got rid of by re-distilling the nitrous acid from a small quantity of nitrat of potass, and this rectification forms part of the new London process; as, from the large proportion of sulphuric acid used by them, they seem to have anticipated this con- tamination, which, however, does not take place; not even, accord- ing to Mr. Stocker, when the distillation is continued, until the saline mass is brought into a state of fusion. Muriatic acid is detected by the precipitate formed with nitrat of silver, and may be separated by dropping into the nitrous acid a so- lution of nitrat of silver, as long as it forms any precipitate, and drawing off the nitrous acid by distillation. * It does not form them by direct union, the nitric acid alone unites to the: base, and nitrats are formed by the combination. N.—Nitras. 427 Sir H. Davy has shown, that nitrous acid is a compound of nitric acid and nitric oxyd; and that, by additional doses of' the last con- stituent, its colour is successively changed from yellow, to orange, olive green, and blue green, and, its specific gravity is diminished. As commonly prepared, the acid is more or less high-coloured, and emits red fumes; whereas, pure nitric acid emits only white fumes. Hence the Edinburgh College have given a process for converting nitrous into nitric acid, which Dr. Powell thinks uneconomical, as not only nitrous gas, but a large proportion of the acid itself, passes to waste. By the application of a gentle heat, the whole of the nitric oxyd is vaporized, and pure colourless nitric acid remains in the retort. The nitric oxyd, however, carries over with it a portion of the acid, and condenses with it in the receiver, in the form of a very high-co- loured nitrous acid. Richter has given the following process for preparing nitric acid: Take of Purified nitrat of potass, seven pounds; Black oxyd of man- ganese, one pound and two ounces; Sulphuric acid, four pounds, four ounces and six drachms.—Into a retort capable of containing twenty-four pounds, introduce the nitre and manganese, powdered and mixed, and pour upon them gradually, through a retort-fun- nel, the sulphuric acid. Lute on the receiver with flour and water, and conduct the distillation with a gradually increased heat. From these proportions, Richter got three pounds nine ounces of very slightly coloured nitric acid. The operation will be conducted with less hazard in a Woulfe's apparatus, or by interposing between the retort and receiver a tubulated adopter, furnished with a bent tube, of which the further extremity is immersed in a vessel contain- ing a small quantity of water. The specific gravity of nitrous acid is probably stated too high by the Edinburgh College; for, although Rouelle makes that of the strongest nitric acid 1.583, yet Kirwan could produce it no stronger at 60° than 1.5543. Sir H. Davy makes it only 1.504, and when saturated with nitric oxyd, only 1.475; and Mr. Phillips says it varies from 1.509 to 1.519. Acidum Nitrosum Dilutum. E. D. Diluted Nitrous Acid. Take of Nitrous acid, Water, equal weights.—Mix them, taking care to avoid the noxious vapours. Nitrous acid has a great affinity for water, and attracts it from the atmosphere. During their combination there is an increase of tem- perature, part of the nitric oxyd is dissipated in the form of noxious vapours, and the colour changes successively from orange to green, and to blue, according as the proportion of water is increased. A mixture of equal parts of Kirwan's standard acid of 1.5543 and water, has the specific gravity 1.1911. The diluted acid of the Lon- don Pharmacopoeia is about 1.08. In fact, one ounce of nitric acid, by measure, is equal to one ounce, three drachms, 21.75 grains, by weight; and one liquid ounce saturates about 48 grains of white marble. The strength of the 428 N.—Nitras. diluted nitric acid of the former London Pharmacopoeia is to that of the present as 4 to 1. Mr. Henry, in his Chemistry, speaking of nitric acid, says "pure nitric acid may be considered as a gaseous body, of the specific gra- vity, compared with common air, of 2440: one hundred cubic inches at 55° Fahrenheit and under 30 inches pressure, weigh, according te Sir H. Davy, 76 grains; or corrected to the temperature of 60° Fah- renheit, they weigh 75.21 grains. The liquid acid, (termed by Davy hydro-nitric acid,) consists of this gas condensed by water, of which it contains various proportions. We have not, however, at present, documents sufficient for the construction of an accurate table of the quantities of real nitric acid in acids of different densities. Accord- ing to Sir H. Davy the strongest acid, (sp. gr. 1.55) contains 14.4 parts of water in 100; and acid of specific gravity 1.42 contains 25.2 of water in 100. The table published by Mr. Dalton, that philosopher has since found reason to believe to be inaccurate; but on the following results, which he has been so good as to communi- cate to me, he thinks full reliance may be placed." Table of the quantity of real Acid in Nitric Acid of different densities. Parts of ] Parts of Acid per ct. Acid. Water. by weight. 45 -f 8 84.9 45 4- 16 73.8 45 4- 24 65.2 45 4- 32 58.4 45 4- 40 53. 45 + 48 48.4 45 + 56 44.5 45 + 64 41.3 45 + 180 20. Acid per ct. Specific by measure. Gravity. 137.5? 1.62? 114.4? 1.55? 96.4 1.48 84. 1.44 74.7 1.41 67.2 1.39 60.5 1.36 55.3 1.34 22.8 1.142 Medical use.-r-The use of these acids in medicine has been con- siderably extended. In the state of vapour they have been used to destroy contagion in jails, hospitals, ships, and other places where the accumulation of animal effluvia is not easily avoided. The fumigating such places with the vapour of nitrous acid has cer- tainly been attended with success; but we have heard that success ascribed entirely to the ventilation employed at the same time. Ventilation may unquestionably be carried so far, that the conta- gious miasmata may be diluted to such a degree that they shall not act on the body; but to us it appears no less certain, that these miasmata cannot come in contact with nitric acid or oxymuriatic acid vapour, without being entirely decomposed and completely de- stroyed. Fumigation is, besides, applicable in situations which do not admit of sufficient ventilation; and where it is, the previous diffusion of acid vapours is an excellent check upon the indolence and inattention of servants and nurses, as by the smell we are ena- bled to judge whether they have been sufficiently attentive to the succeeding ventilation. Nitric acid vapour, also, is not deleterious to life, and may be diffused in the apartments of the sick, without or- N.—Nitrogen. 429 casioning to them any material inconvenience. The means of diffus- ing it are easy. Half an ounce of powdered nitre is put into a sau- cer, which is placed in a pipkin of heated sand. On the nitre two drachms of sulphuric acid are then poured. The fumes of nitric acid immediately begin to rise. This quantity will fill with vapour a cube of ten feet; and by employing a sufficient number of pipkins, the fumes may be easily made to fill a ward of any extent. For in- troducing this practice, Dr. Carmichael Smyth received from the British parliament a reward of five thousand pounds. The internal use of these acids has also been lately much ex- tended. In febrile diseases, water acidulated with them forms one of the best antiphlogistic and antiseptic drinks we are acquainted with. Hoffman and Eberhard long ago employed it with very great success in malignant and petechial fevers; and in the low typhus, which frequently rages among the poor in the suburbs of Edinburgh, it has been repeatedly given with unequivocal advantage. In the liver coirf- plaint of the East Indies, and in syphilis, nitric acid has also been extolled as a valuable remedy by Dr. Scott, and the evident benefits resulting from its use in these complaints has given rise to a theory, that mercury only acts by oxygenizing the system. It is certain that both the primary and secondary symptoms of syphilis have been re- moved by the use of these acids, and that the former symptoms have not returned, or been followed by any secondary symptoms. But in many instances they have failed; and it is doubtful if ever they effected a permanent cure, after the secondary symptoms ap- peared. Upon the whole, the opinions of Mr. Pearson on this sub- ject, lately agitated with so much keenness, appear so candid and judicious, that we shall insert them here. He does not think it eligible to rely on the nitrous acid in the treatment of any one form of the lues venerea: at the same time, he by no means wishes to see it exploded as a medicine altogether useless in that disease. When an impaired state of the constitution renders the introduc- tion of mercury into the system inconvenient, or evidently impro- per, the nitrous acid will be found, he thinks, capable of restraining the progress of the disease, while, at the same time, it will improve the health and strength of the patient. On some occasions, this acid may be given in conjunction with a mercurial course, and it will be found to support the tone of the stomach, to determine powerfully to the kidneys, and to counteract, in no inconsiderable degree, the effects of mercury on the mouth and fauces. NITROGEN. —AZOTIC OR NITROGEN GAS. Nitrogen, or azotic gas, constitutes 0.79 parts by bulk of the at- mosphere; but as it has few attractions at ordinary temperatures, its principal effect on the chemical properties of the atmosphere seems to be the dilution of the oxygen gas, which in its pure state, would be more active than is consistent with the economy of nature. It is permanently elastic, compressible, inodorous, and insipid, it converts very delicate vegetable blues to green; 100 cubic inches weigh between 29 and 30 grains, its specific gravity is 0.0012, 130 N.—Nitrogen. water being 1; or 13, hydrogen gas being 1; it is unable to support respiration, vegetation or combustion; it is acidifiable; it dissolves phosphorus and carbon in small quantities, and water absorbs T*T of its volume. Atmospheric air consists of 21 parts of oxygen gas, and of 79 of azotic gas by measure, or 23.47, and 76.53 by weight; it is trans- parent, compressible, and permanently elastic; its specific gravity is 0.00123, water being unity; or 13.8, hydrogen being unity; 100 cubic inches weigh 31 grains: it is inodorous and insipid, respira- ble, and capable of supporting inflammation. The atmosphere also contains other gases, vapour, &c. Nitrous oxyd gas is composed of 15 in weight of oxygen, and 26 of nitrogen, or of equal volumes of these gases. It does not change vegetable colours; 100 cubic inches weigh between 48 and 49 grains; its specific gravity, hydrogen being 1, is 21; it suffers no diminution when mixed with oxygen gas. Water absorbs nine-tenths of its bulk, at a mean temperature. It does not combine directly with alkalies; it supports combustion; and its respiration, when perfectly pure, or mixed with atmospheric air, produces the highest excite- ment of which the animal frame seems capable. Nitric oxyd gas, (nitrous gas,) consists, according to Sir H. Davy, of 26 nitrogen and 30 oxygen, or of one volume of nitrogen and two of oxygen gas. It does not change vegetable colours; 100 inches weigh about 32 grains; its specific gravity to hydrogen is 14. When mixed with half its bulk of oxygen gas, the compound condenses into red fumes, (nitrous acid,) which are entirely absorbed by water. The quantity of oxygen gas which any air contains is sometimes es- timated by the diminution of volume which occurs, after a due pro- portion of nitrous gas has been added. Water absorbs about one- twentieth of its bulk of this gas. It is not inflammable, and only in very few instances supports combustion. It is noxious to vegetation, and its respiration is fatal to animals. Nitrous acid gas consists, according to Davy, of two measures of nitric oxyd gas, and one of dry oxygen gas, condensed to half their volume. It has a deep orange colour, disagreeable smell and sour taste. It reddens litmus paper, and gives a yellow colour to animal substances: 100 cubic inches weigh 65.3 grains, and its specific gra- vity to hydrogen is 28. It is rapidly absorbed by water, which ac- quires a tint of green, by ether, oil and sulphuric acid. Its compounds are nitrites. Hydro-nitrous acid is of a brown or red colour, exceedingly vola- tile, and emitting an intolerable and suffocating odour. By the ad- dition of water, its colour is successively changed to blue, green and yellow. Hydro-nitric acid, (aqua fortis,) consists of nitric acid combined with water. It is liquid, colourless, and transparent. It is very cor- rosive, and tinges the skin of a yellow colour. When most concen- trated, its specific gravity is 1.5543, and it contains 15 per cent, wa- ter. It produces heat when mixed with water, and absorbs water from the atmosphere. Acid of 1.42 rises unaltered at 248° Fahren- heit. Below 1.4 it strengthens by being boiled, and above 1.45 it becomes weaker. It is decomposed by many substances. Light con- N—Nux Vomica. 431 \ erts it in part into nitrous acid gas. When highly concentrated, it sets fire to oils, to sulphureted hydrogen gas, to iron-filings, and to zinc, bismuth and tin, when poured on them in a state of fusion. It oxygenizes all the metals, except gold, platinum, and titanium. It consists of five parts, by bulk, of oxygen, and one of nitrogen, com- bined in the strongest acid with one, and in that'of 1.42 with two of water. Its saline compounds are called nitrats. Chloride of azote. Nitrogen forms a very singular compound with chlorine. It is obtained by confining chlorine over a saturated solu- tion of nitrat of ammonia, at a very low temperature. The gas is absorbed, and a heavy oil falls, which explodes violently when put in contact with olive oil. Iodide of azote, is a blackish powder, which detonates with great force spontaneously, when dry, and by a slight pressure under water. STRYCHNOS NUX VOMICA.* Vomic Nut. The Seeds. This seed has not at present a place in the British pharmaco- poeias, it presents, however, several points of interest to the phy- siologist, the physician, and the chemist. Its virulent action upon animals has been long known, and it has been administered in com- bination with gentian in intermittents,t (Ludovic. Phar. p. 113,) and as a narcotic in mania; it also constituted an ingredient in the famous Electuarium de ovo, (Ph. Angl. p. 263.) Nux vomica has been said to produce benefit in the plague; the German writers have strongly commended it in mania, epilepsy, and hydrophobia; as well as in chronic rheumatism, gout, scrofula, lues venerea, and cutaneous eruptions; in Sweden it is stated to have displayed very beneficial effects in dysentery. Dr. Fourquier has lately intro- duced its use in the Hopital de la Charite, in cases of partial pa- ralysis, and, it is said, with very great success. The value of the practice has been since confirmed by the experiments of Dumeril, Majendie, Hebreard, Husson, and Asselin. The dose is four or five grains of the powder in pills, during the day. The French codex contains two alcoholic extracts of this substance, the one prepared with a strong spirit, (22, 32, Beaume, i. e. from sp. gr. .915 to .856,) is much more active and powerful than that madr with a weak spirit, (12, 22, Beaume, i. e. from sp. gr. .985 to .915.) MM. Pelletier and Caventou have discovered in this sub- stance, a peculiar proximate principle, to which its virulence is owing; it was named Vauqueline, in honour of the celebrated French philosopher, but in deference to the opinion of the French Academy of Sciences, the discoverers have substituted the name Strychnine, because "a name dearly loved, ought not to be applied to a noxious principle." (Annates de Chimie, vol. 8 to 10.) Strychnine is highly alkaline, and crystallizes in very small four-sided prisms, termi- * Nux Vomica, Pharm. U. S. j Sir Hans Sloane published a Paper in the Philosophical Transactions, No 249, Vol. xxi. p. 44, entitled " An Account of the Nux Pepita, or Saint Igna- tius's Bean, flgnatia amara, Linn.} a simple in common use in the Philip- nine Islands, as a tonic medicine." 432 O.—Olea Europsea. nated by four-sided pyramids; its taste is insupportably bitter, leav ■ ing a slight metallic flavour; it has no smell; it is so extremely active and violent, that in doses of half a grain it occasions serious effects, and in larger ones, convulsions and death; notwithstanding its strong taste, it is very sparingly soluble in water, requiring 6667 parts of that fluid for its solution at 50, and 2500 at 212.° It is very solu- ble in alcohol; with acids it forms neutral and crystallizable salts; these salts, as well as their base, have the singular property of be- coming blood-red by the. action of concentrated nitric acid. Strych- nine exists in native combination in the strychnus, with an acid which has some analogy with the malic, and which Pelletier and Ca- ventou propose to call the Igasuric acid, from the Malay name for the bean of St. Ignatius,* (Strychnus Ignatius,) in which its proper- ties were first examined. In conformity with such views, the active principle of the tribe of the Strychni is an Igasurate of Strychnine. A fact which suggests the existence of a most singular and striking analogy between the chemical constitution of these narcotic-acrid bodies! and that of opium. o. OLEA EUROP^EA. Olive Tree. Diandria Monogynia. Nat. ord. Sepiariae, Linn. Jasminex, Juss. Olivje Oleum. L. A. Oleum Olivarum. D. Oleum Fixum Ole^e EuropjE^i. E. Olive Oil. Fixed Oil of the Fruit. Syn. Huile d'Olive, (F.) Olivenohl, (G.) Olio d'Ulive, (I.) Azeite, (S.) Zeet, (Ar.) E\ctta ttypaua., Dioscor. The Olive tree is a native of the south of Europe and north of Africa. It is cultivated in France, Spain, and Italy, for the sake of its fruit, and the oil expressed from it. Olives, when fresh, have an acrid, bitter, extremely disagreeable taste; but they are only eaten when pickled. They are first steeped for several days in a ley of wood-ashes, and then pickled in a strong solution of muriat of soda. They are principally valued for the oil they afford by expression. For this purpose they are gathered when fully ripe, and immediately * Strychnine was obtained from the beans of St. Ignatius by the following process: a portion of the beans being grated was heated in a close vessel, un- der pressure, with sulphuric ether, by which an oily matter was dissolved; the residuum then yielded by the action of alcohol, a yellowish brown, very bitter substance, which being boiled with pure magnesia and filtered, the colouring matter was washed out, and the Strychnine and magnesia, in a state of mix- ture, remained on the filtre. This strychnine was then separated by alcohol, and thus obtained in a state of great purity. •j- The researches of the French and German chemists have considerably multiplied the number of these bodies, to an extent indeed that requires cor- roboration by further experiments; thus in Stramonium, we have Daturia ,•— in Belladonna, Atropia,-—in Veratrum, Veratria ;—in Anbcstura Psecdo KEREVGiifEA, Brucina,—in Htoscxamus, Hyoseyama, &c. 0.—Olea Fixa seu Expressa. 433 bruised and subjected to the press. The finest oil flows first, and a very bad oil is obtained by boiling the magma, which remains after expression in water. According to Beaume, they are gathered when sufficiently ripe. They are then dried, to deprive the mucilage, of which they contain a large quantity, of its water, and are expressed after being bruised, and moistened with a little water to render the oil more fluid. By rest, the mucilage and water which may have passed with it, separate. It is sometimes mixed with oil of poppy seeds; but, by exposing the mixture to the freezing temperature, the, olive oil freezes, while that of the poppies remains fluid; and as oils which freeze with most difficulty are most apt to become rancid, olive is deteriorated by the admixture of poppy oil. Good olive oil should have a pale yellow colour, somewhat inclining to green, a bland taste, without any rancidity, and no smell, and should congeal at 38° Fahrenheit. Medical wse.—Taken internally, it operates as a gentle laxative, and is given in cases of worms. It is also given in large quantities to mitigate the action of acrid substances taken into the stomach. It is used externally in frictions, in gargles, and in clysters; but its principal employment is for the composition of ointments and plasters. OILS Are either Fixed or Volatile. OLEA FIXA seu EXPRESSA.—FIXED OR EXPRESSED OILS. Fixed oils are transparent, more or less coloured, somewhat viscid, inodorous fluids, having a mild taste and unctuous feel. In the dif- ferent species, the specific gravity varies from 0.9403 to 0.9153. The point of congelation also differs considerably, but in general it is within the range of the ordinary temperatures of the atmosphere. Their boiling point exceeds 600°, and by being converted info vapour, they become empyreumatic. Fixed oils do not seem capable of combining with charcoal. When assisted by heat, they dissolve sulphur and phosphorus. They may be blended with sugar and gum by trituration as in emulsions, and they dissolve the volatile oils, and resins, and gummy resins. With the alkalies and earths they form soaps, and with metallic oxyds plasters. They are not solu- ble in water or in alcohol. They unite readily with oxygen, which renders them concrescible. Those oils which dry without losing their transparency, as linseed oil, are termed drying oils, in contra-dis- tinction to the fat oils which from exposure become white, opaque and thick, and remain greasy, such as oil of olives or of almonds. When they become rancid, they undergo a further degree of decom- position, and are found to contain sebacic acid. Oil in a state of vapour is inflammable, and burns with a white flame. When the combustion is complete, the products are carbonic acid gas and water, but in general soot is deposited. The sulphuric acid renders the fix- 434 O.—Olea Fixa seu Express. ed oils brown and thick, and converts them into water and charcoal. The nitric acid oxygenizes them. The oxygenized muriatic acid blanches them, and renders them concrete like tallow or wax. The oils oxydize several of the metals, and are oxydized by several of their oxyds. From Lavoisier's experiment on the combustion of olive oil, its constituent principles were estimated at 79 charcoal, and 21 hy- drogen; but by correction they appear to be 50.39 carbon, 20.23 hy- drogen, and 29.38 oxygen. These oils are commonly denominated expressed oils, an appel- lation which is manifestly improper, as in some instances they are obtained without expression, and in other instances expression is em- ployed to obtain volatile oils. The Edinburgh college have there- fore distinguished these different classes of oils by the term of fixed and volatile, which accurately characterizes them. Fixed oil is formed in no other part of vegetables than in their seeds. Sometimes, although very rarely, it is contained in the paren- chyma of the fruit. Of this the best known example is the olive. But it is most commonly found in the seeds of dicotyledonous vegetables, sometimes also in the fruit of monocotyledonous plants, as the cocos butyracea. It has various degrees of consistency, from the tallow of the croton sebiferum of China, and the butter of the butter-tree of Africa, to the fluidity of olive oil. Fixed oils are.either 1. Fat, easily congealed, andnot inflammable by nitric acid; oil of olives, almonds, rapeseed, and ben. 2. Drying, not congealable, inflammable by nitric acid; oil of linseed, nut and poppy. 3. Concrete oils, palm oil, &c. Fixed oil is separated from fruits and seeds which contain it, either by expression or decoction. Heat, by rendering the oil more limpid, increases very much the quantity obtained by expression; but as it renders it less bland, and more apt to become rancid, heat is not used in the preparation of oils which are to be employed in medi- cine. When obtained by expression, oils often contain a mixture of mucilage, starch, and colouring matter; but part of these separate in course of time, and fall to the bottom. When oils become rancid, they are no longer fit for internal use, but are said to effect the kill- ing of quicksilver, as it is called, more quickly. Decoction is prin- cipally used for the extraction of the viscid and consistent oils, which are melted out by the heat of the boiling water, and rise to its surface. Those who prepare large quantities of the oil of almonds, blanch them, by steeping them in very hot water, which causes their epi- dermis to swell, and separate easily. After they peel them, they dry them in a stove, then grind them in a mill like a coffee mill, and lastly, express the oil from the paste inclosed in a hempen bag. By blanching the almonds, the paste which remains within the bag is sold with greater advantage to the perfumers, and the oil obtained is perfectly colourless. But the heat employed disposes the oil to be- come rancid, and the colour the oil acquires from the epidermis does not injure its qualities. For pharmaceutical use, therefore, the oil should not be expressed from blanched almonds, but merely rubbed in 0.—OleaVolatilia. 435 a piece of coarse linen, to separate the brown powder adhering to the epidermis, as much as possible. Sixteen ounces of sweet almonds commonly give five ounces and a half of oil. Bitter almonds afford the same proportions, but the oil has a pleasant bitter taste. Oleum Amygdalarum. L. D. A. Ol. Amygdalae Communis. E. \ Oil of Almonds. Take of Fresh almonds, any quantity.—After having bruised them in a stone mortar, put them iwlo a hempen bag, and express the oil. without heat. E. In the same mariner are to be expressed, Oleum Lini. E. D. L. A. Linseed, or Flaxseed Oil. —----Ricini. L. A. Castor Oil, from the seeds pre- viously decorticated. OLEA VOLATILIA. E. OLEA DISTILLATA. L. D. A. VOLATILE OILS. DISTILLED OILS. Volatile oils differ from the fixed oils most remarkably in being vaporized unchanged by a heat under, 212°; by evaporating com- pletely without leaving a stain on paper; by being sapid, often pun- gent, and odorous; and by being soluble in alcohol, and to a certain degree in water. They are more inflammable than the fixed oils, and burn with a large white flame, emit a great deal of smoke, and require more oxygen for their combustion. By exposure to air they become coloured and thick, and are at last converted into an almost inodorous resin. They are also oxydized and converted into resins by muriat of mercury, and muriat of antimony; the acids act on them with great violence, and are even capable of inflaming them. On the other hand, they resist considerably the action of the alkalies. In their other general properties they agree with the fixed oils, from which they seem to differ in composition, only in containing a larger proportion of hydrogen. In other respects, these oils are infinitely varied, especially in their taste and odour. Some are as limpid as water, others are viscid, others congeal on a slight diminution of temperature, and are even naturally concrete, and others are capable of forming crystallizations. Their predominant colours are the dif- ferent shades of yellow and red, but there are also, blue, green, and glaucous essential oils. Their specific gravity varies from 0.8697 to 1.0439. Substances which differ in volatility, may be separated from each other by applying a degree of heat capable of converting the most volatile into vapour, and by again condensing this vapour in a pro- per apparatus. Water is converted into vapour at 212°, and may be separated by distillation from the earthy and saline matters which it always contains in a natural state. But it is evident, that if any substances which are as volatile as water, be exposed to the same decree of heat, either by immersing them in boiling water, or expos- ing them to the action of its steam, they will rise with it in distilla- 436 O.—Olea Volatilia. tion. In this way the camphor and volatile oils of vegetable sub- stances are separated from the more fixed principles. Volatile oils are obtained only from odoriferous substances; but not equally from all of this class, nor in quantity proportional to their degree of odour. Some, which, if we were to reason from ana- logy, should seem very well fitted for this process, yield extremely little oil, and others none at all. Roses and chamomile flowers, whose strong and lasting smell promises abundance, are found to contain but a small quantity of oil; the violet and jessamine flower, which perfume the air with their odour, lose their smell upon the gentlest coction, and do not afford any oil on being distilled, unless immense quantities are submitted to the operation at once: while saving whose disagreeable scent extends to no great distance, gives out the largest proportion of volatile oil of almost any vegetable known. Nor is the same plant equally fit for this operation, when produ- ced in different soils or seasons, or at different times of their growth. Some yield more oil if gathered when the flowers begin to fall off than at any other time. Of this we have examples in lavender and rue; others, as sage, afford the largest quantity when young, before they have sent forth any flowers; and others, as thyme, when the flowers have just appeared. All fragrant herbs yield a larger propor- tion of oil, when produced in dry soils, and in warm summers, than in opposite circumstances. On the other hand, some of the disa- greeable strong-scented plants, as wormwood, are said to contain most oil in rainy seasons, and when growing in moist rich grounds. Several chemists have been of opinion, that herbs and flowers, moderately dried, yield a greater quantity of volatile oil, than if they were distilled when fresh. It is, however, highly improbable, that the quantity of volatile oil will be increased by drying; on the con- trary, part of it must be dissipated and lost. But drying may some- times be useful in other ways, either by diminishing the bulk of the subject to be distilled, or by causing it to part with its oil more ea- sily; and aromatic waters, distilled from the dry herb, are more fra- grant than from the fresh. But the directions of the London Col- lege to dry the herb used in the distillation of volatile oils, would be extremely inconvenient, as large quantities of the oils of lavender, peppermint, spearmint, and pennyroyal, are annually distilled in this country from the fresh herb; and the oils of aniseed, chamo- mile, caraway, juniper, origanum, rosemary and pimento, are usual- ly imported. The choice of proper instruments is of great consequence for the performance of this process to advantage. There are some oils which pass freely over the swan neck of the head of the common still: others, less volatile, cannot easily be made to rise so high. For obtaining these last, we would recommend a large low head, having a rim or hollow canal round it: in this canal, the oil is de- tained in its first ascent, and thence conveyed at once into the re- ceiver, the advantages of which are sufficiently obvious. We cannot separate the volatile oil from aromatic substances by distilling them alone, because the proportion of these oils is so small, that they could not be collected; and besides it would be impossi- O.—-Olea Volatilia. 437 ble to regulate the heat so as to be sufficient, and yet not to burn the subject, and destroy the product. Hence it is necessary to distil them with a proportion of water, which answers extremely well, as the oils are all more volatile in water, and soluble in it only to a cer- tain extent. With regard to the proportion of water to be employed; if whole plants, moderately dried, are used, or the shavings of wood, as much of either may be put into the vessel as, lightly pressed, will occupy half its cavity; and as much water may be added as will fill two- thirds of it. When fresh and juicy herbs are to be distilled, thrice their weight of water will be fully sufficient; but dry ones require a much larger quantity. In general, there should be so much water, that after all intended to be distilled has come over, there may be liquor enough left to prevent the matter from burning to the still. The water and ingredients, altogether, should never take up more than three-fourths of the still; there should be liquor enough to pre- vent any danger of empyreuma, but not so much as to be in danger of boiling over into the receiver. The subject of distillation should be macerated in the water until it be perfectly penetrated by it. To promote this effect, wood should be thinly shaved across the grain, or sawn, roots cut transversely into thin slices, barks reduced into coarse powder, and seeds slightly bruised. Very compact and tenacious substances require the mace- ration to be continued a week or two or longer; for those of a softer and looser texture, two or three days are sufficient, while some ten- der herbs and flowers not only stand in no need of maceration, but are even injured by it. The fermentation which was formerly pre- scribed in some instances, is always hurtful. The tire ought to be quickly raised, and kept up during the whole process; but to such a degree only, that the oil may freely distil; otherwise the oil will be exposed to an unnecessary heat; a circum- stance which ought, as much as possible, to be avoided. Fire com- municates to all these oils a disagreeable impregnation, as is evident from their being much less grateful when newly distilled, than after they have stood for some time in a cool place; and the longer the heat is continued, the greater alteration it produces in them. The greater number of oils require for their distillation the heat of water strongly boiling; but there^are many also which rise with a heat considerably less; such as those of lemon and citron peel, of the flowers of lavender and rosemary, and of almost all the more odorife- rous kinds of flowers. We have already observed, that these flowers have their fragrance much injured, or even destroyed, by beating and bruising them; it is impaired also by the immersion in water in the present process, and the more so in proportion to the continuance of the immersion and the heat; hence oils, distilled in the common manner, prove much less agreeable in smell than the subjects them- selves. For the distillation of substances of this class, another me- thod has been contrived: instead of being immersed in water, they are exposed only to its vapour. A proper quantity of water being fiut into the bottom of the still, the odoriferous herbs or flowers are aid lightly in a basket, of such a size that it may enter into the still, and rest against its sides, just above the water. The head be- 438 O.—Olea Volatilia. ing then fitted on, and the water made to boil, the steam, percolat- ing through the subject, imbibes the oil, without impairing its fra- grance, and carries it over into the receiver. Oils thus obtained, possess the odour of the subject in an exquisite degree, and have nothing of the disagreeable scent perceivable in those distilled by boiling them in water in the common manner. Plants differ so much, according to the soil and season of which they are the produce, and likewise according to their own ages, that it is impossible to fix the quantity of water to be drawn from a cer- tain weight of them to any invariable standard. The distillation may always be continued as long as the liquor runs well flavoured off the subject, but no longer. The mixture of water and oil which comes over may either be se- parated immediately, by means of a separatory, or after it has been put into large narrow-necked bottles, and placed in a cool place, that the portion of oil which is not dissolved in the water may rise to the top, or sink to the bottom, according to its specific gravity. It is then to be separated, either by a separatory, or by means of a small glass syringe; or by means of a filter of paper; or, lastly, by means of a woollen thread, one end of which is immersed in the oil, and the other lower end in a phial: the oil will thus pass over into the phial by capillary attraction, and the thread is to be squeezed dry. The water employed in the distillation of volatile oils always im- bibes some portion of the oil, as is evident from the smell, taste, and colour, which it acquires. It cannot, however, retain above a cer- tain quantity; and hence, such as have been already used, and, therefore, almost saturated, may be advantageously employed, in- stead of common water, in a second, or any future distillation of the same subject. After the distillation of one oil, particular care should be had to clean the worm perfectly before it be employed in the distillation of a different substance. Some oils, those of wormwood and aniseeds for instance, adhere to it so tenaciously, as not to be melted out by heat, or washed off by water; the best way of removing these, is to run a little spirit of wine through it. Volatile oils, after they are distilled, should be suffered to stand for some days, in vessels loosely covered with paper, till they have lost their disagreeable fiery odour, and become limpid: then put them up in small bottles, which are to be kept quite full, and closely stopped, in a cool place. With these precautions, they will retain their virtues in perfection for many years. Most of the oils mentioned above are prepared by the chemists in Britain, and are easily procurable in a tolerable degree of perfection: but the oils from the more expensive spices, though still introduced among the preparations in the foreign Pharmacopoeias, are usually imported from abroad. These are frequently so much adulterated, that it is not easy to meet with such as are at all fit for use: nor are these adulterations easy discoverable. The grosser abuses, indeed, may be readily de- tected. Thus, if the oil be mixed with alcohol, it will turn milky on the addition of water: if with expressed oils, alcohol will dissolve the volatile, and leave the other behind; if with oil of turpentine, on 0—Olea Volatilia. 439 dipping a piece of paper in the mixture, and drying it with a gentle heat, the turpentine will be betrayed by its smell. But the more subtile artists have contrived other methods of sophistication, which elude all trials of this kind. Some have looked upon the specific gravity of oils as a certain criterion of their genuineness. This, however, is not to be abso- lutely depended on; for the genuine oils obtained from the same subjects, often differ in gravity as much as those drawn from different ones. Cinnamon and cloves, whose oils usually sink in water, yield, if slowly and carefully distilled, oils of great fragrancy, which are specifically lighter than the aqueous fluid employed in their distilla- tion; whilst, on the other hand, the last runnings of some of the lighter oils prove sometimes so ponderous as to sink in water. As all volatile oils agree in the general properties of solubility in spirit of wine, sparing solubility in water, miscibility with water, by the intervention of certain intermedia, volatility in the heat of boiling water, &c. it is plain that they may be variously mixed with each other, or the dearer sophisticated with the cheaper, without any possibility of discovering the abuse by any trials of this kind; and, indeed, it would not be of much advantage to the purchaser, if he had infallible criteria of the genuineness of every individual oil. It is of as much importance that they be good, as that they be genuine; for genuine oils, from inattentive distillation, and long and careless keeping, are often weaker both in smell and taste, than the common sophisticated ones. The smell and taste seem to be the only certain tests of which the nature of the thing will admit. If a bark should have in every re- spect the appearance of good cinnamon, and should be proved indis- putably to be the genuine, bark of the cinnamon tree; yet if it want the cinnamon flavour, or has it but in alow degree, we reject it; and the case is the same with the oil. It is only from use and habit, or comparisons with specimens of known quality, that we can judge of the goodness, either of the drugs themselves, or of their oils. Most of the volatile oils, indeed, are too hot and pungent to be tasted with safety: and the smell of the subject is so much concen- trated in them, that a small variation in this respect is not easily distinguished; but we can readily dilute them to any assignable de- gree. A drop of the oil may be dissolved in spirit of wine or received on a bit of sugar, and dissolved by that intermedium in water. The quantity of liquor which it thus impregnates with its flavour, or the degree and quality of flavour which it communicates to a certain de- terminate quantity of liquor, will be the measure of the degree of goodness of the oil. Volatile or distilled oils are prepared nearly in the same manner as the distilled waters, except that less water is to be added. Seeds and woody substances are to be previously bruised or rasped. The oil comes over with the water, and is afterwards to be separated from it, according as it may be lighter than the water, andswim upon its surface, or heavier, and sink to the bottom. Besides, in preparing these distilled waters and oils, it is to be observed, that the goodness of the subject, its texture, the season of the year. 440 O.—Olea Volatilia. and similar causes, must give rise to so many differences, that na certain or general rule can be given to suit accurately each exam- ple. Therefore many things are omitted, to be varied by the opera- tor according to his judgment, and only the most general precepts are. given. In distilling fennel, peppermint, spearmint, pennyroyal, and pimento, the liquor which comes over along with the oil is to be preserved for use in the manner directed under the head of distilled waters. According to these directions, prepare Ol.Anisi. E. L. D. A. Oilof Anise. From the seeds. — Chenopodii. A. ----Wormseed. ---•- seeds. — Fosniculi. D. A. ----Fennel. ----seeds. — GAULTHERiiE. A. ----Partridgeberry.----leaves. — Juniperi. E. L. D. A. ----Juniper. ----berries. — Lavandulae. E. L. D. A.----Lavender. ----flowers. — Mentha Pip. E. L. D. A.---Peppermint. ---herb. — Menth. Virid. D.L. A.----Spearmint. ----herb. — Monard^e. A. ----Monarda. ----herb. — Origani. E. L. D. A. ---Marjoram. ---herb. — Pimento. E. L. D. A. ---Pimento. ---berries. — Rorismarini. E. L. D. A.----Rosemary. ----tops. — Sassafras. E. D. A. ----Sassafras. ----root, bark, &c — Carui. D. L. ---Caraway. ---seeds. — Sabine. E. D. ---Savine. ---leaves. — Anthemedis. L. E.----Chamomile. ---flowers. — Pulegii. L. D. ----Pennyroyal. ----herb, &c. — Rut.e. D. ----Rue. ----herb. Medical use.—Volatile oils, medicinally considered, agree in the general qualities of pungency and heat; in particular virtues, they differ as much as the subjects from which they are obtained, the oil being the direct principle in which the virtues, or at least a consi- derable part of the virtues of the several subjects reside. Thus, the carminative virtue of the warm s§eds, the diuretic of juniper berries, the emmenagogue of savine, the nervine of rosemary, the stomachic of mint, the cordial of aromatics, &c. are supposed to be concentrated in their oils. There is another remarkable difference in volatile oils, the foun- dation of which is less obvious, that of the degree of their pungency and heat. These are by no means in proportion, as might be expected, to those of the subject they were drawn from. The oil of cinnamon, for instance, is excessively pungent and fiery, in its undiluted state it is almost caustic; whereas cloves, a spice, which, in substance, is far more pungent than the other, yields an oil which is much less so. This difference seems to depend partly upon the quantity of oil afforded, cinnamon yielding much less than cloves, and consequently having its active matter concentrated into a smaller volume, partly upon a difference in the nature of the active parts themselves; for though volatile oils contain always the specific odour and flavour of their subjects, whether grateful or ungrateful, they do not always contain the whole pungency; this resides frequently in a more fixed matter, and does not rise with the oil. After the distillation of cloves, O—Olea Volatilia. 441 pepper, and some other spices, a part of their pungency is found to remain behind; a simple tincture of them in alcohol is even more pungent than their pure essential oils. The more grateful oils are frequently made use of for reconciling to the stomach medicines of themselves disgustful. It has been cus- tomary to employ them as correctors for the resinous purgatives; an use to which they do not seem to be well adapted. AH the service they can here be of is, to make the resin sit more easily at first on the stomach; far from abating the irritating quality upon which the violence of its operation depends, these pungent oils superadd a fresh stimulus. Volatile oils are never given alone, on account of their extreme heat and pungency; which in some is so great, that a single drop let fall upon the tongue produces a gangrenous eschar. They are readily imbibed by a piece of dry sugar, and in this form may be conve- niently exhibited. Ground "with eight or ten times their weight of sugar, they become soluble in aqueous liquors, and thus may be di- luted to any assigned degree. Mucilages also render them miscible with water into an uniform milky liquor. They dissolve likewise in alcohol; the more fragrant in an equal weight; and almost all of them in less than four times their own weight. These solutions may be either taken on sugar, or mixed with syrups, or the like. On mixing them with water, the liquor grows milky, and the oil separates. The more pungent oils are employed externally against paralytic complaints, numbness, pains, and aches, cold tumours, and in other Cases where particular parts require to be heated or stimulated. The tooth-ache is sometimes relieved by a drop of these almost caustic oils, received on cotton, and cautiously introduced into the hollow tooth. Oleum Terebinthinje. D. A. Oil of Turpentine. Take of Common turpentine, five pounds; Water, four pints.—'Dis- til the turpentine with the water in a copper alembic. After the distillation of the oil, what remains is yellow resin. D. Oleum Terebinthin. / Rumex Crispus. Curled Dock. 3 These grow about barn yards and in cultivatediields, flowering in July. The roots of both species are somewhat cathartic. The seeds are said to have been given with advantage in dysentery. The fresh roots bruised and made into an ointment or decoction, cure the itch. Some instances have occurred among the country people, of ill con- ditioned^ulcers, and hard .tumours apparently of a cancerous nature, having been entirely removed by the application of the bruised roots of dock or a decoction of the same. Rumex Britannica.* Water Dock. The Root. Rumex Obtusifolius.* Blunt-leaved Dock. The Root. WTe have no particular knowledge of the powers or virtues of either of these plants. RUTA GRAVEOLENS. E. L. D. Rue. The Herb. Deeandria Monogynia. Nat. ord. Multisiliqux, Linn. Rutacex, Juss. This is a small shrubby plant, a native of the south of Europe, and cultivated in our gardens. Rue has a strong ungrateful smell, and a bitterish penetrating taste: the leaves, when in full vigour, are extremely acrid, insomuch as to inflame and blister the skin, if much handled. Neumann got from 960 grains of the dried leaves 330 alcoholic extract, and afterwards 290 watery; and inversely, 540 watery, and 40 alcoholic. Both pri- mary extracts are bitter and acrid. Rue also contains a volatile oil, which congeals readily, and is obtained in greatest quantity by dis- tilling the plant with the seeds half ripe. Medical use — With regard to their medical virtues, like other re- medies, of which the active constituent is an essential oil, they are heating and stimulating, and hence sometimes are serviceable in spas- modic affections, and cases of obstructed secretions. * Pharm. TJ. S. secondary. S.—Saccharum. 547 S. SACCHARUM OFFICINARUM. Common Sugar Cane. Triandria Digynia. Nat. ord. Gramina. Syn. Cannamelle, (F.) Zuckerrohr, (G.^Cannamele, (I.) Cana de Azucar, (S.) Quasab, (Ar.) Can che, (Chin.) Saccharum. L. A. Sugar. Saccharum Officinarum. E. L. D. a. Saccharum non Purificatum. E. Saccharum Rubrum. D. Raw or Brown Sugar. b. Saccharum Purificatum. L. D. Saccharum Purissimum. E. Double Refined Sugar. c. Sacchari Rubri Syrupus. D. Syrupus Empyreumaticus. E. Melasses. Treacle. Syn. Sucrepur, (F.) Zucker; Weisser Zucker, (CJ.) Zucchero brutto; Zuc- chero in pane; Melassa, (I.) Azucar; Atriaca,,(S.) Shukhir, (Ar.) Che- nee, (H.) Sakkara, (San.) . The sugar cane grows wild in both Indies, and forms the princi- pal object of cultivation in the West Indies. • Sugar is a hard, but brittle substance, of a white colour, disposed to form semi-transparent crystallizations, of a sweet taste, and with- out smell. When heated sufficiently, it melts, is decomposed, emits a peculiar smell, (caromel,) and becomes inflamed. Sugar at 40 is soluble in its own weight of water, and in still less at 212 . It is also soluble in about four parts of boiling alcohol. It combines with volatile oils, and renders them miscible with water. It also unites with potass and lime. It is decomposed by the concentrated sulphu- ric and nitric acids. According to Lavoisier's experiments, it con- sists of 71.76 oxygen, 17.89 carbon, and 10.35 hydrOgen; or, ac- cording to the original calculation, of 64 oxygen, 28 charcoal, and 8 hydrogen. t , , ... , ., Sugar is principally obtained from the plant, by boiling down its expressed iuice, with the addition of a certain proportion of lime or potass, until the greater.part is disposed to concrete intq brownish or yellowish crystalline grains. The lime or potass is added to sa- turate some malic acid, whose presence impedes the crystallization. The melasses, or that portion of the inspissated juice which does not crystallize, is separated from the raw sugar, whiclys sent to Europe to be refined. This is performed by dissolving it in water, boiling the solution with lime water, clarifying it with blood or white ol e£o-s, and straining it through woollen bags. The solution, after due evaporation, is permitted to cool to a certain degree, and then pour- ed into conical forms of unglazed earthen ware, where it concretes into a mass of irregular crystals. The syrup which has not crystal- lized, is then permitted to runoff through a hole in the apex of the cone The upper or broad end of the cone is then covered with moist clay, the water of which gradually penetrates into the sugar, and displaces a quantity of syrup which would ^^l^' ed in it, and discolour it. It is then carefully dried, and gets the name of loaf or lump sugar. When the solution and other steps ot 548 S.—Sagapenum. the process are repeated, the sugar is said to be double refined. Sugar is sometimes made to assume a more regular form of crystal- lization, by carrying the evaporation only a certain length, and then permitting the syrup to cool slowly. In this form it is called Brown or White sugar candy, according to the degree of its purity. Raw sugar varies very much in quality. It should be dry, crys- tallized in large sparkling grains^of a whitish or clear yellow colour, without smell, and of a sweet taste, without any peculiar flavour. Refined sugar should have a brilliant white colour, and a close compact texture. It should be very hard, but brittle, and break with sharp, semi-transparent, splintery fragments. Medical use.—Sugar, from being a luxury, has noW become one of the necessaries of life. In Europe, sugar is almost solely used as a condiment. But it is also a very wholesome and powerful article of nourishment; for during crop time, the negroes in the West Indies, notwithstanding their increased labours, always grow fat. It is in this way also, that its internal employment is useful in some diseases, as in sea-scurvy; for sugar produces no particular effect as a medicine, except that the coarser and impure kinds are slightly purgative. Applied externally, it acts as an escharotic in spongy and unhealthy granulations; and to abraded or inflamed sur- faces, it proves gently stimulant. In pharmacy it is principally employed to cover bad tastes, to give form, and to preserve more active substances. In using it for the last purpose, we must always remember, that if the proportion of sugar employed be too small, it will promote instead of retard, the fermentation of the articles it is intended to preserve. Melasses or treacle, is a very impure syrup. It is thick, viscid, of a dark brown, almost black colour, and has a peculiar smell; and a sweet, somewhat empyreumatic taste. Treacle is applied to many domestic and economical purposes; and in hospital practice may su- persede the use of sugar in many instances. SAGAPENUM. E. L. D. Sagapenum. A Gum-resin of a non-descript plant. The plant which furnishes this substance is not ascertained, but is conjectured by Willdenow, to be the Ferula Persica. Sagapenum is a concrete juice brought from Alexandria, either in distinct tears, or agglutinated in large masses. It is outwardly of a yellowish colour; internally, somewhat paler, and clear like horn, it grows soft upon being handled, and sticks to the fingers; its taste is hot, nauseous, and bitterish, and its smell disagreeable and al- liaceous. Neumann got from 480 grains, 306 alcoholic, and 108 watery, ex- tract; and inversely 170 watery, and 241 alcoholic, extract. The alcohol distilled from it was sensibly impregnated with its flavour, and along with the water, a considerable portion of volatile oil arose. It is not fusible. Medical use.—In medical virtues it holds a kind of middle place S___Salix. 549 between assafoetida and galbanum, and may be employed in the same manner, and under similar circumstances. SAGO. * Sago. The pith of the Cycas Circinalis. A light, nutritious aliment for convalescents, more appropriately located amongst the materia alimentaria. SALIX. Dioecia Diandria. Nat. ord. Amentacex. 1. Salix Fragilis. D. Crack Willow. The, Bark. 2. Salix Alba. D. Common White Willow. The Bark. 3. Salix Caprea. L. Great round-leaved Sallow. The Bark. 4. Salix Eryocephala. A. Willow. The Bark. The barks of these, and other species of willow, have been re- commended as substitutes for cinchona. The white willow was first introduced into practice by Mr. Stone, and strong evidence in favour of the use of the broad-leaved, in debility, intermittents, and foul ulcers, has been published by Messrs. James, White, and Wil- kinson; and Dr. Cullen, on this authority, and from the sensible qualities it possesses, recommends it, in his Materia Medica, as a substitute for the cinchona. Mr. Stone gathered the bark in sum- mer, when it was full of sap; dried it by a gentle heat, and gave a drachm of it powdered every four hours, betwixt the fits. In a few obstinate cases, he mixed it with one-fifth part of the cinchona. Some judicious physicians here, says Dr. Cutler, made "trial of the bark of white willow, and recommend it as a valuable substitute for the Peruvian bark. They have used principally the bark of the root. These barks possess very considerable astringency and bitter- ness, but differ chemically from cinchona in containing no tannin. An ounce and a half of the dried bark should be first macerated six hours in two pounds of water, and then made to boil in it, for ten or fifteen minutes. An ounce or two of this decoction may be given three or four times a day, or oftener. Salix Latifolia. Broad-leaved Willow. The Bark. This possesses greater medicinal properties than any of the other species of salix; and is now substituted by many British physicians for the Peruvian bark. Three British pamphlets upon this subject have been published within a few years; the last, by Dr. Wilkinson, (1803,) is replete with encomiums on the remedy in question. This species of salix may be distinguished by the shape of its leaves from all others, except the salix pentandria, or bay-leaved willow. But the leaves of the latter are smooth and shining, and of a deeper green; nor have they the downy appearance on the under surface, * Pharm. U. S. 550 S.—Salvia Officinalis. which is so remarkable in the salix caprea or latifolia. It is found in woods and hedges on hilly situations, and delights in cold, clayey, moist ground. The most proper time to gather the bark, is in May or June; it should be cut in small pieces, and dried in the shade. This bark is very astringent to the taste, and somewhat bitter, but it loses the latter quality when dry. Dr. Wilkinson directs one ounce and a half of the coarse powder of the bark to be infused in one quart of water for six hours; then to boil it over a gentle fire for a quarter of an hour, and strain for use: of this, the ordinary dose is two or three large spoonsful, three or four times a day; but in the ague and fever, one or two ounces may be given every third hour, in the interval of the fit The strong decoction of this bark resem- bles port wine in colour, for which, by several who have seen it in vials, it has been mistaken. Dr. Wilkinson relates sixteen cases of disease, in which this bark was employed with decided advantage, and from which he does not hesitate to assign to it, virtues greatly superior to those of the cin- chona: in particular, he relates a case of extreme emaciation from an ulcerated foot, which was perfectly cured, after having resisted the continued use of Peruvian bark, and the exertion of the physicians of two public charities. It is, doubtless, a remedy of considerable efficacy, and is strongly recommended on account of its cheapness, and the facility of procuring it. It appears to be useful in most cases where the cinchona is usually resorted to. SALVIA OFFICINALIS. E. D. Sage. The Leaves. Diandria Monogynia. Nat. ord. Verticillatx, Linn. Labiatx, Juss. Syn. Sauge, (F.) Salbei, (G.) Em/tr^axov, Dioscor. Sage is a perennial plant, a native of the south of Europe, and cultivated in our gardens. There are several varieties of it differing in size, or in the colour of its flower, but their properties are the same. They have a peculiar aromatic smell, and a warm, aromatic taste, with some degree of bitterness and astringency. Medical use.—In its effects, sage agrees with other aromatics. It is stimulant, carminative, and tonic. In cold phlegmatic habits, it excites appetite, and proves serviceable in debilities of the nervous system. The best preparation for these purposes is an infusion of the dry leaves, drunk as tea; or a tincture, or extract, made with rectified spirit, taken in proper doses; these contain the whole virtues of the sage; the distilled water and essential oil only its warmth and aromatic quality, without any of its roughness or bitterness. Aque- ous infusions of the leaves, with the addition of a little lemon-juice, prove an useful diluting drink in febrile disorders, being sufficiently agreeable to the palate. The above plant is an evidence, either of the fickleness of physi cians, or of the undue praises, which plants of the most trifling vir- tues can elicit from practitioners. When the ancient poets, speak ing of this plant, exclaimed " Cur moriatur homo cui salvia crescit in horto;" S___Sanguinaria. 551 who could have imagined the time would ever arrive, when its sole employment would be that of a simple drink in fevers, &c. Such are the mutations that alike await hundreds of those articles, which now stand proudly pre-eminent in the catalogues of the Materia Medica. It may serve as a beacon to check the strong propensity that exists, to enlarge the already crowded lists, with any article that is supposed to possess the smallest medicinal powers. Yet, in- ert as the present article may be, I am persuaded it better deserves a place than many now to be found in the lists. SAMBUCUS NIGRA. E. L. D. Common Elder. The Flowers, Berries, and inner Bark. Pentandria Trigynia. Nat. ord. Dumosx, Linn. Caprifolix, Juss. Syn. Sureau ordinaire, (F.) Fliederblumen, (G.) Aktx, Dioscor. This tree is frequent in hedges; it flowers in May, and ripens it* fruit in September. The berries contain malic acid, and have a sweet- ish, not unpleasant, taste; nevertheless, eaten in substance, they of- fend the stomach. For the market, they are gathered indiscriminately from the Sambucus nigra and ebulus, a very venial fraud, as their effects are exactly the same. They are, however, easily distinguished, by the latter, when bruised, staining the fingers of a red colour, and the former of the colour of a withered leaf. Medical use.—The expressed juice, inspissated to the consistence of a rob, proves an useful aperient medicine; it opens obstructions of the viscera, promotes the natural evacuations, and, if continued for a length of time, does considerable service in various chronicaLdis- orders. The inner green bark of its trunk is gently cathartic. An infusion of it in wine, or the expressed juice, in the dose of half an ounce or an ounce, is said to purge moderately, and in small doses to prove an efficacious deobstruent, capable of promoting all the fluid secretions. The young leaf-buds are strongly purgative, and act with so much violence, as to be deservedly accounted unsafe. The flowers- are very different in quality: these have an agreeeble aro- matic flavour, which they yield in distillation with water, and im- part by infusion to vinous and spirituous liquors. SAMBUCUS CANADENSIS.* Elder. The Berries. Although the framers of the American Pharmacopoeia appear to have thought so highly of this article, as to have introduced it into both their lists, it is probable that its virtues are not superior in any particular to those ascribed to the preceding. SANGUINARIA CANADENSIS.* Blood Root. Puccoon. The Seeds and Root. This is a common plant in the United States, and is called also * Pharm. V. S. t Sanguinaria, Pharm. U. S, 552 S.—Sanguinaria. red root, Indian paint, turmeric. The leaves are roundish, and deeply indented; stems naked, supporting single flowers; blossoms white. It grows in rich woodland, and flowers in April. When the fresh root is broken, a juice issues in large drops resembling blood. The Indians used it for painting themselves, and highly esteemed it fru- its medicinal virtues. It is emetic and cathartic, but must be given with caution. An infusion of the root in rum or brandy, makes a good bitter. If it be planted in rich shady borders, it flourishes well in gardens: and the large leaves and blossoms make an agreeable appearance soon after the frost is out of the ground. [Cutler's Account of Indigenous Vegetables. From an Inaugural Dissertation on Sanguinaria, by Dr. Downy, (Philadelphia, 1803,) the following useful information is obtained. "The root is from one-fourth to half an inch in diameter, from three to four inches long, sending forth numerous stringy fibres, two or three inches long: a coloured liquor is thrown out when the root is broken. The stalk is six or eight inches long, and of the thickness of a quill. The leaves are cordate and lobate. " There is but one leaf to a stalk; on each lobe, one large fibre, of a light yellow colour, may be seeu running from the stalk, and many smaller ones branching from it in all directions. The powdered root, in doses of fifteen or twenty grains, is powerfully emetic. Eight grains is a mild dose, and is but little inferior to ipecacuan. It con- tains a large proportion of gum, some resin, and extractive matter. The first and last are the most active parts. " The leaves and seeds of the plant are powerful and diffusible stimuli; promote sweat, and are given in Maryland with that view to horses, to promote the shedding of their coats. A tincture of the root is used to prevent the intermittent fever; and a decoction of the roots to cure the dysentery. In one case, it operated powerfully upon the uterus, and produced abortion; hence it might be useful in female obstructions." The seeds are said, by Professor Barton, (Collection for Materia Medica,) to possess nearly the same quality of those of stramonium, viz. they induce fever, delirium, dilated pupil, &c. A deleterious property resides also in the leaves. The root has been used in gonor- rhoea, for the bites of serpents, and in bilious diseases; and the juice is employed to destroy warts. In some parts of New England, a spirituous tincture of the root is used as a tonic bitter. It is expec- torant, and is apparently allied in properties to rattle-snake root. The medical properties of sanguinaria have been investigated by numerous trials in the hands of Doctor Aaron Dexter. The experi- mental tests of this gentleman, corroborated by those of other re- spectable physicians, afford the most satisfactory evidence, that it possesses very active powers, and that in doses of one grain of the powdered root, or ten drops of a saturated tincture, it proves effica- cious as a stimulant and diaphoretic. But in large doses, it excites nausea and vomiting, and if incautiously administered, it is of dan- gerous tendency. It is said to be efficacious in removing jaundice, and is believed to be a chief ingredient in the quack medicine known by the name of Rawson's Bitters. S.—Sapo. 558 Dr. Israel Allen, of Sterling, and others, have had recourse to this medicine as a substitute for digitalis, in coughs and pneumonic complaints; and on some occasions it is said to have proved equally efficacious, and less debilitating than foxglove, when exhibited with the same precautions. The dose of the saturated tincture of the root is from thirty to eighty drops twice in the day, increasing or decreasing the number as particular circumstances may require. SAPO. E. L. D. A. Castile Soap. 1. Sapo Durus. Hard Soap, corhposed of Soda and Olive Oil. 2. Sapo Mollis. Soft Soap, made of Potass and Oil. Soaps are combinations of the fluid or concrete fixed oils with al- kalies, earths,, or metallic oxyds. The alkaline soaps have an unplea- sant taste and peculiar smell, form a milky solution with water, and a transparent one with alcohol, and are powerfully detergent. White soap is made of soda and olive oil or tallow. Brown soap contains also resin. Soft soap consists of potass and whale oil; the white spots in it are from the addition of a little tallow. The volatile liniment of the Pharmacopoeias is a soap of ammonia and olive oil. The alka- line soaps are decomposed by all the earthy salts. The alkali of the soap cpmbines with the acid of the salts, and an earthy soap is form- ed from the union of the earth and oil. The earthy soaps are insolu- ble in water. The alkaline soaps are decomposed in the same way by tne metallic salts. The metallic soaps are also insoluble in wa- ter; many of them are soluble in oil, and some of them in alcohol. Soap is of two kinds, hard and soft; hard when it is made with soda, and soft when made with potass. The latter is a strong, but coarse soap, and in medicine is only used externally as a detergent and cataplasm. The officinal species of the former is composed of olive oil and soda. It is only prepared in the countries which pro- duce the oil. For medicinal use we prefer the Spanish. It should be white and hard, dissolve entirely in water and in al- cohol, forming with the former a milky, and with the latter a trans- parent solution: the solutions should froth freely on agitation. It should not be variegated in its colour, feel greasy or moist, or be co- vered with a saline efflorescence; and the solutions should not have a rancid smell or taste. Some of the foreign dispensatories are so very particular about the nature of the soap used in medicine, as to direct it to be prepared by the apothecary, by simply triturating, without the assistance of heat, Provence oil, with half its weight of a solution of soda, of the specific gravity of 1.375, until they unite. Soap is decomposed by all the acids, earths, and earthy and me- talline salts. The acids combine with the alkali, and separate the oil. The earths form an insoluble earthy soap with the oil, and se- parate the alkali; while with the salts there is a mutual decomposi- tion, their acid combines with the alkali, and earthy or metalline soaps are formed. Medical use.