MATERIA MEDICA AND PHARMACY.

INTRODUCTION.

THAT department of medical science which treats of the nature, effects, and uses of those remedies that are employed for the prevention or removal of disease is called Materia Medica. It comprises the natural history of the articles, or an account of those circumstances by which they may be distinguished, and of the means of procuring and preserving them; their chemical history, or an account of the changes which they undergo from the action of various reagents, the mode of analyzing them, of separating their most useful principles, and of ascertaining their purity; and their medical history, or an account of their sensible effects on the animal system both in the healthy and morbid state, with their application to the practice of medicine.

The art of collecting, and preserving the various substances employed in medicine, and of reducing them to those forms that are best suited to the various purposes for which they are exhibited, is called Pharmacy. This art is practised by the trading chemist and the apothecary; and at least the principles of it form a necessary part of education to every member of the medical profession.

In the present edition of our Encyclopædia, it is proposed to treat of these two subjects together, since they are intimately connected, and when considered under the same treatise, will occupy much less room.

We shall divide this article into four parts; in the arrangement of which we shall briefly treat of those articles that are employed to support life, or of diet; in the second we shall treat of remedies in general, and shall arrange them into classes according to their action on the animal economy; in the third we shall consider the methods of preparing them for exhibition, or shall lay down the general principles of pharmacy; and in the fourth we shall briefly notice each of the articles employed in medicine, whether simple or officinal, and mention the most important circumstances necessary to be known respecting them.

As the limits which have been assigned to this article are extremely confined, it cannot be expected that the subject will be treated at any great length. Contrary to usual practice, we shall dwell more on the general circumstances of materia medica and pharmacy, and shall be as brief on the individual articles, as is consistent with perspicuity and practical utility.

We shall not at present enter on a historical account writers on the writers on the materia medica and pharmacy. If the materia medica. proved works on these subjects, and this we shall here do very briefly.

As one of the principal modern writers on the materia medica, it will be sufficient to mention the name of Cullen. His work is still considered as classical, and is in the hands of every medical man. Whatever we may think of the reasoning and hypotheses which it contains, and however much we may be fatigued with the prolixity of some parts of the work, we shall always see a just value on the useful facts and practical remarks with which it abounds. It is to be regretted that Dr Cullen did not prepare a second edition of his materia medica before the infirmities of age had rendered him less qualified for the work, as in many respects the first edition is preferable to the second.

There are three works which Dr Cullen warmly recommended, and which he thought so excellent that he wished them to be in the hands of all his readers. These are Dr Lewis's "Experimental History of the Materia Medica," as published in 8vo by Dr Aikin; Bergius's "Materia Medica et regno Vegetabilis;" and the "Apparatus Medicaminum" of Professor Murray of Gottingen.

Soon after Dr Cullen published the second edition of his Materia Medica, a new edition of Lewis by Aikin appeared, superior to the former chiefly in containing the improvements made by the London college in their Pharmacopoeia in 1788. Dr Lewis's work is still valuable for the facts which it contains relative to the natural history of the substances, and the action of several chemical agents on them; but from the late changes that have been made in chemical nomenclature, the language in which it is written has already become obsolete.

Professor Murray had published but a small part of his "Apparatus Medicaminum," when the last edition of Cullen's Materia Medica appeared. He, however, lived to complete that part of his work which treats of vegetable substances, of which five volumes were published during his life, and a sixth after his death, by Dr Althof. In this last volume an account is given of columba root, anguictura bark, myrrh, and several other medicines, which could not properly be introduced into the general arrangement, as the plants from which they are procured were not certainly known.

A continuation of Murray's Apparatus Medicaminum in two volumes, containing an account of mineral substances, was published by Professor Gmelin in 1795. It is very good, but will scarcely now be consulted when the improved state of modern chemistry has given rise to the production of so many excellent works on the same subject.

In 1788 Dr Donald Monro published a work on chemistry, pharmacy, and the materia medica, in three volumes 8vo, under the title of "Medical and Pharmaceutical Chemistry." At the time of its publication, it was the best work of the kind in our language, and it is still very valuable, though the late improvements in chemistry have in some measure diminished the utility of the chemical part of the work.

About ten years ago was published the first volume of a small work entitled, A Practical Synopsis of the Introduction of Materia Alimentaria and Materia Medica, by an anonymous author, who had also some time before published The Thesaurus Medicaminum. After an interval of practical ten years this synopsis is at length completed by the publication of the second part of the second volume; and The Thesaurus Medicaminum we consider it as one of the most useful works on the subjects on which it treats. Both it and the Thesaurus Medicaminum abound with excellent practical observations, but the arrangement adopted will in some respects be considered as antiquated. Of this more hereafter. As these two works are intimately connected, it is to be wished, that in a subsequent edition they should be united into one, in which form they would make two moderate 8vo volumes.

In 1804 Mr Murray, lecturer on chemistry and materia medica in Edinburgh, published his Elements of Elements of Materia Medica and Pharmacy, in two volumes, of which the second is chiefly a translation of the new edition of the Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia, with some useful remarks. In his first volume, Mr Murray has made some ingenious observations on the general action of medicines, which, independently of the theory he adopts, we consider among the most valuable parts of his work.

Few works have had a more extensive circulation than the Edinburgh New Dispensatory, a work which was founded on the New Dispensatory of Dr Lewis, published in 1753. Of this dispensatory several successive editions were published under the direction of Dr Webster, Dr Duncan, and Dr Rotheram, till in 1803 a new work, under the same title, was published by Dr Andrew Duncan, junior. Of this improved Dispensatory we need say little; the rapid sale of three large editions, and the call which has been made for a fourth, sufficiently evince the opinion which the public has formed of its utility and execution. It is perhaps the most complete guide to the practical apothecary which we have in any language.

In 1805 was published a small volume containing Kirby's tabular view of the Materia Medica by Dr Kirby. This little work is intended as a manual to the young practitioner, and comprehends all the articles of the materia medica that are received into the Pharmacopoeias of Edinburgh, London, and Dublin, arranged into classes; and the mode of prescribing them is illustrated by appropriate formulas. Owing to the indifferent state of the author's health when this volume was printed, it is disfigured by numerous typographical errors; but these are in general only literal; and such as might mislead the practitioner are corrected in the table of Errata.

Among the best foreign publications on materia medica and pharmacy we may enumerate

Arnemann's Therapeia Generalis; Mirabelli's Apparatus Medicaminum; Bouillon Lagrange Manual de Pharmacien; Swediaur's Materia Medica; Swediaur's Pharmacopoeia; and the foreign Pharmacopoeias referred to in Duncan's Dispensatory.

PART PART I. DIETETICS.

THE subject of diet and regimen was much more attended to by the ancient physicians than it has been by those of modern times. In the writings of Hippocrates and Celsus we find some excellent remarks both on diet in general and on the particular diet that is suited to sick people, and for many centuries these authors formed our only guides. Of late indeed, this necessary branch of the healing art has been very successfully cultivated, and several valuable works have been published on the subject. Of these we shall here enumerate a few of the more respectable.

Cullen's Materia Medica, vol. i. Plenk's Bromatologia; Synopsis of Materia Alimentaria and Materia Medica, vol. i. Fordyce on Digestion; Nitbet on Diet; Halle's Articles on Diet in Encyclopédie Methodique; Dictionary of Medicine; Beddoes's Hygeia; Sir John Sinclair's Code of Health and Longevity.

In the brief sketch that we can here give of dietetics, we shall first treat of food in general, and then mention most of the animal and vegetable substances that have been or may be employed to support life.

All food is either of an animal or vegetable origin. The former is, no doubt, more allied to our nature, and most easily assimilated to its nourishment; the latter, though digested with more difficulty, is the foundation of the former, as vegetables are the nourishment of animals, and all food is therefore properly derived from this source. In many respects, however, vegetable and animal food differ; and this difference it is proper to remark, according to the various effects it displays on different parts of the human system. In the choice of vegetable food, a much nicer selection is made by man than by any other animal; and his choice is chiefly confined to those of a mild, bland nature, and of an agreeable taste. When any other substances are selected, it is entirely for the purpose of condiment or medicine. The first difference to be observed between animal and vegetable food, is with respect to their effects on the stomach and bowels. In the stomach, vegetable food always displays a tendency to acetylene, while animal food, on the contrary, tends towards putrefaction. Hence the former is apt to produce symptoms of uneasiness, while the latter in moderate quantity is almost never felt. In the same way, facility of digestion belongs to vegetable food; while from greater firmness of texture, and viscidity, animal food is apt to oppress. Nor does the latter, from its oily texture, always mix easily in the stomach with other matters; while vegetables unite readily, but frequently continue long on the stomach for want of a proper stimulus. Similar effects are produced in the bowels by these different kinds of food, as well as in the stomach. The acetylene of vegetable food is at all times apt to induce looseness; while the same effect is never known to arise from animal food, except in a very advanced state of putrefaction. On the contrary, the body is generally kept by it in a regular state; while vegetables, from the lesser portion of them going into chyle, produce a larger proportion of feculent matter, and lie longer in the bowels from their inactive nature before being expelled.

The nourishment conveyed by both kinds of food is much the same; but the animal product is in greater quantity, and more easily digested, while the vegetable retains its more watery nature, with a portion of unaffiliated saline matter, which though introduced, is again expelled by some of the excretions. The animal blood is then richer, more elaborated and stimulating, and excites a stronger action of the system than that produced from vegetables. Both products, however, equally take on an alkaline nature in the circulation; for the acetylene of the vegetable is confined entirely to its action on the stomach and bowels. Thus, from animal food a greater supply of nourishment is received for the wants of the system, depending on its greater quantity of oil, and its longer retention in the body than vegetable food. Agreeably to these different effects of animal and vegetable food, it is farther to be observed, that the latter is more quickly perishable than the former. Hence the tendency to obesity, which arises from animal food; while part of the vegetable aliment is very quickly carried off by urine.

The combination of a vegetable and animal diet, is certainly best suited to preserve a proper state of health and strength. There are few who subsist entirely upon vegetables, and of these few, the constitutions are generally feeble, fickle, and weak, and they are the constant victims to complaints of the stomach and bowels. Where this method of life is at all practised, it is confined to hot climates, where vegetable diet may no doubt be carried to a greater extent without injury. Some nations also have gone to the other extreme, and live entirely on animal food; and in a very cold atmosphere, this may be indulged beyond what would otherwise be safe for the health of the body, so that a mixture of vegetable and animal nourishment seems best fitted for the health of man. But the proportion in which these ought to be used, is a point equally necessary to be enquired into. The benefits that attend animal food are clearly the giving a superior strength and vigour; but, in proportion as it carries this to excess, it exposes the body to dangerous consequences, and to the production of various diseases. Hence those who exceed in the animal, or what we may term the athletic diet, are soon worn out, and fall the victims of the over proportion of strength which such living bellows.

The advantages again of vegetable food, are mostly of the passive kind, and though it is difficult of assimilation, yet under certain circumstances, a tolerable degree of strength and vigour may be acquired from it. It is more favourable for the appetite than animal food, and little injury can arise from too much repulsion with it. It has many advantages over animal food, as it introduces Dietetics introduces no improper acrimony into the system, and counteracts the baneful effects of animal diet. It is to this preference of vegetable food that the French owe their freedom from disease in a greater degree than the English; and the best rule to secure health, perhaps, is to confine infancy and youth mostly to a vegetable diet; manhood, and the decay of life, to animal food; while near the end of life, the vegetable system should again be returned to. But, whatever kind of diet we adopt, a variety in the form of our food, as well as the nature of it, should be attended to it. Thus the constant use of solid nourishment, however wholesome and nutritious, by giving the stomach more to do than is necessary, must be attended with hurtful consequences.

In the same way a perseverence in the liquid aliment, however fit by its qualities for conveying chyle into the system, could not fail to prove an improper diet, by depriving the stomach of that necessary stimulus from its form, which solid food conveys. A mixture, therefore, of solid and fluid nourishment is absolutely necessary, whatever the nature of that nourishment may be, and this proportion must be regulated by the different situations of different individuals. A man who is subjected to much bodily exertion, requires certainly the proportion of solid food to exceed, and likewise to be taken in the most permanent and nutritive state. A man again accustomed to little bodily labour, and subjected to the ease and inactivity of a sedentary life, should reverse this plan, and the proportion of liquid should be increased. In the use of the different kinds of food, the same regulations are proper. Where, along with a sedentary life, the stomach rejects much vegetable food, and a tendency to acidity renders its use improper, the bad consequences of an excess of animal diet must be corrected by giving it in the most soluble and diluted form. Thus the use of soups and broths becomes highly proper, as giving the sufficient stimulus of animal food to the stomach, and at the same time presenting it in a form by which a considerable part quickly passes off, and the excess of nourishment which consistent animal food would produce is greatly counteracted. It is to this cause that we may attribute the little injury which animal food is known to produce in Scotland, and also in France, where soups are much used.

With respect to the quantity of food to be actually taken, this must be regulated much by the appetite and the supply required. The appetite is the great indication of health; and where the stomach is in a healthy state, it relishes almost every kind of nourishment that is presented. This being the case, we are entirely to be regulated in the quantity taken by the appetite. Satiety is the natural consequence of repletion, and before this takes place, the stomach itself gives the alarm.

Among popular writers it has been a common axiom that a small quantity of food is most easily digested, and that we should rise from table with an appetite. This idea proceeds entirely from the opinion that digestion is effected by the muscular power of the stomach. But it is a truth sufficiently established that this is not the case. It depends entirely on the fluid of the stomach, or gastric secretion, and is performed by the application of this fluid equally well out of the body as within the organ. Indeed we may suppose that a consider-

able quantity of food, when taken, by producing a greater stimulus or irritation of the stomach, will increase the gastric fluid, and thus accelerate the processes of digestion. At the same time it must be observed that there is in infancy a proper foundation for this restriction. The gastric fluid in children is more active, and their stomach yields more readily to dilution; the appetite, therefore, will continue longer before the sense of satiety takes place; but even here, as the diet is mostly of a diluted kind, and soon passes off, we believe that more has been attributed to the effects of repletion, as the cause of disease in children, than what it deserves.

The proper rule, in all cases, is that the body should be sufficiently nourished, whatever the nature or the quantity of the nourishment employed may be, and this is best determined by the apparent state of the body, and what is again lost by it, or the quantity of its different discharges. The body also, we may observe, is at all times under the influence of habit, and where it is accustomed to be circumscribed, it is often amazing to find what small quantities of nourishment will suffice, and even health be preserved. Of this we have a number of remarkable instances brought forward by medical writers. Nor is this confined solely to man; the inferior animals show that their bodies can accommodate themselves to similar circumstances. This being the case, the constitution of man is limited in this respect less, even in civilized life, than what has been alleged. The chief point in health is to guard against extremes; for a uniform mode of life, even where errors are conspicuous, is always less dangerous than sudden excesses, either of one kind or another.

The manner of taking food also requires attention. In all solid nourishment a proper chewing should take place; this is a preparatory and necessary step to the action of the fluid in the stomach; but this chewing should not be carried, as some have advised, too far. Something should be left for the stomach to do, and this organ will be found improved by exercise and by increasing its active powers, as well as any other part of the body. Hence substances rather than difficult digestion may be at times properly presented to it.

In his choice of food man is not circumcised like the other animals. Its respective salubrity or perniciousness he can in general judge of only by its taste. Hence, that his taste may be as little deceived as possible, most nourishing substances, we observe, are of a bland, mild nature, and contain nothing offensive to this organ. Hence too there is a certain pleasure conjoint with the gratification of appetite, which is meant both as an incentive to our taking nourishment, and also to direct us in the selection of it.

From the constitution, however, of man, experience shows that any nourishment, however unfit, may be assimilated by habit, and that wholesome and unwholesome are often merely relative terms, regulated by the existing circumstances in which individuals are placed.

The desire for solid food is much seldom carried to excess than that for fluids. Both, where they occur, are not the effect of a natural appetite, but rather of that artificial one which is created by the use of stimulants increasing the relish of food to the palate, or its stimulant effect on the stomach. This excess be- comes increased by indulgence; and a habit, of course, comes to prevail, which diffuses the stomach, relaxes its tone, and destroys its elasticity; in consequence of which disorders of this organ arise, and a general fulness and corpulency in the whole system take place.

The manner of taking food, as well as the quantity and quality, requires some attention. All extremes in taking food, should be carefully avoided; it should pass into the stomach in a slow and regular manner, blended by the process of chewing with a sufficient quantity of saliva to promote its dissolution in the stomach. If hurried over without attention to this, the difficulty of digestion is increased, and the stomach is suddenly distended, and satiety produced before it is filled. The meal, therefore, becomes both deficient in quantity, and the food, from the digestive organs having more to do, remains longer on the stomach than is either necessary or proper.

For more on this subject, see the articles Aliment, Food, and Drink.

After these general observations on diet, we shall take a brief survey of the principal articles employed as food, under the general heads of Solid Food, Drink, and Condiments.

A. SOLID FOOD.

I. FROM THE ANIMAL KINGDOM.

Class I. MAMMALIA. Order 1. Primates.

There are few animals of this order employed as food. In some countries, however, several species of the genus simia or ape, are eaten, particularly Simia inuus, the Barbary ape. S. Beelzebul, the preacher monkey. S. Panificus, the four-fingered monkey.

Some species of the bat tribe are occasionally eaten by the natives of warm climates, especially Vespertilio vampyrus, the vampire bat.

Order 2. Bruta.

Several tribes of this order afford nourishment to uncivilized nations.

The great ant-eater (myrmecophaga jubata) is frequently eaten by the American Indians; but its flesh has a strong and disagreeable flavour.

Most species of daupys or armadillo form an article of diet among the Indians.

The flesh of the rhinoceros bicornis, or two-horned rhinoceros, is eaten in Abyssinia; but its flesh is very fine.

The flesh of the elephant is often eaten, both by the Abyssinians and Hottentots. See Elephant, Mammalia Index.

Several species of trichecus, or walrus, are eatable, especially Trichecus rosmarus, or arctic walrus.

Order 3. Feræ.

From this order mankind have long derived part of their nourishment, especially in the earlier periods of society.

The flesh of the common seal (phoca vitulina) was, a few centuries ago, served up at the tables of the great in this country; and it still forms the principal subsistence of the Greenlanders, Icelanders, and Kamtschadales.

The brown or black bear (ursus arctos) is eaten by the common people in Norway, Russia, and Poland. It is difficult of digestion, and is generally salted and dried before being used.

Of the dog tribe few species have been employed for food of man, though the common dog is greedily eaten by the inhabitants of the South-sea islands, and is sometimes used as food in more civilized societies. See Dog, Mammalia Index.

Of the cat tribe, the flesh of the lion is considered as excellent food by several nations of Africa, and Kolben prefers it to most other animal food.

The common otter (lutra vulgaris) is eaten in several Roman Catholic countries, and considered as nearly allied to fish. See Otter, Mammalia Index.

The young of the sea otter (lutra marina) are said to be delicate eating, not easily to be distinguished from lamb.

Several species of didelphis or opossum are considered Opossum by the natives of South America as equally good food with the flesh of the hare or rabbit, especially Didelphis Virginiana, the Virginia opossum.

The kangaroo (macropus major) forms a chief part of the animal food used by the natives of New Holland; but the flesh is very coarse.

The common hedgehog (erinaceus europaeus) is occasionally used as food; and its flesh is said to be extremely delicate.

Order 4. Glires.

The common porcupine (hystrix cristata) is eaten in Porcupine Sicily and Malta, and is frequently introduced to the politest tables at the Cape of Good Hope.

Several species of cavia are used as food in Guiana, Brazil, and other parts of South America, especially Cavia cobaya, the Guinea pig. C. paca, the spotted cavy. C. aguti, the long-nosed cavy, and C. apera, the rock cavy.

The flesh of the beaver (captor fiber) is employed as food in America, and is said to be good eating. It is preserved by drying it in the smoke.

The alpine marmot (arctomys marmota) affords nourishment to the poorer inhabitants of the Tyrol, Savoy, and other parts of the Alps; and, besides this, three other species are eatable, viz.

Arctomys monax, the Maryland marmot. A. bobak, bobak; and A. citellus, the saran, or earless marmot.

Several species of sciurus, or squirrel, may be eaten, squirrel especially the common squirrel (sciurus vulgaris), which is much used in Sweden and Norway, and its flesh is said to resemble that of a barn-door fowl.

The common jerboa (dipus jaculus) is eaten by the Arabs, who esteem its flesh among their greatest delicacies.

Most species of lepus, or the hare tribe, are used as common food, especially Lepus timidus, the common hare, and L. cuniculus, the rabbit.

Of these the flesh of the rabbit is softer and more digestible than that of the hare; but it is not so nourishing. Wild rabbits are both more digestible and more palatable than such as are domesticated.

Order 5. PECORA.

It is from this order that the principal part of animal food, in civilized countries, is derived. Almost all the animals contained in this order form excellent food.

Some species of camelus, or the camel tribe, are eaten, especially

Camelus dromedarius, the Arabian camel. C. glama, the glama, whose flesh is said to resemble mutton.

Of the genus cervus, the following species are most used, viz.

Cervus alces, the elk, eaten in Norway, Lapland, and Sweden, where its flesh is much esteemed. It is very nourishing, but lies long on the stomach.

C. elaphus, the common stag. The flesh of this animal, when full grown, is well known under the name of venison, and is very digestible, wholesome, and nourishing. The animal should not be killed till he is above four years old, and the flesh is fattest and best flavoured in the month of August.

C. tarandus, the rein deer. The flesh of this species forms the principal nourishment of the Laplanders; the tongues are excellent when salted and smoked, and the milk is sweet and nourishing.

C. dama, the fallow-deer. The flesh of this species is a variety of venison, and nearly resembles that of the stag. The buck is preferred.

C. capreolus, the roebuck. The flesh of the roebuck is considered as inferior to that of the last species.

Of the genus antelope, almost all the species afford excellent food; but the following is most generally employed, viz.

Antilope rupicapra, the chamois.

The flesh of the young ibex (capra ibex) is said to be excellent food.

Of the common goat (capra hircus) only the young are employed as food; and a roasted kid is a very common dish in America and the West Indies. Of goat's milk we shall speak hereafter.

Ovis aries, the common sheep. Mutton is well known to be a highly nutritious and wholesome meat. It is perhaps more universally used than any other animal food. Tup-mutton has such a strong smell and disagreeable taste, and is, besides, so exceedingly tough and difficult of digestion, that it is never eaten but by those who cannot afford to purchase mutton of a better quality. Ewe-mutton, if it be more than between two and three years old, is likewise tough and coarse. Wedder-mutton, or the flesh of the castrated animal, is most esteemed, and is by far the sweetest and most digestible. Lamb being less heating and less dense, is better suited to weak stomachs; but this applies only to the flesh of lambs that have not been robbed of their blood by repeated bleedings, or reared by the hand with milk adulterated with chalk, in order to make the meat appear white. Such practices to render the food pleasing to the eye, at the expense of its alimentary properties, cannot be too much reprobated.

Bos taurus, the common bull and cow. The flesh of the bull has a strong disagreeable smell, and is dry, tough, and difficult of solution in the stomach. Bull-beef is rarely eaten. But the flesh of the ox, or castrated animal, called ox-beef, is a highly nourishing and wholesome food, readily digested by healthy persons, and constituting a principal part of the common diet of the inhabitants of this and many other countries. It is the most strengthening of all kinds of animal food. Cow-beef is not so tender nor so nourishing, nor so digestible as ox-beef. Veal is tender and nourishing; but not so easily digested, nor so well suited to weak stomachs, as is commonly imagined. It is matter of just complaint, that the same injurious methods are practised in the rearing and management of calves, as have been already noticed under the article Lambe. By such treatment the quality of the flesh is much depraved. What is called beef-tea, is prepared by putting a pound of the lean part of beef, cut into very thin slices into a quart of water, and boiling it over a quick fire about five minutes, taking off the scum. The liquor is afterwards poured off clear for use. This makes a light and pleasant article of diet for weak and delicate people. On some occasions spices may be advantageously added to it. Gravy soup is very nourishing, but is heavy and heating. It is used as a clyster, as well as taken into the stomach. Calves-feet jelly is highly nutritious and demulcent.

Besides the common ox, the following species are employed as food, viz.

Bos americanus, the American bison. B. moschatus, the musk bull. B. bubalus, the buffalo. B. caffer, the cape ox, and B. grummiens, the yak.

Order 6. BERLUS.

The flesh of the horse may be eaten, but is very coarse. Mare's milk is often used medicinally, but is considered as inferior to that of the ass.

Asses milk is light, and well suited to weak stomachs. It is commonly employed in consumptive cases; and Hoffman recommends it in gout, rheumatism, jaundice, debility of the bowels, disorders of the urinary passages, and in fluor albus.

The flesh of the tapir (tapir americanus) is much esteemed by the inhabitants of South America, but is inferior to our beef.

The flesh of the wild boar is dense, but sufficiently tender, very nourishing, and more savoury than that of the domestic hog. But as the general properties of both are the same, they will be here noticed together. The flesh of the wild boar is in season in the month of October. The head is esteemed the finest part. The flesh of the young animal is reckoned a great delicacy. The common or domestic boar. The sow. The flesh of the sow is strong, and makes bad bacon. It is the flesh of the castrated animal that is in common use, and that is known by the name of pork. On account of the fat or lard with which it abounds, it is not very easily digested. It is a very savoury food, and affords a strong nourishment, suited to persons who lead an active or laborious life. The too frequent and long continued use of this meat favours obesity, produces foulness of the stomach and bowels, and occasions disorders of the skin. The flesh of the sucking pig is reckoned a great delicacy, is very nourishing; but by reason of the thick and slimy juice with which it abounds, it is not very readily dissolved in the stomach, and therefore is by no means a proper food for weak and sickly persons. Bacon is a coarse and heavy, but nutritive nutritive food, only fit to be taken in considerable quantity by robust and labouring people. When it constitutes a principal part of the daily diet, it brings on disorders similar to those which arise from the immoderate use of pork. In consequence of the fat or lard with which it abounds, the flesh of the swine tribe is more or less laxative. Upon the whole, it may be said of pork, that the occasional and sparing use of it is sufficiently salutary; but that it cannot be made a principal part of the daily diet, without producing disorder in many constitutions, and particularly in those who are of a melancholic temperament, and lead a sedentary life.

The flesh of the different species of this genus is edible, especially that of the *fus tajaffu* and *S. babyrufa*.

**CLASS II. BIRDS. Order 2. PICAE.**

Of this order only two species are generally used as food.

*Corvus frugilegus*, the rook. The young of this bird is very similar to the pigeon, but is rather inferior in flavour and digestibility.