— The detergent property of soap, or the power it 71 554 S.—Scilla. possesses of rendering oily and resinous substances miscible with water, has given rise to very erroneous notions of its medical virtues. It was supposed to render such substances more readily soluble in the juices of the stomach, and in the fluids of the body, and to be well fitted for dissolving such oily or unctuous matters as it may meet with in the body, attenuating viscid juices, opening obstruc- tions of the viscera, and deterging all the vessels it passes through. It has likewise been supposed a powerful menstruum for the urinary calculus; and a solution of soap in lime-water, has been considered as one of the strongest dissolvents that can be taken with safety into the stomach; for the virtue of this composition has been thought con- siderably greater than the aggregate of the dissolving powers of the soap and lime-water when unmixed. How erroneous these ideas are, appear evidently, when we recol- lect the very easy decomposition of soap, which renders it perfectly impossible that it should enter the circulating system, or, indeed, come into contact with the fluids even of the mouth, without being decomposed. As to the solution of soap in lime-water, we may ob- serve, that it is only a clumsy way of exhibiting a solution of soda; for the soap is decomposed, an insoluble soap of lime is formed, and the soda remains in solution. The internal use of soap should, there- fore, be confined to the giving form to other substances which are not decomposed by it, and to decompose metallic poisons when they have been taken into the stomach. For this last purpose, a tea-cup- ful of a solution of soap, in four times its weight of water, may be drunk every three or four minutes, until a sufficient quantity be taken. Applied externally, it is a very powerful detergent, and combines the stimulating properties of the alkali with the lubricating nature of the oil. In this way it often proves a powerful discutient, and a useful application to sprains and bruises For some useful observations on soap, see 9th vol. p. 189, of Silli- man's Journal, by Mr. Chevreul; also, on a "new process for ob- taining elaine from oils," by Mr. Peclet, from the An. de Chim. Mars # Mai, 1823 SCILLA. A. Squill. Scilla Maritima. E. L. D. Squill. The Root. Hexandria Monogynia. Nat. ord. Coronarix, Linn. Asphodeli, Juss. Syn. Scille, (F.) Meerzwiebal, (G.j Zeeajuin, (Dutch.) Skille, (Dan.) Scilla, (I.) Cebolla abarruna, (S.) 2xma», Dioscor. The squill is a perennial bulbous-rooted plant, which grows wild on the sandy shores of Spain, Portugal, north of Africa, and the Le- vant, and might with ease be cultivated in our southern states. The root is about the size of the fist pear-shaped, with the apex upwards, and consists of fleshy scales, attenuated at both edge^, surrounded by other scales, which are arid, shining, and so thin that the root at first sight seems to be tunicated. The recent roots are full of a white viscid juice, have scarcely any smell, but a very bit- ter, nauseous, and extremely acrid taste. Rubbed on the skin, it inflames, and blisters. It is more commonly met with in the shops, in the form of the S.—Scilla. 555 allied scales, which should be brittle, semi-pellucid, smooth, but marked with lines, and when chewed, should feel tenacious, and taste very bitter, without manifest acrimony. The active constituent of the squill is the acrid principle; and, therefore, it becomes almost inert by too much drying, or by being kept too long in the form of powder. It also contains bitter extrac- tive, much mucilage, albumen, and starch. Of the genus scilla there are 27 species. None of these are from the West Indies, from whence, a few years ago, a considerable num- ber of bulbs were imported to Philadelphia, and sold as the scilla maritima. They proved, however, to be a species of Crihum, (Ame- ricanum.) The crinum belongs to the class Hexandria Monogynia, Nat. ord. Amaryllideae; and in its bulb may easily be mistaken for the squill, except when in flower. Another bulb, that of the albuca altissima, may be also confounded with it; even in the flower, l»ut little difference exists. We give a few of the characters of each. G. Scilla. Corolla, 6-petala, patens, decidua. —Filam. filiform. petalorum basi adnexa. The leaf is broader and shorter than in the albuca. Sp. Maritima. Nudiflora, bracteis refractis. G. Albuca. Corolla 6-petala, interioribus conniventibus, exterio- ribus patulis, dorso saepius viridi-coloratis, &c. In the squill, the stamina are half the length of the corolla, and the middle of the petal is reddish. In the albuca the stamina are the length of the corolla, and the middle of the petal is green. The leaf is long, narrow, and terminates in a solid awl-shaped extremity. We have little doubt that the bulbs of other plants have often been sold for the squill, and that much disappointment has resulted from such mistakes. Medical use.—Given internally in large doses, it produces purging and vomiting, sometimes even strangury, bloody urine, inflammation and erosion of the stomach. In smaller doses it proves an useful expectorant and diuretic, and it is said to lessen the frequency of the pulse. Hippocrates seems to have employed it as a pessary, (Fcesius Ed. p. 587.) Squill is sometimes given as a general stimulant in typhus, espe- cially to cattle. But it is much more frequently exhibited as an ex- pectorant where the lungs are loaded with Viscid matter, and as a diuretic in dropsical cases, for which purpose it is commonly con- joined with calomel. The dose of dried squill is one or two grains three or four times a day; and the most commodious form for the taking of squills, unless when designed as an emetic, is that of a bolus or pill: liquid forms are to most people too offensive, though these may be rendered less disagreeable both to the palate and stomach by the addition of aro- matic distilled waters. Pulvis Scilla. D. Powder of Squill. Cut the squills, after having removed their membranous integuments, into transverse slices ; dry these on a sieve with a gentle heat, and reduce them to powder, winch is to be kept in phials with ground glass stoppers. 556 S.—Secale Cortmtum. By this method the squill dries much sooner than when its seve- ral coats are only separated; the internal part being here laid bare, which, in each of the entire coats, is covered with a thin skin, which impedes the exhalation of the moisture. The root loses in this pro- cess four-fifths of its original weight; the parts which exhale with a moderate heat appear to be merely watery; hence six grains of the dry root are equivalent to half a drachm of it when fresh; a cir- cumstance to be particularly regarded in the exhibition of this me- dicine. But if too great heat has been employed to dry it, it be- comes almost inert, and it also loses by long keeping in the state of powder. Dried squills furnish us with a medicine, sometimes advantageous- ly employed as an emetic, often as an expectorant, but still more frequently as a powerful diuretic. SCROPHULARIA NODOSA. D. Knotty-rooted Figwort. The Herb. This is a perennial plant, growing in woods, and under hedges. If flowers in July. The roots are grey and knotty, and have a nau- seous smell, and a sweet but somewhat acrid taste, both of which they partly lose by drying. SECALE CORNUTUM.* Spurred or Horned Rye. Ergot. The Spur. Although introduced by the American Pharmacopceia into the secondary list, if the observations of many practitioners are to be credited, this article better deserved a more exalted standing, than many which are placed in the primary list. Rye is subject to a disease, particularly when a hot summer suc- ceeds a rainy spring; the spurious substance thus produced is in France called ergot, from its resemblance to a cock's spur, but in England it is termed horned rye, spur, or hornseed. In Cullenrs Ma- teria Medica it is termed secale cornutum. Bread made of this kind of rye has a nauseous acrid taste, and produces numerous fatal dis- eases, as spasm, extreme debility, and mortification of the extremi- ties. At various periods subsequent to the year 1596, the most alarming and destructive consequences were occasioned among the poor in France and England, by the use of bread made of such da- maged grain. Horned rye is said to have been equally fatal to brutes and fowls, when fed with it by way of experiment. Rye is affected with the disease in this country similar to that in Europe, particularly summer rye, in loW, wet situations. The singu- lar production called ergot, is found projecting from among the leaves of- the spike, or ear; it is a long crooked excrescence, resem- bling the spur of a cock, pointed at its extremities, of a dark brown * Pharm. U. S. secondary. S.—Secale Cornutum. 557 colour externally and white within. Some spikes are occupied wholly by spurs, while others have two or three only, interspersed with genuine seeds of rye. The medicinal properties of this extraordinary substance were first announced to the public by Dr. John Stearns, of Saratoga county, in a letter to Dr. Ackerly, of New York, in which the article is extol- led for its powders, ad partum accelerandum. It is now satisfacto- rily ascertained, that ergot is capable of exerting a specific action on the uterus, and of augmenting the powers of this organ during the efforts of parturition. Hence, in lingering and laborious cases it is found to be an invaluable medicine, speedily inducing forcible pains, and greatly expediting delivery. For obvious reasons, however, it is proper to caution against employing this powerful parturient in cases of preternatural presentation. In the form of powder, itis given from five to ten or fifteen grains; but it has sometimes been found more active in the form of decoction, half a drachm of the powder being gently boiled in half a pint of water; one-third may be given every twenty minutes until proper pains shall have commenced. A large dose of decoction, or of pulvis ad partum accelerandum, will excite nausea and vomiting. No example of ergot having induced deleterious effects, has come to our knowledge; but there is much reason to suppose that it is capable of producing abortion at any stage of pregnancy. A writer in the New England Medical Journal, No. I. Vol. I. as- serts that it has not appeared to relax the rigidity of the muscular fibres, " but it has almost uniformly increased the efforts of the ute- rus to expel the foetus." And also, that occasions have occurred, authorizing a caution of the highest importance in practice. The powerful and continued efforts of the uterus, from the effects of er- got, prevent the retreat of the child's head after being advanced, and the unceasing pressure has in some instances occasioned the death of the child. Let this circumstance, therefore, have its due effect, and induce the utmost precaution in the administration of this pow- erful article. In one case of amenorrhcea, Dr. Beckman administer- ed one drachm of ergot in decoction; bearing down pains immediate- ly ensued, and the suppression was the next day removed. It has been successfully employed, on similar occasions, by other practi- tioners. However extraordinary it may appear, the assertion is from the most creditable source, that ergot has often proved one of the most efficacious remedies in menorrhagia in all its stages; and more- over, it restrains in a remarkable manner the profusio ulerina follow- ing the separation of the placenta in parturition. In two instances ergot is stated to have been administered in con- siderable quantities during the early stage of pregnancy. In one case, about four drachms were taken within a few days; the conse- quence was regular pressing down pains, resembling the severest throes of parturition; and these recurred with every repetition of the medicine, yet on examination, the os uteri was not much dilated. In neither case was the natural term of gestation interrupt- ed by the operation of the medicine. The fact has long been known among our farmers, that rye itself possesses a quality of inducing abortion in females of the. animal 558 S.—Secale Comutum. tribe, and they carefully withhold that grain from such, during their periods of gestation. To those who feel interested in the subject, the following refer- ences may prove acceptable. They form, it is probable, but a small proportion of what may be found in relation to it, having been cur- sorily noted down in general reading. Tissot, Philosophical Transactions, vol. 55. p. 106.—Critical Re- view, 1766, p. 133.—Foedere, Med. Legale, 4. 46.—Eclectic Reper- tory, 4. 249—7. 266, 429—8. 129—9. 260.—Perrault, Philosophical Transactions, 1676, 11. No. 130.—Do. Abridged, (Pearson,) 2. S57. 12. 208.—Geoffroy, Matierre Medicale, 10. p. 7.—Zimmerman, Ex- perience, &c. 2.168.—Bondeli, Letters to Dr. Lang.—-Lemery. Bit- ter, Src. in L'Histoire de l'Acad. Roy. de Sciences, 1718.—Ray, Hist Plant. 1. 1241, mentions it as tnen used to excite the Lochia. —Hoffman's Pract. 2. 300, 303, notices its noxious effects as known to Galen. The following observations on the agency of the ergot in producing dry gangrene, are extracted from the inaugural essay of Dr. Charles C. Byrd, of Virginia, 1821. " The dry gangrene, though rarely met with in this country, was known many years ago in France; to the periodical writings of which country, we are indebted for much information respecting the disease. The first commu- nication on the subject, given to the world, was made by M. Dodard, in 1676, in a letter inserted in the Journal des Savans, by whom it was stated, even at that early period, to arise from eating rye bread, tainted with the ergot; sub- sequently M. Saviard, surgeon to the Hotel Dieu of Orleans, where there were many patients with dry gangrene, remarks that persons are attacked with it, who live on rye bread; he further states, that the extremities of those who have it, are as dry as touch-wood, and as emaciated as Egyptian mum- mies. This disease commences in the extremities or parts most remote from the source of the circulation; attended generally with but little fever, inflam- mation, or pain; the limb becomes dead, and is either separated by the ab- sorbents, or requires to be removed by the knife. It has always been found to prevail most, in those seasons favourable to the production of the ergot, and to be confined to those who live on rye: these circumstances, so strong of themselves, sufficed to convince all who witnessed them, that this species of gangrene had its origin in the use of rye containing the ergot, have since been corroborated by the experiments of M. Tiessier, which proved that fowls fed for any length of time with the article were attacked with a disease similar to the dry gangrene of human beings; still, however, the question is not settled, and doubts are held on the subject even at the present day. Led by an inclination to satisfy myself with regard to this interesting question, I instituted experiments during the last summer on ducks, which, though made on a small scale, afforded the most conclusive results. I shall give a history of them from the time of administering the first dose of ergot, until the death of the fowls. " On the 28th of June, 1820, having procured two well grown healthy ducks, I commenced by mixing the ergot in small quantities in their food, but was unable to disguise it in such a way as to get them to eat it; finding this to be the case, I determined to force it upon one of them in such quan- tity as I thought sufficient for my object: I began therefore, on the 7th of July, and gave to one of them one drachm of the ergot per diem in the dose of twenty grains, morning, noon, and evening: with this course I soon per- ceived an evident change in the fowl; it became languid, lost its appetite, and there was a discharge of limpid fluid from the eyes, nose, and mouth; that from the nose soon became bloody and offensive, the beak became affected, it was dark and shrivelled, the feet and legs were black and glossy S.—Sesamum Orientale. 559 On the 18th instant, this duck died, 1 rather believe from some accident, for, although labouring under the effects of the ergot, mortification had not pro- ceeded far enough to produce death, alone. On dissection I found the sto- mach, (or as it is commonly called, the gizzard,) red as if inflamed, the mus- cles of the thigh were hard and dry. " On the 19th of July I commenced a precisely similar course with the remaining duck, but why the disease produced in this case differed from the other, I am quite at a loss to decide. But the disease here produced, might, with much propriety, be called wet gangrene; the beak of this duck, instead of being dry like the former, was covered with a vesicle, the investing mem- brane of the bill being much elevated, and containing below it, a dark co- loured fluid, the skin of the legs was covered with moisture, and in a few days more, worms and maggots were generated. The claws now began to fall out, the integuments covering the feet and legs sloughed away, and on the 1st ot August, it died with its whole body in a state of putrefaction. " From the results of the experiments above stated, I am led to the certain conclusion, that the ergot is capable of producing the drj gangrene; but, at the same time, I am convinced, and indeed the fact is mentioned by M. Bossau, that the gangrene is not always of the dry kind, which certainly is proved by my last experiment, the result of which was witnessed by several students, and also by Dr. S. Jackson of this city." SESAMUM ORIENTALE.* Benne Oil. The Fixed Oil of the Seeds. This, originally an African plant, has become well known by the name of benne in South Carolina and Georgia, or the Vangloe of the West Indies. It is an annual plant, rising with an herbaceous four- cornered stalk, two feet high, sending out a few short side branches; the leaves are oblong, oval, a little hairy, and stand opposite. The flowers terminate the stalk in loose spikes; they are small, of a dirty white colour, shaped somewhat like those of foxglove. After the flowers are past, the germen turns to an oval, acute pointed capsula, with four cells filled with oval compressed seeds, which ripen in autumn. Of late years, the seeds have been introduced into the states of Georgia and South Carolina, by the African negroes, where the plant succeeds extremely well; and they boil a handful of the seeds with their allowance of Indian corn, which forms a nourishing food. But the excellency of these seeds consists in their yielding a larger proportion of oil than any other vegetable with which we are acquainted. One hundred weightof seed will produce ninety pounds of oil, of an equal, and even preferable quality, to Florence oil. It will keep good many years without contracting any rancid smell or taste, and when the warm taste of the seed, discovered in the oil, when first drawn, is worn off, it becomes quite mild, and is found to be a pleasant and agreeable substitute for all the purposes of salad oil. The benne oil in some parts of the southern states, is esteemed as a gentle laxative, in those cases where the more nauseous castor oil is usually employed. It also burns well in lamps. The leaves of this plant by infusion or decoction, are found to afford an excellent mucilage, well adapted to all the intentions of that class of reme ' Sesami Oleum, Pharm. U. S. secondary. 560 S.—Serpentaria. dies, and in 1803, was used with the most marked good effect, in an epidemic dysentery in South Carolina. Considering, therefore, the great utility and importance of the benne plant, its cultivation by our planters cannot be too strongly recommended. SILENE VIRGINICA. Ground Pink. This species of silene or catch-fly, is abundant in many parts of the United States. Some of the Indians say it is a poisonous plant. In decoction, the root has been found a very efficacious anthel- mintic. * SERPENTARIA. A. Aristolochia Serpentaria. E. L. D. Virginia Snake-root. The Root. Gynandria Hexandria. Nat. ord. Sarmeptacex, Linn. Aristolochix, Juss. This is a small, light, bushy root, consisting of a number of strings or fibres matted together, issuing from one common head; of a brown- ish colour on the outside, and paler or yellowish within. It has an aromatic smell, like that of valerian, but more agreeable: and a warm, bitterish, pungent taste, very much resembling that of cam- phor. Treated with alcohol, it affords a bright green tincture, which is rendered turbid by water; by filtration a small portion of a green matter is separated, but its transparency is not restored. It neither precipitates tannin nor gelatin, nor affects the salts of iron or tinc- ture of turnsole. When the diluted tincture is distilled, the spirit and tincture pass over milky, strongly impregnated with its peculiar flavour. Medical use.—Its virtues are principally owing to the essential oil with which it abounds. Its general action is heating and stimulant; its particular effects, to promote the discharge by the skin and urine. In its effects, it therefore coincides with camphor, but seems to be a more permanent stimulus. It is recommended, 1. In intermittent fevers, especially when the paroxysms do not terminate by sweating; and to assist the action of Peruvian bark in obstinate cases. 2. In typhus, and in putrid diseases, to support the vis vitse, and to excite gentle diaphoresis. 3. In exanthematous diseases, when the fever is of the typhoid type, to support the action of the skin, and keep out the erup- tion. 4. In gangrene. Externally it is used as a gargle in the putrid sore throat. It is exhibited, 1. In powder, which is the best form, in doses of twenty or thirty grains. * Barton's Collections, Part I. p. 39. S.—Sisymbrium Nasturtium. 561 2. In infusion with wine or water. By decoction its powers are entirely destroyed. » It is often combined with Peruvian bark, or with camphor.' SINAPIS. Tetradynamia Siliquosx. Nat. ord. Siliquosx, Linn. Cruciferx, Juss. Sinapis Nigra. L. Sinapis Alba. E. DA Common Mustard. White Mustard. The Seeds. These plants are both annual, both grow wild in England,'and possess similar virtues. . They produce small round compressed seeds, which have an acrid bitterish taste, and a pungent smell when reduced to powder. The common mustard has blackish seeds, and is more pungent than the white. They impart their taste and smell in perfection to aqueous liquors, whilst rectified spirit extracts extremely little of either: the whole of the pungency arises with water in distillation. Committed to the press, they yield a considerable quantity of a soft insipid oil, per- fectly void of acrimony; the cake left after the expression, is more pungent than the mustard itself. Medical use.—Mustard-seed is swallowed entire, to the quantity of a table-spoonful or more, to stimulate the stomach in some cases of dyspepsia, and to excite the peristaltic motion of the intestines, especially when they are torpid, as in paralysis. The powder made into a paste with water, is commonly used as a condiment with ani- mal food; infused in water, it proves emetic when taken in consi- derable doses, and in smaller ones, acts as a diuretic and aperient; but it is more frequently applied externally as a topical stimulus, made into a paste or sinapism with vinegar and bread-crumb. A weak infusion of mustard-seed has been employed with success to check vomiting. SISYMBRIUM NASTURTIUM. E. Common Water Cresses. The Recent Herb. This plant is perennial, and grows wild in clear springs and ri- vulets throughout Britain. Its leaves remain green all the year, but are in greatest perfection in the spring. They have a quick pungent smell, (when rubbed betwixt the fingers,) and an acrid taste, similar to that of scurvy-grass, but weaker. By drying or boiling, it loses its sensible qualities entirely. Medical use.—It acts as a gentle stimulant and diuretic; for these purposes, the expressed juice, which contains the peculiar taste and * The late Dr. Barton says the root of the aristolochia sipho of L'Herritier, which grows in various parts of the United States, is, for certain purposes, perhaps preferable to the common snake-root. ■j- Sinapis, Pharm. U. S. 562 S—Sarsaparilla. pungency of the herb, may be taken in doses of an ounce or two, and continued for a considerable time. SIUM NODIFLORUM. D. Procumbent Water Parsnip. The Herb. Pentandria Digynia. Nat. ord. Umbellatx. This plant is perennial, and grows wild in rivers and ditches in England. It was formerly alleged to be not only a diuretic, but also an emmenagogue and lithontriptic. With these intentions, however, it is not now employed. Dr. Withering mentions, that a young lady of six years old, was cured of an obstinate cutaneous disease by taking three large spoonfuls of the juice twice a day; and he adds, that he has given repeatedly to adults three or four ounces every morning, in similar complaints. In such doses it neither af- fects the head, stomach, nor bowels. Children take it readily when mixed with milk. SARSAPARILLA. L. D. A. SMILAX SARSAPARILLA. E. Sarsaparilla. The Root. Diozcia Hexandria. Nat. ord. Sarmentacex, Linn. Asparagi, Juss. This root is brought from the Spanish West Indies. It consists of a great number of long strings hanging from one head: the long roots, the only part made use of, are of a blackish colour on the out- side, and white within, about the thickness of a goose-quill, or thicker, flexible, composed of a very small woody heart, surrounded with fibres running their whole length, which renders them extremely apt to split. They have a glutinous, bitterish, not ungrateful taste, and no smell. Inferior kinds of this root are also sold. They are in ge- neral thicker, of a paler colour on the outside, and less white within, with a much thicker woody heart. Neumann got from 960 grains, 360 watery, and 10 alcoholic extract; and inversely, 240 alcoholic, and 120 watery. Medical use.—It was first brought into Europe by the Spaniards, about the year 1563, with the character of being a specific for the cure of the lues venerea, a disease which made its appearance a lit- tle before that time, and likewise of several obstinate chronic dis- orders. It is, however, a very inert, mucilaginous substance; and the diaphoresis, which it is sometimes supposed to produce, is en- tirely owing to the warm and diluent regimen employed at the same time. More recently, however, it has come into favour for the cure of many cutaneous affections, and especially of syphiloid diseases; and if upon just grounds, it will explain why it should have been so strongly recommended in syphilis, and why it should have failed. S.—Soda. 563 SODA__SODA. Sodium, the base of soda, resembles in its appearance silver, has great lustre, and is a conductor of electricity. It fuses at 200° Fahrenheit. It is not volatilized by the heat which melts plate glass. Its specific gravity is 0.9348, water being 1. It absorbs oxygen slowly from the atmosphere, and at a high temperature burns with bright sparks. It decomposes water with effervescence, and is inflamed by nitrous acid. Protoxyd of sodium, scarcely known; of a dark grey colour. Soda, of a grey colour, and vitreous fracture, a non-conductor of electricity. Hydrat of soda, formerly considered as pure soda, contains 22 per cent, of water, which cannot be separated by heat, of a greyish white colour, urinous taste, and burning causticity, acting with con- siderable violence on animal matter. Water, in a certain propor- tion, when thrown upon it, is absorbed and solidified, with the disengagement of caloric, and a lixivial smell. A larger quantity dissolves it. From the atmosphere it absorbs moisture and carbonic acid, becoming less caustic. In the fire it melts like an oily sub- stance, boils, and is converted into vapour, but is incombustible. It is crystallizable into transparent prismatic crystals. It changes vegetable blues to green; unites with all the acids, oils, sulphur, sulphureted hydrogen, phosphorus, many metallic oxyds, and the earths. It forms the basis of rock-salt, and sea-salt; is obtained from the ashes of marine plants, and exists in some minerals. Sodium readily forms sulphurets and phosphurets, which are less inflammable than those of potassium. Potassium and sodium combine readily in various proportions. A small quantity of potassium renders sodium brittle and very soft A small quantity of sodium renders potassium fluid at a very common temperature, and reduces its specific gravity considerably. Soda Impura. L. Carbonas Sod.e Impurus. E. Barilla. D. Impure Carbonat of Soda. Barilla. Fixed Mineral Alkali. Soda is a very common mineral production. It is the basis of sea- salt; and combined with carbonic acid, it is found on the surface of the earth in Egypt, Syria, Barbary, Hungary, &c. and is obtained by the incineration of marine vegetables, especially the salsola soda and kali, the salicornia herbacea, &c. The Spaniards even cultivate these in salt marshes for the sake of the soda. After being cut down, they are dried like hay. A deep pit is then prepared, and a bundle or two of the dried vegetables set on fire are thrown into it. When well kindled, other bundles are thrown in until the pit is filled. When the incineration is completed, the soda is found in the bot- tom, caked into a solid mass, which is worked like a stony substance. When good, it is firm, hard, heavy, dry, sonorous, spongy, and in- ternally of a blue colour mixed with white spots, does not deli- quesce, emits no unpleasant smell on solution, and does not leave a large proportion of insoluble matter. Incinerated soda is mixed 564 S.—Soda. with potass, muriat of soda, and other saline matters; mineral soda with clay and other earthy substances. The Egyptian soda was reckoned the best: then the Spanish, (Barilla;) afterwards the Car- thagenian; and that prepared from different species of fuci, (kelp,) is the worst. But all these carbonated sodas are inferior in purity to those now manufactured in Britain, by decomposing the sulphat of soda. That commonly used, is obtained by the bleachers as a residuum in their method of preparing oxygenized muriatic acid, by decom- posing muriat of soda with sulphuric acid and the black oxyd of manganese. The sulphat of soda is decortiposed, 1. By carbonat of potass. Mr. Accum has described the mani- pulations of this mode. A boiling concentrated solution of about 560 pounds of American potashes is ladled into a boil- ing solution of 500 pounds of sulphat of soda, agitated to- gether, and the whole quickly heated to ebullition. It is then drawn off into leaden cisterns, lined with thick sheet-lead, and allowed to cool in a temperature which should not ex- ceed 55°. The fluid is then drawn off, and the mass of salt washed with cold water, to free it from impurities, and again put into the boiler with clean water. This second solution is also eva- porated at a low heat, as long as any pellicles of sulphat of potass form on its surface, and fall to tlie bottom of the fluid. The fire is then withdrawn, and the fluid ladled out into the cistern to crystallize. Unless the fluid be allowed to cool pretty low before it is removed to crystallize, the salt obtain- ed will contain sulphat of potass. 2. By acetat of lime. The acetic acid for this purpose is ob- tained by distillation from wood, during its conversion into charcoal. 3. By 1 itharge or sub-acetat of lead. Very pure carbonat of soda js prepared by this process in the vicinity of Edinburgh. , 4. By decomposing the sulphuric acid by charcoal. About 500 weight of sulphat of soda, and 100 weight of charcoal, are ground together, and the mixture exposed in a reverberatory Furnace until it becomes pasty. It is then transferred into large casks, and lixiviated. The ley is afterwards evaporated and crystallized. By this, or a similar process, very pure. carbonat of soda is manufactured in the west of Scotland. On the continent, muriat of soda is sometimes decomposed by potass, and sometimes by lime. Carbonat of soda is an article of the greatest importance in many manufactures. Medical use.—In medicine, it possesses similar virtues with the carbonat of potass; and from its crystallizability and efflorescence when exposed to the air, it is preferable to it, because its dose may be more accurately ascertained, and it may be given either in the form of powder or made up into pills. S.—Soda. 565 SodjE Subcarbonas. E. D. L. A. Sal Sodje. Subcarbonat of Soda. Take of impure Carbonat of Soda, any quantity.—Bruise it; then boil in water till all the salt be dissolved. Filter the solution through paper, and evaporate it in an iron vessel, so that after it has cooled, the salt may crystallize. E. These directions are principally intended for the purification of the Spanish barilla, which is a fused mass, consisting indeed princi- pally of carbonat of soda, but also containing charcoal, earths, and other salts. From the two first causes of impurity it is easily sepa- rated by solution and filtration, and the salts may be separated by taking advantage of their different solubility in cold and in hot wa- ter. Frequently the soda does not crystallize freely, from not being saturated with carbonic acid, which is the reason why the London College order the solution to be exposed to the atmosphere for eight days, that it may absorb carbonic acid, before they attempt the crystallization of the salts. But the preparation of carbonat of soda, by the decomposition of sulphat of soda, has now become a manufac- ture, and is carried to such perfection, that its further purification is almost unnecessary for the purposes of the apothecary. The primitive form is an octohedron, with a rhombic base of 60° and 120°, the planes of which meet at the summit at 104, and at the base at 76°. There are two distinct compounds of carbonic acid and soda, the one containing precisely half as much carbonic acid as the other. The first, or subcarbonat, is obtained by carefully recrystallizing the soda of commerce. If 100 grains of the salt be slowly added to a quantity of diluted sulphuric acid, more than sufficient for saturation, and of known weight, the loss of weight will show the quantity of carbonic acid contained in 100 grains. From experiments of this kind, joined with others on its loss by fusion, Berard deduces its composition to be Acid,.....13.98.....100..... 60 Base,.....23.33.....166.....100 Water, . . . 62.69 100. Independently of the water of crystallization, its composition has been differently stated, viz. 100 grains contain Acid. Base. , According to Berard, . ... . . . 37.50 Dulong, Dalton, . Klaproth, Kirwan, . 40.09 40.40 42. 40.10 62.50 59.91 59.60 58. 59.90 Its atomic constitution is supposed by Mr. Dalton to be one atom of soda with one atom of carbonic acid. When a solution of the subcarbonat of soda is saturated, by pass- ing through it a stream of carbonic acid gas, or when a solution of 100 parts of the salt are heated with one of fourteen parts of sub- 566 S.—Soda. carbonat of ammonia, we obtain by evaporation an indistinctly crys- tallized salt, which is the bi-carbonat of soda. The taste of this salt is much milder than that of the subcarbonat; and it requires a much larger quantity of water for solution. To bring soda to this state of saturation, 100 parts of the alkali require 125.33 of carbonic acid. The bi-carbonat is, therefore, composed, in 100 parts, Acid. Base. Water. According to Berard, of 49.95 ... 29.85 .. . 20.20 ------------Rose, ... 49. ... 37. ... 14. And as the acid in this salt is, as nearly as possible, double that of the subcarbonat, it must be constituted of two atoms of acid and one atom of soda. By exposure to a red heat, the whole of its water, and half its carbonic acid, are expelled, and it is converted into the dry subcarbonat. Sod.& Carbonas. L. E. A. Carbonat of Soda. Take of Subcarbonat of soda, one pound; Subcarbonat of ammonia, three ounces; Distilled water, one pint.—Add the ammonia to the subcarbonat of soda dissolved in the water; then apply a heat of 180°, in a sand bath, for three hours, until all the ammonia be ex- pelled. Lastly, set it aside to crystallize. In the same manner eva- porate the residuary liquor, and set it aside again to crystallize. This salt bears the same relation to the subcarbonat of soda that the carbonat of potass does to its subcarbonat. Klaproth first de- scribed it, and says it consists of 39 carbonic acid, 38 soda, and 23 water. It is found native in hard striated masses in the province of Sukena, in Africa, and is called trona. Mr. Phillips objects on calculation to the quantity of carbonat of ammonia employed, as unnecessarily too large; for in subcarbonat of soda, the alkali is to the acid as three to two, and in the carbonat they are equal, and in 100 parts of crystals of subcarbonat are 35 of salt, consisting of 21 soda and 14 acid, requiring therefore 7 addi- tional acid to neutralize it. Now, as 100 carbonat of ammonia con tains 50 acid, it follows, that 14 will furnish the necessary acid, and that 25, the quantity ordered by the college, is excessive. Sod-e Subcarbonas Exsiccatus. L.A. Carbonas Sod^l.Siccatum. D. Dried Subcarbonat (Carbonat. D.) of Soda. Take of Subcarbonat of soda, a pound.—Apply to it a boiling heat in a clean iron vessel until it becomes perfectly dry, and at the same time constantly stir it with an iron rod. Lastly, reduce it to powder. L. Subcarbonat of soda, deprived of its water of crystallization, is a very excellent remedy, for which we are indebted to Dr. Beddoes: he desires it to be prepared by simply exposing the pounded crys- tals before the fire; which appears to be preferable to the process di- rected by some of the colleges, in which much of the carbonic acid may be expelled. By simple efflorescence, crystallized carbonat of soda loses more than half its weight, and falls down into a fine per- manent powder. Whenever soda is prescribed in the form of pills, S.—Soda. 567 the effloresced carbonat is to be used, as, when made of the crys- tallized salt, they crack, and fall to pieces by the action of the air upon them, abstracting the water of crystallization. Medical use.—Dr. Beddoes first recommended the powder of ef- floresced soda, in calculous complaints, as a substitute for the super- carbonated alkaline waters, when these produced giddiness, or were too expensive: but its use has since been extended much further; and it is found to be not only an excellent antacid, but seems al- most to possess specific virtues in affections of the urinary organs. One or two scruples may be given in the course of the day, in the form of powder, or in pills; made up with soap and some aromatics. Aqua Super-Carbonatis Sod^:. E.* Solution of Super-Carbonat of Soda. Soda Water. This is prepared from ten pounds of water, and two ounces of car- bonat of soda, in the same manner as the water of super-carbonat of potass. By supersaturating soda with carbonic acid, it is rendered more agreeable to the palate, and may be taken in larger quantities, with- out affecting the stomach. * This is now in common use as a cooling beverage under the title of soda-water; and it may not be unneces- sary to mention, that its place cannot be at all supplied by what is sold as soda powder, which is not a supercarbonat of soda, but mere- ly a mixture of salts, which effervesces on being dissolved. Indeed, one moment's reflection must show the impossibility of reducing to a solid form, a salt which cannot exist in solution, except under very great pressure. What are called sodaic powders, as prepared in Great Britain, are contained in two distinct papers, the one blue, the other white; the powder contained in the former, consists of half a drachm of carbo- nat oj soda; that in the latter, of twenty-five grains of tartaric acid. These powders require half a pint of water. It is evident, that what is thus drank is not soda water, which is a solution of super-carbo- nated soda; whereas the solution of the sodaic powders, is a tartrat of soda, with a small portion of carbonic acid diffused through it. The patent Seidlitz powders, in like manner, consist of two drachms of tartarized soda, and two scruples of carbonat of soda, in white paper; and thirty-five grains of tartaric acid in a blue paper. The former is dissolved in half a pint of water, and the latter is then added to it; it is drank in the state of effervescence. SoD^E Phosphas. E. D. A. Phosphat of Soda. Take of Bones burnt to whiteness, and powdered, ten pounds; Sul- phuric acid, six pounds; Water, nine pounds.—Mix the powder with the sulphuric acid in an earthen vessel; then add the water, and mix again. Then place the vessel in a vapour bath, and di- gest for three days; after which dilute the mass with nine pounds more of boiling water, and strain the liquor through a strong li- nen cloth, pouring over it boiling water, in small quantities at a * Aqua Sods! Pharm. U. S.—subsequently corrected. 568 S.—Soda. time, until the whole acid be washed out. Set by the strained li- quor, that the impurities may subside, decant the clear solution, and evaporate it to nine pounds. To this liquor, poured from the impurities, add carbonat of soda, dissolved in warm water, until the effervescence cease. Filter the neutralized liquor and set it aside to crystallize. To the liquor that remains after the crystals are taken out, add a little carbonat of soda, if necessary, so as to saturate exactly the phosphoric acid, and dispose the liquor, by eva- poration, to form crystals. Lastly, the crystals are to be kept in a well-closed vessel. E. The first part of this process consists in destroying the gelatin of the bones by the action of heat. When burnt to perfect whiteness, they retain their form, but become friable, and consist of phosphat of lime, mixed with a very little carbonat of lime and carbonat of soda. In performing this part of the process, we must take care not to heat the bones to a bright red, as by it they undergo a kind of semi-fusion, and give out a phosphoric light. The complete combus- tion of the charcOal is facilitated by the free contact of the air; we must therefore bring every part in succession to the surface, and break the larger pieces. v In the second part of the process, the phosphat of lime is decom- posed by the sulphuric acid. This decomposition is however only partial. The sulphuric acid combines with part of the lime, and forms insoluble sulphat of lime. The phosphoric acid separated from that portion of lime, immediately combines with the rest of the phosphat of lime, and forms super-phosphat of lime, which is not further decomposable by sulphuric acid. The super-phosphat of lime, thus formed, is soluble in water; but as the sulphat of lime, with which it is mixed, concretes into a very solid mass, it-is in some measure defended from the action of water. On this account the whole mass is directed to be digested for three days in vapour, by which means it is thoroughly penetrated and prepared for solution in the boiling water, which is afterwards pour- ed on it. It is probably to render the subsequent solution easier, that Thenard directs the bone-ashes to be made into a thin paste (bouille) with water, before the sulphuric acid is added to them. Having thus got a solution of super-phosphat of lime, it is next decomposed by carbonat of soda, dissolved in water. This decompo- sition, likewise is only partial, as it deprives the super-phosphat of lime of its excess of acid only, and reduces it to the state of phos- phat. The phosphat of lime, being insoluble, is easily separated by filtration, and the phosphat of soda remains in solution. According to Thenard, the nicest point in the whole process is the determina- tion of the proper quantity of carbonat of soda to be added. As the phosphat of soda does not crystallize freely unless there be a slight excess of base, he directs that a little more carbonat of soda be added than what is merely sufficient to saturate the excess of acid in the super-phosphat of lime, but not to continue the addition until it cease to produce any precipitate. We must also take care not to carry the evaporation of a solution of phosphat of soda so far as to form a pellicle, for it then concretes into an irregular mass, and does not form beautiful crystals. After each crystallization, we must exa- S.—Soda. 569 mine the liquor which remains, and if it be acid, or merely neutral, add to it a little of the solution of carbonat of soda. In this way Thenard got from 2100 parts of bone-ashes, 700 of sulphuric acid, and 667 of carbonat of soda, 885 of phosphat of soda. According to Fourcroy, phosphat of lime consists of 0.41 acd and 0.59 lime; and super-phosphat of lime, of 0.54 acid and 0.46 lime; phosphat of lime, treated with sulphuric acid, is only deprived of 0.24 lime, and changed into 0.76 of super-phosphat, consisting of 0.59 phosphat of lime, and 0.17 phosphoric acid, and it is only with this portion of acid that we are able to combine soda. Fourcroy is also of opinion that phosphat of lime requires only 0.4 of its weight of sulphuric acid to decompose it, whereas 0.6 are employed by the Edinburgh College, and others use even 0.7. This is not only, therefore, a waste of acid, but renders the product impure, by being mixed with sul- phat of soda, which is sometimes actually the case in the phosphat of soda of commerce. Besides, as bone-ashes are of very little value, it is better that a portion of them should escape undecomposed than that an excess of acid should be added to them. Mr. Funcke, of Linz, has discovered a still more economical and expeditious method. It consists in saturating the excess of lime in calcined bones with diluted sulphuric acid, and then dissolving the remaining phosphat of lime in nitric acid. To this solution he adds an equal quantity of sulphat of soda, and then recovers the nitric acid by distillation. The phosphat of soda is then separated from the sulphat of lime, by the affusion of water and crystallization. Phosphat of soda crystallizes in rhomboidal prisms, terminated by three-sided pyramids. Its taste resembles that of common salt. At 60b it is soluble in four parts of water, and at 212° in two. It effloresces in the air. By heat it undergoes the watery fusion, and at last melts into a white mass. It consists, according to Thenard, of 15 phosphoric acid, 19 soda, and 66 water of crystallization. It is decomposed by most of the salts having an earthy base. Medical use.—Pl\osphat of soda was introduced into the practice of physic by the ingenious Dr. Pearson of London. It possesses the same medical qualities as sulphat of soda, and the tartrat of potass and soda; being an excellent purge in the quantity of an ounce or ten drachms; and has the peculiar advantage over these two salts of being much less nauseous than they are. Its taste is extremely similar to that of common salt; and when given in a basin of water- gruel, or veal-broth made without salt, it is scarcely perceptible by the palate, and consequently it is well adapted for patients whose stomachs are delicate, and who have an antipathy against the other salts. The only objection to its general use is the very great differ- ence between its price and that of sulphat of soda, * a difference which might certainly be diminished. Murias SodjE. E. L. D. A. Sal Commune. Muriat of Soda. Common Sea Salt. Salt. This is the most common of all the neutral salts. It is not only found in immense masses, on and under the earth's surface, and contained in great quantities in many salt springs, but it is the • ause of the saltness of the sea. 73 570 S.—Soda. Native muriat of soda presents two varieties, the lamellar and fibrous. It is found in Poland, Hungary, Spain, England, &c. When not perfectly pure, it is purified by solution ana crystalli- zation. Salt springs occur in many parts of the world. The quantity7 of muriat of soda contained in these varies, from an inconsiderable quantity, even up to one-third. Sea-water also varies much in strength. It is said to contain most salt in warm climates, and at great depths. Muriat of soda, as obtained from these natural solutions of it by evaporation and crystallization, is seldom pure, but commonly mixed with earthy muriats, which being deliquescent salts, dispose it to attract moisture from the atmosphere. It may, however, be purified by precipitating the earths by means of carbonat of soda, or by washing the crystallized salt with a saturated solution of mu- riat of soda, heated to ebullition. In this state it is not capable of dissolving any more muriat of soda, but will dissolve a considerable quantity of the earthy muriats. Muriat of soda has a pure salt taste, is soluble in 2.8 times its weight of water at 60°, and in 2.76 at 212°. It is not soluble in alcohol. By the action of heat it first decrepitates, then melts, and lastly, sublimes without decomposition. The primitive form of its crystals is cubic, and they are permanent in the atmosphere. Ac- cording to Kirwan, they consist of 38.88 muriatic acid, 53 soda, and 8.12 water. It is decomposed by the sulphuric and nitric acids, by potass and baryta, by secondary salts containing these, and by metalline salts, whose base forms an insoluble compound with muriatic acid. It is also gradually decomposed by lime, iron, and litharge. Medical use.—Muriat of soda is one of the most important articles in the arts, and in domestic economy. As a medicine, it is useful, in some cases of dyspepsia; and in large doses it is said to check vomiting of blood. It is a common ingredient in stimulating clys- ters, and is sometimes applied externally as a fomentation to bruises, or in the form of bath, as a gentle stimulus to the whole surface of the body Sodje Murias Exsiccatus. A. Murias Sod,e Siccatum. D. Dried Muriat of Soda. Take of Muriat of soda, any quantify.—Roast it over the fire in an iron vessel, loosely covered, until it cease to decrepitate, agitating it from time to time. D. By this process the muriat of soda is reduced into the state in which it is employed for the distillation of muriatic acid. It not only deprives it entirely of its water of crystallization, which, from being variable in quantity, would otherwise render the acid obtained un- equal in strength, but also destroys some colouring matter it con- tains; for if we prepare muriatic acid fr$n crystallized muriat of soda, we obtain a coloured muriatic acidf while the dried muriat fur- nishes a perfectly colourless one. S.—Soda. 571 Sulphuretum Sodje.* Sulphuret of Soda. Take of Sulphur, Dried sub-carbonat of soda, of each, one ounce.'-' Prepare it in the same manner as sulphuret of potass. SoDJE SUB-BORAS. L. D. A. BoRAS SoDJE. E. BoRAX. Borat of Soda. Sub-Borat of Soda. Borax. Borax is found only in Thibet and Persia. It exists in the water, of some wells and lakes, and is extracted from them by evaporation. In its^,impure state it is called tincal, and is brought from the East Indies in great masses, composed of a few large crystals, but chiefly of smaller ones, partly white and partly green, joined together as it were by a greasy yellow substance, intermixed with sand, small stones, and other impurities. By repeated solutions, nitrations, and crystal- lizations, it shoots into hexangular prisms, of which two sides are broader than the others, terminated by triangular pyramids of a white colour, a styptic and alkaline taste, colouring vegetable blues green, soluble in eighteen parts of water at 60, and in six at 212°, slightly efflorescing in the air, and when heated, swelling, and, with the loss of nearly half its weight, forming a porous, friable mass, which, in a greater neat, melts into a transparent glass soluble in water. Besides the acids and alkalies, which have a greater affinity for its acid or base than these have for each other, it is decomposed by sulphats, muriats, nitrats, phosphats, and fluats of all the earths and of ammo- nia. It consists of 39 boracic acid, 17 soda, and 44 water. Boracic acid exists in the form of small, shining, laminated crys- tals. Specific gravity is 1.479. It is fixed and vitrifiable in the fire. It is soluble in fifty parts of boiling water. It is also soluble in al- cohol, to which it imparts the property of burning with a yellow flame. It oxydizes only iron and zinc. Borats are vitrifiable; and their concentrated solutions afford, when heated with a strong sulphuric acid, brilliant, lamellated crystals. Medical wse.—The medical virtues of borax have not been suffi- ciently ascertained by experience; it is supposed to be, in doses of half a drachm or two scruples, diuretic, emmenagogue, and a pro- moter of delivery. Mr. Bisset, in an essay on the medical constitu- tion of Great Britain, recommends a solution of this salt in water, as the most powerful dissolvent yet known, of aphthous crusts, in the mouth and fauces of children. And for the same purpose also, a small quantity of it is often applied in the form of powder, mixed up with sugar. There are strong reasons to believe, that the virtues of borax are much greater than they are in general supposed to be; and that it may be more extensively used with advantage-. SoDiE Sulphas. L. D. E. A. Sulphat of Soda. Glauber's Salt. Dissolve the acidulous salt which remains after the distillation of mU' riatic acid, in water; and having mixed chalk with it, to remove the superfluous acid, set it aside until the sediment subsides, then evapo- rate the liquor decanted from them, and strain through paper, so that it may crystallize. E. The observations made respecting the different methods follow^ Pharm. U. S 572 S.—Sophora Tinctoria. by the colleges, for extracting sulphat of potass from the residuum of the distillation of nitrous acid, apply in the present instance, ex- cept that the Edinburgh college do not preserve the superabundant acid when present, by saturating it with carbonat of soda, but get rid of it by saturating it with carbonat of lime, with which it forms an insoluble sulphat of lime. In fact, the price of sulphat of soda is so very small, that it would be no economy to use carbonat of soda to saturate the superabundant acid. By far the greatest part of the sulphat of soda is obtained from manufacturers, as a result of processes performed for the sake of other substances, as in the preparation of muriat of ammonia, oxygen- ized muriatic acid, &c. It may be economically obtained by making into a paste with a sufficient quantity of water, eight parts of burnt gypsum, five of clay, and five of muriat of soda. This mixture is burnt in a kiln or oven, then ground to powder, diffused in a sufficient quantity of water, and after being strained, is evaporated and crys- tallized. Sulphat of Soda crystallizes in six-sided prisms, terminated by di- hedral summits. The crystals are often irregular, and their sides are usually channelled. Their taste is at first salt, and afterwards dis- agreeably bitter. They are soluble in 2.67 parts of water at 60°, and in 0.8 at 212°. In the air they effloresce. They undergo the watery fusion, and in a red heat melt. They consist of 23.52 sulphuric acid, 18.48 soda, and 58. water,* when dried at 700°, of 56 acid and 44 soda. It is decomposed by baryta and potass, and salts containing these bases, and by the salts of silver, mercury, and lead. Medical use.— Taken from half an ounce, to an ounce, or more, it proves a mild and useful purgative; and in smaller doses, largely diluted, a serviceable aperient and diuretic. It is commonly given in solution, but it may also be given in powder, after it has efflo- resced. In this form the dose must be reduced to one-half.N SOLIDAGO V1RGA AUREA.t D. Common Golden Rod. The Flowers and Leaves. This plant is perennial, and is found wild on heaths and in woods. producing spikes of yellow flowers in August. The leaves have a moderately astringent bitter taste; and hence prove serviceable in debility and laxity of the viscera, and disorders proceeding from that cause. SOPHORA TINCTORIA. Linn. Podalyria Tinctoria. Mich, Wild Indigo. Indigo Weed. The Root and Plant. This vegetable is indigenous, and supposed to be exclusively Ame- * This immense quantity of water of crystallization may be well dispensed with on various occasions, as for the army or navy. By efflorescence the salt is converted into a fine dry powder of half its original bulk and weight, and no way injured in its medical properties. It is also by this means prevented from injuring the adjoining medicines, or any instruments of surgery. f Solidago, Golden Rod. The Leaves. Pharm. U. S. secondary S.—Spigelia. 573 ncan. In Dr. Cutler's catalogue it is called Indigo fera, and it is sometimes known by the name of broom, but more commonly Indigo weed. It is perennial, growing in great abundance in almost every barren pasture, and in woods. The stalk rises to two feet or more, sending off" numerous branches. The leaves are small, ternate, in- versely heart-shaped, and sessile. In July and August all its branches display butterfly-shaped, golden coloured blossoms, which render the plant very conspicuous. The seed vessels are inflated, containing numerous seeds. The root is ligneous, rough, and irregular in shape, of a dark brown colour externally, and sending off many long, slen- der branches. Its taste is unpleasant, subacrid, and nauseous, very similar to that of ipecacuan. The particular medical properties of indigo weed are yet to be ascertained; that it possesses great activity, is unquestionably true; those who in the spring season have made the young shoots a substitute for asparagus, experienced its drastic, eva- cuating powers. In the hands of some physicians it is found to ope- rate in a large dose, with much severity as an emetic and cathartic. But a weak decoction of the root has frequently been given with the effect only of a mild laxative. A decoction of the bark of the root has, it is said, been made known by an empiric experienced in its use, as a remedy in scarlatina anginosa, and its employment has been extended in a few instances, to typhus or putrid fever, with such good effect, as to encourage further trials. An experienced physician considers it as an excellent antiseptic and febrifuge, pre- ferring it, in some fevers, to Peruvian bark. As an external appli- cation, its antiseptic qualities ought to be more extensively known. In the form of fomentation or cataplasm, it has proved eminently be- neficial when applied to phagedenic and gangrenous ulcers, espe- cially if the decoction be administered internally at the same time. A liniment prepared by simmering the cortical part of the root in cream, has been found an efficacious application to sore nipples and ulcerated breasts. A violet, or pale blue colour, has been prepared from the leaves and small branches of this plant, and used as a sub- stitute for indigo. The leaves turn black when dried. SPARTIUM SCOPARIUM. E. L. D. Common Broom. Tlie Tops and Seeds. This is a very common shrub on dry pastures. The leaves have a very bitter taste, and when given in decoctions. prove considerably diuretic. The seeds have similar properties. SPIGELIA. A. Spigelia Marilandica. L. E. D. Carolina Pink. Indian Pink-Snake Root. The Plant and Root. Pentandria Monogynia. Nat. ord. Stellatx, Linn. Gentianx, Juss. This plant is perennial, and grows wild in North America, from Maryland to East Florida. The roots are celebrated as an anthel- mintic, particularly for the expulsion of lumbrici from the alimen- tary canal. Some order if. in doses often or fifteen grains; and al 574 S—Spiritus Distillati. lege it is apt to occasion nervous affections, if given in large doses; while others order it in drachm doses, alleging that the bad effects mentioned, more readily happen from small doses, as tlie large one often purges or pukes; some prefer the form of infusion. An eme- tic is generally premised; and its purgative effect, assisted by some suitable addition. Infused in wine, it has been found useful in in- termitting fevers. This plant in some parts of Carolina is known by the name of Snake-root It is the Unsteetla of the Cherokee Indians. Every part is possessed of the anthelmintic property, though the roots are most active. It exerts a narcotic and laxative effect. By the former, it appears to destroy the worms; and by the latter, it speedily expels them. It often affords relief and ef- fects a cure, in cases where no worms are discharged; and it is sup- posed by Dr. Barton, that it will be found highly useful in some febrile diseases of children, unaccompanied by worms, especially in the insidious remittent, which so frequently lays the foundation of dropsy of the brain.* By some, the disagreeable effects arising from its administration, are attributed to a parasitic plant, which winds itself around the stalk, and which is said to be a species of Glycine. Experiments show its safety, in much larger doses than are usually given; from one to two drachms may be safely administered to an adult; and it is highly probable that its good effects are disputed by some, merely from the small doses in which it has been recom- mended. The following extract of a letter from Mr. Porcher, student of medicine, in reference to the vine which has been supposed to give the affirmed noxious qualities to the spigelia, may not be unac- ceptable. " I am told by a gentleman, who had an opportunity of examin- ing more than two hundred specimens, that he rarely met with the vine you mentioned, and that when he did, it was found growing on other plants in the neighbourhood: also, I requested a friend to in- quire of Mr. Stephen Elliot, who is of opinion, that the poisonous quality resides in the plant itself." SPIRITUS DISTILLATI. DISTILLED SPIRITS. The flavour and virtues of distilled waters are owing, as has been observed, to their being impregnated with a portion of the essential oil of the subject from which they are drawn. Alcohol, considered as a vehicle for these oils, has this advantage above water, that it keeps all the oil that rises with it perfectly dissolved into an uni- form limpid liquor. Nevertheless, many substances, which, on being distilled with water, impart to it their virtues in great perfection; if treated in the same manner with alcohol, scarcely give over to it, any smell * Barton's Collections, Part I. p. 37. 59. S.—Spiritus Distillati. 575 or taste. The cause of this difference is, that alcohol is not suscep- tible of so great a degree of heat as water. It is obvious, therefore, that substances may be volatile enough to rise with the heat of boil- ing water, but not with that of boiling alcohol. Thus, if cinnamon, for instance, be committed to distillation with a mixture of alcohol and water, or with a pure proof spirit, which is no other than a mixture of about equal parts of the two, the alcohol will rise first clear, colourless, and transparent, and almost without any taste of the spice; but as soon as the more ponderous watery fluid begins to arise, the oil comes freely over with it, so as to ren- der the liquor highly odorous, sapid, and of a milky hue. The proof spirits, usually met with in the shops, are accompanied with a degree of ill flavour; which, though concealed by means of certain additions, plainly discovers itself in distillation. This nau- seous flavour does not begin to arise till after the purer spirituous part has come over; which is the very time that the virtues of the ingredients begin also to arise most plentifully; and hence the liquor receives an ungrateful taint To this cause, principally, is owing the general complaint, that the cordials of the apothecary are less agreeable than those of the same kind, prepared by the distiller; the latter being extremely curious in rectifying, or purifying the spirits, (when designed for what he calls fine goods,) from all unpleasant flavour. General Directions for Distilled Spirits. To the substance to be distilled, add nine pints of weaker alcohol. Macerate for two days in a close vessel; then pour on as much wa- ter as will prevent empyreuma, and draw off nine pints. Spiritus Carui. E. L. D. Spirit of Caraway. Take of Caraway seeds, bruised, half a pound; Diluted alcohol, nine pounds.—Macerate two days in a close vessel; then pour on as much water as will prevent empyreuma, and draw off by distillation nine pints. E. In the same manner prepare the like amount of spirit from Cinnamon, one pound...... Spiritus Cinnamomi. E. L. D. Peppermint, one pound and a half. Menthae Piperitae. E. L. Spearmint, one pound and a half. Menthae Viridis. L. Pennyroyal, one pound and a half. Pulegii. L. Nutmeg, bruised, two ounces. . 5-%m/tc*. L.E. &' I Nucis moschatse. D. Pimento, half a pound..... Pimentse. E. L. D. Aniseed, bruised, half a pound. Anisi. L. Spiritus Juniperi Compositus. E. Ll D. A. Compound Spirit of Juniper. Take of Juniper, bruised, one pound; Caraway, bruised, Fennel, bruised, each, one ounce and a half; Diluted alcohol, nine pints.— Macerate for two days; and having added enough water to prevent empyreuma, distil off nine pints. E. 576 S—Spongia. Spiritus Lavandulae. E. L. D. A. Spirit of Lavender. Take of Fresh lavender flowers, two pounds; Alcohol, one gallon.— Macerate for twenty-four hours; and having added enough water to prevent empyreuma, distil off a gallon. L. Spiritus Rorismarini. E. L. A. Spirit of Rosemary. Take of Fresh rosemary, two pounds; Alcohol, one gallon.—Macerate for twenty-four hours, and having added enough water to prevent empyreuma, distil off a gallon. L. It is unnecessary to make particular observations on each of these simple spirits, as their virtues are the same with those of the sub- stances from which they are extracted, united to the stimulus of the alcohol. The alcohol in the spirits of lavender and rosemary, is almost pure; in the others it is diluted with about an equal weight of water. Spiritus Anisi (Compositus. D.) Compound Spirit of Aniseed. Take of Aniseed, Angelica seed, of each, bruised, half a pound; Proof spirit, one gallon; Water, sufficient to prevent empyreuma.—Draw off one gallon by distillation. L. This compound spirit, like the simple ones, is an agreeable cor- dial; indeed too agreeable: for by some they are so often resorted to, on the slightest sensation of flatulence in the stomach, that their use is attended with all the pernicious consequences of dram-drink- ing. , Spiritus Raphani Compositus. D. Spiritus ARmoraci^e Compositus. L. Compound Spirit of Horse-Radish. Take of Fresh horse-radish rodt, Dried outer rind of Seville oranges, each, two pounds; Fresh,garden scurvy-grass, four pounds; Bruis- ed nutmegs, one ounce; Proof spirit, two gallons; Water, sufficient to prevent empyreuma.—Draw off two. gallons. D. Although this process may furnish an agreeable compound spirit, yet it is much to be doubted whether it possesses those anti-scorbu- tic powers for which it was once celebrated. SPIR^A. A. (Secondary.) Hardhack. The Root. SPONGIA. E. L. D. A. Spongia Officinalis. Sponge. Sponge is principally found in the Mediterranean and Red seas. It was long supposed to be a vegetable production, but it is now universally allowed to belong to that remarkable class of animals called Zoophytes, which are negatively characterized by Cuvier, as having no vertebrae, no sanguiferous vessels, no spinal marrow, and no articulated limbs. The sponges belong to that division of the S__Stannum. 577 zoophytes, which are attached to a solid trunk, and are particulariz- ed by their base being spongy, friable, or fibrous. Sponge is a soft, light, very porous and compressible substance, absorbing by capillary attraction a large proportion of any fluid in which it is immersed. Medical use.—From these properties, it is an useful substance in the practice of surgery. When applied to ulcers which are accom- panied with a copious discharge, it absorbs the thinner and more acrid fluid, and leaves the ulcers covered with the thicker and blander matter. It is also useful in suppressing haemorrhages, when properly applied by compression, by favouring the coagulation of the blood at the mouths of the vessels. It also forms a convenient tent for dilating wounds and fistulous ulcers, especially when prepared by immersing it in melted wax, and keeping it compressed until it cools. On the melting of the wax by the heat of the part to which it is applied, it gradually expands, and affords an uniform and gently dilating pressure. Burnt sponge is nothing else than charcoal mixed with a little mu- riat of soda and phosphat of lime, together with a small portion of Iodine. Its use has been again lately much celebrated in the cure of bronchocele. " If sponge be cut in small pieces, fried, or dipped in honey, or salt butter, and given to rats, it distends their bowels, and effectually destroys those animals. Spoxgia Usta. L. D. A. Burnt Sponge. Cut the sponge in pieces, and bruise it, so as to free it from small stones; burn it in a close iron vessel, until it becomes black and friable ; afterwards reduce it to a very fine powder. L. This medicine has been in use for a considerable time, and em- ployed against scrofulous disorders and cutaneous foulnesses, in doses of a scruple and upwards. Its virtues probably depend on the presence of a little alkali and iodine. It also contains charcoal; anil its use may be entirely superseded by these substances, which may be obtained in other manners, at a much cheaper rate. STANNUM.—TIN. Tin is pure brilliant, white, sapid, and odorous; specific gravity 7.291 to 7.500, soft, flexible, and emitting a crackling noise, when bent; fusing at 442° Fahrenheit; oxydizes slowly in the air; is con- verted, when fused, into a grey oxyd; when red hot it burns vividly. Its sulphuret and phosphuret are lamellated and brittle; it forms alloys with arsenic, bismuth, antimony, mercury, and zinc; it is oxy dized by many acids, and combines with the muriatic, fluoric, bo< racic, and carbonic acids. Its oxyd is grey or white, unites readily with sulphur, and renders glasses opaque. It is found, 1. Sulphureted, and combined with copper. Tin-pyrites. 74 578 S.—Statice. 2. Oxydized. a Combined with oxyd of iron and silica. Common tin-stone. b. Combined with oxyd of iron and a little arsenic. Fibrous tin-stone. The best tin is found in Cornwall, or is brought from the East In- dies. Its purity is estimated by its small specific gravity, and by the crackling noise it makes when bent. It is now only used as an anthelmintic, especially in cases of tae- nia, and probably acts mechanically! Pulvis Stanni. D. A. Powder of Tin. Take of Tin, any quantity.—Melt it in an iron mortar; reduce it t» powder by agitation ; and pass it, when cold, through a hair sieve. D. The College of Edinburgh do not give this preparation, inserting limatura et pulvis stanni in their list of the materia medica. Medical use.—It is often employed as a remedy against worms, particularly the flat kinds, which too often elude the force of other medicines. The general dose is from a scruple to a drachm; some confine it to a few grains. But Dr. Alston assures us, in the Edin- burgh Essays, that its success chiefly depends on its being given in much larger quantities. He directs an ounce of the powder on an empty stomach, mixed with four ounces of molasses; next day, half an ounce; and the day following, half an ounce more; after which, a cathartic is administered. He says the worms are usually voided during the operation of the purge, but that pains of the stomach oc- casioned by them are removed almost immediately upon taking the first dose of the tin. This practice is sometimes successful in the expulsion of taenia, but by no means so frequently as Dr. Alston's observations would lead us to hope. Blaine's powder, which certainly succeeds sometimes in curing the distemper in dogs, seems to be a sulphureted oxyd of tin. Pulvis Stanni Amalgamatis. A. Powder of the Amalgam of Tin. Take of Tin, five parts; Purified mercury, two parts; Prepared car- bonat of lime, one part.—Melt the tin, all to it the mercury, and rub them together; then add the carbonat ff lime, and while the mixture is liquid, rub till the metallic particles disappear; lastly, while the mixture cools, reduce it to an impalpable powder. STATICE LIMONIUM. Statice Caroliniana.* Marsh Rosemary. Lavender Thrift. Sea Lavender. The Root. This is well known in the New England States. It is indigenous and perennial, growing on the sea shore, in salt marshes; and the fissures or clefts of rocks near the sea coast: it is in flower from July to September. The stem is naked, branched, and about a foot high. The radical leaves are long, pointed, and grow on footstalks. The " Statice, Pharm. U. S. S.—Succinum. 579 flowers are blue, and grow on long spikes on the tops of the branches. The roots of this plant are powerfully astringent. A decoction of them is given and used, as a gargle with success in cankers and ul- cerated sore throats. The late Dr. Hews, of Providence, held the root of this plant in high estimation in cases of aphthous states of fever accompanying dysentery, ulcerous sore throats, or scarlatina anginosa. He valued it as the greatest antiseptic he was acquainted with, and said he could administer it in cases where the bark was inadmissible. Dr. William Baylies, of Dighton; in a communication to the Mas- sachusetts Medical Society, makes favourable mention of this root from his experience in the ulcerated sore throat, as it appeared in that town in 1785 and 1786. This judicious physician observes, "Among the many medicines in high estimation with the common people, and used by them without the advice of physicians, I know of none worth tlie least consideration, excepting the marsh-rose- mary, or, as it is commonly called, marsh root. This in a large dose operates as a vomit; in a smaller, proves a powerful expectorant; and, from its sensible qualities, one would suppose it to possess con- siderable antiseptic powers. I am well assured it was the basis of a medicine used by a physician in Providence, with very great suc- cess in this complaint. It is undoubtedly of great efficacy, and de- serves a more thorough investigation." SUCCINUM. E. L. D. A. Amber. Syn. Sriccin, (F.) Bernstein, (G.) Ambra, (I.) HAMTgov, Gracorum. This is a solid, brittle, bituminous substance, dug out of the earth, or found upon the sea-shores; the largest quantities are met with along the coasis of Polish Prussia and Pomerania. It is of a white yel- low, or brown colour, sometimes opaque, and sometimes very clear and transparent. It emits an agreeable smell when heated or rubbed. By friction it becomes electric; and when heated it softens, swells, and then melts and burns with a greenish or bluish flame, leaving a coaly residuum. By distillation it affords a little acetic acid, an essential oil, and a peculiar acid, named from it the succinic. It is not acted upon by wa- ter, or diluted acids. It is imperfectly dissolved in alcohol and ether. Hoffioan dissolved it in oil of almonds in Papin's digester, and ih a boiling solution of potass. Dr. Thomson lately discovered that it was soluble in the cold, even in a very weak solution of the sub-car- bona*" of potass. Heyer ascertained that it was soluble with decom- pose tien. in nitrous acid. In attempting to form succinic acid by the action cf i>> u ous acid on amber, Dr. Duncan made the same observa- tion. The acid when heated to ebullition acts violently, copious red fumes are emitted, and the amber is first as if melted, and then dis- solved. On cooling, part of the amber separates. The acid solu- tion is decomposed by water, and by alkaline solutions. Amber is rendered soluble in the fixed and volatile oils by melting or roasting it, or by the addition of a little camphor. It is only kept for the empyreumatic oil and acid obtained from it. i80 S.—Succinum. OLEUM SUCCINI ET ACIDUM SUCCINI. E. L. D. A. Oil of Amber and Succinic Acid. Take of Amber, reduced to powder, and of pure sand, equal parts.— Mix them, and put them into a glass retort, of which the mixture may fill one-half: then adapt a large receiver, and distil in a sand bath, with afire gradually increased. At first, a watery liquor will come over, with some yellow oil; then a yellow oil, with an acid salt; and lastly, a reddish and dark coloured oil. E. Pour the liquor out of the receiver, and separate the oil from the wa- ter. Press the salt collected from the neck of the retort and sides of the receiver, between folds of blotting paper, to free it from the oil adhering to it; then purify it by solution in warm water, and crystallization. We are not acquainted with any experiments which determine whether the succinic acid exists as such in the amber, or whether it be a product of the decomposition of the amber by the action of heat, for in the process employed for obtaining succinic acid, the amber is completely decomposed. The sand is added to prevent the amber from running together into masses, and impeding the distillation; but as it renders the residuum unfit for the use of the varnisher, it is not advisable. According to Gottling, this distillation should be performed in a tubulated iron or earthenware retort, exposed to the immediate action of the fire, for he says, that, in a sand bath, we cannot regulate the heat sufficiently, and that a glass retort is incapable of supporting the necessary tem- perature. Besides the succinic acid collected from the neck of the retort, and sides of the receiver, the oil washes doAvn a portion of it into the receiver, and the watery liquor which comes over is saturated with it. But the whole of it may be obtained by agitating the oil with some boiling water, which will dissolve the acid. This solution is then to be added to the acid liquor, and the acid they contain is easily obtained by evaporation and crystallization. The acid may afterwards be purified by solution in boiling water and crystalliza- tion, according to the direction of the colleges. But even after repeated solutions and crystallizations, a portion of empyreumatic oil still adheres to the acid, and renders it impure. Other methods of purifying it have been therefore attempted. De- machy saturated it with lime, separated the lime by sulphuric acid, and sublimed the succinic acid.: Richter saturated succinic acid with potass, decomposed the salt formed with acetat of lead, and disen- gaged the succinic acid from the lead by means of diluted sulphuric acid: lastly, Morveau asserts, that he obtained it in a state of per- fect purity, by treating it with nitrous acid. It is often adulterated with muriat of ammonia, sulphuric acid, sulphat of potass, sugar, &c. When pure it is entirely volatile, gives out no ammoniacal fumes when triturated with potass, is not precipitated by solutions pf baryta, and is soluble in alcohol. Succinic acid, although retained in our pharmacopoeias, is never used in medicine. Succinic acid crystallizes in transparent white triangular prisms; S.—Sulphas. 581 may be melted and sublimed, but suffers partial decomposition; more soluble in hot than in cold water; soluble in hot alcohol. Succinats little known. That of ammonia is employed as a test ot PULPARUM EXTRACTIO. Extraction of Pulps. Boil unripe pulpy fruits, and ripe ones if they be dry, in a small quantity of water until they become soft; then press out the pulp through a hair sieve, and afterwards boil it down to the consistence of honey in an earthen vessel, over a gentle fire; taking care to keep stirring the matter continually. (The pulp of cassia fistularis is in like manner to be boiled out from the bruised pod, and reduced afterwards to a proper consistence by evaporating the water. The pulps of fruits that are both ripe and fresh, are to be pressed out through the sieve, ivithout any previ- ous boiling.) E. D. L. When these fruits are not sufficiently juicy to afford a pulp by simple expression, the decoction ordered by the Edinburgh and Dublin Colleges is much more certain, and in every respect, prefera- ble to exposing them to a moist air, which is not only often ineffica- cious, but is apt to render them spoiled and mouldy. On the other hand, the precaution used by the London College, of finishing the evaporation in a water bath, is highly proper, as otherwise they are extremely apt to become empyreumatic. The pulps expressed from recent substances without coction, are less mucilaginous, are more apt to allow their fluid parts to separate when left at rest, than when they have been previously boiled: and very succulent vegetables, such as apples, pears, and lily roots, may be roasted in hot ashes instead of being boiled. SULPHAS.—SULPHAT. Sulphat is a generic term for the combination of sulphuric acid with the alkalies, earths, and metallic oxyds. Like the other genera, they may be divided into three families. Family 1. Alkaline sulphats.—These form no precipitate with al kaline carbonats. . . Family 2. Earthy sulphats.—These are either insoluble in watei, or if soluble, form a white precipitate with alkaline carbonats. Family 3. Metalline sulphats—These form precipitates, which are often coloured, with alkaline carbonats in general, with prussiat of potass and iron, and with gallic acid. The sulphats form sulphurets when heated to redness with chai coal, and furnish copious precipitates with solutions of baryta. 582 S.—Sulphas. Alumen. E. L. D. A. Alum. Sulphas Alumina et Potassa. Super-Sulphas Alumina et Potassa. Super-Sulphas Argilla Alkalizata. Super-Sulphat (Sulphat) of Alumina and Potass. Alum is obtained principally from schistose clays, which contain iron pyrites, by roasting, exposure, lixiviation, the addition of a pro- portion of potass ley* evaporation, and crystallization. The roasting destroys the bituminous matters these clays com- monly contain, the exposure to the air acidifies the sulphur of the pyrites, and the addition of alkali is absolutely necessary for the con- stitution of alum, which is a triple salt, with excess of acid, consist- ing of sulphuric acid, alumina, and potass or ammonia, or a mixture of both. The properties of alum do not seem to be affected by the na- ture of the alkali. To save the trouble of evaporation, Mr. Curadau has given another method of manufacturing this substance. He takes 100 parts of clay, and 5 parts of muriat of soda, dissolved in as much water as is necessary to form the whole into a paste, which is made into cakes, and baked for two hours in a reverberatory furnace. The mass is then reduced to powder, and put into a good cask; a quarter of its weight of sulphuric acid is then added to it at several times, stirring it well each time. After the vapours of the muriatic acid are disengaged, an equal quantity of water with the acid is added. The mixture then becomes hot, swells, and emits very abundant vapours. When the heat is somewhat moderated, more water must be added until there is about eight or ten times as much as of the acid. The liquor is then drawn off into leaden vessels, and an equal quantity of water poured upon the residuum, which is also drawn off and added to the former. To these is lastly added a solution containing as much potass as is equal to a fourth part, or sulphat of potass equal to one half the weight of the acid. As the liquor cools, it affords crystallized alum equal in weight to three times th^ acid, and which may be fur- ther purified by re-dissolving it in-the smallest possible quantity of boiling water, and allowing it to crystallize. Alum crystallizes in regular octohedrons whose sides are equila- teral triangles. It has a sweetish but very astringent taste. It is so- luble in 15 times its weight of water at 60°, and three-fourths of its weight at 21£°. It reddens vegetable blues. It effloresces slightly in the air. By the action of heat it first undergoes the watery fueion, then loses its water of crystallization* and lastly great part of its acid. It is decomposed by baryta, potass, soda, strontia, and all salts of which these are the bases; by the nitrat, muriat, phosphat, car- bonat, borat and fluat of ammonia; by the nitrat, muriat, phosphat, and carbonat of magnesia; and by the nitrat, muriat, and carbonat of lime. It is also decomposed by the gallic acid, by colouring mat- ters, and by many animal and vegetable substances. It commonly consists; according to Vauquelin, of 49 sulphat of alumina, 7 sulphat of potass, and 44 water. Medical use.—Alum is a powerful astringent: it is reckoned parti- cularly serviceable for restraining hemorrhages, and immoderate secretions from the blood; but less proper in intestinal fluxes. In violent hemorrhages, it may be given in doses of fifteen or twenty grains, and repeated every hour or half hour till the bleeding abates: S.—Sulphas. 583 in other cases, smaller doses are more advisable; large ones being apt to nauseate the stomach, and occasion violent constipations of the bowels. It is used also externally, in astringent and repellent lotions and collyria. Burnt alum taken internally, has been highly extolled in cases of colic. In such instances, when taken to the extent of a scruple for a dose, it has been said gently to move the belly, and give very great relief from the severe pain. Alumen Exsiccatum. E. L. A. Alumen Ustum. D. Dried Alum. Burnt Alum. Take of Alum, any quantity.—Melt it in an earthen or iron vessel over the fire, and remove it when it ceases to boil. Mr. Chaptal found, that by exsiccation in a red heat, alum of his own manufacture lost 0.67; Roman alum 0.50; English alum 0.47; and Levant alum only 0.40. These differences arise principally from different proportions of water of crystallization, but also from an excess of alumina, which the last contains. According to Kirwan, crystallized alum consists of 17.66 acid, 12 alumina, and 70.24 water, and alum desiccated at 700° of 36.25 acid, and 63.75 basis, by which it would appear that at that heat it loses not only all its water, but also more than half its acid. Dried alum is only applied externally as a gentle escharotic to fungous ulcers. SULPHUR. L. A. Sulphur. Brimstone. Roll Sulphur. Syn. Soufre, (F.) Schwefel, (G.) Zolfo, Solfo, (I,) Azufre, (S.) Kibreet, (Ar.) Gand haca, (San.) >. Sulphur is a crystallizable solid, of a yellow colour; little sensible taste; peculiar smell when rubbed or heated; specific gravity 1.99; brittle; electric; fusible at 226°; burning with a pale blue flame at 302°; and with a bright white flame at 570°; and capable of combin- ing with different proportions of oxygen. It is found pure in the vi- cinity of volcanoes, and exists in many minerals, and in animal sub- stances. Officinal. Oxyd of sulphur is said by Dr. Thomson to be of a dark violet colour, and an austere taste, fracture fibrous; specific gravity 2.325; consistence tough. It contains nearly 7 per cent, of oxygen. It is formed on the surface of melted sulphur. Dr. Irvine and Sir H. Davy think this substance contains no oxygen, and differs only in arrangement of particles. Hydro sulphuric acid is also composed of sulphur and oxygen. It is a dense liquid; specific gravity 1.85; slightly viscid; transparent and colourless; without smell; of a strong acid taste. It freezes at .—36°, and boils at 590°. It has a strong attraction for water, ab- sorbing it rapidly from the atmosphere, and producing considerable heat when mixed with it. It is decomposed by most inflammable substances. It does not oxydize gold, platinum, tungsten, or tita- nium. It decomposes the alkaline and earthy sulphurets, and re- duces all organic substances to charcoal. In medicine it is a power- ful refrigerant and antiseptic. It consists of 30 sulphur, 45 oxygen, and 17 of water. What was called glacial sulphuric acid, consists, 584 S.—Sulphas. * according to Sir H. Davy, of four volumes of sulphurous acid gas, and three of nitrous acid gas, probably in two or three proportions, with a single proportion of water. Chloride of sulphur was first formed by Dr. Thomson, who called it sulphureted muriatic acid. It is a fluid, appearing red by reflected, and yellowish-green by transmitted light. Sp. gr. 1.6. It smokes in the air, has the smell of sea-weed, and affects the eyes like peat smoke. It does not redden perfectly dry litmus paper, but is decom- posed by water. It consists, according to Davy, of one proportion of sulphur, and two of chlorine. Sulphureted hydrogen gas consists of one sulphur, and two hydro- gen; 100 inches weigh 36 or 37 grains, or its specific gravity to hy- drogen is 16; It has the odour of rotten eggs; is not respirable; burns with oxygen gas without exploding, and deposites sulpnur; an equal volume is absorbed by water, and is the mode in which sulphur exists in mineral waters; reddens vegetable blues; and in its af- finities, and the crystallizability of its compounds, it resembles the acids. There are three distinct combinations of sulphur and its compounds With alkalies and earths. The first consist simply of sulphur, united with an alkaline or earthy base, and are properly called sulphurets. The second are composed of sulphureted hydrogen, united with a base, and are called hydro-sulphurets, or hydro-sulphats. The third contains super-sulphureted hydrogen, attached to a base, and consti- tute hydrogureted sulphurets. Sulphur Sublimatum Lotum. E. D. A. Sulphur Lotum. L. Flores Sulphuris Loti. Washed Sublimed (or flowers of) Sulphur. Take of Sublimed sulphur, one pound; Water, fdur pounds.—Boil the sulphur for a little in the water, then pour off this water, and wash away all the acid by affusions of cold water; and lastly, dry the sulphur. E. As it is impossible to sublime sulphur in vessels perfectly void of air, a small portion of it is always acidified and converted into sul- phurous or sulphuric acid. The presence of acid in sulphur, is al- ways to be considered as an impurity, and must be removed by care- ful ablution. When thoroughly washed, sublimed sulphur is not act- ed upon by the atmosphere; there is therefore, no particular reason for preserving it from the action of the air; for if, on keeping, it be- comes moist, it is because the sulphuric acid has not been entirely washed away. In the neighbourhood of volcanoes it is sometimes found perfectly pure and crystallized; but all the sulphur of commerce is extracted from pyrites by sublimation. It is usually brought to us in large ir- regular masses, which are afterwards melted and cast into cylindri- cal rolls, with the addition of some coarse resin, flour or the like; whence the paler colour of the rolls. Sulphur should be chosen of a bright yellow colour, should be very inflammable, and should burn with a bright pure blue flame. Sublim- ed sulphur is never prepared by the apothecary. It has the form of S.—Sulphas. 585 a very fine powder, having a beautiful yellow colour. It often is con- taminated with a little sulphuric acid, formed during the process, from which it is easily freed by washing. Medical use.—Pure sulphur loosens the belly, and promotes in- sensible perspiration: it seems to pass through the whole habit, and manifestly transpires through the pores of the skin, as appears from the sulphurous smell of persons who have taken it, and from silver being stained in their pockets of a blackish colour, which is the known effect of sulphurous fumes. It is a celebrated remedy against cutaneous diseases, both given internally^ and externally applied. It has likewise been recommended in coughs, asthmas, and other disorders of the breast and lungs; and particularly in catarrhs of the chronic kind. But it is probable, that the benefit derived from it in these cases, is principally, if not entirely, to be attributed to its operation as a gentle laxative. And with this intention it is fre- quently used with great advantage in hemorrhoidal affections, and many other diseases in which it is proper to keep the belly gently open. Sulphur Precipitatum. L. Precipitated Sulphur. Lac Sulphuris. Take of Sublimed sulphur, one pound; Fresh lime, two pounds; Wa- ter, four gallons.—Boil the sulphur and lime together in the water, then filter the liquor through paper, and drop into it as much mu- riatic acid as may be necessary to precipitate the sulphur. Lastly, wash this repeatedly with water, till it becomes insipid. Precipitated sulphur does not differ from well-washed sublimed sulphur, except in being much dearer. Its paler colour is owing to its more minute division, or according to Dr. Thomson, to the pre- sence of a little water; but from either circumstance it derives no superiority to compensate for the disagreeableness of its preparation. ACIDUM SULPHURICUM. E. L. D. A. Acidum Vitriolicum. Oleum Vitrioli. Sulphuric Acid. Vitriolic Acid. Oil of Vitriol., The London and Edinburgh colleges direct, that in the shops, its specific gravity should be to that of water, as 1850 to 1000; the Dublin college, as 1845 to 1000. This want of uniformity is to be regretted. Sulphuric acid is composed of sulphur and oxygen. It may be obtained in a crystallized or glacial form, but generally exists as a dense liquid; specific gravity 1.85; slightly viscid; transparent and colourless; without smell; oi a strong acid taste. At—36° it freezes; it boils at 590°. It has a strong attraction for water, absorbing it rapidly from the atmosphere, and producing considerable heat when mixed with it. It is decomposed by most inflammable substances. It does not oxydize gold, platinum, tungsten, or titanium. It de- composes the alkaline and earthy sulphurets, and reduces all organic substances to charcoal. In medicine, it is a powerful refrigerant, and antiseptic. It contains 56 sulphur, and 44 oxygen. The Sulphats form sulphurets, when heated to redness with char- coal; and furnish copious precipitates with solutions of baryta. 586 S.—Sulphas. Sulphurous acid gas is colourless, incapable of maintaining com- bustion, and deleterious when respired. It has a strong, suffocating odour; its specific gravity is 0.00246, or 0.00251. Water at 54" rapidly absorbs one-fourth of its weight of this gas, and when satu- rated, acquires the specific gravity of 1.040. It is again expelled from it by heat, but not by freezing. It is also absorbed by sulphuric acid, to which it imparts the property of crystallizing, forming what is called glacial sulphuric acid. When water is present, it is con- verted by oxygen gas into sulphuric acid. It is decomposed by hy- drogen, carbon, and sulphureted hydrogen gas, when assisted by heat. It oxydizes iron, zinc, and manganese. It consists of 85 sulphur, and 15 oxygen. The sulphites, by the action of heat, furnish sulphur, and become sulphats. They are also converted into sulphats, with effervescence, and exhalation of sulphurous vapours, by the sulphuric, nitric, muri- atic, and other acids,,and gradually, by exposure to the atmosphere when dry, and very quickly when dissolved. As sulphuric acid is prepared by the trading chemist, it is insert- ed among the Materia Medica. It is obtained in two ways, by dis- tilling off' the acid from sulphat of iron, previously deprived of its water of crystallization by heat, or by burning sulphur in large leaden chambers, with an eighth part of nitrat of potass to supply, as is very inaccurately supposed, the necessary oxygen. In the first way the strongest acid is obtained, but it is apt to contain iron or copper. By the second process, it generally contains lead, which is easily detected by mixing a portion of the acid with three parts of distilled water, and if the acid be impure, a deposition will be form- ed. It may be rendered perfectly pure by distillation, filling a retort half full of the common acid, and distilling in a sand-bath, gradually heated as long as any acid comes over. The receiver should not be luted on. Sulphuric acid powerfully decomposes dead animal matter. It becomes diluted with water formed by the union of the hydrogen and oxygen; another portion of the hydrogen combines with the azote to form ammonia, and the carbon is separated in the state of charcoal. The affinities which regulate this action, are so powerful, that it produces the same effects on the living solids, and therefore it acts upon them as a corrosive. But to its employment with this view, its fluidity is an objection, as it cannot be easily managed. Medical use.—When sufficiently diluted, it is an excellent tonic, checking fermentation, exciting appetite, promoting digestion, and quenching thirst, and it is therefore used with success in morbid acidity, weakness, and relaxation of the stomach. As an astringent, it is used in hemorrhages; and from its refrigerant and antiseptic properties, it is a valuable medicine in many febrile diseases, espe- cially those called putrid. If taken in any considerable quantity, or for some time, it seems to pass off undecomposed by the kidneys or skin; and it is, perhaps, by its stimulant action on the latter, that it is advantageously employed internally in psora, and other cutaneous affections. The best mode of prescribing it, is to order the quantity of acid to be used, and to direct it to be mixed with as much water as will render it palatable, to which some syrup or mucilage may be added. To prevent it from attacking the teeth, it may be conveniently S___Sulphas. 587 sucked through a quill, and the mouth should be carefully washed after each dose. Externally, it is used as a gargle, particularly in putrid sore throats, and in aphthous mouths, and as a wash in cutaneous eruptions, and ill-conditioned ulcers. Made into an ointment with sixteen times its weight of axunge, it has been used to cure psora. Acidum Sulphuricum Dilutum. E. D. L. A. Diluted Sulphuric Acid. Take of Sulphuric acid, one fluid ounce; Water sevenfluid ounces.— Mix them gradually. E. The most simple form in which sulphuric acid can be advantage- ously employed internally, is that in which it is merely diluted with water: and it is highly proper that there should be some fixed standard, in which the acid in this state should be kept. It is, how- ever, much to be regretted, that the same standard with respect to strength, has not been uniformly adopted; and especially, that the London college should have deviated so very remarkably, both from their own former editions, and from the other colleges. In the Edin- burgh and Dublin Pharmacopoeias, the strong acid is one-eighth by weight of the mixture, which gives one drachm in the ounce, which has at least the merit of convenience.' Dr. Powell, whose translation may be considered as official, states, in defence of the change, that the new mixture will be more conveniently made, and that its pro- portionate dose is easily administered, especially as minute atten- tion thereto, is not of any great practical importance. An ounce of sulphuric acid, by measure, is equal to 14 drachms and eight-tenths of a grain. The comparative strengths of equal bulks, and of equal weights, of the diluted acids in the different Pharmacopoeias, are nearly in the following proportions: , Bulks. Weights. Sp. gr. Former London, - - - 1000 1000 1.070 Dublin, - - - - - 1118 1.090 Edinburgh, .... 1125 New London, .... 1480 1445 1.111 Ph. Dr. Powell says, that one ounce of the last will saturate about 107 f rains of dried subcarbonat of soda, which is confirmed by Mr. hillips. The dilution by means of distilled water is preferable to spring water; which, even in its purest state, is not free from impregnations affecting the acid. Even when distilled water is used, there is often a small quantity of a white precipitate, arising from lead dissolved in the acid. Sulphuric acid has a very strong attraction for water: and their bulk, when combined, is less than that of the water arid acid sepa- rately. At the same time there is a very considerable increase of temperature produced, which is apt to crack glass vessels, unless the combination be very cautiously made; and, for the same reason, the acid must be poured into the wafer, not the water into the acid. Sulphuric acid, according to Powell, diluted with an equal measure of water, and allowed to cool, rose 21° on the addition of another measure, and 70° after cooling again on the addition of a third. 588 S___Sulphate of Corninc. Table of the Quantity of Real Acid in 100 parts of Liquid Sul- phuric Acid, at the temperature 60°. Dalton. Atoms. Acid Water. 14-0 1 + 1 Acid per cent. by weight 100 81 Acid per cent. by measure. unknown. 150 Specific gravity. unknown. 1.850 Boiling point. 620°' 80 148 1.849 605 79 146 1.848 590 78 144 1.847 575 77 142 1.845 560 76 140 1.842 545 75 138 1.838 530 74 135 1.833 515 73 133 1.827 501 72 131 1.819 487 71 129 1.810 473 ' 70 126 1.801 460 69 124 1.791- 447 1 + 2 68 121 1.780 435 67 118 1.769 422 66 116 1.757 410 A 65 113 1.744 400 64 111 1.730 391 63 108 1.715 S82 62 105 1.699 374 61 103 1.684 367 60 100 1.670 360 1 + 3 58.6 97 1.650 350 50 76 1.520 290 40 56 1.408 260 1+10 30 39 1.30+ 240 1+17 20 24 1.200 224- 1 + 38 10 11 1.10 218 ICjT* The following preparations of the Cornus Florida having been received after the impression of the parts to which they pro- perly belong, it was thought proper to insert them here* rather than omit them altogether.—Editor. SULPHATE OF CORNINE. «* An alkaline substance analogous to quinine has recently been discovered in the Cornus Florida, which has been denominated cor- nine, and which has been very carefully and accurately described by Dr. Samuel G. Morton, of this city, in the Philadelphia Journal of Medical and Physical Sciences, and from the most respectable gources in the medical profession from various parts of the United States, where this article has been sent, the most corroborating evi- dences have been received of the unequivocal success of the cornine in the treatment of intermittent and remittent fevers, in the same S.—Swietenia Febrifuga. 589 doses as the quinine; and the only circumstance which precludes its competition with that substance, is the minute comparative pro- portion of cornine yielded by the cornus florida. If, however, at any time we should fail in our supplies of cinchona, which is not impossible, or even improbable, we shall then be able to supply its place by this principle of the cornus florida." Extract of the Cornus Florida. " The cornus florida yields a beautiful extract, resembling very closely that of cinchona, differing, however, in its sensible charac- ters from the extracts of the superior species of Peruvian bark, by being less bitter and more astringent The following is the most eligible mode for preparing this extract: evaporate in a sand or wa- ter bath, a tincture of the bark, made by digesting it in proof spi- rits, in the proportion of 2rij. of the former to a pint of the latter, suffering it to stand at least a week before straining, and occasion- ally during this time, submit it for a few hours to a moderate heat, thereby facilitating the solution. This extract, from its most prominent and sensible characters, is unquestionably much more active than the common extract of Car- thagena bark, and is a preparation admirably adapted in all cases where the cornus may be employed with advantage, and in conse- quence of being a concentrated preparation, separated from the ligneous and insoluble portions, and containing less gum and mu- cous matter, which constitutes so large a proportion, is certainly much preferable to the crude substance, and no doubt will be resort- ed to by many country practitioners as a useful expedient, particu- larly in those places where this article is in profusion, and where bark of good quality is frequently very scarce and sometimes even unknown. George W. Carpenter." SWIETENIA FEBRIFUGA. D. Febrifuge Swietenia. The Bark. Decandria Monogynia. Nat. ord. Trihilatx, Linn. Melix, Juss. This, which in many respects resembles S. Mahagoni, is a na- tive of the East Indies. Its bark is red, brittle, and compact, and covered with a rough, grey cuticle. In its properties it agrees with the mahogany bark, and forms a very valuable substitute for Peruvian bark in the East Indies, where this last is so dear and scarce, and the diseases in which it is indicated so common. It is, however, merely an astringent bitter, and contains no cinchonin, Dr. Roxburgh sent from India a quantity of the extract of this bark, which could not be distinguished from the kino of the shops. 590 S.—Syrupi. SYRUPI. L. Z). E. Jl.—SYRUPS. Syrups are solutions of sugar in any watery fluid, whether simple or medicated. Simple syrup is nutritious and demulcent When made of fine sugar, it is transparent and colourless. If necessary, it is easily clarified, by beating to a froth the white of an egg with three or four ounces of water, mixing it with the syrup, and boiling the mixture for a few seconds, until the albumen coagulates, and enveloping all heterogeneous matters, it forms a scum, which may be easily taken off, or separated by filtration. When, instead of simple water, any other fluid is used for dissolving the sugar, the syrup is then medicated. Medicated syrups are prepared, either with expressed juices, infusions, decoctions, or saline fluids. The object of forming these into syrups, is either to render them agree- able to the palate, or to preserve them from fermentation. In the latter case, the quantity of sugar added becomes a matter of great importance; for, if too much be employed, the sugar will separate by crystallization, and if too little, instead of preventing fermenta- tion, it will accelerate it About two parts of sugar to one of fluid, are the proportions directed by the British colleges with this view. But, as in some instances, a larger quantity of fluid is added, and afterwards reduced to the proper quantity by decoction, it will not be superfluous to point out some circumstances, which show the eva- poration to have been carried far enough. These are the tendency to form a pellicle on its surface when a drop of it is allowed to cool, the receding of the last portion of each drop, when poured out drop by drop, after it is cold, and, what is most to be relied on, its specific gravity when boiling hot, being about 1.385, or 1.3 when cold. The syrup which remains, after all the crystallizable sugar has been separated from it, has been much, and probably justly, re- commended by some, for the preparation of medicated syrups and electuaries, although its pharmaceutical superiority is actually owing to its impurity. In making syrups, where neither the weight of sugar, nor the man- ner in which it should be dissolved, are directed, the following rule is to be followed. Take of Double Refined Sugar, in powder, twenty-nine ounces; the liquor prescribed, one pint.—Gradually add the sugar, and digest with frequent agitation in a close vessel, and in a moderate heat, until it be dissolved; then set it aside for twenty-four hours, take off the scum, and pour off the syrup from the faeces, if there be any. D. Syrups are to be kept in a place, whose temperature never exceeds 50° Fah. Syrupus Simplex. E. L. A. Simple Syrup. Take of Sugar, in powder, fifteen parts; Water, eight parts.—Let the sugar be dissolved by a gentle heat in the water, and boiled a little, so as to form a syrup, the scum being removed. E. This preparation is a plain liquid sweet, void of flavour or colour; and is more convenient in extemporaneous prescription, than sugar, undissolved. S.—Syrupi. 591 Syrupus Aceti. E. A. Syrup of Vinegar. Take of Purified Vinegar, five parts ; Sugar, seven parts.—Boil them to form a syrup. E. This is to be considered as simple syrup merely acidulated, and is by no means unpleasant. It is often employed in mucilaginous mixtures, and the like: and, on account of its cheapness, it is often preferred to syrup of lemons. Svrupus Allii. D. A. Syrup of Garlic. Take of Garlic, sliced, one pound; Boiling water, two pints.—Mace- rate the garlic in the water, in a covered vessel, for twelve hours ; then add two parts of sugar, to one part of the strained liquor, and form a syrup. D. This is a very disagreeable syrup; but when we wish to extract the virtues of garlic by a watery menstruum, it is the best means we can employ. Syrupus Citri Aurantii. E. Syrupus Aurantii. D.* Syrupus Aurantionum. L. Orange Syrup. Take of the fresh outer rind of Seville oranges, three ounces ; Boiling water, one pound and a half; Refined sugar, three pounds.—Mace- rate the rind in the water for twelve hours ; then add to the filtered liquor the sugar, in powder, and apply a gentle heat, so as to form a syrup. E. In making this syrup, it is particularly necessary that the sugar be previously powdered, and dissolved in the infusion with as gen- tle a heat as possible, to prevent the exhalation of the volatile parts of the peel. With these cautions, the syrup proves a very elegant and agreeable one, possessing a great share of the fine flavour of the orange-peel. The American Pharmacopoeia directs the laceration of the oil vesi- cles under water with a grater. Syrupus Citri Medici. E. Syrupus (Limonis, D.) Limonum. L. Syrup of Lemons. Take of Juice of lemons, strained, three parts ; Sugar, five parts.— Dissolve the sugar in the juice so as to make a syrup. E. Syrupus Mori. L. Syrup of Mulberry. Take of Mulberry juice strained, one pint; Refined Sugar, two pounds. —Dissolve the sugar in the mulberry juice, as directed for syrup. In the same way are prepared, Syrupus Syrup of Sueci Rubi Id^i. L. Raspberry-juice. ---- Ribis Nigri. L. Black Currant-juice. All these are very pleasant cooling syrups; and with this intention they are occasionally used in draughts and juleps, for quenching * Syrupus Aurantii Corticis. Syrup of Orange Peel, Pharm. U. S. 592 S—Syrupi. thirst, abating heat, &c. in bilious or inflammatory distempers. They are sometimes likewise employed in gargarisms for inflammations of the mouth and tonsils. Syrupus Colchici Autumnalis. E* Syrup of Colchicum or Meadow Saffron. Take of Fresh meadow saffron, cut in slices, one ounce; Purified vine- gar, one pint; Sugar, twenty-six ounces.—Macerate the meadow saffron in the vinegar for two days, occasionalty shaking the vessel; then strain the infusion with gentle expression. To the strained in- fusion add the sugar; and boil a little so as to form a syrup. E. This syrup seems to be the best preparation of the colchicum. We must take care to gather this root in the proper season: and from errors in this particular we are to ascribe the uncertainty in the ef fects of this medicine as found in the shops. The syrup of colchicum is often successfully employed as a diure- tic, and may be taken from a drachm or two to the extent of an ounce or more. Syrupus Althmje. L. (Officinalis. E.) Syrup of Marshmallow. Take of Fresh marshmallow roots, sliced, one pound; Water, ten pounds; Refined sugar, four pounds.—Boil the water with the roots to the consumption of one-half, and strain the liquor, strongly ex- pressing it. Suffer the strained liquor to rest till the feces have subsided; and to the depurated liquor add the sugar; then boil so as to make a syrup. E. This is merely a mucilaginous syrup, and is chiefly used in ne- phritic cases, for sweetening emollient decoctions and the like. Syrupus Dianthi Caryophylli. E. Syrupus Caryophylli Rubri. D. Syrup of Clove July-flower. Take of Clove July-flowers, fresh gathered and freed from the heels, one pound; Refined sugar, seven pounds; Boiling water, four pounds.—Macerate the petals in the water for twelve hours; then to the strained liquor add the sugar previously beat, and dissolve it by a gentle heat, so as to form a syrup. E. As the beauty of the colour is a principal quality in this syrup, no force in the way of expression should be used in separating the liquor from the flowers. Some have substituted to it one easily prepared at seasons when the flowers are not to be procured: an ounce of clove spice is infused for some days in twelve ounces of white wine, the liquor strained, and, with the addition of twenty ounces of sugar, boiled to a proper consistence: a little cochineal renders the colour of this syrup exactly similar to that prepared from the Clove July-flowers; and its flavour is of the same kind, though not so pleasant. The counterfeit may be readily detected by adding to a little of the syrup some alkaline salt or ley, which will change the genuine syrup to a green colour: but in the counterfeit it will make no such alteration, only varying the shade of the red. * Syrupus Colchici, Pharm. U. S. S.—Syrupi. 593 Syrupus Croci. L. Syrup of Saffron. Take of Saffron, one ounce; Refined sugar, two pounds and a half; Boiling water, one pint.—Macerate the saffron, in the water, for twelve hours, in a close vessel; and dissolve the sugar in the strain- ed liquor that it may be made a syrup. Saffron is very well fitted for making a syrup; as in this form a sufficient dose of it is contained in a reasonable compass. This syrup is a pleasant cordial, and gives a fine colour to juleps. Syrupus Rhamni. L. A. Syrup of Buckthorn. Take of the juice of ripe Buckthorn berries, depurated, two parts; Refined sugar, one part.—Boil them so as to form a syrup. E. This preparation in doses of three or four spoonsful, operates as a brisk cathartic. The principal inconveniences attending it are, its being very unpleasant, and occasioning a thirst and dryness of the mouth and fauces, and sometimes violent gripes: these effects may be prevented by drinking liberally of water gruel, or other warm liquids, during the operation. Syrupus Rhcei.* Syrup of Rhubarb. Take of Rhubarb, bruised, two ounces; Boiling water, one pint.— Macerate for twenty-four hours; strain, and add two parts of su- gar to one of the liquor, then boil to form a syrup. Syrupus Rhcei Aromaticus.* Aromatic Syrup of Rhubarb. Spiced Rhubarb. Take of Rhubarb, bruised, five drachms; Cloves, Cinnamon, each, half' an ounce; Nutmegs, two in number; Water, one pint.—Digest and evaporate till the liquor is reduced to half a pint; strain, and add one pound of sugar, and half a, pint of diluted alcohol; then boil a little to form a syrup. Syrupus Rhcei cum Senna.* Syrup of Rhubarb with Senna. Take of Rhubarb, bruised, Senna, each, one ounce and a half; Carda- mom, three drachms; Boiling water, one pint.—- Digest for twenty- four hours, and evaporate with a gentle heat till the liquor is re- duced to half a pint; then strain and add one pound of sugar; last- ly, boil to form a syrup. Syrupus Sarsaparilla. L. A. Syrup of Sarsaparilla. Take of Sarsaparilla, sliced, two pounds; Liquorice, sliced, Roses, Senna, Anise, each two ounces; Warm water, twelve pints.—Infuse the sarsaparilla in the water for twenty four hours; then boil for a quarter of an hour, and strain by strong compression; boil the sar- saparilla again in ten pints of water to the consumption of one-half of the liquor; strain, mix the two liquors, and add the other ingre- dients. Boil again to the consumption of one-half of the liquor; strain, and add of Honey, Sugar, each, two pounds. Boil to form a thick syrup. ' Pharm. U. S. 76 594 S.—Syrupi. Syrupus Sarsaparilla et Guaiaci.* Syrup of Sarsaparilla and Guaiacum. Take of Sarsaparilla, sliced, Guaiacum, raspea% of each, one pound; Roses, Acacia gum, Senna, each one dunce; Ginger, half an ounce; Water, ten pints.—Boil the two first ingredients in the water for one hour, strain, and to the residuum add ten pints more of water; boil for two hours, and towards the end of the boiling, atid the other ingredients; strain, and to the decoctions, add of clarified honey and sugar, each three pounds; and boil to form a syrup. Syrupus Scilla Maritima .t E. Syrup of Squills. Take of Vinegar of squills, four parts; Refined sugar, in powder, seven parts.—Dissolve the sugar with a gentle heat, so as to form a syrup. E. This syrup is used chiefly in doses of a spoonful or two, for pro- moting expectoration, which it does very powerfully. It is also given as an emetic to children. Syrupus Papaveris. L. Syrupus Papaveris Albi. D. Syrupus Papaveris Somniferi. E. Syrup of (White) Poppy. Take of white poppy-heads, dried, and freed from the seeds, one part; Boiling water, fifteen parts; Double refined sugar, two parts.— Macerate the sliced heads in the water for twelve hours; next boil till only one-third part of the liquor remain; then strain it, by ex- pressing it strongly. Boil the strained liquor to the consumption of one-hay", and strain again; lastly, add the sugar, and boil a little so as to form a syrup. This syrup impregnated with the opiate matter of the poppy-heads, is given to children in doses of two or three drachms; to adults, from half an ounce to an ounce and upwards, for easing pain, procuring rest, and answering the other intentions of mild opiates. Particular care is requisite in its preparations, that it may be always made, as nearly as possible, of the same strength, and accordingly the colleges have been very minute in their description of the process. Syrupus Opii. D. Syrup of Opium. Take of Watery extract of opium, eighteen grains; Boiling water, eight ounces by measure.—Macerate until the opium be dissolved, then add sugar, so as to make a syrup. This syrup is an elegant substitute for the former. It is made with infinitely less trouble, and is always of an uniform strength. It con- tains about two grains and a half of opium in the ounce. Syrupus Papaveris Erratici. D. Syrupus Rhosados. L. Syrup of Red Poppy. Take of the fresh petals of the Red poppy, one pound; Boiling water, twenty ounces by measure.—Put the flowers, by degrees, into the • Pharm. U. S. f Syrupus Scillae, Pharm. U. S S.—Syrupi. 595 boiling water. After this, the vessel being removed from the fire, and taken out of the bath, macerate for twelve hours; then press out the liquor, and set it apart, that the feces may subside. Lastly, make it into a syrup, with refined sugar. The design of putting the flowers into boiling water in a water bath is, that they may be a little scalded, so as to shrink enough to be all immerged in the water; without this precaution they can scarce be all got in: but they are to be continued no longer over the fire than till this effect is produced, lest the liquor become too thick, and the syrup be rendered ropy. As a medicine it is perfectly insignificant. Syrupus Rosa Gallic a. E. Syrup of Red Roses. Take of the dried petals of Red roses, one part; Refined sugar, two parts; Boiling water, three parts.—Macerate the roses in the water for twelve hours, then boil them a little and strain the liquor, add to it the sugar, and boil them again so as to form a syrup. This syrup is supposed to be mildly astringent; but is principally valued on account of its red colour. Syrupus Rosa Centifolia. E. Syrup of Damask Roses. Syrupus Rosa. L. Syrup of Roses. Take of the fresh petals of the damask rose, one part; Boiling wa- ter, four parts; Double refined sugar, three parts.—Macerate the roses in the water for the night, then to the liquor strained, and freed from the dregs, add the sugar; boil them into a syrup. This syrup is an agreeable and mild purgative for children in the dose of half a spoonful or a spoonful. It likewise proves gently laxative to adults; and with this intention may be of service in cos- tive habits. Syrupus Senega. * Syrup of Seneca Snake-Root. Take of Seneca snake-root, bruised, four ounces; Water, one pint; Sugar, one pound.— Boil the snake-root in the water, to the con- sumption of the one-half, decant the clear liquid, add the sugar, and boil to form a syrup. Syrupus Tolutanus. L. Syrupus Toluifera Balsami. Ei Syrup of (Balsam of) Tolu. Take of Common syrup, two pounds; Tincture of Balsam of Tolu, one ounce.— With the syrup recently prepared, and when it has al- most grown cold, after it has been removed from the fire, gradually mix the tincture with constant agitation. E. In the formula of the London College, the benzoic acid of the bal- sam alone is contained. That of the Edinburgh College contains the whole substance of the balsam in larger quantity. They are both moderately impregnated with the agreeable flavour of the bal- sam. •Pharm. U.S. t Syrupus Tolutani, Pharra, U. S. 596 8.—Syrupi. A most insignificant article, containing about half a drachm of Tolu, to two pounds of syrup!! Syrupus Viola. D. Syrupus Viola Odorata. E. Syrup of Violets. Take of Fresh violets, two parts; Boiling water, eight parts; Re- fined sugar, fifteen parts.—Macerate the violets in the water for twenty-four hours in a glass or glazed earthen vessel, close cover- ed; then strain without expression, and to the strained liquor add the sugar, powdered, and make into a syrup. This syrup has a very agreeable flavour, and in the quantity of a spoonful or two proves to children gently laxative. It is apt to lose, in keeping, the elegant blue colour, for which it is chiefly valued; and hence some have been induced to counterfeit it with materials whose colour is more permanent, and which are more easily obtain- ed. This abuse may be readily discovered, by adding to a little of the suspected syrup any acid or alkaline liquor. If the syrup be genuine, the acid will change it red, and the alkali green; but if counterfeit, these changes will not happen. From this mutability of the colour of the violet, it forms an excellent test of the presence of acids arid alkalies; and it is also obvious, that a prescriber would be deceived if he should expect to give any blue tinge to acidulated or alkalized juleps, or mixtures, by the addition of the blue syrup. Another equally contemptible appendage to a Pharmacopoeia!! Syrupus Senna. L. D. Syrupus Cassia Senna. E. Syrup of Senna. Take of Manna, Refined sugar, each, one pound; Senna, half an ounce; Boiling water, a pint.—Macerate the senna in the water, in a covered vessel, for twelve hours; then, with the strained liquor, mix the manna and the sugar, so that they may be dis- solved. This preparation, which is intended to be an officinal substitute for an excellent nursery purgative, is a proof of the impropriety of colleges sanctioning prescriptions which they have not brought to the test of experiment. Mr. Phillips found, "that the proportions a9 given by the Dublin College yielded, instead of a fluid syrup, a sub- stance so thick, that it could not even be shaken out of an inverted vessel owing to the crystallization of the manna. Treacle is the best addition for forming infusion of senna into a syrup, as it has no ten- dency, to crystallize, and covers its taste so completely, that chil- dren take it readily. Syrupus Zingiberis. D. L. A. Syrupus Amomi Zingiberis. E. Syrup of Ginger. Take of Ginger, in powder, two ounces; Boiling water, one pint; Refined sugar, two pounds.—Macerate the ginger in the water, in a close vessel, for twenty-four hours; strain the infusion, and form a syrup, by adding the sugar. L. This is an agreeable and moderately aromatic syrup, impregnated with the flavour and virtues of the ginger. T.—Tanacetum, 597 T. TAMARINDUS. L. D. A. Tamarindus Indica. E. Tamarind. Tamarind Tree. Tlie preserved Fruit. Monodelphia Triandria. Nat. ord. Lomentacex, Linn. Leguminosx, Juss. This tree grows both in the East and West Indies. The fruit is a broad ash coloured pod. The external covering is thin and brittle, and contains several hard seeds, enveloped in a soft brown pulp. Tamarinds are cured in two ways. The common way is to throw hot sugar from the boilers on the ripe pulp; but a better method is to put alternate layers of tamarinds and powdered sugar in a stone jar. By this means the tamarinds preserve their colour and taste more agreeably. East India tamarinds are longer than the West India sort; the former containing six or seven seeds each, the latter rarely above three or four. Preserved tamarinds should be fresh and juicy, and should have an agreeable acid taste. - They should not have a musty smell; the seeds should not be soft and swollen, and the blade of a knife should not get a coating of copper by being immersed amongst them. Tamarinds contain sugar, mucilage, citric acid, super-tartrat of potass, tartaric acid, and malic acid. Medical use.—The pulp of these fruits, taken in the quantity of from two or three drachms to an ounce or more, proves gently laxa- tive and purgative; and, at the same time, by its acidity, quenches thirst, and allays immoderate heat. It increases the action of the pur- gative sweets, cassia and manna, and weakens that of the resinous cathartics. Salts, whose base is potass, form an improper addition to tamarind, for they are decomposed, and the tartaric acid of the fruit is-precipi- tated in the form of super-tartrat of potass. TAN ACETUM VULGARE.* D. Common Tansy. Tlie Leaves. Syngenesia Superflua. Nat. ord. Compositx Discoidex, Linn. Corymbiferx, Juss. Tansy is perennial, and grows wild by road sides and the borders of fields, and is frequently also cultivated in gardens, both for culi- nary and medicinal uses: it flowers in June and July. Medical use.—Considered as a medicine, it is a moderately warm bitter, accompanied with a strong, not very disagreeable flavour. Some physicians have had a great opinion of it, in hysteric disor- ders, particularly those proceeding from a deficiency, or suppres- sion of the uterine purgations. The leaves and seeds have been of considerable esteem as anthelmintics; the seeds are less bitter, and more acrid and aromatic than those of rue, to which they are reck- oned similar; or of santonicum, for which'they have been frequent ly substituted. An infusion of tansy, drunk in a manner similar to * Tanacetum, Pharm, TT. S secondary. 598 T.—Telae Aranearum. tea, has been strongly recommended as a preventive of the return of gout. TAPIOCA.* Iatropha Manihot. Tapioca. The fecula of the Root. A mild, nutritious demulcent better adapted to the materia ali- mentaria than to the Materia Medica. TEL.E ARANEARUM. Spider's Web. It would scarcely be supposed that this article would have en- gaged the attention of physicians, as useful in the Materia Medica: and it may serve to show how little capable we are of estimating the value of any thing in this respect, except by experience and obser- vation. It seems to have been long overlooked that it was formerly employed, and has lately been again introduced to notice. In Dr. Chapman's Therapeutics will be found all that is principally known upon the subject. And the following notices from difterent works contain the principal facts I can collect relative to it "The web astnnges and conglutinates, and is, therefore, vulne- rary; restrains bleeding, and prevents inflammation. The country people have a tradition, that a small quantity of spider's web, given about an hour before the fit of an ague, and repeated immediately before it, is effectual in curing that troublesome, and sometimes ob- stinate distemper. This remedy is not confined to our own country; for I am well informed.that the Indians about North Carolina have great dependance on this remedy for agues, to which they are much subject; and I am acquainted with a gentleman long resident in those parts, who assures me he was himself cured by it of that dis- temper. And, indeed, experience confirms the efficacy of this me- dicine in the cure of agues. "—James's New English Dispensatory, London, 1747, p. 484. In the Medical and Physical Journal, vol. 21. p. 353, will be found an interesting paper on this subject, by Dr. R. Jackson, in which he states the success of Dr. Gillespie, of Edinburgh, in curing an obsti- nate intermittent with cobweb, after other means had failed. He was led from this to try it himself, and has given several instances of its perfect efficacy, even when of long continuance; and he is led from those cases "to consider cobweb as possessing the power of suspending the course of intermitting fever with great certainty." And elsewhere he concludes, that it "possessed an extraordinary and altogether an inexplicable power in calming irritations, and in diminishing the excess of bodily torments"—hence he was induced to try it "in the deliria, pains, spasms, and subsultus, common in fevers of the continued class." The effect far exceeded his expecta- tions. He likewise effected perfect cures in some troublesome spas- modic affections; and gave it with the most marked benefit in dry, irritating coughs, usually termed nervous, singly, and sometimes • Pharm. U. S T__Telse Aranearum. 599 conjoined with opium. In the advanced stage of phthisis, it Pfocurfd a respite beyond his expectation, one particular case of which he details. He further found it useful in restraining a troublesome hiccough. And he concludes by affirming, " that cobweb diminishes morbid irritability, and calms irritations of both body and mind, in a degree far exceeding any drug or remedy within the circle of our knowledge." The natural history of the spider and its web, is given in the Monthly Magazine, vol. 20. p. 222. They are also spoken of in Geoffroy's Materia Medica, vol. 14. p. 230—262. At p. 265, we have an account of this remedy in the following words: " Quant a l'usage exterieur de l'Araignee on l'estime pour les fievres intermittentes, et principalement pour la fievre quarte. On prend pour cela une grosse araignee, qu'on ecrase et qu'on applique sur le poignet; ou bien on l'enferme vivante dans une coquille de noix, et on attache cette coquille au col a l'entree de l'acces: d'autres preferent la toile, et en prennent de la grosseur d'un oeuf de poule, qu'ils melent avec parties egales de suye de cheminee, y ajoutant un peu de sel-commun, et ce qu'il faut de vinaigre pour faire du tout Tin cataplasme qu'ils appliquent sur,les deux poignets du febricitant, repetant ce remede deux ou trois fois. II y en a meme qui en font avaler de la grosseur d'un pois dans un verre de vin blanc au com- mencement du frisson; ce qui guerit quelquefois en faisant suer abondamment M. James dans son Dictionnaire Universel de Me- decine, rapporte a ce sujet la cure singuliere d'une fievre intermit- tente par le moyen de la toile d'araignee prise interieurement On peut voir dans le traite du savant Docteur Martin Lister sur les Araignees, beaucoup d'autres proprietes qu'il attribue a ces insectes, et les remedes qu'il en tire pour diff'erentes maladies." gCT" The following quotations are taken from a Thesis, by Dr. Broughton, who graduated in this University, in 1818. " The fresh web, before it has been long exposed to the action of the sun and atmosphere, is extremely glutinous; and when pressed together by the fingers, or rubbed in a mortar, assumes a black appearance, resembling India rubber in texture and elasticity, which, however, it soon loses, becoming hard and fibrous. If it is allowed to remain for the space of two or three days after it has been spun, it is completely deprived of its glutinous quality, and the fibres cannot be made to adhere, except by the addition of some gummy mat- ter: gum arabic answers this purpose. " When dried, it is extremely light, of a greyish colour, without taste or smell, and has much the appearance of threads of very fine silk matted toge- ther. " This is by far the most usual appearance, as it is very difficult to collect a sufficient quantity of the fresh webs, each web containing not more than one or two grains; and if not collected previous to the third day after it is spun, it will be deprived of its gluten, and consequently reduced to the dried form." " Officinal Preparation.—With regard to the preparations of the web for medical use, the apothecary is extremely limited; it being insoluble in water, proof spirit, or even the human saliva. It is impossible to prepare it either in form of decoction, infusion, or tincture. In consequence of the gluten of the fresh, and the thread-like structure of the dried web, it is equally difficult to reduce it to powder: the only possible form, therefore, is that of pill, to which it can easily be reduced, when fresh, without the aid of any other article; and when dried, by the addition of starch, bread or gum arabic; the latter I have 600 T.—Telse Aranearum. found most efficacious,^ sufficient quantity of the mucilage being added t« form a mass. " Species.—The black spider has been supposed by Dr. R. James to be the most efficacious, and the same opinion has been advanced by Dr. Poyas, of Charleston, South Carolina, (as will be mentioned in the sequel.) " This opinion, I think, I can safely state to be incorrect; and am satisfied that facts and arguments can be produced sufficiently strong to prove the as- sertion. Upon examination of the webs of the various species of spider, I found them all in the recent state possessed of the same glutinous quality, and when dried of the same fibrous structure. " A very peculiar substance appeared necessary for the formation of the web which ensnares flies, &c. for the food of the insect: and that the web of every species was equally calculated for this purpose. " This fact, therefore, being established, that the webs of every species was the same both in appearance and utility, I am inclined to believe, that like the chyle of the human system, every substance taken into the stomach of the insect, (without regard to species,) produces one homogeneous mass, qualified for every purpose to which the web of any one species may be applied. '* There are also facts corroborating which I shall here proceed to state. Having had some opportunities to try the effect of the web in disease, and finding it difficult to procure the production of any one species, I collected it promiscuously, and was pleased to find it in more than one instance pro- ductive of the best effects. Another fact, which I collected from the Ency- clopedia, under the head Araneus, is equally important. It is there stated, that * every species of spider changes its colour and size according to age, sex, and season; so that the black spider in one month and the black spider in other, though in apppearance the same, may be distinct species.' " In all the cases of disease which I nave seen or heard of the exhibition of the web, no sensible, or at least no uniform, operation, could be observed. Some patients were sensible of none, others of a slight sudorific, and some a nauseating effect; and one or two thought that it proved cathartic after remaining in the system for the space of twelve or fifteen hours. These accountsbeing 60 incorrect and various, I determined to ascertain, (if possible,) the correct operation, by giving the web to healthy persons. I accordingly chose healthy adults, and exhibiting the web, 1 detained the patients in order carefully to observe any operation that might occur. "I found from these experiments, that the operation of the web appeared principally to be upon the arterial system; and, perhaps, in less time than any article already known: the force and frequency of the pulse being uniform- ly reduced, in some cases ten, in others fifteen strokes in a minute; and in one case, the pulse, from being strong and full, became, soft, small, and very com- pressible: all which operation took place within the space of two hours; after which time the artery gradually regained its former force and frequency. This has been the only invariable effect I could observe, all others appearing but anomalous. " Dose.—Dr. Poyas informed me that he gave the web in doses of twenty grains. I think I may state from twelve to twenty grains to an adult, to be both safe and efficacious. The usual time of exhibiting the web is about an hour previous to the attack. " Application and efficacy in intermittent fever.—A gentleman of veracity in. formed me that he had used the web with the best effect, in the case of a servant of his who had been troubled with an intermittent fever for the space of eighteen months. All the evacuantia usually employed were used, and Peruvian hark in large quantities was inefficacious; at length being informed of the web, he gave one scruple every day before the expected attack, which effected a complete cure in the space of one week. " A second and a third case occurred, which he treated in the same man- ner, and with the same success. " He informed me that Dr. Poyas was the gentleman to whom he was in. T.—Teucrium. 