*P. viridis*, the green woodpecker. The flesh of this and some other species is palatable, but of difficult solution.

**Order 3. ANSERES.**

Of this order the principal species that are eaten belong to the genus *anas*, of which all the species may be used for food; but the following are most generally employed, viz. *anas cygnus*, the wild swan. *A. olor*, the tame swan. *A. anser*, the goose. *A. bernicla*, the brent goose. *A. molchata*, the Mute swan. *A. penelope*, wigeon. *A. ferina*, pochard. *A. crecca*, teal. *A. boschas*, wild duck. *A. domestica*, the tame or common duck.

*Alca arctica*, puffin. *A. tarda*, the razor-bill. *A. cirrhata*, the tufted auk.

*Pelicanus barbatus*, the soland goose.

*Larus marinus*, the black-backed gull.

Of these the swan, the goose, the wigeon, the teal, the wild and tame duck, are the most digestible; the barnacle, the puffin, the soland goose, and the black-backed gull, are very fat, heavy, and have generally a filly taste.

**Order 4. GRALLE.**

Of this order most of the genera furnish very good and savoury food. The following are most commonly used, viz.

*Scolopax rusticola*, the woodcock. *S. gallinago*, the snipe. *S. gallinula*, the jack snipe. *S. glotris*, the great plover, or green-flank. *S. tetanus*, the spotted snipe. *S. limosa*, the stone plover. *S. lapponica*, the red godwit.

*Tringa pugnax*, the ruff and reeve. *T. vanellus*, the lapwing or bearded plover. *T. cinclus*, the purple. *T. squatarola*, the grey plover, or sandpiper.

*Charadrius maritimus*, the dotterel. *C. pluvialis*, the green plover. *C. ceticenmus*, the thick-kneed bustard. *C. hemantopus*, the long-legged plover.

*Fulica fulca*, the brown gallinule. *F. chloropus*, the common water-hen. *F. porphyrio*, the purple water-hen.

**Order 5. GALLINAE.**

This order furnishes the principal part of the food which we derive from the class of birds. The following species afford excellent nourishment, viz.

*Pavo cristatus*, the peacock.

*Meleagris gallopavo*, the turkey.

*Penelope cristata*, the guan.

*Crax alector*, the crested curassow.

*Phasianus gallus*, the common fowl. *Ph. colchicus*, the common pheasant.

*Numida meleagris*, the Guinea hen.

*Tetrao urogallus*, the wood grouse. *T. tetrix*, the black cock or black game. *T. lagopus*, red game. *T. perdix*, the common partridge. *T. coturnix*, the quail.

**Order 6. PASSERES.**

The following species of this order may be employed as food, viz.

*Columba domestica*, the common pigeon, and *C. palumbus*, the ring dove.

*Alauda*, the lark. All the species.

*Turdus villicivorus*, the mistle thrush. *T. pilaris*, the fieldfare. *T. merula*, the blackbird.

*Loxia curvirostra*, the fieldfinch, or crossbill. *L. cothrautes*, the grosbeak or hawfinch. *L. chloris*, the green finch.

*Emberiza nivalis*, the snow bunting. *E. melaria*, the bunting. *E. hortulana*. *E. citrinella*, or yellow hammer.

*Fringilla celebs*, the chaffinch. *F. montifringilla*, the brambling, or bramble-finch. *F. domestica*, the house sparrow. *F. montana*, the tree sparrow.

*Motacilla modularis*, the hedge sparrow. *M. flcida*, the epicurean warbler. *M. cananthe*, the wheatear. *M. rubitra*, the whin chat. *M. rubicula*, the stonechat. *M. phoenicurus*, the redstart. *M. erithalus*, the redbreast.

*Hirundo eculenta*, the eculent swallow.

After this enumeration of birds, we must say something respecting the nutritious properties of eggs.

It is probable that the eggs of all the birds which we have mentioned, and perhaps of most others, might be employed as food; but custom and convenience have given the preference to those of the common hen, the guinea hen, and the duck. The fluid contents of an egg consist of the white and the yolk. The former very much resembles the lymph of the blood, or the coagulable part of milk. The latter, viz. the yolk, is an animal mucilage, composed of oil, coagulable lymph and water. It is miscible with cold water, so as to form an emulsion. The oil is separable from the yolk, boiled till it becomes hard, by means of prejudice.*

The eggs of all granivorous birds, and especially of the domestic fowl, yield a mild demulcent and strengthening aliment, well suited to consumptive persons, and such as are exhausted by immoderate evacuations. Raw eggs are gently laxative, and are found to be serviceable in cases of jaundice and obstructed liver. A nutritive restorative drink is prepared by rubbing the yolks of two or three eggs, and a little white sugar, with a pint pint or two of cold water, adding to it afterwards a glaas of Rhenish or any other light wine, and a little lemon juice, to give it a flavour. This egg-emulsion without the wine, is a good remedy in coughs, hoarseness, spitting of blood, collyreens, &c.

Both the white and yolk of eggs are very indigestible when boiled to hardness. Eggs should be subjected to as little of the art of cookery as possible. The lightest as well as the simplest mode of preparing them for the table, is to boil them only as long as is necessary to coagulate slightly the greatest part of the white, without depriving the yolk of its fluidity. This is what is called poaching them; and in this way they sit well upon most stomachs.

**Class III. AMPHIBIA. Order 1. REPTILES.**

This class furnishes but few articles of food, and of these the following are the most usually employed, viz.

*Testudo mydas*, the green turtle. *T. ferox*. *T. graeca*, the land turtle.

*Rana esculenta*, the edible frog, or green water-frog.

*Lacerta agilis*, common green lizard. *L. icincus*, the seink.

**Order 2. SERPENTS.**

*Culuber viper*, the viper. *C. perus*, the adder.

Of these the turtle is well known as a most nourishing and palatable food. The eculent frog, though not very nutritious, tastes much like chicken; the viper and adder are chiefly used in soups, which are considered as great restoratives.

**Class IV. FISHES.**

It is probable that almost all the different species of fish might be employed as food, but the following are chiefly eaten, viz.

**Order 1. APODES.**

*Muraena anguilla*, the common eel. *M. conger*, the conger eel. *Ammodytes tobianus*, the sand lance, or sand eel.

**Order 2. JUGULARES.**

*Callyonimus lyra*, the gemmous dragonet. *C. dracunculus*, the fordid dragonet.

*Trachinus draco*, the weever.

*Gadus angelfinus*, the haddock. *G. catlarias*, the torb. *G. morrhua*, the codfish. *G. barbatus*, the pont. *G. merlangus*, the whiting. *G. pollachius*, the pollack. *G. molva*, the ling. *G. lota*, the burbot.

**Order 3. THORACICI.**

*Zeus faber*, the dory.

*Pleuronectes hippopotamus*, the holibut. *P. platessa*, the plaice. *P. fleus*, the flounder. *P. limanda*, the dab. *P. solea*, the sole. *P. maximus*, the turbot.

*Chetodon rostratus*, the jocator. *C. imperator*, the emperor of Japan.

*Sparus maena*, the perch.

*Scomber*, the mackerel.

*Mullus barbatus*, the red mullet. *M. surmuletus*, the striped mullet.

*Trigla lyra*, the piper.

**Order 4. ABDOMINALES.**

*Cobitis barbula*, the loach, or groundling.

*Salmofalar*, the salmon. *S. trutta*, the sea trout. *S. fario*, the trout. *S. alpinus*, the char. *S. salvelinus*, the salmon trout. *S. umbra*, the smelt. *S. albulus*, the whitling. *S. thymallus*, the grayling.

*Mugil cephalus*, the mullet.

*Clupea harengus*, the herring. *C. sprattus*, the sprat. *C. alofa*, the shad. *C. encrasicolus*, the anchovy.

*Cyprinus barbus*, the barbel. *C. carpio*, the carp. *C. gobio*, the gudgeon. *C. tinea*, the tench. *C. cephalus*, the chub. *C. leuciscus*, the dace. *C. rutilus*, the roach. *C. erythrophthalmus*, the rud. *C. alburnus*, the bleak; and *C. brama*, the bream.

**Order 6. CHONDROPTERYGII.**

*Accipenser sturio*, the sturgeon. *A. ruthenus*, the starlet. *A. hufo*, the ifinglas fish.

*Raia batis*, the skate.

*Petromyzon marinus*, the lamprey. *P. fluviatilis*, the lesser lamprey. *P. branchialis*, the lampern, or pride.

The whole menes of fish in diet has been much disputed. According to some, it is the most delicious food of any; and according to others, it is without strength or substance. It is certainly not adapted to be the sole diet of the laborious clas, but it makes an excellent addition to vegetable food; for instance, with potatoes, or other roots, what can be more acceptable than a salted or smoked herring, to give a relish to such insipid diet? It is said, indeed, that one barrel of salted herrings will, in this way, go as far as three barrels of salted beef. Fresh fish is certainly well calculated for sedentary people, and those who reside in towns; and at all events, it is fortunate to have such a resource for food in a populous country, to be made use of when any exigency requires such aid.

The texture of fish, in general, is more tender than that of flesh. They have nothing of a fibrous structure, like flesh; of course, they are more easily digested than meat, especially such as are not of a viscid nature.

It is a singular circumstance regarding fish, that, though we require vegetables with our meat, we hardly ever take them with fish. Cullen says, that by way of experiment he has taken apples along with fish, but found them to disturb digestion.

The objections to fish, however, are numerous. The nourishment derived from them it is said, is incomplete; not so stimulating, nor so congenial to the nature of man, as either birds or quadrupeds; some classes of them also, as shell-fish, salmon, &c., are more indigestible than meat; and fish, in general, has a stronger tendency to putrefaction than meat. But the faults of fish are somewhat corrected by the manner in which they are commonly eaten. In a fresh state, sauces and pickles of an acid nature are employed with them, and when dried, the action of the stomach is promoted by salt and spices. Fish, compared with flesh, is less nourishing; and the more viscid sorts hand- Materia Medica, &c.

Class V. Insects.

Of insects properly so called, none are used in substance as food, except various species of cancer, viz., Cancer maenas, the common crab. C. pagurus, the black-clawed crab. C. gammarus, the lobster. C. astacus, the craw fish. C. ferratus, the prawn. C. crangon, the shrimp, and C. squilla, the white shrimp.

Under this class we may rank honey, the produce of the bee, which in its general elementary properties agrees with sugar, to be afterwards noticed. It is, however, rather more heating, and will not agree with many stomachs. It is best eaten from the comb, as the wax seems to correct its unpleasant effects.

Class VI. Vermes. Order 2. Mollusca.

The sepia sepia, and the echinus esculentus, are the only edible genera of this order of worms, and even these are a coarse and by no means a nourishing food.

Order 3. Testacea.

Cardium edule, the common cockle. Ostrea edulis, the common oyster. Mytilus edulis, the eatable mule. Helix pomatia, the common snail.

Of these, the oyster and the snail are the most wholesome and digestible.

As occupying a middle rank between animal and vegetable food, we shall here notice milk and its various products.

Milk is the proper and natural food of the young of all animals of the mammalia class; and cows milk makes a principal part of the daily diet of a great proportion of the human race, both in the infant and adult state. On account of the abundance of oily and cheesy matter which it contains, cow's milk is to infants by no means so well suited as human milk; but as the mode of living in civilized society often depraves the quality of woman's milk, or prevents its secretion, cows milk in too many instances becomes a necessary substitute. On such occasions, as it is too heavy to be given alone, it should be diluted with water; and as it is disposed to become more acetic than human milk, and from that cause to produce gripings and other disorders of the bowels in young children, it will often be useful to mix with it decoctions of animal substances, such as chicken or veal broth, or decoction of hartshorn shavings; of which last two ounces should be boiled in a quart of water, over a gentle fire, till the whole is reduced to a pint; when, after it is become cold, it will be of the consistence of a light jelly. This, mixed with about twice its quantity of cows milk, with the addition of a little sugar, forms for young subjects a proper aliment, approaching nearly to the nature of human milk.

Milk is used medicinally in consumptions, especially in their early stage; in gouty affections, after the paroxysm is gone off, in smallpox, diluted with water, as the common drink; in measles, especially the malignant kind, diluted in the same manner; in gonorrhea, lues venerea, and during a mercurial salivation in cancerous affections; in cases where mineral and animal poisons have been swallowed; in cases of strangury and dysury from the absorption of cantharides, &c.; in fluor albus; in many spasmodic and nervous disorders.

When milk is used medicinally, it is often serviceable to dilute it with Pyrmont, Seltzer, or some other proper mineral water; and to prevent acidity, and make it fit easier on the stomach, linewater, and some of the distilled aromatic waters, are occasionally mixed with it. To obviate coarseness, which milk is apt to induce, it is often proper to mix brown sugar, or magnesia with it, to boil it with oatmeal, veal broth, &c.

In general, milk is improper in inflammatory fevers, unattended with putridous eruptions; in bilious fevers; in scrophulous cases; and in rickets.

The following are the principal products and preparations of milk in dietetic and medicinal use; cream and butter are well known; nor can it be necessary to notice how much they disorder the stomach and bowels when taken too freely.

Cheese taken in considerable quantity, are highly opulentive to the stomach, and not unfrequently prove the cause of obstructions and inflammations of the bowels.

Cheese varies according to the kind of milk from which it is prepared, according to the quantity of oil and whey which the coagulable matter contains, and lastly according to its age. In general, it is an aliment suited only to strong stomachs, and to such persons as use great and constant exercise. In the higher orders of society, it is used chiefly as a condiment. Toasted cheese is not easily digested by weak stomachs; and for those who can be hurt by indigestion, or heated by a heavy supper, it is a very improper diet.

Buttermilk is milk which has been deprived of its oily matter by churning or agitation. It is nourishing, cooling, and diluent. It is used in cachexies, atrophies, consumptions, &c.

Whey is the watery, saccharine part of milk, freed in a great measure from the butyaceous and caseous matter. It is lightly nutritive, diluent, aperient, and diuretic. It is given in consumptions, dysenteries, jaundice, &c., alone, or mixed with mineral waters, and sometimes impregnated with the juices of medicinal herbs. Wine whey, tartar whey, mustard whey, will be particularly noticed in their proper places.

Sugar of milk is a saline sublimation, obtained from the whey by evaporation. It has been properly called the essential salt of milk. It has been much extolled by some writers as a remedy in consumptions; but as it is contained in whey, it is evident that preparation must possess all its virtues, and therefore that the trouble of obtaining it separate must be unnecessary.

II. From the Vegetable Kingdom.

Vegetable food is more ancient than any other. As forming the food of animals, it is the foundation of all vegetable food which in turn afford sustenance to man. Indeed there are no circumstances under which a diet of animal food should be solely employed. This has been confirmed by every experiment made; and the confinement of a person only for a few days to this mode of living, has induced... induced such symptoms as obliged him to desist. Besides this, by stimulating to an extreme degree, the springs of life are by animal diet urged on too fast; and preternatural, and of course weakening exertions of the system ensue, which induces, from their excess, an early decay. Thus childhood is prematurely ushered by it into manhood; and the powers of manhood, soon exhausted, display the infirmities and progres of age, at a period when vigour and strength should still be in perfection. A diet of vegetable food is, on the contrary, conducive to long life. It neither accelerates the vital energy, nor ripens the fruit before its time, but with a slow and regular step brings forwards the different stages in their due season, and with all the advantages which their proper maturity ought to confer on them.

At the same time, while we thus point out the good effects of a vegetable diet, in arresting the progress of life, and giving a greater permanence to existence, we by no means approve of it as a diet to be entirely trusted to.

Disclaimers on the exclusive use of vegetable diet have not been taken into view the various and new circumstances of situation in which man is now placed. He is no longer the child of nature, nor the passive inhabitant of one genial spot, as when he was first formed. He is now a citizen of the world at large; exertion and toil are his constant attendants, and he requires a more ready and assimilated nourishment than vegetable food can convey. In many situations also, the vigour of his system is weakened by extremes of temperature, which demand, to counteract them, the most stimulant and invigorating food he is capable of acquiring. The excellence of vegetable food used alone is therefore confined to a mild temperature and a passive state, and there it certainly deserves that preference which humanity and philosophy have bestowed upon it. Considering vegetable food as conveying a nourishment insufficient for our present civilized situation, we shall next state the inconveniences that attend its being used in excess. The first inconvenience of vegetable food already noticed, is its constant tendency to acephacy; but this is hurtful only when it takes place to a morbid degree. If a natural tendency to acephacy prevails in the stomach, as a step towards assimilation, it cannot fail to be noisily increased by the sole use of vegetables; and the counteracting of this state, or checking the tendency to fermentation, must be the great secret in the regulation of vegetable diet. This secret no doubt depends on the preventing, by our choice of vegetables, excess in the proportion of fermentable or saccharine matter, and in exciting the action of the stomach, so that the vegetable food may not be too long retained upon it.

The next inconvenience alleged against vegetable diet is its difficulty of assimilation. That vegetable aliment is more difficult in being reduced to nourishment, seems generally admitted, and in the end it produces a greater quantity of faeces. When received into the stomach it is likewise specifically lighter than the gastric fluids. Hence it floats near the top of the stomach, and causes irritations. This uneasiness is not felt for some time after its reception, but afterwards it begins to operate on the upper orifice of the stomach. The difficulty, however, of assimilation that attends vegetable food, may be got the better of by a proper selection of it; and it will also be chiefly felt in weak stomachs, and will by no means affect the vigorous and robust.

A third inconvenience of vegetable food is its extraction of a considerable quantity of air, by which the stomach becomes distended, often to an enormous degree, and much uneasiness is produced in the adjacent organs. This extraction of air is common to all vegetables; it varies, however, extremely in different kinds of them; and it is from this circumstance that the flatulence and torpor is experienced, which succeeds a full meal of them. Hence all vegetables that contain much of it should undergo a previous preparation before being used as food.

These, then, are the chief inconveniences attending a vegetable regimen; while on the contrary, to counterbalance them, this species of diet is always found to promote or sharpen the appetite, and to keep the stomach in an active state. Neither are any constitutional disorders the consequence of it, as happens from animal food, for whatever morbid symptoms arise under its use are confined almost entirely to the stomach and bowels, and seldom carry any hurtful effects to the system at large. Neither do any evils arise from occasional excesses in its use; and the mischiefs of repletion or overfullness are avoided by it, unless in cases of extreme indolence, or where a continued course of intemperance is pursued as to the quantity taken. By its moderate stimulus it counteracts the disposition to an inflammatory state, and in many cases proves highly serviceable, in checking the violence, and arresting the progress of many constitutional diseases. Independently of its nature, it is of great importance to the stomach, by giving that proper diffusion which this organ requires in order to its healthy action.

The wisdom of nature has provided that the extent of vegetable food should be much greater than that of animal food, as the former is the foundation of nourishment for all the animated creation. Hence we find that there is scarcely any vegetable that does not afford nourishment to some animal; and there are many which, though naturally of a deleterious quality, can, by proper preparation, be converted into nourishment to man. Man, more than any other animal, is distinguished as to the choice of food which he makes; and in this selection he is generally determined by his taste, between which and the stomach nature has established such a sympathy, that what is disagreeable to the one, is seldom very digestible by the other. Hence inclination is to be particularly studied in every case of weaknesses of the stomach.

Among the other properties of vegetable food, it has been especially considered by all authors as having most influence on the powers of the mind, and in preserving a delicacy of feeling, a liveliness of imagination, and an activity of judgement; but in proportion to these superior qualities, it must be observed, this state of body is equally the attendant of timidity, fluctuation, and doubt. Animal food, in the other extreme, gives a strong vigour and firmness of purpose, fitted for the most active exertions of life. By a mixture of diet these two extremes come to be counteracted; the body possesses a proper share of vigour; and, correspondent to it, the mind displays a firmness and capacity suited to every valuable purpose. The diet, then, Dietetics then, producing this state may be properly called temperance, without limiting the individual to an exact portion of either kind of food, or tying him up by the absurd and sickly system of Cornaro; and this state will be properly regulated by the experience and feelings of each individual, both in regard to the quantity and quality of his nourishment.

In the use of vegetable food, as well as animal, attention must be paid both to the proportion of it taken, and also to the state in which it is used. The first of these must be regulated by the three circumstances of season, way of life, and climate. With respect to the first—in summer the quantity of vegetable food should be always increased, whatever our habits may be; the propriety of this is evidently pointed out by nature, from its abundance at this period. This increase of vegetable food is also the more necessary if the appetite is naturally keen and healthy, as a more strongly nourishing aliment would at this time expose to all the effects of putrefaction, which the increase of the vegetable diet will, on the contrary, counteract.

The way of life must also regulate a good deal the proportion of vegetable nourishment. An essential circumstance in the use of all diet, as we formerly remarked, is the production of such a distention of the stomach and bowels as may enable them to act properly on their contents. In the sedative and inactive, it is particularly desirable that this distention should be produced by food of a less nourishing kind, and that no more nourishment be received than what the wants of the system require. Hence in these cases, a vegetable diet is to be preferred, while, in the active and laborious, the plan should be reversed.

It is a fact sufficiently established, that the proportion of vegetable food should be in a great measure regulated by the climate, as there is no doubt that the mortality of warm climates is aggravated by the use of too much animal food; and that a diet of a vegetable and acefcent nature with a large proportion of condiment, such as we find used by the inhabitants of those countries, is best suited to the preservation of health; for by this excess of condiment, the morbid effects on the stomach and bowels, natural to vegetable food, are counteracted, and the chyle formed from them passes into the circulation in a proper state for supporting the body in such a situation. On the other hand, in a colder region, a permanence of nourishment is required, which animal food particularly conveys; and as this nourishment is less apt to disorder the stomach or bowels, no great portion of condiment is necessary, either as a stimulus to the organ, or in order to avoid any hurtful consequences that may arise. The proportion, therefore, of vegetable food is clearly pointed out to be small, and chiefly of the farinaceous or least acefcent kind.

The state in which vegetable food is used is of equal importance with the proportion of it taken. Thus vegetable food particularly requires to be used in a fresh state; for, by being kept, many kinds of vegetables lose their peculiar flavour, their taste and smell, and in consequence of this become indigestible; this is particularly the case with the pulses, with herbs, and with fruits.*

To these general remarks we shall subjoin a catalogue of esculent plants from Bryant's Flora Dietetica, distributed according to the method of that author, into roots, shoots, stalks, leaves, flowers, berries, stone fruit, apples, legumes, grain, nuts, and funguses.

I. ESCULENT ROOTS.

Sect. 1. Roots now or formerly made use of as Bread.

Arum colocasia, Egyptian arum. A. esculentum, eddiers. Canna palustris, water dragons. Convolvulus batatas, Spanish potatoes. Dioscorea sativa. D. alata. D. bulbifera, Indian yams. Jatropha maniot, Indian bread. Nymphaea lotus, Egyptian lotus. Sagittaria sagittifolia, common arrowhead. Solanum tuberosum, common potatoes. Yucca gloria, Adam's needle. Polygonum divaricatum, eastern buckwheat.

Sect. 2. Roots occasionally eaten as Condiments, or for other family purposes.

Amomum zingiber, common ginger. Allium cepa, common onion. A. ascalonicum, shallot. A. foerderatum, robamole. Apium petroelimum, common parsley. Bunium bulbocastanum, earth nut or pig-nut. Beta rubra, red beet. Brassica rapa, common turnip. B. rapa punicca, purple-rooted turnip. B. rapa flavescens, yellow-rooted turnip. B. rapa oblonga, long rooted turnip. Campanula rapunculus, rampion. Cochlearia armoracia, horse radish. Carum carvi, caraway. Cyperus esculentus, rush nut. Daucus carota, carrot. Eryngium maritimum, sea holly, or eryngo root. Guilandina maringa, Ceylon guilandina. Helianthus tuberosus, Jerusalem artichoke. Ixia chinensis, spotted ixia. I. bulbifera, bulb-bearing ixia. Lathyrus tuberosus, peas earth nut. Orobos tuberosus, death pea. Orchis macula, male orchis. Pastinaca sativa, the parsnip. Raphanus sativus, the radish. Scorzonera hispanica, wiper's grass. Sium sisarum, fennel. Lilium martagon, martagon lily. Tulipa gesneriana, common tulip. Tragopogon pratensis, yellow goat's-beard. T. porrifolium, purple goat's-beard.

II. ESCULENT SHOOTS, STALKS, SPROUTS, AND PITHS.

Sect. 1. Shoots and Stalks.

Asparagus officinalis, asparagus. Anethum azoricum, sweet azorian fennel. Angelica archangelica, angelica. Arctium lappa, burdock. Akelepias syriaca, greater Syrian dogbane. Apium graveolens, smalage. A. dulce, garden celery.

*See Nijlet on Diet. Campanula pentagonia, *Thracian bell-flower*.

Cynara cardunculus, *cardoon*, or *chardoon*.

Carduus Marianus, *milk thistle*.

Chicus cerastes, *Siberian nodding thistle*.

Chenopodium bonus henricus, *English mercury*.

Convolvulus feldanella, *sea bindweed*.

Cucubalus behen, *feathery poppy*.

Epilobium angustifolium, *rosebay willow herb*.

Humulus lupulus, *wild hops*.

Onopordum acanthium, *cotton thistle*.

Rheum rhaboticum, *rhabotic rhubarb*.

Smyrnium olusatrum, *common alexanders*. S. perforatum, *round-leaved alexanders*.

Saccharum officinarum, *sugar-cane*.

Sonchus alpinus, *mountain sow-thistle*.

Tamus communis, *black briony*.

Tragopogon pratensis, *yellow goat's-beard*. T. porrifolius, *purple goat's-beard*.

**Sect. 2. Sprouts and Piths.**

Areen oleracea, *cabbage-tree*.

Arundo bambos, *bamboo-cane*.

Brassica oleracea, *common cabbage*. B. O. viridis, *green savoy cabbage*. B. O. sabauda, *white savoy cabbage*. B. barryts, *cauliflower*. B. B. alba, *white cauliflower*. B. nigra, *black cauliflower*. B. fabellica, *Siberian broccoli*. B. praecox, *early battersea cabbage*.

B. rapa, *common turnip*.

Cyperus papyrus, *paper rush*.

Cycas circinalis, *sago palm tree*.

Portulaca oleracea, *purslane*. P. latifolia, *broad-leaved garden purslane*.

Smilax aspera, *red berry, rough pine-weed*.

**III. ESCULENT LEAVES.**

**Sect. 1. Cold Salads.**

Apium petroselinum, *parsley*. A. crispum, *curled-leaved parsley*.

Allium cepa, *common onion*. A. schrenoprasum, *cives*.