601 debted for his information; and being myself acquainted with the Doctor, I wrote, and received the following answer: " Dear Sir—I have to acknowledge the receipt of your letter respecting the spiders' web. It is now near twenty years since I was engaged in the prac- tice of medicine, during which I made use of the web in cases of intermittent fever. After the usual evacuants had been used, and when the bark was inad- missible or ineffectual, I gave it in doses of twenty grains an hour before the expected attack; and think I may say I never knew it fail. I used the web of the black spider, but think that the web of any might answer. "Yourmost obedient, JOHN E. POYAS." Dr. Holmes also sends the following information upon the same subject: , *' Dear Sir—According to your request, I send you an account of two cases in which I exhibited the spiders' web. Two negroes had had intermittent fe- ver for three or four weeks, accompanied with violent headache: one of them complained of the pain being more severe during the intermission. Emetics, cathartics, &c. had been given during the paroxysm, and bark during the in- termission, but still every evening it returned. Finding the disease still con- tinued, I gave them the spiders'web; to each, three pills containing four grains, were exhibited just before the chill came on, which had the effect of shorten- ing the fit considerably. Five pills, containing four grains, were given to each at the next paroxysm* which had the effect of completely putting a stop to the disease " Yours, truly, HENRY M. HOLMES." Dr. Broughton next gives an account of a case: P. C. attacked with quotidian, 20th July, 1817—resisting the common modes of practice and empirical prescriptions to 31st Au- gust, when she began the cobweb pills, three a day, of four grains each: the paroxysms becoming milder, until the 3d of September, when four pills were given, and no return of the disease ensued. ICf In a Thesis written by Dr. G. Pressly, of South Carolina, 1824, he assures us of the total inefficacy of this article, even in large doses, up to a scruple, frequently repeated, both as an ano- dyne, and also as a cure for intermittents! " Who shall decide," &c. 1. TEUCRIUM MARUM. D. Syrian herb Mastich. The Herb. Common Marum. Didynamia Gymnospermia. Nat. ord. Vertkillatx, Linn. Labiatx, Juss. Syn. Herbe au Chat, (F.) M*/>ov, Dioscor. This is a small, shrubby plant, growing spontaneously in Syria, Candy, and other warm climates, and cultivated with us in gardens. The leaves have an aromatic, bitterish taste; and, when rubbed be- twixt the fingers, a quick, pungent smell, like volatile alkali, which soon affects the head, and occasions sneezing: distilled with water, they yield a very acrid, penetrating} essential oil, resembling that of scurvy-grass. These qualities sufficiently point out the uses to which this plant might be applied; at present it is little otherwise employed than in cephalic snuffs. 2. Teucrium Cham.edrys. D. Wall Germander. The Herb. This perennial herb is found plentifully in the isle of Ely, and near Cambridge. It flowers in July and August. It is an aromatic 77 602 T___Tincturse. bitter, and is considered to be tonic and stimulant. An infusion of it is given in ague, chlorosis, and arthritis. TINCTURJE.—TINCTURES. Tinctures should be digested in stopped glass bottles, and in a temperature of about 80°, unless otherwise directed. They should be frequently shaken during the preparation. The term Tincture has often been employed in a very vague sense. It is now commonly applied to solutions, made by diges- tion, in alcohol, or diluted alcohol. But it is also, though perhaps incorrectly, extended to solutions in ether, ethereal spirits, and spirit of ammoni|. Alcohol is capable of dissolving resins, gum resins, extractive, tannin, sugar, volatile oils, soaps, camphor, adipocere, colouring matters, acids, alkalies, and some compound salts. Many of these, as the gum resins, soaps, extractive, tannin, sugar, and saline sub- stances, are also soluble in water, while water is capable of dissolving substances, such as gum, gelatin, and most of the compound salts, which are insoluble in alcohol. But the insolubility of these sub- stances in the different menstrua is not absolute, but merely relative; for a certain proportion of alcohol may be added to a solution of gum in water, without decomposing it; and a solution of resin in al- cohol, will bear a certain admixture of water, without becoming tur- bid. Therefore, diluted alcohol, which is a mixture of these two men- strua, sometimes extracts the virtues of heterogeneous compounds more completely than either of them separately. Alcohol is used as a menstruum, 1. When the solvend is not soluble, or sparingly soluble, in water. 2. When a watery solution of the solvend is extremely perishable. 3. When the use of alcohol is indicated, as well as that of the solvend. In making alcoholic tinctures, we must observe, that the virtues of recent vegetable matters are very imperfectly extracted by spiri- tuous menstrua. They must, therefore, be previously carefully dried, and as we cannot assist the solution by means of heat, we must fa- cilitate it, by reducing the solvend to a state of as minute mechani- cal division as possible. To prevent loss, the solution is commonly made in a close vessel, and the heat applied must be very gentle", lest it be broken by the expansion of vapour. The action of tinctures on the living system is always compound- ed of the action of the menstruum, and of the matters dissolved in it Now, these actions may either coincide with, or oppose, each other; and as alcohol is at all times a powerful agent, it is evident that no substance should be exhibited in the form of a tincture, whose action is different from that of alcohol, unless it be capable ot operating in so small a dose, that the quantity of alcohol taken along with it is inconsiderable. T.—Tincturse. 603 Tinctures are not liable to spoil, as it is called, but they must nevertheless, be kept in well closed phials, especially when they contain active ingredients, to prevent the evaporation of the men- struum. They generally operate in doses so small, that they are rarely ex- hibited by themselves, but commonly combined with some vehicle. In choosing the latter, we must select some substance which does not decompose the tincture, or at least separates nothing from it in a palpable form. The colleges direct all tinctures to be prepared in close phials; and to be frequently shaken during the process. Tinctures consist of alcohol, proof spirit, or spirit of greater or less density, holding in solution one or more of those proximate princi- ples of vegetable, or animal matter, which are soluble in that men- struum, viz. Sugar, resin, extractive, tannin, cinchonin, camphor, volatile oils, morphia, emetin, conein, elatin, and several acids. The proper solvent of those bodies termed gum-resins, appears to be proof spirit. The compilers of the Codex'Medicamentarius of Paris, have defined the different degrees of spirituous strength requisite for the full and perfect extraction Of the active elements of different bodies, with great truth and nicety; thus, they direct for these pur- poses, a spirit of three different standards, viz. 36, (specific gravity .837,) 32, (.856) 22, (.915) of Beaume's hydrometer; with the first are prepared the resinous tinctures; with the second, those where- in the resinous, extractive, or gummy elements, hold nearly an equal place; and with the third, those in which the latter predominate. We are moreover, indebted to this committee for having set at rest a question which has been long doubtful, whether the addition of alkaline agents increases the extractive powers of the spirit? They have indeed ascertained by experiment, that the reverse not fre- quently obtains; for instance, they found that a smaller proportion of guaiacum was dissolved by the spirit of ammonia, than by alco- hol of the same strength, and that the quantity of matter dissolved from the root of Valerian was the same in both cases. Very active substances, soluble in alcohol, are those which are more particularly adapted for tinctures, since they furnish preparations, which are ef- ficient in small doses, and very manageable in extemporaneous pre- scription, such are the tinctures of Opium, Digitalis, Hyoscyamus, Scilla, $c; and from the chemical analysis of Eiaterium, there can be no doubt, but that a very active and useful tincture of that sub- stance, might be introduced into practice; on the contrary, sub- stances of little activity, except in large doses, are the least adapted for this form of exhibition, as in such cases, the solvent will act more powerfully on the living system, than the principles which it may hold in solution; and when continued for any length of time will lay the foundation of the pernicious custom of dram-drinking; such tinctures, however, are not without their value in combination; they sometimes increase the efficacy, and often correct the opera- tion, or disguise the flavour of the medicines with which they may be united. The addition of a tincture has likewise the effect of pre- serving decoctions and infusions from spontaneous decomposition; the compound tincture of Cardamoms answers such an object in the 604 T.—Tinctura;. compound decoction of Aloes. Tinctures are sometimes made with ether, but they are, generally, more strongly characterized by the nature of the^nenstruum, than by that of the substances dissolved in it, indeed ether is used in these cases, not to dissolve substances which would resist the action of alcohol and water, but for the sake of its own direct action on the body; thus the Edinburgh Pharmar copoeia directs an Ethereal Tincture of Aloes, which is more pene- trating, and stimulant, than the alcoholic tinctures; the London Col- lege, with the exception of the Aromatic Spirit of ASther, does not recognise any preparation of this nature: in the Ethereal Tincture of Digitalis of the French Codex, than which, nothing can be more in- judicious, the digitalis does not amount to more than l-70th part of the tincture, and must* therefore be entirely counteracted by the stimulant effects of the menstruum. The same objection cannot be urged against the ethereal tinctures of Castor, Musk, and Amber, since, in these cases, the subject and the menstruum concur in their mode of operation, (according to common opinion.) Tinctures derive their names from the substances whicb impart ac- tivity to them, and as the medicinal history of each substance, is de- tailed under its proper head; it will be unnecessary to dwell at any length, upon the individual virtues of these tinctures.—Paris' Phfir- macologia. Tinctura Aloes. L. D. A. Tinctura Aloes Socotorina. E. Tincture of (Socotorine) Aloes. Take of Socotorine aloes, in powder, half an ounce; Extract of Li- quorice, one ounce and a half; Alcohol, four ounces; Water, one pound.—Digest for ten days, andpour off the depurated tincture. E. In this simple tincture, all the active parts of the aloes are sus- pended in the menstruum. The extract of liquorice serves both to assist the suspension, and to cover the taste of the aloes; and in those cases where we wish for the operation of the aloes alone, this is perhaps one of the best formulae for its exhibition in a fluid state. About an ounce may be taken for a dose. Tinctura Aloes et Myrrhs. E. A. Tinctura Aloes Composita. L. D. Compound Tincture of Aloes. Tincture of Aloes and Myrrh. Elixir Proprietatis. , Take of Myrrh, in powder, two ounces; Alcohol, one pint and a half; Water, half a pint.—Mix the alcohol with the water, then add the myrrh; digest for four days; and lastly, add of Socotorine aloes, in powder, an ounce and a half'; Saffron, one ounce.—Digest again for three days, andpour off the tincture from the sediment. E. This is supposed to be an improvement on the elixir proprietatis of Paracelsus. This tincture differs considerably in strength from that of the London and Dublin formula; the latter contains one part of aloes to eight of the menstruum; the former one to sixteen, while the simple tincture already mentioned, contains but one to thirty- two. In prescription, these proportions must be attended to. The myrrh and saffron may add to its stimulating properties. T__Tinctura. 605 Tinctura Aloes ^therea. E. Ethereal Tincture of Aloes. Take of Myrrh, Socotorine aloes, of each, an ounce and a half; Eng- lish saffron, one ounce; Sulphuric ether with alcohol, one pound. —Digest the myrrh with the liquor, for four days, in a close ves- sel; then add the saffron and aloes. Digest again for four days, and, when the feces have subsided, pour off the tincture. This tincture agrees generally, in its effects, with the other tinc- tures of aloes, the only difference arising from the more penetrating and stimulating nature of the menstruum itself. Tinctura Angustura. D. A. Tinctura BonplandijE Trifoliate. E. Tincture of Angustura. 'Take of Angustura bark, in coarse powder, two ounces; Proof spirit of wine, two pints.—Digest for seven days, and filter. D. Angustura bark readily gives out its active principles to alcohol; hence the tincture is a convenient, and useful preparation. Tinctura (Ferule E.) Assafcetide. L. D. A. 9 Tincture of Assafoetida. Take of Assafoetida, four ounces; Alcohol, two pints; Water, by mea- sure, eight ounces.—Add the spirit to the gum-resin, triturated with the water; digest for ten days.and strain. D. As a gum-resin,*the above formula of the Dublin College is cer- tainly preferable to the others. >- , This tincture possesses the virtues of the assafoetida itself; and may be given in doses of from ten drops to fifty or sixty. Tinctura Camphore. E. A. Spiritus Camphore. L. Spiritus Camphoratus. D. Tincture of Camphor. Spirit of Camphor. Camphorated Spirit. Take of Camphor, one ounce; Alcohol, one pound.—Mix them toge- ther, that the camphor may be dissolved. (It may also be made with a double, triple, tyc. proportion of camphor.) E. This solution of camphor is only employed for external uses, against rheumatic pains, paralytic numbness, inflammations, for dis- cussing tumours, preventing gangrenes, or restraining their progress. They are too pungent to be exhibited internally, and cannot be di- luted with water, without being totally decomposed. The American Pharmacopoeia orders it, in the Latin formula, to be erroneously made with diluted alcohol. Tinctura Opii Camphorata. E. D. Camphorated Tincture of Opium. Tinctura Camphore Composita. L.* Compound Tincture of Camphor. Paregoric Elixir. Asthmatic Elixir. Take of Opium, Benzoic acid, each one drachm; Camphor, two scru- ples; Diluted alcohol, two pints.—Digest for ten days, andfilterA E. D. L. * Tinctura Camphoric Opiata. Opiated Tincture of Camphor. Ph. U. S. f The Pharmacopoeia of the U. S. add the .following articles to the above— Oil of anise, one drachm; Liquorice, half an ounce; Clarified honey, two ounces. 606 T.—Tincturse. In this formula the virtues of the opium and camphor are com- bined. It gets an agreeable flavour from the acid of benzoin and es- sential oil. The latter will also render it more stimulating; but whe- ther it derives any salutary virtues from the former, we do not know. It was originally prescribed under the title of Elixir Asthmaticum, which it does not ill deserve. It contributes to allay the tickling which provokes frequent coughing; and at the same time it is sup- posed to open the breast, and give greater liberty of breathing. It is given to children against the cnincough, &c. from five drops to twen- ty: to adults, from twenty to a hundred. Half an ounce, by measure, contains about a grain of opium. The various changes of nomenclature, especially for preparations of opium, cannot be too severely reprehended. IO" This formula was, I believe, first introduced into medical practice by Le Mort, under the name of asthmatic elixir. After him, we find it in Quincy's Pharmacopoeia Officinalis, in the different edi- tions of that work, viz.: the 1st m 1718—3d, 1720—9th, 1733, and 11th, 1739—and we presume in all the intermediate ones, and un- der the same appellation. Little variation existed in the prescription, which, as given by Le Mort, consisted of honey and liquorice root, ■3 54—Flor. Benzoes, Opium, a 5i—Camphor, 9ij—01. Anisi, 3ss. Salt of Tartar, ^i—Rectified Spirit of Wine, ftj2. In 1733, Alleyne published his New English Dispensatory, in which it is called elixir against asthma. The preparation continued the same. Pemberton published several editions of the Dispensatory of the Royal College of London, from about 1750 to 1760, in which this pre- paration is first named paregoric elixir, but in which the honey, liquorice, and salt of tartar are excluded. In other Dispensatories subsequent to that period it also appeared without the articles omit- ted by Pemberton. These have been, (with the exception of the salt of tartar,) again replaced by the Pharmacopoeia of the United States, using,however liquorice instead of the liquorice root. |r~p One ounce of laudanum, fresli prepared, and clear, yields by evaporation about 28 grains of opium, or 448 grains to the pound, or 16 ounces—what is left being effete and insoluble matter, equal to 32 grains. One ounce of paregoric contains nearly two grains of opium, or it is about fourteen times weaker in regard to the opium, tnan lauda- num is. If we so consider it, we may very readily prepare the paregoric elixir by an easier process from laudanum itself, thus:— R. Laudanum, - - one ounce. Diluted Alcohol, - fifteen ounces. Camphor, - - one scruple. Flowers of Benzoin, > e , , ,r , . Oil of Anise, 5 of each' half a drachm- Add liquorice and honey in their due proportions, if you please. T.—Tincturse. 607 Tinctura Opii Ammoniata; olim, Elixir Paregoricum. E. Ammoniated Tincture of Opium, formerly Paregoric Elixir. Take of Benzoic acid, English saffron, of each, three drachms; Opium, two drachms, Essential oil of aniseed, half a drachm; Ammoniated alcohol, sixteen ounces.—Digest for seven days, in a close vessel, and strain. This is a preparation of considerable efficacy in many spasmodic diseases, as chincough, &c. the ammonia removing the spasms imme- diately, while the opium tends to prevent its return. Each drachm contains about a grain of opium. Tinctura Cantharidis. D.* Tinctura Cantharidis Vesicatorie. E. Tinctura Lytte. L. Tincture of Cantharides, or Spanish Flies. Take of Cantharides, bruised, three drachms; Diluted alcohol, two pints.—Digest for ten days, and strain. L. This tincture contains the active principle of the cantharides, whatever it may be. It is applied externally as a stimulant and ru- befacient, and is sometimes given internally, in doses of from ten to twenty drops, as a diuretic. It has been usefully employed in cases of gleet in small doses. I have however heard of a practitioner who used.this powerful remedy in a case of gleet, beginning with doses of sixty drops, until he had gradually increased the amount to even 1500 drops in twenty-four hours. He informed the patient that no benefit was to be expected from it, unless it produced a new action; which unfortunately for the patient, took place, in inflammation and suppuration in some parts of the genital organs! Such a practice can- not be too severely reprehended. Tinctura Capsici. L. A. Tincture of Cayenne Pepper. Take of Cayenne pepper, one ounce; Diluted alcohol, two pints.—* Digest for ten days, and filter. L. Tinctura Capsici et Cantharidum. A. Tincture of Cayenne Pepper and Cantharides. Take of Cantharides, bruised, ten drachms; Cayenne pepper, one drachm; Diluted alcohol, one pint.—Digest for ten days, and filter. These are very powerful acrid stimulants. The former has been recommended in gangrenous sore throats. Tinctura Cardamomi. L. D. A. Tinctura Amomi Repentis. E. Tincture of Cardamom. Take of Cardamom, bruised, four ounces; Diluted alcohol, two pints and a half.—Dig est for ten days, and filter. E. Tincture of Cardamoms has been in use for a considerable time. * Tinctura Cantharidum, Pharm. U. S, 608 T.—Tinctura. It is a pleasant warm cordial; and may be taken along with any proper vehicle, in doses of from a drachm to a spoonful or two. Tinctura Cardamomi Composita. L. D. Compound Tincture of Cardamom. Take of Lesser cardamom seeds, husked, and bruised, Cochineal, Ca- raway seeds, each, powdered, two drachms; Cinnamon, bruised, half an ounce; Proof spirit, two pints.—Digest for fourteen days and strain. This tincture contains so small a proportion of cardamoms as to be hardly entitled to derive its name from that article. Tinctura Castorei. L. D. E. A. Tincture of Castor. Take of Russian castor, powdered, two ounces; Alcohol, two pints.— Digest for ten days, and filter. L. It has been disputed whether a weak or rectified spirit, and whe- ther cold or warm digestion, are preferable for making this tincture. From several experiments made to determine this question, it ap- pears that castor, macerated without heat, gives out its finer and most grateful parts to either spirit, but most perfectly to the recti- fied; that heat enables both menstrua to extract the greatest part of its grosser and more nauseous matter; and that proof spirit extracts this last more readily than rectified. The tincture of castor is recommended in most kinds of nervous complaints and hysteric disorders: in the latter it sometimes does service, though many have complained of its proving ineffectual. The dose is from twenty drops to forty, fifty, or more. Tinctura Castorei Composita. E. Compound Tincture of Castor. Take of Russian castor, one ounce; Assafoetida, half an ounce; Am- moniated alcohol, one pound.—Digest for seven days, and filter through paper. This composition is a medicine of efficacy, particularly in hysteri- cal disorders, and the several symptoms which accompany them. The spirit here used is an excellent menstruum, both for the castor and the assafoetida, and greatly adds to their virtues. Tinctura Catechu. L. D. A. Tinctura Acacie Catechu. E. Tinctura Japonica. Tincture of Catechu. Take of Catechu, three ounces; Cinnamon, bruised, two ounces; Di- luted alcohol, two pints.—Digest for ten days, and filter. L. The cinnamon is a very useful addition to the catechu, not only as it warms the stomach, &c. but likewise as it improves the rough- ness and astringency of the other. This tincture is of service in all kinds of defluxions, catarrhs, loosenesses, uterine fluxes, and other disorders, where astringent T—Tinctune. 609 medicines are indicated. Two or three tea-spoonfuls may be taken every now and then in red wine, or any other proper vehicle. Tinctura Cinchone. D. L. A. Tinctura Cinchone Lancifolie. E. Tincture of Cinchona. Tincture of Peruvian Bark. Take of Lance-leaved cinchona bark, in powder, seven ounces; Proof spirit, two pints.—Macerate for fourteen days, and filter. L. This tincture is certainly impregnated with the virtues of cinchona, but not to such a degree that it can be given in sufficient doses to act as cinchona, without exhibiting more alcohol than is proper to be given as a medicine. Indeed, we are afraid that this and other bitter and tonic tinctures, as they are Called, are with some only an apology for dram-drinking, and that the most apparent effects they produce are those of a slight degree of intoxication. Tinctura Cinchone Composita. L. D. E. A. Compound Tincture of Peruvian Bark. Take of Peruvian bark, powdered, two ounces; Orange peel, dried, one ounce and a half; Virginia snake-root, bruised, three drachms; Saffron, one drachm; Cochineal, two scruples; Diluted alcohol, one pint and a half.—Digest for ten days, and filter. E. This has been for a considerable time celebrated under the title of Huxham's Tincture of Bark. As a corroborant and stomachic, it is given in doses of two or three drachms: but when employed for the cure of intermittents, it must be taken to a greater extent. Tinctura Cinchone Ammoniata. L. Ammoniated Tincture of Cinchona. Take of Cinchona, powdered, four ounces; Compound spirit of am- monia, two pints.—Digest in a close vessel for ten days, and strain. We are not acquainted with this tincture; but from our knowledge of the active principles of cinchona bark, we are not disposed to think it a very judicious preparation; for the nature of the menstruum is so stimulating, that little effect can be expected from any portion of the bark it is capable of dissolving. Tinctura Cinnamomi. L. D. A. Tinctura Lauri Cinnamomi. E. Tincture of Cinnamon. Take of Cinnamon, three ounces; Diluted alcohol, two pints.—Mace* rate for seven days, and strain through paper. L. The tincture of cinnamon possesses the astringent virtues of the cinnamon, as well as its aromatic cordial ones; and in this respect it differs from the distilled waters of that spice. 8 610 T.—-Tincturse. Tinctura Cinnamomi Composita. E. L. B. Compound Tincture of Cinnamon. Take of Cinnamon, bruised, six drachms; Lesser cardamom seeds, without the capsules, one drachm; Long pepper, in powder, Ginger, in powder, of each, two drachms; Proof spirit, two pounds.—Mix and digest for seven days, then strain. In their formula, the London and Dublin colleges diminish the quantity of cardamom seeds, and substitute for it a proportion of ginger. This makes no alteration in the virtues of the preparation, which is a very warm aromatic, too hot to be given without dilution. A tea-spoonful or two may be taken in wine, or any other convenient vehicle, in languors, weakness of the stomach, flatulencies, and other similar complaints; and in these cases, it is often employed with ad- vantage. ^ Tinctura Colombe. E. A. Tinctura Calumbe. L. Tinctura Columbo. D. Tincture of Columbo. Take of Columbo, sliced, tivo ounces and a half; Diluted alcohol, two pints.—Digest for ten days, and filter. L. The Colombo readily yields its active qualities to the menstruum here employed; and accordingly, under this form, it may be advan- tageously employed against bilious vomitings, and those different stomach complaints, in which the Colombo has been found useful; but where there does not occur some objection to its use in sub- stance, that form is, in general, preferable to the tincture. Tinctura Digitalis. D. L. A. Tinctura Digitalis Purpuree. E. Tincture of Foxglove. Take of the dried leaves of foxglove, two ounces; Diluted alcohol, one pint.-—Digest for seven days, and strain through paper. D. This tincture is a very powerful medicine, and contains the virtues of the foxglove, in a very manageable form. It has been chiefly used to diminish the force of the circulation of the blood in haemoptysis, and often with remarkable success. It has been also said to cure phthisis pulmonalis, but subsequent experience has not confirmed the first trials. Like every other form in which foxglove is used, it should be given in very small doses at first, such as from ten to twenty drops, and cautiously increased. Tinctura Gentiane Composita. E. L. D.* (Compound) Tincture of Gentian. Stomachic Elixir. Take of Gentian, sliced, two ounces : Orange peel, dried, one ounce; Cardamom, bruised, half an ounce; Diluted alcohol, two pints.— Digest, for ten days, and filter. L. This is a very elegant spirituous bitter. As the preparation is de- signed for keeping, lemon peel, an excellent ingredient in the watery * Tinctura Gentiana:, Pharm. U. 5= T.—Tincturse. 611 bitter infusions, has, on account of the perishableness of its flavour, no place in this. Tinctura Guaiaci. D. L. A. Tinctura Guaiaci Officinalis. E. Tincture of Guaiac. Take of Guaiac, in powder, half a pound ; Alcohol, two pints.—Ma- cerate fourteen days and filter. L. The Edinburgh College formerly directed one pound of Guaiac to two pounds and a half of alcohol; the resin was in too large amount; and in the last edition of their Pharmacopoeia, the proportion is six ounces to the same amount of alcohol. The American Pharmacopoeia has chosen the largest proportion. We think the one of London, above, superior and better proportioned. What is called gum guaiac is in fact a resin, and perfectly solu- ble in alcohol. This solution is a powerful stimulating sudorific, and may be given in doses of about half an ounce, in rheumatic and arthritic cases. It was once supposed to be a specific against the gout. Tinctura Guaiaci Ammoniati. E. L. D. A. Ammoniated Tincture of Guaiac. - Take of Guaiac, in powder, four ounces ; Aromatic ammoniated al- cohol, one pound and a half.—Digest forten days, andfilter through paper. L. This is a very elegant and efficacious tincture; the ammoniated spirit readily dissolving the resin, and atthe same time promoting its medicinal virtue. In rheumatic cases, a tea, or even a table spoon- ful, taken every morning and evening, in any convenient vehicle, particularly in milk, has proved of singular service. It is rendered much more agreeable by adding an qunce of the oil of sassafras to the ingredients. This is a solution of the guaiac in the aromatic spirit of ammonia, and is, consequently, more stimulating than the preceding one, and more efficacious as a sudorific: after arterial action is properly re- duced, it is certainly one of our best remedies in rheumatism. Dose, from one to two fluid drachms, at bed time, and its effects should be promoted by some warm beverage. It is worthy of remark, that nitrous acid, and the spirit of nitric ether, occasion an extraordinary decomposition in these tinctures, separating the guaiacum into co- agulated masses, and imparting to tlie whole an intense bluish green colour. Chlorine has the same effect;* but the sulphuric and mu- * The change of colour which Guaiacum undergoes by admixture with other bodies, not only affords a test by which we may appreciate its purity, but at the same time it becomes a re-agent by which we may assay the virtues of other vegetable substances. According to the experiments of M. Taddey and Rudolphi, it appears that Guaiacum in powder, is an excel- lent test for vegetable gluten, forming with it a fine blue colour, whence it offers the means of determining the quality of wheat flour. From the expe- riment of M. Planche, it moreover appears, that the!re is a series of vegetable roots, which, when fresh, are capable of producing a blue colour, if intro- duced into an alcoholic solution of Guaiacum, so that we may hereafter be 612 T__Tinctune. riatic acids produce no disturbance. If equal parts of quick-lime and powdered guaiacum be rubbed together, arid a quantity of water be poured over them, and the mixture be allowed to stand until it becomes fine, we shall obtain a solution of this substance, which will mix in any proportion with aqueous vehicles without decomposition, and to which the aromatic spirit of ammonia may be subsequently added, without effect Tinctura Hellebori Nigri. D. E. L. A. Tincture of Black Hellebore. Take of black hellebore, sliced, four ounces; Diluted alcohol, two pints.'—Digest for ten days, and filter. L. This is, perhaps, the best preparation of hellebore, when designed for an alterative, the menstruum here employed, extracting the whole of its virtues. It has been found, from experience, particularly ser- viceable in uterine obstructions. In sanguine constitutions, where chalybeates are hurtful, it has been said, that it seldom fails of ex- citing the menstrual evacuations, and removing the ill consequences of their suppression. A tea-spoonful of the tincture may be taken twice a day in warm water, or any other convenient vehicle. Tinctura Humuli. L. A. Tinctura Humuli Lupuli. E. Tincture of Hops. TakeofHops, four ounces; Alcohol, onepint.—Beat out theyellowpow- derfrom the hops, and digest it ten days in the alcohol; then filter. Opium, in every form, disagrees so completely with some people, as to render its exhibition to them, improper. In these cases, we must have recourse to other narcotics, and of them, the hop is one of the safest and most agreeable. Its comparative strength is not yet well ascertained, nor even the best form of exhibiting it. It is difficultly pulverizable, and in its natural form, it is so extremely light and bulky, as to absorb and retain a great deal of the spirit employed to extract a tincture from it, even when subjected to much compres- sion. These difficulties are, in some measure, overcome, since the discovery of Dr. Ives, adverted to in the history, &c.of Huinulus, and of which, advantage is taken in the American Pharmacopoeia. Tinctura Hyosciami. D. L. A. Tinctura Hyosciami Nigri. E. Tincture of Henbane. Take of Henbane, dried, and coarsely powdered, two ounces and a quarter; Diluted alcohol, one pint.—Digest for ten days and fil- ter. D. This tincture, although not yet come into general use, is a valua- ble anodyne, and in many cases may be substituted with advantage for the tincture of opium, especially where the latter produces obsti- furnished with a chemical test, that will at once appreciate their freshness, which is undoubtedly one of the greatest desiderata of pharmaceutical sci- ence. Mr. A. T. Thomson has proposed Guaiacum as a test of the freshness of Colchicum. T.—Tincturse, 613 nate constipation, Or, instead of its usual soporific and sedative ef- fects, it causes uneasiness, restlessness, and universal irritation. An anonymous' correspondent observes, that it is useful in recent coughs, in doses for an adult of not less than thirty drops, with ten drops of laudanum, which is equal to thirty drops of the latter. Tincture of henbane alone, sometimes purges; when this is an in- convenience, it is corrected by the addition of a few drops of lauda- num. Tinctura Jalape. L. D. A. Tinctura Convolvuli Jalape. E. Tincture of Jalap. Take of Jalap, powdered, eight ounces; Diluted alcohol, two pints.— Digest for ten days and filter. L. Alcohol was formerly ordered for the preparation of this tincture; but diluted alcohol is a preferable menstruum, as it dissolves the active constituents of the jalap, as well as pure alcohol, and is les* stimulating. Tinctura Kino. E. D. L. A. Tincture of Kino. Take of Kino, powdered, three ounces; Diluted alcohol, two pints.— Digest for ten days, and filter. L. An excellent astringent tincture. Spiritus Lavandule Compositus. E. L. D.* Tincture of Lavender. Compound Tincture or Spirit of Lavender. Take of Spirit of lavender, three pints; Spirit of rosemary, one pint; Cinnamon, bruised, half an ounce; Cloves, bruised, two drachms; Nutmeg, bruised, half an ounce; Red sanders, in shavings, three drachms.—Digest for ten days, and filter. L. This preparation is a grateful cordial, of which from ten to a hun- dred drops may be conveniently taken dropped upon sugar. It does not appear very clearly, whether it should be considered as a spirit or tincture; for although the spirit of lavender be the predominant ingredient, yet the mode of preparation is that of a tincture, and the spirit, as a menstruum dissolves astringent colouring, and other sub- stances, which would not rise with it in distillation. Tinctura Lobelie. A. Tincture of Indian Tobacco. Take of Indian tobacco, two ounces; Diluted alcohol, one pint.—Di- gest for ten days, and filter. Tinctura Menthe Piperite. A. Tincture of Peppermint. Take of Oil of peppermint, two fluid drachms; Alcohol, one pint.— Digest till the oil is thoroughly blended with the alcohol. Tinctura Lavendulse, Pharm. U. S. 614 T.—Tinctune. Tinctura Menthe Viridis. A. Tincture of Spearmint. Take of Oil of spearmint, two fluid drachms; Alcohol, one pint.— Digest till the oil is thoroughly blended with the alcohol. It is very doubtful whether these should be denominated tinc- tures; the first is, however, the essence of peppermint of the shops; a well known patent nostrum, of which several formulas exist, viz. 1. One pint of alcohol to half an ounce of oleum menthae piperitae. 2. Two gallons of alcohol to one pound of oleum menthae pipe- ritae, coloured with eight ounces of the dry plant. 3. Two pints of alcohol, three ounces of oleum menthse piperitae, coloured with spinage, sometimes with saffron. All, however, far exceed in strength that which is here adopted by the American Pharmacopoeia; one ounce to a pint is a very good proportion, and may answer for every purpose. The second tincture of mint might very well be omitted. Tinctura Moschi. D. A. Tincture of Musk. Take of Musk, two drachms; Alcohol, one pint.—Digest for ten days, and filter. D. Alcohol is the most complete menstruum for musk, but in this form it is often impossible to give such a quantity of the musk as is necessary for our purpose; and hence this article is more frequently employed under the form of julep or bolus. But in whatever way this article (musk) is administered, we are persuaded that more is due to the co-operating agencies of wine, ammonia, and other stimu- lants, than to any positive powers of the musk itself: was it not so very dear a remedy, it would never be preferred to assafoetida. Tinctura Myrrhe. E. L. D. A. Tincture of Myrrh. Take of Myrrh, in powder, three ounces ; Alcohol, twenty ounces ; Water, ten ounces.—Digest for seven days, and strain through pa- per. E. Tincture of Myrrh is recommended internally as a cardiac, for removing obstructions, particularly those of the uterine vessels, and resisting putrefaction. The dose is from fifteen drops to forty or more. The .medicine may perhaps be given in these cases to advan- tage; though it is more commonly used externally, for cleaning foul ulcers, and promoting the exfoliation of carious bones. Tinctura Opii. E. L. D. A. Tinctura ThebaiCa. Tincture of Opium. Thebaic Tincture. Laudanum Liquidum. E. Liquid Laudanum. Take of Opium, powdered, two ounces; Diluted alcohol, two pints.— Digest for ten days, and filter. E. The tinctures of opium of the difterent Pharmacopoeias, on evapo- ration, furnish the same quantity of extract; they are believed to be of nearly equal strength; but it is to be regretted that they are not so well adapted for keeping as could be wished: after some time, a part of the opium is gradually deposited from both, and consequently T.—Tincturse. 615 the tinctures become weaker: the part which thus separates, amounts sometimes, it is said, to near one-fourth of the quantity of opium at first dissolved. Mr. Phillips found, that when alcohol of specific gravity 0.930 was employed with select crude opium, the tincture acquired specific gravity 0.925, and contained 36 grains of opium per fluid ounce; but when purified opium was used, the specific gra- vity of the tincture was 0.958, and the quantity of opium in the fluid ounce 36 grains; of the crude opium one grain in 3.5 remained un- dissolved, and of the purified only one in twenty-five; while in the tincture made with the former, one grain of opium was contained in 18.3 minims, and in that with the latter in 13.3, so that from calcu- lation the strength of the tincture made with purified opium to that made with crude opium is as three to two nearly. But we must here observe, that calculation cannot be altogether relied upon in this case, because, although purified opium contains more soluble matter than crude opium, its narcotic powers are diminished by the prepa- ration it has undergone. It is certain that some good experimental essay is still much want- ed on the subject of opium and its preparations. Laudanum prepared in the most careful manner, and filtered so as to be perfectly trans- parent, will, in a few months, deposite a very large precipitate; and if again filtered, will again, in some months, deposite a second quan- tity. This has more than once led to fatal consequences in its ad- ministration, and it is therefore very desirable to have a preparation, which shall at all times continue equally charged with the active principle. Perhaps an approximation to such a preparation may be obtained by making it at a determinate temperature, say 180° Fah. and when complete and filtered, let it be then subjected to the action of ice in any convenient way, say for twelve hours. This cold, as in all spirituous solutions, will cause a cloudiness, and gradual de- posite; which will leave the tincture of a strength less likely to vary afterwards. I find eight ounces of alcohol diluted to the strength of brandy or proof spirit, takes up during summer in a month, with frequent agitation, from half an ounce of good dry opium in powder, very nearly two drachms, which remains in solution till the cold weather, when a deposite of some amount ensues; and if cleared from it, a second deposite sooner or later takes place. A similar experi- ment made with common, but strong vinegar, gave evidence of nearly an equal power of holding opium in solution; but a cloudiness began to ensue in the acetic solution; in less thah two weeks, a sediment deposited; and by the end of a month, a complete scum, or mother, formed on the surface, with a still further deposite; the addition of half an ounce of alcohol was barely sufficient to check the disposition to further change. AVe recommend this as a fit subject for an inaugural dissertation, and one, which, if properly pursued, will be creditable to the author, as it will prove useful in pharmacy. Tinctura Quassie. E. D. A. Tincture of Quassia. Take of Shavings of Quassia, one ounce; Proof spirit, two pints.— Digest for seven days, and filter. D. 616 T.—Tincturae. As the Dublin College have introduced into their Pharmacopoeia the most powerful of all astringent tinctures, in the present instance they have also first directed a tincture to be prepared from the purest and most intense of all bitters; and in both instances they have been followed by the Edinburgh College, and now by the American Phar- macopoeia. Tinctura Rhei. E. L. D. A. Tincture of Rhubarb. Take of Rhubarb, three ounces; Lesser cardamom seeds, half an ounce; Diluted alcohol, two pounds and a half.-—Digest for seven days, and strain through paper. E. Tinctura Rhei Composita. L. Compound Tinchire of Rhubarb. Take of Rhubarb, sliced, two ounces; Liquorice root, bruised, half an ounce; Ginger, powdered, Saffron, each, two drachms; Distilled water, one pint; Proof spirit of wine, twelve ounces, by measure.— Digest for fourteen days, and strain. Tinctura Rhei et Aloes. E. A. Tincture of Rhubarb and Aloes; formerly, Elixir Sacrum. Take of Rhubarb, ten drachms; Socotorine Aloes, six drachms; Lesser cardamom seeds, half an ounce; Diluted alcohol, two pounds and a half.—Digest for seven days, and strain through paper, E. Tinctura Rhei et Gentiane. E. A. Tincture of Rhubarb and Gentian. Take of Rhubarb, two ounces; Gentian root, half an ounce; Diluted alcohol, two pounds and a half.—Digest for seven days, and then strain the tincture through paper. E. I Tinctura Rhei Dulcis. A. Sweet Tincture of Rhubarb. Take of Rhubarb, bruised, two ounces; Liquorice, bruised, Anise, bruised, each one ounce; Sugar, two ounces; Diluted alcohol, two pints and a half.—Digest for ten days, and filter. This is an old prescription revived with slight alterations. It might as well have continued its slumber. All the foregoing tinctures of rhubarb are designed as stomachics and corroborants, as well as purgatives: spirituous liquors excel- lently extract those parts of the rhubarb in which the two first qua- lities reside, and the additional ingredients considerably promote their efficacy. In weakness of the stomach, indigestion, laxity of the intestines, diarrhoeas, colic, and other similar complaints, these medicines are frequently of great service. Tinctura Sanguinarie. A. Tincture of Bloodroot. Take of Bloodroot, coarsely powdered, two ounces; Diluted alcohol, one pint.—Digest for ten days, and filter. For its virtues, see Sanguinaria. T.—Tincturae. 617 Tinctura Scille. D. L. E. Tincture of Squills. Take of Squills, fresh dried, four ounces; Proof spirit of wine, two pints.—Digest for eight days, and pour off the liquor. The active principle of squills is soluble in alcohol, and there are cases in which a tincture may be useful. Tinctura Saponis et Opii. E. A. Linimentum Anodynttm. Tincture of Soap and Opium. Anodyne Liniment. Take of Soap, in shavings, four ounces; Camphor, two ounces; Opium, in powder, one ounce; Oil of rosemary, half an ounce; Alcohol, two pints.—Digest the soap and opium in the alcohol three days, then filter and add the camphor and oil, and dissolve. E. Tinctura Saponis Camphorata. E. Linimentum Saponis. D. Linimentum Saponis Compositum. L. Camphorated Tincture of Soap. Soap Liniment. Compound Soap Liniment. This is made as the preceding, omitting the opium. It differs but little from the so called opodeldoc. These tinctures are only used externally, and are efficacious in removing local pains. This last tincture, witha sixth part of the tincture of cantharides, forms a most excellent liniment for chil- blains. Linimentum Camphore Compositum. L. Compound Camphor Liniment. Take of Camphor, two ounces; Water of ammonia, six ounces; Spirit of lavender, sixteen ounces.—Mix the water of ammonia ivith the spirit; and distil from a glass retort, with a slow fire, sixteen ounces. ^ Then dissolve the camphor in the distilled liquor. This is more pungent and penetrating than the solution of cam- phor in alcohol. Is the distillation necessary to get an ammoniated alcohol without water ? Probably. Mr. Phillips, dreading the ex- treme causticity of the aqua ammoniae of the present Pharmacopoeia, proposes the substitution of an equivalent quantity of subcarbonat of ammonia. Linimentum Volatile. D. Volatile Liniment. Take of the aromatic spirit of volatile alkali, one ounce; Liniment of soap, two ounces.—Mix them. This is an entirely different composition from the volatile liniment of the Edinburgh and London Pharmacopoeias. The latter is a soap formed of ammonia and fixed oil, whereas the present is an ammo- niated tincture of camphor, soap of soda, and volatile oils. In its effects it differs from the soap liniment of the Dublin College only in being more stimulating. Tinctura Senne Aromatica. A. Aromatic Tincture of Senna. Warner's Gout Cordial. The American Pharmacopoeia omitted the rhubarb, a very essen- 79 618 T.—-Tincturae. tial ingredient in this celebrated preparation of Warner: we give the formula from the London edition of his Treatise on Gout, for 1768, p. 205. Take of Raisins, sliced and stoned, half a pound; Senna, two drachms; Coriander seeds, Fennel seeds, each, one drachm; Cochineal, Saf- fron, Liquorice, each, half a drachm; Rhubarb, sliced thin, one ounce. Infuse these in a quart of French brandy for ten days, then strain it off, and add a pint more to the same ingredients. Let it stand until the virtue is extracted, then strain it off, and mix the first and last together. Take four or five spoonsful of this cordial in as many of boiling water as will make it as hot as can be drank; and if the pain is not removed in half an hour, repeat it; and so continue repeating it until it is. If the stomach will not retain it, take ten drops of laudanum, and this in the interspaces. This omission of the rhubarb by the American Pharmacopoeia, was rectified in their list of Corrigenda. Tinctura Senne Composita. E. A, Tinctura Senne. D. L. Elixir Salutis. Compound Tincture of Senna. Elixir of Health. Take of Senna, three ounces; Jalap, bruised, one ounce; Coriander, Caraway, each, bruised, half an ounce; Cardamom, bruised, two drachms; Diluted alcohol, three pints and a half.—Digest for ten days, then filter, and add of sugar, four ounces. This tincture is an useful carminative and cathartic, especially to those who have accustomed themselves to the use of spirituous liquors; it often relieves flatulent complaints and colics, where the common cordials have little effect: the dose is from one to two ounces. Tinctura Serpentarie. L. D. E. A. Tincture of Snake-Root. Take of Virginia snake-root, sliced and bruised, three ounces; Proof spirit, two pints.—Digest for eight days, and strain. D. This tincture, which contains the whole virtues of the root, may be taken to the quantity of a spoonful or more every five or six hours; and to this extent it often operates as a useful diaphoretic. The American Pharmacopoeia uses only two ounces of the root Tinctura Aurantii. L. D. Tincture of Orange Peel. Take of Fresh orange-peel, three ounces; Proof spirit, two pints.— Digest for three days, and strain. This tincture is an agreeable bitter, flavoured at the same time with the essential oil of the orange-peel. T.—Tincturae. 619 Tinctura Benzoes Composita. D. Tinctura Benzoini Composita. E. L. Compound Tincture of Benzoin. Take of Benzoin, three ounces; Storax, strained, two ounces; Bal- sam of Tolu, one ounce; Socotorine aloes, half an'ounce; Recti: fied spirit of wine, two pints.—Digest with a gentle heat for seven days, and strain. This preparation may be considered as a simplification of same very complicated compositions, which were celebrated under differ- ent names ; such as Baume de Commandeur, Wade's Balsam, Friars' Balsam, Jesuits' Drops, &c. These, in general, consisted ot a confused farrago of discordant substances. Tinctura Cascarille. L. D. Tinctura Crotonis Eleutherie. E. Tincture of Cascarilla. Take of the bark of cascarilla, powdered, four ounces; Proof spirit, twopints.—Digest with a gentle heat for eight days, and strain. Proof spirit readily extracts the active power of the cascarilla; and the tincture may be employed to answer most of those purposes for which the bark itself is recommended: but in the cure ot inter- mittents, it in general requires to be exhibited in substance. This, like manv other tinctures, may be considered merely as a dram, and it would be well, if the number could be greatly reduced. Tinctura Croci. E. D. Tincture of Saffron. 'Take of English saffron, one ounce; Diluted alcohol, fifteen ounces. —After digesting them for seven days, let the tincture be strained through paper. The proof spirit is a very proper menstruum for extracting the medical virtues of the saffron, and affords a convenient mode of ex- hibiting that drug, the qualities of which have been already men- tioned. Tinctura Galbani. L. D. Tincture of Galbanum. Take of Galbanum, cut into small pieces, two ounces; Proof spirit of wine, two pints.—Digest with a gentle heat for eight days, and strain. Galbanum is one of the strongest of the fetid gums; and although less active, it is much less disagreeable than assafoetida; and under the form of tincture it may be successfully employed in cases of flatulence and hysteria, where its effects are immediately required, particularly with those who cannot bear assafoetida. Tinctura Gallarum. D. E. Tincture of Galls. Take of Galls, in powder, four ounces; Proof spirit, two pints.— Mix; digest for seven days, and filter. This tincture for the first time introduced into practice by the Dubtin CoUege! is, no doubt, the most powerful of all the astringent tinctures. 620 T.—-Tincturae. Tinctura Stramonii. A. Tincture of Thorn-apple. Take of Thorn-apple seeds, bruised, two ounces; Diluted alcohol, one pint.—Digest for ten days and filter. Tinctura Toluiferi Balsami. E.* Tincture of Tolu. Tincture of Balsam of Tolu. Take of Tolu, one ounce and a half; Alcohol, one pint.—Digest till the tolu is dissolved, then filter. E. Tinctura Valeriane. L. D. A. Tincture of Valerian. Take of Valerian, four ounces; Diluted alcohol, two pints.—Digest for ten days, and filter. L. The Valerian root ought to be reduced to a pretty fine powder, otherwise the spirit will not sufficiently extract its virtues. The tincture proves of a deep colour, and considerably strong of the va- lerian; though it has not been found to answer so well in the cure of epileptic disorders as the root in substance, exhibited in the form of powder or bolus. The dose of the tincture is, from half a spoon- ful, to a spoonful, or more, two or three times a day. Tinctura Valeriane Amjioniata' L. D. A. Ammoniated Tincture of Valerian. Take of Valerian root, in coarse powder, four ounces; Aromatic am- moniated alcohol, two pints.—-Digest for ten days in a vessel closely covered, and strain. L. < The compound spirit of ammonia is here an excellent menstruum, and at the same time considerably promotes the virtues of the vale- rian, which in some cases wants assistance of this kind. The dose may be a tea-spoonful or two. Tinctura Veratri Viridis. A. Tincture of Green Hellebore. Take of Green hellebore, bruised, eight ounces; Diluted alcohol two pints and a half.—Digest for ten days, and filter. This is also called American Hellebore by the American Pharma- copoeia. Tinctura Veratri Albi. E. Tincture of White Hellebore. Take of White hellebore root, four ounces; Diluted alcohol, sixteen ounces.—Digest them together for seven days, and filter the tinc- ture through paper. This tincture is sometimes used for assisting cathartics, &c. and as an emetic in apoplectic and maniacal disorders. It may likewise be so managed, as to prove a powerful alterative and deobstruent in cases where milder remedies have little effect But a great deal of caution is requisite in its use: the dose, at first, ought to be only a few drops; if considerable, it proves violently emetic or cathartic. • Tinctura Tolutani, Pharm. U. S. T.—Tincturae. 621 Tinctura Zingiberis. L. D. E. Tincture of Ginger. Take of Ginger, powdered, two ounces; Proof spirit, two pounds.— Digest in a gentle heat for eight days, and strain. This simple tincture of ginger is,a warm cordial, anM is rather in- tended as an useful addition, in the quantity of a drachm or two, to purging mixtures, than for being used alone. ./Ether Sulphuricus cum Alcohole Aromaticus. E. Aromatic Sulphuric Ether with Alcohol. Take of Cinnamon, bruised, Cardamom seeds, bruised, of each, one ounce; Long pepper, in powder, two drachms; Sulphuric ether with alcohol, two pounds and a half.—Digest seven days, and fil- ter. This is designed for persons whose stomachs are too weak to bear the following acid tincture: to the taste, it is gratefully aromatic, without any perceptible acidity. Acidum Sulphuricum Aromaticum. E.* Aromatic Sulphuric Acid. Tincture of Sulphuric Acid. Acid Elixir of Vitriol. Take of Alcohol, two pounds; Sulphuric acid, six ounces; (three f5. Am.)—Drop the acid gradually into the alcohol. Digest the mixture with a very gentle heat in a close vessel for three days, and then add of Cinnamon, an ounce and a half; Ginger, one ounce. Digest again in a close vessel for six days,, and then filter the tincture through paper placed in a glass funnel. E. It is doubtful how far the names given to this preparation are ap- propriate to it. It has so long been well known under the name of Elixir of Vitriol, that it would be better retained, as it is quite as correct; and no advantage is gained by the change. Is the medicine improved by the diminution of the amount of sulphuric acid in the American Pharmacopoeia? We think not. Medical use.—This is a valuable medicine in weakness and relax- ations of the stomach, and decays of constitution, particularly in those which proceed from irregularities, which are accompanied with slow, febrile symptoms, or which follow the suppression of intermit- tents. It frequently succeeds, after bitters and aromatics by them- selves, had availed nothing; and, indeed, great part of its virtues depend on the sulphuric acid: which, barely diluted with water, has, in those cases where the stomach could bear the acidity, produced happv effects. It is very usefully conjoined with cinchona, and other tonic barks, both as covering their disagreeable taste, and as coinciding with them in virtue. It may be given in doses of ten to thirty drops, or more, several times a day. It is best sucked from the glass by means of a quill, which prevents its coming in contact with the teeth. * Tinctura Acidi Sulphuric!, Pharm. U. S. 622 T.—Triticum. TORMENTILLA.* L. E. D. Tormentilla Erecta. Tormentilla Officinalis. Tormentil. Septfoil. The Root. Icosandria Polygynia. Nat. ord. Senticosx, Linn. Rosacex, Juss. Tormentil is perennial, and found wild in woods and on commons: it has long, slender stalks, with usually seven long, narrow leaves at a joint; the root is, for the most part, crooked and knotty, of a blackish colour on the outside, and a reddish within. This root has an austere, styptic taste, accompanied with a slight kind of aromatic flavour; it is one of the most agreeable and efficacious of the vegeta- ble astringents, and is employed with good effect, in all cases where medicines of this class are proper. Neumann got from 960 grains, 365 alcoholic, and 170 watery extract; and inversely, 570 watery, and 8 alcoholic. TRITICUM HYBERNUM. E. L. D. Wheat. The FloUr and Starch. Triandria Monogynia. Nat. ord. Gramina. By some, spring and winter wheat are considered as varieties only, and not distinct species. The latter, however, is the most productive, and is most commonly cultivated on that account; for there is no material difference between the grains they produce, which are in- discriminately employed for every purpose. Wheat-flour consists principally of gluten, starch, albumen, and a sweet mucilage. These may be separated by forming the flour into a paste with a little water, and washing this paste with fresh quanti- ties of water, until it runs from it colourless. What remains, is the gluten: which, if not the same, is very analogous to the fibrin of ani- mal substances. From the water with which the paste was washed, a white powder separates on standing. This is the starch which we have mentioned, under the title Amylum. The albumen and sweet mucilage remain dissolved in the water. By evaporating it, the albu- men first separates in white flakes, and the sweet mucilage may be got by total evaporation. It is the presence of gluten, which characterizes wheat flour; and on the due admixture of it with the other constituents, depends the superiority of wheat flour for baking bread. Bread is made by working the flour into a paste with water, a quantity of some ferment, such as yeast, and a little muriat of soda to render it sapid, allowing the paste to stand until a certain degree of fermentation take place, and then baking it in an oven heated to about 488°. During the.fermentation, a quantity of gas is formed, and as it is prevented from escaping by the toughness of the paste, and dilated by the heat of the oven, the bread is rendered light and spongy. In this process, the nature of the constituents of the flour is altered, for we are not able to obtain either gluten or starch from bread. Medical use.—Bread is not only one of the most important arti- cles of nourishment, but is also employed in pharmacy for making * Pharm. U. S. secondary. T__Triticum. 623 cataplasms, and giving form to more active articles. An infusion of toasted bread has a deep colour, and pleasant taste, and is an ex- cellent drink in febrile diseases, and debility of the stomach. Amylum. Starch. Form.—White columnar masses;—rOdour and Taste, none. Chemical Composition.—Fecula is one of the proximate principles of vegetable matter, and starch is the fecula of wheat; sago, of the cycas circinalis; salop, of the orchis mascula; tapioca, of the root of the jatropha manihot; arrow-root, of the maranta arundinacea. The greater part of what is sold under this last title, is the fecula of potatoes, 100 pounds of which, yield about ten pounds of starch; and what may be worthy of notice, frozen potatoes yield it equally as well as those not spoiled by frost. Solubility.—It is soluble in boiling water, forming a semi-transpa- rent, insipid, inodorous, gelatinous paste, very susceptible of mouldi- ness, but which is retarded by the addition of alum. It is insoluble, but falls to powder in cold water; nor is it soluble in alcohol or ether. Although potass dissolves starch, yet the solution of it is not disturbed by potass, carbonat of potass, nor ammonia, but an alco- holic solution of potass, produces a precipitate; acetat of lead, and infusion of galls, also occasion precipitates. Starch is susceptible of several interesting and important changes; thus, if it be exposed to heat until its colour becomes yellow, its properties are so far alter- ed, that it is no longer insoluble in cold water; and according to Saussure, if it be mixed with water, a spontaneous decomposition takes place, and a quantity of sugar is formed, amounting in weight to one halLthe starch employed, in addition to which, a peculiar gummy matter results, and a substance, intermediate between gum and starch, to which the name of amidine has been given. Starch, moreover, is convertible into saccharine matter, by the agency of sulphuric acid. Iodine is a delicate test of the presence of starch; if a drop or two of a solution of this substance in alcohol, be added to an aque- ous solution of starch, a blue compound is formed, which eventually precipitates. Starch is found in many vegetables, combined With different sub- stances. Fourcroy, accordingly, makes various species of it; as, combined, 1. With gluten, or fibrin; asin wheat, rye, and other similar seeds. 2. With extractive; as in beans, peas, lupins, &c. 3. With mucilaginous matter; as in the potatoe, and many other roots; in unripe corn. 4. With saccharine matter in most roots, and in corn, after it has begun to germinate. 5. With oil in the emulsive seeds, almonds, &c. 6. With an acrid principle; as in the root of the burdock, jatro- pha manihot, arum, asarum, and other tuberous roots. Medical use.—As a (Constituent of many vegetable substances, it forms a most important alimentary substance. In a medical point of view, it is to be considered as a demulcent; and accordingly, it forms the principal ingredient of an officinal lozenge, and a muci- 624 T.—Tragacantha. lage prepared from it, often produces excellent effects, both taken by the mouth, and in the form of a clyster, in dysentery, and diar- rhoea, from irritation of the intestines. Externally, flour or starch is the usual application in erysipelatous affections of' the skin, but upon what principle is not very apparent, unless it be an empirical prac- tice, remaining from the pathology which dreaded the repulsion of all external inflammations. ASTRAGALUS TRAGACANTHA. E. Tragacantha. L. A. Tragacanth. Gum Tragacanth. Diadelphia Decandria, Nat. ord. Papilionacex or Leguminosx, Linn. Tragacanth is opaque and white, not sweetish, very sparingly so- luble in water, but absorbing, and forming a paste with a large quan- tity. Its solution is adhesive, but cannot be drawn out into threads. It moulds readily, and acquires a fetid smell. It is precipitated by nitrat of mercury. It is insoluble in alcohol, and seems to contain more nitrogen and lime than gum does. Gum Tragacanth is the produce of a very thorny shrub, which grows on the island of Candia, and other places in the Levant. Ac- cording to Olivier, (Travels, 5th vol.) it is the produce of a species of astragalus, not before known; he describes it under the name of astragalus verus. It grows in the north of Persia. His words are, "This gummy substance is formed from the month of July to the end of September, on the trunks of several species of Astragalus, which grow in Natolia, Armenia, Curdistan, and all the north of Persia. Tournefort has described one of these, which also furnishes tragacanth, which he found on Mount Ida in Crete; and La Billar- dierre has described and figured another which he saw in Syria. The Astragalus, which appears to us the most common, and that from which almost all the Tragacanth of commerce is derived, has not been described by any botanist It differs essentially from the two species which we have mentioned, in its habits and its flowers." In a note upon the description, which it is unnecessary to insert, he characterizes it as *' Astragalus verus, fruticosus, foliolis villosis, setaceis, subulatis; floribus auxillaribus, aggregatis, luteis." After finishing the description, he continues, " Tragacanth exudes natu- rally, either from wounds made in the shrub by animals, or from fis- sures occasioned by the force of the succus proprius, during the great heats of summer. According as the juice is more or less abundant, tragacanth exudes in tortuous filaments, which sometimes assume the form of a small worm, or of a pretty thick worm, elongated, rounded, or compressed, rolled up upon itself, or twisted. The finest and purest tragacanth assumes this form. It is almost trans- parent, whitish, or of a yellowish-white. It also exudes in large tears, which preserve more or less of the vermicular form. This is more of a reddish colour, and more contaminated with impurities. It sometimes adheres so strongly to the bark, as to bring part of it with it in gathering it. The quantity of tragacanth furnished by Persia, is very considerable. Much is consumed in that country, in the manufacture of silk, and the preparation of comfits. It is export- T—Tussilago. 625 ed to India, Bagdad, and Bussorah. Russia also gets some by the way of Bakou." About the end of June, a fluid exudes from the stem and larger branches, which dries in the sun, and is collected by the shepherds, on mount Ida, from whence it is sent to Europe, under the title of Tragacanth. It consists of whitish semi-transparent vermiform pieces, scarcely a line in thickness, without taste or smell. There is also a dirty yellow, or brownish kind, which is not fit for medical purposes. Tragacanth is difficultly pulverizable, unless when thoroughly dried, and the mortar heated, or in frost According to Neumann, it gives nothing over in distillation, either to water or alcohol: al- cohol dissolves only about 10 parts of 480, and water, the whole. Lewis, however, more accurately observes, that it cannot be pro- perly said to be dissolved, for, put into water, it absorbs a large proportion of that fluid, increasing immensely in volume, and form- ing with it a soft, but not fluid, mucilage; and although it is easily diffused through a larger proportion of water, after standing a day or two, the mucilage subsides again, the supernatant fluid retaining little of the gum. Besides these remarkable differences from gum arabic, in regard to brittleness, insolubility, and the quantity of water which it thick- ens; tragacanth is not precipitated by silicized potass, and is preci- pitated by sulphat of copper, and acetat of lead. In pharmacy it is employed for forming powders into troches, and rendering tough cohesive substances, such as colocynth, pulveriza- ble, by beating them with mucilage of tragacanth, and then drying the mass. For electuaries it is improper, as it renders them slimy on keeping. TRIOSTEUM PERFOLIATUM.* Bastard Ipecacuanha. Fever Root. In very large doses, it sometimes proves emetic. The bark of the root is a good cathartic, in doses of 20 or 30 grains. It sometimes operates as a diuretic, t TUSSILAGO FARFARA. E. L. D. Colt's Foot. The Herb and Flowers. Syngenesia Superflua. Nat. ord. Compositx Discoidex, Linn. Corymbiferx, Juss. This grows wild in moist situations, producing yellow flowers in February and March: these soon fall off, and are succeeded by large roundish leaves, hairy underneath: their taste is herbaceous, some- what glutinous and subacrid. Tussilago is recommended in coughs, * Triosteum, Pharm. U. S. secondary, f Barton's Collections, Part I. p. 28. 80 626 T__Trochisci. phthisis, and other disorders of the breast and lungs, and some use it in scrofula. It is chiefly directed to be taken with milk, and upon this probably, more than on the tussilago itself, any benefit derived from it in practice is to be explained. TROCHISCI.—TROCHES. Troches and lozenges are compbsed of powders made up with glutinous substances into little cakes, and afterwards dried. This form is principally made use of for the more commodious exhibition of certain medicines, by fitting them to dissolve slowly in the mouth, so as to pass by degrees into the stomach; and hence these prepara- tions have generally a considerable proportion of sugar or other ma- terials grateful to the palate. Some powders have likewise been re- duced into troches, with a view to their preservation; though possi- bly for no very good reasons; for the moistening, and afterwards drying them in the air, must rather tend to injure than to preserve them. The lozenges 6f the confectioner are so superior in elegance to those of the apothecary, that they are almost universally prefer- red; and hence it probably is that the Dublin and London Colleges have entirely omitted them. They are introduced into the American Pharmacopoeia. Trochisci Calcjs Carbonatis. E.' A. Troches of Carbonat bf Lime. Take of Carbonat of livu, prepared, four ounces; Gum arabic, one ounce; Nutmeg, one drachm; Refined sugar, six ounces.—Powder them together, and form them with water into a mass for making troches. E. These are used against acidity of the stomach, especially when accompanied with diarrhoea. Trochisci Glycyrrhize Glabre. E. Troches of Liquorice. Take of Extract of Liquorice, Gum arabic, each, one part; Refined sugar, two parts.—Dissolve them in warm water, and strain; then evaporate the solution over a gentle fire, till it be of a proper con- sistence for being formed into troches. These are agreeable pectorals, and may be used at pleasure in "tickling coughs. The solution, and subsequent evaporation, of the extract of liquorice, directed by the Edinburgh College, is exceed- ingly troublesome, and apt to give the troches an empyreumatic fla- vour. They are more easily made, by reducing the liquorice also to powder, and mixing up the whole with rose-water. Refined ex- tract of liquorice should be used; and it is easily powdered in the cold, after it has been laid for some days in a dry and rather warm place. T.—Trochisci. 627 Trochisci Glycyrrhize cum Opio. E. A. Liquorice Troches with Opium. Take of Opium, two drachms; Tincture of Tolu, half an ounce; Common syrup, eight ounces; Extract of liquorice, softened in warm water, Gum arabic, in powder, of each, five ounces.—Tri- turate the opium well with the tincture, then add by degrees the syrup and extract; afterwards gradually sprinkle upon the mixture the powdered gum arabic. Lastly, dry them so as to form a mass to be made into troches, each weighing ten grains. E. These troches are medicines of approved efficacy in tickling coughs depending on an irritation of the fauces. Besides the mechanical ef- fect of the inviscating inatters in involving acrid humours, or lining and defending the tender membranes^ the opium must no doubt have a considerable share, by more immediately diminishing the irritabili- ty of the parts themselves. Trochisci Gummosi. E. Gum Troches. Take of gum arabic, four parts; Starch, one part; Double refined sugar twelve parts.—Powder them, and make them into a proper mass with rose water, so as to form troches. This composition is a very agreeable pectoral, and may be used at pleasure. It is calculated for allaying the tickling in the throat which provokes coughing. Trochisci (Carbonatis E.) Magnesie. A. Troches of Magnesia. Take of Magnesia, four ounces; Sugar, two ounces; Ginger in powder, one scruple.—Rub them together, and with simple syrup form them into a mass fit for making troches. The Edinburgh College employs the carbonat of magnesia, in quantity the same; and it uses nutmeg in place of ginger. Trochisci Nitratis Potasse. E. Troches of Nitrat of Potass. Take of Nitrat of Potass, one part; Double refined sugar, three parts.—Rub together to powder, and form them with mucilage of gum tragacanth into a mass, to be divided into troches. This is a very agreeable form for the exhibition of nitre; though when the salt is thus taken without, any liquid, (if the quantity be considerable,) it is apt to occasion uneasiness about the stomach, which can only be prevented bv large dilution with aqueous liquors. 628 U—Ulmus. U. ULMUS CAMPESTRIS. E. L. D. Common Elm. The inner Bark. This tree grows wild in Britain. The inner bark has a yellowish colour, and a mucilaginous, bitter, astringent taste, without smell. A decoction formed from it, by boiling an ounce with a pound of water, to the consumption of one-half, has been highly recommend- ed in the lepra ichthyosis; and has been said to cure dropsies. ULMUS AMERICANA.* Rough-leaved Elm Tree. Red Elm. Slippery Elm. The inner Bark. Four species of elm are enumerated by Nuttall in his Genera of North American Plants. It is probable they all partake more or less of the properties which have been noticed in those here mentioned. The inner bark of the ulmus Americana is said to be esculent It is useful in pleurisies, &c. and forms an excellent poultice for tu- mours, and liniment for chaps, &c. It aids the suppuration of gun- shot wounds, and is thought superior to the bread and milk and flax- seed poultice. It is highly beneficial in old ulcers and fresh burns, and forms an excellent diet drink in diarrhoea and dysentery.t The red or slippery elm, or American rough-leaved elm of Mar- shall, (ulmus rubra of Muhlenburgh,) on account of its many valu- able properties, deserves particular mention. It rises to the height of thirty feet, with a pretty strong trunk, dividing into many branches, and covered with a light coloured rough bark. The leaves are oblong, oval, and sharp pointed, unequally sawed on their edges, unequal at the base, very rough on their upper surface, and hairy underneath. The flowers are produced thick upon the branches, upon short, collected footstalks, and are succeeded by oval, com- pressed membranous "seed vessels, with entire margins, containing one oval compressed seed. The inner bark, by infusion or gentle boiling in water, affords a great quantity of insipid mucous sub- stance, that is applicable to a variety of important uses. Dr. Mitchell says it has been beneficially administered in catarrhs, pleurisies and quinsies; it has been applied as a poultice to tumours, and as a liniment to chaps and festers. [Letter to Dr. North, Amer. Mu- seum, vol. 7th.] The surgeons of our revolutionary army, and also those of general Wayne's army, who defeated the Indians in August, 1794, expe- rienced the most happy effects from the application of poultices of the elm bark to gun-shot wounds, which were soon brought to a good suppuration, and to a disposition to heal. It was applied as the first remedy. When tendency to mortification was evident, this bark bruised, and boiled in water, produced,the most surprising good ef- fects. After repeated comparative experiments with other emollient applications, as milk and bread, and linseed poultice, its superiority was firmly established. In old ill-conditioned ulcers, and in fresh burns, equal benefit was derived from it. The infusion of the bark was used with advantage as a diet drink, in pleurisy, and catarrh, * Ulmus FulYa, Pharm. U. S. \ Philadelphia Medical Museum, Vol. II. U.—Uva Ursi. 629 and also in diarrhoea and dysentery. Many of the above facts relative to the medicinal qualities of the red elm, were communicated, says the editor of the Domestic Encyclopsedia, by Dr. Joseph Strong, of Philadelphia, who served as a surgeon in the western army; and adds, as a proof of the nutriment which it affords, that a soldier who lost his way supported himself for ten days upon this mucilage and sassafras. The inner bark of the slippery elm, or its mucilage, has been found by recent experience to be singularly beneficial when applied to chilblains, cutaneous eruptions, and various kinds of sores and ulcers; and there is much reason to believe, that its internal use in dysentery, consumption, &c. may be attended with greater advan- tage than is generally imagined. This tree certainly may be recom- mended to the particular regard of medical practitioners as a, new and domestic article of our Materia Medica, whose medicinal vir- tues will probably be found to merit a large share of confidence. UVA URSI. A. ArbuWs Uva Ursi. E. Bearberry. Wortlebe\ry. Red-berried trailing Arbutus. The Leaves. Decandria Monogynia. Nat. ord. Bicornes, Linn. Ericx, Juss. Syn. Bousserole; Raisin d'ours, (F.) This is a very small evergreen shrub. The leaves are oval, not toothed, and their under surface is smooth and pale green. It grows wild in the woods, and on sand hills in Scotland, and in almost every country in Europe. It is also abundant in America. The taste of the leaves is astringent, followed by bitterness. Digested in alcohol they give out a green tincture, which is rendered turbid by water, and when filtered, passes transparent and yellow, while a green resin remains on the filter. They are powerfully astringent, approaching in the deepness of the colour which they give to red sulphat of iron, more nearly to nutgalls than any substance Dr. Duncan tried. In- deed, in some parts of Russia they are used for tanning. Medical use.—The medical effects of this medicine depend en tirely on its astringent and tonic powers. It is therefore useful in various fluxes arising from debility, menorrhagia, fluoralbus, cystir- rhoea, diabetes, enuresis, diarrhoea, dysentery, &c. It has been strongly recommended in diseases of the urinary organs by De Haen, particularly in ulcerations of the kidneys and bladder. It certainly alleviates the dyspeptic symptoms accompanying nephritic complaints. It is commonly given in the form of powder, in doses of from 20 to 60 grains; three or four times a day. Dr. Barton thinks it is peculiarly adapted to cases of nephritis depending upon gout, and he says he has known it to be useful even when it was ascertained that a calculus was present. Its use, he thinks, facilitates the expulsion of calculous granules through the urethra. In some cases of nephritis, however, he adds, uva ursi seems to increase the irritation which it so generally relieves.' It has of late been recommended in phthisis. * For further observations, see Dr John S. Mitchell's inaugural disserta- tion on the Arbutus Uva Ursi, &c. published at Philadelphia, in 1803. 630 U.—Unguenta. UNGUENTA__OINTMENTS. Under this general head may be comprised, Linimenta, - - Liniments. Cerata, - Cerates. Emplastra, - -. Plasters. - Unguenta, - Ointments, properly so called. These are all combinations of fixed oil, or animal fat, with other substances, and differ from each other only in consistence. Deyeux has, indeed, lately defined plasters to be combinations of oil with metallic oxyds; but as this would comprehend many of our present ointments, and exclude many of our plasters, we shall adhere to the old meaning of the terms. Liniments are the thinnest of these compositions, being only a little thicker than oil. They are generally prepared from oily sub- stances. Ointments have generally a degree of consistence like that, of but- ter. They are prepared from lard or oil rendered of the consistence of butter by the addition of suet, wax, or spermaceti, so as to sus- pend the dry powders and more ponderous articles, with which they are frequently incorporated. As they are to be applied to the skin, they should be soft or fluid at the temperature of the body. The following formulas are calculated for a temperature not exceeding 60° Fahrenheit. In a higher temperature, more suet or wax may be added. Cerates are firmer, and are composed of oil or lard united with wax or resin, to which various medicaments are frequently added. They should be of such consistence that they may be easily spread on lint or linen, yet not melt or run when applied to the body. Plasters are the most solid, and derive their firmness either from a large proportion of wax, rosin, &c. or from the presence of some metallic oxyd, such as that of lead. Plasters should have such a consistence, that when cold they do not adhere to the fingers, but become soft and plastic when gently heated. The heat of the body should render them tenacious enough to adhere to the skin, and to the substance on which they are spread. When prepared, they are usually formed into rolls,and inclosed in paper. Plas- ters of a small size are often spread on leather, sometimes on strong paper, by means of a spatula gently heated, or the thumb. The leather is cut of the shape wanted, but somewhat larger; and the margin all round, about a quarter of an inch in breadth, is left uncovered, for its more easy removal when necessary. Linen is also often used, espe- cially for the less active plasters, which are used as dressings, and often renewed; it is generally cut into long slips of various breadths, from one to six inches. These may either be dipt into the melted plaster, and passed through two pieces of straight and smooth wood, held firmly together, so as to remove any excess of plaster, or, what is more elegant, they are spread on one side only, by stretch- ing the linen, and applying the plaster, which has been melted and allowed to become almost cold, evenly by means of a spatula gently heated, or, more accurately, by passing the linen on which the plas- U.—Unguenta. 631 ter has been laid, through a machine formed of a spatula, fixed by screws, at a proper distance from a plate of polished steel. To prevent repetition, the Edinburgh College gives the following canon for the preparation of these substances. In making these compositions, the fatty and resinous substances are to be melted with a gentle heat, and then constantly stirred, add- ing, at the same time, the dry ingredients, if there be any, until the mixture, on cooling, becomes stiff. Sevum Preparatum. L. Adeps Preparata. L. D. Prepared Suet.. Prepared Lard. Cut them into pieces, and melt them over a slow fire; then separate them from the membranes by straining. Before proceeding to melt these fats, it is better to separate as much of the membranes as possible, and to wash them in repeated quantities of water until they no longer give out any colour. Over the fire they become perfectly transparent, and if they do not crackle on throwing a few drops into the fire, it is a sign that all the water is evaporated, and that the fats are ready for straining, which should be done through a linen cloth without expression. The residuum may be repeatedly melted with a little water, until it become discoloured with the fire. The fluid fat should be poured into the vessels, or blad- ders, in which if is to be preserved. These articles had formerly a place also among the preparations of the Edinburgh College. But now they introduce them only into their list of the Materia Medica; as the apothecary, will, in general, find it more for his interest to purchase them thus prepared, than to prepare them for himself; for the process requires to be very cau- tiously conducted, to prevent the fat from burning or turning black. Cera Flava Purificata. D. Purified Yellow Wax. Take of yellow wax, any quantity.—Melt it with a moderate heat, remove the scum, and after allowing it to settle, pour it cautiously off from the fences. Yellow wax is so often adulterated, that this process is by no mean9 unnecessary. LIN1MENTA.—LINIMENTS. Linimentum Ammonie. (D. A.) Fortius. L. Oleum Ammoniatum. E. Liniment of Ammonia. Take of Water of Ammonia, Olive oil, equal parts.—Mix. Pharm, U. S. Take of Solution of Ammonia, an ounce; Olive oil, two ounces.— Mix. L. Linimentum Ammonie et Antimonii Tartarizati. A. Liniment of Ammonia with Tartarized Antimony. Take of Liniment of ammonia, one fluid ounce; Tartarized antimo- ny, one drachm. Mix. 632 U.—Unguenta. It is probable that some decomposition of the tartar emetic ensues in the above preparation. Linimentum (Aque E. A.) Calcis. D. Liniment of Lime Water. Take of Flaxseed oil, (Olive oil, D;) Lime water, each equal parts. Mix. E. Linimentum Camphoratum. E. D. L. A. Camphorated Liniment. Take of Camphor, reduced to a powder by means of alcohol, (half, A.) an ounce; Olive oil, four fluid ounces. Mix. E. Linimentum Cantharidum. A. Liniment of Cantharides. Take of Cantharides, in powder, one ounce; Oil of turpentine, eight fluid ounces.—Simmer for three hours, then set by to cool, and fil- ter! Linimentum Saponis Compositum. E. L. Linimentum Saponis Camphoratum. A. Camphorated Soap Liniment. Opodeldoc. Take of Castile soap, uncoloured, in shavings, four ounces (twelve ounces; A.) Camphor, two ounces; Volatile oil of rosemary, half an ounce (two fluid drachms; A.) Alcohol, two pounds (one gal- lon. A.—Digest the soap in the alcohol for three days, then filter, and add the camphor and oil, mixing them intimately. E. Linimentum Saponis et Opii. E. A. Liniment of Soap and Opium. Anodyne Liniment. Is prepared in the same way, by adding an ounce of opium, and di- gesting it with the soap and alcohol. E. Linimentum Tabaci. Tobacco Liniment. Take of Tobacco, cut fine, one ounce; Hog's lard one pound.—Sim- mer the tobacco in the lard over a gentle fire, until it becomes crisp, and strain. Linimentum Terebinthine. L. (Compositum. A.) (Compound) Turpentine Liniment. Take of Cerate of resin, one pound; Oil of Turpentine, half a pint.— Add the oil of turpentine to the cerate melted, and mix. L. Much used for rubbing parts affected with rheumatic pains, and on sprained joints. Linimentum Simplex. E. Simple Liniment. Take of Olive oil, four parts; White wax, one part. This consists of the same articles which form the unguentum simplex of the Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia, but merely in a different proportion, so as to render the composition thinner; and where a thin consistence is requisite, this may be considered as a very ele- gant and useful application. U__Unguenta. 633 Linimentum Hydrargyri. L. Liniment of Mercury. Take of Stronger mercurial ointment, Prepared lard, of each, four ounces; Camphor, one ounce; Rectified spirp, fifteen minims; Wa- ter of ammonia, four fluid ounces.—First rub the camphor with the spirit, then with the lard and mercurial ointment; lastly, having gradually added the water of ammonia, mix all the ingredients to- gether. CERATA.—CERATES. Ceratum Arsenici. A. Cerate of Arsenic, Take of Simple cerate, one ounce; Artenious acid, in powder, one scruple.—Soften the Cerate, and mix in the acid. Cerates of arsenic, of different strength, are to be found in differ- ent authors—Paris' Pharmacol, p. 383, &c—Lanzoni, 1. p. 66.— Poterii, oper. 716— Justamond, &c. Ceratum Cantharidum. L. A. Cerate of Cantharides. Take of Fellow wax, Pine resin, Olive oil, each, two parts; Cantha- rides, in powder, three parts.—To the wax, resin and oil, previously melted together, add the cantharides, carefully stirring the whole until cool. Under this form cantharides may be made to act to any extent that is requisite. It may supply the place either of the blistering ( plaster or ointment; and there are cases in which it is preferable to either. It is particularly more convenient than the emplastrum cantharidum, where the skin to which the blister is to be applied, is previously much affected, as in cases of small pox; and in support- ing a drain under the form of issue, it is less apt to spread than the softer ointment. Ceratum Juniperi Virginiani. A. Cerate of Red Cedar. Take of Resin cerate, six parts; Red cedar, in powder, one part.— To the cerate, previously softened, add the cedar, and mix. Ceratum Sabine. L. A. Unguentum Sabine. D. Savin Cerate or Ointment. Take of Resin cerate, six parts; Savin leaves, in powder, one part.— To the cerate, previously softened, add the savin and mix. One of the above cerates is at best unnecessary. Ceratum Plumbi Compositum. L.* Cerate with Subacetat of Lead. Goulard's Cerate. Take of Water of acetated Litharge, two ounces and a half; Yel- low wax, four ounces; Olive oil, nine ounces; camphor, half a drachm.—Rub the camphor with a little of the oil. Melt the wax • Ceratum Plumbi Subacetatis Liquidi, Pharm. U. S. 81 634 U.—Unguenta. with the remaining oil, and as soon as the mixture begins to thick- en, pour in by degrees the water of acetated litharge, and stir con- stantly until it be catd; then mix in the camphor previously rubbed with oil. L. This application has been rendered famous by the recommenda- tions of Mr. Goulard. It is unquestionably in many cases very useful. It caanot, however, be considered as varying essentially from the saturnine ointments to be mentioned. It is' employed with nearly the same intentions, and differs from them chiefly in con- sistence. Ceratum Plumbi Subcarbonatis Compositum. A. Cerate of Subcarbonat of Lead. Take of Compound plaster of Subcarbonat of lead, five parts; Olive oil, one part.—To the plaster, previously melted, add the oil, stir- ring the whole constantly together until cool. Ceratum Resinosum. A. Unguentum Resinosum. E. Ceratum Resine. L. Resin Cerate or Ointment. Take of Lard, eight parts; Pine resin, five parts; Yellow wax, two parts.—Melt, and.stir them together until cool. E. Ceratum Resinosum Compositum. A. Compound Resin Cerate. Take of Suet, Yellow wax, each, one pound; Pine resin, one pound; Turpentine, half a pound; Flaxseed oil, half a pint.—Melt them together, and strain through linen. Ceratum Plumbi Superacetatis. L. Cerate of Superacetat of Lead. Take of Superacetat of lead, in powder, two drachms; White wax, two ounces; Olive oil, half a pint.—Melt the wax in seven fluid ounces of the oil, and gradually add to these the superacetat of lead, separately triturated with the rest of the oil, and stir the mixture with a wooden spatula until they unite. These are also excellent cooling ointments, of the greatest use in many cases. Ceratum Saponis. L. D. A. Soap Cerate. Take of Castile soap, eight ounces; Yellow ivax, ten ounces; Semi- vitreous oxyd of lead, in powder, one pound; Olive oil, a pint; Vinegar, a gallon.—Boil the vinegar with the oxyd of lead, over a slow fire, constantly stirring until the union is complete; then add the soap and boil it again in a similar manner, until the liquid part is evaporated; then mix in the wax, previously melted with the oik L. Ceratum Simplex. E. A. Ceratum Cetacel. L. Simple Cerate. Take of Olive oil, six parts; White wax, three parts; Spermaceti, one part.—Melt together. E. U.—Unguenta. 635 This differs from the simple ointment, in containing a greater pro- portion of wax to the oil, and in the addition of the spermaceti. But by these means it obtains only a more firm consistence, without any essential change of properties. It scarcely differs from the ceratum spermatis ceti of the London and Dublin Colleges, the latter containing one-thirteenth part of spermaceti, and the former one-tenth part; we have therefore intro- duced one formula only. The ceratum spermatis ceti had formerly the name of ceratum album, and it differs in nothing from the unguentum spermatis ceti, * or linimentum album, as it was formerly called, excepting in con- sistence, both the wax and the spermaceti bearing a greater propor- tion to the oil. Ceratum Zinci Carbonatis Impuri. E. A. Ceratum Calamine. L. Unguentum Calaminaris. D. Cerate of Impure Carbonat of Zinc. Cerate (Ointment) of Calamine. Ceratum Epuloticum. Turner's Cerate. Take of Calamine, prepared, Yellow wax, of each, half a pound; Olive oil, one pint.—Melt the wax with the oil; and as soon as the mixture, exposed to the air, begins to thicken, mix it with the cala- mine, and stir the cerate until it be cold. L. This composition resembles the cerate which Turner strongly re- commends in cutaneous ulcerations and excoriations, and which has been usually distinguished by his narfie. It appears from experience to be an excellent epulotic, and as such is frequently made use of in practice. EMPLASTRA.—PLASTERS. Emplastrum Ammoniaci. L. E. A. Plaster of Ammoniaeum. Take of Ammoniaeum, five ounces; Vinegar, half a pint.—Dissolve the ammoniaeum in the vinegar, and strain; then evaporate the liquor in an iron vessel, by means of a water bath, constantly stir- ring it until it acquires a proper consistence. L. E. Emplastrum Hydrargyri. L. E. A. Plaster of Quicksilver. Take of Olive oil, White resin, each, one part; Quicksilver, three parts; Plaster of semi-vitrified oxyd of lead, six parts.—Melt the oil and resin together, and when this mixture is cold, let the quick- silver be rubbed with it till the globules disappear; then add by de- grees the litharge plaster, melted, and let the whole be accurately mixed. E. 636 U.—Ungucnta. Emplastrum Ammoniaci cum Hydrargvro. L. 1). Plaster of Gum Ammoniac with Quicksilver. Take of Gum ammoniac, strained, one pound; Purified quicksilver, three ounces; Sulphureted oil, a drachm, or as much as may be ne- cessary.—Triturate the quicksilver with the sulphureted oil, until its globules disappear; then gradually add the gum ammoniac melt- ed, and mix them. This mercurial plaster is considered as a powerful resolvent, and discutient, acting with much greater certainty for these intentions than any composition of vegetable substances alone; the mercury exerting itself in a considerable degree, and being sometimes intro- duced into the habit in such quantity as to affect the mouth. Pains in the joints and limbs from a venereal cause, nodes, tophi, and be- ginning indurations, are said to yield to it sometimes. Emplastrum Aromaticum. D. Aromatic Plaster. Take of Frankincense, three ounces; Yellow wax, half an ounce; Cin- namon, in powder, six drachms; Essential oil of pimento, Essential oil of lemon, each, two drachms.—Melt the frankincense and wax together, and strain; when getting stiff, from being allowed to cool, mix in the cinnamon and oils, and make a plaster. Emplastrum AssAFffiribE. E. A. Plaster of Assafoetida. Take of Plaster of semi-vifrifim oxyd of lead, Assafoetida, each, two parts; Galbanum, Yellow wax, each, one part. E. This plaster is applied to the umbilical region, or over the. whole abdomen, in hysteric cases; and sometimes with good effect; but pro- bably more from its effects as giving an additional degree of heat to the part, than from any influence derived from the fetid gums. Emplastrum Calefaciens. D. Calefacient Plaster. Take of Plaster of cantharides, one part; Burgundy pitch, seven part^ —Melt together, at a moderate heat, and make into a plaster. " This is a very convenient plaster, being more active as a stimulant and rubefacient than the simple Burgundy pitch plaster, while it will scarcely ever raise a blister. Emplastrum Cere. L. Wax Plaster. Take of Yellow wax, Prepared mutton suet, each, three pounds; Yel- low resin, one pound.—Melt them together, and strain the mixture while it is fluid. Emplastrum Cumini. L. Cummin Plaster. Take of Cummin seeds, Caraway seeds, Bay-berries, each, three ounces; . Burgundy pitch, three pounds; Yellow wax, three ounces.—Melt the pitch and wax together, and mix with them the rest of the ingre- dients, powdered, and make a plaster. This plaster has been recommended as a moderately warm discu- tient; and is directed by some to be applied to the hypogastric region, U.—Unguenta. 637 for strengthening tlie viscera, and expelling flatulencies: but it is a matter of great doubt, whether it derives any virtue, either from the article from which it is named, or from the caraway seeds or bay- berries which enter its composition. Emplastrum Galbani. D. Plaster of Galbanum. Take of Plaster of litharge, two pounds; Galbanum, half a pound; Yellow wax, sliced, four ounces.—Add the plaster and wax to the galbanum, melted, and thenmelt the whole together with a moderate heat. Emplastrum Galbani Compositum. L. Compound Plaster of Galbanum. * Take of Strained galbanum, eight ounces; Plaster of lead, three pounds; Turpentine, ten drachms; Frankincense, in powder, three ounces.— With the galbanum and turpentine melted together, mix first the frankincense, and afterwards the litharge plaster, melted also with a very slow fire, and make a plaster. Emplastrum Gummosum. E. Gum Plaster. Take of Plaster of semi-vitrified oxyd of lead, eight parts; Gum am- moniaeum, Galbanum, Yellow wax, each, one part.—Melt together. These plasters are used as a digestive and suppurative; particu- larly in abscesses, after a part of the matter has been maturated and discharged, for suppurating or discussing the remaining hard part; but it is very doubtful whether it derives any advantage from the gums entering its composition. Emplastrum Ladani Compositum. L. Compound Ladanum Plaster. Take of Ladanum, three ounces; Frankincense, one ounce; Cinna- mon, powdered, Expressed oil of mace, of each, half an ounce; Es- sential oil of mint, one drachm.— To the melted frankincense, add first the ladanum, softened by heat; then the oil of mace. Mix these. afterwards with the cinnamon and oil of mint, and beat them toge- ther, in a warm mortar, into a plaster. Let it be kept in a close vessel. This has been considered as a. very elegant stomach plaster. It is contrived so as to be easily made occasionally, (for these kinds of compositions, on account of their volatile ingredients, are not fit for keeping,) and to be but moderately adhesive, so as not to offend the skin, and that it may, without difficulty, be frequently renewed; which these sorts of applications, in order to their producing any considerable effect, require to be. Emplastrum Plumbi. L.A. Emplastrum Lithargyri. D. Emplastrum Oxydi Plumbi Semivitrei. E. Lead Plaster. Litharge Plaster. Plaster of the Semi-vitrified Oxyd of Lead. Take of Semi-vitrified oxyd of lead, one part; Olive oil, two parts.— Boil them, adding water, and constantly stirring the mixture, un- fit the oil and litharge be formed into a plaster. E. 638 U.—Unguenta. Oxyds of lead, boiled with oils, unite with them into a plaster of an excellent consistence, and which makes a proper basis for several other plasters. In the boiling of these compositions, a quantity of water must be added, to prevent the plaster from burning, and growing black. Such water, as it may be necessary to add during the boiling, must be previously made hot; for cold liquor would not only prolong the process, but likewise occasion the matter to explode, and be thrown about with violence, to the great danger of the operator: this acci- dent will equally happen upon the addition of hot water, if the plas- ter be extremely hot It is, therefore, better to remove it from the ««,) and replaces the mind on her native throne, to admire the beauties of creation, and inspire the soul with physico-theology. "N. B. I'mixed by friction in a glass mortar and pestle, the bags, venom and all, taken from two teeth of a large and vigorous rattlesnake, with some cheese, and then divided the mass into one hundred pills, of which I occasionally took, sometimes one, at other times two, three, or four pills a day; a general dropsy succeeded the first state of heavenly sensations, which has not even at this day fully gone off, being even now, March, 1827, subject to swell- ings in the evening. " The diseases of the lymphatic and arterial systems are never be- nefited by the use of rattlesnake poison, but the nervous and mus- cular systems are speedily roused into action: palsy is much bene- fited: old rheumatisms are removed or relieved: the passions of the mind are wonderfully excited: delirium in typhus fever, attended with mutterings, (typhomania,) is almost immediately removed, and a serene mind, expressive of pleasure follows. Melancholy is quickly changed into gay anticipations: old sores are uniformly in- jured; on one occasion, the old cicatrix opened, and was difficult to heal afterwards. An ideot became improved in intellect "JAMES WESTWOOD WALLACE " To John R. Coxe, M. D. "Professor of Materia Medica in the University of Pennsylvania." PHARMACEUTICAL OPERATIONS. OF THE COLLECTION AND PRESERVATION OF SIMPLES. EACH of the kingdoms of nature furnishes articles which are em- ployed in medicine, either in their natural state, or after they have been prepared by the art of pharmacy. In collecting these, attention must be paid to select such as are most sound and perfect, to separate from them whatever is injured or decayed, and to free them from all foreign matters adhering to them. Those precautions must be taken which are best fitted tor pre- serving them. They must in general be defended from the effects of moisture, too great heat, or cold, and confined air. When their activity depends on volatile principles, they must be preserved from the contact of the air as much as possible. As the vegetable kingdom presents us with the greatest number ot simples, and the substances belonging to it are the least constant in their properties, and most subject to decay, it becomes necessary to give a few general rules for their collection and preservation. Vegetable matters should be collected in the countries where they are indigenous; and those whicb grow wild, in dry soils, and high situations, fully exposed to the air and sun, are in general to be pre- ferred to those which are cultivated, or which grow m moist, low, shady, or confined places. Roots which are annual, should be collected before they shootout their stalks or flowers; biennial roots in the harvest of the first, or spring of the second year; perennial roots either in spring before the sap has begun to mount, or in harvest after it has returned. Those which are worm eaten, (except some resinous roots,) or which are decayed, are to be rejected. The others are immediately to be cleaned with a brush and cold water, letting them lie in it as short time as possible; and the fibres and little roots, when not essen- tial, are to be cut away. Roots which consist principally of fibres, and have but a small tap, may be immediately dried. If they be juicy, and not aromatic. this may be done by heat, not exceeding 100° of Fahrenheit; but it aromatic, by simply exposing them, and frequently turning them in a current of cold dry air; if very thick and strong, they are to be snlit or cut into slices, and strung upon threads; if covered with a touo-li bark, they may be peeled fresh, and then dried. Such as lose their virtues by drying, or are directed to be preserved in a tresb state, are to be kept buried in dry sand. No very general rule can be given for the collection of herbs and leaves, some of them acquiring activity from their age, and others, ,»s the mucilaginoMS leave*, fiomthe -ame cause, losing the property o.1 666* Pharmaceutical Operations. for which they are officinal. Aromatics are to be collected after the flower-buds are formed; annuals, not aromatic, when they are about to flower, or when in flower; biennials, before they shoot; and pe- rennials, before they flower, especially if their fibres become woody. They are to be gathered in dry weather, after the dew is off them, or in the evening before it falls, and are to be freed from decayed, withered, or foreign leaves. They are usually tied in bundles, and hung up in a shady, warm, and airy place; or spread upon the floor, and frequently turned. If very juicy, they are laid upon a sieve, and dried by a gentle degree of artificial warmth. Sprouts are collected before the buds open; and stalks are gather- ed in autumn. Barks and woods are collected when the most active part of the vegetables are concentrated in them, which happens in spring and in autumn. Spring is preferred for^ resinous barks, and autumn for the others which are not resinous, but rather gummy. Barks should be taken from young trees, and freed from decayed parts, and all impurities. The same rules direct the collection of woods; but they must not be taken from very young trees.- Among the resinous' woods, the heaviest which sink in water, are selected. The alburnum is to be rejected. Flowers are collected in clear dry weather, before noon, but after the dew is off: either when they are just about to open, or imme- diately after they have opened. Of some the petals only are pre- served, and the colourless claws are even cut away; of others whose calyx is odorous, the whole flower is kept. Flowers which are too small to be pulled singly, are dried with part of the stalk. These are called heads or tops. Flowers and herbs are to be dried by the gentle heat of a stove or common fire, in such quantities at a time,, that the process may be finished as quickly as possible; for by this means their powers are best preserved; the test of which is the perfect preservation of their natural colour. When they lose their colour and smell, they are unfit for use. Seeds and fruits, unless when otherwise directed, are to be gathered when ripe, but before they fall spontaneously. Some pulpy fruits are freed from their core and seeds, strung upon thread, and dried artificially. They are in general best preserved in their na- tural coverings, although some, as the colocynth, are peeled, and others, as the tamarind, preserved fresh. Many of these are apt to spoil, or become rancid; and as they are then no longer fit for me- dical use, no very large quantity of them should be collected at a time. The proper drying of■ vegetable substances is of the greatest im- portance. It is often directed to be done in the shade, and slowly, that the volatile and active particles may not be dissipated by too great heat; but this is an error, for they always lose infinitely more by slow than by quick drying. When, on account of the colour, they cannot be exposed to the sun, and the warmth of the atmosphere is insufficient, they should be dried by an artificial warmth, less than 100° Fahrenheit, and well exposed to a current of air. When per- Pharmaceutical Operations. 667 fectly dry and friable, they have little smell; but after being kept some time, they attract moisture from the air, and regain their pro- per odour. The boxes and drawers in which vegetable matters are kept, should not impart to them any smell or taste; and more certainly to avoid this, they should be lined with paper. Such as are volatile, of a delicate texture, or subject to sutler from insects, must be kept in well covered glasses. Fruits and oily seeds, which are apt to become rancid, must be kept in a cool, and dry, but by no means in a warm, or moist place. Oily seeds, odorous plants, and those containing volatile princi- ples, must be collected fresh every year. Others, whose properties are more permanent, and not subject to decay, will keep for several years. Vegetables collected in a'moist and rainy season, are in general more watery and apt to spoil. In a dry season, on the contrary, they contain more oily and resinous particles, and keep much better. MECHANICAL OPERATIONS OF PHARMACY. a. The determination of the weight and bulk of bodies. b. The division of bodies into more minute particles. c. The separation of their integrant parts by mechanical means. d. Their mixture, when not attended by any chemical action. The quantities of substances employed in pharmaceutical opera- tions are most accurately determined by the process called weighing. For this purpose, there should be sets of beams and scales of different sizes; and it would be advisable to have a double set, one for ordi- nary use, and another for occasions when greater accuracy is neces- sary. A good beam should remain in equilibrium without the scales, and when the scales are changed; and it should turn sensibly with a very small proportion of the weight with which it is loaded. Balances should be defended as much as possible from acid and other corrosive vapours, and should not be left suspended longer than is necessary, as it impairs their delicacy very much. For the same reasons, ba- lances should never be overloaded. The want of uniformity of weights and measures is attended with many inconveniences. In this country and Great Britain, druggists and grocers sell by avoirdupois weight; and the apothecaries are directed to sell by "troy weight, although, in fact, they seldom use the troy weight for more than two drachms. Hence arise numerous and culpable errors, the troy pound being less than the avoirdupois, and the ounce and drachm being greater. The errors arising from the promiscuous use of weights and mea- sures, have induced the Edinburgh and Dublin Colleges to reject the use of measures entirely, and to direct that the quantities of every thing fluid, as well as solid, shall be determined by troy weight: but the London College have given their sanction to the use of mea- sures, and from the much greater facility of their employment, apo- thecaries will probably always use them. The American Pharmacopoeia has directed the use of .weights and measures, in the following table. 668 Pharmaceutical Operations. Weights and Measures. " To express the quantity of solid bodies, we employ the kind of weight, which in common language is denominated Troy Weight, and divide the pound in the following manner. Twelve ounces ^ Eight drachms 3 Three scruples $ ^Twenty grains. gr. The pound, jtj The ounce The drachm The scruple contains " We have added the signs by which the several weights are de- noted. " To express the quantity of liquids, we employ the measures which are derived from the wine gallon, and for medical purposes we divide it in the ibllowing manner. The gallon, cong. 1 fEight pints 0 The pint . J Sixteen fluid ounces f^ The fluid ounce j j Eight fluid drachms f3 The fluid drachm J L^ixty minims "I " We have added the signs by which we denote the several mea- sures." For measuring fluids, the graduated glass measures are always to be preferred: they should be of different sizes, according to the quan- tities they are intended to measure. Elastic fluids are also measured in glass tubes, graduated by inches and their decimals. Specific gravity is the weight of a determinate bulk of any body. As a standard of comparison, distilled water has been assumed as unity. The specific gravity of solids is ascertained, by comparing the weight of the body in the air with its weight when suspended in water. The quotient obtained by dividing its weight in air by the difference between its weight in air and its weight in water, is its specific gravity. The specific gravity of fluids may be ascertained by comparing the loss of weight of a solid body, such as a piece of crystal, when immersed in distilled water, with its loss when im- mersed in the fluid we wish to examine; by dividing its loss of weight in the fluid by its loss of weight in the water, the quotient is the specific gravity of the fluid: or a small phial, containing a known weight of distilled water, may be filled with the fluid to be examined and weighed, and by dividing the weight of the fluid by the weight of the water, the specific gravity is ascertained. The only other mode of expressing specific gravities, which it is necessary to notice, is that of Baume's areometer; as it is often used in the writings of the French chemists, and is little understood in this country. For substances heavier than water, he assumes the specific gravity of distilled water as zero, and graduates the stem of his instrument downwards, each degree being supposed by him" to express the number of parts of muriat of soda contained in a given solution, which however is not at all the case. For substances lighter than water, the tube is graduated upwards, and this zero is afforded by a solution of 10 of salt in 90 of water. Pharmaceutical Operations. 669 MECHANICAL DIVISION. By mechanical division, substances are reduced to a form better adapted for medical purposes; and by the increase of their surface. their action is promoted, both as medical and chemical agents. It is performed by cutting, bruising, grinding, grating, rasping, filing, pulverization, trituration, and granulation, by means of ma- chinery or of proper instruments. Pulverization is the first of these operations that is commonly em- ployed in the apothecary's shop. It is performed by means of pes- tles and mortars. The bottom of the mortars should be concave: and their sides should neither be so inclined as not to allow the substances operated on to fall to the bottom between each stroke of the pestle, nor so perpendicular as to collect it too much together, and to retard the operation. The materials of which pestles and mortars are form- ed, should resist both the mechanical and chemical action of the sub- stances for which they are used. Wood, iron, marble, siliceous stones, porcelain, and glass, are all employed; but copper, and me- tals containing copper, are to be avoided. They should be provided with covers, to prevent the finest and lightest parts from escaping, and to defend the operator from the effects of disagreeable or noxious substances. But these ends are more completely attained by tying a piece of pliable leather round the pestle and round the mouth of the mortar. It must be closely applied, and at the same time so large as to permit the free motion of the pestle. In some instances, it will be even necessary for the operator to cover his mouth and nostrils with a wet cloth, and to stand with his back to a current of air, that the very acrid particles which arise may be carried from him. The addition of a little water or spirit of wine, or of a few almonds, to very light and dry substances, will prevent their flying oft". But almonds are apt to induce rancidity, and powders are always injur- ed by the drying which is necessary when they have been moistened. Water must never be added to substances which absorb it, or are rendered cohesive by it. Too great a quantity of any substance must never be put into the mortar at a time, as it very much retards the operation. All vegetable substances must be previously dried. Resins and gummy resins, which become soft in summer, must be powdered in very cold weather, and must be beaten gently, or they will be con- verted into a paste instead of being powdered. Wood, roots, barks, horn, bone, ivory, &c. must be previously cut, split, chipped, or rasped. Fibrous woods and roots should be finely shaved after their bark is removed, for otherwise their powders will be full of hair-like filaments, which can scarcely be separated. Some substances will even require to be moistened with mucilage of tragacanth, or of starch, and then dried before they can be powdered. Camphor may be conveniently powdered by the addition of a little spirit of wine, or almond oil. The emulsive seeds cannot be reduced to powder, unless some dry powder be added to them. To aromatic oily sub- stances, sugar is the best addition. All impurities and inert parts having been previously separated, 670 Pharmaceutical Operations. the operation must be continued and repeated upon vegetable sub- stances, till no residuum is left. The powders obtained at different times must then be intimately mixed together, so as to bring the whole to a state of perfect uniformity. Very hard stony substances must be repeatedly heated to a red heat, and then suddenly quenched in cold water, until they become sufficiently friable. Some metals may be powdered hot in a heated iron mortar, or may be rendered brittle by alloying them with a lit- tle mercury. Trituration is intended for the still more minute division of bo- dies. It is performed in flat mortars of glass, agate, or other hard materials, by giving a rotatory motion to the pestle, or on a leviga- ting stone, which is generally of porphyry, by means of a muller of the same substance. On large quantities it is performed by rollers of hard stone, turning horizontally upon each other, or by one ver- tical roller turning on a flat stone. The substances subjected to this operation are generally previous- ly powdered or ground. Levigation differs from trituration only in the addition of water or spirit of wine to the powder operated upon, so as to form the whole mass into a kind of paste, which is rubbed until it be of suffi- cient smoothness or fineness. Earths, and some metallic substances, are levigated. Granulation is employed for the mechanical division of some me- tals. It is performed, either by stirring the melted metal with an iron rod until it cools, or by pouring it into water, and stirring it continually as before, or by pouring it into a covered box, previously well rubbed with chalk, and shaking it until the metal cools, when the rolling motion will be converted into a rattling one. The adher- ing chalk is then to be washed away. MECHANICAL SEPARATION. Sifting. From dry substances, which are reduced to the due de- gree of minuteness, the coarser particles are to be separated by sieves of iron-wire, hair-cloth or gauze, or by being dusted through bags of fine linen. For very light and valuable powders, or acrid substances, compound sieves, having a close-lid and receiver, must be used. The particles which are not of sufficient fineness to pass through the interstices of the sieve, may be again powdered. Elutrialion is confined to mineral substances, on which water has no action. It is performed for separating them from foreign particles and impurities, of a different specific gravity, in which case they are said to be washed: or for separating the impalpable powders obtained by trituration and levigation, from the coarser particles. This pro- cess depends upon the property that very fine or light powders have of remaining for some time suspended in water; and is performed by diffusing the powder or paste formed by levigation through plenty of water, letting it stand a sufficient time, until the coarser parti- cles settle at the bottom, and then pouring off the liquid in which the finer or lighter particles are suspended. Fresh water may be poured on the residuum, and the operation repeated; or the coarser particles which fall to the bottom may be previously levigated a se- \ Pharmaceutical Operations. 671 cond time. The fine powder which is washed over with the water, is separated from it, by allowing it to subside completely, and by decanting off the water very carefully. Decantation is very frequently made use of for separating the clear from the turbid part of a fluid, and for separating fluids from solids, which are specifically heavier, especially when the quantity is very large, or the solid so subtile as to pass through the pores of most substances employed for filtration, or the liquid so acrid as to corrode them. Filtration. For the purposes of separating fluids from solids, strain- ing and filtration are often used. These differ only in degree, and are employed when the powder either does not subside at all, or too slowly and imperfectly for decantation. The instruments for this purpose are of various materials, and must in no instance be acted upon by the substances for which they are employed. Fats, resins, wax and oils, are strained through hemp or flax, spread evenly over a piece of wire-cloth or net stretched in a frame. For saccharine and mucilaginous liquors, fine flannel may be used; for some saline solutions, linen. Where these are not fine enough, unsized paper is employed, but it is extremely apt to burst by hot watery liquors. Very acrid liquors, such as acids, are filtered by means of a glass funnel, filled with powdered quartz, a few of the larger pieces being put in the neck, smaller pieces over these, and the fine powder placed over all. The porosity of this last filter retains much of the liquor; but it may be obtained by gently pouring on it an equal quantity of distilled water; the liquor will then pass through, and the water will be retained in its place. Water may be filtrated in large quantities through basins of porous stone, or artificial basins of nearly equal parts of fine clay and coarse sand. In large quantities it may be easily purified per ascensum, the purified liquor and impurities thus taking opposite directions. The simplest apparatus of this kind is a barrel, divided perpendicularly, by a board perforated with a row of holes along the lower edge. Into eacli side, as much well washed sand is put as will cover these holes an inch or two, over which must be placed a layer of pebbles to keep it steady. The apparatus is now fit for use. Water poured into the one half will sink through the sand in that side, pass through the holes in the division to the other, and rise through the sand in the other half, from which it may be drawn.by a stop-cock. The size of the filters depends on the quantity of matter to be strained. When large, the flannel or linen is formed into a conical bag, and suspended from a hoop or frame; the paper is either spread on the inside of these bags, or folded into a conical form, and sus- pended by a funnel. It is of advantage to introduce glass rods or quills between the paper and the funnel, to prevent them from ad- hering too closely. What passes first is seldom fine enough, and must be poured back again until by the swelling of the fibres of the filter, or filling up of its pores, the fluid acquires the requisite degree of limpidity. The filter is sometimes covered with charcoal powder, which is a useful addition to muddy and deep-coloured liquors. The filtration of some viscid substances is much assisted by heat. 672 Pharmaceutical Operations. Expression is a species of filtration, assisted by mechanical force. It is principally employed to obtain the juices of fresh vegetables, and the unctuous vegetable oils. It is performed by means of a screw press, with plates of wood, iron, or tin. The subject of the operation is previously beaten, ground or bruised. It is then inclosed in a bag, which must not be too much filled, and introduced between the plates of the press. The bags should be of hair-cloth, or canvass inclosed in hair-cloth. Hempen and woollen bags are apt to give vegetable juices a disagreeable taste. The pressure should be gentle at first, and increased gradually. Vegetables intended for this operation should be perfectly fresh, and freed from all impurities. In general they should be expressed as soon as they are bruised, for it disposes them to ferment; but sub- acid fruits give a larger quantity of juice, and of finer quality, when they are allowed to stand some days in a wooden or earthen vessel after they are bruised. To some vegetables which are not juicy enough, the addition of a little water is necessary. Lemons and oranges must be peeled, as their skins contain a great deal of essen- tial oil, which would mix with the juice. The oil itself may be ob- tained separately, by expression with the fingers on a piece of glass. For unctuous seeds iron plates are used; and it is customary not only to heat the plates, but to warm the bruised seeds in a kettle over the fire, after they have been sprinkled with water, as by these means the product is increased, and the oil obtained is more limpid. But as the oils obtained in this way are more disposed to rancidity, this process should either be laid aside altogether, or changed to ex- posing the bruised seeds, inclosed in a bag, to the steam of hot water. Despumation is generally practiced on thick and clammy liquors, which contain much slimy and other impurities, not easily separable by filtration. The scum is made to arise, either by simply heating the liquor, or by clarifying it, which last is done by mixing with the liquor, when cold, white of egg well beaten with a little water, which on being heated coagulates and rises to the surface, carrying with it all the impurities. The liquor may now be filtered with ease, or may be skimmed with a perforated ladle. Spirituous liquors are clarified without the assistance of heat, by means of isinglass dissolved in water, or of any albuminous fluid, as milk, which coagulates with the action of alcohol. Some expressed juices, as those of all the an- tiscorbutic plants, are instantly clarified by the addition of any ve- getable acid, as the juice of bitter oranges. Fluids can only be separated from each other, when they have no tendency to combine, and when they differ in specific gravity. The separation may be effected by skimming off the lighter fluid with a silver or glass spoon; or by drawing it off by a syringe or syphon; or by means of a glass separatory, which is an instrument having a projecting tube, terminating in a very slender point, through which the heavier fluid alone is permitted to run; or by means of the ca- pillary attraction of a spongy woollen thread; for no fluid will enter a substance whose pores are filled by another, for which it has no attraction; and lastly, upon the same principle, by means of a filter of unsized paper, previously soaked in one of the fluids, which in this way readily passes through it, while the other remains behind Pharmaceutical Operations. 673 Mechanical mixture is performed by agitation, trituration, or kneading. APPARATUS. The various apparatus for chemical operations are so largely de- scribed in most of the elementary treatises, especially that of Henry, as to render it unnecessary to dwell upon them here. CHEMICAL OPERATIONS. In all chemical operations, combination takes place, and there are very few of them in which decomposition does not also occur. For the sake of method, we shall consider them as principally in- tended to produce, a. Change in the form of aggregation; b. Combination; c. Decomposition. The form of aggregation may be altered by, a. Fusion; b. Vaporization; c. Condensation; d. Congelation; e. Coagulation. Liquefaction is commonly employed to express the melting of substances, as tallow, wax, resin, &c. which pass through interme- diate states of softness before they become fluid. Fusion is the melting of substances which pass immediately from the solid to the fluid state, as the salts and the metals, except iron and platinum. Substances differ very much in the degrees of their fusibility; some, as water and mercury, existing as fluids in the or- dinary temperatures of the atmosphere; while others, as the pure earths, cannot be melted by any heat we can produce. When a substance acquires by fusion a degree of transparency, a dense uniform texture, and great brittleness, and exhibits a con- choidal fracture, with a specular surface, and the edges of the frag- ments very sharp, it is said to be vitrified. In general, simple substances are less fusible than compounds; thus the simple earths cannot be melted singly, but when mixed are easily fused. The additions which are sometimes made to refractory substances to promote their fusion, are termed fluxes. These fluxes are generally saline bodies. a. The alkalies, potass, and soda, promote powerfully the fu- sion of siliceous stones; but they are only used for accurate experiments. The white flux is a mixture of a little potass with carbonat of potass, and is prepared by deflagrating to- gether equal parts of nitrat of potass and supertartrat of po- tass. When an oxyd is at the same time to be reduced, the black flux is to be preferred, which is produced by the defla- gration of two parts of supertartrat of potass, and one of nitrat of potass. It differs from the former only in containing a little 86 674 Pharmaceutical Operations. charcoal. Soap promotes fusion by being converted by the fire into carbonat of soda and charcoal, b. Aluminous stones have their, fusion greatly promoted by the addition of sub-borat of soda. c. Muriat of soda, the mixed phosphat of soda and ammonia, and other salts, are also occasionally employed. An open fire is sufficient to melt some substances: others require the heat of a furnace. The vessels in which fusion is performed, must resist the heat ne- cessary for the operation. In some instances, an iron or copper ladle or pot may be used; but most commonly crucibles are employed. —Crucibles are of various sizes. The large crucibles are generally conical, with a small spout for the convenience of pouring out: the small ones are truncated triangular pyramids, and are commonly sold in nests. Fusion is performed with the intentions, a. Of weakening the attraction of aggregation, 1. To facilitate mechanical division; 2. To promote chemical action. b. Of separating from each other, substances of different degrees of fusibility. Vaporization is the conversion of a solid or fluid into vapour by the agency of caloric. Although vaporability be merely a relative term, substances are said to be permanently elastic, volatile, or fixed. The permanently elastic fluids or gases are those which cannot be condensed into a. *luid or solid form by any abstraction of caloric we are capable of producing. Fixed substances, on the contrary, are those which cannot be converted into vapour, by great increase of temperature. The pressure of the atmosphere has a very consider- able effect in varying the degree at which substance's are converted into vapour. Some solids, unless subjected to very great pressure, are at once converted into vapour, although most of them pass through the intermediate state of fluidity. Vaporization is employed, a. To separate substances differing in volatility. b. To promote chemical action, by disaggregating them. When employed with either of these views, either a. No regard is paid to the substances volatilized, 1. From solids, as in ustulation and charring; 2. From fluids, as in evaporation; T>. Or the substances vaporized are condensed in proper vessels, 1. In a liquid form, as in distillation; 2. In a solid form, as in sublimation; c. Or the substances disengaged are permanently elastic, and are collected in their gaseous form, in a pneumatic appa- ratus. Ustulation is almost entirely a metallurgic operation, and is em- ployed to expel the sulphur and arsenic contained in some metallic ores. It is performed on small quantities in tests placed within a muffle. Tests are shallow vessels made of bone ashes, or baked clay. Pharmaceutical Operations. 675 Muffles are vessels of baked clay, of a semi-cylindrical form, the flat side forming the floor, and the arched portion the roof and sides. The end and sides are perforated with holes for the free transmis- sion of the heated air, and the open extremity is placed at the door of the furnace, for the inspection and manipulation of the process. The reverberatory furnace is commonly employed for roasting, and the heat is at first very gently and slowly raised to redness. The process is accelerated by exposing as large a surface of the substance to be roasted as possible, and by stirring it frequently, so as to pre- vent any agglutination, and to bring every part in succession to the surface. Charring may be performed on any of the compound oxyds, by subjecting them to a degree of heat sufficient to expel all their hy- drogen, nitrogen, and oxygen, while the carbon, being a fixed prin- ciple, remains behind in the state of charcoal. The temperature ne- cessary for the operation may be produced either by the combustion of other substances, or by the partial combustion of the substance to be charred. In the former case, the operation may be performed in any vessel which excludes the air while it permits the escape of the vapours formed. In the latter, the access of air must be regulated in such a maimer, that it may be suppressed whenever the combustion has reached the requisite degree; for if continued to be admitted, the charcoal itself would be dissipated in the form of carbonic acid gas, and nothing would remain but the alkaline and earthy matter, which these substances always contain. When combustion is carried this length, the process is termed incineration. The vapours which arise in the operation of charring, are sometimes condensed, as in the manufacture of tar. Evaporation is the conversion of a fluid into vapour, by its com- bination with caloric. In this process the atmosphere is not a ne- cessary agent, but rather a hindrance, by its pressure. This forms a criterion between evaporation and spontaneous evaporation, which is merely the solution of a fluid in air. It is performed in open, shallow, or hemispherical vessels of silver, tinned copper, or iron, earthen-ware, or glass. The necessary calo- ric may be furnished by means of an open fire, a lamp, or a furnace, and applied either directly, or by the intervention of sand, water, or vapour. The degree of heat must be regulated by the nature of the substance operated on. In general, it should not be greater than what is absolutely necessary. Evaporation may be, a. Partial: 1. From saline fluids,—Concentration; 2. From viscid fluids,— Inspissation. b. Total,—Exsiccation. Concentration is employed, a. To lessen the quantity of diluting fluids;—Deflegmation: b. As a preliminary step to Crystallization. Inspissation is almost confined to animal and vegetable substances; and as these are apt to be partially decomposed by heat or to be- 676 Pharmaceutical Operations. come empyreumatic, the process should always be performed, espe- cially towards the end, in a water or vapour bath. Exsiccation is here taken in a very limited sense; for the term is also with propriety used to express the drying of vegetables by a gentle heat, the efflorescence of salts, and the abstraction of moisture from mixtures of insoluble powders with water, by means of chalk- stones, or powdered chalk pressed into a smooth mass. At present, we limit its meaning to the total expulsion of moisture from any body by means of caloric. The exsiccation of compound oxyds should always be performed in the water bath. Salts are deprived of their water of crystallization, by exposing them to the action of heat in a glass vessel or iron ladle. Some times they first dissolve in their water of crystallization, (or undergo what is called the watery fusion,) and are afterwards converted into a dry mass by its total expulsion; as in the calcination of borax or burning of alum. When exsiccation is attended with a crackling noise, and split- ting of the salt, as in muriat of soda,, it is termed decrepitation, and is performed by throwing into a heated iron vessel, small quantities of the salt at a time, covering it up, and waiting until the decrepi- tation be over, before a fresh quantity is thrown in. Exsiccation is performed on saline bodies, to render them more acrid and pulverulent, or to prepare them for chemical operations. Animal or vegetable substances are exsiccated to give them a solid form, and to prevent their fermentation. Condensation is the reverse of expansion, and is produced either, a. By mechanical pressure forcing out the caloric in a sensible form, as water is squeezed out of a sponge; or, b. By the chemical abstraction of caloric, which is followed by an approximation of the particles of the substance. The latter species of condensation only is the object of our inves- tigation at present. In this way, we may be supposed to condense, a. Substances existing naturally as gases or vapours; b. Substances naturally solid or fluid, converted into vapours by adventitious circumstances. The former instance is almost supposititious; for we are not able, by any diminution of temperature, to reduce the permanently elas- tic fluids to a fluid or solid state. The latter instance is always preceded by vaporization, and com- prehends those operations in which the substances vaporised, are condensed in proper vessels. When the product is a fluid, it is termed distillation; when solid, sublimation. Distillation is said to be performed, • a. Via humidd, when fluids are the subject of the operation. 6. Via sicca, when solids are subjected to the operation, and ■the fluid product arises, from decomposition, and a new ar- rangement of the constituent principles. The objects of distillation are, Pharmaceutical Operations. 