A. oleraceum, *wild garlic*.

Artemisia dracunculus, *taragon*.

Alfalfa media, *common chick-weed*.

Borago officinalis, *borage*.

Cacalia ficoides, *fig marigold-leaved cacalia*.

Cichorium endivia, *endive*. C. endivia crispa, *curled-leaved endive*.

Cochlearia officinalis, *sourgy grass*.

Erysimum alliaria, *Jack by the hedge*. E. barbara, *winter cress or rocket*.

Fucus saccharinus, *sweet fucus or sea belts*. F. palmarus, *handed fucus*. F. digitatus, *fingered fucus*. F. esculentus, *edible fucus*.

Hypochaeris maculata, *spotted hawk-weed*.

Lactuca sativa, *lettuce*.

Leontodon taraxacum, *dandelion*.

Lepidium sativum, *garden cress*. L. virginicum, *Virginia cistic cress*.

Mentha sativa, *curled mint*. M. viridis, *spearmint*.

Oxalis acetosella, *wood sorrel*.

Poterium sanguisorba, *garden burnet*.

Primula veris, *common cowslips*, or *paiglet*.

Rumex acetosus, *round-leaved sorrel*. R. acetosa, *common sorrel*.

Salicornia europaea, *jointed glasswort*, or *saltwort*.

Scandix cerefolium, *common chervil*. S. odorata, *sweet cicely*.

Sedum reflexum, *yellow stonecrop*. S. rupestre, *St Vincent's rock stonecrop*.

Silybum marianum, *water-cress*.

Sinapis alba, *white mustard*.

Tanacetum balsamita, *coltmary*.

Valeriana locuta, *lamb's lettuce*.

Veronica beccabunga, *brooklime*.

Ulva lactuca, *green laver*.

**Sect. 2. Boiling Salads.**

Amaranthus oleraceus, *esculent amaranth*.

Arum eculentum, *Indian kale*.

Atriplex hortensis, *garden orach*. A. hortensis nigricans, *dark green garden orach*. A. hortensis rubra, *red garden orach*.

Anethum graveolens, *common fennel*. A. dulce, *sweet fennel*.

Brassica oleracea, *cabbages*. B. napus, *colewort*.

Chenopodium bonus henricus, *v. r.*.

Cnicus oleraceus, *round-leaved meadow thistle*.

Corchorus olitorius, *common flews mallow*.

Crane maritima, *sea colewort*.

Iatropha maniot, *coffea*.

Malva rotundifolia, *dwarf mallow*.

Mentha viridis, *spearmint*. See Sect. i.

Phytolacca decandra, *American nightshade*.

Ranunculus ficaria, *pilewort*.

Raphanus sativus, *common radish*.

Salvia sclarea, *garden clary*.

Spinacia oleracea, *common spinach*. S. O. glabra, *smooth spinach*.

Thea bohea, *bohea tea*. T. viridis, *green tea*.

Urtica dioica, *common stinging nettle*.

**Sect. 3. Pot Herbs.**

Apium graveolens, *celery*. A. petroselinum, *parsley*.

Allium porrum, *leeks*.

Brassica oleracea, *cabbages*.

Beta vulgaris alba, *white beet*.

Crithmum maritimum, *rock samphire*.

Hydrocotyle officinalis, *common hydrop*.

Oxalis acetosella, *wood sorrel*.

Ozyum basilicum, *sweet scented basil*.

Origanum marjorana, *common marjoram*. O. marjorana tenuifolia, *fine-leaved sweet marjoram*. O. heracleoticum, *winter sweet marjoram*. O. onites, *pot marjoram*.

Pieris echioides, *common ox-tongue*.

Rosmarinus officinalis, *common rosemary*. R. hortensis, *garden rosemary*.

Salvia officinalis, *green and red sage*. S. minor, *tea sage*.

Satureja hortensis, *summer savory*. S. montana, *winter savory*.

Scandix cerefolium, *common chervil*. S. odorata, *sweet cicely*.

Sonchus oleraceus, *common sow thistle*.

Thymus vulgaris, *common thyme*. T. mastichinus, *maffic thyme*.

**IV. ESCULENT FLOWERS.**

Calendula officinalis, *common marigold*. Materia Medica, &c.

Caltha palustris, marsh marigold. Capparis spinosa, caper bush. Carthamus tinctorius, safflower. Carlinea caulis, dwarf carline thistle. Cynara cardunculus, cardoon. Cynara scolymus, green or French artichoke. C. hor- tenis, globe artichoke. Coriaria filicaulorum, common Judas-tree. Helianthus annuus, annual sunflower. Onopordum acanthium, cotton thistle. Tropaeolum majus, Indian cress. T. minus, smaller Indian cress.

V. ESCULENT BERRIES.

Sect. 2. Indigenous or Native Berries.

Arbutus uva urfi, bear berry. A. alpina, mountain strawberry. A. unedo, common strawberry. Berberis vulgaris, common barberry. Crataegus airea, white beam tree. C. terminalis, maple- leaved service or sorb. Fragaria verna vel sylvestris, wood strawberry. F. northumbriensis, Northumberland strawberry. F. im- perialis, royal wood strawberry. F. granulosa, minion wood strawberry. F. pratensis, Swedish green straw- berry. F. moschata, hauksey strawberry. F. moschata her- maphrodita, royal hauksey. F. chinensis, Chinese straw- berry. F. virginiana, Virginian scarlet strawberry. F. V. coccinea, Virginian scarlet-bladdered strawberry. F. V. campeltris, wild Virginian strawberry. F. chi- loensis, Chili strawberry. F. C. devanensis, Devonshire strawberry. Juniperus communis, common or English juniper. J. arbor, Swedish juniper. Ribes rubrum et album, red and white currants. R. nigrum, black currants. R. grossularia, gooseber- ries. Rosa canina, dog's rose, or hep burs. Rubus idaeus, raspberry. R. I. albus, white rasp- berry. R. I. levis, smooth-flaked raspberry. R. cae- sius, dewberry. R. fruticosus, common bramble. R. chamaemorus, cloudberry. R. arcticus, shrubby straw- berry. Vaccinium myrtillus, blackworts, or bilberry. V. vitis idea, redworts. V. oxycoccus, cranberry.

Sect. 2. Foreign Berries, often raised in gardens and stoves.

Annona muricata, sour sop. A. reticulata, custard apple. A. squamosa, sweet sop. Bromelia ananas, pine apple. B. ananas pyramid- to fructu, sugar-loaf pine-apple. B. karatas, the pen- guin. Cactus opuntia, prickly pear. C. triangularis, true prickly pear. Capsicum annum, annual Guinea pepper. C. fru- teceus, perennial Guinea pepper. Carica papaya, the papaw or popo. C. popofora, pear- shaped papaw. Chryophyllum cainito, star-apple. C. glabrum, sa- padilla, or Mexican medlar. Citrus medica, common citron. C. limon, common lemon. C. americana, the lime tree. C. aurantium, common orange. C. ducumanus, blood orange.

Crateva marmelos, Bengal quince. Diospyros lotus, Indian date plum. D. virginiana, plum. Ficus carica, common fig. F. humilis, dwarf fig. F. capricious, hermaphrodite-fruited fig. F. fructu fulvo, brown-fruited fig. F. Fructu violaceo, purple-fruited fig. F. lycomorus, fig-eater, or Pharaoh's fig. Garcinia mangostana, mangosteen. Morus nigra, black-fruited mulberry. M. rubra, red- fruited mulberry. M. alba, white-fruited mulberry. Musca paradisiaca, plantain tree. M. sapientum, ba- nana, or small-fruited plantain. Melipilus germanica, meliar. Mammea americana, the mamme. Malpighia glabra, smooth-leaved Barbadoes cherry. M. punicefolia, pomegranate-leaved malpighia. Papiflora maliformis, apple-shaped granadilla. P. lauroflora, bay-leaved passion flower. Polidium pyriferum, pear guava, or bay plum. P. pomiferum, apple guava. Salacca lycoperficum, love apple. S. melongena, mad apple. S. sanctum, Palestine nightshade. Sorbus domestica, true service tree. Trophis americana, red-fruited bucephalon. Vitis vinifera, common grapes. V. apyrena, Corin- thian currants.

VI. ESCULENT STONE FRUIT.

Sect. 1. Stone Fruit of Europe.

Amygdalus persica, the peach. A. nucipersica, the nectarine. Cornus mascula, male cornel, or cornelian cherry. Olea Europea, manured olive. O. sylvestris, wild olive. Prunus armeniaca, the apricot. P. cerasus, wild red cherry. P. domestica, the plum tree. P. insititia, the bullace tree. Rhamnus zizyphus, common jujube.

Sect. 2. Stone Fruit exotic.

Chrysobalanus icaco, cocoa plum. Coccoloba uvifera, sea-side grape. Cordiamyxa, clustered sebben, or Assyrian plum. C. sebbenana, rough-leaved sebben. Corypha umbraculifera, umbrella palm. Elais guineensis, oil palm. Eugenia jambos, Malabar plum. Grias cauliflora, anchovy pear. Laurus persea, avigato pear. Mangifera indica, mango tree. Phoenix daétylifera, common date. Rhamnus jujuba, Indian jujube. Spondias lutea, yellow Jamaica plum.

VII. ESCULENT APPLES.

Sect. 1. Apples of Herbaceous Plants.

Cucumis melo, musk melon. C. melo albus, Spanish white melon. C. M. levis, smooth green-skinned mel- on. C. M. flavus, yellow winter melon. C. M. par- vus, small Portugal musk melon. C. M. pilosus, hairy- skinned melon. C. M. reticulatus, netted skinned melon. C. M. striatus, late small striated melon. C. M. tube- rosum, Part I.

Materia Medica, &c.

Dietetics.

Rosus, warted cantaloupe. C. M. turbinatus, top-shaped melon. C. M. virens, green-rinded melon.

Cucumis chale, Egyptian melon. C. sativus, common prickly cucumber. C. sativus albus, white prickly cucumber. C. S. longus, long prickly cucumber. C. flexuosus, green Turkey cucumber.

Cucurbita lagenaria, bottle gourd. C. citrullus, water melon. C. pepo, common pompion. C. P. oblongus, long pompion. C. verrucosa, warted gourd. C. melopepo, Spanish melon.

Melothria pendula, small creeping cucumber.

Sect. 2. Apples of Trees.

Achras sapota, oval-fruited sapota.

Averrhoa carambola, goa apple. A. bilimbi, bilimbia.

Punica granatum, pomegranate tree.

Pyrus communis, pear-tree. P. malus, the crab-tree. P. cydonia, quince-tree.

VIII. Leguminous Plants.

Sect. 1. Pods and Seeds of Herbaceous Plants.

Arrachis hypogaea, American ground nut.

Cicer arietinum, the chick pea.

Dolichos foja, East India kidney bean.

Ervum lens, lentil.

Lotus edulis, incurved podded bird's foot trefoil. L. tetragonolobus, square podded crimson pea.

Lupinus albus, white flowering lupine.

Phaseolus vulgaris, common kidney bean. P. V. coccineus, scarlet flowering kidney bean. P. albus, white-flowering kidney bean.

Pisum sativum, common garden pea. P. umbellatum, crown pea. P. quadratum, angular-stalked pea. P. maritimum, sea pea.

Vicia faba, common garden bean.

Sect. 2. Pods and Seeds of Trees.

Calla filifera, sweet cassia, or pudding pipe tree.

Ceratonia siliqua, carob, or St John's bread.

Coffee Arabica, Arabian coffee. C. occidentalis, American C.

Cytilus cajan, pigeon pea.

Epipendrum vanilla, sweet-scented vanilla.

Hymenaea courbaril, balsam locust tree.

Tamarindus indica, the tamarind.

IX. Esculent Grains and Seeds.

Triticum aestivum, summer or spring wheat. T. hybernum, winter or common wheat. T. turridum, short thick-spiked wheat. T. polonicum, Poland wheat. T. spelta, German or spelt wheat. T. monococcum, St Peter's corn.

Avena sativa, mowned black oat. A. nuda, naked oat.

Hordeum vulgare, common barley. H. distichon, long-eared barley. H. hexastichon, square barley. H. zeocorinum, bastard or sprat barley.

Secale cereale, Common rye.

Coix lacryma-jobi, Job's tears.

Cynodonus cerocanus, Indian cock's-foot grass.

Festuca rubra, flore sefere grass.

Holcus forghum, Guineo corn, or Indian millet.

Nymphea nelumbo, Egyptian bean.

Oryza sativa, rice.

Panicum miliaceum, common millet. P. Italicum, Italian millet.

Phalaris canariensis, canary grass, or canary seed.

Polygonum fagopyrum, buck wheat.

Quercus efcultus, cut-leaved Italian oak. Q. phellos, carolinean willow-leaved oak.

Selamum orientale, eastern sesamum. S. Indicum, Indian sesamum.

Sinapis nigra, black mustard. S. arvensis, wild mustard or charlock.

Zea mays, Maize, or Indian wheat.

Zezanea aquatica, water zezania.

X. Esculent Nuts.

Amygdalus communis, sweet and bitter almond.

Anacardium occidentale, cashew nut.

Avicenna tomentosa, eastern anacardium, or Malaca bean.

Corylus avellana, hazel nut.

Cocos nucifera, cocoa nut.

Fagus caitanea, common chestnut.

Juglans regia, common walnut. J. nigra, black Virginia walnut.

Jatropha curcas, Indian physic nut. J. multifida, French physic nut.

Pinus pinea, stone or manured pine.

Pistacia vera, pistachio nut. P. narbonensis, trifoliolate-leaved turpentine tree.

Theobroma cacao, chocolate nut.

Trapa natans, Jesuit's nut.

XI. Esculent Funguses.

Agaricus campestris, common mushroom. A. pratensis, the champignon. A. chantarello, chantarelle agaric. A. deliciosa, orange agaric. A. cinnamomeus, brown mushroom. A. violaceus, violet mushroom.

Lycoperdon tuber, the truffle.

Phallus efcultetus, the morel.

For the botanical arrangement and characters of these plants, see the article Botany. For a particular account of the individuals as articles of diet, we must refer our readers to Bryant's Flora Dietetica, Cullen's Materia Medica, vol. i. the synopis of Materia Alimentaria and Materia Medica, and Sir John Sinclair's Code of Health and Longevity, vol. i. The preparation and use of bread have already been treated of at considerable length under that article. The use and best methods of preparing potatoes are given under Agriculture, No 288, &c.

B. Drink.

Drinks may be divided into common water, vegetable infusions or decoctions, fermented liquors, animal fluids, and animal infusions or decoctions. The two last have been already spoken of, and water will be considered hereafter. We shall here only make a few observations on the second and third heads.

The vegetables employed for infusions or decoctions used as drink, are chiefly tea, coffee, and chocolate.

All the various kinds of tea imported into this coun- try, come under the denominations of bohea and green; and even these are supposed to be the produce of the same species of plant; though Linnaeus has described them as specifically different, founding the distinction on the number of their petals. Others have observed a difference in the leaves. Still, however, it is uncertain whether these are not merely accidental differences, occasioned by diversity of soil, situation, and culture. While the present narrow and jealous policy of the Chinese continues, many interesting particulars respecting the natural history of this plant must remain unknown to Europeans.

It had been well for the inhabitants of Great Britain, if the tea-leaf had never found its way to this country; they would not then have been tormented, as thousands of them now are, with an incurable train of nervous symptoms, with stomachic and bowel complaints, with head-ach, &c. To the abuse of tea-drinking may be ascribed, in a great measure, the increased frequency of consumptions; and many of the disorders of children, and especially hydrocephalus, tabes melenterica, rickets, &c. may be traced to the same source.

The tea-leaf, when fresh from the tree, is evidently poisonous. It is true that it loses some of its acrimony by drying: but even in the state in which it is sent to this country, it retains much of its narcotic nature. What serious mischief, then, are they bringing upon themselves, who, as is the case with too many of the lower class of society, make it a principal part of their daily subsistence! The money which should go to purchase wholesome and substantial food, is squandered away in procuring what of itself affords no nourishment at all; for whatever nourishment is derived from the infusion of tea, is owing to the sugar and milk which are added to it; and were it not for these additions, its deleterious effects would be much sooner and much more powerfully felt.

The time, it is to be hoped, is not far distant, when the poor shall be enlightened upon this important point. The next generation will hardly believe that their predecessors lavished away so much money, and took such extraordinary delight in defrauding their bodies of their proper and natural aliment, and in bringing upon themselves infirmity and disease. Let the rich and the intemperate indulge, if they choose, in the narcotic draught; to their heated and oppresed stomachs it may not do harm; it may even afford momentary relief. But let the poor abstain from it. They are not surcharged with high-leaden food. They have no feverish thirst, no feverish heat to allay, after their noon-day repast. To them it is totally unnecessary as a help to digestion, and as an article of sustenance it is worthless and improper. They would, therefore, be better, infinitely better, without it.

Besides its narcotic quality, there is another property of the tea-leaf which renders its continued use injurious to the constitution; we mean its astringency. Add to these the warm water, and we have, in this unnatural beverage, the infusion of tea, three different powers concerning to disorder first the organs of digestion, and ultimately the whole system.

If it be asked, what are they who have been long accustomed to tea to substitute in its place? we answer milk, milk porridge, gruel, broth, cocoa, or the like for breakfast; and in the afternoon, milk and water, orange, or lemonade in the summer, and coffee in the winter.

It should be understood, that the preceding remarks apply to the general abuse of tea as an article of sustenance; for its occasional employment in a dietetical and medicinal way in some kinds of sicknesses, is often of use. Thus, the simple infusion, without sugar or milk, is a good diluent and sedative in ardent fevers; and as it promotes perspiration and urine, it is frequently drunk with advantage in colds, catarrhs, rheumatism, headache, &c. It is also serviceable in cases of furfur and indigestion.

For the use and abuse of coffee, see the article Coffe.

Chocolate is more nourishing and less heating than chocolate. It is commonly made too thick, but when of a proper degree of strength, it is a very palatable and wholesome beverage, though on account of its oily quality it proves oppressive and cloying to some stomachs. See Chocolate.

Cocoa is in fact only a weak chocolate; and being less pure than the former, weak chocolate might properly be substituted for it.

Of fermented liquors we shall mention only malt liquors, wine, and ardent spirits.

Well fermented malt liquors, whether from barley or other grain, provided they be not too strong, are liquors wholesome, refreshing, and strengthening drinks. As these liquors are very nutritious, they are chiefly suited to persons who lead a busy and active life. With sedentary and bilious persons they do not agree so well; and they are improper for the corpulent and asthmatic, and those who are liable to giddiness or other complaints of the head. They are better when of a middle age, than when kept very long. Beer made from the infusion of malted groats, or malted rye, is lighter and more diuretic than the common barley beer. Spruce beer is a powerful diuretic and anticoagulant; it is, however, too cold for some constitutions. Bottled beer is, on account of the fixed air which it contains, more refreshing than the barrelled. It is frequently prescribed as an antiseptic and restorative in low fevers and convalescencies; but care must be taken, during the use of it, that it do not operate too freely by flood. London porter, with the common properties of malt-liquor, possesses such stomachic and diuretic qualities, as give it a preference over common beer and ale, in many cases. Being strongly impregnated with bitters of a narcotic kind, it is apt to induce drowsiness, and consequently is improper wherever there is a tendency to cephalalgia, apoplexy, or other affections of the head (A).

(A) We cannot pretend to decide whether the prejudices that have, for some time prevailed against the wholesome qualities of London porter are well founded or not; but if its composition be such as given under the article Brewing, we are decidedly of opinion that it is a liquor quite unfit for constant drink. A temperate use of wine is conducive to the health. All the functions, both of body and mind, are roused and facilitated by it. It has a powerful effect upon the organs of digestion, upon the circulation, and upon the nervous system, promoting digestion, strengthening the action of the heart and arteries, and raising the spirits. Such is its beneficial operation, when taken sparingly. In excessive quantities it has opposite effects, destroying the stomach, inducing emaciation and debility, and occasioning inflammation and obstruction in the liver, lungs, &c., whence gout, palsy, dropsy, consumptions, diabetes, &c.

In a dietetical view, wines are to be considered as they are, either acid or sweet, soft or astringent. The acid wines, of which the Rhine and Hock are the most noted, are the least heating, and the most diuretic. The sweet, such as the Frontinian, Malaga, Tint, Cape, are heating and sudorific. The soft, or acidodulcecent wines, such as Champagne, Claret, Burgundy, Madeira, &c., are less stimulating than the sweet, and more cordial than the acid wines. Of the astringent and astringent, which is most used in this country is the red Port, which, when it has not been mixed with too large a proportion of brandy, is a generous and stomachic wine, well suited to the generality of British constitutions.

Perry and cider hold a middle place between wine and malt liquor. They are less nutritious than the latter, and less cordial than the former.

In small quantities ardent spirits are a powerful cordial and corroborant, raising the pulse, strengthening the stomach, promoting digestion, and preventing flatulence. Taken sparingly, and diluted with water, they supply the place of wine, and with some constitutions agree better, as they are not like wine, disposed to create acidity. The abuse of them is productive of the same pernicious effects as those which arise from an excessive indulgence in wine, but in a greater degree. French brandy is the most bracing and stomachic; gin and rum the most diuretic and sudorific. Arrack, which is distilled from rice, is more heating than the two last. Whisky is considered as a lighter spirit than any of the former, from its containing less essential oil, and it therefore agrees better with most stomachs. The qualities of all these several sorts of spirits are improved by long keeping.*

On the general subject of drinks, see the article Drink.

C. CONDIMENTS.

Condiments are those substances which are taken with our food, to promote digestion, or to correct some hurtful property in the food taken. They are usually divided into saline, saccharine, aromatic, and oleaginous.

Of the saline condiments, the principal are common salt and vinegar.

Common salt, by its stimulant action on the throat, gullet, and stomach, seems to promote the secretion of saliva and of the gastric juice, and thereby facilitates digestion. It also appears, when taken in small quantity, to increase the solubility of most foods, but when taken too plentifully, it renders the food hard and difficult of solution. Salted meats and fish are unwholesome when made a constant article of diet.

Vinegar in small quantities is a grateful and salutary stimulus to the stomach, correcting the putrefaction of animal food, and the flatulency of vegetable. Its use is improper in many valetudinary cases, especially for calculous and gouty persons; in consumption and cholera; to rickety patients and young children.

Pickles may be considered as merely receptacles for vinegar, except in so far as the vegetables of which they are composed are in their nature warm and aromatic, as the onion.

Sugar is nutritious, antiseptic and laxative, and is considered as promoting the solution of fat in the stomach; but as it is very fermentable, it is apt, in many constitutions, to produce flatulence, heat, and thirst. Its unlimited use seems to be one cause of the increased and increasing frequency of bilious and hypochondriacal disorders. Chlorotic girls, rickety children, hysterical women, and all who are troubled with acidity in the stomach and bowels, should abstain from it; and those who are anxious to preserve their teeth white and sound, should not make free with it. To these observations, however, there are some conditions which furnish exceptions. Thus we are told, that one of the dukes of Beaufort took, for the space of 40 years, nearly a pound of sugar every day; yet it neither disordered any of the viscera, nor injured the teeth, and he lived to attain the age of 70.

The aromatic condiments consist chiefly of the foreign spices, as pepper, Cayenne pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, and of a few garden roots and seeds, such as garlic, leek, onion, horseradish, and mustard. Of these we shall take notice under their proper heads in the Materia Medica.

The oleaginous condiments consist merely of olive oil and butter.

Oil when used as a seasoning to raw vegetables, checks their fermentation in the stomach, and thereby prevents them from proving too flatulent. Used in this manner, in small quantities, it proves a help to digestion; but when taken in considerable quantities, it has an opposite effect, and lays the foundation for bilious complaints.

The moderate use of melted butter with boiled vegetables, is, in general, by no means unwholesome; but it frequently disagrees with bilious and hypochondriacal people.

The proper method of preparing food, constitutes the art of cookery, on which we shall present our readers with the following general remarks, taken from Sir John Sinclair's Code of Health and Longevity.

The primeval inhabitants of the earth certainly ate Cookery, both their vegetable and animal food raw; and to this day some of the African nations, the Esquimaux Indians, the Patagonians and Samoedoes, devour raw flesh and fish, and drink the blood of the animals. Raw flesh produces great bodily vigour, ferocity of mind, and love of liberty.

In general, however, animal food undergoes some preparation before it is consumed. It is hardly to be credited the shifts which some tribes have been put to, in order to obtain that object, as putting heated stones in in the bellies of pigs to roast them, or burning the straw in order to parch the grain. From these humble attempts, the great refinements of cookery, which is properly a branch of chemistry originated.

It is certain that cookery is an useful art. By it many articles are rendered wholesome, which could not otherwise have been eaten; but by it, at the same time, it must be acknowledged, that some articles are rendered unwholesome, which would otherwise have produced nourishing food.

By cookery, our foods are rendered more palatable and digestible, and when prepared in a simple manner, more conducive to health.

Cookery may be considered under two general heads, the simple, and the refined or compound.

The first, though apparently easy, requires a considerable degree of attention and experience; and the second is an art so diversified and extensive a nature, that it is rarely carried to any considerable degree of perfection, and it would have been no loss to human nature if it had never been invented.

Simple cookery includes the following modes of dressing meat: 1. Roasting. 2. Boiling. 3. Stewing. 4. Broiling. 5. Frying. 6. Baking; and 7. Digesting.

1. Roasting was certainly the first mode invented to prepare animal food; for boiling was a more complicated process, and required the art of manufacturing vessels that could withstand the effect of heat. Roasting, it is well known, requires a greater proportion of heat than boiling, and more skill in the preparation. By the application of fire, a considerable proportion of watery substance is exhaled from the meat. In order to be done properly, the roasting should be conducted in a gradual manner, and the heat moderately, but steadily applied, otherwise evaporation rather than roasting, takes place. Roasted meat is certainly the best means of consuming the flesh and tasting the natural juices of the meat. It is also peculiarly calculated for birds of every sort, and for young and tender meat, taking off its viscidity, and giving it a firmness and dryness that otherwise it would not possess.

Roasted meat, at least of the larger kinds, as beef, mutton, and venison, is preferred in England, and boiled or baked meat in France. The meat of England has not, perhaps, the same flavour as that of France, but it is larger, richer, and fatter, and appears to more advantage in a roasted state. Besides, coal fires are better adapted for that process of cookery than wood or peat. It is found, indeed, that meat, roasted by a fire of peat or turf, is more tender than when coal is employed for that purpose.