677 a. To separate more volatile fluids from less volatile fluids, or solids; b. To promote the union of different substances; c. To generate new products by the action of fire. In all distillations, the heat applied should not be greater than what is necessary for the formation of the vapour, and even to this degree it should be gradually raised. The vessels also in which the distillation is performed, should never be filled above one-half: and sometimes not above one-fourth, lest the substance contained in them should boil over. As distillation is a combination of evaporation and condensation, the apparatus consists of two principal parts; a. The vessels in which the vapours are formed; b. The vessels in which they are condensed. The vessels employed for both purposes are variously shaped, according to the manner in which the operation is conducted. The first difference depends on the direction of the vapour after its for- mation. It either a. Descends;—distillation per descensum: b. Ascends;—distillation per ascensum: c. Or passes off by the side;—distillation per latus. In the distillation per descensum, a perforated plate, generally of tinned iron, is fixed within any convenient vessel, so as to leave a space beneath it. The subject of the operation is laid on this plate, and is covered by another, accurately fitting the vessel, and suffici- ently strong to support the fuel which is burnt upon it. Thus the heat is applied from above, and the vapour is forced to descend into the inferior cavity, where it is condensed. In this way the oil of cloves is prepared, and on the same principles tar is manufactured, and mercury and zinc are separated from their ores. In the distillation per ascensum the vapour is allowed to arise to some height, and then is conveyed away to be condensed. The ves- sel most commonly employed for this purpose is the common copper- still; which consists of a body for containing the materials, and a head into which the vapour ascends. From the middle of the head a tube arises a short wav, and is then reflected downwards, through which the steam passes to be condensed. Another kind of head, risino- to a great height before it is reflected, is sometimes used for separating fluids, which differ little in volatility, as it was supposed that the less volatile vapours would be condensed, and fall back into the still, while only the more volatile vapours would arise to the top, so as to pass to the refrigeratory. The same object may be more conveniently attained by managing the fire with caution and address. The greater the surface exposed, and the less the height the vapours have to ascend, the more rapidly does the distillation proceed; and so well are these principles understood by the Scotch distillers, that they do not take more than three minutes to discharge a still con- taining fifty gallons of fluid. The condensing apparatus used with the common still is very simple. The tube in which the head terminates, is inserted into the 678 Pharmaceutical Operations. upper end of a pipe, which is kept cool by passing through a vessel filled with water, called the Refrigeratory. This pipe is commonly made of a serpentine form; but as this renders it difficult to be cleaned, Dr. Black recommends a sigmoid pipe. The refrigeratory may be furnished with a stop-cock, that when the water it contains becomes too hot, and does not condense all the vapour produced, it may be changed for cold water. From the lower end of the pipe, the product of the distillation drops into the vessel destined to receive it; and we may observe, that when any vapour issues along with it, we should either diminish the power of the fire, or change the water in the refrigeratory. Circulation was a process formerly in use. It consisted in arrange- ing the apparatus, so that the vapours were no sooner condensed into a fluid form, than this fluid returned back into the distilling vessels, to be again vaporised; and was effected by distilling in a glass vessel, with so long a neck that the vapours were condensed before they escaped at the upper extremity, or by inverting one matrass within another. When corrosive substances are distilled per ascensum, the cucur- bit and alembic are used; but these substances are more convenient- ly distilled per latus. The distillation per latus is performed in a retort or pear-shaped vessel, having the neck bent to one side. The body of a good retort is well rounded, uniform in its appearance, and of an equal thick- ness, and the neck is sufficiently bent to allow the vapours, when condensed, to run freely away, but not so much as to render the ap- plication of the receiver inconvenient, or to bring it too near the fur- nace. The passage from the body into the neck must be perfectly free and sufficiently wide, otherwise the vapours produced in the retort only circulate in its body, without passing over into the re- ceiver. For introducing liquors into the retort without soiling its neck, which would injure the product, a bent funnel is necessary. It must be sufficiently long to introduce the liquor directly into the body of the retort; and in withdrawing it, we must keep it carefully applied to the upper part of the retort, that the drop hanging from it may not touch the inside of the neck. In some cases, where a mixture of different substances is to be distilled, it is convenient and necessary to have the whole apparatus properly adjusted before the mixture is made, and we must therefore employ a tubulated retort, or a retort furnished with an aperture, accurately closed with a ground stopper. The tubulature should be placed on the upper convex part of the retort before it bends to form the neck, so that a fluid poured through it may fall directly into the body without soiling the neck. Retorts are made of various materials. Flint glass is commonly used when the heat is not so great as to melt it. For distillations which require excessive degrees of heat, retorts of earthenware, or coated glass retorts, are employed. Quicksilver is distilled in iron retorts. The simplest condensing apparatus used with the retort, is the common glass receiver; which is a vessel of a conical or globular form, having a neck sufficiently wide to admit the neck of a retort Pharmaceutical Operations. 679 To prevent the loss and dissipation of the vapours to be condensed, the retort and receiver may be accurately ground to each other, or secured by some proper lute. Means must also be used to prevent the receiver from being heated by the caloric evolved during the con- densation of the vapours. It may either be immersed in cold water, or covered with snow or pounded ice; or a constant evaporation may be supported from its surface, by covering it with a cloth, kept moist by means of the descent of water, from a vessel placed above it, through minute syphons or spongy worsted threads. But as, during the process of distillation, permanently elastic fluids are often pro- duced, which would endanger the breaking of the vessels, these are permitted to escape, either through a tubulature, or hole in the side of the receiver, or rather through a hole made in the luting. Receivers having a spout issuing from their side, areHised when we wish to keep separate the products obtained at different periods of any distillation For condensing very volatile vapours, a series of receivers, communicating with each other, termed Adopters, were formerly used; but these are now entirely superseded by Woulfe's apparatus. This apparatus consists of a tubulated retort, adapted to a tubu- lated receiver. With the tubulature of the receiver, a three-necked bottle is connected by means of a bent tube, the further extremity of which is immersed, one or more inches, in some fluid contained in the bottle. A series of two or three similar bottles are connected with this first bottle in the same way. In the middle tubulature of each bottle, a glass tube is fixed, having its lower extremity immers- ed about a quarter of an inch in the fluid. The height of the tube above the surface of the fluid must be greater than the sum of the columns of fluid standing over the further extremities of the connect- ing tubes, in all the bottles or vessels more remote from the retort. Tubes so adjusted are termed Tubes of Safety, for they prevent that reflux of fluid from the more remote into the nearer bottles, and into the receiver itself, which would otherwise inevitably happen, on any condensation of vapour taking place in the retort, receiver, or nearer bottles. Difterent contrivances for the same purpose have been de- scribed by Messrs. Welter and Burkitt; and a very ingenious mode of connecting the vessels without lute has been invented by Citizen Girard, but they would not be easily understood without plates. The further tubulature of the last bottle is commonly connected with a pneumatic apparatus, by means of a bent tube. When the whole is properly adjusted, air blown into the retort should pass through the receiver, rise in bubbles through the fluids contained in each of the bottles, and at last escape by the bent tube. In the receiver, those products of distillation are collected, which are condensible by cold alone. The first bottle is commonly filled with water, and the others with alkaline solutions, or other active fluids; and as the perma- nently elastic fluids produced are successively subjected to the ac- tion of all these, only those gases will escape by the bent tube which are not absorbable by any of them. 680 Pharmaceutical Operations. PNEUMATIC APPARATUS. The great importance of the elastic fluids in modern chemistry, has rendered an acquaintance with the means of collecting and pre- serving them indispensable. When a gas is produced by any means, it may be received either, a. Into vessels absolutely empty; or b. Into vessels filled with some fluid, on which it exerts no action. The first mode of collecting gases, may be practised by means of a bladder, moistened sufficiently to make it perfectly pliable, and then compressed so as to empty it entirely. In this state it may be easily filled with any gas. An oiled silk bag will answer the same purpose, and is more convenient in some respects, as it maybe made of any size or form. Glass or metallic vessels, such as balloons, may also be emptied for the purpose of receiving gases, by fitting them with a stop-cock, and exhausting the air from them by means of an air-pump. But the second mode of collecting gases is the most convenient and common. The vessels may be filled either, a. With a fluid lighter; or b. Heavier than the gas to be received into it The former method is seldom employed; but if we conduct a stream of any gas heavier than atmospheric air, such as carbonic acid gas, muriatic acid gas, &c. to the bottom of any vessel, it will gradually displace the air, and fill the vessel. On the contrary, a gas lighter than the atmospheric air, such as hydrogen, may be collected in an inverted vessel by conducting a stream of it to the top. But gases are most commonly collected by conducting the stream of gas into an inverted glass jar, or any other vessel filled with wa- ter or mercury. The gas ascends to the upper part of the vessel, and displaces the fluid. In this way gas may be kept a very long time, provided a small quantity of the fluid be left in the vessels, which prevents both the escape of the gas, and the admission of atmos- pheric air. The vessels may be of various shapes; but the most commonly em- ployed are cylindrical. They may be either open only at one ex- tremity, or furnished at the other with a stop-cock. The manner of filling these vessels with fluid, is to immerse them completely in it with the open extremity directed a little upwards, so that the whole air may escape from them, and then inverting them with their mouths downwards. For filling them with convenience, a trough or cistern is common- ly used. This either should be hollowed out of a solid block of wood or marble; or, if it be constructed of wood, it should be well painted, or lined with lead or tinned copper. Its size may vary very much; but it should contain a sufficient depth of fluid to cover the largest transverse diameter of the vessels to be filled in it. At one end or side, there should be a shelf for holding the vessels after they are Pharmaceutical Operations. 681 filled. This shelf should be placed about an inch and a half below the surface of the fluid, and should be perforated with several holes, forming the apices of corresponding conical excavations on the lower side, through which, as through inverted funnels, gaseous fluids may be more easily introduced into the vessels placed over them. In general, the vessels used with a mercurial apparatus should be stronger and smaller than those for a water-cistern. We should also have a variety of glass and elastic tubes for con- veying the gases from the vessels in which they are formed, to the funnels under the shelf. Rectification is the repeated distillation of any fluid. When dis- tillation renders the fluid stronger, or abstracts water from it, it is termed Dephlegmation. When a fluid is distilled off from any sub- stance, it is called Abstraction; and if the product be redistilled from the same substance, or a fresh quantity of the substance, it is denominated Cohobation. Sublimation differs from distillation only in the form of the pro- duct. When it is compact, it is termed a Sublimate; when loose and spongy, it formerly had the improper appellation of Flowers. Subli- mation is sometimes performed in a crucible, and the vapours are condensed in a paper cone, or in another crucible inverted over it; sometimes in the lower part of a glass flask, cucurbit, or phial, and the condensation is effected in the upper part or capital, and some- times in a retort with a very short and wide neck, to which a conical receiver is fitted. The heat is most commonly applied through the medium of a sand-bath; and the degree of heat, and the depth to which the vessel is inserted in it, are regulated by the nature of the sublimation. Congelation is the reduction of a fluid into a solid form, in conse- quence of the abstraction of caloric. The means employed for ab- stracting caloric are the evaporation of volatile fluids, the solution of solids, and the contact of cold bodies. Coagulation is the conversion of a fluid into a solid of greater or less consistence, merely in consequence of a new arrangement of its particles, as during the process there is no separation of caloric or any other substance. The means of producing coagulation are, in- crease of temperature, and the addition of certain substances, as acids and runnets. COMBINATION. Chemical combination is the intimate union of the particles of at least two heterogeneous bodies. It is the effect resulting from the exertion of the attraction of affinity, and is therefore subjected to all the laws of affinity. To produce the chemical union of any bodies, it is necessary, 1. That they possess affinity for each other; 2. That their particles come into actual contact; 3. That the strength of the affinity be greater than any counter- acting causes which may be present. ^ The principal counteracting causes are, 1. The attraction of aggregation; 2. Affinities for other substances. 87 682 Pharmaceutical Operations. The means to be employed for overcoming the action of other affi- nities, will be treated of under decomposition. The attraction of aggregation is overcome by means of 1. Mechanical division. 2. The action of caloric. Combination is facilitated by increasing the points of actual con- tact, 1. By mechanical agitation; 2. By condensation; compression. The processes employed for producing combination, may be con- sidered, 1. With regard to the nature of the substances combined; and 2. To the nature of the compound produced. Gases, 1. Combine with gases; 2. Dissolve fluids oV solids; 3. Or are absorbed by them. Fluids, 1. Are dissolved in gases; 2. Or absorb them; 3. Combine with fluids; 4. And dissolve solids; 5. Or are rendered solid by them. Solids, 1. Are dissolved in fluids and in gases; or, 2. Absorb gases; 3. And solidify fluids. The combination of gases with each other, in some instances, takes place when simply mixed together: thus nitrous and oxygen gases combine as soon as they come into contact; in other instances, it is necessary to elevate their temperature to a degree sufficient for their inflammation, either by means of the electric spark, or the contact of an ignited body, as in the combination of oxygen gas with hydro- gen or nitrogen gas. When gases combine with each other, there is always a consider- able diminution of bulk, and not unfrequently they are condensed into a liquid or solid form. Hydrogen and oxygen gases form water: muriatic acid and ammonia gases form solid muriat of ammonia. But when the combination is effected by ignition, a violent expansion, which endangers the bursting of the vessels, previously takes place, in consequence of the increase of temperature. Solution is the diminution of aggregation in any solid or fluid sub- stance, in consequence of its entering into chemical combination. The substance, whether solid or fluid, whose aggregation is lessened. is termed the Solvend; and the substance, by whose agency the so- lution is effected, is often called the Menstruum or Solvent. Solution is said to be performed via humida, when the natural form of the solvent is fluid; but when the agency of heat is necessary Pharmaceutical Operations. 683 to give the solvent its fluid form, the solution is said to be perform- ed via sicca. The dissolving power of each menstruum is limited, and is deter- minate with regard to each solvend. The solubility of bodies is also limited, and determinate with regard to each menstruum. When any menstruum has dissolved the greatest possible quantity of any solvend, it is said to be saturated with it. But, in some oases, although saturated with one substance, it is still capable of dissolv- ing others. Thus a saturated solution of muriat of soda will dissolve a certain quantity of nitrat of potass, and after that a portion of mu- riat of ammonia. The dissolving power of solvents, and consequently the solubility of solvends, are generally Increased by increase of temperature; and conversely, this power is diminished by diminution of temperature; so that, from a saturated solution, a separation of a portion of .the solvend generally takes place on any reduction of temperature. This property becomes extremely useful in many chemical operations, especially in crystallization. Particular terms have been applied to particular cases of solution. The solution of a fluid in the atmosphere is termed spontaneous evaporation. It is promoted by exposing a large surface, by frequent- ly renewing the air in contact with the surface, and by increase of temperature. Some solids have so strong an affinity for water, that they attract it from the atmosphere in sufficient quantity to dissolve them. These are said to deliquesce. Others, on the contrary, retain their water of crystallization with so weak a force, that the atmosphere attracts it from them, so that they crumble into powder. These are said to effloresce. Both operations are promoted by exposing large surfaces, and by a current of air; but the latter is facilitated by a warm dry air, and the former by a cold humid atmosphere. Solution is also employed to separate substances, (for example, saline bodies,) which are soluble in the menstruum, from others which are not. When our object is to obtain the soluble substance in a state of purity, the operation is termed lixiviation. In this as small a quantity of the menstruum as is possible is used. When, however, solution is employed to free an insoluble substance from soluble impurities, it is termed edulcoration, which is best performed by using a very large quantity of the menstruum. Organic products being generally composed of heterogeneous sub- stances, are only partially soluble in the different menstrua. To the solution of any of these substances, while the others remain undis- solved, the term extraction is applied; and when, by evaporation, the substance extracted is reduced to a solid form, it is termed an Extract, which is hard or soft, watery or spirituous, according to the degree of consistency it acquires, and the nature of the menstruum employed. Infusion is employed to extract the virtues of aromatic and vola- tile substances, which would be dissipated by decoction, and de- stroyed by maceration, and to separate substances of easy solution from others which are less soluble. The process consists in pour- ing upon the substance to be infused, placed in a proper vessel, the 684 Pharmaceutical Operations. menstruum either hot or cold, according to the direction, covering it up, agitating it frequently, and after a due time straining or de- canting off the liquor, which is then termed the Infusion. Maceration differs from infusion, it being continued for a longer time, and can only be employed for substances which do not easily ferment or spoil. Digestion, on the other hand, differs from maceration only in the activity of the menstruum being promoted by a gentle degree of heat. It is commonly performed in a glass matrass, which should only be filled one-third, and covered with a piece of wet bladder, pierced with one or more small holes, so that the evaporation of the menstruum may be prevented as much as possible, without risk of bursting the vessel. The vessel may be Heated, either by means of the sun's rays, of a common fire, or of the sand-bath; and when the last is employed, the vessel should not be sunk deeper in the sand than the portion that is filled. Sometimes, when the menstruum employed is valuable, a distilling apparatus is used to prevent any waste of it. At other times, a blind capital is luted on the matrass, or a small matrass is inverted within a larger one; and as the vapour Avhich arises is condensed in it, and runs back into the larger, the process in this form has got the name of Circulation. Decoction is performed by subjecting the substances operated on to a degree of .heat, which is sufficient to convert the menstruum into vapour, and can only be, employed with advantage for extract- ing principles which are not volatile, and from substances whose texture is so dense and compact as to resist the less active methods of solution. When the menstruum is valuable, that portion of it which is converted into vapour is generally saved by condensing it in a distilling apparatus. Solutions in alcohol are termed Tinctures, and in vinegar or wine, Medicated Vinegars or Wines. The solution of metals in mercury is termed Amalgamation. The combinations of other metals with each other form Alloys. Absorption is the condensation of a gas into a fluid or solid form, in consequence of its combination with a fluid or solid. It is facili- tated by increase of surface and agitation; and the power of absorp- tion in fluids is much increased by compression and diminution of temperature, although in every instance it be limited and determi- nate. Dr. Nooth invented an ingenious apparatus for combining gases with fluids; and Messrs. Schweppe, Henry, Paul, and Cuthbertson, have very advantageously employed compression. Consolidation. Fluids often become solid by entering into combi- nation with solids; and this change is always accompanied by consi- derable increase of temperature, as in the slaking of lime. DECOMPOSITION. Decomposition is the separation of bodies which were chemically combined. It can only be effected by the agency of substances possessing a stronger affinity for one or more of the constituents of the compound, than these possess for each other. Pharmaceutical Operations. 685 Decomposition has acquired various appellations, according to the phenomena which accompany it. Dissolution differs from solution in being accompanied by the de- composition, or a change in the nature of the substance dissolved. Thus, we correctly say, a solution of lime in muriatic acid, and a dissolution of chalk in muriatic acid. Sometimes a gas is separated during the action of bodies on each other. When this escapes with considerable violence and agitation of the fluid, it is termed effervescence. The gas is very frequently allowed to escape into the atmosphere, but at other times is either collected in a pneumatic apparatus, or made to enter into some new combination. The vessels in which an effervescing mixture is made, should be high and sufficiently large, to prevent any loss of the ma- terials from their running over, and in some cases the mixture must be made slowly and gradually. Precipitation is the reverse of solution. It comprehends all those processes in which a solid is obtained by the decomposition of a so- lution. The substance separated is termed a Precipitate, if it sink to the bottom of the fluid; or a cream, if it swim above it. Precipi- tation, like solution, is performed either via humida or via sicca. The objects of precipitation are, 1. The separation of substances from solutions in which they are contained; 2. The purification of solutions from precipitable impurities; 3. The formation of new combinations. Precipitation is effected, 1. By lessening the quantity of the solvent by evaporation; 2. By diminishing its solvent power, as by reduction of tempe- rature, or dilution; 3. Or by the addition of some chemical agent, which from its more powerful affinities, a. Either combines with the solvent, and precipitates the sol- vend, b. Or forms itself an insoluble compound with some consti- tuent of the solution. The two first means of precipitation have been already noticed. Indeed they are rarely considered as instances of precipitation, as the effect is gradual, and the precipitated matter most commonly , assumes determinate figures. In performing it in the last manner, we may observe the follow- ing rules: 1. The solution and precipitant must possess the requisite de- gree of purity. 2. The solution should be perfectly saturated, to avoid unneces- sary consumption of the solvent or precipitant. 3. The one is to be added slowly and gradually to the other. 4. After each addition, they are to be thoroughly mixed by agi- tation. 5. We must allow the mixture to settle, after we think that enough of the precipitant has been added, and try a little 686 Pharmaceutical Operations. of the clear solution, by adding to it some of the precipi- tant: if any precipitation takes place, we have not added enough of precipitant. This precaution is necessary, not only to avoid loss, but in many instances, the precipitant, if added in excess, redissolves, or combines with, the pre- cipitate. After the precipitation is completed, the precipitate is to be se- parated from the supernatant fluid by some of the means already no- ticed. When the precipitate is the chief object of our process, and when it is not soluble in water, it is often advisable to dilute, to a con- siderable degree, both the solution and precipitant, before perform- ing the operation. When it is bnly difficultly soluble, we must content ourselves with washing the precipitate, after it is separated by filtration. In some cases, the separation of the precipitate is much assisted by a gentle heat. Crystallization is a species of precipitation, in which the particles of the solvend, on separating from the solution, assume certain de- terminate forms. Almost all substances, on crystallizing, retain a portion of water combined with them, which is essential to their existence as crystals, and is therefore denominated water of crystallization. Its quantity varies very much in different crystallized substances. The means by which the particles of bodies are disaggregated, so as to admit of crystallization, are solution, fusion, vaporization, or mechanical division and suspension in a fluid medium. The means by which the disaggregating causes are removed, are, evaporation, reduction of temperature, and rest. When bodies are merely suspended in a state of extreme mechani- cal division, nothing but rest is necessary for their crystallization. When they are disaggregated by fusion or vaporization, the re- gularity of their crystals depends on the slowness with which their temperature is reduced; for if cooled too quickly, their particles have not time to arrange themselves, and are converted at once into a confused or unvaried solid mass. Thus glass, which when cooled quickly, is perfectly, uniform in its appearance, when cooled slowly, has a crystalline texture. But in order to obtain crystals by means of fusion, it is often necessary, after the substance has begun to crystallize, to remove the part which remains fluid; for otherwise it would fill up the interstices among the crystals first formed, and give the whole the appearance of one solid mass. Thus, after a crust has formed on the top of melted sulphur, by pouring off the still fluid part, we obtain regular crystals. The means by which bodies, which have been disaggregated by solution, are made to crystallize most regularly, vary according to the habitudes of the bodies with their solvents and caloric. Some saline substances are much more soluble in hot than in cold water; therefore, a boiling saturated solution of any of these will deposite, on cooling, the excess of salt, which it is unable to dissolve when cold. These salts commonly contain much water of crystalli- zation. Other salts are scarcely, if at all, more soluble in hot than in cold Pharmaceutical Operations. 687 water; and therefore, their solutions must be evaporated, either by heat, or spontaneously. These salts commonly contain little water of crystallization. The beauty and size of the crystals depend upon the purity of the solution, its quantity, and the mode of conducting the evaporation and cooling. When the salt is not more soluble in hot than in cold water, by means of gentle evaporation, a succession of pellicles is formed on the top of the solution, which either are removed, or permitted to sink to the bottom by their own weight; and the evaporation is con- tinued until the crystallization be completed. But when the salt is capable of crystallizing on cooling, the eva- poration is only continued until a drop of the solution, placed upon some cold body shows a disposition to crystallize, or at furthest only until the first appearance of a pellicle. The solution is then covered up, and set aside to cool; and the more slowly it cools, the more re- gular are the crystals. The mother-water, or solution which remains after the crystals are formed, may be repeatedly treated in the same way as long as it is capable of furnishing any more salt. When very large and beautiful crystals are wanted, they may be obtained by laying well-formed crystals in a saturated solution of the same salt, and turning them every day. In this way their size may be considerably increased, though not without limitation; for after a certain time, they grow smaller instead of larger. Crystallization is employed, I. To obtain crystallizable substances in a state of purity; 2. To separate them from each other, by taking advantage of their different solubility at different temperatures. OXYGENIZEMENT. The combination of oxygen is the object of many chemical and pharmaceutical processes. With regard to the manner of combination, the oxygenizement may take place, either, a. Without the production of heat and light, to express which there is no other than the generic term oxygenizement; or, b. With the production of heat and light; combustion. 1. In substances which remain fixed at the temperature ne- cessary for their combustion, there is no other more speci- fic term; 2. In substances which exist as gases, or are previously re- duced to the state of vapour by the temperature necessary, it is termed inflammation; and if it proceed with very great violence and rapidity, deflagration. Combustion and inflammation have been already described. Deflagration, from its violence, must always be performed with caution. The common mode of conducting this process is, to intro- duce the substances to be deflagrated together into any convenient vessel, commonly an iron pot, or crucible, heated to redness. But to obviate any inconvenience, and to insure the success of the pro- cess, they are previously made perfectly dry, reduced to powder, 688 Pharmaceutical Operations. and thoroughly mixed together. The compound is then deflagrated gradually, generally by spoonfuls; but we must take care always to examine the spoon, lest a spark should adhere to it, which might set fire to the whole mass. During the process, the portion introduced should be frequently stirred. The oxygen necessary for the process of oxygenation may be de- rived from the decomposition, a. Of oxygen gas, or atmospheric air: b. Of oxyds, particularly water; c. Of acids and their combinations. The different modes of oxygenizement are intended, either, a. To produce heat and light; b. To obtain an oxygenized product; 1. An oxyd, when the process may be termed Oxydize- ment. 2. An acid, Acidification. c. To remove an oxygenizable substance. Hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen, are never, unless for experiment, oxygenized, as simple substances. Sulphur is converted into sulphuric acid by burning it in leaden chambers, or by deflagrating it with nitrat ot potass: and phosphorus is acidified by inflammation in the atmosphere. Of all the simple oxygenizable substances, the metals are most frequently combined with oxygen; and, as in consequence of this combination, they lose their metallic appearance, they were formerly said to be calcined or corroded. Metals differ very much in the facility with which they are oxy- genized by the contact of oxygen gas. For some, as iron and man- ganese, the ordinary temperature of the atmosphere is necessary; but others as potassium and sodium, are oxygenized even by the contact of ice; while others, as gold and platinum, scarcely undergo any change in the most violent heat Upon these the operation is per- formed by heating them, to the requisite temperature, and exposing them to the action of the air: and on the fusible metals it is pro- moted by stirring them when melted. Metals also differ in the mode of their action upon water. They are either capable of decomposing water, a. At every temperature, as potassium and sodium. b. At ordinary temperatures, as iron, zinc, manganese, &c. c. At elevated temperatures, as antimony and tin; or d. When acted upon at the same time by an acid or an alkali, as copper, lead, bismuth; or lastly, e. They are incapable of decomposing it, as gold, silver, mer- cury, platinum. The oxygenizement of metals by water is promoted by the action of air. Iron, for example, is more quickly rusted by being merely moistened with water, than when totally immersed in water. But the acids are the most powerful agents in oxvgenizing metals. They act, in two ways, either, Pharmaceutical Operations. 689 1. By enabling them to decompose water; 2. By being decomposed themselves. The metals are susceptible of different degrees of oxygenizement, some of them even of acidification, and, in general, they are more oxygenized according to the rapidity of the process. When proceed- ing too slowly, it may be accelerated by heat; when too violent, it must be checked by diminution of temperature, as by plunging the vessel in which the operation is performed into cold water. When the, degree of oxygenizement is not very great, the oxyd formed generally enters into combination with the acid employed, and forms a metallic salt; but when carried to its highest degree, the oxyd is often insoluble. DISOXYGENIZEMENT OF METALLIC OXYDS AND ACIDS. This process was formerly termed reduction, from its restoring the metals to their metallic splendour, and is performed by causing some body to act upon them, which has a greater affinity for oxygen than they have. The different metals themselves vary very much in the degree of this affinity, so that they are reduced with very dif- ferent degrees of facility. Gold, silver, platinum, and mercury, are reduced by merely exposing them to a sufficient degree of heat in close vessels. The oxygen at this temperature has a greater affinity for caloric than for the metals, and is therefore driven oft' in the form of very pure oxygen gas. Some other metallic oxyds which resist the simple action of heat, may be reduced by melting them in contact with charcoal, or sub- stances which may be charred, such as oil, fat, resin, pitch, &c. Besides the charcoal, different saline fluxes are also added to facili- tate the fusion of the oxyd. The oxyd to be reduced is mixed with a sufficient quantity of any of these substances, and placed in the bottom of a crucible, which is afterwards filled up with charcoal powder, to prevent entirely the Access of the air, and exposed for a length of time to a sufficiently high temperature, when a button of the metal will commonly be found in the bottom of the crucible. Upon the volatile metals, such as arsenic and zinc, this operation must be performed in a distilling or subliming apparatus. Some metallic oxyds, such as those of pla- tinum, columbium, &c. cannot be reduced, from our being unable to produce a degree of heat sufficient to melt them. But galvanism is by far the most powerful disoxygenizing pro- cess. By means of it the metallic bases of the alkalies and earths have been discovered. Metals may be also obtained from the metallic salts, by inserting in a solution of these a plate of another metal, possessing a stronger affinity for oxygen than for the acid. Thus copper is precipitated by iron, and arsenic by zinc. We must only take care that the two metals have no remarkable affinity for each other, as in that case an alloy is commonly produced. For example, when mercury is placed in a solution of silver, a crystallized amalgam of silver is obtained, former] v called the Arbor Dianae. 88 690 Pharmaceutical Operations. The compound oxyds, (vegetable and animal substances,) may be further oxygenized, by treating them with nitric acid. In this way various oxyds and acids are formed, according to the nature of the oxyd operated on, the quantity of the acid, and the mode of con- ducting the process. These substances also undergo changes by gradually combining with the oxygen of the atmosphere. In some cases, this combina- tion is attended with remarkable phenomena, which have been classed under the term fermentation. There are several species of fermentation, which have been named from the products they afford. 1. The saccharine, which produces sugar. 2. The vinous, which produces wine', and similar fluids. 3. The panary, which produces bread. 4. The acetic, which produces vinegar. 5. The putrefactive, which produces ammonia. The same substances are sometimes capable of undergoing the first, second, fourth, and fifth; or third, fourth, and fifth successively, but never in a retrograde order. The conditions necessary for all of them are, 1. The presence of a sufficient quantity of fermentable matter; 2. The presence of a certain proportion of water; 3. The contact of atmospheric air; and, 4. A certain temperature. The sacciiarine fermentation.—The seeds of barley, when moist- ened with a certain quantity of water, and exposed to the contact of the atmospheric air, at a temperature of not less than 50°, swell, and show marks of incipient vegetation, by pushing forth the radicle. If at,this period the fermentation be checked, by exposing them to a considerable degree of heat, and drying them thoroughly, the in- sipid amylaceous matter, of which the seeds principally consisted, will be found to be changed in part into a sweet saccharine substance. The oxygen of the air, in contact with the seeds, is at the same time converted into carbonic acid gas, by combining with part of the car- bon of the seeds; and there is a considerable increase of temperature in the fermenting mass, even to such a degree as sometimes to set it on fire. Similar phenomena occur in the maturation of fruits; in the cookery of some roots and fruits, and during the heating of hay, when put up too wet. The vinous fermentation.—The conditions necessary for the vinous fermentation, are, the presence of proper proportions of sugary acid, extract and water, and a temperature of about 70°. When these circumstances exist, an intestine motion commences in the fluid; it becomes thick and muddy, its temperature increases, and carbonic acid gas is evolved. After a time the fermentation ceases, the feces rise to the top, or subside to the bottom, the liquor becomes clear, it has lost its saccharine taste, and assumed a new one, and its spe- cific gia'ity is diminished. If the fermentation has been complete, the sugar is entirely decomposed, and the fermented liquor consists Pharmaceutical Operations. 691 of a large proportion of water, of alcohol, of malic acid, of extract, of essential oil, and colouring matter. The substances most com- monly subjected to this fermentation are Must, which is the ex- pressed juice of the grape, and which produces the best wines; the juice of the currant and gooseberry, which, with the addition of sugar, form our home-made wines; the juices of the apple and pear, which give cyder and perry; and an infusion of malt, which, when fermented with yeast, forms beer. The briskness and sparkling of some of these liquors depend on their being put into close vessels before the fermentation is completed, by which means a portion of carbonic acid gas is retained. The acetic fermentation.—All vinous liquors are susceptible of the acetic fermentation, provided they be exposed to the action of the atmosphere, in a temperature not less than 70°. An intestine motion and hissing noise sensibly take place in the fluid; it be- comes turbid, with filaments floating in it, and its temperature in- creases; it exhales a pungent acid smell, without any disengagement of carbonic acid gas. Gradually these phenomena cease; the tem- perature decreases, the motion subsides, and the liquor becomes clear, having deposited a sediment and red glairy matter, which ad- heres to the sides of the vessel. During this process, the alcohol and malic acid disappear entirely, oxygen is absorbed, and acetic acid formed. The panary and colouring fermentation—is less understood than those already described. A paste of wheat-flour and water, ex- posed to a temperature of 65°, swells, emits a small quantity of gas, and acquires new properties. The gluten disappears, and the paste acquires a sour disagreeable taste. If a just proportion of this fermented paste or leaven, or, what is still better, if some barm, be formed into a paste with wheat-flour and water, the same fermentation is excited, without the disagreeable taste being pro- duced; the gas evolved is prevented from escaping by the viscidity of the paste, which therefore swells, and if baked, forms light spongy bread. The putrefactive fermentation.—Although vegetable substances, when they are destroyed by spontaneous decomposition are said to {mtrefy, we shall consider this fermentation as belonging exclusive- y to animal substances, or those which contain nitrogen as an ele- mentary principle. The essential conditions of putrefaction are hu- midity, and a temperature between 45° and 110°. The presence of air, the diminution of pressure, and the addition of ferments, are not essential, but accelerate its progress. The smell is at first vapid and disagreeable, but afterwards insupportably fetid, although the fetor, for a time, is somewhat diminished by the mixture of an am- moniacal odour.—Liquids become turbid and flocculent. Soft sub- stances melt down into a gelatinous mass, in which there is a kind of gentle motion and swelling up, from the slow and scanty formation of elastic fluids.—Solids, beside the general softening, exude a sero- sity of various colours, and by degrees the whole mass dissolves, the swelling ceases, the matter settles, and its colour deepens; at last its odour becomes somewhat aromatic, its elements are finally dis- sipated, and there remains only a kind of fat, viscid, and still fetid 692 Pharmaceutical Operations. mould. The products of putrefaction are carbureted, sulphureted, and phosphureted hydrogen gases, water, ammonia, nitrogen, and carbonic acid. These are all dissipated in the form of gas or vapour. When in contact with air, oxygen is absorbed. Acetic acid, a fatty matter, a soap composed of this fat and ammonia, and often the nitric acid, fixed by a salifiable base, are also produced; and the ul- timate remains, besides salts, composed of acid and earths, contain for a long time a portion of fat charry matter. APPENDIX. Pound. tb i TABLES OF WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. ENGLISH. APOTHECARY OR TROY WEIGHT. Ounces. Drachms. Scruples. — 12 = 96 = 288 = 5 1 = 8 = 24 = D 31= 3 = 91 = Grains. 5760 480 60 20 gr. 1 SIGNS OF QUANTITY. A pound An ounce tb} A scruple A grain 9i gr.i A drachm 3i = AVOIRDUPOIS WEIGHT. Pounds. 1 = Ounces. 16 1 Drachms. = 256 = = 16 = Troy grains. 7000 437.5 27.34375 MEASURE, LONDON PHARMACOPOSIA. Gallon. Pints. Fluid oun. Fluid dr. Minims. 1 = 8 = 128 = 1024 = 61440 ©1 = 16 = 128 = 7680 f$ 1 = 8 = 480 f3 1 = 60 fit 1 Troy gr. Cubic inch. = 58443 = = 7305 = = 456.5 = = 57 = = 0.9 = 231 28.875 1.8047 0.2256 0.0374 694 Appendix. 835 935 1170 835 1160 Table of Specific Gravities indicated in the different Pharmacopoeias. Dublin. London. Edinburgh. American. Sulphuric ether - - 765 Nitrous ether - 900 Spirit of nitrous ether - 850 Alcohol 815 815 Rectified spirit (alcohol) - 840 835 Proof spirit - - - 930 930 Acetic acid ... 1070 Distilled vinegar - - 1006 Oxymuriatic acid - - 1003 Muriatic acid - - - 1170 1160 diluted - 1080 Nitric acid - - - 1500 1500 diluted - 1280 Sulphuric acid - - 1845 1850 1845 diluted - 1090 Solution of potass - 1100 1050 ammonia - 936 960 carbonat of ammo- nia - - 1095 carbonat of soda, saturated - 1220 oxymuriat of pot- ass - - 1087 sulphuret of pot- ass - - 1120 Tincture ofmuri at of iron (red) 1050 1520 1500 1850 Sulphat of potass soda Cases of Mutual Decomposition. 1. FROM SIMPLE AFFINITY. with Muriat of baryta ammonia - magnesia Supersulphat of alumina Nitrat of potass ammonia Muriat of baryta soda lime ammonia - Phosphat of soda Sub-borat of soda Nitrat of silver Acetat of lead - Sulphat of mercury - Soap of potass - soda Nitrat of potass Muriat of potass Carbonat of potass Muriat of lime baryta Phosphat of soda All sulphats and nitrats Carbonat of potass Sub-borat of soda Carbonat of potass Muriat of ammonia Carbonat of potass Muriat of soda Citrat of potass Muriat of soda soda Sulphat of lime. Appendix. 695 Sulphat of baryta baryta potass soda Muriat of baryta Ditto Ditto Ditto Ditto Muriat of lime Phosphat of soda Acetat of lead Ditto FROM COMPOUND AFFINITY. with Carbonat of potass — soda — Muriat of Lime — Ditto — Phosphat of soda — Sub-borat of soda — Carbonat of potass — soda — ammonia — ammonia — lime — Sulphat of zinc — Nitrat of mercury. Table of Incompatible Salts. SALTS. 1. Fixed alkaline sulphats INCOMPATIBLE WITH C Nitrats of lime and magnesia £ Muriats of lime and magnesia , f Alkalies ■J Carbonat of magnesia ^Muriat of barytes fAlkalies J Muriat of barytes ] Nitrat, muriat, carbonat of lime ^Carbonat of magnesia r Alkalies 1 Muriat of barytes ^Nitrat and muriat of lime {Alkalies Muriat of barytes Earthy carbonats {Sulphats Alkaline carbonats Earthy carbonats {Sulphats, except of lime Alkaline carbonats Carbonat of magnesia f Alkaline carbonats ^Alkaline sulphats ("Alkaline carbonats j Carbonats of magnesia and alu- j mina jjSulphats, except of lime. * That is, salts which cannot exist together in solution, without mutual decomposition 2. Sulphat of lime .}. Alum 4. Sulphat of magnesia 5. Sulphat of iron 6. Muriat of barytes 7. Muriat of lime 8. Muriat of magnesia 9. Nitrat of lime 696 Appendix. Quantity of real Acid taken up by mere Alkalies and Earths, (Kirwan.) 100 Parts. Sulphuric. Nitric. Muriatic. Carbonic Acid. Potash 82,48 84,96 56,3 105, almost. Soda 127,68 135,71 73,41 66,8 Ammonia 383,8 247,82 in. Variable. Barytes 50, 56, 31,8 282. Strontia 72,41 85,56 46. 43,2. Lime 143, 179,5 84,488 81,81. Magnesia 172,64 210, 111,35 200, Fourcroy. Alumine 150,9 335, nearly .Bergmann. Quantity of Alkalies and Earths taken up by 100 parts of real Sul- phuric,Nitric,Muriatic, and Carbonic Acids, saturated, (Kirwan.) 100 Parts. Potash Soda. Jlmmont'a. ~26~05~ Baryt, Strontia. Lime. Mag. Sulphuric 121,48 78,32 200, 138, 57,92 Nitric 117,7 73, 40,35 178,12 116,86 55,7 47,64 Muriatic 177,6 136,2 58,48 314,46 216,21 118,3 898, Carbonic 95,1 149,6 354,5 231.4- 122, 50, Table of the respective quantities of Acid and Base required to neu- tralize each other, calculated by Fischer from Richter's Experi- ments. BASES Alumine 525 Fluoric Magnesia 615 Carbonic Am monia 672 Sebacic - Lime 793 Muriatic Soda - 859 Oxalic - Strontites - 1329 Phosphoric Potash - - 1605 Formic Barytes - 2222 Sulphuric Succinic Nitric -Acetic -Citric -Tartaric 427 577 706 712 755 979 988 1000 1209 H05 1480 1563 1694 Table showing the Maximum Quantity of Oxygen taken up by dif- ferent Substances. SIMPLE COMBUSTIBLES. 100 Hydrogen unite with ... 100 Carbon ...... 100 Azote...... 100 Muriatic acid ---.'. 100 Phosphorus ..... 100 Sulphur.....- - 597.7 Oxygen. 257. 236. 194. 154. 71.S Appendix. 697 METALS. 100 Chrome combine with .... 200. Oxygen. 100 Iron.....- - 92.3 100 Manganese - - - - - - 66., 100 Arsenic - - - - - - - 53. 100 Tin - - - -, - * - 38.8 100 Antimony - ... -. 30. 100 Zinc • "| 100 Copper ! , Q_ 100 Lead f ,......^' 100 Tungsten J 100 Mercury.......17.6 100 Platina* - - - - ' - - - - 15. 100 Silver.....- 12.8 100 Bismuth - - - .- - - - 12. 100 Gold.....- - - 10. Table of the Specific Heats of pared Water - Atmospheric air Hydrogen gas - Carbonic acid gas Oxygen gas Azotic gas Nitrous oxyd Nitrous gas Olefiant gas Carbonic oxyd gas Steam - Ammoniacal gas Carbureted hydrogen Nitric acid gas Sulphureted hydrogen Muriatic acid gas Ether vapour \lcohol vapour equal Weights of some with Water. Bodies torn Crawford. Dalton's hypothesis. De La Roche and Berard. 1.000 1.000 1.000. 1.790 1.759 0.2669 21.400 9.382 3.2936 1.045 0.491 0.2210 4.749 1.333 0.2361 0.793 1.866 0.2754 - 0.549 0.2369 - 0.777 - 1.555 0.4207 . 0.777 0.2884 - 1.166 0.8470 - ' - 1.555 - 1.333 - 0.491 - 0.583 - 0.424 ■ - 0.848 - 0.586 89 Kirwan's Table, showing the Composition of Salts. COMPONENT PARTS. CO 00 SALTS. BASIS. ACID. WATER. STATE. Carbonat of potash 41. 43. 16. - . Crystallized. Pearl ash - - - - 60. 30. 6. - - - - Dry. Carbonat of soda - - 21.58 14.42 64. - . Fully crystallized. ditto - - 59.86 40.05 - - Desiccated. barytes 78. 22. - - Natural or ignited. strontian - 69.5 SO. - . Natural or ignited. . lime - - 55. 45. - . Natural if pure, orartificial ignited. magnesia - 25. 50. 25. - - Crystallized. common ditto 45. 34. 21. - - Dried at 80°. Sulphat of potash - - 54.8 45.2 - . Dry. soda - - 18.48 23.52 58. , - - Fully crystallized. ditto - - 44. 56. - . Desiccated at 700°. ammonia - 14.24 54.66 31.1 - - barytes 66.66 33.33 - - Natural and pure, artificial ignited. strontian - 58. 42. . Natural and pure, artificial ignited. lime - - 32 46. 22. - - Dried at 66°. ditto - - 35.23 50.39 14.38 - - Dried at 170°. ditto - - 88.81 55.84 5.35 - - Ignited. ditto - - 41. 59. . - Incandescent. magnesia - 17. 29.35 53.65 - - Fully crystallized. ditto - - 36.68 63.32 ■ - Desiccated. 12 ignited 17.66 51. of< crystal s 4- 19.24 in the earth Crystallized. Ditto...... 63.75 32.65 - - Desiccated at 700°. is s Table showing the composition of Salts,—-Continued. COMPONENT PARTS. SALTS. BASIS. ACID. water; STATE. Nitrat of potash - 51.8 44. . . 4.2 of Composition Dried at 70°. soda - 40.58 53.21 -_ - 6.21 of Composition Dried at 400°. ditto ... 42.34 57.55 - - . Ignited. ammonia 23. 57. . - 20. - barytes - 57. 32. - - 11. - - Crystallized. strontian 36.21 31.07 . - 32.72 Crystallized. lime - 32. 57.44 . - 10.56 Well dried, that is, in air. magnesia 22. 46. - - 22. - Crystallized. Dried at 80°. Muriat of potash ... 64. 36. r-- - . soda ... 53. 47. aqueous, 38.88 real . Dried at 80°. ammonia - Crystallized. ditto - 25. 42.75 . - 32.25 Sublimed. barytes 64. 20. ,- ■» 16. - Crystallized. ditto ... 76.2 - 23.8 . - - Desiccated. t strontian 40. 18. . . 42. - Crystallized. ditto - 69. 31. . . . Desiccated. lime ... 50. 42. . . 8. - Red hot. magnesia 31.07 34.59 - - 34.34 - - Sensibly dry. cS 05 SO Colour of the Precipitates thrown down from Metallic Solutions by various Re-agents. (Henry.) Metals. red salts Antimony Arsenic Bismuth Cerium Chrome Cobalt Columbium Copper Gold Iridium Iron I \> green SaltS r J ' Lead Manganese Mercury Molybdena Nickel Osmium Palladium Platina Rhodium Silver Tantalium Tellurium Tin Titanium 1 ungsten Uranium Zinc Prussiated Alkalies. White WThite White- Green Brownish-yellow Olive Bright reddish brown Yellowish-white No precip. colour discharged White changing to blue Deep blue White Yellowish-white White changing to yellow Brown Green Olive* deep orangef No precipit; but an orange? one by prussiat of mercury 3 No precipitate White No precipitate White Grass-green with some brown Brownish-red White_____________________ * Chenevix. f Wollaston. Tincture of Galls. A white oxyd from dilution Little change Orange Yellowish Brown Yellowish-white Orange Brownish Solution turned green, preci- 3 pitate brown of reduced gold 3 None; colour discharged No precipitate Black White No precipitate Orange-yellow Deep-brown Greyish-white Purple, changing to vivid blue Dark-green becoming paler Yellowish • br ow n Yellow No precipitate Reddish-brown Chocolate No precipitate IVater impregnated ivith Sulphu- reted Hydrogen. Orange Yellow Black Not precipitated Black Yellow Not precipitated Black Not precipitated Black Brown Not precipitated Dark brown Precipitated in a metallicstate Black ~1 O O Hydrosulphurets. Brown Not precipitated Yellow Orange Yellow Black Brown, becoming deep green Green Black Chocolate Black Yellow Black Black White Brownish-black Black Dark-brown No precipitate Black Blackish Black Grass-green Brownish-yellow White Appendix. 701 Table of the Solubility of Saline and other Substances, in 100\ parts s iwr„*„„ „* *h„ *„ml„«-*,^» nf 60° and 212 of Water, at the temperature of ACIDS. Sulphuric Nitric - Acetic Prussic Phosphoric" Tartaric Malic J>very soluble Lactic Laccic Arsenic Arsenious Citric Oxalic Gallic Boracic Mucic Succinic Suberic - Camphoric - - - - Benzoic - Molybdic - Chromic, unknown Tungstic, insoluble SALIFIABLE BASES. "Poffmsi m — ™ Soda, somewhat less than potass Baryta - - crystallized Strontia - - crystallized Limej - SALTS. Sulphat of potass Supersulphat of potass Sulphat of soda - ammonia magnesia - alumina, very soluble, proportion un known Supersulphatofalumina and potass \ alum r ammonia 3 Nitrat of baryta - potass - soda - strontia - lime - ammonia magnesia 60c unlimited - do. - do. - do. unlimited do. do. do. 150 1.25 133 sp 8.3 2.8 .0.84 It. 04 0.69 1.04 0.208 50 5 57 0.6 1.9 0.2 6.25 50 37.4 50 100 8. 14.25 33 100 400 50 100 6. 200 100 66 8 1.25 50 50 8.3 4.17 0.1 more 50 unlimited 50 20 100 + 125 100 ' 133 133 25 100-f 100 200 any quantity 200 100+ 702 Appendix. Temperature at 60° ! 212* - - 20 - - 33 - - 35.42 36.16 - - 150 any quantity - - 200 ' -. - 33 100 - - 100 - - 6 40 . . 25 50 - - 25 25+ - - 6.6 - - 8.4 50. - - 25 83.3 - - 50 100+ - '- 2 - - 50+ 100 ■ - 100 Muriat of baryta - - potass - soda - strontia lime - ammonia magnesia Oxymuriat of potass Phosphat of potass, very soluble soda - ammonia - - magnesia - Sub-borat of soda Carbonat of potass soda magnesia - ammonia - Acetat of potass - soda -' ammonia, very soluble magnesia, ditto strontia .... Supertartrat of potass - Tartrat of potass .... and soda - - Oxalat of potass..... ammonia - Super-oxalat of potass - - - - Citrat of potass, very soluble Prussiat of potass and iron Nitrat of silver, very soluble Muriat of mercury (corrosivfe sublimate) Sulphat of copper - Acetat of copper, very soluble Sulphat of iron - Muriat of iron, very soluble Tartrat of iron and potass Acetat of mercury Sulphat of zinc - - - , - Acetat of zinc, very soluble lead (Ed. Pharm.) Bostock - as it exists in Goulard's extract, more sol. Tartrat of antimony and potass, Duncan 6.6 Alkaline soaps, very soluble Sugar ------- 100 Gum, very soluble Starch ---... q ~^\y. ' .....sparingly Gelatine - - - . . '. solubie Urea, very soluble Cinchonin 1.67 25 25 33 4.5 5 25 50 44 27 any quantity very soluble abundantly more so Appendix, 703 Salts not soluble in 100 times their weight of water. Sulphats of baryta, strontia, and lime, and subsulphat of mercury. Phosphats of baryta, strontia, lime, magnesia, and mercury. Fluat of lime. Carbonats of baryta, strontia, and lime. Muriats of lead and silver, and submuriat of mercury (Calomel.) Subacetat of copper. Solubility of Saline and other Substances in 100 parts of Alcohol, at the temperature of 176° All the acids, except the sulphuric, nitric, and oxymuriatic, which decompose it, and the phosphoric and metallic acids. Potass, soda, and ammonia, very soluble. Red sulphat of iron. Muriat of iron ___----- 100 lime -------- 100 Nitrat of ammonia ' - .....89.2 Muriat of mercury - - - - - - - 88.3 Camphor _..------ 75. Nitrat of silver.....- - - 41.7 Refined sugar - - - - - - - * - ^4.6 Muriat of ammonia - - - - - - - ^ Arseniat of potass -------- 3.75 Nitrat of potass - - - - - - - - 2.9 Arseniat of soda - - - - - - - - - 1.7 Muriat of soda (Mr. Chenevix.) Alkaline soaps. Magnesian do. Ex- tractive. Tannin. Volatile oils. Adipocire. Resins. Urea. Cincho- nin. Substances insoluble in Alcohol. Earths. Phosphoric and metallic acids. Almost all the sulphats and carbonats. The nitrats of lead and mercury. The muriats of lead, silver and soda. The sub-borat of soda. The tartrat of soda and potass, and the supertartrat of potass. Fixed oils, wax, and starch. Gum, caoutchouc, suber, lignin, gelatin, albumen, and fibrin. Table of Absorption of Gases in 100 parts of Water at 60° Fah. Volume. Nitric acid.....361000. Muriatic acid.....51500. Thomson. Ammonia.....47500. Davy. 704 Appendix. Ammonia Sulphurous acid Carbonic acid Sulphureted hydrogen Nitrous oxyd Olefiant gas Nitric oxyd Oxygen Phosphureted hydrogen Carbonic oxyd Hydrogen Nitrogen Carbureted hydrogen v uiumc. 78000. Thomson. 12109. Fourcroy. 3300. Thomson. 1440. Priestley. 108. Henry. 108. Henry. 86. Henry. 12.5. Dalton. 5. Henry. .5.7 Henry. 2.14 Henry. 2.01 Henry. 1.61 Henry. 1.53 Henry. 1.40 Henry. Table of Efflorescent Salts (Cadet de Vaux.) 288 grains of in days Sulphat of soda 61 Phosphat of soda 39 Carbonat of soda 51 Table of Deliquescent Salts 288 grains of Acetat of potass - Muriat of lime - --------■ manganese Nitrat of manganese ---------zinc - ----:----lime - Muriat of magnesia Nitrat of copper Muriat of antimony ---------alumina Nitrat of alumina Muriat of zinc - Nitrat of soda - ■ magnesia Acetat of alumina Supersulphat of alumina Muriat of" bismuth Superphosphat of lime M,uriat of copper (Cadet de Vaux.) in days T46 124 105 89 124 147 139 128 124 149 147 76 ■137 73 104 121 114 93 119 lost grains 203 91 86 absorbed 700 684 629 527 495 448 441 397 388 342 300 294 257 207 202 202 174 165 148 Appendix. 705 Composition of some Organic Bodies, according to Berzelius. Capacity of Oxyg. Hydr. Carb • Oxyg. Hydr. Carb. saturation. Benzoic acid lo+ 3 A-f- 5 c 20.02 5.27 74.71 6.69 Gallic acid lo 2 A 2c 38.02 5.02 56.96 12.34 Tannin from galls 2o 3 A ,3c 45.00 4.45 50.55 3.718 Succinic acid 3o 4 A 4 c 47.923 4.218 47.859 15.9743 Acetic acid 3o 6 A 4 c 46.934 6.195 46.871 15.63 Sugar of milk 4 o 8 A 5 c 48.348 6.385 45.267 Sugar 10 o 21 A 12 c 49.083 6.802 44.115 9.98 Potatoe starch 6o 13 A 7 c 49.583 7.090 43.327 Gum Arabic 12 o 24 A 13 c 51.456 6.792 41.752 Citric acid lo 1 A , 1 c 55.096 3.634 41.270 13.585 Tartaric acid 5o 5 A 4 c 59.200 3.912 36.888 11.976 Saclactic acid 4 o 5 A 3 c 60.818 5.018 34.164 7.66 Oxalic acid* , 6o 1 A 4c 66.534 0.244 33.222 22. * Oxalic acid 3 o + i h + 2c 64.739 2.848 32.413 Dr. Thomson. Composition of same Organic Bodies, according to Gay Lussac and Carbon. Oxygen. Hydrogen. Nitrogen. Wax - - 81.79 5.54 12.67 Olive oil - 77.21 9.43 13.36 Copal - - 76.81 10.61 12.58 Rosin - - 75.94 13.34 10.72 Oak wood - 52.53 41.78 5.69 Beech wood - - 51.45 42.73 5.82 Fecula - 43.55 49.68 6.77 Sugar - - 42.47 50.63 6.90 Gum arabic - - 44.23 50.84 6.93 Sugar of milk - 38.825 53.834 7.341 Acetic acid . 50.22 44.15 5.63 Citric acid - . 33.81 59.86 6.33 Tartaric acid . 24.05 69.32 6.53 Mucous acid . 33.69 62.67 3.62 Oxalic acid - . 26.57 70.69 2.74 Gelatin - 47.881 27.207 7.914 16.998 Albumen - 52.883 23.872 7.540 15.705 Fibrin - . 53.360 19.865 7.021 19.934 Cheese - - 59.781 11.409 7.429 21.381 HEAT. Correspondence between different Thermometers. Fahrenheit's thermometer is universally used in Great Britain, and for the most part throughout the United States. In it the range between the freezing and boiling points of water is divided into 180 degrees; and as the greatest possible degree of cold was supposed to be that produced by mixing snow and muriat of soda, it was made the zero, hence the freezing point became 32°, and the boiling point 212°.t f Tffie freezing point would appear to be the most natural commencement of the scale of zero: and here Mre find both Reaumur's and the Centigrade Thermometer coincide. In fact, this is a very incorrect mode of determining the zero, as a reference to tables of freezing mixtures will show. Equal 90 706 Appendix. The Centigrade thermometer places the zero at the freezing point, and divides the range between it and the boiling point into 100°. This has long been used in Sweden under the title of Celsius's ther- mometer. Reaumur's thermometer, which was formerly used in France, di- vides the space between the freezing and boiling of water into 80°, and places the zero at the freezing point. Wedge wood's pyrometer is only intended to measure very high temperatures. Its zero corresponds with 1077° of Fahrenheit's, and each degree of Wedgewood is equal to 130 of Fahrenheit. De Lisle's thermometer is used in Russia. The graduation begins at the boiling point, and increases towards the freezing point.. The boiling point is marked 0, and the freezing point 150. 18 Therefore 180° F = 100° C = 80° R = 150 D = — W, or = 62.5 ' Formulae. 1, To reduce centigrade degrees to those of Fahrenheit, multi- ply by 9 and divide by 5, and to the quotient add 32, that is, ^ + 32 = F. 5 2, To reduce Fahrenheit's degrees to centigrade, ----^— = C. Rx9 3, To reduce Reaumur's to Fahrenheit's —----\- 32 = F. F—32x4 4, To convert Fahrenheit to Reaumur,--------= R. 5, To reduce De Lisle's degrees under the boiling point, we have 212----— = F. To reduce those above the boiling point, 212+»i.6= F. 0 6, And, inversely, to reduce Fahrenheit's degrees to De Lisle's, , , •,. • j. 1060—Fx5 ^ , , , ... under the boiling point-----=----= — D; above the boiling point Fx5--1060= B 6 7, To reduce Wedgewood's degrees to those of Fahrenheit. W x 130 + 1077 = F, or, according to Guyton Morveaiu F—517.579 w --------— = W. 62.5 ' F—1077 8, Inversely, to reduce Fahrenheit to Wedgewood,--------=W. parts of snow and muriat of soda, sink the mercury to 0, whilst two of snow and one of the salt, carry it 5° lower. The present range of 180° between the freezing and boiling points, is a very convenient one for the regular d^ision of the scale; and it will also facilitate the reduction of the various scales to each other. I have several times adapted this scale to thermometer tubes, and cannot but wish it was in general use. I shall take the liberty to call it the American Thermometer. MISCELLANEOUS. ^Cr* Mr. Gray, of London, in his Supplement to the Pharmaco- poeia, has embodied a vast collection of" matter, which is more or less connected with the Materia Medica. It has been thought ad- visable to extract from it considerably, as it may prove useful to a numerous class of readers. " Stuffed animals for specimens.—The animal being carefully embowelled, the opening for that purpose being made in some place that will be out of sight, as, for example, under the wings of birds, gashes cut in the remaining flesh, and the brain extracted by a wire; the whole of the inside is washed with a ley of common soda, then dried with tow, and afterwards the inside is done over, by means of a brush, with Becoeur's arsenical soap, which is prepared by melting thirty-two ounces of soap in a little water, adding twelve ounces of salt of tartar, and four ounces of quicklime, then mixing with these thirty-two ounces of white arsenic, and five ounces of camphor pre- viously rubbed down with a little spirit of wine; more water is then added to form the whole into a thin gruel: this illinition drives away insects. Larger animals are usually merely skinned: the internal cavity is then filled with tow, shred tobacco, straw, or this powder: Tobacco and powder of black pepper, of each, one pound; flowers of sulphur, and sal prunellae, of each, eight ounces; burnt alum, four ounces; to which may be added an ounce of corrosive subli- mate. Animals have also been preserved by embowelling and keep- ing them for some time in a solution of corrosive sublimate, then hanging them up to dry in the air, and simply stuffing them with tow, which has been dipped in the same solution. Fish are some- times skinned, the skin is then drawn over a mould made of clay, or plaster of Paris, and varnished with spirit varnish. False eyes are made for these specimens, by dropping some black sealing wax upon a piece of card, cut a little larger than the size of the natural eye. For large eye6, common glazier's putty may be used, and when dry, painted of any required colour. Baking is not only use- ful in fresh specimens, but it should be a constant practice to bake them over again once in two or three years, and to have the cases washed with camphorated spirit of wine, or a solution of corrosive sublimate. Insects for specimens.—The hard-shelled winged insects to be pinned through the left wing, so that the pin may pass just under the first pair of feet: other insects to be pinned through the thorax. As their feet and antennae generally fold under them, pin them at first upon a slice of cork, pull out the feet and antennae very care- fully, with a small pair of forceps, and fix them in a proper position 708 Miscellaneous. with pins for two or three days, after which they will retain their situation: if they are already stiff, breathing upon them for a few minutes will relax the muscles. For the sending of them to any distance, stick them in boxes about four inches deep, the top and bottom of which are lined with cork, or soft wax spread between paper, about one-eighth of an inch thick, fixed to the box with glue and small tacks; into each box put a small bag of powdered cam- phire, or a sponge impregnated with oil of cajeput, or any other strong scented oil. The larger insects must not be put in these boxes, along with small ones, lest they should get loose and break the others during the carriage. Spiders are best kept in spirit of wine, by pinning them to a skewer of soft wood stuck into the cork of a wide mouth phial, so as to keep it in the middle; but if they are desired to be kept along with other insects in boxes or drawers, then procure a glass tube, seven or eight inches long, and three-fourths of an inch in diameter, open at both ends, with a- cork fitted to one end; as also a splinter of wood sharp at both ends, and so long, that one end may be stuck into the cork, and the other may reach to the middle of the tube. When you catch a spider, pin it through the thorax, put the legs in the right position with pins, as above; cut off the abdomen with scissors and stick it on the splinter of wood, put it into the tube, and hold this over the flame of a candle, turning it constantly, till the abdomen appears dry and round, then let it cool in the tube, and when cold, cut it off, and fasten it again to the thorax with gum water thickened with starch. Caterpillars may be preserved iii a similar way, by being dried over the fire or candle in a tube; a slit being made by which the inside may be pressed out, and the skin, by means of a blow-pipe, blown up to its proper size again. Almond cake. Amygdalae placenta.-^-Left after the expression of the oil. Ground almond cake, almond powder. Farina amygdalarum.—■ Used instead of soap for washing the hands. Almond paste.—Almonds blanched four ounces, lemon juice two ounces, oil of almonds three ounces, water one ounce, proof spirit six ounces. 2. Bitter almonds blanched one pound, white of four eggs, rose water, S. V. R. ana a sufficient quantity. » Brown almond paste.—Bitter almonds blanched, pulp of raisins, ana one pound, proof spirit a sufficient quantity: cosmetic, softens the skin and prevents chaps. Almond paste. Pastaregia, P. amygdalina—Amygd. dulc. decort. one pound, amygd. amar, decort. half an ounce, sugar one pound, aq. flor. aurant. a sufficient qyantity; beat to a paste, sufficiently stiff not to stick to the fingers. Tasteless ague Drop.—White arsenic one grain, water one ounce; dissolve: dose a tea-spoonful night and morning; used in the fen countries by private practitioners. Aquatoffana. Italian poison—White arsenic, prepared kali of Miscellaneous. 709 each equal parts, aqua cymbalariae q. p.; used by the Italians in se- cret poisoning, produces phthisis. Anti-attrition.—Hog's lard ten pounds, camph. four ounces, black lead, sufficient quantity to colour it; used to rub on iron to prevent rust, and diminish friction. Frankfort Black.—Charcoal made of the lees of wine and vine twigs; used to make printer's ink. Noir d'Espagne.—Charcoal made of cork burnt in close vessels; used as a colour inhabiting. Ivory black. Ebur ustum.—From ivory shavings burned; used as a dentifrice and a paint; rare, bone black being sold for it. Bone black. Ebur ustum vulgare.—The. residuum left in the iron still, after the distillation of bone; is usually sold under the name of ivory black, and for the same purposes, but especially for making blacking for shoes, &c. Lamp black. Fuligo lampadum.—Originally made by suspending a copper basin over a lamp having a long smoking wick; but now by burning the chips of resinous deals, made from old fir trees in tents, to the inside of which it adheres. The lighter it is the more it is esteemed; used as a paint. Bistre.—From wood soot, by pulverization, decoction with water, straining the decoction and evaporation, as in making extracts; an excellent brown water colour, superior to Indian ink for drawings, when they are not intended to, be tinted with other colours. Bleaching liquid, Eau deJavelle. Aqua alkalina oxymuriatica.— Common salt two pounds, manganese one pound, water two pounds, put into a retort, and add gradually oil of vitriol two pounds: pass the vapour through a solution of prepared kali four ounces in twenty- nine ounces water, applying heat towards the last. Specific gravity is 1.087. Stimulant, antisyphilitic; used to bleach linen and take out spots, and to clear books from what has been scribbled on their margins. Bronzing liquor.