Our meat in England (Cadogan affirms) is generally over-done, and particularly over-roasted. In regard to over-roasting, the action of fire, if continued too long, has a tendency to change mild animal flesh into something of another quality; the fat, in particular, becomes bitter and rancid. The less, therefore, that all flesh meat undergoes the power of the fire, the milder and wholesomer it is. This doctrine, however, is denied by Falconer. He admits, that meat little done is the most soluble, but at the same time contends, that it is exceedingly alkaline, and runs quickly into putrefaction. Hence the French, who live in a warm climate, find it necessary not only to eat a great quantity of bread, to prevent the putrefying effect of animal food, but also to have their meat thoroughly boiled and roasted.

2. Boiling is also an excellent mode of preparing animal food, rendering it more soluble, without destroying, if properly done, its nutritious qualities, and being peculiarly calculated for weak stomachs. But however useful moderate boiling may be in these respects, yet, when carried to an extreme, every thing soluble is extracted, the nutritious parts are conveyed to the liquor, and the meat itself is left behind impeded, dense, and unfit for nourishment.

Young and viscid food, as veal, chickens, partridges, &c., are more wholesome when roasted than boiled, and easier digested; but beef and mutton are easier digested when boiled than roasted; consequently boiling such meat is better calculated for weak stomachs. Boiling is particularly applicable to vegetables, rendering them more soluble in the stomach, and depriving them of a considerable quantity of air, so injurious to weak stomachs.

The usual mode of preparing fish for the table is by boiling, roasting rendering them more indigestible.

It is proper to observe, that those who are trained to athletic exercises, have their meat roasted or broiled, and not boiled; as it is supposed, that, when boiled, a great part of the nutritive juices of the meat is lost in the water.

3. Stewing is reckoned the mode by which the greatest quantity of nourishment is derived from the meat. By this plan the texture of the meat is rendered more tender, its soluble parts are not fully extracted, and it is left in a state abundantly rapid and nourishing, while the soup also, or fluid, contains a sufficient proportion of the animal extract.

4. Broiling consists in exposing meat to the near application of a naked fire, by which means its outer surface immediately hardens, before the heat has penetrated the whole. This prevents any excess of exhalation; and the meat, when done, is rendered sufficiently tender. It is peculiarly suited for steaks, which are, comparatively speaking, eaten in a juicy and almost in a raw state.

5. Frying is a process that renders meat more indigestible than any other, and indeed, might be included under the head of compound cookery. It is performed by cutting meat into thin slices, and putting it into a vessel over the naked fire. As the lower surface of the meat would thus be burnt or hardened, some fluid matter, generally of an oily nature, is introduced, which acquires, from the heat, a burnt or empyreumatic taste, and becomes hardly miscible with the fluids in the stomach. It requires, therefore, the addition of stimulants to enable the stomach to digest it.

6. Baking consists in the application of heat in a dry form, but in a vessel covered with a paste instead of its being exposed to the open air. Any considerable exhalation is thus prevented, and the meat, by the retention of all its juices, is rendered more rapid and tender. But baked meat is heavy on some stomachs, from the greater retention of its oils, which are in a burnt state. It requires, therefore, the additional stimulus of spices and aromatics, to render it lighter, and to increase the power of the stomach to digest it.

7. Digesting is the last discovered process of simple cookery. Dietetics. cookery. It is performed in a close vessel, and resembles boiling, being conducted in a very high temperature, while, from the closeness of the vessel, the advantages of stewing are procured. It is not, however, much in use.

Besides these various simple modes of preparing animal food, there is another, which it may here be proper to take notice of, namely, when animal food is dissolved in water, and formed into a gelatinous solution or jelly. This substance is of a viscid nature, and though it contains much nourishment, yet is difficult of digestion, and of course less calculated for diseased or weak stomachs than is commonly imagined. Nor are those jellies, which are the mucilaginous extracts of certain parts of animals, as hartshorn, very digestible; indeed, a too liberal use of them has often proved injurious. They can only be recommended for the sick, accompanied with a quantity of stale bread. To those who require an article of that sort, more especially if their stomachs are weak, simple beef tea, properly prepared, is the most nutritive balm that can be administered.

It may also be proper to observe, that even after provisions have been devised in the kitchen, they have often to undergo some operations of cookery at the table; this is principally by the addition of some of the various sorts of seasoning or condiments.

One would imagine, that all the various modes of preparing food above enumerated, might satisfy the most luxurious appetite; but, instead thereof, the ingenuity of man has been exerted to discover a number of other preparations. Hence, a system of refined or compound cookery has been invented, more flattering to the palate than favourable to the health.

It would be improper to touch upon processes which it is impossible for any writer on dietetics to mention with any degree of approbation. Some dishes may be prepared, variously compounded, which may occasionally be tasted, and plain sauces may be a useful addition to fish and vegetables; but the generality of ragouts, made dishes, and the like, are of a poisonous quality, and cannot be too anxiously avoided by those who entertain any anxiety for the preservation of their health.

The foregoing observations on diet are adapted chiefly to persons in health; but it is of great importance for a medical man to know what is the most proper diet for the sick and for convalescents. To treat this subject properly would occupy more room than we can allot to it, we shall, therefore, only insert here the following remarks by the late Dr Heberden, with which we shall conclude this part of the article.

"Many physicians appear to be too strict and particular in the rules of diet and regimen, which they deliver as proper to be observed by all who are solicitous either to preserve or recover their health. The common experience of mankind will sufficiently acquaint any one with the sorts of food which are wholesome to the generality of men; and his own experience will teach him which of these agrees best with his particular constitution. Scarcely any other directions besides these are wanted, except that, as variety of food at the same meal, and poignant sauces, will tempt most persons to eat more than they can well digest; they ought therefore to be avoided by all who are afflicted with any chronic disorder, or wish to keep from them."

But whether meat should be boiled or roasted, or drest in any other plain way, and what sort of vegetables should be eaten with it, we never yet met with any person of common sense who did not appear fitter to choose for himself than we could direct him. Small beer, where it agrees, or water alone, are the properest liquors at meals. Wine or spirits mixed with water have gradually led on several to be tipsy, and have ruined more constitutions than ever were hurt by small beer from its first invention.

"In fevers a little more restraint is necessary, but not so much as is often enjoined. The stronger sorts of meat and fish are most usually loathed by the sick themselves, nor could they be eaten without offending the stomach, and increasing the distemper, while it is at all considerable; but in its decline the sick are often delirious of some of the milder sorts of meat, and no harm follows from indulging their desire. The English are said to eat more meat when they are well than most other nations; but were remarkable, so long ago as the time of Erasmus, for avoiding it more scrupulously when they are sick than any other people. How highsoever the fever be, the sick may be safely nourished with weak broths and jellies, and with any vegetable substances, if we except the acid and aromatic, or with the infusions or decoctions prepared from them; and we know no reason for preferring any of these to the rest. Eggs and milk have been, we know not by what authority, forbidden in all fevers; but as far as our experience goes, they both afford innocent food in the worst, where they are grateful to the patients.

"The feverish thirst is best allayed by pure water, which may be drunk either warm or cold, at the option of the sick person, and he may drink as much as he pleases; but we see no advantage in persuading him to gorge himself with liquids, as is often done, against his inclination and stomach. If water be deemed too insipid, currant jelly, and a variety of syrups, may be dissolved in it; or apples sliced or roasted, tamarinds, sage, or baum, or toasted bread, may be infused in it; or decoctions may be made of oatmeal, barley, or rice; or the water may be made into an emulsion with the oily seeds; all which, with a variety of similar substances, merely correct its insipidity, but in other respects leave it just what it was.

"There is scarcely any distemper, in every stage of which it may not be safely left to the patient's own choice, if he be perfectly in his senses, whether he will fit up, or keep his bed. His strength and his ease are chiefly to be attended to in settling this point; and who can tell so well as himself, what his ease requires, and what his strength will bear?

"Doubts are often raised about the propriety of changing the linen in sickness, just as there have been about changing the foul air of the sick chamber by any of the means which could purify and refresh it. There can be very little reason to fear any mischief from the cold which the sick may feel while their clean linen is putting on; for their attendants, with common care, will do this as safely as many other things which must necessarily be done for them. But some have a strange opinion of harm from the smell of the soap perceptible in linen after it has been washed, and therefore allow not their patients, when they change their linen, ever to PART II. OF THE GENERAL ACTION OF REMEDIES, AND THEIR CLASSIFICATION.

WE shall not attempt any new or original disquisition on the action of remedies, but shall merely state the most generally received opinions on the subject. We shall begin with the doctrine of the disciples of Cullen, which has been well expressed by Dr Percival in the following propositions:

1. Medicines may act on the human body by an immediate and peculiar impression of the stomach and bowels, either in their proper form, in a state of decomposition, or a change in the arrangement of their parts—the sympathy of the stomach with the whole animated system is so obvious to our daily experience, that it cannot require much illustration. After fasting and fatigue, we feel that a moderate quantity of wine instantly exhilarates the spirits, and gives energy to all the muscular fibres of the body. It has been known even to produce a sudden and large augmentation of sight, after much depletion, by rousing the absorbent system to vigorous action. Such power is peculiar to living mechanisms; and is properly denominated by physicians, the vis medicatrix nature. But apparent as is the sympathy of the stomach, the laws by which it is governed are very insufficiently understood; and we have hitherto learned only from a loose induction of facts, that the nerves of this delicate organ seem to be endowed with diversified sensibilities; that impressions made by the same or different substances, have their appropriate influence on different and distant parts; and that the stomach itself undergoes frequent variations in its states of irritability. A few grains of sulphate of copper, taken internally, excite instantly the most violent contractions of the abdominal, and other muscles concerned in vomiting. A dose of ipecacuanha, as soon as it produces nausea, abates both the force and velocity of the heart, in its vital motion; and affects the whole series of blood vessels, from their origin to their minute ramifications, as is evident by the paleness of the skin under such circumstances, and by the efficacy of emetics in stopping hemorrhages. The head, when disordered with vertigo, sometimes derives sudden relief from a tea spoonful of ether, administered in a glass of water. An incessant cough has been known to attack the lungs, in consequence of the stimulus of a pin, which had been unwarily swallowed. Of the action of medicines on the stomach, under decomposition or recomposition, we have an example familiar to every one, in carbonate of magnesia. For this earth by neutralizing the acid in the prime vice, acquires a purgative quality, and at the same time yields a gas of great salubrity, as an antiseptic, tonic, and antispetic.

2. Medicines may pass into the course of circulation in one or other of the states above described, and being conveyed to different and distant parts, may there produce certain medicines appropriate effects.—Chemistry furnishes us with numerous examples in which substances undergo changes, and affect on different parts more remarkable than can be effected through digestion, retaining still the materia prima, and being circulating capable of returning the original arrangement of their particles, and consequently their original qualities. Now, a body altered in its texture by digestion, and carried into the system with aliment, may acquire specific powers of acting on particular found or diseased parts. Thus, if we suppose cantharides to be changed in form and texture, when mixed with the chyle, the lymph, or the blood, they may fill, in that form and texture, be peculiarly adapted to excite strangury in the urinary passages, or, we may conceive that this new modification of their particles may again be altered, and their original composition restored by a subsequent chemical change in the kidneys. The sensible qualities of any body are no certain marks of its medicinal action. Peruvian bark does not owe its efficacy in fevers to its bitterness, for stronger bitters are not possessed of its febrifuge powers. Antimony, though insipid, produces a violent action on the nerves of the stomach, and yet if applied to the eye, an organ equally sensible, it is altogether inert. To what perceptible property in opium are we to ascribe its narcotic powers? or is there in the sweet taste of acetate of lead, any indication of a deadly poison? Numberless instances may be adduced to prove the uncertainty of reasoning otherwise than from observation, concerning the action of medicines, and the peculiar sensibility of different parts of our system to their impression. Following experience, therefore, as our guide, let us notice a few facts that may elucidate the subject before us. It is well known that madder root, when taken by an animal, carries its tingling quality to the bones, affecting neither the skin, the muscles, the ligaments, nor the fat. Consequently this tingling quality is left unchanged by digestion; or perhaps it is again recovered, when arrived at the bones, by some new arrangement of parts produced by the chemistry of nature. Extract of logwood, taken internally, sometimes gives a bloody hue to the urine. But the astringency of it does not seem to accompany its colouring matter. We recollect no instance where-in the milk either of a nurse, or of an animal, was tinged with madder or logwood. This affords some presumption, that the pigment does not subsist in its proper form, in the blood; but that it is recovered by a subsequent change in the disposition of its constituent particles. And if one substance stain the bones, by being carried into contact with them, another may, in an analogous manner, produce in them fragility or dissolution. Therapeu- folution. In the disease termed by the French ergot, and which, with some probability is ascribed to the use of a species of unformed corn, the bones lose their earthy matter that enters into their texture; the gums become soft, and are easily broken. This effect is gradual, and probably arises from some unknown quality in the corn, which is either not taken away by digestion, or is retained in the juices that circulate through the osseous vessels. A change in the process of vegetation may communicate a solvent power to an eluent feed. Mustard acquires this by its natural growth, and is capable of rendering even ivory soft and fragile. How far it would produce such an effect on the bones of a living body, if used as the chief article of diet, we have no experience on which to ground any satisfactory conclusion.

Sulphur, whether externally or internally used, produces a cure in the itch. In each way, therefore, we may presume its operation to be similar. But when taken into the stomach, there can be no doubt that it undergoes a change in the modification of its parts, and that it does not circulate through the blood vessels either in the form or with the properties of sulphur. Yet when conveyed to the surface of the body, it evidently appears to recover its original powers, communicating its peculiar odour to the perspiration, tingling the skin, and curing cutaneous defecations. The same holds true of the sulphuric acid, when administered in large doses. It seems to lose oxygen in the animal body, and to pass off by the pores, as hepatic air, or as volatilized sulphur. Even when given to nurses, it proves an effectual remedy for the itch, both in them and the children whom theyuckle. Mercury combined with sulphur into the black sulphuret, has frequently been regarded as inert. Instances, however, have occurred in which, under this form, though accurately prepared, it has produced salivation; an evident proof, according to Dr. Percival, of a chemical change in the sulphuret, by which the mercury was restored to its original powers. That mercury is capable of being reduced to the metallic form, and of collecting in considerable quantity in the human body, is proved by the concurrent testimony of many authors, who inform us that fluid mercury has been found in the carious bones of venereal patients. A salivation is sometimes produced by antimony. Dr. James assured Sir George Baker, that he knew five instances of its being produced by his febrile powder, though he had left mercury out of its composition long before they occurred. Indeed, as the patients thus affected had neither their teeth loosed, nor their breath rendered offensive, there is no reason to suppose that the salivation was owing to a mixture of mercury in the powder.

Most persons have experienced the effects of asparagus on the urine. This takes place very speedily and strongly, though only a small quantity has been eaten. The smell is much more disagreeable than asparagus itself; and as the odorous particles conveyed to the kidneys must be greatly diluted in their passage, it is probable that a new combination of particles takes place in the urinary organs; and that the odorous part of the secretion differs in its form and quality, from what subsisted both in the chyle and in the blood.

There are certain medicines which, when swallowed, quickly manifest themselves in the discharges, with some of their original qualities. A strong solution of Therapeutical, when taken in considerable quantities, renders the urine alkaline and lithontriptic, and the same excretion becomes impregnated with carbonic acid, if water impregnated with that acid be drunk freely. Dr. Percival speaks of a patient to whom six grains of balsam of Tolu were given thrice a day, and whose urine was strongly scented by this small quantity. Garlic affects the breath, though it be applied only about the wrists; and the milk of a nurse is easily tainted with it. A purgative given to a woman that suckles will sometimes produce no effect on her bowels, but will operate strongly on those of her infant. A still more convincing proof that there may be a renovation of the original qualities of a body, after it has undergone the process of digestion, and other subsequent changes, is deducible from these facts; that butter is often impregnated with the taste and smell of certain vegetables on which the cows have pastured; that the milk of such cows diffuses no disagreeable flavour, any more than the whey or cheese prepared from it. Now, butter is formed, firstly by a spontaneous separation of cream, and secondly, by a fermentation of it; that is, by a twofold and successive new arrangement of its elementary parts. By these changes, the originally offensive materials in the food of the cow seem to reassume their proper form and nature.

After venesection the serum of the blood has sometimes appeared as white as milk, whilst the clotted serum retained its natural colour. This whiteness has been shown to arise from oleaginous particles floating in the circulating fluids, and may serve to explain a fact recorded by a writer of good authority, on the natural history of Aleppo, that in certain fevers, when oil is plentifully taken, the people become disposed to fevers, and infarctions of the lungs, which symptoms wear off by retrenching this indulgence. Some years ago cod-liver oil was annually dispensed amongst the sick of the Manchester hospital, to the amount of 50 or 60 gallons. The taste and smell are extremely nauseous, and it leaves upon the palate a flavour like that of putrid fish. This remedy is more salutary when it operates by perpiration; and the sweat of those to whom it is administered, always becomes strongly tainted with it. An oil of the same kind forms no inconsiderable part of the food of many northern nations; and it is said to penetrate and imbue the deepest recesses of the body.

Dr. Wright relates an experiment to prove that chalybeates do not enter the blood. He forced a dog that had fasted 66 hours, to swallow a pound of bread and milk, with which had been mixed an ounce and a half of sulphate of iron. An hour afterwards he opened the dog, and collected from the thoracic duct about half an ounce of chyle, which assumed no change of colour when tincture of galls was dropped into it, though it acquired from the same tincture a deep purple, when a quarter of a grain of sulphate of iron was dissolved in it. This experiment is usually deemed decisive in support of the opinion that chalybeates exert their operation solely on the stomach, and that the vigour they communicate to the system arises exclusively from their tonic powers on the alimentary canal, and from the sympathy of the stomach with various other parts of the body. Dr. Percival was of opinion, that the tonic action and sympathy above mentioned, did not preclude the immediate agency of the steel on the remote parts of the human frame, as this remedy, in other forms capable of being introduced into the circulation, may exert considerable energy as a stimulant or astringent; and, in his opinion, the experiment adduced proves that the iron did not exist in the chyle, in the state of a salt capable of striking a black colour with galls. Neither does the oxide of iron, nor the glaas of iron, possess this power, yet, though changed, they are both capable of being restored to the metallic state. Perhaps with equal reason it might be presumed by one ignorant of chemistry, that the sulphate of iron contains no iron, because it is not acted on by the magnet.

With the foregoing experiments of Dr Wright, Dr Percival contrasts those made by the celebrated Dr Mulgrave, who injected into the jejunum of a dog that had, for a day before, but little meat, about 12 ounces of a solution of indigo in fountain water, and, after three hours, opening the dog a second time, he observed several of the lacteals of a bluish colour, which, on stretching the mesenteric, did several times disappear, but was most easily discerned when the mesenteric lay loose; an argument that the bluish liquor was not properly of the vessels, but of the liquors contained in it. A few days after this, repeating the experiment in another company, with a solution of stone blue in fountain water, and on a dog that had been kept fasting 36 hours, he saw several of the lacteals become of a perfect blue colour, within very few minutes after the injection. For they appeared before he could see up the gut.

About the beginning of March following, having kept a spaniel fasting 36 hours, and then syringing a pint of deep decoction of stone blue with common water, into one of the small guts; and after three hours, opening the dog again, he saw many of the lacteals of a deep blue colour: several of them were cut, and afforded a blue liquor, some of the decoction running forth on the mesentery. After this he examined the ductus thoracicus, and saw the receptaculum chyli, and that ductus, of a bluish colour; not so blue indeed as the lacteals, from the solution mixing in or near the receptaculum, with lymph, but much bluer than the ductus used to be, or than the lymphatics under the liver were, with which he compared it.

Stone blue is a preparation of cobalt, potash, and white lead, which being converted into glaas, is ground into fine powder. If such a substance can pervade the lacteals, we may conclude that they are permeable to other bodies, besides those designed for nutrition, and capable of assimilation with the blood. This argument from analogy, receives great additional force from the known fact that mercury, and various other active remedies, may be conveyed into the body through the absorbents of the skin, a system of vessels similar to those above mentioned, in their structure, uses, and termination. In a case of hydrocephalus internus, on which Dr Percival was consulted, a child under one year of age received, by successive frictions, 4 ounces 6 drams and 2 scruples of strong mercurial ointment between the 8th of February and the 7th of April 1786. One scruple was administered each time; the operation took up more than half an hour, and the part to which the ointment was applied, was always previously bathed with warm water; precautions which seemed to secure the full absorption of the mercury. The child recovered without any symptoms of salivation, and continued perfectly well. The doctor repeatedly observed, that very large quantities of mercurial ointment may be used in infancy and childhood, without affecting the gums, notwithstanding the predisposition to a flux of saliva, at a period of life incident to dentition.

Whence is it that a medicine so irritating as mercury, can be conveyed into the course of circulation, when even milk, or the mildest liquors, if transfused into the blood vessels, have been found to produce convulsions and death? Is it that what passes by the lymphatic and lacteals is carried into the thoracic duct, and there mixed with a large portion of the chyle and lymph, by which its acrimony is sheathed and diluted, or its chemical properties changed, before it enters the mass of blood? For the absorbents of the skin, and of the intestines, seem to require a capacity to bear the stimulus of these extraneous bodies to which, in both situations, they are exposed.

3. Medicines introduced into the course of circulation may affect the general constitution of the fluids; produce act on fluid changes in their particular qualities; superadd new ones; or counteract the morbid matter with which they may be occasionally charged.—By observations on the haemorrhages which have been sustained without destruction to life; from experiments made on animals, by drawing forth all their blood; and by a computation of the bulk of the arteries and veins, the mass of circulating fluids has been estimated at 50 pounds in a middle-sized man, of which 28 pounds are supposed to be red blood. Fluids bearing so large a proportion to the weight of the whole body, have assuredly very important offices in the animal economy. Endued with the common properties of other fluids, they are subject to mechanical laws; being variously compounded, they are incident to chemical changes; and, as they are contained in a living vascular system, their motions become subject to the influence of nervous energy.*

The followers of Dr Brown explain the operation of medicines on the principle of their all acting as stimulants in a greater or less degree. This doctrine, with some modification, is thus detailed by Mr Murray.

"Medicines, in general, operate by stimulating the living fibre, or exciting it to motion. This proposition account of has even been stated as universal, and was received as the action of an axiom, in a system superior, perhaps, to any, in conveying just and precise ideas on the nature of life, and the affections to which it is subject. Medicines, in common with all external agents, are, according to this system, incapable of directly altering the state of the vital power: they can only excite the parts possessed of that power to action; and however diversified their effects may appear to be, such diversities are to be referred merely to the different degrees of force in which they exert the general stimulant power they possess.

"This proposition cannot, however, be received in an unlimited sense. From the exhibition of different medicines, very different effects are produced, which cannot be satisfactorily explained from the cause assigned,—the difference in the degree of stimulant operation. They differ in kind so far, that even in the greater number of cases, one remedy cannot by any management of dose..." Part II.

Materia Medica, &c.

Therapeutic dose or administration, he made to produce the effects which result from the action of another.

"It is therefore necessary to admit of some modifications of the general principles above stated, and the following are perhaps sufficient to afford grounds for explaining the operation of remedies, and for establishing a classification of them sufficiently just and comprehensive.

"1. Stimulants are not to be regarded as differing merely in the degree of the stimulant operation which they exert. An important distinction exists between them, as they are more or less diffusible and permanent in their action. A stimulus is termed diffusible, which, whenever it is applied, or at least in a very short time after, extends its action over the whole system, and quickly produces its full exciting effect. A diffusible stimulus is generally also transient in its action; in other words, the effect, though soon produced, quickly ceases. There are others, on the contrary, which, though equally powerful stimulants, are slow and permanent. These varieties, which are sufficiently established, serve to explain the differences in the power of a number of the most important medicines; and they lay the foundation for the distinction of two great classes, narcotics and tonics, with their subordinate divisions of antipathomimics and allirgents, both consisting of powerful stimulants; the one diffusible and transient, the other slow and permanent in their operations.

"There is a difference between stimulants, in their actions being directed to particular parts. Some, when received into the stomach, quickly act upon the general system; others have their action confined to the stomach itself, or at least, any farther stimulant effect they may occasion is slow and inconsiderable; while a third class consists of those which operate on one part, often without producing any sensible effect on the stomach or general system. Some thus act on the intestinal canal, others on the kidneys, bladder, vessels of the skin, and other parts; the affection they excite in these, being the consequence, not of any stimulant operation equally extended over every part, but of one more particularly determined. This difference in the action of stimuli is the principal foundation of the divisions of medicines into particular classes. Cathartics, for instance, are those medicines which, as stimuli, act peculiarly on the intestinal canal; diuretics, those which act on the secreting vessels of the kidneys; emmenagogues, those which act on the uterine system; diaphoretics, those which exert a stimulant action on the vessels of the skin. With these operations, medicines, at the same time, act more or less as general stimulants, by which each individual belonging to any class is thus rendered capable of producing peculiar effects; and many of them, by a peculiarity of constitution in the patient, or from the mode in which they are administered, frequently act on more than one part of the system, by which their effects are still farther diversified. Medicines, when thus determined to particular parts, are sometimes conveyed to those parts in the course of the circulation; more generally their action is extended from the stomach, or part to which they are applied, by the medium of the nervous system."

Whatever medical system we may adopt, it is obvious that medicines can act on the human system only in two general modes; either as it is composed of inert matter, or as it forms a living organized system. In the therapeutic first mode, medicines may act either mechanically or chemically; in the second, they act entirely through the medium of the vital principle.

The order in which the several subjects of the materia medica have been considered, is very different in different writers; and which is the most proper, has been disputed about, while many are of opinion that it is of little consequence which of them is followed. It has been generally thought proper to follow a plan, in which the subjects are, according to a certain affinity, brought together, so that a number of them might be, for the purpose of medicines, considered under the same view. Thus, Dr Boerhaave considered them in the order of the botanical system he had formed, and Linnaeus in the order of his own system, in which he is followed by Bergius.

It has been thought proper to follow the botanical affinities, in so far only as they can be thrown into natural arrangements; and this, therefore, has been attempted by the learned Professor Murray of Gottingen: but from the imperfection of the botanical affinities in pointing out a similarity of medicinal virtues, this plan will not always unite subjects in the latter point of view; and when we consider that there are yet many plants which do not enter into any natural order, these must be disposed of in an arbitrary manner, and probably in an unconnected state. It must be owned, however, that though the scheme of botanical affinities does not entirely answer the purpose, yet it will fill up a certain length, and ought not to be neglected in the subdivision of any general plan that may be assumed.

It has been supposed by some to be a more eligible arrangement to unite the several substances, as they happen to be related by their sensible qualities; this method Carstenfus and Gleditsch have attempted. This certainly may have its use; but from what is said above respecting the imperfection of this scheme for investigating virtues, it will appear that it will not always unite subjects that ought to be united under the same view; and it will be found, that in the authors mentioned, who have executed it in the best manner possible, the desired effect is by no means produced.

From the difficulty of rendering any of those plans alphabetically exact and perfect, some writers have deferred arranging all of them, and thought it best to throw the several articles into an alphabetical order, as Newmann and Lewis have done. If, however, there can be any advantage from bringing subjects of some affinity together, this alphabetical order is the most unfit for the purpose, as by separating similar substances, it must be perpetually distracting to the student. It can therefore have no advantage but that of a dictionary, in referring readily to any particular subject that may be enquired after; but this advantage can be obtained in every plan by means of an index, which cannot be saved even in an alphabetical work, as the different names under which the same substances are known necessarily requires an index comprehending all those different names.

Similar to those of the alphabetical order, are those plans which, after arranging the several articles of the materia medica according to the part of the plant employed, as roots, leaves, &c. have thrown these again into an alphabetical order, as Alffton and Vogel have done; Therapeutics.

Arrangement according to medical effects.

Dr Cullen was of opinion that, as the study of the materia medica is truly the study of the medicinal virtues, so the plan that arranges the several substances according to their agreeing in some general virtues, will be the best adapted to acquiring the knowledge of these, and will most readily inform the practitioner what different means he can employ for his general purpose. It will also inform him how far the several similar substances may differ in their degree of power, or how far, from the particular qualities assigned to each, he may be directed or limited in his choice.

As it seems proper that every practitioner ought, as far as possible, to practice upon general indications; so it is evident that his study of the materia medica is especially to know the several means that can answer these. Such a plan, therefore, must be the most proper for giving a student instruction; and if, while medicines are arranged according as they answer general indications, the particulars be likewise thrown together as far as possible according to their sensible qualities and botanical affinities, this plan will have the advantage of any other that has been proposed for presenting together the subjects that ought to be considered at one and the same time, and give the best means of recollecting every thing that relates to them.

Dr Cullen's plan of arrangement is as follows.

He first divides all the substances contained in the materia medica into two general heads, the first comprising alimentary substances, or meats, drinks, and condiments; the second comprising medicines properly so called. These latter he considers as they act on the solids or the fluids. Those which act on the solids he distinguishes into such as act on the simple solids, under which he ranks astringents, tonics, emollients, and epharmacotics; and those which act on the living solids, under which he classes stimulants, sedatives, including narcotics, refrigerants, and antispasmodics. Of those medicines which act on the fluids, he conceives that some operate by producing a change on their fluidity, as attenuants and infusiliants; or, on the mixture of their component parts, by correcting acidity, either in general, as demulcents, or in particular as antacids, antialkalines, and antifebrics. Others he supposes to act by producing an evacuation of superabundant fluids; and under this head he includes erthines, fialagogues, expectorants, emetics, cathartics, diuretics, diaphoretics, and emmenagogues.

In his general classification, Dr Cullen has been followed by several writers on the materia medica and therapeutics. Some of the titles of his classes have indeed become obsolete, and his order has been almost totally changed by succeeding writers.

Of those who have copied Dr Cullen's arrangement with some modification, there is perhaps none that deserves more attention than the anonymous author of the "Theaurus Medicaminum," and a "Practical Synopsis of the materia alimentaria and materia medica." This au-

thor distributes the articles of the materia medica into 12 classes; 1. Evacuants, comprising erthines, fialagogues, expectorants, emetics, cathartics, diuretics, diaphoretics, emmenagogues; 2. Emollients, comprising Arrangediluents and emollients; 3. Abriforts; 4. Refrigerment of the rants; 5. Antifebrics; 6. Astringents; 7. Tonics; 8. Practically-Stimulants; 9. Antispasmodics; 10. Narcotics; 11. Anthelmintics; and 12. Heteroclitics; this last being formed to include those articles that could not properly be reduced under the former heads.

On this classification we may remark, that the general term of evacuants might have been omitted, and its subdivisions might have properly been made distinct classes, as the articles they contain frequently act a more important part, than merely producing an evacuation of fluids. The class of abforbents includes those which Cullen calls antacids, and perhaps this latter term is to be preferred, as it is more explicit and better understood. The clas antifebrics might also have been omitted, and the substances it contains might more properly have been arranged under other heads.

Mr Murray's arrangement, which is very ingenious, Mr Murray is founded principally on the doctrine of universal stimulus's action, and he thus explains the principles on which it is arranged.

"Those stimulants, which exert a general action on the system, may first be considered. Of these there are two well-marked subdivisions, the diffusible and the permanent; the former corresponding to the usual classes of narcotics and antispasmodics; the latter, including likewise two classes, tonics and astringents. In these there is a gradual transition passing into the one from the other, from the most diffusible and least durable stimulus, to the most slow and permanent in its action.

"The next general division is that comprising local stimulants; such are the classes of emetics, cathartics, expectorants, fialagogues, erthines, and epispastics. These all occasion evacuation of one kind or other, and their effects are in general to be ascribed, not to any operation exerted on the whole system, but to changes of action induced in particular parts.

"After these, those few medicines may be considered whose action is merely mechanical or chemical. To the former belong diluents, demulcents, and emollients. Anthelmintics may perhaps be referred with propriety to the same division. To the latter, or those which act chemically, belong antacids or abforbents, lithotriptics, epharmacotics, and perhaps refrigerants.

"Under these classes may be comprehended all those substances capable of producing salutary changes in the human system. Several classes are indeed excluded which have sometimes been admitted; but these have been rejected, either as not being sufficiently precise or comprehensive, or as being established only on erroneous theory.

"The subdivisions of these classes may sometimes be established on the natural affinities existing among the substances arranged under each; on their chemical composition; their resemblance in sensible qualities; or, finally, on distinctions in their medicinal virtues, more minute than those which form the characters of the clas. In different classes one of these methods will frequently be found preferable to any of the others."

Mr Mr Murray's arrangement will best be understood from his own table.

A. General Stimulants.

a. Diffusible. - Narcotics. - Antispasmodics. b. Permanent. - Tonics. - Astringents.

B. Local Stimulants.

Emetics. Cathartics. Emmenagogues. Diuretics. Diaphoretics. Expectorants. Sialagogues. Errhines. Epiphatrics.

C. Chemical Remedies.

Refrigerants. Antacids. Lithontriptics. Eucharotics.

D. Mechanical Remedies.

Anthelmintics. Demulcents. Diluents. Emollients.*

It would be improper here to omit the classification of the ingenious Dr Darwin, which was published in his Zoonomia. He distributes the articles of the materia medica under seven heads, according to his opinion of their mode of operation. They are as follows.

1. Nutrientia, or those things which preferve in their natural state the due exertions of all the irritative motions.

2. Incitantia, or those things which increase the exertions of all the irritative motions.

3. Secernentia, or those things which increase the irritative motions which constitute secretion.

4. Sorbentia, or those things which increase the irritative motions which constitute absorption.

5. Invertentia, or those things which invert the natural order of the successive irritative motions.

6. Revertentia, or those things which restore the natural order of the inverted irritative motions.

7. Torpentinia, those things which diminish the exertions of all the irritative motions.

The nutrientia he thus enumerates according to what he conceives to be their degree of nourishing power.

1. Venison, beef, mutton, hare, goose, duck, woodcock, snipe, moor-game. 2. Oysters, lobsters, crabs, shrimps, mushrooms, eel, tench, barbott, smelt, turbot, sole, turtle. 3. Lamb, veal, sucking-pig. 4. Turkey, partridge, pheasant, fowl, eggs. 5. Pike, perch, gudgeon, trout, grayling. II. Milk, cream, butter, butter-milk, whey, cheese. III. Wheat, barley, oats, peas, potatoes, turnips, carrots, cabbage, asparagus, artichoke, spinach, beet, apple, pear, plum, apricot, nectarine, peach, strawberry, grape, orange, melon, cucumber, dried figs, raisins, sugar, honey. With a great variety of other roots, seeds, leaves, and fruits.

IV. Water, river-water, spring-water, calcareous earth.

V. Air, oxygen, azote, carbonic acid gas.

VI. Nutritive baths and clysters, transfusion of blood.

VII. Condiments.

Under incitantia (or stimulants) he ranks the following articles.

1. Papaver somniferum, poppy, opium. Alcohol, wine, beer, cider. Prunus lauro-cerasus, laurel; distilled water from the leaves. Prunus cerasus, black cherry; distilled water from the kernels. Nicotiana tabacum, tobacco; the essential oil, decocation of the leaf. Atropa belladonna, deadly nightshade; the berries. Datura stramonium, thorn apple; the fruit boiled in milk.

Hyocyamus reticulatus, henbane; the seeds and leaves.

Cynoglossum, hounds-tongue. Menispernum, cocculus, Indian berry. Amygdalus amarus, bitter almond. Cicuta, hemlock. Conium maculatum. Strychnos nux vomica. Delphinium staphfragia.

II. Externally, heat, electricity.

III. Ether, essential oils.

IV. Oxygen gas.

V. Passions of love, joy, anger.

VI. Labour, play, agitation, friction.

The secernentia he distinguishes into diaphoretics, sia. Secernentia, lagogues, mild diuretics, mild cathartics, mild er. tia rhines, which, as they will be enumerated presently, it is unnecessary to mention here; and besides these, he enumerates the following circumstances acting on the other secretions.

Secretion of mucus of the rectum is increased by cantharides, by spirit of turpentine.

Secretion of subcutaneous mucus is increased by blisters of cantharides, by application of a thin slice of the fresh root of white briony, by sinapisms, by root of horse-radish, cochlearia armoracia, volatile alkali.

Secretion of tears is increased by vapour of sliced onion, of volatile alkali. By pity, or ideas of hopeless distress.

Secretion of senorial power in the brain is probably increased by opium, by wine, and perhaps by oxygen gas added to the common air in respiration.

The sorbentia he divides into those which affect the skin, as sulphuric or muriatic acids, various acid fruits, and opium; and the oxides of lead, zinc, and mercury, applied externally.

II. Such as affect the mucous membranes, as the juice of floes and crab-apples, cinchona, and opium, internally; and externally the fulphate of copper.

III. I. Such as affect the cellular membrane, as Peruvian bark; wormwood, artemisia maritima, artemisia absinthium; worm seed, artemisia santonicum; chamomile, anthemis nobilis; tanley, tanacetum; bogbean, menyanthes trifoliata; centaury, gentiana centaurum; gentian, Therapeutician, gentiana lutea; artichoke leaves, cynara scolymus; hop, humulus lupulus.

2. Orange peel, cinnamon, nutmegs, mace.

3. Vomits, squill, digitalis, tobacco.

4. Bath of warm air, of steam.

IV. Such as affect the veins, as water-cress, filicium natum aquaticum; mustard, sinapis; leury-gras, cochlearia hortensis; horse-radish, cochlearia armoracia; cuckoo-flower, cardamine; dog's-grafts; dandelion, leontodon taraxacum; celery, opium; cabbage, brassica. Chalybeates, bitters, opium, after sufficient evacuation; and externally vinegar, friction and electricity.

V. Such as affect the intestines, including several astringents, and of the antacid earths.

VI. Such as affect the liver, stomach, and other viscera, as oxide of iron, filings of iron, sulphate of iron, sulphate of copper, sulphate of zinc, calomel, tartrate of antimony and potash, acetate of lead, and white arsenic.

VII. Such as affect venereal ulcers, including various preparations of mercury.

VIII. Such as affect the whole system, as evacuations by venefication and cathartics, followed by the exhibition of opium.

IX. External forbentia, as solutions of mercury, zinc, lead, copper, iron, arsenic, or metallic oxides applied in dry powder. Bitter vegetables in decoctions and in dry powders, applied externally; as Peruvian bark, oak bark, leaves of wormwood, of tanley, chamomile flowers or leaves. Electric sparks or shocks.

X. Bandage spread with emplastrum è minio, or with carpenter's glue mixed with one-twentieth part of honey.

XI. Portland's powder, and the use of hops in beer, both of which, when continued, are pernicious.

Invertentia. Under the class of invertentia Dr Darwin ranks the ordinary emetics, violent cathartics, violent erthines and salagogues; violent diuretics, and cold sudorifics, such as poisons, fear, and approaching death.

His catalogue of revertentia, is as follows.

Inverted motions which attend the hysterical disease, are reclaimed, 1. By milk, caflor. 2. By alafocida, galbanum, sagapenum, ammoniacum, valerian. 3. Efflential oils of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, infusion of pennyroyal, mentha pulegium, peppermint, mentha piperita, ether, camphor. 4. Spirit of hartshorn, oleum animale, sponge burnt to charcoal, black snuffs of candles, which consist principally of animal charcoal, wood-foal, oil of amber. 5. The incitantia, as opium, alcohol, vinegar. 6. Externally the smoke of burnt feathers, oil of amber, volatile salt applied to the nostrils, blisters, sinapisms.

II. Inverted motions of the stomach are reclaimed by opium, alcohol, blisters, crude mercury, sinapisin, camphor and opium externally, clysters with alafocida.

III. Inverted motions of the intestinal lymphatics are reclaimed by mucilaginous diluents, and by intestinal forbentia, as rhubarb, logwood, calcined hartshorn, Armenian bole; and, lastly, by incitantia, as opium.

IV. Inverted motions of the urinary lymphatics are reclaimed by cantharides, turpentine, rolin, the forbentinia, and opium, with calcareous earth, and earth of Therapeulalum, by oil externally, warm bath.

V. Inverted motions of the intestinal canal are reclaimed by calomel, aloe, crude mercury, blisters, warm bath, clysters with alafocida, clysters of ice water? or of firing water further cooled by salt dissolved in water contained in an exterior vessel? Where there exists an introflescence of the bowel in children, could the patient be held up for a time with his head downwards, and crude mercury be injected as a clyster to the quantity of two or three pounds?

The terpentia lie divides into 13 general heads. 1. Torpentia. Venefication and arteriotomy; 2. Cold water, cold air, and the respiration of air with a diminished proportion of oxygen; 3. Vegetable mucilages; 4. Vegetable acids; 5. Animal mucus, hartshorn jelly, veal and chicken broth, and perhaps oil, fat and cream; 6. Mineral acids; 7. Silence and darkness; 8. Invertentia in small doses, as nitre, emetic tartar, and ippecacanha, given so as to induce nausea; 9. Antacids, as soap, alkalies, and earths; 10. Medicines preventive of fermentation, as sulphuric acid; 11. Anthelmintics; 12. Lithontriptics; and, 13. Various external remedies, as the warm bath, poultices, oil, fat, wax, plasters, oiled silk, and carbonic acid gas on cancers and other ulcers.

We were for some time at a loss what arrangement we should follow in the present article. It was evidently necessary to adopt one that should, as much as possible, prevent repetition; and it therefore appeared improper to treat particularly of the articles of the materia medica under the usual classes. The alphabetical order would prevent repetition; but it seemed little adapted to the plan of a systematic treatise. On the whole, we have judged it best to arrange the individual articles in two methods; 1st, Into classes according to their supposed operation on the system; and, in this view consider their general uses; and, 2dly, To treat of them more particularly under an arrangement similar to that of Linnaeus. In the remainder of this part of the article, we shall therefore consider the general action and use of the various classes of remedies, adopting, with the exclusion of emmenagogues, the arrangement followed in Dr Kirby's Tables of the Materia Medica; and in a succeeding part we shall consider the individual articles under the four heads of animal, vegetable, mineral, and gaseous substances.

Class I. Emetics.

Emetics are such medicines as are calculated to excite vomiting, and thus discharge the contents of the stomach.

Table of Emetics.

I. Animal Products.

Murias ammoniae, natriate of ammonia.

Aqua carbonatis ammoniae, water of carbonate of ammonia.

II. Vegetable Products.

Anthemis nobilis, chamomile flowers.

Afarium europaeum, afarnbacca.

Centaurea benedicta, holy thistle.

Cephaëlis Cerhaëlis ipecacuanha, ipecacuanha.

Vimum ipecacuanhae, ipecacuanha wine.

Nicotiana tabacum, tobacco in clysters.

Olea europea, olive oil.

Scilla maritima, squill.

Acetum ficillae maritimae, vinegar of squills.

Sinapis alba, mustard.

III. MINERAL PRODUCTS.

Sulphas cupri, sulphate of copper.

Sulphuretum antimonii, sulphuret of antimony.

Oxidum antimonii cum sulphure vitrificatum, vitrified oxide of antimony with sulphur.

Vimum antimonii, antimonial wine, L.

Tartris antimonii, tartarite of antimony.

Vimum tartaritis antimonii, wine of tartarised antimony.

Sulphas zinci, sulphate of zinc.

The general effects produced by emetics are, a sensation of uneasiness in the stomach, followed by sickness, retching and vomiting. During the nausea, the pulse is feeble, quick, and sometimes irregular, and the countenance is pale; but when the vomiting comes on, the pulse grows quicker, and the face flushed. After the vomiting has ceased, the sickness or nausea commonly goes off entirely, though it sometimes remains in a distressing degree. The patient feels languid, heavy, and disposed to sleep. The skin usually feels moist, and the pulse continues weak for some time, but gradually grows fuller and slower.

To consider emetics merely as evacuants of the stomach, would be to take a very contracted and imperfect view of their effects; for if traced through the whole of their operation in the various diseases in which they are employed, their influence over the human body appears so manifold and extensive, that they may be justly reckoned amongst the most powerful instruments which the Materia Medica affords. Hence, besides their use as cleansers of the alimentary canal, they serve to induce sweating in fevers; to favour expectoration in disorders of the lungs; to promote absorption in cases of dropsy; and to remove certain obstructed conditions of the visceræ, such as jaundice and suppression of the menses; also in cases of glandular and lymphatic obstructions, and in some cases of pulmonary consumption. By means of their peculiar action on the nervous and vascular system, they allay the spasms in asthma, and check the discharge of blood in hemorrhages from the lungs and uterus. In the first of these, viz. in spitting of blood, they have been given with advantage by Dr Robinson, and still more lately by Dr Stoll of Vienna; who says, that in such cases ipecacuanha sometimes acts like a charm, seeming to close the open vessels of the lungs sooner and more effectually than any other remedy. In the other, viz. in uterine hemorrhage, small doses only of these medicines, so as to excite sickness, but not vomiting, are found to answer best. But in both these instances they should be administered with caution, since it sometimes happens that they do more harm than good. Dr Cullen once met with an accident of this kind, in which the vomiting increased the hemorrhage to a great and dangerous degree.

Dysentery is to be added to the number of diseases in which emetics have a peculiarly beneficial effect.

When there is much visceral inflammation; where there are symptoms of great accumulation in the vessels of the head; in the advanced stages of pregnancy, and in cases of intestinal hernia, medicines of this class are to be avoided. And, in general, persons who have weak and delicate stomachs should be cautious of employing them too freely, since, as Dr Cullen has remarked, frequent vomiting renders the stomach less fit to retain what is thrown into it, and even weakens its powers of digestion.*

CLASS II. EXPECTORANTS.

These medicines are called expectorants, that are employed to promote the excretion of pus or mucus of expectoration from the windpipe and lungs. In general they are tants. Emetics given in smaller doses, though there are several medicines, especially some of the gum resins, that are considered to act in this way, without any tendency to excite vomiting.

The following articles are usually employed in this country as expectorants.

I. VEGETABLE PRODUCTS.

Cephaëlis ipecacuanha, ipecacuanha.

Nicotiana tabacum, tobacco.

Scilla maritima, squill.

Acetum ficillae maritimae, vinegar of squill.

Syrupus ficillae maritimae, syrup of squill.

Oxymel ficillae, oxymel of squill.

Tinctura ficillae, tincture of squill.

Pilulae ficillitiae, squill pills.

Conferva ficillae, conserve of squill.

Allium sativum, garlic.

Syrupus allii, syrup of garlic.

Ammoniacum, gum ammoniac.

Lac ammoniaci, milk of ammoniac.

Arum maculatum, wake-robin.

Conferva arii, conserve of arum.

Colchicum autumnale, meadow saffron.

Syrupus colchici autumnalis, syrup of colchicum.

Oxymel colchici, oxymel of colchicum.

Ferula afafezida, afafezida.

Lac afafezidae, milk of afafezida.

Hyppopus officinalis, hyssop.

Marrubium vulgare, horehound.

Myrrha, myrrh.

Pimpinella anisum, aniseed.

Oleum volatile pimpinellæ anisi, oil of aniseed.

Polygala senega, seneka root.

Decoctum polygalæ senegæ, decoction of seneka.

Styrax benzoin, benzoin.

Acidum benzoicum, benzoic acid.

Tinctura benzoæ composita, compound tincture of benzoin.

Alcohol, spirit of wine.

Æther sulphuricus, sulphuric ether.

II. MINERAL PRODUCTS.

Sulphuretum antimonii, sulphuret of antimony. Materia Medica, &c.

Tartris antimonii, tartrite of antimony. Vinum tartritis antimonii, wine of tartrite of antimony. Sulphuretum antimonii precipitatum, precipitated sulphuret of antimony. Sulphur sublimatum, flowers of sulphur. Sulphur sublimatum lotum, washed flowers of sulphur. Oleum sulphuratum, sulphurated oil. Petroleum sulphuratum, sulphurated petroleum. Trochisci sulphuris, sulphur lozenges.

III. Gaseous Products. Gas hydrogenium, hydrogen gas. Gas hydrogenium carbonatum, carbonated hydrogen gas. Vaporis aquae calidae inhalatio, inhaling the fumes of warm water.

The mode in which expectorants promote the excretion of pus or mucus from the lungs, does not appear to be well understood. Some suppose that those which are properly emetic, operate by the sympathy that exists between the stomach and lungs, and that the rest operate by some specific action. Mr Murray supposes that there are various modes of operation by which certain remedies will appear to promote expectoration, and which will give them a claim to the title of expectorants.

Thus, in certain diseases the exhalant vessels in the lungs seem to be in that state, by which the exhalation of fluid is lessened, or nearly stopped, and in such cases expectoration must be diminished. Any medicine capable of removing that constricted state, will appear to promote expectoration, and will at least relieve some of the symptoms of the disease. It is apparently by such a mode of operation, that antimony, ipecacuanha, squill, and some others, promote expectoration in pneumonia, catarrh, and asthma, the principal diseases in which expectorants are employed.

There is a case of an opposite kind, that in which there is a redundancy of mucus in the lungs, as occurs in humoral asthma, and catarrhus seminalis. In these affections, certain expectorants supposed to prove useful. If they do so, it is probably by being determined more particularly in their action to the pulmonary vessels, and by their moderate stimulus diminishing the secretion, or increasing the absorption, thus lessening the quantity of fluid, and thereby rendering the expectoration of the remainder more easy. The determination of these substances to the lungs is often perceptible by their odour in the air expired. A similar diminution of fluid in the lungs may be effected by determining to the surface of the body; and those expectorants which belong to the class of diaphoretics probably act in this manner.

Expectorants, then, are to be regarded, not as medicines which directly assist the rejection of a fluid already secreted, but rather as either increasing the natural exhalation where it is deficient, or diminishing the quantity of fluid where it is too copious, either by stimulating the pulmonary vessels, or by determining to the surface. In both cases expectoration will appear to be promoted or facilitated.*

The definition of these remedies points out the cases to which they are applicable, viz. those in which an accumulation of pus or mucus takes place in the bronchial cells, as catarrh, pneumonia in its suppurative stage, peripneumonia notha, asthma, and phthisis pulmonalis or consumption.

Class III. Diaphoretics.

Diaphoretics are those remedies that are intended to diaphorepromote, keep up, or restore the excretion of perspirations, able matter from the skin; and of these some act but feebly, and only increase the insensible perspiration, while others act more powerfully, and under favourable circumstances, excite sweating. Hence we may divide them into two orders.

A. THE MILDER DIAPHORETICS.

I. Animal Products. Murias ammoniae. Aqua carbonatis ammoniae. Carbonas ammoniae, carbonate of ammonia. Alcohol ammoniatum, ammoniated alcohol.

II. Vegetable Products. Anthemis nobilis, chamomile tea. Centaurea benedicta, holy thistle tea. Myrrha. Allium sativum. Acidum acetofum, acetic acid or vinegar. Acidum acetum destillatum, distilled vinegar. Aqua acetitis ammoniae, water of acetated ammonia. Arctium lappa, burdock decoction. Artemisia abrotanum, southernwood tea. Arizolochia ferpentaria, snake-root. Tinctura aristolochiae ferpentariae, tincture of snake-root. Daphne mezereum, mezereum. Decoction daphnes mezerei, decoction of mezereum. Dorfitia contrayerva, contrayerva. Pulvis contrayervae compositus, compound powder of contrayerva. Fumaria officinalis, fumitory. Laurus sassafras, sassafras tea. Salvia officinalis, sage tea. Sambucus nigra, elder. Succus baccii sambuci spissatus, infusated juice of elder. Smilax sassafrasilla, sassafrasilla. Decoction smilacis sassafrasilla, decoction of sassafrasilla. Solanum dulcamara, bitter sweet decoction. Supertartras potassae, supertartrate of potash, or cream of tartar.

B. STRONGER DIAPHORETICS, OR SUDORIFICS.

I. Animal Products. Moschus moschiferus, musk. Mistura moschata, musk mixture.

II. Vegetable II. VEGETABLE PRODUCTS.

Aconitum reomontanum, aconite. Succus spilatus aconiti napelli, infusitated juice of aconite. Guaiacum officinale, guaiacum wood and resin. Decoction guaiaci officinalis compositum, compound decoction of guaiacum. Tinctura guaiaci officinalis, tincture of guaiacum. Tinctura guaiaci ammoniata, ammoniated tincture of guaiacum. Laurus camphora, camphor. Mitura camphorata, camphorated mixture. Emulio camphorata, camphorated emulsion. Papaver somniferum, opium. Tinctura opii, tincture of opium. Tinctura opii camphorata, camphorated tincture of opium. Tinctura opii ammoniata, ammoniated tincture of opium. Pulvis ipecacuanhae et opii, powder of ipecacuanhae and opium. Rhododendron chrysanthum, yellow-flowered rhododendron.

III. MINERAL PRODUCTS.

Sulphuretum antimonii, sulphuret of antimony. Tartre antimonii, in small doses. Vinum tartreis antimonii. Sulphuretum antimonii praeparatum. Sulphur fibii fulcum, brown sulphuret of antimony. Oxidum antimonii cum phosphate calcis, oxide of antimony with phosphate of lime, or James's powder. Antimonium calcinatum, white oxide of antimony. Calx fibii precipitatum. D. Precipitated oxide of antimony, or powder of Algaroth. Sulphur sublimatum, flowers of sulphur. Sulphur sublimatum lotum. Sulphur precipitatum, precipitated sulphur, or milk of sulphur. Hydriargyrum, mercury. Hydriargyrum purificatum, purified mercury. Submurius hydriargyri, vel calomelas, submuriate of mercury, or calomel. Balneum calidum, hot bath. Balneum vaporis, vapour bath.