—Is blue vitriol dissolved in water; used to bronze tea-urns, &c. the surface being previously well cleansed. HUP8 Balsamof Honey.—Bals. Tolu one pound, honey one pound, S. V. R. one gallon. 2. Bals. Tolu opt. two ounces, gum. styrac. two drachms, opii pur. half a drachm, mell. opt. eight ounces, S. V. R. two pints: pec- toral, used in coughs and colds. Fordfs Balsam of Horehound.—Horehound, liquorice root, ana three pounds eight ounces, water a sufficient quantity to strain six pints; infuse, to the infusion add proof spirit or brandy twelve pints; camphire one ounce and two drachms, opium pur. benjamin ana one ounce, dried squills two ounces, oil of anise seed one ounce, honey three pounds and eight ounces. Baleman's Pectoral Drops.—Sem. fcenic. dulc. two pounds and eight ounces, sem. anisi one pound, proof spirit four gallons, water a sufficient quantity; distil ten gallons, to which add opium seven ounces and four drachms, camphor six ounces, kali, pp. one ounce, coral rubr. four ounces. 2. Castor N. A. two ounces, opium, ol. anisi ana one ounce and four drachms, camph. eight ounces, sem. fcenic. dulc. two ounces, 710 Miscellaneous. tinct antim. four ounces, proof spirit ten pints, add rad. valerian and cochineal in powder. 3. Castor, camph. ana four ounces, coccin. one ounce, S. V. R. two gallons, water one gallon. 4. Opii, camph. ana one pound, castor, ol. anisi, santal. rubr. ana four ounces, treacle ten pounds, S. V. R. five gallons, water four gallons. 5. Opii, camph. ana ten drachms, coccin. one drachm, kali ppt. four scruples, ol. foenic. dulc. one drachm (or seeds three ounces,) proof spirit fourteen pints, water two pints: produces fifteen pints. 6. Castor one ounce, ol. anisi one drachm, camph. five drachms, coccin. one drachm and a half, opii six drachms, proof spirit one gallon. Friar's Balsam, Vervain's Balsam, Wade's Drops, Jesuit's Drops, the Commander's Balsam, Wound Balsam, Balsam for cuts, fyc. Balsamum Traumaticum, Tinctura Benzoes Composita, Tinctura Benzoini Composita.—Benz. three ounces, stor. colati two ounces, bals. Tolu one ounce, aloes Socotr. half an ounce, S. V. R. two pounds. 2. T. Benzoin Composita.—Benz. three ounces, bals. Peru, two ounces, al. hepat. half an ounce; S. V. R. two pounds by weight. 3. Benz. seventeen pounds, stor. col. twelve ounces, bals. Tolu eight ounces, gum. guaiaci one pound, aloes Cap. olibani, tereb. Venet. ana eight ounces, pulv. curcum. one ounce, S. V. R. two gallons, water four gallons. 4. Benz. three ounces, al. Socotr. half an ounce, S. V. R. thirty- two ounces; digest for two days, then add bals. Peru, two ounces. 5. Benz. eight ounces, gum. stor., gum. guaiaci (parv.) ana six ounces, bals. Tolu, aloes ana two ounces, bals. Peru, one ounce, S. V. R. one gallon. Blacking paste.—Rape oil three ounces, oil of vitriol three ounces; mix: the next day add treacle, ivory black, ana three pounds, stone blue six ounces, vinegar a sufficient quantity to form a stiff paste: this will fill one dozen tin boxes. 2. Rape oil three ounces, treacle, brown sugar, ana nine ounces; mix, add ivory black three pounds, flour paste two pounds; when the paste is quite smooth, thin it to the consistence of honey, with a sufficient quantity of vinegar: used for making blacking for leather. Blacking balls.—Adep. pore, cersefl. ana one ounce, ebor. usti, fulig. lamp., sacch. rubr. ana eight ounces, double glue size, four ounces, water four ounces. 2. Ebor. usti eight ounces, gum. tragac. one ounce, sacchr. candi two ounces, water, eight ounces: used for blacking leather. Black Ball.—Bees' wax eight ounces, tallow one ounce, gum Arab, one ounce, lamp black a sufficient quantity. Furniture Balls.—01. lini. one pint, rad. anchusse two ounces, heat together, strain, add cerae fl. eighteen ounces, resinae fl. two ounces. Bougies.—Catgut, of different thickness, dipped in emplastr. hy- drargyri, and rolled smooth upon a slab. 2. Pieces of old linen about a foot long, wide at one end, and ta- pering to the other, dipped in empl. hydrargyri, empl. saponis, or Miscellaneous. 711 diachyl. simpl. and rolled up while the plaster is yet warm, upon a heated slab. 5. Elastic gum Bougies.—Catgut dipped repeatedly in a solution of elastic gum or Indian rubber, in ether or naphtha, until a suffi- cient thickness of gum is deposited upon the catgut. Elastic gum Catheters.—A bougie, made of fine catgut very thickly coated with wax, bent to the proper curve, is dipped repeat- edly in the ethereal solution of elastic gum, until a sufficient thick- ness of gum is deposited upvon the bougie, it is then dried perfectly in a warm room or stove; and finally boiled in water to melt out the wax and allow the catgut to be withdrawn. • 2. A wire bent to the proper curve is wrapped round spirally, the turns overlapping each other, with a thin ribband of elastic gum, whose surface has been softened by dipping in boiling water, or still better in ether, or in a solution of camphire in spirit of nitre to which some spirit of wine has been added; over this is wound a silk ribband, - and over that another worni of packthread to bind down the whole: when the gum is judged to be dry enough, the packthread and rib- band are removed, the catheter dipped for a moment in boiling wa- ter to expand it, and allow the wire to be withdrawn, and one or two holes are then made at .the close end. 3. A fine tissue of silk is wove upon a wire properly bent; and the wire thus clothed is dipped in the ethereal solution of elastic gum, and treated as in the first method; when properly covered and dried, the wire is withdrawn, and the aperture at tne closed end made. Coal tar.—Distilled from fossil coals; used as a coarse cheap var- nish, and, when rectified by a fresh distillation with water, sold for oil of amber. Charcoal. Carbo ligni.—Varies in its qualities according to the wood from which it is prepared: that of the soft woods, as the wil- low, alder, &c. well burned, is best for crayons, for making gun- powder, and for clarifying liquids; that of the harder woods is used for fuel, or for'a support for substances exposed to the flame of a blowpipe: the charcoal of the chesnut is employed by the smiths in the south of Europe, on account of its slow consumption when not urged by the blast of the bellows, and of the fire deadening imme- diately upon the blast being stopped. The charcoal of the holly, if the bark be left on, is believed to render iron brittle when worked by a fire made of it. Charcoal powder is used as a tooth-powder, and in poultices to correct fetid ulcers: that of the areca nut is the most fashionable dentifrice, but is no otherwise preferable to any other soft charcoal. English coffee.—Wheat, barley, holly berries, acorns, succory root, seeds of gooseberries and currants left in making wine, and washed, and even sliced turnips have been used as substitutes for foreign coffee, and roasted with the addition of a little butter or oil; but they want the agreeable aroma of the foreign: the best substitute is said to be the seeds of the yellow water flag, gladiolus luteus, or iris pseudacorus, which is frequently found by the sides of pieces of water. Carmine. Carminum, Purpura vegetabilis.—Boil one ounce of 712 Miscellaneous. cochineal, finely powdered, in twelve or fourteen pounds of rain or distilled water, in a tinned copper vessel for three minutes, then add twenty-five grains of alum, and continue the boiling for two minutes longer, and let it cool, draw off the clear liquor as soon as it is only blood warm, very carefully, into shallow vessels, and put them by, laying a sheet of paper over them to keep out the dust, for a couple of days, by which time the carmine will have settled. In case the carmine does not separate properly, a few drops of a solu- tion of tin, i. e. dyers' spirit, or of a solution of green vitriol, will throw it down immediately: the water being then drawn off, the car- mine is dfied in a warm stove. The first coarse sediment serves to make Florence lake; the water drawn off is liquid rouge. 2. Boil one pound of cochineal powdered, and six drachms of alum, in forty pounds of water, strain the decoction, add half an ounce of dyers' spirit, and after the carmine has settled, decant the liquid and dry the carmine: this process yields about one and a half ounces; used as a paint for the ladies, and also by miniature painters. Brown red. Colcothar vitrioli, Oxidum ferri rubrum.—By recal- cining green vitriol, (previously calcined to whiteness,) by an intense heat until it becomes very red, and washing the residuum. Prussian blue. Coeruleum Berolinense.— Red argol and saltpetre, of each two pounds; throw the powder by degrees into a red hot crucible: dry bullock's blood over the fire, and mix three pounds of this dry blood with the prepared salt, and calcine it in a crucible till it no longer emits a flame; then dissolve six pounds of common alum in twenty-six pounds of water, and strain the solution; dis- solve also two ounces and a half of dried green vitriol, in two pounds of water, and strain while hot; mix the two solutions to- gether while boiling hot; dissolve the alkaline salt, calcined with blood, in twenty-seven pounds of water, and filter through paper supported upon linen; mix this with the other solution, and strain through linen: put the sediment left upon the linen, while moist, into an earthen pan, and add one pound and a half of spirit of salt; stir the mass, and when the effervescence is over, dilute with plenty of water, and strain again: lastly, dry the sediment. 2. Mix one pound of kali praeparatum with two pounds of dried blood, or any dry animal substance; put itinto a high crucible, or long pot, and keep it in a red heat till it no longer flames or smokes; then take out a small portion, dissolve it in water, and observe its colour and effects upon a solution of silver in aqua fortis; for, when suffici- ently calcined, it will neither look yellowish, nor precipitate silver of a brownish or blackish colour: it is then to be taken out of the fire, and when cool dissolved in a pint and a half of water. Take green vitriol one part, common alum one to three parts; mix, and dissolve them in a good quantity of v/ater, by boiling, and filter while hot; precipitate this solution by adding a sufficient quan- tity of the solution of prepared alkali, and filter. The precipitate will be the darker the less alum is added, but at the same time it will be greener from the greater admixture of the oxyd of iron which is precipitated, and which must be got rid of by adding, Miscellaneous. 718 while moist, spirit of salt, diluting the mixture with water, and straining. 3. Precipitate a solution of green vitriol with the solution of pre- pared alkali, and purify the precipitate with spirit of salt; precipi- tate a solution of common alum with a solution of kali praeparatum: mix the two sediments together while diffused in warm water, strain and dry. Flake white. Cerussa vera, Plumbi carbonas, plumbi sub-carbonas, plumbi oxidum album.—Made by suspending rolls of thin sheet lead over vinegar in close vessels, the evaporation from the vinegar being kept up by the vessels being placed in a heap of dung, or a steam bath. 2. By dissolving litharge in dilute nitrous acid, and adding pre- pared chalk to the solution; astringent, cooling; used externally; also employed as paint, mixed with nut oil. Patent yellow.—Common salt, one hundred weight, litharge four hundred weight, ground together with Avater, kept for some time in a gentle heat, water being added to supply the loss by evaporation, the natron then washed out with more water, and the white resi- duum heated till it acquires a fine yellow colour; used as a paint, instead of King's yellow, is not so bright, but does not injure the health of the painters so much as that poisonous colour. Naples yellow.—Lead one pound and a half, crude antimony one pound, alum and common salt of each one ounce, calcined together. Passeri. *£. Flake white twelve ounces, diaphoretip antimony two ounces, calcined alum half an ounce,, sal ammoniac one ounce; calcine in a covered crucible, with a moderate heat, for three hours, so that at the end of that it may be barely red hot: with a larger proportion of diaphoretic antimony and sal ammoniac, it verges to a gold colour. Fougeroux. Scheele's green.—■Precipitate a solution of two pounds of blue vitriol, in a sufficient quantity of water, by a solution of eleven ounces of white arsenic, and two pounds of kali ppm. in two gallons of boiling water, and wash the precipitate: used as a paint. Verditer blue. Azurum cinereum.—Made by the refiners from the solution of copper obtained in precipitating silver from nitric acid by heating it in copper pans; this solution they heat, and pour upon whiting moistened with water; stirring the mixture every day till the liquor loses its colour, when it is poured off, and a fresh por- tion of the solution poured on, until the proper colour is obtained: an uncertain process, the colour sometimes turning out a dirty green, instead of a fine blue. Powder gold. Aurum sophisticum.—Verdigrise eight ounces, tutty four ounces, borax, nitre, of each two ounces, corrosive subli- mate two drachms, made into a paste with oil, and melted together; used in japan work as a gold colour. True Gold Powder. Aurum Pulveratum.—Grain gold one ounce, quicksilver nearly boiling six ounces; rub together; then either dis- til off the quicksilver, or corrode it away with spirit of nitre, and heat the black powder that is left red hot. 2. Grain gold one ounce; dissolve in a mixture of spirit of nitre 91 714 Miscellaneous* sixteen ounces, with common salt four ounces; add to the clear solu- tion green vitriol four ounces, dissolved in water; wash the precipi- tate and heat it red hot. 3. Dissolve gold in aqua regia, and draw off the acid by distilla- tion; used in painting, gilding, &c. Purple precipitate, Cassius' purple. Prsecipitatum Cassii.—Solu- tion of gold in aqua regia one ounce, distilled water one pound and a half; hang slips of tin in the liquid; 2. By precipitating the diluted solution of gold by dyers' spirit: used to communicate a purple colour to glass when melted in an open vessel; in a close vessel the glass receives no colour. Zaffre. Saffra.— Is a mixture of one part of roasted cobalt, ground with two or three parts of very pure quartzose sand; is either in a cake, or reduced to powder; used as a blue colour for painting glass. Smalt, Powder blue. Smalta, Azurum.—Is made from roasted co- balt, melted with twice or thrice its weight of sand, and an equal weight of potash: the glass is poured out into cold water, ground to powder, washed over and sorted by its fineness, and the richness of its colour: used in painting and in getting up linen. French Verdigris.—Blue vitriol twenty-four ounces, dissolved in a sufficient quantity of water; sugar of lead thirty ounces and a half, also dissolved in water; mix the solutions, filter, and crystal- lize by evaporation: yields about ten ounces of crystals; a superior paint to common verdigris, and certainly ought to be used in medi- cine, instead of the common. Whiting.—Prepared from the soft variety of chalk, by diffusion in water, letting the water settle for two hours, that the impurities and coarser particles may subside, then drawing off the still milky water, letting it deposite the finer sediment, decanting the water when clear, and drying the sediment; is much finer than the com mon prepared chalk of the apothecaries, but is principally used as a cheap white paint. Parker's.cement.—Is made from the indurated marie called clay balls, or the waxen vein found in the London clay strata, by calcin- ing and then grinding them, without any admixture whatever: used as a cement, and also for coating the outside of houses. Ultramarine blue. Cceruleum ultramontanum.—Lapis lazuli one pound is heated to redness, quenched in water, and ground to a fine powder; to this is added yellow rosin six ounces; turpentine, bees' wax, linseed oil, of each two ounces; previously melted together. and the whole made into a mass; this is kneaded in successive por- tions of warm water, which it colours blue, and from whence it is deposited by standing, and sorted according to its qualities; a fine blue colour in oil. Marking ink.—Lunar caustic two drachms, distilled water six ounces; dissolve and add gum water two drachms: dissolve also natron ppm. half an ounce in water four ounces, and add gum water half an ounce: wet the linen where you intend to write with this last solution, dry it, and then write upon it with the first liquor. using a clean pen. Miscellaneous. 715 Greek water.—Is prepared and used in the same manner, for turning the hair black. Green sympathetic ink.—Saturate spirit of salt or aqua regia with zaffre or cobalt ore, free from iron, and dilute with distilled water; what is drawn upon paper with this liquor will appear green when it is warm, and lose its colour again when cold, unless it has been heated too much. Blue sympathetic ink.—Dissolve cobalt or zaffre in spirit of nitre, precipitate by kali ppm. wash the precipitate, and dissolve it in dis- tilled vinegar, avoiding an excess of the acid: to be used in the same manner as the last. Dyers' spirit. Composition for scarlet dye.—Is a solution of tin in spirit of salt or aqua regia: the proper manner of making it is not determined, every workman having his own way. Spirit of nitre ten ounces, sal ammoniac one ounce, tin one ounce three-eighths is a good proportion for its preparation in a small way; used in dyeing scarlet, and in making many vegetable red colours. Liquid rouge.—The liquid left in the preparation of carmine. Almond bloom.—Brazil dust one ounce, water three pints; boil, strain; add of isinglass six drachms, grana sylvestria two ounces, (or cochineal two drachms,) alum one ounce, borax three drachms; boil again and strain through a fine cloth: used as liquid cosmetics. Pink dye.—Tie safflower in a bag and wash it in water till it no longer colours the water, then dry it; of this take two drachms, salt of tartar eighteen grains, spirit of wine seven drachms, digest for two hours, add two ounces of distilled water, digest for two hours more, and add a sufficient quantity of distilled vinegar or lemon juice, to reduce it to a fine rose colour: used as a cosmetic, and to make French rouge. Saxon blue, Scot's liquid blue.—Indigo one pound, oil of vitriol four pounds; dissolve, by keeping the bottle in boiling water, then add twelve pounds of water, or q. p. Wash colours for maps or writing. Laccafluida. Yellow.—Gam- boge, dissolved in water, a sufficient quantity. French berries steeped in water, the liquor strained, and gum arabic added. 2. Red'—Brazil dust steeped in vinegar and alum added. Litmus dissolved in water, and spirit of wine added. Cochineal steeped in water, strained, and gum added. 3. Blue.—Saxon blue diluted with water q. p. Litmus rendered blue by adding distilled vinegar to its solution. 4. Green.—Distilled verdigris dissolved in water, and gum added. Sap green dissolved in water and alum added. Litmus rendered green by adding kali ppm. to its solution. Nankeen dye.—Arnotto, prepared kali, of each equal parts, boiled in water: the proportion of kali is altered as the colour is required to be deeper or lighter; used to restore the colour of faded nankeen clothing. Black ink. Atramentum.—Galls in sorts two pounds, logwood, o-reen vitriol, of each one pound, water eight pounds, gum arabic q. p. very good* 716 Miscellaneous. 2. Bruised galls one pound, green vitriol eight ounces, gum arabic four ounces, water two gallons, for common sale. Colours for show bottles. Yellow.— Dissolve iron in spirit of salt and dilute. 2. Red.—Spirit of hartshorn q. p. dilute with water and tinge with cochineal. Dissolve sal ammoniac in water and tinge with cochineal. 3. Blue.—'Blue vitriol, alum, ana two ounces, water two pounds, spirit of vitriol a sufficient quantity. Blue vitriol four ounces, water three pounds. 4. Green.—Rough verdigris three ounces; dissolve in spirit of vitriol, and add four pounds of water. Add distilled verdigris and blue vitriol to a strong decoction of turmeric. 5. Purple.—Verdigris two drachms, spirit of hartshorn four ounces, water one pound and a half. Sugar of lead one ounce, cochineal one scruple, water q. p. Add a little spirit of hartshorn to an infusion of logwood. Boot-top liquid.—Sour milk three pounds, oil of vitriol two ounces, compound tincture of lavender, three ounces, gum arabic one ounce, lemon juice two ounces, 'white of two eggs. M. 2. Sour milk three pounds, spirit of salt, spirit of vitriol, ana two ounces, compound tincture of lavender one ounce. M. 3. Sour milk three pints, butter of antimony, cream of tartar ana two ounces, citric acid, burnt alum, common alum, ana one ounce. Blacking.—Lamp black six pounds, sugar six pounds, dissolved in two pounds of water, sperm oil one pound, gum arabic three ounces, dissolved in two pounds of vinegar, vinegar three gallons, oil of vitriol one pound and a half. Mix s. a. 2. Ivory black, common treacle ana twelve ounces, sperm oil, oil of vitriol ana three ounces, vinegar 4 pints. Mix. 3. Ivory black, treacle ana two pounds* neats-foot oil eight ounces, oil of vitriol one ounce, gum tragacanth two ounces, vinegar six pints. Mix. . ^' 4. Ivory black six pounds, vinegar, water, ana two gallons, trea- cle eight pounds, oil of vitriol one pound. 5. Ivory black one ounce, small beer or water one pound, brown sugar,v-gum arabic, ana half an ounce, or, if required toJ)e very shining the white of an egg. 6. Ivory black four ounces, treacle eight ounces, vinegar, one pound: used to black leather. Milk of roses.—Kali pp. six grains, ol. amygd. one ounce, ess. .Bergm. two drachms, aquae rosae three ounces, aq. flor. aurant. two drachms. M. 2. Jordan almonds eight ounces, oil of almonds, Castile soap, white wax, ana half an ounce, spermaceti two drachms, ol. lavand. Angl. half a drachm, rose water three pounds, S. V. R. one pound. M. 3. Bitter almonds eight ounces, distilled water six ounces, elder- flower water four ounces, make an emulsion, and add ol. tart. p. deliq. three ounces, tinct benz. two drachms. M. Used as a cos- metic wasb. Miscellaneous. 717 Gowland's lotion—Bitter almonds one ounce, sugar two ounces, distilled water two pounds; grind together, strain, and add corros. sublim. two scruples, previously ground with S. V. R. two drachms: used as a wash in obstinate eruptions. Indian ink. Indicum, atrantenlum Indicum.—The best kind is made of real lamp black, procured by burning oil under shades, mixed up with glue made of an ass's skin, to which is added a little musk: astringent, one or two drachms dissolved in water or wine, in hemorrhage; also stomachic. 2. The common sort is common lamp black from the fir, made up with glue. 3. Horse beans burnt perfectly black, ground fine, and made up into sticks with gum water: is very inferior to the others. 4. Honey one pound, yelk of eggs no. 2, gum afab. half an ounce, lamp black a sufficient quantity: beat into a mass. Lump archel. Lacmus tinctorius.—Prepared from Canary archelj ground archel, and some other lichens, by reducing them to powder, adding half as much pearl ashes, and moistening the whole with urine or common spirit of hartshorn; a small proportion of lime is then added, and the archel cut into cubes and dried. Litmus. Lacmus tinctorinus albo-coeruleus.—Prepared like the former, adding a large proportion of whiting at the end, which ren- ders it of a light blue colour. Cudbear.—Another preparation of the lichens, made in a similar manner. All are used in dyeing violet colours, which, however, do: not stand well; also employed by the chemists as very delicate tests for acids, the infusion or tincture being reddened by them. ijEJorence lake. Lacca Florentina.—Pearl ashes one ounce four boil- ing water as easily as true arrow root: 100 pounds of potatoes yield ten pounds of starch. Oxymuriat of Potash. Potassae oxymurias.—-Mix common salt three pounds, manganese two pounds, and add oil of vitriol two pounds, previously diluted with a sufficient quantity of water; distil into a receiver containing prepared kali six ounces, dissolved in water three pounds: when the distillation is finished, evaporate the liquid in the receiver slowly in the dark, the oxymuriat will crys- tallize first in flakes: stimulant* from one to two grains; explodes when struck, or dropped into acids. Salt of Sorrel. Sal acetosellae verus.—From the leaves of wood sorrel, bruised and expressed, the juice is then left to settle, poured off clear, and crystallized by slow evaporation: one hundred weight of wood sorrel yields five or six ounces. 2. By dropping aqua kali into a saturated solution of oxalic acid in water, when it precipitates, and may be separated by filtration: if too much alkali is added, it is taken up, and will require an ad- dition of the acid to throw it down again: cooling; used to make lemonade and whey, as^also salt of lemons. Essence of anchovies.—Anchovies two to four pounds and a half, pulp through a fine hair sieve; boil the bones with seven ounces of common salt in six pounds of water; strain, add seven ounces ot flour, and the pulp of the fish; boil, pass the whole through the sieve, colour with Venetian red to your fancy; it should produce one gallon. Quin's sauce.—Soy eight pounds, walnut katchup, mushroom katchup, ana two gallons, anchovies eight pounds, Cayenne pepper eight ounces, garlic one pound. 2. Distilled vinegar one gallon, soy one pound, allspice eight ounces. 95 730 Miscellaneous. (Soj/.—-Seeds of dolichos soja, (peas or kidney beans may be used for them,) one gallon, boil till soft, add one gallon of bruised wheat, keep in a warm place for twenty-four hours, then add one gallon ol common salt, two gallons of water; put the whole in a stone jar, bung it up for two or three months, snaking it very frequently, press out the liquor: the residuum may be treated afresh with water and salt, for soy of an inferior quality. 2. Seeds or beans thirty-five pounds, stew in a little water for two or three hours, till they can be bruised between the fingers; drain on a sieve, roll them while moist in flour of the same seeds, spread them upon strainers placed one upon another in a hamper, cover with a blanket for three or four days, or till the seeds are quite mouldy, then expose them to the sun or a fire until they are so hard that the mouldy crust may be rubbed off; now pour upon them one hundred pounds of water, and add twenty pounds of common salt; let the whole stand in a warm place for six weeks, pour off the now brown liquor, and evaporate gently to a proper consistence: some add spice. Tomatoe sauce.—Love apples q. p. stew them in a little water and pulp them through a sieve, then add common salt an equal weight, and one-fourth of allspice whole; boil and bottle. Katchup.—Mushrooms, common salt, ana four pounds, sprinkle the salt over them; when the juice is drawn out add eight ounces of pimento, and one ounce of cloves; boil for a short time, and press out the liquor: what remains may be treated again with salt and water for an inferior kind. Walnut katchup.—Green shells of walnuts one bushel, common salt six pounds; let them remain for two or three days, stirring them occasionally that the air may turn them black, press out the liquor, add spices to the palate of the country, and boil it. Are all used for sauces. Smith's British Lavender.—01. lavand. Angl. two ounces, essence ambergr. one ounce, eau de luce one pint, S. V. R. two pints. Eaton's Styptic. Tinctura Styptica.—Green vitriol calcined one drachm, proof spirit, tinged yellow with a little oak bark, two pounds. 2. Galls, crocus Martis ana four dunces, proof spirit one gallon. Syrup of Maidenhair. Sirop de Capillaire. Syrupus capillorum Veneris, Capill. Veneris five ounces, rad. glycyrrh. two ounces, boiling water six pounds; steep for six hours, strain, add white su- gar three pounds. 2. Syr. Pectoralis.—Fol. trichomanis sice, five ounces, rad. gly- cyrrh. four ounces, boiling water five pounds, sugar a sufficient quantity. 3. White sugar twenty-four pounds, water sixteen pints, boil nearly to a syrup, clarify with white of three eggs, scum, and finish the boiling, adding, while warm, aq. naphae one pint. ,, 4. Gum. tragacanth. three ounces, water two gallons; boil, strain, and make it up three gallons; add white sugar twenty-four pounds. clarify with the white of five eggs, and then add aq. flor. aurant. two pints and a half. Miscellaneous. 731 5. Capill. Veneris one ounce, water six pints; steep, strain, add white sugar eight pounds, boil to a syrup, adding, when cold, aq. flor. aurant. two ounces. 6. Lump sugar eight pounds, water one gallon; boil, scum, and clarify with the white of an egg, when nearly cold add rose water one pint, put it up in very dry warm bottles; it may be coloured with brandy colouring if desired: nutritive, restorative, an elegant addition to pump water in summer time. ^ Syrup of Lemon Juice. Syrupus e succo limonum, Syr. succilimo- nis, Syr. limonis.—Juice, rendered clear by settling and subsequent filtering one pint, white sugar two pounds. 2. Syr. citri Medicae.—Juice rendered clear as before, three pounds, sugar five pounds: cooling, expectorant, pleasanter than oxymel. Sirop d'Orgeat. Syrupus amygdalinus, Syr. hordeatus.—Amygd. dulc. one pound, amygd. amar. two drachms; make an emulsion by adding decoct, hord. two pounds; strain, to the strained liquor ten ounces, add sacch. alb. one pound and a half, and when the sugar fs dissolved, aq. flor. aurant. one drachm. 2. New almonds eight ounces, bitter almonds four ounces, rub with a little water into an emulsion, strain, rub what is left upon the strainer afresh, with the emulsion, to make it as rich as possible, add white sugar three pounds, orange flower water two ounces, spirit of lemon peel six drachms; strain through flannel, and put up into bottles: cooling, demulcent. Syrup of Black Currants. Syrupus e ribis nigris.—As syrup of lemon juice: cooling. Ratifia des cerises.—Morello cherries with their kernels bruised eight pounds, proof spirit eight pints; digest for a month, strain with expression, add sugar one pound eight ounces. Ratifia de Grenoble.—Small wild black cherries with their ker- nels bruised twelve pounds, proof spirit six gallons: digest for a month, strain, add sugar twelve pounds, a little citron peel may be added at pleasure. Ratifia de noyaux.—Peach or apricock kernels with their shells, bruised, no. 120, proof spirit four pints, sugar ten ounces: some re- duce S. V. R. to proof, with the juice of apricocks or peaches, to make this liqueur. Cephalic snuff. Pulvis cephalicus.—Fol. asari, fol. majoran., fol. lil. convall. ana p. aeq. 2 P. asari comp. P. D.—Fol. sice, asari one ounce, flor. lavand. two drachms. Silvering powder.—Silver dust from fifteen to twenty grains, cream of tartar, common salt ana two drachms, alum half a drachm. 2. Silver dust half an ounce, common salt, sal ammoniac ana two ounces, corros. sublimate one drachm; make into a paste with water: used to silver copper, which is to be cleaned by boiling with argol and alum, then rub it with either of these powders, and polish with soft leather. Currie powder—Sem. coriandri thirteen ounces, pip. nigri two ounces, pip. Cayenne one ounce, rad. curcumae, sem. cumini ana three ounces, sem. foenugr. four drachms. 732 Miscellaneous. 2. Zz., pimentae, rad. curcumae ana one pound, caryoph. arom. one ounce, pip. Cayenne, sem. coriandri ana eight ounces. 3. Sem. coriandri thirteen ounces, pip. nigri five ounces, pip. Cayenne one ounce, sem fcenugr., sem. cymini ana three ounces, rad. curcumae six ounces. 4. Sem. coriandri one pound, rad. curcumae eight ounces, zz. six ounces, sem. cumini. pip. Indie, ana four ounces, pip. nigri three ounces, cinnam., sem. cardam. min. ana one ounce, tamarind. nigr. two pounds. 5. Rice thirty-six pounds, rad. curcumae 181b. sem. coriand. sixteen pounds, sem. cymini nine pounds, farinae sinapis fourteen pounds, pip. nig. twenty eight pounds, pip. Cayenne three pounds eight ounces. 6. Sem. coriand., rad. curcumae ana four pounds, zz., pimentae, pip. Cayenne, capsici bacc. ana one pound, sem. cardam. min. four ounces, niacis. caryoph. arom., cinnam. ana one ounce. Used as a seasoning to meat. Cheltenham salts.—Glauber's salt, Epsom salt, common salt ana twenty-eight pounds; dry in an oven and powder: purgative, from six drachms to one ounce and a half. Scouring drops.—01. tereb. scented with ess. limon. White wash balls.—One pound sap. alb. Hisp. three pints of aq. rosar. album, ovor. no. ij, one ounce aq. kali ppi.; boil till hard again, add one scruple ol. lign. rhod. ten drops ol. caryoph. one drachm ess. jasmin, half drachm of ess. neroli, and form into squares. 2. Five pounds of white soap, four ounces of rad. irid. Flor. three ounces amyli, one ounce styrac calam. aq. rosar. q. s. 3. One pound of sap. alb. Hisp. almonds blanched, beat up into a paste with rose water and orange flower water three ounces, one ounce magister. marcasitae, two drachms of kali ppi. six grains of musk, three grains of civet, one scruple ol. lign. rhodii, one drachm of ess. jasmin. 4. Cream balls—Seven pounds of white curd soap, one pound amyli, water, a sufficient quantity; beat it together, weigh into ounce balls, and roll in pulv. amyli. 5. White soap, starch ana one pound, ess. limon. four drachms, aq. rosar. eight ounces; make into balls of three ounces and a half each. Red mottled wash balls—Cut white soap into small square pieces, roll them in vermilion, and squeeze the pieces together into balls, without mixing thein more than is necessary. Blue mottled wash balls.—In like manner, rolling the pieces in powder blue. Windsor soap.—Hard curd soap, melted and scented with ol. carui and ess. Bergamotte; an inferior sort is made with ol. carui only. Starkey's soap—Made by rubbing warm kali ppd. with oil of tur- pentine, adding a little water. Macquer's acid soap. Sapo vitriolicus—Four ounces Sapon. Ven. ol. vitrioli, q. s. add the acid by degrees to the soap rendered soft by a little water, continually rubbing the mass in a mortar: deter gent; used when alkalies would be prejudicial. Miscellaneous. 733 Sponge tents.—Turundse intumescentes.—Soft sponge is dipped in melted wax, and squeezed in a press while warm, when cold it is taken out, and cut into the required form; used to dilate fistulous ulcers by its expanding force when softened by warmth and moisture. Tutenag.—Bismuth one pound, tin two pounds; melt together: used for buttons and vessels. Greenough's Tincture for the Teeth.—Amygd. amar. two ounces, lign. Bras., bacc. cass. ana four drachms, irisFlorent. two drachms, coccin., sal. acetosel. ver., alumin. ana one drachm, S. V. R. two pints, spir. cochlear, four drachms.. Ruspini's Tincture for the Teeth.'—Rad. irid. Flor. eight ounces, caryoph. arom. one ounce, S. V. R. two pints, ess. ambr. gris. one ounce. Tooth Powder. Pulvis dentifricus.—Rad. irid. Flor. four ounces, oss. sepiae, two ounces, crem. tart, one ounce, ol. caryoph. sixteen drops, lake 16 drops. 2. Catechu one ounce, cort. Peruv. flav., crem. tart., cassiae, bol. Armen. ana four drachms, sang, dracon., rayrrhae ana two drachms. 3. Rose pink twenty ounces, bol. Armen., oss. sepiae, crem. tart. ana eight ounces, myrrh, four ounces, rad. irid. Flor. two ounces, ess. Bergam. half a drachm. 4. Oss. sepiae four ounces, crem. tart. rad. irid. Flor. ana two ounces, alum, usti, rose pink ana one ounce. 5. Magnesiae, rad. irid. Flor., rose pink, cretae ppas. ana two ounces, natr. ppi. six drachms, ol. rhodii two drops. Varnishes.—Common Varnish.—Sandarac eight ounces, tereb. Venet. six ounces, S. V. R. two pints. Transparent Varnish.—Gum, Juniper eight ounces, tereb. Venet. four ounces, mastic two ounces, S. V.. R. two pints; used upon wood. White Varnish.—Gum. Junip. one pound, Strasburgh turpentine six ounces, S. V. R. two pints: used upon paper, wood, and linen. White hard Varnish.—Mastich four ounces, gum. juniper., ter. Venet. ana three ounces, pounded glass (to prevent the gums from forming an impenetrable mass) four ounces, S. V. R. two pints: used upon cards, sheaths. Wliite Polishing Varnish.—Mastich in tears two ounces, gum. juniper, eight ounces, gum. elemi one Ounce, tereb. Argent, four ounces, S. V. R. two pints: used upon metal, polished with pumice powder. Transparent Copal Varnish.—Spirit of wine, fully charged with camphor, four ounces, copal in fine powder one ounce: dissolve, filter, add the filtered liquor to S. V. R. one pint, in which gum. elemi one ounce has been previously dissolved. 2. S. V. R. one pint, camphire half an ounce: dissolve, pour it upon copal in small pieces four ounces; heat it so that the bubbles that rise up may be counted, when cold, pour it off, and add more spirit to the residuum: used for pictures. 3. Copal, melted and poured into water three ounces, gum. san- darac. six ounces, mastich three ounces, tereb. Argent, two ounces and an half, pounded glass four ounces. S. V. R. two pints: used for metals, chairs. Sue. 734 Miscellaneous. Soft brilliant Varnish.—Gum. sandarac. six ounces, gum. elemi four ounces, gum. anime one ounce, camphor four drachms, S. V. R. two pints: used upon wood works, pasteboard. Reddish Varnish.—Gum. sandarac eight ounces, lacca in tabulis two ounces, resina nigr. four ounces, tereb. Venet. six ounces, S. V. R. two pints: used upon wood and metals. Lacquer.—Seed lac, dragon's blood, arnotto, gamboge ana four ounces, saffron one ounce, S. V. R. ten pints. 2. Turmeric one pound, arnotto two ounces, shell lac, gum juni- per ana twelve ounces, S. V. R. twelve ounces. 3. Seed lac three ounces, amber, gamboge ana two ounces, watery extract of red saunders half a drachm, dragon's blood one drachm, saffron half a drachm, S. V. R. two pints four ounces. 4. Turmeric six drachms, saffron fifteen grains, S. V. R. one pint four ounces: draw ihe tincture, add gamboge six drachms, gum. sandarac, gum. elemi ana two ounces, dragon's blood, seed lac ana one ounce: used upon metals and wood to give a golden colour. Red Varnish.—Sandarac four ounces, seed lac two ounces; mas- tich, choice benjamin ana one ounce, turpentine two ounces, S. V. R. two pints: used for violins and cabinet work. Furniture varnish.—White wax eight ounces, ol. terebinth, one pint. Picture varnish.—-Mastich twelve ounces, Ven. turp. two ounces, four drachms; camphire thirty grains, pounded glass four ounces, oil of turpentine three pints and a half; pour off the clear: used to oil paintings. Gold varnish for leather.—Turmeric, gamboge ana one scruple and an half, oil of turpentine two pints, add seed lac, gum sandarac ana four ounces, dragon's blood four drachms, Ven. turp. two ounces, pounded glass four ounces, pour off the clear. Copal varnish.—Oil of turpentine, thickened by keeping, eight ounces, copal two ounces and a half. 2. Oil of turpentine six ounces, oil of lavender two ounces, copal one ounce. Transparent japan for tin ware.—Oil of turpentine eight ounces, oil of lavender six ounces, copal two ounces, camphire one drachm. Drying oil.—Linseed oil two pints, litharge or ceruss one ounce; dissolve with heat: added to paints to make them dry the sooner. Le Blond's varnish for prints.—Balsam, copaibae four pounds, copal in powder one pound; add by single ounces every day to the balsam, keeping it in a warm place, or the sun, stirring it often: when all is dissolved, add Chio turpentine q. p. Sheldrake's copal varnish.—01. terebinth, rectif. veri one pint, spir. sal. amm. two ounces; mix, add copal in small pieces two ounces: stop the vessel with a cork cut in grooves, bring it quickly to boil so that the bubbles may be counted as they rise, and keep it at that heat: if the least stoppage or overheating takes place, it is in vain to proceed, then leave the vessel till quite cold before you open it, otherwise the varnish will be blown out with violence. Varnish for coloured drawings.—Canada balsam one ounce, oil of turpentine two ounces: size the drawing first with a jelly of isinglass, and when dry, apply the varnish, which will make them resemble oil paintings. Miscellaneous. 735 Common turpentine varnish.—Resin, flav. three pounds eight ounces; ol. tereb. one gallon. Sheldrake's oil for painting.—Nut or poppy oil one pint; boil, add ceruss two ounces, when dissolved, add a pint of his copal varnish, previously warmed, and stir till the oil of turpentine is evaporated: gives more brightness than common drying oil, but less than varnish only; loses its drying quality in time, therefore only so much as is sufficient for a month or six weeks' consumption should be made at once. Black Japan for leather.—Boiled linseed oil one gallon, burnt umber eight ounces, asphaltum three ounces, boil and add ol. tere- binth, q. s. Varnish for grates. Brunswick black.-—Asphalt, comm. four pounds; melt, add ol. lini two pounds, ol terebinth, one gallon. Norfolk fluid for preserving leather.—Linseed oil three pints, res. flav. four ounces, thuris two ounces, cer. flav. twelve ounces; melt, add neat's foot oil two pints, ol. terebinth, one pint: used to pre- serve and soften leather. Varnish for plaster casts.—Sapon. alb., cerae albae ana half an ounce, boiling water, two pints. Dressing for leather to render it water proof.—01. lini one pound, cerae. fl., tereb. comm. ana two ounces, picis Burg, one ounce. 2. 01. lini one pound, sevi eight ounces, cerae fl. six ounces, re- sinae fl. one ounce. Artificial Spa water.—Prepared natron seven grains, magnesia alba one scruple, iron filing three grains, common salt one grain, water three pounds, and impregnate it with the gas from marble powder and oil of vitriol ana ten scruples, sufficiently diluted with water. Artificial Pyrmont water.—Epsom salt fifteen grains, common salt five grains, magnesia alba ten grains; iron filings five grains, water three pounds, and impregnate it with the gas from marble powder and oil of vitriol ana seven drachms. Artificial Seltzer water.—Common salt one drachm, magnesia alba one scruple, natron ppm. fifteen grains, chalk seven grains, water three pounds, and impregnate with the gas from marble powder and oil of vitriol ana six drachms. Artificial Harrowgate water —Common salt five drachms, water three pounds, and impregnate it With the gas from liver of sulphur and oil of vitriol ana four drachms. Artificial Cheltenham water.—Epsom salt twelve grains, iron filings one grain, Glauber's salt four drachms, water four gallons, and impregnate with the gas from marble powder and oil of vitriol ana two ounces. Ward's White drops.—Quicksilver twelve ounces, spir, nitre two pounds; dissolve, add ammonia ppa. fourteen ounces, evaporate so as to form a light salt, which drain and dissolve in rose water three pounds and a half. 2. Quicksilver four ounces, spir. nitre one pound; dissolve, add ammonia ppa. seven ounces, evaporate and crystallize, then dissolve each pound of salt in three pints and a half of rose water. Fly water.—White arsenic one drachm, water a pint; dissolve by boiling and sweeten with treacle; used to destroy flies. 736 Miscellaneous. Raisin wine.—Raisins one hundred weight, water sixteen gallons; soak for a fortnight, stirring every day, press, put the liquor in a cask with the bung loose till it has done hissing, then add four pounds of brandy, and bung up close: some use little more than half, or two-thirds of this quantity of raisins. Gooseberry wine.—Ripe berries bruised ten gallons, water thirty gallons, soak twenty-four hours, strain; to each gallon add two pounds of sugar, and ferment. 2. Bruised berries eighty pounds, water ten gallons, soak for a day, strain; to each gallon add six pounds of loaf sugar, and fer- ment. 3. Juice ten gallons, water twenty gallons, sugar seventy pounds; ferment. 4. Berries one hundred pounds, brown sugar six pounds, water a sufficient quantity to fill a fifteen gallon cask; yields a good yellow- ish white, very transparent wine. 5. Green berries forty pounds, water four gallons, bruise together, the next day press out the juice; to every gallon add three pounds of sugar: ferment. Currant wine.—Red currants seventy pounds, bruised and press- ed, brown sugar ten pounds, water a sufficient quantity to fill up a fifteen gallon cask; yields a pleasant red wine, rather tart, but keep- ing well. 2. White currants one sieve, red currants one gallon, press; to each gallon of juice add three gallons of water; to ten gallons of liquor add thirty pounds of sugar, and ferment: when you bung it up, add two pounds of brandy to each ten gallons of wine. 3. Juice eleven quarts, i. e. the produce of a sieve, sugar twenty pounds, water a sufficient quantity to fill up a nine gallon cask; fer- ment, and when it has done working, add four pounds of brandy: for a half hogshead use three sieves of currants, sugar three-fourths of a hundred weight, brandy one gallon. Black currant wine.—Berries twenty pounds, brandy two to four pounds, water twelve to fourteen gallons, yeast two spoonsful, fer mented for eight days, then bottled and well corked; yields a plea- sant, rather vinous cooling liquor of a purple colour; or they may be made into wine like the common currants: by the first process the wine is dark purple, rather thick, but good. Mixed fruit wine.—White currants three sieves, red gooseberries two sieves; these should yield forty pints of juice; to each gallon add two gallons of water, sugar three pounds and a half; ferment. 2. White, red, and blackcurrants, cherries especially black-heart, raspberries, ana p. aeq. to each four pounds of the bruised fruit add one gallon of water, steep for three days, press, and to each gallon of liquor add three pounds of yellow sugar; ferment, and when finished add to each nine gallons two pints of brandy; if it does not fine soon enough, add halt an ounce of isinglass, dissolved in a pint of water, to each nine gallons. Cherry wine.—Cherries thirty pounds, moist sugar five pounds, water a sufficient quantity to fill a seven gallon cask; ferment Parsnip wine.—May be made by cutting the root into thin slices, boiling them in water, pressing out the liquor, and fermenting it: Miscellaneous. 737 this wine, when made strong, is of a rich and excellent quality and flavour. Metheglin.—Honey one hundred weight, boiling water a sufficient quantity to fill a half hogshead or thirty-two gallon cask, stir it well for a day or two, add yeast, and ferment: some boil the honey in the water for an hour or two, but this hinders its due fermentation. Mead.—Is made from the honey combs, from which honey has been drained out, by boiling in water, and then fermenting; gene- rally confounded with metheglin. English Champaigne.—Raw sugar ten pounds, loaf sugar twelve pounds, water nine gallons, concrete acid of lemons, or crystallized acid of tartar six drachms; dissolve by a gentle boil, before it grows cold, add about one pound of yeast and ferment: when the working is nearly over, add perry one gallon, brandy three pounds, and bung it up for three months, then draw out two pounds of the wine, dis- solve one ounce of isinglass in it, pour it again into the cask, and in a fortnight bottle it: it may be coloured pink, by adding one ounce of cochineal when first bunged up. English Port.—Cider twenty-four gallons, juice of elder berries six gallons, port wine four gallons, brandy one gallon and a half, log- wood one pound, isinglass twelve ounces, dissolved in a gallon of the cider: bung it down; in two months it will be fit to bottle, but should not be drank till the next year: if a rough flavour is required, four to six ounces of alum may be added. Southampton Port.—Cider thirty-six gallons, elder wine eleven gallons, brandy five gallons, damson wine eleven gallons. M. English Madeira.—Pale malt ground four bushels, boiling water forty-four gallons, infuse, strain, of this wort, while warm, take twenty-four gallons, sugar candy fourteen pounds; when dissolved, add two pounds of yeast; ferment, keep scumming off the yeast; when the fermentation is nearly finished, add two gallons and a half of raisin wine, brandy, port wine, ana two gallons, bung it down for six or nine months. A second infusion of the wort may be brewed for beer. English Sherry.—Loaf sugar thirty-two pounds, sugar candy ten fiounds, water, sixteen gallons, boil, add pale ale wort, (as for Eng- ish Madeira,) six gallons, yeast one pound: on the third day add, ten pounds of stoned raisins, and in another two or three days one gallon of brandy; bung it down for four months, draw it off into another cask, add one gallon of brandy, and in three months bottle it. Imitations of foreign wines for those who wish to make a show above their circumstances, but far inferior to our own fruit wines. Elder wine.—Juice of the berries eight gallons, water twelve gal- lons, brown sugar sixty pounds, dissolve by boiling, add yeast, and ferment, then add four pounds of brandy, and bung it up for three months: disagreeable when cold, but is mulled with allspice, and drank warm in winter time as a stimulant. Ginger wine.—Bruised ginger twelve pounds, water ten gallons, boil for half an hour, add twenty-eight pounds of sugar, boil till dis- solved, then cool, and put the liquor along with fourteen lemons sliced, and three pounds of brandy, add a little yeast, and ferment; bung it up for three months, and then bottle it. Orange wine.—Sugar twenty-three pounds, water ten gallons; 94 738 Miscellaneous. boil, clarify with the white of six eggs, pour the boiling liquor upon the parings of one hundred oranges, add the strained juice of these oranges, and six ounces of yeast, let it work for three or four days. then strain it into a barrel, bung it up loosely; in a month add four pounds of brandy, and in three months it will be fit to drink. Wines may also be made of blackberries and other English fruits upon the same principles. The above are the methods generally em- ployed, but most persons have peculiar ways of proceeding, which may indeed be varied to infinity, and so as to produce at pleasure a sweet or dry wine; the sweet not being so thoroughly fermented as the dry. The addition of brandy destroys the proper flavour of the wine, and it is better to omit it entirely, (except for elder or port wine, whose flavour is so strong that it cannot well be injured,) and to in- crease the strength by augmenting the quantity of the raisins or su- gar. In general, the must for wines ought to be made of six pounds of raisins, or four pounds of sugar to the gallon, allowing for that contained in the fruit. London Porter.—For five barrels: malt eight bushels, a sufficient quantity of water, mash at twice, add in the boiling, hops eight to twelve pounds, treacle six pounds, liquorice root eight pounds, moist sugar sixteen pounds, one-half of which is usually made into essen- tia binae, and the other half into colour, capsicum four drachms, Spanish liquorice two ounces, linseed one ounce, cinnamon two drachms, heading two drachms; cool, add one to two gallons of yeast; when it has got a good head, cleanse it with three ounces ot ginger, cocculus Indicus one ounce; then barrel and finish the working; fine with isinglass. The public brewers use a mixture of pale amber, and brown malt, but amber alone is best for private fa- milies. Six pounds of sugar is esteemed equal in strength, and one pound of coriander seed in intoxicating power, to a bushel of malt: the su- gar employed is burnt to colour the beer instead of brown malt, and it has been proposed to employ roasted coffee for this purpose, the other substances are merely to flavour the liquor, and may be varied at pleasure. The desire of evading the duty on malt has occasioned the dis covery of its being necessary to malt only one-third of the corn, as this portion will convert the other into its own nature during the process. Ginger Beer.—Three pounds of lump sugar, two ounces bruised ginger, one ounce cream of tartar, lemons sliced no. 4, pour on them four gallons of boiling water, add eight ounces of yeast, work for four days, then bottle in half pints, and tie the corks down. 2. Six pounds of moist sugar, five ounces of ginger, two ounces cream of tartar, lemons no. 4, eight ounces of yeast, seven gallons of water, work two or three days, strain, add one pound of brandy. bung very close, and in fourteen days bottle it: a cooling efferves- cent drink in summer. White Spritce Beer.—To ten gallons of water, put six pounds of sugar, four ounces of essence of spruce, add yeast, work as in mak- ing ginger beer, and bottle immediately in half pints. Miscellaneous. 739 Brown Spruce Beer—As the white, using treacle in lieu of su- gar. The purer kinds of the above liquors are mixtures of spirit of wine, Water, and extractive matter; the spirit may be separated by care- ful distillation, or, if the extractive matter be first got rid of by the addition of extractum Saturni and filtration, the spirit may be sepa- rated by adding very pure and dry kali ppm. when it will swim upon the liquor: the spirit constitutes from twelve to twenty-five per cent, of the proper wines, and from two to eight per cent, of the malt liquors. The fermentation of these liquors is usually hastened by the ad- dition of yeast, crude tartar or bruised vine leaves, but this is sel- dom necessary for wines if the liquor be kept in a proper warmth, but malt liquors are more sluggish. If the fermentation is in danger of proceeding too far, it may be stopped by drawing off the liquor clear into another vessel, in which some brimstone has been newly burned, or in the case of red wine, some nutmeg powder upon a hot shovel, or which has been washed with brandy; the sediment left in the old cask may be strained through flannel or paper till clear, and added to the other: instead of this a part only may be drawn out of the cask, and some rags dipped in melted brimstone and lighted may be held by a pair of tongs in the bung-hole, slightly covered so as to impregnate the li- quor with the fumes, about one ounce of brimstone to a hogshead, then returning what had been drawn out, and bunging up very close; or a small quantity of oil of vitriol may be poured in: lastly, the ad- dition of black manganese has been proposed On theoretical grounds. If the fermentation has already proceeded too far, and tlie liquor become sour, the further fermentation must be stopped as above, and some lumps of chalk, or burned oyster shells added to saturate the acid already generated. If the liquors do not become clear soon enough, for each thirty- six gallons, dissolve one ounce of isinglass in two pounds of water, strain and mix this with part of the liquor; beat it up to a froth and pour it into the rest of the liquor, stir the whole well and bung it up: instead of isinglass some use hartshorn shavings in rather larger quantity: red wines are fined with twelve eggs to the pipe, beaten up to a froth, mixed with the wine and well stirred in. If the liquor has acquired a bad flavour, the best way is to let the fermentation go on, and convert it at once into vinegar. Escubac. Usquebaug.—Saffron one ounce, juniper berries four drachms, dates without their kernels, raisins ana three ounces, ju- jebs six ounces, anise seed, mace, cloves, coriander seed ana one drachm, cinnam. two drachms, proof spirit twelve pints, simple gyrup six pounds: pectoral, emmenagogue. Chreme des Barbades.—Orange peels, lemon peels ana no, 3, cin- namon four ounces, inace two drachms, cloves one drachm, rum eighteen pints: distil in B. M. and add sugar p. aeq. Chreme des Barbades. English.— Lemons sliced no. 24, citrons sliced no. 6, S. V. R. two gallons four pints, fresh baulm leaves eight ounces, water three gallons four pints: digest for a fortnight. strain. 740 Miscellaneous. Cedrat.—Lemon peels no. 12, S. V. R. two gallons: distil in B. M. and add simple syrup p. aeq. Parfait amour.—The same, coloured with a little cochineal. Brandy shrub.—Brandy nine pints, lemon juice, orange juice ana one pint, orange peels no. 4, lemon peels no. 2, sugar two pounds, water five pints. Rum shrub.—The same, using rum instead of brandy. 2. Concrete acid of lemons eight ounces, water five gallons, raisin wine four gallons, rum ten gallons, orange flower water four pints, honey six pounds. Chreme de Noyaux. English.—Bitter almonds blanched four Ounces, proof spirit two pints, sugar one pound. Chreme d'Orange. English.—Oranges sliced no. 36, S. V. R. two gallons, sugar eighteen pounds, water four gallons four pints, tinc- ture of saffron one ounce four drachms, orange flower water four pints: digest for a fortnight, strain. All the above liqueurs are stimulant, and taken ad libitum for pleasure. Worm cakes.—Scamm. Alep. two ounces, calomel ppd. three ounces, res. jalapii two ounces, crem. tartari four ounces, white su- gar three pounds, mucil. g. trag. a sufficient quantity. 2. Storeyfs worm cakes.—Calomel, jalap, ana one drachm, ginger two scruples, sacch. one ounce, cinnabar antim. a sufficient quantity to colour them, syr. simp, a sufficient quantity to make into cakes. 3. Ching's yellow worm lozenges.—Saffron four drachms, water one pint; boil, strain, add one pound of calomel, white sugar twen- ty-eight pounds, muc. g. trag. a sufficient quantity: each lozenge snoufd contain one grain of calomel. 4. Ching's brown worm lozenges.—Calomel seven ounces, extr. jalapii resinos. three pounds eight ounces, white sugar nine pounds, muc. g. trag. a sufficient quantity: each lozenge should contain half a grain of calomel. 5. Calomel one ounce, res. jalap, two ounces, white sugar two pounds, muc. g. tragac. made with rose water, a sufficient quantity: make 2520 lozenges, weighing eight grains, and containing one- fourth of a grain of calomel, and half a grain of res. jalap, each. Earl of Warwick's powder. Pulvis comitis Warwicensis.—Scam- monii two ounces, antimonii diaph. one ounce, crem. tartari half an ounce. Red sealing wax.—Gum lac two pounds, vermilion four ounces, ol. tereb., ol. oliv. ana eight ounces, roll in cakes, and polish with a rag till quite cold. 2. Shell lac five pounds, resinae fl. three pounds, ol. tereb. one pound, vermilion twelve ounces, chalk ppd. four ounces. 3. Resinae fl. six pounds, shell lac two pounds, tereb. Venet. twd pounds, vermilion eight ounces. 4. Shell lac, resinae fl. ana four pounds, tereb. Ven. one pound, add vermilion or bole Armen. ppd. q. p. Black Sealing Wax.—As the red, using lampblack instead of vermilion. Seal Engraver's Cement.—Common rosin and brick dust; it grows harder every time it is melted, but always remains inferior to Bota- ny Bay cement. Miscellaneous. 741 Botany Bay Cement___Yellow gum and brick dust ana p. aeq.; used to cement China ware. Gilder's Wax—Cerae fl. one pound and eight ounces, aerug. aeris, vitrioli albi ana eight ounces, colcothar. two pounds and twelve ounces; the dry species must be powdered very fine; borac. four ounces may be added. 2. Cerae fl. fifteen pounds, colcothar. seven pounds, aerug. seris, vitrioli albi ana three pounds and eight ounces, boracis eight ounces. 3. Cerae fl., colcothar. ana four pounds, aerug. aeris two pounds, borac. usti, alum, usti ana two ounces. 4. Colcothar. eighteen pounds, cerae fl. ten pounds and eight" ounces, aerug. seris, vitrioli albi ana three pounds and eight ounces. Young's purging drink___Crystallized natron two and a half drachms, crystals of tartar three drachms, water eight ounces, corked up immediately in stone bottles and wired; a pleasant cool- ing laxative in summer TOXICOLOGICAL TABLES, In which are exhibited at one view, the Symptoms, Treatment, and modes of Detecting the Various POISONS, MINERAL, VEGETABLE, AND ANIMAL; ACCORDING TO THE LATEST EXPERIMENTS AND OBSERVATIONS. BY A MEMBER OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS IN LONDON. MINERAL POISONS. POISONS. SYMPTOMS. An austere taste, fetid breath, ptyalism, constriction of the pharynx and oesopha- g tilvpr is reduced to its metallic state. Muriat, Used by Dyers. Oxyd, or Putty Poivder. I poison; after which mucilaginous drinks may be given, or purgatives may be administered. Taste austere, metallic, constriction of the throat, vomitings with pain over the whole abdomen; copious stools, pulse small, hard, and frequent; convulsive movements of the extremities and face; sometimes paralytic, and mostly death. ZINC. Sulphat, or White Vitriol. Oxyd. An acerb taste, a sensation of choaking, nausea and vomiting,pain in the stomach, frequent stoolSjdifncult breathing.quick- ened pulse, paleness of face, coldness of the extremities; but seldom death, owing to the emetic quality of the poison. Milk to be given; first in large quantities to distend the stomach and produce vomiting, and afterwards to decompose the remains of the poison. Vomiting, which is the usual consequence of large doses of sulphat of zinc, to be rendered easy by draughts of warm water, and particular symptoms to lie met by appropriate remedies. and potash, the silver is reduced to its metallic state. The Muriat precipitates gold from its solution of a purple colour; it is itself precipitated of a bright yellow colour, by strong tea or alcoholic infusion of galls. Albumen and gelatin occasions a copious flocculent precipitate. .... . • •. The oxyd may be volatilized by heat, is soluble in nitric acid, com- bines with earths by fusion, and with fixed alkalies forms enamel; it is easily reduced by calcination. The pure sulphat is precipitated white by potash and ammonia; yellowish white by the alkaline hydro-sulphurets, and of an orange colour bv the ehromat of lead. . , The oxyd is readily reduced by calcination with charcoal and nitre. Pi © P3 OX MINERAL POISONS. -J ti- er. POISONS. Super-Acetat, or Sugar of Lead. RedOxyd,ox Red Lead. Carbonat, or White Lead. IVines sweetened by Lead. SYMPTOMS. When taken in large quantity, a sugary astringent metallic taste; constriction of the throat, pain in the region of the sto- mach, obstinate,painful, and often bloody voniitings,hiccup,convulsions,and death. When taken in small long-continued doses, it produces colica pictonum, and paralytic symptoms. TREATMENT. The same as that recommended for the of barytes.— Vide Alkaline Earths. All the preparations of lead are easily reduced to the metallic state by calcination with charcoal. The super-acetate dissolved in water is precipitated white by sul- phuric acid; of a canary yellow colour by ehromat of potash and chromic acid; these precipitates being easily reduced by calcination. The alkaline sulphurets precipitate the supei-acetat of lead of a blackish colour. ©" IS PS 3 55- MERCURY. Oxy-Muriat, or Sublimate. Nitric Oxyd, or Red Precipitate. Sulphuret, or Vermilion, Acrid metallic taste, thirst;fulness,and burning at the throat; anxiety, tearing pains of the stomach and bowels; nausea and vomiting of various coloured fluids, sometimes bloody; diarrhoea and dysuria. Pulse quick, small and hard; faintings, great debility, difficult breathing, cramp, cold sweats, insensibilitv,convulsions,and death. Whites of eggs to be mixed with water, and one to be given every two or three minutes to promote vomiting, and to lessen the virulence of the poison. Milk in large quantities, gum wa- ter, orlinseed tea, sugar and Water, or wat±r it- self at about 80°. Inflammatory consequences to be anticipated, and to be subdued by the usual remedies. Mercurial preparations heated to redness in a glass tube with po- tash, are decomposed, the quicksilver being volatilized. The oxy- muriat is precipitated white by ammonia, yellow by potash, and of an orange colour by lime water; by nitrat of tin a copious dark brown precipitate is formed, and by albumen mixed with cold wa- ter, a wnite flocculent one. The red and nitric oxyds may be dissolved in muriatic acid, and converted into sublimate. . . Vermilion is insoluble in water or muriatic acid; but is cntirwv volatilized by heat. MINERAL POISONS. POISONS. ACIDS. Sulphuric, or Oil of Vitriol. Nitric, or Aqua Fortis. Muriatic, or Spirit of Salt. Oxalic, or Acid of Sugar. Phosphoric. Fluoric. Tartaric. Prussic. SYMPTOMS. Acrid burning taste, acute pain in the throat, stomach, and bowels, frequent vo- miting of bloody fluid, which effervesces with chalk or alkaline carbonats, and red- dens litmus paper; hiccup, copious stools, more or less bloody; tenderness of the abdomen; difficult breathing, irregular pulse, excessive thirst, drink increasing the pain, and seldom staying down; fre- quent but vain efforts to make water; cold'sweats, altered countenance, convul- sions, and death. The most virulent of poisons, producing almost instant death, when applied even in small quantities to the surface of the body. TREATMENT. Mix an ounce of calcined magnesia with a quart of water, and give a glassful every two minutes. Soap or chalk and water may be used till magnesia can be procured. Carbonated al- kalies are objectionable, on account of the great extrication of gas in the stomach, and the salts formed with them are too irritating for the sto- mach. Vomiting is to be excited by tickling the throat. Diluents to be taken after the poison ii got rid of. and the return to solid food must be very gradual. Inflammatory and other conse- quences to be treated by the usual remedies. If the vitriolic acid has been swallowed, water alone should not be given, nor should calcined magnesia with waterbe given; but the common carbonat of magnesia may be given freely when mixed with water. There is too much heat gene- rated in the stomach if the above cautions be not attended to. If jrussic acid has been taken, emetics are to be given with as little delay as possible, and after their operation oil of turpentine, ammonia, brandy, and other stimulants capable of rousing the system, should be persevenngly employed with warmth, friction, and blisters. Sulphuric acid is known by its great weight, by evolving heat when mixed with water; by emitting no fumes. If barytes be added to it a sulphat is formed, which is insoluble in water or nitric acid. Nitric acid emits orange coloured fumes upon adding copper to it, and is changed blue by it; if potash be added a nitrat is formed which deflagrates when thrown on burning coals. It tinges the skin yellow. Muriatic acid emits pungent fumes; if nitrat of silver be added to it, a very white precipitate is formed of muriat of silver, soluble in ammonia, but not in nitric acid. Oxalic acid precipitates lime and all its salts from water, the pre- ' cipitate being soluble in nitric, but not in excess of oxalic acid. Ex- posed to heat it volatilizes, leaving but little residue; it is decom- posed by sulphuric acid becoming brown; it is dissolved by heat and nitric acid, and rendered yelldw; muriatic acid dissolves it with heat and decomposes it. Phosphoric acid precipitates barytes and lime waters, the precipi- tate being soluble in nitric acid; it is decomposed by charcoal at a high temperature, evolving carbonic acid and phosphorus being sublimed. Fluoric acid exhales white vapours, not unlike those of muriatic acid; heat is evolved with a hissing noise when water is added to it; it dissolves glass. Tartaric acid produces a precipitate from lime water, soluble in an excess of acid, and in nitric also; with potash it forms a neutral and a super-salt; it does not precipitate solution of silver, but its salts do. Prussic acid has a strong odour of bitter almonds, and is contained in that fruit, and in the leaves of the peach and the laurel; it is soluble in alcohol, but hardly in water, and is precipitated from its solution by nitrat of silver. 