Diaphoretics act in one of two ways; some by exciting an increased action of the exhalant vessels of the skin immediately, or by sympathy with other parts, as the application of heat, the warm bath, friction, &c., while others promote perspiration, by increasing the general force of the circulating system, and thus acting on the exhalant vessels of the skin.

The action of diaphoretics is assisted by moderate warmth and by tepid diluent liquors frequently taken.

The immediate effects of these medicines are partly a diminution of the quantity of fluids in the body, but principally a change of the determination of blood from other parts to the surface. They perhaps also increas the action of the absorbents, and thus remove the spasmodic constriction of the subcutaneous vessels.

The cases to which diaphoretic medicines are best adapted, are inflammatory fevers, rheumatism, asthma, dyspepsia, obstinate diarrhoea, and protracted dysentery. They are injurious in typhus fever, especially towards its commencement.

Where the force of the circulation is very great, it is proper, before the exhibition of diaphoretics, to premise the use of some other evacuation, as bleeding or purging.

CLASS IV. DIURETICS.

These are such medicines as promote or increase the excretion of urine.

The principal diuretics are these.

I. ANIMAL PRODUCTS.

Lyta vesicatoria, cantharides. Tinctura meloe vesicatorii, tincture of cantharides. Onifex afellus, millepedes, or wood-lice.

II. VEGETABLE PRODUCTS.

Asarum europaeum, asarabacca. Nicotiana tabacum, tobacco. Scilla maritima, squill. Tinctura scillae, tincture of squill. Colchicum autumnale, meadow saffron. Syrupus colchici, syrup of colchicum. Oxymel colchici, oxymel of colchicum. Acetum colchici, vinegar of colchicum. Polygala senega, seneka root. Decoction polygati senegae, decoction of seneka. Acetum acetum, acetic acid. Acetas potatiae, acetate of potato. Daphne mezereum, mezereum. Decoction daphnes mezerei, decoction of mezereum. Smilax taraparilla, farfaparilla. Decoction taraparillae compositum, compound decoction of taraparilla. Solanum dulcamara, bitterweed. Superatartras potatiae, superatartrate of potato. Allium cepa, onion. Cillampelos pareira, pareira brava. Cochlearia armoracia, horseradish. Copatiera officinalis, lathom of Copaiba. Cynara scolymus, artichoke. Digitalis purpurea, foxglove. Juniperus communis, juniper. Spiritus juniperi communis compositus, compound spirit of juniper. Oleum juniperi communis, oil of juniper. Juniperus lycia, olibanum. Leontodon taraxacum, dandelion. Pinus sylvestris, common turpentine. Oleum volatile pinii purifillum, purified oil of turpentine. Pinus larix, Venice turpentine. Spartium scoparium, green broom. Ulmus campestris, elm bark. Decoction ulmi, decoction of elm bark. III. MINERAL PRODUCTS.

Hydrargyrum, mercury. Murias hydrargyri, corrosive muriate of mercury. Nitras potash, nitrate of potash. Nitrum purificatum, purified nitre. Acidum nitrosum, nitrous acid. Spiritus aetheris nitroch, spirit of nitrous ether.

The operation of diuretics is greatly promoted by plentiful dilution, which should by no means be withheld from dropical patients, though for many years past, the contrary method has too much prevailed. The medical world is much indebted to Sir F. Milman, for the pains he has taken to shew the propriety of indulging such patients in the free use of liquids. In confirmation of the propriety of this method, the observation of the late Dr Cullen may be added. He has remarked that he always thought it absurd in physicians to employ diuretics while they enjoined an abstinence from drink, which is almost the only means of conveying these diuretics to the kidneys. Whenever, therefore, he employed diuretics, he at the same time advised drinking freely; and he was persuaded that drinking largely often contributed to the cures he made.

It is obvious, says Mr Murray, that a diuretic effect will be produced by any substance capable of stimulating the secreting vessels of the kidneys. All the saline diuretics seem to act in this manner. They are received into the circulation, and passing off with the urine, stimulate the vessels, and increase the quantity secreted.

There are other diuretics, the effect of which appears to arise from direct application, but from an action excited in the stomach, and propagated by nervous communication to the secreting urinary vessels. The diuretic operation of squill, and of several other vegetables, appears to be of this kind.

There is still, perhaps, another mode in which certain substances produce a diuretic effect, that is, by promoting absorption. When a large quantity of watery fluid is introduced into the circulating mass, it stimulates the secreting vessels of the kidneys, and is carried off by the urine. If, therefore, absorption be promoted, and if a portion of feros fluid, perhaps previously effused, be taken up, the quantity of fluid secreted by the kidneys will be increased. In this way digitalis seems to act. Its diuretic effect, it has been said, is greater when exhibited in dropsy, than it is in health.

On the same principle may probably be explained the utility of mercury in promoting the action of several diuretics.

The action of these remedies is promoted by drinking freely of mild diluents. It is also influenced by the state of the surface of the body. If external heat be applied, diuresis is frequently prevented, and diaphoresis produced. Hence the doses of them should be given in the course of the day, and the patient, if possible, be kept out of bed.

The direct effects of diuretics are sufficiently evident. They discharge the watery part of the blood, and by that discharge they indirectly promote absorption over the whole system.

Diuretics are now seldom employed, except in cases of dropsy, and here they not unfrequently fail of success. They are, however, occasionally used in calculous or gravelly complaints, in gonorrhea, to diminish plethora, or check profuse perspiration.

CLASS V. CATHARTICS.

Cathartics are those medicines which promote or increase the evacuation of excrementitious matter, or of cathartic fluids, from the bowels.

There are two principal objects which modern physicians have in view in the administration of cathartics; one is, merely to empty the bowels, and bring off the excrementitious matter contained in them, which is already out of the course of circulation; the other, to stimulate the exhalant vessels of the bowels, and thus promote an increased secretion of feros fluids which they pour into the alimentary canal; in this way diminishing the general mass of fluids in the body. Hence these medicines are naturally divided into laxatives and purgatives, the latter of which are often termed drastic purgatives. It is true that these orders of cathartics differ only in degree of power, as such a quantity of a laxative may be given as to induce purging, while the dose of a purgative may be so diminished as to prove only gently laxative. As, however, the division is useful in some respects, we shall here preserve it, and shall distribute our list of cathartics into laxatives and purgatives.

A. LAXATIVES.

I. ANIMAL PRODUCTS.

Mel, honey. Mel depuratum, clarified honey.

II. VEGETABLE PRODUCTS.

Anthemis nobilis, chrysos of chamomile decoction. Olea europea, olive oil. Supertartras potash, supertartrate of potash. Tartras potash, tartrate of potash. Tartras potash et soda, tartrate of potash and soda, or Rochelle salt. Cassia fistula. Electuarium cassiae, electuary of cassia. Cassia fennae, senna. Pulvis senne compositus, compound powder of senna. Electuarium cassiae senne, electuary of senna. Infusum senne simplex, simple infusion of senna. Infusum senne tartaratum, tartarised infusion of senna. Infusum tamarindi cum senne, infusion of tamarinds with senna. Tinctura senne composita, compound tincture of senna. Ficus carica, figs. Fraxinus ornus, manna. Syrupus mannae, syrup of manna. Prunus domestica, prune. Rosa damascena, damask rose. Syrupus roste centifoliae, syrup of damask roses. Saccharum officinarum, brown sugar.

Tamarindus Tamarindus indica, tamarinds. Viola odorata, sweet violet. Syrupus violae odoratæ, syrup of violets.

III. MINERAL PRODUCTS. Salphur sublimatum, flowers of sulphur. Salphur sublimatum lotum. Sapo hispanus, Castile soap.

B. PURGATIVES.

I. ANIMAL PRODUCTS. Cervus elaphus, harthorn. Phosphas sodæ, phosphate of soda.

II. VEGETABLE PRODUCTS. Nicotiana tabacum, clusters of tobacco, or of tobacco smoke. Sambucus nigra, elder. Pinus sylvestris, clusters of turpentine. Aloe perfoliata, soccorrine aloe. Pulvis aloes cum canella, powder of aloes with canella. Pilulae aloeticae, aloetic pills. Pilulae aloes cum colocynthide, pills of aloes with colocynth. Vinum aloes soccortrinæ, aloe wine. Tinctura aloes soccortrinae, tincture of soccorrine aloe. Bryonia alba, bryony. Convolvulus jalapa, jalap. Pulvis jalapæ compositus, compound powder of jalap. Extractum jalapæ, extract of jalap. Tinctura convolvuli jalapæ, tincture of jalap. Convolvulus scammonia, scammony. Pulvis scammonii compositus, compound powder of scammony. Pulvis scammonii cum aloe, powder of scammony with aloes. Eleocharium scammonii, eleocharium of scammony. Cucumis colocynthis, colocynth, or bitter apple. Extractum colocynthis compositum, compound extract of colocynth. Gratiola officinalis, hedge huffop. Helleborus niger, black hellobore. Extractum hellebori nigri, extract of black hellobore. Helleborus foetidus, stinking hellobore. Iris pseudacorus, common flag. Linum catharticum, purging flax. Momordica elaterium, wild cucumber. Succus spilatus momordici elaterii, elaterium. Rhamnus catharticus, buckthorn. Syrupus rhamni cathartici, syrup of buckthorn. Rheum palmatum, rhubarb. Infusum rhei palmati, infusion of rhubarb. Vinum rhei palmati, rhubarb wine. Tinctura rhei palmati, tincture of rhubarb. Tinctura rhubarbari composita, compound tincture of rhubarb. Tinctura rhei et aloes, tincture of rhubarb and aloes.

Tinctura rhei et gentianæ, tincture of rhubarb and gentian. Ricinus communis, castor oil. Stalagmitis cambogioides, gamboge.

III. MINERAL PRODUCTS. Sulphuretum antimonii, sulphuret of antimony. Tartris antimonii, in very small doses. Hydragryrum, mercury. Submuriæ hydrargyri, submuriate of mercury. Submuriæ hydrargyri precipitatus, precipitated submuriate of mercury. Pilulae hydrargyri, mercurial pills. Nitratas potatisæ, sulphate of potash. Murias sodæ, sea salt. Sulphas sodæ, sulphate of soda, or Glauber's salt. Sulphas magnesiae, sulphate of magnesia, or Epsom salt.

The operation of a purgative medicine on the intestinal canal, may be considered as threefold. First, it stimulates the muscular fibres of the intestines, quickens their action, and thus increases the natural peristaltic motion of the bowels, in consequence of which their contents are more quickly discharged. Secondly, the exhalant vessels are stimulated by it, which terminate in the inner coat of the intestines, and it excites them to pour forth a greater discharge of fluids, as well as the mouths of the excretory ducts of the mucous glands, by which the natural mucus of the intestines is greatly augmented; and hence the evacuations by stool are not only quicker, but the excrementitious matter is thinner and more copious. Thirdly, the stools are rendered still more abundant, by an additional portion of the fluids furnished by the neighbouring visceræ, the liver, pancreas, &c. to which the stimulus of a purgative, of the more active fort particular, extends. It is probable that these effects are communicated to the whole range of the intestinal canal, from the upper orifice of the stomach to the lower extremity of the rectum, or anus.

From the view we have now taken of the primary effects of cathartics on the bowels, we may easily understand how far they may prove useful in some diseases, and injurious in others; and how we may vary the degree of their activity under different circumstances.

When we consider the great length of the alimentary canal, with the numerous vessels and mucous follicles, as well as the hepatic and pancreatic ducts, which open on its internal surface, it will be evident that purgatives, even though they be not very stimulant, may occasion a great general evacuation, and consequent diminution of the mass of fluids, by opening at once all those outlets. From this it appears, that next to bloodletting, purging will form one of the most active remedies in acute inflammatory diseases, where we wish to avoid an over dilution of the vessels, and restrain the supernatural increase of the powers of the circulating system. Accordingly, purging constitutes a principal part of what is termed the cooling regimen. In these cases the more drastic purgatives are to be avoided, as their use would be attended with so much stimulating effect on the system in general, as to counterbalance the advantage we should derive from their diminishing the mass of fluids. Again, the change in the distribution of the blood from other parts of the system to the bowels, is another circumstance attending the use of purgatives, which renders them of considerable importance in several diseases. It seems to follow, that if an evacuation be made from one set of vessels, the afflux of fluids to these will be increased in order to supply it, and consequently, the afflux to other parts of the system will be diminished. Upon this principle, Dr Cullen explains the utility of purgatives in disorders of the head, which originate from over-lubricity or over activity, and in mental affections, mania, phreny, headache, &c.

The afflux of fluids in the vessels of the abdomen, which supply the intestines, being increased by purging, the afflux will be proportionally diminished in the vessels which carry blood to the head, and both the quantity and impetus of the blood in the head will thus be lessened.

The good effects of cathartics in the small pox, and some other inflammatory affections of the skin, are probably to be attributed chiefly to their removing local irritation, and producing a considerable depletion, and thus diminishing the general fever that usually attends those diseases.

When the contents of the bowels are morbidly retained, either in consequence of their peristaltic motion being unusually slow from a torpid state of the muscular fibres, or from a relaxed state of the bowels, favouring an accumulation of feces, from a deficiency of bile, or from habitual neglect, the use of cathartics is indicated, to prevent more serious complaints that may be the consequence of this condition. The kind of cathartics to be employed depends on the nature of the cause producing the constipation, or particular circumstances attending it. If, for example, the coliciveness be attended with a debilitated habit, with symptoms of great nervous mobility, flatuscence, or other signs of a debilitated state of the alimentary canal, some of the warmer aromatic cathartics will be proper, as aloes, rhubarb, or such preparations of these as contain an aromatic in their composition. If the coliciveness seems to arise from a deficiency of bile, the aloeetic and mercurial purgatives are indicated.

In cases where the coliciveness has arisen from some accidental cause, as in colic, dysentery, enteritis, it will be necessary to vary the cathartics according to the nature of the affection, or the cause by which it has been produced. See COLIC, DYSENTERY, and ENTERITIS, MEDICINE Index.

Cathartics exert a particular action on the absorbent vessels, by which these are enabled to take up a greater quantity of fluid than in their natural state. Hence the use of drastic purgatives in dropsy. The action of cathartics in this way does not appear to be well understood. Dr Cullen, treating of this subject, observes that, as in every cavity of the body there is an inhalation and exhalation constantly going on, it is presumed that there is some balance constantly preserved between the secretory and absorbent powers; so that if the former are increased, the latter will be also; and, therefore, that when the secretions are, upon occasion, much increased, the action of the absorbents may be particularly excited. This explains why purging often excites the action of the absorbents, to take up more copiously the fluids that were otherwise stagnant in the adipose membrane, or other cavities of the body, and thereby often proves a cure of dropsy. This explanation is perhaps little more than an implicit statement of the fact. It is certain, however, that dropsy, or dropsy of the abdomen, has been often affected by means of acrid drastic purgatives, such as gamboge, scammony, &c., when diuretic remedies have failed. But it is obvious that these remedies can only be administered to those who retain considerable strength of constitution, debilitated neither by inveterate intemperance, old age, nor a long disease.

The attention of practitioners has been lately particularly directed to the use of purgatives in several diseases, in which they were formerly either not employed at all, or not used to any extent, in consequence of a valuable publication by Dr James Hamilton, senior physician of the Edinburgh infirmary. Dr Hamilton having observed that in several palpable diseases, especially in chorea, or St Vitus's dance, there was commonly a considerable collection of black offensive faeces in the bowels, was led to conceive that this must prove a very powerful irritating cause in protracting these diseases; and as in common with other practitioners, he had experienced great want of success from the usual administration of tonic medicines in these affections, he was led to try the effect of purgatives given to such an extent as to produce complete evacuation of the bowels. The plan succeeded entirely to his satisfaction, and by this treatment he finds chorea is speedily cured, generally in 10 days or a fortnight. Besides chorea, Dr Hamilton has been very successful in the administration of purgatives in cases of typhus, icteratina, fever, marasmus, chlorosis, hematemesis, hysteria, tetanus, and several other chronic affections. He was originally induced to pursue his new method of treating typhus, by observing that the antimonials, which were formerly so largely employed in this disease, appeared to be most serviceable when they operated upon the bowels. This led him to suspect, that any purgative medicine might be substituted in their place, and that the debilitating effect of vomiting and sweating might thus be avoided. Experience has fully confirmed these conjectures, and after a trial of some years he is thoroughly persuaded, that the full and regular evacuation of the bowels relieves the oppression of the stomach, and mitigates the other symptoms of fever. He has accordingly almost entirely given up the administration of other remedies, and trusts to the exhibition of frequent and copious purgatives. It might have been apprehended, that this plan of treatment would have aggravated the debility, which constitutes a striking symptom of typhus; but ample experience has proved that this is not the case. The purgatives which Dr Hamilton * has employed in * see Hamilton on fever are calomel, calomel and jalap, jalap and crystalts of tartar, aloes, solutions of mild neutral salts, infusion of Purgative fennel, and sometimes the two last medicines conjoined.

Cathartics are among the most efficacious remedies that are employed with a view to promote or restore the menstrual evacuation; and accordingly they form the chief part of those remedies that are commonly called... Part II.

Materia Medica, &c.

Therapeutical emmenagogues. With this view the drastic purgatives are chiefly given, as aloes, bryony, black hellebore, and some of the preparations of mercury.

There is another use of cathartics that may be referred to a mechanical operation, viz. their expelling worms from the bowels. See Anthelmintics.

Class VI. Errhines.

Those medicines are termed errhines that are employed to promote an increased discharge of mucus from the nostrils. The principal errhines are the following.

I. Vegetable Products.

Afarum europaeum, afarabacca. Pulvis afari europaei compositus, compound powder of afarabacca. Cephalic snuff. Nicotiana tabacum, tobacco. The ordinary snuffs. Iris florentina, Florentine iris. Lavandula spica, lavender flowers. Origanum majorana, sweet marjoram. Rosmarinus officinalis, rosemary. Teucrium marum, majich. Veratrum album, white hellebore.

II. Mineral Products.

Hydargyrum, mercury. Subfulphas hydargyri flavus, yellow subfulphate of mercury, or turbeith mineral.

The evacuation produced by the action of errhines is sometimes procured without any sneezing, but frequently attended with it. This, however, implies no difference, but merely that of stronger or weaker stimulus in the medicine employed. The sneezing that occurs may have particular effects by the conclusion it occasions; but does not vary the evacuation induced by the medicine, excepting that with sneezing there is commonly a larger evacuation produced.

This evacuation often goes no further than to restore the natural evacuation when interrupted; but it commonly goes farther, and increases the evacuation beyond its usual measure; and that not only for some time after the medicine has been applied, but also for some following days.

This evacuation not only empties, but also produces a larger excretion from the mucous follicles of the Schneiderian membrane; but, agreeably to the laws of the circulation, this must produce an afflux of fluids from the neighbouring vessels, and in some measure empty them. By this it often removes rheumatic congestions in the neighbouring vessels, and particularly those in which the toothache often consists.

But not only the more nearly adjoining vessels are thus relieved, but the effect may extend further to the whole of the branches of the external carotid; and we have known instances of headaches, pains of the ear, and ophthalmias, cured or relieved by the use of errhines. How far their effects may extend, cannot be exactly determined; but it is probable that they may operate more or less on the whole vessels of the head, as even a branch of the internal carotid passes into the nose; and independent of this, it is not improbable that our errhines may have been of use in preventing Theraputic apoplexy and palsy; which at least is to be attended to so far, that whenever any approach to these diseases is suspected, the drying up of the mucous discharge Materia Medica should be attended to, and if possible restored.

Class VII. Sialagogues.

These are employed either to promote an increased flow of saliva, or to produce such an action on the gums of saliva as shall indicate their having been received in sufficient quantity into the circulation. Under the former division are ranked several vegetable substances; under the latter are included only mercury and its preparations.

I. Vegetable Products.

Daphne mezereum, mezereum. Amomum zingiber, ginger. Anthemis pyrethrum, pellitory of Spain. Pilacia lenticus, mastich.

II. Mineral Products.

Hydargyrum, mercury. Hydargyrum purificatum, purified mercury. Submuriæ hydargyri, submuriate of mercury. Murias hydargyri, muriate of mercury. Submuriæ hydargyri precipitatus, precipitated submuriate. Pilulae hydargyriæ, mercurial pills. Oxidum hydargyri cinereum, cinereous oxide of mercury. Unguentum hydargyrum, mercurial ointment. Hydargyrum calcinatum, red oxide of mercury. Acetis hydargyri, acetate of mercury. Hydargyrum sulphuratus ruber, red sulphurate of mercury. Sulphuretum hydargyri nigrum, black sulphuret of mercury.

The vegetable salagogues are commonly called ma. Uses of salagogues, because they produce their effect by being chewed in the mouth. They are employed in similar cases with the errhines, more especially in toothache. The use of the mercurial salagogues will be explained hereafter in our account of mercury.

Class VIII. Emollients.

The medicines commonly called emollients consist ei. Definition ther of diluting liquors, formed of simple water, or cer. of emollients, tain vegetable infusions, or mucilaginous and oily matters that have the mechanical property of defending the parts to which they are applied, from the action of acrimonious substances that pass over them; or of softening and relaxing the skin and other external parts. The first of these are commonly called diluents, the second demulcents, and the third simply emollients. We shall enumerate them together under the general term of emollients, reserving an account of their particular uses for the individual articles.

I. Animal Products.

Accipenser huso, sturio, &c., fishings. Ovis aries, mutton fat. Physeter macrocephalus, spermaceti. Sus scrofa, hog's-lard.

Linimentum Linimentum simplex, simple liniment.

Unguentum simplex, simple ointment.

Unguentum adips fullo, ointment of hog's-lard.

Unguentum spermatis ceti, sperm ace ointment.

Unguentum cere, wax ointment.

Ceratum simplex, simple cerate.

Ceratum spermatis ceti, sperm ace cerate.

II. VEGETABLE PRODUCTS.

Cera alba et flava, white and yellow wax.

Olea Europaea.

Althea officinalis, marshmallow.

Decoction altheae officinalis, decoction of marshmallow.

Syrupus altheae, syrup of marshmallow.

Amygdalus communis, almonds and oil of almonds.

Emulio amygdali communis, almond emulsion.

Oleum amygdali communis, oil of almonds.

Alfragalus tragacantha, gum tragacanth.

Mucilago alfragali tragacanthi, mucilage of tragacanth.

Pulvis tragacanthi compositus, compound powder of tragacanth.

Avena sativa, oat meal.

Cocos butyracea, palm oil.

Eryngium maritimum, eryngo root.

Glycyrrhiza glabra, liquorice root, and extract.

Trochici glycyrrhizae, liquorice lozenges.

Hordeum distichum, barley.

Decoction hordei distichi, barley water.

Decoction hordei compositum, compound decoction of barley.

Lilium candidum, white lily root.

Linum usitatissimum, linseed.

Oleum lini usitatissimi, linseed oil.

Malva sylvestris, common mallow.

Decoction pro enemate, decoction for ulcers.

Melissa officinalis, balm.

Mimosa nilotica, gum arabic.

Mucilago mimose niloticae, mucilage of gum arabic.

Emulio mimose niloticae, common emulsion.

Trochici gummosi, gum lozenges.

Penea farcocola, farcocola.

Pyrus cydonia, quince seed.

Mucilago seminis cydonii mali, mucilage of quince seed.

Triticum hibernum, wheat and starch.

Mucilago amyli, mucilage of starch.

Trochici amyli, starch lozenges.

Vitis vinifera, raisins.

Diluents are chiefly employed to abate thirst in fever and inflammatory affections, or to promote the action of other remedies, particularly diaphoretics and diuretics. Demulcents are chiefly used in catarrh, pneumonia, dysentery, diarrhoea, gonorrhoea; and external emollients are employed chiefly in case of sprains and bruises, or to defend the surface of ulcers from the dressings and bandages.

CLASS IX. REFRIGERANTS.

Under this term are comprehended those remedies which are employed with a view to diminish the prematurely increased heat that takes place in the body during fevers and several inflammatory affections.

The following are the principal refrigerants enumerated by the various writers on the materia medica.

I. VEGETABLE PRODUCTS.

Acidum acetosum, acetic acid.

Acetis potassae, acetate of potash.

Aqua acetitis ammoniae, water of acetate of ammonia.

Supertartrarum potassae, supertartrate of potash.

Tamarindus indica, tamarinds.

Berberis vulgaris, barberry.

Citrus medica, lemon.

Syrupus citri medicae, syrup of lemon juice.

Citrus aurantia, orange.

Cochlearia officinalis, searow grass.

Succus cochleariae compositus, compound juice of searow grass.

Morus nigra, mulberry.

Syrupus fructus mori, syrup of mulberry juice.

Oxalis acetella, wood sorrel.

Confera acetellae, conserve of sorrel.

Ribes nigrum, black currants.

Succus spillatus ribis nigri, infusitated juice of black currants.

Syrupus succi ribis nigri, syrup of black currant juice.

Ribes rubrum, red currants.

Rosa canina, dog rose or hips.

Confera roste caninae, conserve of hips.

Rubus idaeus, raspberry.

Syrupus fructus rubi idaei, syrup of raspberry juice.

Rumex acetosa, common sorrel.

Veronica beccabunga, brooklime.

II. MINERAL PRODUCTS.

Sulphas zinci, sulphate of zinc.

Nitras potassae, nitrate of potash.

Acidum nitrosum, nitrous acid.

Spiritus aetheris nitrofi, spirit of nitrous ether.

Trochici nitratis potassae, nitre lozenges.

Murias sodae, muriate of soda.

Acidum muriaticum, muriatic acid.

Acidum sulphuricum, sulphuric acid.

Acidum sulphuricum dilutum, diluted sulphuric acid.

Plumbum, lead.

Superacetas plumbi, superacetate or sugar of lead.

Aqua lithargyri acetati, water of acetated litharge, or Goulard's extract.

Aqua lithargyri acetati composita, compound water of acetated litharge.

Unguentum acetitis plumbi, ointment of acetate of lead.

Ceratum lithargyri acetati compositum, compound serate of acetated litharge.

Affusion of cold water.

Refrigerants appear to act chemically, but in what effects and precise manner they diminish the heat of the human body, is not well understood. On this subject Mr Murray expresses himself in the following manner.

"Keeping in view the very inconsiderable action of these remedies, it may perhaps be possible, from the consideration of the mode in which animal temperature is..." Part II.

Materia Medica, &c.

Therapists is generated, to point out how their trivial refrigerant effects may be produced.

"It has been sufficiently established, that the consumption of oxygen in the lungs is materially influenced by the nature of the ingesta received into the stomach; that it is increased by animal food and spirituous liquors, and in general by whatever substances contain a small quantity of oxygen in their composition. But the temperature of animals is derived from the consumption of oxygen by respiration. An increase of that must occasion a great evolution of caloric in the system, and increase of temperature, while a diminution in the consumption of oxygen must have an opposite effect. If, therefore, when the temperature of the body is morbidly increased, substances be introduced into the stomach containing a large proportion of oxygen, especially in a state of loose combination, and capable of being assimilated by the digestive powers, the nutritious matter received into the blood must contain a larger portion of oxygen than usual; less of that principle will be consumed in the lungs, by which means less caloric being evolved, the temperature of the body must be reduced; and this operating as a reduction of stimulus, will diminish the number and force of the contractions of the heart.

"It might be supposed that any effect of this kind must be trivial, and it actually is so. It is, as Cullen has remarked, not very evident to our senses, nor easily subjected to experiment, and is found only in consequence of frequent repetitions."

Refrigerants are considered by Mr Murray as acting chemically, but we are not certain how far this opinion is correct. That some of them do operate in cooling the human body, merely as chemical agents, cannot be denied; but several seem to produce this effect by some particular action on the nervous system, that is not well understood.

Class X. Astringents.

Astringents are defined by Dr Cullen to be such substances as when applied to the human body produce a condensation and contraction of the soft solids, and thereby increase their density and force of cohesion. If they are applied to longitudinal fibres, the contraction is made in the length of these; but if applied to circular fibres, the diameters of the vessels, or the cavities which these surround, are diminished.

The principal substances that act in this way are taken from vegetables, and consist of the barks of several trees, certain roots and inflorescent juices; but a few of them are derived from minerals, especially the stronger mineral acids, a few metallic and earthy salts, and according to some writers, alcohol. We shall enumerate the following.

I. VEGETABLE PRODUCTS.

Haematoxylum campechianum, logwood.

Extractum ligni haematoxyli campechiani, extract of logwood.

Juglans regia, walnut.

Eucalyptus resinifera, kino.

Tinctura kino, tincture of kino.

Mimosa catechu, catechu, or Japan earth.

Infusum minosae catechu, infusion of catechu.

Tinctura minosae catechu, tincture of catechu.

Eleocharium catechu, eleocharium of catechu.

Polygonum biflorum, biflora.

Potentilla reptans, potentilla.

Prunus spinosa, rose.

Conserva pruni fylvedis, conserve of floes.

Pterocarpus draco, dragon's blood.

Punica granatum, pomegranate, balayfines.

Quercus cerris, galea nut.

Quercus robur, common oak.

Rosa gallica, red rose.

Infusum roae gallicae, infusion of rose.

Conserva roae gallica, conserve of red roses.

Syrupus roae gallicae, syrup of red roses.

Mel roae, honey of roses.

Tormentilla erecta, tormentil root.

Vitis vinifera, red Port wine.

II. MINERAL PRODUCTS.

Acidum sulphuricum, sulphuric acid.

Acidum muriaticum, muriatic acid.

Ferrum, iron.

Tinctura muriatis ferri, tincture of muriated iron.

Plumbum, lead.

Superacetas plumbi, superacetate of lead.

Sulphas cupri, sulphate of copper.

Solutio fulphatis cupri, solution of sulphate of copper.

Liquor cupri ammoniati, liquor of ammoniated copper.

Sulphas zinci, sulphate of zinc.

Aquæ zinci vitriolati cum camphora, water of vitriolated zinc with camphor.

Solutio acetatis zinci, solution of acetate of zinc.

Supersulphas aluminae et potash, supersulphate of alumina and potash, or alum.

Sulphas aluminae exsiccatus, dried sulphate of alumina.

Pulvis sulphatis aluminae compositus, compound powder of sulphate of alumina.

Aquæ aluminae composita, compound alum water.

Cataplasm aluminis, cataplasm of alum.

It is of some consequence that the precise meaning of the term astringent, used as a medicine, should be understood.

The usual method of detecting astringency is, by the nature of corrugating of the tongue, and the peculiar rough and astringent harsh sensation communicated to the palate by the touch of an astringent substance; and in general, all bodies may be called astringents, that have the property of communicating these sensations. Most of the vegetable astringents have besides the property of striking a black colour when mixed with a solution of sulphate of iron, and this property has been constantly considered as one of the surest tests of astringency in vegetable substances. Now modern chemistry has shown, that this property is owing to a peculiar acid, viz. the gallic, and not to tannin or the astringent principle properly so called. It so happens that in most vegetable astringents the gallic acid and tannin are found united; but in a few, especially catechu, the astringent principle exists without the gallic acid, and consequently no black colour is produced when a solution of catechu is mixed with a solution of iron. Hence the pharmaceutical chemist should be... be aware that the above property is not a sure test of vegetable astringency. A more certain chemical test is animal jelly; for, when a solution of this is added to a solution of vegetable astringent, a copious precipitate is produced, which in fact is leather.

Astringents appear to act nearly in a similar manner on the dead animal fibre as on the living solid, in both cases thickening and hardening: when applied to the living solid, they produce increase of tone and strength, restrain inordinate actions, and check excessive discharges from any of the vessels or cavities; and to the dead fibre occasion density, toughness, impermeability to water in a greater or less degree, and insusceptibility to the common causes of putrefaction. See TANNING.

Astringents are largely employed in medicine, and their use is attended with considerable advantage. The cases in which they are most beneficial, and in which their effect seems most unequivocally owing to the astringent principle, are diarrhoea, leucorrhoea, and gleet. They have also been employed with success for restraining profuse evacuations where they could not be immediately applied to the affected part, as in the above cases; for example, in hemoptysis and epistaxis; but here their operation seems to be less attributable to their astringency than to their tonic power.

Such astringents as are employed externally to check hemorrhage from divided vessels, are usually called RYPTICS.

CLASS IX. TONICS.

Tonics are those medicines which are suited to counteract debility, or to give strength and energy to the moving fibres. They are taken partly from vegetables, and partly from minerals.

I. VEGETABLE PRODUCTS.

Anthemis nobilis, chamomile flowers. Centaurea benedicta, holy thistle. Marriuimum vulgare, borebound. Myrrha, myrrh. Pulvis myrrhae compositus, compound powder of myrrh. Dorstenia contrajerva, contrayerva. Pulvis contrayervae compositus, compound powder of contrayerva. Vitis vinifera. Vinum rubrum lusitanum, red port wine. Æsculus hippocastanum, horse-chestnut bark. Angustura, angustura bark. Chironæ centaureum, lefier centaury. Cinchona officinalis, Peruvian bark. Infusum cinchonæ officinalis, infusion of cinchona. Decoction cinchonæ officinalis, decoction of cinchona. Tinctura cinchonæ officinalis, tincture of cinchona. Tinctura cinchonæ composita, compound tincture of cinchona. Tinctura cinchonæ ammoniata, ammoniated tincture of cinchona.

II. MINERAL PRODUCTS.

Sulphas cupri, sulphate of copper. Ammoniaretum cupri, ammoniate of copper. Pilulae ammoniaretii cupri, pills of ammoniate of copper. Zincum, zinc. Sulphas zinci, sulphate of zinc. Solutio sulphatis zinci, solution of sulphate of zinc. Oxidum zinci, oxide or flowers of zinc. Nitras potassii, nitrate of potash. Acidum nitrolum, nitrous acid. Ferrium, iron. Carbonas ferri, carbonate of iron. Carbonas ferri precipitatus, precipitated carbonate of iron. Aqua ferri aerata, water of aerated iron. Sulphas ferri, sulphate of iron. Vinum ferri, wine of iron. Tinctura muriatis ferri, tincture of muriate of iron. Sulphas ferri exsiccatus, dried sulphate of iron. Oxidum ferri rubrum, red oxide of iron. Emplastrum oxidii ferri rubri, plaster of red oxide of iron. Ferri limuræ purificatæ, purified filings of iron. Oxidum ferri nigrum purificatum, purified black oxide of iron. Marias ammoniæ et ferri, muriate of ammonia and iron. Tinctura ferri ammoniacalis, tincture of ammoniacal iron. Tartras ferri et potassii, tartrate of iron and potash. Tinctura ferri acetati, tincture of acetated iron. Acidum sulphuricum, sulphuric acid. Acidum sulphuricum dilutum, diluted sulphuric acid. Acidum sulphuricum aromaticum, aromatic sulphuric acid.

Argentum, silver.

Nitras argentii, nitrate of silver; or lunar caustic.

Arfenicum, arsenic.

Carbonas barytae, carbonate of baryta.

Carbonas calcis, carbonate of lime or chalk.

Solutio muriatis calcis, solution of muriate of lime.

Sulphas barytae, sulphate of baryta.

Murias barytae, muriate of baryta.

Solutio muriatis barytae, solution of muriate of baryta.

Aqua minerales ferrum continentem, chalybeate mineral waters.

III. GASEOUS PRODUCTS.

Gas oxigenium, oxygen gas.

Balneum frigidum, cold bath.

Equitatio, riding on horseback.

Most tonics act immediately on the stomach, and hence on the system at large. They increase the appetite, quicken digestion, and add vigour to the body. Hence they are useful in most cases of debility; but when used improperly or for too long a time, they predispose to apoplectic and paralytic disorders.

CLASS XII. STIMULANTS.

Most of the articles of the Materia Medica might, in an extended sense, be called stimulants; but this term is, by the general consent of physicians, restrictively applied to those medicines which polish the power of sustaining or increasing the vital energies—of raising and invigorating the action of the heart and arteries—and of restoring to the muscular fibre, when affected with torpor, its lost sensibility and power of motion. Hence the use, under proper regulations, of the various articles belonging to this class in cases of gout, palsy, and malignant typhoid fever; but let it be repeated, under proper regulations; for we cannot but remark that medicines which give additional activity to the circulation, and which augment the heat and sensibility of the system throughout, are often abusively employed, being administered too early, as well as too freely in the above-mentioned and some other similar disorders. In the beginning of typhous fever, in particular, it cannot be doubted that a hasty and lavish exhibition of such medicines has, in numerous instances, aggravated every symptom, and brought the patient, who would otherwise have had the disease in its mildest form, into considerable danger.

The class of stimulants is exceedingly numerous, and might, perhaps, with advantage, be subdivided into sections; but as this subdivision would admit of much dispute from the different acceptation of the term stimulant, we shall here only give a table of stimulants distributed as usual into animal, vegetable, and mineral products.

I. ANIMAL PRODUCTS.

Murias ammoniae, muriate of ammonia.

Aqua ammoniae, water of ammonia.

Alcohol ammoniatum, ammoniated alcohol.

Vol. XII. Part II.

II. VEGETABLE PRODUCTS.

Sinapis alba, mustard seed.

Cataplasmum sinapios, mustard cataplasm.

Allium sativum, garlic.

Arum maculatum, wake-robin.

Conferwa ari, conferve of arum.

Pimpinella anisum, anise seed.

Oleum volatile pimpinellae anisi, volatile oil of anise seed.

Styrax benzoin, benjamin.

Acidum benzoeicum, benzoic acid.

Tinctura benzoe composita, compound tincture of benjamin.

Alcohol.

Ether sulphuricus, sulphuric ether.

Ether sulphuricus cum alcohole, sulphuric ether with alcohol.

Ether sulphuricus cum alcohole compositus, compound sulphuric ether with alcohol.

Oleum vini, oil of wine.

Acidum acetosum, vinegar.

Acidum acetosum forte, strong acetic acid.

Acidum acetosum camphoratum, camphorated acetic acid.

Acetum aromaticum, aromatic vinegar.

Arifolochia serpentina, snake-root.

Tinctura arifolochiae serpentariae, tincture of snake-root.

Daphne mezereum, mezereum.

Decoction daphnes mezerei, decoction of mezereum.

Guaiacum officinale, guaiacum.

Decoction guaiaci officinalis, decoction of guaiacum.

Tinctura guaiaci officinalis, tincture of guaiacum.

Tinctura guaiaci ammoniae, ammoniated tincture of guaiacum.

Papaver somniferum, opium in small doses.

Tinctura. Tinctura opii, tincture of opium. Tinctura opii camphorata, camphorated tincture of opium. Tinctura opii ammoniata, ammoniated tincture of opium.

Confectio opiata, opiate confection. Cochlearia armoracia, horse radish. Copaeira officinalis, balsam of copaiba. Pinus sylvestris, turpentine and resin. Pinus larix, Oleum volatile pini purissimum, purified oil of turpentine.

Unguentum resini flavi, ointment of yellow resin. Ceratum resini flavi, cerate of yellow resin. Emplastrum cere, wax plaster. Unguentum picis, pitch plaster. Unguentum picis burgundiae, ointment of burgundy pitch. Arnica montana, leopard's bane. Bubon galbanum, galbanum. Pilulae galbani compositae, compound pills of galbanum. Emplastrum galbani compositum, compound plaster of galbanum. Juniperus sabina, savine. Oleum juniperi sabinae, oil of savine. Juniperus Lycia, olibanum. Paullinaca opoponax, opoponax. Veratrum album, white hellebore. Unguentum hellebori albi, ointment of white hellebore.

Decoction hellebori albi, decoction of white hellebore. Acorus calamus, calamus aromaticus, or sweet flag. Amomum zingiber, ginger. Syrupus amomi zingiberis, syrup of ginger. Tinctura amomi zingiberis, tincture of ginger. Amomum repens, lesser cardamom seeds. Tinctura amomi repentis, tincture of cardamom. Tinctura cardamomii composita, compound tincture of cardamom. Amyris gileadensis, balm of gilead. Amyris elemifera, gum elemi. Unguentum elemi, elemi ointment. Anthemum foeniculum, fennel seed. Oleum volatile foniculi dulcis, oil of fennel. Aqua foeniculi dulcis, fennel water. Anethum graveolens, dill seed. Aqua anethi, dill water. Angelica archangelica, angelica. Apium petroselinum, parsley root and seed. Arbutus uva urfi, whortle berry. Artemisia maritima, sea wormwood. Conferma abfinchii maritimii, conserve of sea wormwood. Decoction pro fomento, decoction for fomentation. Cannelia alba, white canella. Capsicum annum, capsicum, Cayenne pepper. Carum carvi, caraway seeds. Oleum carvi, oil of caraway.

Spiritus cari carvi, spirit of caraway. Citrus creticus, ladanum. Emplastrum ladani, ladanum plaster. Citrus aurantium, Seville orange peel. Oleum volatile citri aurantii, essence of orange peel. Aqua citri aurantii, orange peel water. Tinctura aurantii corticiis, tincture of orange peel. Syrupus citri aurantii, syrup of orange peel. Conferma citri aurantii, conserve of orange peel. Coriandrum sativum, coriander seed. Crocus sativus, saffron. Syrupus croci, syrup of saffron. Tinctura croci, tincture of saffron. Cuminum cyminum, cumin seed. Cataplasmum cuminum, cumin cataplasm. Emplastrum cuminum, cumin plaster. Curcuma longa, turmeric. Daucus carota, wild carrot seed, carrot root. Dianthus Caryophyllus, clove Julyflower. Syrupus Caryophylli rubri, syrup of cloves. Eugenia Caryophyllata, cloves. Oleum volatile Caryophylli aromatici, oil of clover. Hypericum perforatum, St John's wort. Inula helemum, elecampane root. Kempera rotunda, seddary. Lavandula spica, lavender flowers. Oleum volatile lavandulae spicar, oil of lavender. Spiritus lavandulae spicar, spirit of lavender. Spiritus lavandulae compositus, compound spirit of lavender. Laurus cinnamomum, cinnamon. Oleum volatile lauri cinnamomi, oil of cinnamon. Aqua lauri cinnamomi, cinnamon water. Spiritus lauri cinnamomi, spirit of cinnamon. Tinctura lauri cinnamomi, tincture of cinnamon. Tinctura cinnamomi composita, compound tincture of cinnamon. Pulvis aromaticus, aromatic powder. Electuarium aromaticum, aromatic electuary. Laurus caflia, caflia bark. Aqua lauri cafliae, caflia water. Laurus nobilis, bay tree. Lobelia syphilitica, blue cardinal flower. Melaleuca leucadendron, eucalyptus oil. Mentha viridis, spearmint. Oleum menthae sativa, oil of mint. Aqua menthae sativa, mint water. Spiritus menthae sativa, spirit of mint. Mentha piperita, peppermint. Oleum volatile menthae piperitae, oil of peppermint. Aqua menthae piperitae, peppermint water. Spiritus menthae piperitae, spirit of peppermint. Mentha pulegium, pennyroyal. Oleum volatile menthae pulegii, oil of pennyroyal. Aqua menthae pulegii, pennyroyal water. Spiritus menthae pulegii, spirit of pennyroyal. Myristica moschata, nutmeg. Spiritus myristici moschatae, spirit of nutmeg. Myroxylon Peruvianum, balsam of Peru. Tinctura balsami Peruviani, tincture of balsam of Peru. Myrtus pimenta, pimento, or Jamaica pepper. Oleum volatile myrti pimentae, oil of pimento. Aqua myrti pimentae, pimento water. Spiritus myrti pimentae, spirit of pimento. Origanum vulgare, origanum. Oleum origani, oil of origanum. Panax quinquifolium, ginseng. Parietaria officinalis, pellitory of the wall. Pinus balsamea, balsam of Canada. Piper nigrum, black pepper. Piper cubeba, cubeb. Piper longum, long pepper. Piftacia terebinthus, Chio turpentine. Rhus toxicodendron, poison oak. Styrax officinale, storax. Styrax purificata, strained storax. Tolufera balsamum, balsam of Tolu. Tinctura toluferae balsami, tincture of balsam of Tolu. Syrupus toluferae balsami, syrup of balsam of Tolu. Trigonella foenum graecum, fenugreek seed. Urtica dioica, stinging nettle. Wintera aromatica, winter's bark.

III. Mineral Products.

Hydrargyrum, mercury. Unguentum oxidii hydrargyri rubri, ointment of red oxide of mercury. Unguentum nitritatis hydrargyri, ointment of nitrate of mercury. Unguentum nitritatis hydrargyri mitius, milder ointment of nitrate of mercury. Nitras potassae, nitrate of potash. Acidum nitrolum, nitrous acid. Acidum nitricum, nitric acid. Unguentum acidi nitrofi, ointment of nitrous acid. Sapo Hispanus, Castile soap. Tinctura saponis, tincture of soap. Tinctura saponis et opii, tincture of soap and opium. Ceratum saponis, soap cerate. Emplastrum saponis, soap plaster. Murias soda, muriate of soda. Murias sodae exticcatus, dried muriate of soda. Acidum sulphuricum, sulphuric acid. Acidum arseniolum, arsenious acid. Bitumen petroleum, petroleum. Oleum petrolei, oil of petroleum. Subboras sodae, subborate of soda, or borax. Subacetas cupri, subacetate of copper, or verdigris. Oxymel æuginis, oxymel of verdigris. Unguentum acetitis cupri, ointment of subacetate of copper. Calx, quicklime. Linimentum aquæ calcis, liniment of lime water.

IV. Gaseous Products.

Gas oxygenium, oxygen gas. Gas oxidum azotii, gaseous oxide of azote. Electrifatio et galvanisatio, electricity and galvanism.

Balneum calidum, the hot bath.

The substances enumerated in the above table have been variously denominated, according to their real or supposed medical virtues. Of the internal stimulants, most have been called cordials, from the effect they have in raising the spirits; some have been termed carminatives, (see carminatives), under which head rank most of the aromatic herbs, roots, and seeds. Of the external stimulants many are called rubefacients, from the effect they have in irritating and consequently reddening the skin; and of these the principal are mustard, cantharides, and the stinging nettle.

CLASS XIII. ANTISPASMODICS.

Those medicines which have been found by experience to put a stop to convulsive motions, or spasmodic motions, contractions of the muscular fibres, are called antispasmodics. Most of them are stimulants, some narcotics, and some are considered as specific antispasmodics.

TABLE OF ANTISPASMODICS.

I. ANIMAL PRODUCTS.

Murias ammoniae, muriate of ammonia. See table of Antispasmodics.

Stimulants. Molchus moschiferus, musk. Mitura moschata, musk mixture. Cervus elaphus. Oleum animale, animal oil. Castor fiber, castor. Tinctura cafforei, tincture of castor. Tinctura cafforei composita, compound tincture of castor.

II. VEGETABLE PRODUCTS.

Cephaëlis ipecacuanha, ipecacuanha. Nicotiana tabacum, tobacco smoke. Ferula afaetida, afaetida. Alcohol ammoniatum fetidum, fetid ammoniated alcohol. Pilulae afaetidæ compositæ, compound pills of afaetida. Emplastrum afaetidæ, afaetida plaster. Alcohol. Æther sulphuricus, sulphuric æther. Laurus camphora, camphor. Emulsi camphorata, camphorated emulsion. Mitura camphorata, camphorated mixture. Tinctura camphora, tincture of camphor. Linimentum camphora compositum, compound liniment of camphor. Papaver somniferum, opium. Tinctura opii, tincture of opium. Tinctura opii camphorata, camphorated tincture of opium. Tinctura opii ammoniata, ammoniated tincture of opium.

Electuarium opiatum, opiate electuary. Pilulae opii, opium pills. Bubon galbanum, galbanum. Tinctura galbani, tincture of galbanum. Pilulae galbani compositae, compound pills of galbanum. Vitis vinifera. Vinum rubrum lusitanum, red Port wine. Citrus aurantium, orange leaves. Artemisia absinthium, common wormwood. Sub carbonas potatis impurus, impure subcarbonate of potash. Aqua potassae, water of potash, or soap ley. Cardamine pratensis, ladies smock. Conium maculatum, hemlock. Succus spissatus conii maculati, inspissated juice of hemlock. Fuligo ligni combusti, wood foot. Hylocyamus niger, henbane. Succus spissatus hylocyami nigri, inspissated juice of henbane. Valeriana officinalis, valerian. Tinctura valerianae, tincture of valerian. Tinctura valerianae ammoniata, ammoniated tincture of valerian. Extractum valerianae sylvestris resinum, resinous extract of wild valerian.

III. MINERAL PRODUCTS.

Hydragyrum, mercury. For most preparations of mercury, see table of Sialagogues. Bitumen petroleum, petroleum. Oleum petrolei, oil of petroleum. Succinum, amber. Oleum succini, oil of amber. Oleum succini purissimum, purified oil of amber. Sal succini, salt of amber. Spiritus ammoniae succinatus, succinated spirit of ammonia.

All those substances which, whether introduced into the body or applied to its surface, have been found by experience to put a stop to convulsive movements or rigid contractions of the muscular fibres, are termed antispasmodics. Of these substances there are many which differ from each other very widely, both in respect of sensible qualities and chemical composition; which indeed is not surprising, when it is considered that spasmodic affections occur in various and even opposite states of the body; a circumstance which calls for nice discrimination on the part of the practitioner in the use of these remedies. Some of them being considerably stimulant in their operation, aggravate rather than alleviate spasm, when associated with plethora or obstruction. It is therefore of great importance to attend carefully to the state of the patient's body, previously to the exhibition of these medicines; to premise and accompany their use in epilepsy, chorea, and hysteria, by proper evacuations; and to select from the great variety of articles which this class contains, such as are best adapted to the particular form of spasm which it is our business to cure.

CLASS XIV. NARCOTICS:

This term has been usually applied to those remedies which are calculated to relieve pain and procure sleep. They have also been termed anodynes and hypnotics, and most of them were formerly ranked in the class of sedatives.

TABLE OF NARCOTICS.

I. VEGETABLE PRODUCTS.

Nicotianum tabacum, tobacco. Vinum nicotianae tabaci, tobacco wine. Aconitum neomontanum, aconite. Succus spissatus aconiti napellii, inspissated juice of aconite. Papaver somniferum, opium; white poppy heads. Tinctura opii, tincture of opium. Tinctura opii camphorata, camphorated tincture of opium. Syrupus opii, syrup of opium. Extractum papaveris somniferi, extract of white poppy heads. Pulvis opiatum, opiate powder. Electuarium opiatum, opiate electuary. Pilulae opii, opium pills. Rhododendron chrysanthum, yellow-flowered rhododendron. Digitalis purpurea, foxglove. Tinctura digitalis purpureae, tincture of foxglove. Arnica montana, leopard's bane. Rhus toxicodendron, poison oak. Conium maculatum, hemlock. Succus spissatus conii maculati, inspissated juice of hemlock. Hylocyamus niger, henbane. Succus spissatus hylocyami nigri, inspissated juice of henbane. Tinctura hylocyami nigri, tincture of henbane. Atropa belladonna, deadly nightshade. Datura stramonium, thorn-apple. Humulus lupulus, hop. Lactuca virosa, wild lettuce. Papaver rhoes, wild poppy. Syrupus papaveris erratici, syrup of wild poppy. Sium nodiflorum, creeping skerrit.

There is no class of medicines in the administration of which more judgement and discrimination are requisite than in the administration of those which are termed narcotics. When given in full doses, much good or much mischief is sure to follow, according as they are prudently or mistakenly prescribed. What a common practice it is to give them whenever a patient complains of pain, without duly investigating the cause of that pain; whether it be the consequence of high inflammatory action, of a plethoric condition, or of a suppression of some periodical or habitual discharge! In these cases to prescribe any of the medicines belonging to this class, Therapeu-clas, in a full or considerable dose, before the remedies suited to remove inflammation, plethora, and obstruction had been referred to, would only serve to aggravate the disease. And even where there is no condition of the body which contraindicates the use of narcotics, it is of great importance to adapt the doses not only to the age and constitution of the patients, but likewise to the particular form of the disease. For instance, in fevers, hemicrania, and colica pectorum, opium, and other narcotic medicines, may be given in large doses with excellent effect; but in phthisis pulmonalis, typhus fever, and some other states of debility, small doses, repeated at proper intervals, are found to answer best.

In the administration of narcotics, it is moreover proper to consider whether in the particular case in which they appear to be indicated, they should be prescribed alone, or in combination with other medicines; and if in the manner last mentioned, with what sort of adjuncts. Thus, in cases of synochus, acute rheumatism, and the early stage of dysentery, they should be given in combination with calomel and antimonial; in cases of asthma and phthisis pulmonalis, with ammoniacum, squill, and other expectorants; in cases of cholera, with diluents and demulcents; in cases of diarrhoea, with astringents and aromatics; in hemorrhagic cases, with sulphate of zinc and other flyttries; in hysteria, with the volatile alkali, ether, and foetids; in convulsive affections, especially such as occur in children, with magnesia and other antacids.