3 pi © Pi a 5> ■>4 MINERAL POISONS. ALKALIES. Caustic or Carbonated. Potash. Soda. Ammonia. ALKALINE EARTHS. Lime. Pure Barytes. Carbonat. Muriat. Nitre, or Salt Petre. SYMPTOMS. The taste acrid, urinous, and caustic; great heat in the throat; nausea and vo- miting of bloody matter, which changes syrup of violets to green, and effervesces with acids if the carbonated form of the alkali has been taki n; copious stools, acute pain of the stomach, colic, convul- sions, derangement, and death. Violent vomitings, convulsions, palsy of the limbs, distressing pains in the abdo- men, hiccup, alteration of the counte- nance, and very early death. Cardialgia, nausea, painful vomiting, E urging, convulsions, syncope, pulse ft e- le, extremities cold, with tearing pains of the stomach and bow els; difficult respira- tion, a kind of intoxication, and death. TREATMENT. Vinegar largely,to quent syni cipl and other vegetable acids to be given neutralize the poison, and the con.se- ptoms to be treated on general prin- ---------------------------------^ Alkalies have many properties in common; their solutions feel soapy to the touch; change to green, vegetable reds and blues, and yellows to brown; remain transparent when carbonic acid is added to them, which distinguishes them from solutions of the alka- line earths, barytes, strontian and lime. Nitrat of silver is precipi- tated by them in form of a dark coloured oxyd, soluble in nitric acid. Potash and soda may be distinguished from each other by evapo- rating their solutions to dryness; potash will become moist by ab- sorbing water from the air, while soda will remain dry. Ammonia is known by its pungent smell. If lime has been taken, vinegar and other ve- getable acids are the best antidotes. If baiytes in any of its forms has been swal- lowed, a weak solution of Epsom or Glauber's salt should be drank plentifully, to produce vo- miting, and at the same time to decompos- the poison, which it renders inert by forming an insoluble sulphat. Till the above salts can be had, large draughts of well water alone, or made slightly sour by sulphuric acid, may be drank pretty freely. Similar to that of arsenic, except that lime is npt to be used. Solution of lime changes vegetable blues to green, and is preci- pitated white by carbonic and oxalic acid, while no change is pro- duced on it by sulphuric acid; its salts are decomposed by ihrjixed alkalies which precipitate the lime,but not by ammonia. Pure barytes undergoes changes similar to lime when water is added to it, and acts like it on veg. tabl' colours; it does not effer- vesce with acids. Sulphuric acid, and all the sulphats added to a solution of it, produce a white precipitate, insoluble in water and nitric acid. Carbonat of barytes is insoluble in water, but dissolves in nitric or muriatic acid, with eff rvesceuee. Muriat of barytes dissolved in water, is not changed by pure am- monia, but its carbonat. as well as all other alkaline carbonats, throw down a white precipitate, which is carbonat of barytes. If the nitre be thrown on bunting coals, it crackles, and gives a beautiful white name; if powdered, and sulphuric acid be poured upon it, it gives out white vapours; both these circumstances di>- tinguish it from Glauber's salt. It is decomposed at a high tempera- ture, affording oxygen gas. 00 CT 9. Pi o ©* Pi s o MINERAL POISONS. POISONS. SYMPTOMS. TREATMENT. TESTS. Muriat Of Ammonia, or Sal Ammoniac. Excessive vomitings, with convulsions and general stiffness of the muscles, great pain in the bowels, early alteration of the features, and death. Vomiting to be rendered easy by large draughts of warm sugared water,and if not oc-casioned by the poison, should be excited by the finger. The consequent nervous symptoms to be calmed by anodynes and antispasmodics, and inflammatory ones counteracted by the usual means. Muriat of ammonia is soon volatilized if placed on hot coals; if rubbed with quick lime, it gives out the odour of hartshorn. A solu-tion of it in water is precipitated white upon the addition of nitrat of silver. Phosphorus. Occasions symptoms similar to those of concentrated acids. . No specific antidote is known, but vomiting should be excited by large draughts of water, and oil or fatty substances should be avoided. If phosphonis, or the rejected contents of the stomach, after it has been taken, be boiled in a retort, having its beak under water, with a solution of caustic potash, phosphureted hydrogen gas is formed, which explodes with a green flame as soon as it reaches the surface of the water. Glass or Enamel. I f taken in very coarse powder, it pro-duces irritation and inflammation of the bowels. Large quantities of crumb of bread should be eaten to envelope the particles. An emetic of sulphat of zinc should then be given, and vo-miting promoted by demulcent drinks. ALCOHOL. Into\ication,and when taken very free-ly, complete insensibility, with apoplexy or paralysis of one side; the countenance A powerful emetic of white vitriol, or tartar emetiCj should be got into the stomach as soon as possible, and if the person has lost the power Brandy. Wines, and all spirituous Liquors. is swollen, and of a dark red colour; the , of swallowing, a flexible catheter or tube should breathing is difficult, and often steitorous, j be the means of conveying it there. The vomit-with a peculiar puffing outof the lips; the | ing should be encouraged as much as possible breath smells of liquors, which will distill- with warm water, and large and active glysters guish the symptoms from those of sponta- of salt and water should he thrown up. The pa-neous apoplexy. tient should be placed erect, and if the counte-nance and other appearances are not improved after these means have been use d, the jugular vein may he opei.ed,and cold wet cloths applied j to the head, particularly if the body is hotter than natural. If the extremities become cold, warmth and friction should be perseveringly used. s3 . Pi © Pi ©* VEGETABLE POISONS. All the Vegetables marked thus * are Natives of Great Britain. © IRRITATING POISONS. "Aconitum napellus . . •AnemonePulsatilla . . "Arum maculatum . . Bryonia dioira . . . Callicocca ipecacuanha •Chelidonium majus ~ . "Clematis vitalba . . . •Colchicum autumnale . Convolvulus scammonia Cucumis colocynthis "Daphne mezereum . . "Daphne laureola . . . Delphinium staphisagia Euphorbia officinarum Fritillaria imperialis Gratiola officinalis . . "Hydrocotile vulgaris . "Helleborus niger . . . *Hallvborusftrtidus . . Lobelia syphilitica . Momordica eiaterium * Narcissus pseudo-narcissus "fEnanthe crocata . . *Ph< llandriuni aquaticum "Pedicularis palustris . "Ranunculus aeris . . *-----------scelcratus *-----------Jlammula Rhododendron cry sant he Rhus toxicodendron Ricinus major.... "Sedum acre .... •Sernpervivum tectorum Scilla maritima . . . Stalagmitis cambogoides Veratrum album . . . "Viola tricolor .... Monks-hood Pasque Flower Wake Robin Bryony Ipecacuanha Celandine Virgins Bower Meadow Saffron Scammony Bitter Apple Mezereon Spurge Laurel Stavesacre Euphorbium Crown Imperial Hedge Hyssop Marsh Pennywort Black Hellebore Bears Foot Savine Cardinal Flower Eiaterium Daffodil Hemlock Dropwort Water Hemlock Louse-wort Butter Cups Water Crowfoot Lesser Spear Wort Yellow Rhododendron Poison Oak Purging Nut Wall Pepper Houseleek Squill Gamboge White Hellebore Hearts Ease SYMPTOMS. The general effects ef this class of vegetable poisons, are an acrid, pungent taste, with more or less of bitterness, excessive heat,great dryness of the mouth and throat, with sense bf tightness in it; violent vomjtings, and the efforts are con- tinued even after the stomach is emptied; purg- ing, with great pain in the stomach and bowels; pulse strong, frequent, and regular; breathing often quick and difficult; appearances of intoxi- cation; the pupil of the eye frequently dilated, insensibility resembling death, the pulse be- comes slow, and loses its force, and death closes the scene. If applied externally they, many of them, produce violent inflammations of the skin, with vesications or eruptions of pustules. TREATMENT. If vomiting has been occasioned by the poison, and the efforts are still Continued, they may be rendered easier by large draughts of warm water, or thin gruel; but if symptoms of insensibility have come on without vomiting, it ought to De immediately excited by the sulphat of zinc, or some other active emetic substance, and after its operation, a sharp purgative should be given. After as much as possible of the poison is got rid of, a very strong infusion of coffee, or vine gar diluted with water, may be given with advantage. Cam- phor mixture with aether may be taken frequently, and if insensi- bility be considerable, warmth, frictions, and blisters, may be em- ployed. If inflammation or other dangerous consequences have been induced, tin y are to be treated upon general principles. The fruit of the Fewillea Cordifolia has been lately reconunendcd as a powerful antidote against vegetable poisons; it is to be used in as recent a state as possible. Pi © « Pi S5 ST" VEGETABLE POISONS. NARCOTIC POISONS. SYMPTOMS. TREATMENT. •Aristolochia rlematitia "Atropa belladonna . . "Conium maculatum "Datura stramonium . •Digitalispurpurea . . "Lolium temulentum Menispermum coculus . "Papaver somniferum . "Sol muni dulcamara . Strychnos nux vomica . Bane Berries . Fools Parsley . Birth Wort . Deadly Night Shade . Hemlock . . Thorn Apple . . Fox Glove . . Lentil . . Henbane . . Strong Scented Lettuce . . Campnor . . Common Laurel . . Daniel . . Coculus Indicus . Tobacco . Opium . Herb Paris . . Woody Night Shade . Crow Fig The narcotic vegetable poisons, if taken into the stomach, or applied to a wound,occasion the following effects:—Stupor^iumbness, heaviness in the head, desire to vomit, slight at first, but afterwards insupportable; a sort of intoxication, stupid air, pupil of the eye dilated, furious or lively delirium, sometimes pain, convulsions of different parts of the body, or palsy of the limbs. The pulse is variable,but at first generallystrong and full: the breathing is quick, and there is great anxiety and dejection,which if not speedi-ly relieved, soon ends in death. The stomach to he effectually evacuated, by giving four or five grains of tartar emetic, or from ten to twenty of the sulphat of zinc, and repeat it every quarter of an hour, till the full effect is jiroduced. These means may be assisted by tickling the throat with a feather or the finger. Large and strong glvsters of soap dissolved in water, or of salt and gruel, should be speedily administered, to clear the bowels, and assist in getting rid of the poison, and active purgatives may be given after the vomiting has ceased. When as much as possible of: the poison has been expelled, the patient may drink, alternately, a tea-cupful of strong hot infusion of coffee, and vinegar diluted with water. If the drowsiness, which is some-times extreme, and the insensibility bordering on apoplexy, be not remedied by these means, blood may be taken from the jugular vein, blisters may be applied to the neck and legs, and the attention rou-sed by every means possible. If the heat declines, warmth and fric-tions must be perseveringly used. Vegetable acids are on no account to be given before the poison is expelled, and it is desirable that but little fluid of any kind should be given. POISOI vOUS MUSHROOMS. . . . Pepper Agaric Nausea? heat, and pain in the stomach and bowelsfwith vomiting and purging; thirst, con-vulsions, and fainting*; pulse small and fre-quent; delirium, dilated pupil and stupor, cold sweats, and death. Poisonous mushrooms may be distinguished from the edible ones by their botanical charac-ters, and by the following criteria. The former grow in wet shady places, have a nauseous odour, are softer, more open, and porous; have a dirty looking surface, sometimes a gaudy colour or many very distinct hues, particularly if they have been covered with an envelope; they have soft bulbous stalks, grow rapidly, and corrupt very quickly. The stomach and bowels to be first cleared by an emetic of tarta-rized antimony, followed by frequent doses of Glauber's or Epsom salt, and large stimulating glvsters. After the poison is evacuated, anher may be administered with small quantities of bramh ami wa-ter, but if inflammatory symptoms manifest themselves, such sti- muli should be omitted, and other appropriate means had recourse . . . Champignon eS Pi © ■3. Pi ©« POISONOUS FISH. Balistes monoceros.....Old Wife Cancer astacus --.... Sea Lobster -------ruricolus.....Land Crab Clupea thrussa......Yellow Billed Sprat Coracinus/u.scu.J major - - - Gray Snapper Coracinus'minor ------ Hyne Coryphoena splendens - - - - Dolphin Mormyra --------- Blue Parrot Fish Meraena major ----./. Conger Eel Mytilus edulis - .----. Mussel Ostracion globellum ----- Bottle Fish Perca major.......Barracuda Perca venenosa ------ Grooper Perca venenata ------ Rock Fish Scomber maximus ----- King Fish Scomber thynnus ----- Bonetta Sparus chrysops ------ Porgee Tetrodon sceleratus ----- Tunny Tetrodon ocellatus ----- Blower POISONOUS SERPENTS. Coluber berus ------- viper Col uber/»wter......Black Viper Coluber nnja ") Crotalus hirridus >.....Rattlesnake Cobra de rapcllo J Coluber carinatus Gedi Paragoodoo Ratuka Kekula Poda Rodroo Pam ANIMAL POISONS. to SYMPTOMS. In an hour or two, or often in a much shorter time, after stale fish have been eaten, a weight at the stomach comes on, with slight vertigo and head-ache, with a sense of heat about the head and eyes, considerable thirst, and often an erup- tion of the skin, (urticaria.) and in many cases death has happened. A sharp pain in the wounded part, which soon extends over the limb or body; great swelling, at first hard and pale, then reddish, livid, and gan- grenous in appearance; faintings, vomitings, convulsions, and sometimes jaundice; pulse small, frequent, and irregular, breathing diffi- cult, cold sweats, the sight fails, and the intellec- tual faculties are deranged. Inflammation, and I often extensive suppuration and gangrene, fol- i lowed by death. TREATMENT. An emetic should be speedily administered, or in the absence of it, the vomiting may be excited, by tickling the throat with the finger, and taking large draughts of warm water. After full vomiting, an active purgative should be given to remove any of the noxious mat- ter that may have found its way into the intestines. Vinegar and water may be drank after the above remedies have operated, and the body may be sponged with the same. Water made very sweet with sugar, to which ather may he added, may be drank freely as a corrective, and a very weak solution of alkali has been recom- mended to obviate the effects of the poison. If spasm ensue, after evacuations, laudanum, in considerable doses, is necessary. If in- flanunation should occur, the usual means of removing it must be employed. A moderately tight ligature to be applied above the bites, and the wound left to bleed after being well washed with warm water; the actual cautery, lunar caustic, or butter of antimony, to be then ap- plied freely to it, and afterwards covered with lint, dipped in equal parts of oUve oil and spirit of hartshorn. The ligature to be remov- ed if the inflammation be considerable. Warm diluting drinks, and small doses of ammonia or hartshorn to cause perspiration; to be well covered in bed,and a little warm wine given occasionally. If fangrene be threatened, wine may be given more fretly, and the ark should be had recourse to. Arsenic, the principal ingredient in the Tanjore Pil), has been strongly recommended. ©* Pi © ©* Pi 55 ©- POISON. CANTHARIDES. Spanish, or Blistering Fly. VENOMOUS INSECTS. Tarantula Scorpio.........Scorpion Vespa rrabro.......Hornet Vespa vulgaris......Wasp Apis mellifica.......Bee Cu\k\ piJJicns ------- Gnat 5^ Oestrus bovit.......Gad Fly Ol-------------------■--------------- SALIVA OF THE RABID DOG ANIMAL POISONS. SYMPTOMS. TREATMENT. Nauseous odour of the breath, acrid taste, burning heat in the throat, stomach and belly, frequent vomitings, often bloody, with copious bloody stools; excruciating pain in tlie stomach; painful and obstinate priapism, with heat in the bladder, and strangury or retention of urine; frightful convulsions, delirium, and death. Vomiting to be excited by drinking sweet oil, sugar and water, milk, or linseed tea, very freely. Emollient glysters should be ad-ministered, and if symptoms of inflammation of the stomach, kid-ney, or bladder supervene, they must be subdued by appropriate treatment. Camphor dissolved in oil may be rubbed over the belly and on the thighs. In general the sting of these insects occasions only a slight degree of pain and swelling; but occasionally the symptoms are more violent,and sickness and fever are produced by the intensity of the pain. Hartshorn and oil may be rubbed on the affected part, and a piece of rag moistened in the same, or in salt and water, maybe kept upon it till the pain is removed. A few drops of hartshorn may Be given frequently in a little water, and a glass or two of wine may be taken. The sting may in general be removed by making strong pressure over it with the barrel of a small watch key. At an uncertain interval after the bite, gene-rally however between the twentieth day and three or four months, pain or uneasiness occurs in the bitten part, though the wound may have been long healed. Anxiety, uneasiness, languor, spasms, horror, disturbed sleep, difficult respira-tion succeed, and are soon very much increased; violent convulsions affect the whole body, hi-deously distorting the muscles of the face; the eyes are red and protruded, the tongue swells, and often hangs out, and viscid saliva flows from the mouth; there is pain in the stomach, with bilious vomitings, a horror of fluids, and impossibility of drinking them. All these symp-toms are aggravated till the sufferer is relieved by death. Hydrophobia is more easily prevented than cured, indeed it is doubtful if it ever has been cured. Mercury, arsenic, opium, musk, camphor, acids, wine, vegetable and mineral alkali, oil, various herbs, and many other remedies, whose effects are quite opposite, have been employed, but none can be relied on. Large blood-let-tings, the warm and cold bath, and almost every other remedial agent have been tried without success. The bitten part should be completely cutout, even after it has healed, if the symptoms have not yet come on; the part should then be immersed in "warm water, or washed with it as long as it will bleed, and after the most persevering ablution caustic should be ap-plied to eveiy part of the surface, and then the wound covered with a poultice, and suffered to heal by granulations. No milder discipline can ensure safety. Pi © Pi 55 ©* -J INDEX. LATIN AND ENGLISH. Page ABSORPTION 684 Absinthium 119 Abstraction 681 Acaciae Arabicse gummi 2 catechu extractum 4 Acetat of ammonia, liquid 53 of iron 301 of lead 489 of potass 505 of quicksilver 330 Acetic acid 9. 12 aromatic 14 camphorated 15 concentrated 12 impure 7 purified 7 weak 9 Acetic fermentation 691 Acetas ferri 301 hydrargyri 330 kali 505 plumbi 489 potassae 505 Acetometer 12 Acetica 13 Acetum f colchici 14.214 distillatura 9 opii AJ purificatum 7 scilla 14 vini J Acidification 688 Acida—acids 5 Acidum acetosum 7 aceticum aromaticum 14 camphoratum 15 distillatum 9 forte 12 impurum 7 scilliticum 14 tenue 9 105 132 205 413 arseniosum benzoicum citricum muriaticum dilutum 414 Page Acidum nitricum 425 nitrosum 424 dilutum 427 oxalicum 447 succini 580 sulphuricum 585 aromaticum 621 dilutum 587 prussicum 61. 251 tartaricum 511 Aconitum napellus 17 neomontanum ib- Aconite ib- Acorus calamus 18 Actea spicata 19 Adeps 20 anseris ib. bovis 21 cetaceus ib. hominis 20 ovillus 21 preparatus 20. 631 suillus 20 ursi ib- Adipocere 22 iErugo 247 preparata 248 JSsculus hippocastanum 22 iEther sulphuricus 29 rectificatus 29 cumalcohole 31 aromaticus 621 JEtherea 29 iEthiop's mineral 347 Agaric 145 Agrimonia eupatoria 23 Agrimony ib. Ague drops 708 Albumen 465 Alcohol fortius 23. 26 ammoniatum 47 aromaticum ib. foetidum 48 dilutum 25 Alder, black 513 Aletris fajinosa ^^ Alkali ib- 756 Index. Page Page Alkali, fixed vegetable 36. 495 Andromeda mariaua 64 mineral 36. 563 Anethum graveolens ib. volatile 36.43 foeniculum ib. Alkanet 63 Angelica 65 Allspice 421 tree 99 Allium cepa 38 Angustura 66 porrum 39 pseudo-ferruginea 67 sativum 37 Animals, stuffed 707 Almond 60 Anise 477 bitter ib. Anodynum specificum Paracelsi 16 bloom 715 Anodyne liquor of Hoffman 32 cake 708 Anthemis cotula 234 emulsion 404 nobilis 69 mixture ib. pyrethrum 70 milk ib. Anti-attrition 709 paste 708 Antimony 70 powder ib. crude 71 sweet 60 glass of 73 Aloe 39 cerated 74 Barbadensis 40 nit. mur. oxyd of 78 caballina 41 Antimonial powder 74 hepatica 40 wine 84 perfoliata ib. Antimonii murias 78 socotrina ib. oxydum 73 spicata ib. sulphure turn 71 vulgaris ib. praepar. 72 Althaea officinalis 43 praecip. 75 Alumen 582 Antimoniated tartar 80 sublimatum 106 sulphur, brown 75 ustum 583 orange 76 Alum 582 Antimonium tartarisatum 80 burnt 583 Antivenereal drop 334 root 322 Apium petroselinum 451 Amber 578 Apocynum androsaemifolium 85 Ammoniae, carbonas 49 Apparatus 673 murias 43 pneumatic 680 subcarbonas 49 Aqua 85 acetas liquidus 53 acetatis ammonia 53 hydrosulphuretum 54 acidi carbonici 98 Ammonia 36.43 aeris fixi 98 praeparata 49 alcalina oxymuriatica 416 Ammoniaretum cupri 248 ammoniae 45 Ammoniac, gum 56 acetatis 53 Ammoniuret of copper 248 carbonatis 51 Ammoniated alcohol 47 causticae 45 aromatic ib. diluta 47 aromatic tincture ib. aurantii corticis 97 tincture of assafoetida 48 calcis 146 Ammoniaco-nitrat of silver Ill cinnamomi 97 sulphat of copper 112 cupri ammoniati 249 Amomum cardamomum 57 distillata 88 repens ib. ex lacu ib. zedoaria 58 ferri aerati 299 zingiber 59 fluvialis 8S Amygdalae dulces et amarae 60 fontana ib. Amylum 623 fortis 430 Amyris elemifera 62 kali caustici 496 Gileadensis 63 sulphureti 510 Analysis of mineral waters 92 lythargyri acetati 490 Anchusa tinctoria 63 composita ib. Index. 757 Page Aqua magnesiae, supercarb. 99 marina 92 menthae piperitae 97 viridis ib. muriatis calcis 150 nivata 87 oxymuriatica 416 paludosa 87 picis liquidae 483 potassae 496 super-carbonat 99. 504 pluvialis 86 putealis 87 rosarum 97 sodae supercarb. 99. 567 sulphureti ammoniae 55 toffana 708 Aquae acidulae 89 chalybeatx ib. distillatae 96 medicatae 98 salinae 90 sulphure ae 89 Arabic emulsion 404 Aralia spinosa 99 nudicaulis ib. Arbutus uva ursi 629 Arctium lappa 100 Arcanum duplicatum 507 Argentum 100 nitratum 101 vivum 327 Arjstolochia serpentaria 560 Armoracia 207 Arnica montana 103 Aromatic powder 523 Arrow root 393 Arrack 25 Arsenias kali 113. 117 Arsenis potassx ib. Arsenic $05 white 106 pills of 108 preparations of 117 to detect 108 Arsenical solution 117 soap for preserving ani- mals 707 Arsenous acid 105 to detect 108 Arseniat of kali 117 Arsenicum 105 album 105. 106 Arsenite of potass 117 Artemisia abrotanum 118 absinthium 119 santonica 118 Artificial Cheltenham water 735 Harrogate water ib. Pyrmont water ib. Page Artificial Seltzer water 735 Spa water ib. musk 443 Arum maculatum *ao triphyllum ib. Asarabacca 121 Asarum canadense 122 Europaeum 121 Asclepias decumbens 122 incarnata 123 flesh coloured ib. syriaca ib. tuberosa 122 Asphaltum 144 Assafoetida 124 Atmospheric air 430 Atropium 141 Aurum 125 Avena sativa 128 Avens, common 314 Avoirdupoise weight 693 Axungia 20 Ayapana 279 Azedarach 128 Azotic gas 429 B. Balls 710. 732 Balaustine 317 Balm 398 Balsam 129 of Canada 479 of Copaiva 129 commanders' 710 for cuts ib. friars' ib. of honey 709 of sulphur 445 of Gilead 63 of Peru 130 of Tolu 131 traumatic 710 Vervain's ib. Bane berries 19 Barbadoes tar 144 Barilla 563 Barium 134 Bark, Caribsean 202 Calisaya 199 Crown or Loxa 199 heart-leaved 183. 188 lance-leaved 183. 184 oblong-leaved 183. 187 pale 184 Peruvian 183 red 187, , 200 yellow 188 Barley 325 water 263 758 Index. Page Page Barm 180 Bronzing liquor 709 Barytes 134 Brown red 712 carbonat ib. Buck bean 402 muriat 135 Buckthorn 529 solution of 138 Burdock 100 sulphat 135 Burgundy pitch 478 Bateman's pectoral drops 709 Burnt horn—hartshorn 181 Bath, hot 94 sponge 163 cold 95 Butter cups 529 tepid ib. Butternut 367 warm 94 Butterfly-weed 122 Bay-tree 375 Button snake root 276 Bears-foot 320 grease 20 C. Bear-berry 629 Beaver 169 Cabbage tree 314 Beccabunga 651 Cajeput 398 Beech-drops 446 Calamine 660 Beer 25 Calamus aromaticus 18 ginger 60. 727, . 738 Calomel 336 spruce 482. 728 . 738 Calx 145. 146 Belladonna 139 Camphor 151 Benne oil 559 emulsion 405 Bennet, herb 314 liniment 632 Benzoic acid 132 Camphorats 151 Benzoin ib. Camphoric acid ib. Bismuthum, Bismuth 142 Canada snake root 122 Bistort 494 flea bane 278 Bistre 709 Cancer root 447 Bitter apple 222 Canella 155 sweet 271 Canthariden 156 cucumber 222 Cantharides 155 Bitumen 144 vittatze 157 Blackman's oil colour cakes 719 Capsicum annuum 159 colours in bladders ib. Caraway 164 Blacking 716 Carbon 160 balls 710 Carbonas 164 paste ib. ammoniae 49 Black drop 15. 16. 447 barytae 134 Bleaching liquid 709 calcis 148 Blistering fly 155 ' praeparatus 149 Blood-root 551 ferri 298 Blue flag 367 praecipitatus ib. Blue vitriol—blue stone 250 magnesiae 387 Boletus igniarius 145 potassae 502 Bone black 709 potassae impurus 500 Bones 446 purissimus 502 Bone-set 279 sods 566 Bonplandia trifoliata 66 impurus 563 Boracic acid 571 zinci impurus 660 Borax 571 Carbonat of ammonia 49 Bougies 710 of barytes 134 elastic 711 of iron 298 Boyle's fuming liquor 56 precipitated ib. Brimstone 583 of lime 148 British lavender 730 prepared 149 oil 725 of magnesia 387 Brooklime 651 of potass 502 Broom, common 573 impure 500 rape, Virginia 447 of soda 566 Index. 759 Carbonat of soda, dried impure of zinc, impure Carbonic acid gas Carbo ligni Cardamine pratensis Cardamom, lesser Carduus benedictus Carmine Carum carui Cascarilla Carrot Carthamus Caryophyllus aromaticus Cassena Cassia tree fistula marilandica senna Castanea Castor oil Castor fiber Castoreum Cataplasma fermenti sinapis Cataplasm of mustard of yeast Cataplasmata Catechu Catheters, elastic Caustic, common, lunar Cayenne pepper Cedrat Cement, Botany bay seal engravers' Centaury, American smaller Centaurea benedicta Centaureum minus Cepa Cephaelis ipecacuanha Cephalic snuff Cera alba flava purificata Cerated glass of antimony Cerates Cerate of impure carbonat of zinc Goulard's ofred cedar of savine of soap of spermaceti Turner's Ceratum arsenici calaminae cantharidis carbonatis zinci impuri 180 Page 566 Ceratum epuloticum 563 juniperi 660 plumbi subacet. liquid 161 subcarb. comp, 162 super-acetatis 164 resinosum 57 compos. 172 sabinse 711 saponis 164 simplex 236 Cerusse 166 Ceruss, Venetian 169 Cerevisiae fermentum 165 Cervus elaphus 164 Cetaceum 378 Chalk 166 precipitated 169 prepared 167 Chamaemelum 169 Chamomile, common 543 wild 169 Champaigne, English ib. Charcoal 160. 16 172 Charring ib. Cheltenham salts ib. Chemical operations ib. Chenopodium anthelminticum 171 Chironia angularis 4 centaureum 711 Cherry-tree laurel 500 wild 101 Chinquapin 718 Chimaphila umbellata 740 Chreme des Barbades 741 de noyaux 740 d'orange 182 Christopher, herb ib. Cicuta 172 Cineres clavellati 182 Cinchona 38 Caribaea 173 cordifolia 731 flava 179 lancifolia ib. oblongifolia . 631 pallida 74 rubra 633 Cinnabar Cinnamon 635 wild 633 Circulation ib. Citric acid ib. Citrus aurantium 634 medica ib. Clematis 635 Cleome dodecandra 633 Clit-bur 635 Clove gillyflower 633 tree 635 pink 61. Page 635 633 ib. 634 ib. 634 ib. 633 634 ib. 488 718 ' 180 181 21 148 150 149 69 ib. 234 737 I. 711 675 732 673 182 ib. ib. 514 515 169 527 739 740 ib. 19 223 500 183 202 188 188* 183. 184 183. 187 183. 184 187 348 376 155 678 205 203 204 205 206 100 267 165 267 760 Index. Page Page Cloves 164 Contrayerva 225 Clyster, purging 408 Conserves 217 Coagulation 681 Conserve of orange peel 219 Cochineal 206 of roses ib. Cockspur pepper 159 Convolvulus jalapa 227 Coccinella 206 panduratus 232 Coccus cacti ib. scammonia 226 Cochleana 207. 208 Copaifera officinalis 129 Cocos butyracea 209 Coptis trifolia 233 Cocculus indicus 400 Copper 245 Coffea—Coffee, English 208 .711 Copperas 297 Cohobation 681 Coriandrum sativum 233 Colchicum autumnale 210 Cornus circinata 234 observations on 214 florida 233 characteristic distinc- sericea 234 tion of the bulb. 213 Cortex angusturae 66 Colchici acetum ib. Peruvianus 183 oxymel 14 . 214 Corn plaster 729 rad. vinum 213 Coral, prepared 149 sem. vinum ib. Cornu ustum 181 semina 211 Corrosive sublimate 332 tinctura 214 Cotula 234 Colocynthis 222 Co witch 269 Colombo 399 Cow-parsnip 321 Colombo of Marietta 306 Crab's claws, prepared 149 Colophony 482 eyes, prepared ib. Coloquintida 222 Crayons 718 Colouring fermentation 690 Crane's bill 314 Colt's foot 625 Cream of tartar 511 Colours for bottles 716 Creta 148 maps ib. praecipitata 150 Colcothar 297 praeparata 149 Cologne earth 720 Crocus of antimony 84 Collection of simples 665 sativus 234 Collyria 221 Croton 235 Collyrium plumb, acetatis ib. eleutheria 236 et opii 222 oil 237 zinci acetatis ib. tiglium ib. sulphatis ib. Crowfoot 529 Combination 681 Cry stall i tartari 511 Combustion 687 Crystallization 686 Concentration 675 Cupri sulphas 250 Condensation ib. sulphatis solutio ib. Confections 217 Cubebs 243 Confection of catechu 220 Cuckow flower 164 almonds 221 pint 120 opiate ib. Cucumber, wild 272 Confectio amygdalarum 221 Cucumis colocynthis 222 aromatica 219 Cud-bear 717 aurantiorum ib. Cupri ammoniati liquor 249 cassiae ib. Cuprum 245 Japonica 220 ammoniatum 248 opii 221 vitriolatum 250 rosae 219 Currie powder 731 scammoniae 220 Curcuma longa 244 sennae ib. zedoaria 58 Congelation 681 Cusparia febrifuga 66 Conium maculatum 223 Cyanogen 61.251 Consolidation 684 Cucurbitulae, cups, &c 244 Index. 761 D. Page Dalby's carminative Damson, bitter Dandelion Daphne mezereum Datura stramonium Daucus carota Decantation Decocta Decoctum araliae nudicaulis althaeae officinalis chamaemeli cinchonae colombae compos. cornu cervini corticis Peruviani cydoniae daphnes mezerei digitalis dulcamarae Geoffraeae inermis guaiaci compositum hordei compositum lichenis sarsaparillae compositum scillae senegae ulmi veratri Decoctions Decoction of barley compound of bitter-sweet of cabbage tree bark of chamomile of cinchona of Colombo comp. of elm of foxglove for fomentations of guaiacum, comp. of iceland moss of marshmallows of mezereon of Peruvian bark of quince seed of sarsaparilla compound false of seneka of squills of the woods of white hellebore Daffy's elixir Swinton's Decomposition Deflagration Deliquescence 720 528 379 256 257 166 671 260 261 265 ib. 261 262 407 261 412 263 265 262 266 262 263 ib. ib. 264 ib. ib. ib. 266 265 260 684 263 ib. 262 266 265 261 262 266 265 ib. 262 263 265 263 261 412 264 ib. 261 264 ib. 262 265 720 ib. 685 687 683 Delphinium staphisagria Dephlegmation Despumation Dewberry Diamond Dianthus caryophyllus Digestion Digitalis purpurea Dill Dippel's animal oil Diospyros Virginiana Dirca palustris Disoxygenizement Dissolution Distillation Distilled spirits waters Division, mechanical Dock, Dogwood round leaved swamp Dogsbane Dolichos pruriens Dorstenia contrayerva Dover's powder Dracontium fostidum Dragon's blood Dragon root, Drops, antiscorbutic Drops, Wade's? Jesuit's 5 Dryobalanops camphora Dulcamara Dyer's saffron spirit Page 266 675 672 545 160 267 684 267 64 726 269 ib. 689 685 676 574 96 669 545. 546 233 234 ib. 85 269 225 524 270 521 120 334 710 154 271 169 715 Eaton's styptic Eau d'Husson de luce de Cologne medicinale Edulcoration Effervescence Efflorescence Egg shells prepared Eiaterium, Elatin Elder Elecampane Electricity Electuaries Electuary, aromatic of cassia of catechu compound lenitive of senna thebaic Electuarium aromaticum 97 730 649. 721 48. 720 721 649 683 685 683 464 149 272 551 362 277 217 219 ib. 220 ib. ib. 221 219 762 Index. Page Electuarium cassiat 219 catechu 220 lenitivum 220 opiatum 221 scammonii 220 sennae ib. Elemi 62 Elettaria cardamomum ' 57 Eleutheria 236 Elixir asthmatic 605 paregoricum 605. 607 proprietatis 604 sacrum 616 salutis 618.719 stomachicum 610 Daffy's 720 Squire's 721 Stoughton's ib. of vitriol 621 Elm 628 Elutriation 670 Emetin 175. 721 Emplastra 635 Emplastrum adhaesivum 639 ammoniaci 635 cum hydrar. 636 aromaticum ib. asafoetidae ib. calefaciens ib. cantharidis 639 canthar. vesicat. compos. ib. cerae 636 cumini ib. ferri 638 galbani 637 compositum ib. gummosum ib. • hydrargyri 635 ladani compositum 637 lithargyri ib. compositum 638 cum hydrargyro ib. oxydi ferri rubri ib. plumbi semivitrei 637 picis compositum 640 plumbi 637 plumb, sub-carb. compos. 638 resinosum 639 resinosum cantharidum ib. saponaceum 640 simplex ib. thuris compositum ib. Emulsio amygdalae communis 404 arabica iff. camphorata 405 Emulsion, almond 404 Arabic H. camphorated 405 of gum ammoniac ib. Enejna catharticum 408 foetidum lb. Ens martis 302 Epsom salt 387 Ergot 556 Erigeron canadense 278 Philadelphicum ib. Eryngium aquaticum ib. maritimum ib. Erythronium Americanum 279 Escubac, Usquebaugh 739 Essence for the beard 726 of anchovies 729 malt 720 peppermint 721 spruce 720 royale pour la barbe 726 Ess. salt of lemons 721 Ether 29 rectified 29 sulph. with alcohol 31 Ethereal oil ib. Eugenia caryophyllata 165 Eupatorium aya-pana 279 perfoliatum ib. purpureum 282 teucrifolium 281 Euphorbia, corollata 282 ipecacuana ib. officinarum—officinal 283 Evaporation 675. 683 Evergreen cassine 164 Expression 672 Exsiccation 675 Extraction 683 Extracts, alcoholic 292 watery 290 Extracts and inspissated juices 284 Extract of aloes 290 of black hellebore ib. of butternut ib. of cascarilla 294 of catechu 4 of chamomile 290 of cinchona 291 of colocynth ib. comp. 293 of cornus florida 589 of dandelion 292 of elder 289 of gentian 290 of hemlock 289 of henbane ib. of hops 291 of jalap 293 of liquorice 291.316 of logwood 290 of May apple 293 of nightshade 289 of opium, watery 291 of Peruvian bark 291.292 of poppy 291 of quassia 2y(j Index. 763 Extract of rhubarb 293 of sarsaparilla of thorn-apple of valerian of wolfsbane Extracta et spissata Extractum aconiti aloes anthemidis belladonnae cascarillae resinosum catechu cicutae cinchonae 291. colocynthidis 291. conii elaterii gentian ae glycyrrhizae haematoxyli hellebori nigri humuli hyosciami jalapae juglandis opii papaveris podophylli quassiae rhei sambuci sarsaparillae saturni stramonii taraxaci Valerianae Eye waters Page 541 292 289 292 289 284 289 290 ib. 289 294 4 289 292 293 289 273 290 291 290 ib. 291 289 293 290 291 ib. 293 290 293 289 292 490 289 292 ib. 221 Fat proportion of oils and suet, solubility of Fecula Fennel, sweet Fermentation Fern, male Ferri limaturae purificatae oxydum nigrum oxydi squamae Ferrum ammoniatum tartari satum Ferula assa foetida Fetid enema spirit of ammonia Ficus—Fig Fig-wort Fiiix mas filtration 20 in 21 20 623 64 690 494 295 296 ib. 294 302 304 124 408 48 306 556 494 671 Page Finery cinder 296 Fir 478 Fish glue 355 Flax 381 purging ib. Flake white 713 Fleabane 278 Flores benzoes 132 martiales 302 sulphuris loti 584 zinci 661 Flowers of benzoin 132 of zinc 661 Flux-root 122 Fluid to preserve leather 735 to make leather water proof ib. Fly water ib. Ford's balsam of horehound 709 Formula for investigating mine- qr. ral waters Fowl, dunghill 464 Fowler's solution 117 Fox-glove 267 Frankford black 163. 709 Frankincense 478 Frasera Caroliniensis—Walteri 306 Fraxinus ornus 391 Friar's balsam 710 Fucus vesiculosus 307 Fuligo ligni 163. 308 Furniture oil 725 balls 710 varnish 734 Fusion 673 watery 676 G. Galbanum 308 Galega Virginiana 309 Gallae ib. Gallic acid 310 Galls 309 Gamboge 311 Garget 468 Garlic 37 Gaseous oxyd of carbon 161 Gaultheria 312 Gentiana Catesboei 313 lutea ib. Gentian ib* Geoflraea inermis 314 Georgia bark 477 Geranium maculatum 314 spotted ib. Germander 601 Geum urbanum—rivale 314 Gilder's wax 741 Gillenia 315 GiPseiv 44S 764 Index. Ginger beer wild Glass of antimony Glauber's salt Glycyrrhiza Goat's rue, Virginia Godfrey's cordial Gold muriat of oxyd of soda, muriat of thread Golden rod Goulard's extract Gowland's lotion Granatum Granulation Gravel root Grease bear's goose Greek water Green's drops Groats Ground holly Ground pink Guaiacum officinale Gum acacia ammoniac arabic tragacanth IT. Hamamelis Virginian a Hardhack Haematoxylon Hartshorn burnt Heat Helleborus albus foetidus niger Hellebore, American black stinking white Hemlock Henbane Hepar sulphuris Hepatized ammonia Heracleum gummiferum lanatum Heuchera Hiera picra Hill's balsam of honey Hirudo medicinalis Hive syrup Hoffman's anodyne liquor Page 59 60 122 73 571 316 309 722 125 ib. 126 125 233 572 490 334. 717 317 670 282 20 ib. ib. 715 334 128 527 560 318 2 56 2 624 319 576 320 49 181 705 648 320 ib. 651 320 ib. 648 223 354 509 54 56 321 322 42. 508 709 322 396 32 Page 20 394 396 395 396 ib. ib. 325 ib. 394 281 22 207 725 325 343 342 343 332 350 336 341 327 345 ib. 341 330 Hog's lard, prepared Honey of borax clarified of roses of squills compound Hop Hordeum Horehound wild Horse chesnut radish Huile antique Humulus Hydrargyri nitrico-oxydum oxydum cinereum oxydum rubrum oxymurias phosphas submurias subm. ammoniatus Hydrargyrum cum creta cum magnesia praecip. album purificatum sulphuretum nigrum 347 rubrum 348 Hydrastis canadensis 353 Hydro-chlorat of ammonia 43 chloric acid 41.1 cyanic acid 61. 251 sulphat of ammonia 54 sulphuretum ammoniae ib. nitrous acid 430 Hydrogen gas, carbureted 161 super-carbureted ib. Hyosciamus niger 354 Hyssopus officinalis 355 Hyssop ib. I. Iceland moss 379 Ichthyocolla 355 Tctodes foetidus 270 Ilex v omitoria 164 Indian physic 315 pink snake root 573 sage 279 tobacco 383 turnip 120 Indigo weed 572 Inflammation 687 Infusions 356 of angustura 357 of Carolina pink 360 of cascarilla 357 of chamomile 356 Index. 765 Infusion of cloves of columbo of foxglove of gentian of horse radish of linseed of mint of orange-peel of Peruv. bark 8t magnesia & lime water Page 361 357 358 359 357 359 361 ib. 357 358 357 & lemon juice 358 of'rhubarb of roses of senna and tamarinds of slippery elm of thorough wort of tobacco of Virg. snake root Infusion Infusum amarum angusturae anthemidis armoraciae aurantii comp. caryophyllorum cascarillae catechu cinchonae columbae cuspariae digitalis eupatorii gentianae comp. Japonicum lini menthae compositum quassias quass. et sulph. zinci rhei rosae sennae compositum serpentariae simaroubae spigelix tabaci tamarindi et sennae ulmi Valerianae Ink, black cuttlefish Indian marking powder sympathetic Insects, to preserve Inspissation Inula 361 359 360 361 359 360 ib. 683 359 357 356 357 361 357 361 357. 358 357 ib. 358 359 ib. 361 359 361 359 ib. 361 359 360 ib. ib. 362 360 ib. ib. 361 ib. 715 722 717 714 718 715 706 675 362 Page Iodine 363 Ipecacuanha 173 bastard 625 spurge 282 Ipomaea macrorhiza 227 Iris 367 Iron 294 filings ib. purified ib. rust of 298 scales of 295 purified ib. wire 295 Isinglass 355 Issue peas 728 plasters ib. Ivory black J. Jalapa—Jalap 163. 709 227 James-town weed 257 James' powder 74 pills 726 Japan, black 735 transparent 734 Jatropha manihot 598 Jerusalem oak 182 Juglans cinerea 367 Juniper 368 Juniperus communis ib. lycia 369 sabina ib. Virginiana 368 K. Kali causticum 499 cum calce 500 Kalmia latifolia 369 Katchup 730 Kemps white 718 Kermes mineral 76 Kino 517 Koumiss 25 Krameria L Lac ammoniaci 370 405 amygdalae 404 sulphuris 585 Lacquer 734 Lactucarium 372 Lactuca elongata ib. sativa ib. virosa ib. Lake, common 717 Florence 717 madder /*. 766 Index. Page Lampblack 163. 709 Lapis calaminaris 660 prjcparatus ib. Larch 478 Lard 20. 631 Laurus camphora 151 cassia 378 cinnamomum 376 nobilis 375 sassafras 376 Laudanum, liquid 614 Helmontii junioris 16 Laurel, broad-leaved 369 mountain 542 Lavandula—lavender 378 Lead 486 white, Dutch, &c. 718 Leather wood 269 to render water proof 735 Leech 322 Leek 39 Lemon 204 Lemonade, portable 723 Leontodon taraxacum 379 Leopard's bane 103 Lettuce, garden 372 opium ib. strong scented ib. wild ib. Levigation 670 lichen Islandicus 379 rocella 380 Lime 145. 146 muriated solution of 150 water 146 Limaturae ferri 294 purificatae ib. Limon 204 Linimenta 631 Liniment anodyne 632 of lime water 444. 632 of mercury 633 of subcarb. of am. 444 oftobacco 632 of turpentine ib. Linimentum aeruginis 397 ammoniae 444. 631 & antimonii tartar. 631 anodynum 632 aquae calcis 444. 632 camphorae compo- situm 632 camphoratum 632 cantharidum ib. saponis camphor 617.632 et opii ib. ib. composi- tum ib. 632 simplex ib. Page Linimentum tabaci 632 terebinth. ib- hydrargyi1'! 633 volatile 444. 617 Linseed oil 435 with lime 444 Linum catharticum 381 usitatissimum ib. Lip salve 728 Liquefaction 673 Liquid magnesia 99 for boot topi 716 Liquorice 316 extract 291. 316 refined 723 Liquor of acetated litharge 491 aethereus oleosus 32 sulphuricus ib. aluminis compositus 663 of ammoniated copper 249 of ammonia 45 subcarbonat of 51 ammoniae 45 acetatis 53 subcarbonatis 51 antim. tartarizati 84 arseniatis potassae 117 barytae muriatis 135 calcis 146 muriatis 150 cupri ammoniati 249 ferri alkalini 300 Hoffmanni anodynus 32 hydrargyri oxymuriatis 336 lithargyri acetati 490 comp. 491 potassae 496 subcarbonatis 504 probatorius vini 723 sulphureti ammoniae 54 of volatile alkali 45 volatile, of hartshorn ib. Liriodendron 382 Lisbon diet drink 264 Litmus 380. 717 Litharge 488 Liver of sulphur 509 Lixiviation 683 Lixivium causticum 496 Lobelia inflata 383 Logwood 320 Loose-strife 386 Lump archal 717 Lunar caustic 109 Lupulus 325 Lytta 155 vittata 157 gygas 158 Lythrum salicaiia 386 Index. 76? M. Mace Maceration Mackaw tree Mai quer's arsenical salt Madder Madeira, English Magnesia carbonat of calcined sulphat of usta Magnolia Mahagoni Marjoram, common sweet Mallow Malva sylvestris Mandrake Manganese Manganesium Manna Maranta arundinacea Marmalade Marrubium Marsden's drops Marjoram Marble, marmor album Marshmallow Marsh rosemary trefoil Master wort Mastiche Materia medica et praeparata Matches for instant light Matonia May apple weed Mead Meadow ladies smock saffron Measures Mechanical operations of phar- macy division mixture separation Meconic acid Medicine chests for sea plantations Mel boracis despumatum rosae scillae acetatum compositum Melaleuca Melampodium Melia azedarach Melasses Page 418 684 209 117 545 737 386 387 ib. 389 387 389 589 446 ib. 390 ib. 491 390 ib. 391 393 723 394 334 446 148 43 578 402 321 485 1 723 57 491 234 737 164 210 668 667 669 673 670 453 724 ib. 394 396 395 396 ib. ib. 398 320 128 547 Melissa officinalis Meloe niger vesicatorius Mellita Menispermum cocculus palmatum Menstruum Mentha piperita pulegium viridis * Menyanthes trifoliata Mercurius praecipitat. ruber sublimatus corrosivus Mercury amm on. submuriat of deuto-chloruret nitric oxyd of perchloride of permuriat of protochloride purified red oxyd of Metals and oxyds Methiglin Mezereon Milk of roses Mill mountain Millepedae Mimosa gum Mineral pitch tar waters Minium Miscellaneous Mistura ammoniaci et antimonii amygdalarum camphorae cornu usti cretae ferri composita guaiaci magnesiae moschi zinci sulphatis Mixtures and emulsions of ammoniac burnt horn chalk i compound of iron guaiac magnesia musk sulp. of zinc white Monarda Monk's hood Morphia, Morphium Morus nigra Moorwort, broad-leaved Page 398 158 155 394 400 399 682 401 ib. ib. 402 343 330 327 341 330 343 330 332 336 330 343 402 737 256 716 381 445 2 144 89 488 707 405 ib. 404 ib. 407 405 406 407 ib. ib. ib. 404 405 407 405 406 407 ib. ib. ib. 405 404 17 453. 722 408 61 768 Index. Moose wood Moschus artificialis Mountain balm tea arnica Moxa Mucilage of gum arabic tragacanth of starch Mucilago amyli arabici gummi astragali tragacanthac Mulberry Murias ammoniae et ferri antimonii auri barytae hydrargyri sodae exsiccatus Muriat of ammonia of antimony of baryta solution of of lime of mercury of soda Muriatic acid diluted Music Musk artificial Mustard cataplasm ready made Mutton suet Myristica moschata Myroxylon peruiferum Myrrfu—Myrrh mixture Myrtus pimento N. Nankeen dye Naphtha Naples yellow Narcotine Nicotiana tabacum Nightshade, American deadly woody Noir d'Espagne Norton's drops Nitras argenti potassae Nitrat Page 269 408 443 404 312 103 409 411 ib. ib. ib. ib. ib. 408 412 43 302 78 125 135 332 569 570 43 78 135 ib. 150 332 569 413 414 417 408 443 561 172 723 21 418 130 420 407 421 715 144 713 454. 460 422 468 139 271 163. 709 Nitrat of potass of silver Nitre Nitric acid oxyd gas Nitrogen Nitrous acid diluted ethereal spirit gas oxyd gas Nit. muriat. oxyd of antimony Nitrum Nutmeg Nux moschata vomica Noyau Page 424 109 424 425 430 429 424 427 34 430 ib. 78 424 418 ib. 431 731 334 109 424 423 O. Oak, black common white Oats—Oatmeal Oculi cancrorum praeparati Oil of almonds of amber, oxydated rectified of amber ammoniated animal of aniseed antique British camphorated of cajeput of caraway castor of chamomile croton drying empyreumatic of fennel of flaxseed furniture of hartshorn rectified hemp of juniper of lavender of mace of marjoram of monarda nut of nutmeg of olives of origanum of palm of partridge-berry of pennyroyal of peppermint 529 ib. ib. 128 149 435 443 442 442. 580 444 726 440 725 444 398 440 543 440 237 734 442 440 435 725 726 725 440 ib. 419 440 ib. 725 419 432 440 209 440 ib. ib. 445 Index. 769 Oil of pimento 440 rock 144 of rosemary 440 of rue ib. of sassafras ib. of savin ib. shaving 726 Sheldrakes 735 of spearmint 440 sulphureted 445 of turpentine 441. 481 rectified 441 of vitriol 585 volatile 435 walnut 725 of wine 31 of wormseed 440 of yolk of eggs 725 Oily ethereal liquor 32 preparations 444 Ointments 641 Ointment of ammon. submur. of quicksilver 644 of black pepper 647 elder ib. epispastic 641 of galls 642 of grey oxyd of quicksil- ver 643 of hellebore 643. 647 of hog's lard 641 of infusion of cantharides 642 mercurial, milder 643 stronger ib. of nitrat of quicksilver 645 milder ib. of nitric acid 641 of oxyd of zinc 647 ofpowder of Spanish flies 642 of red oxyd of quicksilver 644 resinous 634.647 Oleaginosa Oleum aethereum ammoniatum amygdalae animale anisi anthemidis camphoratum cajeputae carui Chenopodii of rose water of savine spermaceti of stramonium of sub-acetat of copper of sulphur of tar of tutty of wax of white lead precipitate yellow or citrine Olea distillata Europaea fix;l volatilia empyreumatiea 641 647 641 646 642 646 ib. 647 641 646 644 645 4G2 435 432 433 435 442 OS Page 444 31 444. 631 435 443. 726 440 ib. 444 398 440 ib. cornu cerv. rectificat. 443.726 foeniculi dulcis gaultheriae juniperi lavandulae lini cum calce macis melaleucae leucadendron menthae monardae myristicae moschatae olivarum origani petrolei pimentae pini laricis pulegii ricini rorismarini rutae sabinae sassafras 442. 440 ib. ib, ib. 435 444 419 398 440 ib. 419 432 440 144 440 441. 481 440 435 440 ib. ib. ib, 580 443 725 442 445 succini oxydatum reductum rectificatum sulphuratum terebinthinae 441. 481 rectificatum 441 237 31 585 369 432 tiglii vini vitrioli Olibanum Olive tree Onion Oniscus asellus Opiate powder Opium Persian purificatum Opodeldoc Opoponax Orange Orchis Origanum majorana vulgare Orris, Florentine 38 445 526 449 461 463 632. 726. 464 203 445 446 ib. %7 770 Index. Page Orobanche Virginiana 447 Ossa 446 Ostrea edulis ib. Oxalic acid 447 Oxalis acetosella ib. Oxgall, prepared 726 refined ib. Oxyd. antim. cum phosph. calc. 74 cum sul. per nit. pot. 84 nitro-muriaticum 78 vitrificatum 73 vitrificat. cum cera 74 arsenici 106 ferri nigrum 296 purificatum ib. rubrum 297 hydrarg. 344 rub. per acid, nitric. 343 sulphuricum 345 plumbi album y 488 rubrum ib. semivitreum ib. zinci 661 impurum 660 praeparat. ib. Oxyd of antimony 85 of arsenic 106 of antimony, with phosphat of lime 74 of bismuth, white 142 of iron, black, purified, 296 red 297 of lead, white 488 red . 488 semivitrified ib. of manganese 390 of mercury, red by nit. ac. 343 ash-coloured 342 grey ib. sulphuric 345 Oxydizement 688 Oxygenizement 687 Oxymel aeruginis 397 colchici 14. 396 of meadow saffron ib. scillae ib. simple—simplex 395 of squills 396 of verdigris 397 Oxymuriatic alkaline water 416 water ib. Oxymuriat of potash 729 of quicksilver 332 Oyster shells, prepared 446 Page Paints, lead coloured 719 oil colour ib. stone colour ib- yellow ib. Palma christi 543 Panary fermentation 691 Panax quinquefolium 448 Parfait amour 740 Parker's cement 714 Papaver album 448 rhoeas ib. somniferum ib. Paregoric elixir 605 Parsley 465 Partridge-berry 312 Pate de reglisse noir 723 Patent yellow 713 Pearl ashes 500 barley 325 powder 718 Peas for issues 728 Pellitory of Spain 70 Pennsylvania mountain laurel 542 Pennyroyal 401 Pepper, black, 484 Cayenne 15S '. 718 Jamaica 421 long 484 Peppermint 401 Peppermint cordial 721 Permurias hydrargyri 332 Persimmon 269 Peruvian bark 183 ants, of fish oil 718 black 719 brown red ib. green 718 experiments and obser- vations on, by G. W. Carpenter 198 balsam 130 Petroleum Barbadense 144 Petroselinum 465 Pharmaceutical operations 665 Phasianus gallus 464 Philadelphia flea-bane 278 Phosphas calcis 181 ferri 304 hydrargyri 350 sodae 567 Phosphat of lime 181 iron 304 mercury 35C* Phosphoric acid 466 Phosphorus 465 bottles 729 Phytolacca 468 Pills 470 of aloes 471 and assafoetida 472 with colocynth 471 compound ib, and ginger ib. and myrrh 472 Index. 771 Page Pills of ammoniuret of copper 476 Anderson's 42. 727 of arsenic 108 of assafoetida 472 Barclay's i 727 of calomel 475 comp. antimonial 472 of comp. ext. of colocynth 473 of corrosive sublimate 475 Fothergill's 42 of gamboge, compound 473 Hooper's 42. 727 of iron, compound 474 James' analeptic 726 Keyser's 727 Lee's ib. Matthews, or Starkey's ib. of mercury 474 sub-mur. comp. 475 of muriat of gold 473 of myrrh and iron 475 opiate 476 of rhubarb, compound ib. squill, compound ib. of subcarb. of soda 477 of sulphat of iron 474 of tar 476 Ward's 727 worm ib. Pilulae aloes composite 471 et assa foetidae 472 cum zingibere 471 et colocynthidis ib. et myrrh ae 472 aloeticae 471 ammoniureti cupri 476 antimon. compos. 472 arsenici 108 auri muriatis 473 cochiae 471 colocynth. compos. ib. cum myrrh, et guaiaco 472 ferri compositae 474 sulphatis ib. galbani compositae 473 gambogiae compositae ib. et scammoniae ib. hydrargyri 474 oxymur. 475 submur. ib. jalapae compos. ib. myrrhae compositae 473 et ferri 475 opii 476 picis ly- rhei compositae ib. 42. 472 476 477 Rufi scillae sodae sub carb. Thebaicx 476 Page 421 477 ih. 573 718 715 717 478 479 478 •ft. 478 479 243 484 **- 527 485 ib. 478 479 ib. 485 635 639 ib. 640 729 ib. 637 640 635 and quicksilver 636 for issues 728 of lead 637 litharge ib. do. and quicksilver 638 of wax 636 of quicksilver 635 of red oxyd of iron 638 of Spanish flies 639 strengthening 638 Platinum 486 Pleurisy root 122 Plumbago 160 Plumbi carbonas 488 subcarbonas ib. Plumbum 486 Pneumatic apparatus 680 Podalyria tinctoria 572 Podophyllum peltatum 491 Poison berry tree 128 oak 543 Poisons, animal mineral vegetable )• 743, &c. symptoms and treatment of _ Poke 468 Polygala bitter 494 Pimento Pimpinella anisum Pinckneya Pink, Carolina Dutch dye rose Pinus abies balsamea larix palustris picea sylvestris Piper cubeba longum nigrum Pippsiseva Pistacia lentiscus terebinthus Pitch, Burgundy black Pix liquida Plantain, Plantago Plasters adhesive blistering of Burg, pitch. for corns court sticking diachylon of frankincense of gum ammon. 772 Index. Page Polygala rubella 494 senega 492 Polypodium filix mas 494 Pommade de la jeunesse 728 divine ib. Pomegranate 317 Ponderous earth 135 Poplar 382 Poppy, red 448 white ib. Port, English 737 Southampton ib. Porter, London 738 Potassa 36. 495 . 499 cum calce 500 Potassae acetas 505 carbonas 500 et sodae tartras 513 subcarbonas 500 sulphas 507 cum sulphure 509 sulphuretum 509 super carbonas 500 tartras 511 super sulphas 508 tartras 512 Potass water 496 with lime 500 Potato-fly 157 starch 729 wild 232 Potio carbonatis calcis 405 Pothos foetida 270 Powders 522 ginger beer 60. 727 mice 728 silver boiling ib. sodaic ib. spruce beer ib. Powder, of amalgam of tin 578 aromatic 523 of asarabacca, comp. ib. blue 714 of carb. of lime, comp. 523 of chalk, comp. ib. with opium, comp i. ib. of contrayerva, comp. ib. currie 731 of the Earl of Warwick 740 gold 713 of ipecacuan and opium 524 and sulph. of cop ». ib. of jalap, compound 526 of kino, compound ib. of scammony, comp. ib. of senna, comp. ib. silvering 731 of tin 578 of tragacanth, comp. 526 Page Powder, tooth 733 Precipitation 685 Precipitate, red 343 per se 344 white 341 Preparation of animals 707 insects 706 Prepared ox gall 726 Preservation of simples 665 Prickly ash 99. 658 Pride of India or China 128 Prinos verticillatus 513 Proof spirit 23. 25 Prunes 514 Prunus domestica ib. lauro cerasus ib. Virginiana * 515 Prussian blue 255. 712 Prussiat of iron 255. 305 Prussic acid 251 Pterocarpus draco 521 erinacea 517 santalinus 515 Puccoon 551 Pulegium 401 Pulparum extractio 581 Pulveres 522 Pulvis aloes cum canella ib. guaiaco ib. aloes compos. ib. antim onialis 74 aromaticus 523 asari comp. ib. carbonatis calcis comp ib. cinnam. comp. ib. cretae comp. ib. cum opio ib. contrayervae comp. ib. Doveri 524 hydrargyri cinereus 342 ipecacuanhae et opii 524 compositus ib. ipecac, et cupri sulph. ib. jalapae compositus 526 kino compositus ib. opiatus ib. salinus comp. ib. scammonii comp. ib. sennae comp. ib. stanni 578 tragacanthae comp. 527 Pulverization 669 Punica granatum 317 Purging cassia 166 Purple precipitate 714 Putrefactive fermentation 691 Pyrolignous acid 9 Pyrethrum 70 Pyrola umbellata 527 Index. 773 Page Page Pyrus cydonia 527 Rob anti-syphilitique 334 Rochelle salt 513 Q. Rose 544 willow 234 Quassia excelsa 528 Rosemary 543 simaruba ib. Rosin 479 Quercus alba 529 Rosa canina 544 cerris 309 centifolia ib. robur 529 Gallica ib. tinctoria ib. Rosmarinus officinalis 544 marina 307 Rouge 715. 718 Quicklime 145 Rubia tinctorum 544 Quicksilver 327 Rubigo ferri 298 with chalk 345 Rubus trivialis 545 with magnesia ib. villosus ib. Quince 527 Rue 546 Quinine 193 Rum 25 sulphat of—its purity 202 Rumex acetosa 546 Quin's sauce 729 acutus ib. aquaticus 545 R. Britanica 546 crispus ib. Radical vinegar 12 obtusifolius ib. Raisins 652 Rust of iron 298 Ranunculus sceleratus 529 Ruta graveolens 546 Rascapur 339 Rye, spurred 556 Ratafia des cerises 731 de Grenoble ib. S. de noyaux ib. Ratanhy root % 370 Sabbatia angularis 182 Rattlesnake poison 663 Saccharine fermentation 690 root 492 Saccharum officinarum 547 Ratsbane 105 purificatum ib. Rectification 681 purissimum ib. Red cedar 368 rubrum ib. willow 234 saturni 489 Reduction 689 Saffron 234 Resina alba 479 dyer's 169 flava ib. meadow 210 guaiaci ib. Sage 550 pini abietis ib. Indian 279 balsameae ib. Sagapenum 548 laricis ib. Sago 549 sylvestris ib. Sal ammoniac 43 Retort 678 commune 569 Rhamnus catharticus 529 de duobus 507 Rheum Britanicum 531 ~~ diureticus 505 Indicum ib. martis 297 palmatum ib. polychrestus 509 Russicum ib. rupellensis 513 Sinense ib. sodae 566 Turcicum ib. tartari 502 undulatum 530 volatile 49 Rhododendron chrysanthum 542 Salix alba 549 maximum ib. caprea ib. Rhubarb 530 eryocephala ib. its cultivation, &c. 536 fragilis ib. Rhus glabrum toxicodendron 543 ib. latifolia Salep ib. 445 Ricinus communis ib. Salt of sorrel 447. 729 774 Index. Page Page Salt of steel 297 Sisymbrium nasturtium 561 of lemons 721 Sium nodiflorum 562 of tartar 502 Smalt 714 Salts, solubility of 701 Snake-root, Virginian 560 Sa'tpetre 424 Snake weed 494 Salvia officinalis 550 Soaps 553 Sambucus 551 Soap, Macquer's acid 732 SanguinarU canadensis ib. Starkey's ib. Sanguis draconis ! 521 Windsor ib. Santonicum 118 Soda 36 . 563 San'< alum 515 impura ib. Sanicle, American 322 water 99 .567 Sa;>o diirtis et mollis 553 Sodae aqua sup. carb. ib. Sarsaparilla 562 carbonas 566 false 99 impurus 563 Sassafras 376 murias 569 Saunders wood, red 515 exsic. 570 Savin 369 phosphas 567 Saxon blue 715 sub-boras 571 Scabious 278 sub-carbonas 565 Scammony—Scammonium 226 exsiccatus 566 Scheeles green 713 sulphas 571 Scilla maritima 554 sulphuretum ib. pulvis exsiccatae 555 Solanum dulcamara 271 Scouring drops 732 Solidago virga aurea 572 Scrofularia nodosa 556 Solomon's anti-impetigines 334 Scunk cabbage 270 Solutio-acetatis zinci 663 Scurvy-grass 208 muriatis barytae 138 Sea eryngo ~> holly 5 278 calcis 150 subcarb. ammoniae 51 lavender 578 Sulphatis zinci 663 salt 569 Soluble tartar 512 Sealing wax, black 740 Solution 682 red ' ib. of arsenic 117 Secale cornutum 556 of acetat of ammonia 53 Seneka 492 of alkaline iron 300 Senna 167 of lime 146 American 169 of muriat of baryta 138 Septfoil 622 of lime 150 Serpentaria 560 of oxym. of quicksilver 336 Sesamum orientale 559 of potass 496 Sevum 20 sub-carbonat 504 praeparatum 631 of subcarb. of ammonia 51 Shaving liquid or oil 726 of sulphat of copper 250 Shengerf 350 of super-carbonat of Sherry, English 737 potass 99 . 504 Shrub, brandy 740 of super-carbonat of rum ib. soda 99 .567 Sifting 670 of tart, of antimony 84 Silver 100 of sup. carb. of magnesia 99 nitrat of 101 Solvend—Solvent 682 leaf 100 Soot of wood 163 .308 Silene Virginica 560 Sophora tinctoria 572 Silk weed 123 Sorrel 447 Silvering powder 731 South-sea tea 164 Slaters 445 Southern wood 118 Simaruba 528 Soy 730 Sinapis 561 Spanish fly 155 Sinapism 562 Spartium scoparium 573 Sirop de cusinierre 335 Spelter 659 Index. 775 Page Spearmint 401 Specific gravity 668 Spermaceti 21 Spider web 598 Spigelia Marilandica 573 Spilsbury's drops 334 Spiraea 576 trifoliata 315 Spiritus acth. nitr. 34 sulphur. 31 comp. 32 ammoniae 47 aromaticus ib. compositus ib. foetidus 48 succinatus ib. anisi 575 compositus 47. 576 armoraciae comp. ib. camphoratus 605 carui 575 cinnamomi ib. distillati 574 juniperi comp. 575 lavandulae 576 compositus 595 menthae piperitae 575 viridis ib. Mindereri 53 tnyristicae 575 nitri dulcis 34 nucis moschatae 575 pimento ib. pulegii 575 raphani compositus 576 rorismarini ib. vinosus rectificatus 23 tenuior 25 volat. aromaticus 47 Spirit of ammonia ib. of ammonia, aromatic ib. foetid 48 succinated ib. of camphor 605 of hartshorn 51 oflavender 576. 613 of malt 25 of Mindererus 53 of nitrous ether 34 of nutmeg 575 of pennyroyal of peppermint of spearmint of sulphuric ether comp of wine rectified Sponge burnt tents 25 576 577 Page Spontaneous evaporation 675 Spunk 145 Spurge 282 olive 256 Squill 554 powdered 555 Squire's elixir 721 Stalagmitis cambogioides 311 Stanni amalgamatis pulvis 578 pulvis ib. Stannum 577 Staphisagria 266 Starch 623 potato 729 Star grass, star wort 36 Statice 578 Stavesacre 266 Steel . 294 Steer's opodeldoc 726 Stibium 70 Stizolobium 269 Stone blue 718 Storax 133 purified 134 Stoughton's elixir 721 Stramonium 257 Strychnine 432 Strychnos 431 Styptic 730 Ruspini's 733 Styrax benzoin 132 officinale 133 purificata 134 Sub-acetat of copper 247 of lead 488 acetas cupri 247 plumbi 488 liquidus 490 Sub-boras sodae 571 carbonas potassae 500. 501. 502 carbonat of iron 298 of lead 488 of soda 565 dried 566 of ammonia 49 murias hydrarg. 336 praecipitatus 339 ammoniatum 341 muriat of quicksilver 336 precipitated 339 nitras bismuthi 142 nitrat of bismuth ib. sulphas hydrarg. flavus 345 sulphat of quicksilver ib. Sublimation 685 Succinum 579 Succi expressi 287 spissati 288 Succinic acid 580 Succus spissatus aconitl napelli 289 776 Index. Page Page Succus spissatus belladonnae 289 Super -tartras potassae 511 hyoscyami ib. tartrat of potass ib. sambuci nigri ib. Svvietenia febrifuga 589 stramonii ib. Sweet : spirit of nitre 34 Suet, prepared 631 vitriol 32 Sugar, double refined 547 Sylvius, anecdote of ' 119 raw ib. Symplocarpus foetidus 270 of lead 489 Synonimes 1 Sulphas 581 Syrup i 590 alumina; 582 Syrup us aceti 591 barytae 135 allii ib. cupri 250 althaeae 592 ferri 297 amomi zingiberis 596 exsiccatus 298 aurantii 591 kali 507 caryophilli rubri 592 magnesiae 389 colchici ib. potassae 507 croci 593 sodae 571 limonum 591. 731 zinci 662 mannae 591 Sulphat 581 mori ib. of antimony 81 opii 594 of baryta 135 papaveris ib. of copper. 250 pectoralis 730 of co mine 588 rhamni 593 of iron 297 rhaei 593 dried 298 aromaticus 541. 593 of magnesia 389 cum senna ib. of quinine, to determine 4 rosae 595 its purity 202 sacchari rubri 590 Sulphur 583 sarsaparillae 593 antimonii praecipitat. 75 et guaiaci 594 antimoniatum fuscum ib. scillae ib. of antimony, precipitat. 75 compositus 396 auratum antimonii 76 senegae 595 brown antimoniated 75 sennae 596 chloride of 584 simplex 590 oxyd of 583 succi ribis nigri 591 praecipitatum 585 rubi idaei ib. sublimatum lotum 584 tolutanus 595 sublimed ib. violae 596 Rulphuretum antimonii 71 zingiberis ib. praeparatum 72 Syrup of balsam of Tolu 595 hydrarg. nigrum 347 of black currants 591. 731 rubrum 348 of buckthorn 593 potassae 509 of capillaire 730 Sulphureted kali, water of 510 of clove July flower 592 hydrogen 583 d'orgeat 731 hydro-sulphat of an- of garlic 591 timony 75 of ginger 596 Sulphuret of antimony 71 hive 396 prepared 72 of lemon juice 731 of iron 55 of lemons 591 of potass 509 of maidenhair 730 of quicksilver, black 347 of marshmallows 592 Sulphuric acid 585 of mulberry 591 ether 29 of meadow saffron 592 with alcohol 31 of orange-peel 591 ethereal liquor ib. of poppies 594 S uper-carbonas potassae 500 of raspberries 591 sulphas alum, et pot. 582 of rhubarb 593 Index. 777 Syrup of rhubarb, aromat. of roses of saffron of squills of vinegar Sumach Swamp dogwood Sweet flag spirit of nitre T. Page 541. 593 595 593 594 591 543 234 18 703 Table of absorption of gases comparative of contents in wines of composition of salts of contents of Rallston, Sara- toga and Lebanon springs of composition of some or- ganic bodies of contents in various Eu- ropean mineral waters of decomposition of deliquescent salts of different kinds of spirits of efflorescent salts of incompatible salts of poisons of precipitates, compara- tive from arsenic, cor. sub., tart. emet. and mu- riat baryt. of precipitates of real ammonia in solution showing the maximum quantity of oxygen taken up by different sub stances of solubilities of solubilities of fats of specific gravities of specific gravities of alco hoi and water of specific heats of weights and measures Tallow Tamarind Tanacetum Tannin Tansey Tapioca Tar Barbadoes eoal water Tartar emetic comparison of by dif- ferent formulae 81 n. Tartar emetic, ointment of Tartarum antimoniatum crudum 653 698 90 705 91 694 704 28 704 695 743 114 700 46 696 701 20 694 326 697 693 21 597 ib. 310 597 598 479 144 711 483 511 80 80 511 Tartarum ferri solubile Tartari crystalli Tartaric acid Tartarized antimony iron Tartras antimonii antim. et potassae kali potassae et ferri et sodae Tartrat of antimony of potass of potass and soda Terre feuilletee mercurielle Teeth, Greenough's tinct. Ruspini's tincture Telae aranearum Terra ponderosa salita Teucrium marum chamaedrys Thebaic tincture Thermometers Thoroughwort Thorn apple Tincturae Tinctura acetatis zinci ferri acidi sulphurici aloes jetherea et myrrh ae socotorina: ammon. aromatica foetida angusturae antisyphilitica assafoetidae aurantii balsami Tolutani benzoes compos. Bonpland. trifol. camphorae opiatae cantharidum capsici cardamomi cascarilla; cassia; sennae compos. castorei composita oatechu cinchonae ammoniata composita cinnamomi composita colchici eolombae cort. Peruv. compos. croci digitalis Page 304 512 511 ib. 80 304 80 ib. 512 ib. 304 513 80 511 513 335 733 ib. 598 138 601 ib. 614 705 279 257 602 663 301 621 605 604 ib. 4,7 48 605 335 605 618 620 619 605 ib. ib. 607 ib. 608 619 618 608 ib. ib. 609 ib. ib. ib. 610 214 610 609 619 610 99 778 Index. Page Tinctura ferri ammoniati 302 gallarum 619 galbani ib. gentianae 610 guaiaci 611 '* ammoniata ib. hellebori nigri 612 humuli ib. hyosciami ib. jalapae 613 Japonica 608 kino 613 lactucae 374 lavandulae 613 lobelia; ib. menthae piperitae ib. viridis 614 moschi ib. muriatis ferri 303 myrrh ae 614 opii ib. ammoniata 607 camphorata 605 quassiae 615 rhei 616 et aloes ib. composita ib. et gentianae ib. dulcis ib. sanguinariae ib. saponis camphor. 617 et opii ib. scillae ib. sennae 618 aromatica 617 compos. 618 serpentariae ib. stramonii 620 tolutani ib. thebaica 614 valerian* 620 ammoniata ib, veratri ib. volatile 617 zingiberis 621 Tinctures 6U2 of acetat of iron 301 of ammoniated iron 302 of benzoin, compound 619 of blood root 616 of cantharides 607 of Cayenne pepper ib. of colchicum 214 of foxglove 610 of galls 619 of gentian 610 of ginger 620 Greenough's 733 of hellebore, black 612 white 620 green ib. ofhenbane 612 Tinctures of hops of Indian tobacco of muriat of iron of musk of orange-peel of peppermint of Peruvian bark compound of rhubarb of saffron of senna of snake-root of soap with opium of spearmint of squills of thornapple of Tolu Tin Tobacco Indian Tolu Tomatoe sauce Tooth-ache tree Tooth powder Tormentilla Touchwood Toxicological tables Tragacantha Treacle Triosteum Triticum Page 612 613 303 614 618 613 609 ib. 616 619 617. 618 ib. 617 ib. 614 617 620 ib. 577 422 383 131 730 99. 658 733 622 145 743 624 547 625 622 Trituration 625. 670 Troches 626 of carbonat of lime ib. of liquorice ib. with opium 627 Trochisci carbonatis calcis 626 glycyrrhizae ib. cum opio 627 gummosi ib. magnesiae ib. nitratis potassae ib. Troy weight 693 True gold powder 713 Tulip tree 382 Turmeric 244 Turner's cerate 635 Turpentines 478, &c. Turpentine, chian 485 oil of 478, &c. Venice 478 Turnsole 380 Turpethum minerale 345 Tussilago farfara 625 Tutia 660 praeparata ib. Tutenag 733 Ulmus Americana campestris U. 628 ib. Index. 779 Page Ultramarine 714 Umber 720 Unguenta 630. 641 Unguentum acidi nitrosi ib. adipis suillae . ib. aquae rosae ib. aeruginis 642 calaminaris 635 cantharidum 641 cerae ib. cerussae 646 citrinum 645 elemi 642 epispasticum ib. gallarum 642 hellebori albi ib. hydrargyri 643 mitius ib. nitrat^ 645 nitrico-oxydi 644 oxydi cinerei 643 praecip. albi 644 infusi canth. vesic. 642 oxydi zinci 647 impuri ib. picis 646 pi peris nigri 647 plumbi subcarb. 646 pulv. canth. vesicat. 642 resinosum 634. 647 sabinae ib. sambuci ib, simplex 641 spermatis ceti ib. stramonii 646 sub-acetatis cupri 642 mur. hydr. amm. 644 nitratis hydrarg. ib. sulphuris 646 comp. ib. tutiae 647 veratri ib. Usquebaugh 739 Ustulation 674 Uva ursi 629 Uva: 652 Valeriana Vaporization Varnish, for casts common copal for drawings furniture gold for grates Le Blond's picture reddish red Sheldrake's 648 674 735 733. 735 ib. 734 ib. ib. ib. 735 734 ib. ib. ib. ib. Page Varnish, soft brilliant 734 transparent 733 white hard »*• white polishing to- Vegetable iEthiops 163 Velno's veget. syrup 335 Veratrum 648. 651 Veratrine 211 Verditer 713 Verdigris 247 English 718 French 714 prepared 248 Veronica 651 Vina medicata 654 Vine 652 Vinegar 7 aromatic 14 distilled 9 of meadow saffron 14. 214 medicated 13 of opium 15 purified 7 radical 12 of squills 14 Vinous fermentation 690 Vinum 652 aloes 654 antimoniale 84 colchici 655 ferri 305 gentianae compositum 655 ipecacuanha: ib. opii 655 rhei 656 tabaci ib. veratri ib. Viola—Violet 651 Virginia winterberry 513 snake-root 560 goat's-rue 309 Virgin's bower, 205 Vitis 652 Vitrified oxyd of antimony 73 with wax 74 Vitriol, blue 250 green 297 white 662 Vitriolated tartar 507 Vitriolic acid 585 ether 29 Vitriolum album 662 coeruleum 250 Vitrum antimonii 73 ceratum 74 Volatile alkali 43 liquor of hartshorn 51 Vomic nut 431 W. Wade's drops Wake-robi» 710 120 780 Index. Page Page Walnut-white 367 Wine, currant 736 Warner's cordial 617 elder 737 Ward's white drop 334. 735 gentian 655 Washballs, blue mottled 732 ginger 737 cream ib. gooseberry 736 red mottled ib. of hellebore 656 white ib. ipecacuanha 655 Wash colours 715 of iron 305 Water 85 medicated 654 acidulous 89 mixed fruit 736 of aerated iron 299 orange 737 of ammoniated copper 249 of opium 655 avens 314 parsnip 736 cresses 561 raisin ib. eryngo 278 of rhubarb 656 parsnip 562 -stone 511 of cinnamon 97 of tartarized antimony 84 of orange-peel ib. test 723 of peppermint ib. of tobacco 656 of roses ib. Windsor soap 732 of spearmint ib. Wintera aromatica 657 of ammonia 45 Winter's bark • ib. acetated 53 Winter green 527 caustic 45 Witch-hazel 319 diluted 47 Witherite 134 of carbon, of ammon. 51 Wheat 622 of sulphuret of ammonia 55 Whiting 714 chalybeate 89 Whortleberry 629 distilled 88 Wolfsbane 17 of fixed air 98 Wood soot 163. 308 lake 87 Worm cakes 740 marsh ib. Storey's ib. mineral 88 lozenges, Ching's ib. rain 86 Worm-seed 118. 182 river ib. Wormwood 119 saline 90 sea 92 Y. snow 87 Yaupon—Yopon 164 spring ib. Yeast 180 sulphurous 89 cataplasm 172 well 87 Yellow bladderwrack 307 carbonic acid 98 Yellow root 353. 657 magnesia 99 parsley leaved 657 medicated 98 Young's purging drink 741 medicinal effects of, &c 93 seltzer 98 Z. spa, &c. artificial 738 Zaffre 714 Waterdock 545 Zanthorhiza 657 Wax 179 Zanthoxylum 658 yellow ib. Zedoary, long—Zedoaria 58 purified 180. 631 Zinc—Zincum 659 Weights and measures 668 calcinatum 661 White walnut 3.67. ■ vitriolatum 662 Wild horehound 281 Zincr-^cetatis solutio 663 indigo ' v 572 . \ tinctura ib. Willow-strife 386 ^aroonas 660 Willow 549 'oxyjtlum 661 Wine 652 •' impurum 660 aloetic 654 sulphas 662 cherry 736 sulphatis solutio ib. of colchicum 655 Zingiber 59 THE END, ^■Wiv^-^ NLM023326328