**Class XV. ANTHELMINTICS.**

Those medicines which are employed with a view to expel worms from the bowels, are called anthelmintics.

**Table of Anthelmintics.**

I. **Animal Products.** - Murias ammoniae, muriate of ammonia. - Aqua carbonatis ammoniae, water of carbonate of ammonia.

II. **Vegetable Products.** - Anthemis nobilis, chamomile flowers. - Extractum anthemidis nobilis, extract of chamomile. - Nicotiana tabacum, tobacco in clysters. - Olea europaea, olive oil in clysters. - Allium sativum, garlic. - Ferula assafoetida, asafoetida in clysters. - Convolvulus jalapa, jalap. - Convolvulus scammonia, scammony. - Pulvis scammoniae compositus, compound powder of scammony. - Helleborus foetidus, stinking hellebore. - Rheum palmatum, rhubarb in small doses. - Ricinus communis, castor oil. - Stalagmita cambogioides, gamboge. - Ruta graveolens, rue. - Oleum volatile rute, oil of rue. - Juglans regia, walnut rind. - Tanacetum vulgare, tansy. - Valeriana officinalis, valerian. - Artemisia tanacetica, worm-wood.

III. **Mineral Products.** - Hydrargyrum, mercury. - Submuriata hydrargyri, submuriate of mercury. - Murias sodae, muriate of soda. - Ferrum, iron. - Carbonas ferri, carbonate of iron. - Sulphas ferri, sulphate of iron. - Ferri limature purificatae, purified iron filings. - Tartris ferri et potassae, tartrate of iron and potash. - Calx, lime. - Aqua calcis, lime water in clysters. - Stannum, tin. - Stanni pulvis, powder of tin.

Of the medicines which belong to this class, some effects and destroy the different species of worms which breed in the alimentary canal, by their chemical, others by their mechanical action upon those animals; but by far the greater number of anthelmintic or vermifuge medicines operate in no other manner than as drastic purges, bringing away the morbid accumulation of slime from the intestines, and with the lime, the worms which were lodged in it. After the worms have been brought away by these remedies, the bowels should be strengthened by bitters and other tonic medicines; and the use of green vegetables, or much garden stuff of any kind, and of malt liquor, should be forbidden.

**Class XVI. CHEMICAL REMEDIES.**

Several of the substances that have been enumerated in the foregoing tables, act also on the animal system remedies merely as chemical re-agents, either by counteracting acidity, dissolving calculous concretions, destroying fungous excrements, &c. We shall here enumerate all the substances that may be considered as chemical remedies, and shall afterwards clas them according to their particular action.

**Table of Chemical Remedies.**

I. **Animal Products.** - Murias ammoniae, muriate of ammonia. - Aqua ammoniae, water of ammonia. - Carbonas ammoniae, carbonate of ammonia. - Aqua carbonatis ammoniae, water of carbonate of ammonia. - Sal cornu cervi, salt of hartshorn. - Cervus elaphus, hartshorn. - Phosphas calcis, phosphate of lime. - Cornu cervi utum praeparatum, burnt hartshorn. - Cancer astacus, crab's eyes. - Cancer pagurus, crab's claws. - Chelae cancerorum praeparatae, prepared crab's claws. - Pulvis è chelis cancerorum compositus, compound powder of crab's claws. - Gorgonia nobileis, red coral. - Corallium rubrum praeparatum, prepared red coral.

Officia. Materia Medica, &c.

II. Vegetable Products.

Carbonas potash, carbonate of potash. Aqua potash, water of potash, or caustic ley. Potash, potash. Potash cum calce, potash with lime. Carbonas potash, carbonate of potash. Carbonas potash purissimus, purified carbonate of potash. Aqua carbonatis potash, water of carbonate of potash. Aqua supercarbonatis potash, water of carbonate of potash.

III. Mineral Products.

Sulphas cupri, sulphate of copper. Sulphuretum antimonii, sulphuret of antimony. Muriatas antimonii, muriate of antimony. Sulphur sublimatum, flowers of sulphur. Sulphuretum potash, sulphuret of potash. Hydrofulphuretum ammoniae, hydrofulphuret of ammonia. Nitratas potash, nitrate of potash. Acidum nitrosum, nitrous acid. Acidum nitricum, nitric acid. Sapo hispanus, Cañete soap. Muriatas sodae, muriate of soda. Acidum muriaticum, muriatic acid. Sulphas magnesiae, sulphate of magnesia. Carbonas magnesiae, carbonate of magnesia. Magnesia, magnesia. Trochisci magnesiae, lozenges of magnesia. Acidum sulphuricum, sulphuric acid. Acidum sulphuricum dilutum, diluted sulphuric acid. Superfulphas aluminae et potash, superfulphate of alumina and potash, or alum. Sulphas aluminae exsiccatus, dried sulphate of alum. Argentum, silver. Nitratas argentii, nitrate of silver. Oxidum arsenum, arsenious acid. Calx, quicklime. Aqua calcis, lime water. Bolus gallicus, French bale. Carbonas calcis, carbonate of lime, chalk. Carbonas calcis preparatus, prepared carbonate of lime. Pulvis carbonatis calcis compositus, compound powder of carbonate of lime. Trochisci carbonatis calcis, lozenges of carbonate of lime. Potio carbonatis calcis, potion of carbonate of lime. Aqua aeris fixi, water of fixed air. Carbonas sodae impurus, impure carbonate of soda. Carbonas sodae, carbonate of soda. Aqua super-carbonatis sodae, water of supercarbonate of soda.

Of the substances above enumerated, some act as antacids, correcting morbid acidity in the stomach and bowels; as most of the preparations of ammonia, burnt hartshorn, crabs eyes and claws, coral, egg shells, utes of the carbonates of potash and soda with their preparations, acetic remagnessia, lime, and carbonate of lime. These have been often called absorbents.

Several of the chemical remedies act in a greater or less degree as lithontriptics, or such medicines as are lithontriptic capable of dissolving urinary calculi. The principal lithontriptics are, solutions of caustic potash, soap, sulphuric and muriatic acids, and carbonate of soda.

"From the exhibition of alkaline remedies," says Mr Murray, "the symptoms arising from a stone in the bladder are very generally alleviated; and they can be given to such an extent, that the urine becomes sensibly alkaline, and is even capable of exerting a solvent power on these concretions. Their administration cannot, however, be continued to this extent for any considerable length of time, from the strong irritation they produce on the stomach and urinary organs. The use, therefore, of the alkalies as solvents, or lithontriptics, is now scarcely ever attempted; they are employed merely to prevent the increase of the concretion, and to palliate the painful symptoms, which they do, apparently by preventing the generation of lithic acid, or the separation of it by the kidneys; the urine is thus rendered less irritating, and the surface of the calculus is allowed to become smooth.

"When the alkalies are employed with this view, they are generally given saturated, or even super-saturated with carbonic acid. This renders them much less irritating. It at the same time diminishes, indeed, their solvent power; for the alkaline carbonates exert no action on the urinary calculi; but they are still equally capable of correcting that acidity in the prima via, which is the cause of the deposition of lithic acid from the urine, and therefore serve equally to palliate the disease. And when their acrimony is thus lessened, their use can be continued for any length of time."

* Murray's Elements, lithontriptics can with safety be made to exert, when given through the urethra into the bladder. In this way it is evident that their action must be much greater, and practice of when the substances are used in a state of sufficient dilution, the practice is said to be perfectly safe.

Several of the chemical remedies are employed externally, as caustics or echarotics, to destroy fungous or callous parts of the body; to open an ulcer, or to change the diseased surface of a sore. The principal echarotics are, sulphuric and muriatic acid when concentrated; pure potash, nitrate of silver, muriate of antimony, sulphate and subacetate of copper, corrosive muriate of mercury, and arsenious acid.

A few are employed both externally and internally, to check putrefaction, or to correct the unpleasant smell of particular secretions, or of ulcers. The principal of these are charcoal, and carbonic acid, though the mineral acids have also this effect. PART III. PRINCIPLES OF PHARMACY.

CHAP. I. General Operations of Pharmacy.

THE operations of pharmacy are either mechanical or chemical. By the first the various articles employed in medicine are reduced to a proper state for exhibition, by cutting, rasping, grinding, pounding, &c.; and by the second they are subjected to various complex operations, which produce certain chemical changes in their nature and properties.

To the first of these heads we may refer the collection and preservation of simples. This chiefly refers to those articles that are of a vegetable nature, and which are either used fresh, or in a dried state.

Vegetables should be gathered chiefly from those soils in which they naturally delight, or in which they are found most commonly to rise spontaneously; for though many of them may be raised, and made to grow with vigour in very different soils, their virtue generally suffers by the change. A variation of seasons occasions also differences considerable enough to require often an allowance to be made in the quantity; plants in general proving weaker, though more luxuriant, in rainy than in dry seasons. Herbs and flowers are to be gathered in a clear dry day, after the morning dew is gone off from them. Leaves, for the most part, are in their greatest perfection, when come to their full growth, just before the flowers appear: flowers, when moderately expanded; seeds, when they begin to grow dry, before they fall spontaneously; woods and barks, as is supposed, in the winter; annual roots, before the stalks begin to rise; biennial roots, in the autumn of the first year; perennial roots, in the autumn after the leaves have fallen, or early in the spring before they begin to vegetate.

Of the vegetables which lose their virtue in being dried, the greater number, perhaps all, may be preserved for a considerable length of time, by impeding the exhalation of their natural moisture; for so long as they retain this, they seem to retain also their medical activity. Thus, roots have their virtue preserved by being buried in sand, which should be dry, that they may not vegetate; leaves and flowers, of a more corruptible nature than roots, by being beaten with about thrice their weight of fine sugar to prevent their corruption, and kept in a close vessel.

Plants which bear drying, are commonly hung in a warm airy place, defended from the sun. The colours of herbs and flowers are for the most part changed or destroyed in drying, by the sun's beams; but that their medicinal virtue suffers a like diminution, does not appear. This much is certain, that the heat of a culinary fire, equal to that of the sun in summer, does them no injury in either respect; and that both flowers and leaves, when thus hastily dried by fire, preserve the liveliness of their colour, and their smell and taste, more perfectly than by slow drying. The leaves of moderately juicy plants are reduced, by drying, to about one-fourth of their original weight.

Some roots, and some other parts of vegetables, how thoroughlysoever they have been dried, are liable, in keeping, to grow mouldy and carious. This inconvenience might probably be obviated by dipping them, when dried, in boiling spirit of wine, or exposing them to its vapour in a close vessel. It is said, that some of the oriental spices are made less perishable, by being dipped in a mixture of lime and water.

The drawers in which vegetable drugs are kept, Materia should be made of such materials as are not likely to impart to them any unpleasant taste or smell; and the better to avoid this, they should be lined with paper. Such matters as are volatile, or which are likely to suffer from exposure to the air, or from insects, should be kept in glass vessels well stoppered. Such fruits and oily seeds as are liable to become rancid, by being too warm, should be preserved in a dry cool place.

As most vegetable substances lose much of their sensible properties by long keeping, or acquire others which render them less proper for being used as internal medicines, they should be frequently replaced.

One of the most common operations to which dry Pulverized-drugs are subjected, is that of being reduced to powder, by which they are rendered more efficacious, and are more conveniently exhibited. The pulverization of these matters is usually performed by means of pestles and mortars. These should be made of such materials as are not likely to impart to the powdered substance any noxious properties, and should at the same time be sufficiently hard, not to be broken or worn away during the operation. For the pulverizing of barks, roots, and similar substances, cast-iron mortars are the most convenient; and for such articles as are of a more brittle nature, mortars of glass or marble are commonly employed. All those made of copper, or any of its alloys, should be carefully avoided, as when the substance is very hard, or of such a nature as to act chemically on the metal, some portion of copper may be mixed with the medicine, and render it a virulent poison. For many purposes mortars made of common stoneware answer very well; but the best mortars of this kind are those made of well-baked clay, commonly called Wedgwood's mortars. The bottom of all these mortars should be hollow on the inside, and flat on the outside, and their sides should be moderately inclined. Those which are employed for reducing to powder such substances as produce much dust, should be provided with covers, both to prevent the lighter parts of the powder from being lost, and to defend the operator from being injured by such substances as are of a corrosive or poisonous nature. In general, wooden covers that have a rim to prevent their sliding off, and a hole sufficiently large to admit of the introduction of the pestle, answer very well; but where it is of consequence that no part of the article should escape, it is better to tie round the mouth of the mortar, and round the pestle, a piece of pliable leather, sufficiently large to admit of the free motion of the latter. Where this is not done, it will be proper for the operator to cover his mouth and nose with a handkerchief. To avoid losing much of these light dry powders, a little spirit of wine, or oil, is sometimes put into the mortar, to prevent the lighter parts of the powder from rising. Care should, however, be taken, that the substance is of such a nature as not to be dissolved by the spirit, nor injured by the rancidity that the oil is likely to acquire; and in every case, as little as possible of either should be employed.

It is obvious that in reducing drugs to powder, too much of the article should not be put at once into the mortar.

Several substances require previous preparation before powdering; barks, woods, roots, should be perfectly dry, and should be either sliced or rasped before putting into the mortar; and such roots as are covered with a very fibrous bark, should be shaved after this has been removed, to take away such hairy filaments as are usually found between the bark and the wood. Gummy resinous substances, such as myrrh, which are liable to become soft when heated, should be powdered in very cold weather; and it is better, first to reduce them to a coarse powder, and expose this to the air for a day or two, before completing the pulverization, which will then be more easily effected. Some substances cannot be reduced to powder without the addition of some other matter; thus, camphor requires a little alcohol or oil; the emulsion feeds require the addition of some dry powder, and for aromatic oily substances, the addition of a little sugar is proper.

In order to separate the finer powder from the rest of the substance, apothecaries employ sieves of various forms. For such articles as require to be kept close, the sieve is composed of three parts; a middle part, which is properly the sieve for separating the finer part of the powder, a bottom for receiving the powder, and a top for preventing the escape of the finer dust.

When as much of the powder as is sufficiently fine, has passed through the sieve, the rest is to be returned into the mortar, and the pulverization continued and repeated, till as much as possible has passed the sieve. All the parcels of powder are then to be intimately mixed together, by rubbing them for a considerable time in the mortar.

Trituration consists in rubbing dry substances that are already pretty small in order to reduce them to a very fine powder, or to mix them intimately together. In the small way it is performed in the usual mortars; in the large way by means of a roller moved by water or by horses.

When it is required to reduce dry substances to a very fine, or what is called an impalpable powder, recourse is had to the operation called levigation, which is nothing more than rubbing the substance for a long time in a broad flat mortar, or upon a hard stone, with a muller, adding from time to time a little water or alcohol, so as to reduce the substance operated on to a kind of paste. This paste is rubbed till it is as smooth as possible, and is then spread on a stone or flat cake of chalk, till it is sufficiently dried. Sometimes levigated powders are made up into little conical lumps, and dried in that form. The substances on which levigation is performed are chiefly earths and metallic oxides.

For the purpose of reducing metals into minute particles, they are either filed or granulated. It would not be improper that apothecaries should always procure their own iron filings, as those procured from a smith's shop are generally very impure. The granulation of metals is effected by melting the metal, and either stirring it briskly with an iron rod till it is cold, or pouring it into water and stirring it as before; or lastly, by pouring it into a covered box, having its inside well rubbed with chalk, in which it is well shaken till cold, when the adhering chalks is to be washed away.

Another mode of procuring the finest particles of such substances as are not soluble in water, is by what is termed elutriation, which is performed by diffusing in water the powder or paste to which they have been reduced by pulverization or levigation, and after the coarser particles have subsided, pouring off the water that holds in suspension the finer parts. The operation of levigation and subsequent diffusion is repeated, till as much as is required of the fine powder is obtained. This is afterwards to be separated from the water, either by decantation or filtration.

When the powder is so heavy as readily to fall to the bottom of the vessel, it is most conveniently separated by decanting off the water, either by pouring it gently off as long as it comes over clear, or by means of a crooked glass syphon fixed in a board that goes over the mouth of the vessel to keep it steady, as represented at fig.

When the powder does not readily subside, it is best separated by filtration, which is performed by means of a cone of common blotting paper, inserted into a funnel, or by means of a cloth or flannel bag. After all the fluid has passed through the filter, the powder that remains on the paper is to be carefully dried.

Decantation and filtration are more commonly employed to obtain any liquor clear from the powdery or other matters with which it is mixed.

For obtaining the juices of vegetables or fruits, or the oils of seeds, &c., recourse is had to expression. The plants or fruits are put into bags or wrappers made of haircloth, and subjected to strong pressure by means of a screw press, the plates of which should be made of wood or tin, and by no means of lead. The pressure employed should at first be gentle, and should be increased gradually. The oily seeds or nuts are pressed between iron plates, which are usually warmed; but when used cold, the oil is milder and not so liable to become rancid.

Besides the mortars mentioned above, there are several other instruments employed in the operations of pharmacy, on which it is proper to make a few remarks.

Funnels ought to be made of tinned iron, or of glass; funnels, or of the same sort of baked earthenware clay as the mortars, or of silver or of block tin.

Veils used for preparing infusions, or for evaporating infusing liquors, or for putting decoctions or other liquids vessels, into, to cool, ought to be made either of porcelain, or of stoneware, or of baked clay, or of earthenware such as the mortars are made of, or of glass; or such vessels as are not acted upon either by acid or alkaline liquids. For the same reasons, measures of all sorts, from the dram to the quart, ought to be made of tinned iron, or of stoneware, or of the baked earth or clay, or of glass; silver might be employed for the smaller measures of drams and ounces, and if taken care of, would in the end prove cheaper than the others: if other metallic vessels are used, the metal ought to be of such a sort as not to be affected by acid or alkaline, or other liquors; and they ought at all times to be kept extremely clean.

In distilling, in melting, and in calcining different bodies, no vessels ought to be employed which may be acted upon by, and give a noxious quality to, the substances to be prepared.

Most colleges of physicians in Europe formerly directed, that both weights and measures should be employed for dispensing medicines, ordering solid substances to be prepared by weight, fluid by measure; and they gave tables of the weights and measures they wished should be used, in the beginning of their different dispensaries: but it having been found that the promiscuous use of weights and measures gave sometimes occasion to mistakes, the colleges of Edinburgh and of Stockholm have, in the last edition of their pharmacopoeias, rejected entirely the use of measures, and ordered both fluid and solid substances to be prepared by weight. It is to be wished that all the colleges in Europe would follow their example.

Measures made to contain a certain determined weight of water are certainly very useful in pharmacy; but if such are allowed they ought to be employed only for measuring watery liquors, as the specific gravities of other fluids differ so much from one another.

In every country, all weights and measures used for the preparation of medicines ought to be made according to the directions of the college of physicians; standards of them ought to be kept in proper places, and all those ought to be stamped, to shew that they were made according to the standard.

The principal chemical operations of pharmacy may be arranged under the following heads.

1. The infusing certain substances in cold or in hot water, or in wine, to extract their saline or light gummy parts, together with some of their fine volatile principles, which are miscible with water.

2. The boiling them in water to extract the same principles, together with others that are more fixed, or which are capable of being dissolved by heat, and afterwards of being kept suspended by the gummy and mucilaginous parts which have been dissolved in the water; thus a certain proportion of resin is found to be suspended in decoctions of the bark, of opium, and of other drugs.

3. The evaporating watery infusions and decoctions, and the expressed juices of many vegetables, to obtain their fixed parts which have been dissolved in a watery menstruum. In this manner jellies, robs, and extracts, are prepared.

4. The infusing or digesting certain vegetable substances in pure vinous spirit to extract their fine volatile oils and their resinous parts; or in spirit mixed with water, called proof-spirit, to extract along with those principles, some of their gummy parts.

5. The evaporating of such tinctures to obtain their resinous and more fixed parts; in which way resinous extracts are got from bark, jalap, from opium, and from other substances.

6. The distilling fragrant vegetable substances with water, in order to procure their fine volatile principles, which come over with the water into the vessels placed to receive it. In this manner the simple distilled waters (as they are called), which have the flavour and taste of the substances from which they are distilled, are prepared; and the fine essential oils of the plants which have been distilled are found either floating on the top of the water, or sunk to the bottom of it, according as they are specifically lighter or heavier than water.

7. The distilling of the same substances in vinous spirit to obtain the same fragrant volatile parts, intimately united with the spirit; in which manner are made the spirituous liquors improperly called spirituous waters.

In distilling, care ought to be taken to make the vapours which arise condense properly in the vessels set to receive them when they have assumed the form of a liquor; which is to be effected, 1. By regulating the fire, and never raising the degree of heat beyond what is necessary; and, 2. By making the vapours pass through such a cool medium, as will condense them into a liquid.

1. The degree of heat is regulated by the figure of the furnace in which the fire is placed, and by the quantity of wood or of coal that is used. Where a great degree of heat is wanted, the vessels are put in an open fire, placed in a reverberatory furnace. Where a less degree of heat is sufficient, they are put into sand contained in an iron pot, below which the fire is lighted in a common furnace. Where a still smaller degree is required, the vessel is put into a pot with sand, and a lamp in place of coals fixed below it. At other times the retort, or vessel with the liquor to be distilled, is put into a vessel full of water or other liquor, set over a fire, so that it cannot be heated beyond a certain degree.

2. The condensation of vapours arising from substances subjected to distillation is effected, as before observed, by making the vapour pass through such a cool medium, as will condense it into a liquor before it reaches the bottom of the vessels set to receive it.

In distilling medicated waters or spirits, the herbs or other vegetable substances, and the water or the spirit, are put into a still placed in a proper furnace, on which is fixed a large head, with a long crane-necked or curved tube coming from the top of it, which after descending and going off a little to one side, enters into the upper end of a long spiral pipe, called a worm, which is fixed in a large cask, called the worm-tub or refrigeratory, with its two ends piercing the cask; and to its lower end is fixed a proper vessel for receiving the distilled liquor. The worm-tub, which has a cock at the lower part of it for letting out water occasionally, is filled with cold water before the distillation begins, and is renewed in the course of the distillation if it begins to heat, by drawing it off by means of the cock, and pouring fresh cold water into the worm-tub. After everything is fitted, the fire is lighted, and the distillation is continued so long as the water comes over sufficiently impregnated with the vegetable substances put into the still.

In the distillation of vegetable or animal substances Materia Medica, &c.

Part III.

Principles of with water, or with spirit, it ought to be observed, that there ought to be put into the still such an additional quantity of water as will prevent the solid substances which are subject to the distillation from being burnt; as this additional water does not at all weaken the produce; for the most volatile parts of the subject rise first, and impregnate the liquor which first comes over, and the water remains behind in the still. That a gentle fire, such as is just capable of keeping the liquor boiling, is preferable to a strong fire, particularly towards the end of the process. That the distillation is to be continued so long as the liquor comes over fully impregnated with the volatile parts of the vegetable substances which are the subjects of the distillation; but is to be put an end to, so soon as it is perceived to become weak, which is known by tasting from time to time the liquor which comes over.

8. The distilling of vegetable or animal substances in retorts without water, in order to make them rise, and bring over by the force of fire, their watery parts, an acid, or volatile alkaline salt, according to what nature the substances are of, and an empyreumatic oil, into the receiver; and to get the more fixed, earthy, and oily parts, which are left behind in the retort.

In distilling substances which require a greater degree of heat to raise their volatile parts, than the liquors above mentioned, or which are of such a nature as to act upon, and corrode the vessels employed in these processes just mentioned, it is necessary to use the vessels made of glass or of earth, which have been called retorts, from their neck being bent on one side. Such retorts are employed in pharmacy for distilling the mineral and the vegetable acids, and the preparations made from them; in distilling animal and vegetable substances by themselves to procure their watery, saline, or oily parts; for purifying quicksilver, and preparing the muriate of antimony, &c., and they may be used as subliming glasses for making mercurial and other preparations.

In distilling with retorts, the matter to be distilled is put into the retort, which is commonly placed in sand, contained in an iron pot, fixed above a furnace, into which the fire is put; but on some particular occasions, where only a small degree of heat, not exceeding that of boiling water, is wanted, the retort is placed in a water-bath.

After the retort containing the matter to be distilled is fixed, the end of it is either put immediately into the mouth of another long-necked vessel called a receiver (from its being placed to receive the distilled liquor), and the two vessels are luted together by means of a proper cement; or it is first put into the end of a long glass tube called an adopter, which is luted to it, and the other end of the tube is put into the mouth of the receiver, and fixed to it by means of a cement.

The receivers are either made round like a decanter, without any other opening than the mouth; or they are made with a tube coming out from their bottom, or from the side near it, to which another receiver may be fixed, and when they are thus made they are called tubulated receivers, and are very convenient for performing processes where the matter put into the retort yields products of different kinds, as in the distillation of spirit with the mineral acids; for the receiver or bottle fixed to the tube may be changed as the different products come over, so that each of them may be obtained separately. And in distilling substances which yield very volatile products, one tubulated retort may be put after another so as to enlarge the space for the condensation of vapours; and in distilling these very volatile substances it is sometimes necessary to make a small puncture into the tubes between the retort and the receiver, to allow some of the vapour to escape to prevent its bursting the vessels.

The use of the long intervening tube called an adopter, which is put often between the retort and the receiver, is to increase the distance from the retort (that is immediately exposed to heat) to the receiver; so that the receiver may be in less danger of being heated, and that the vapour may be cooled in its passage through this tube, and condense more readily in the receiver. It is likewise of another use, which is to give us an opportunity of seeing the vapour in its passage from the retort to the receiver, so that we may know how the distillation is going forward, and when it is proper to change the receivers, when the different liquors come over from materials which yield products of different kinds.

9. The burning vegetable substances in an open vessel to obtain a fixed alkaline salt.

10. The burning the bones of animals, or the shells of fishes, to procure their earthy parts; in which manner the calcined hartshorn, the powder of crabs claws, and of oyster shells, are procured.

11. The mixing acid and alkaline salts in a fluid state, to form the neutral salts, which may be separated from the water either by evaporating, with a slow heat, such a quantity of the water as to allow the salts to shoot into crystals when set in a cool place, or by continuing the evaporation till the salts become dry.

12. The dissolving certain metallic substances, or certain earths, in acid liquors, for obtaining metallic and earthy salts, which may be got in a solid form in the same manner as the neutral salts.

13. The evaporating the purified expressed juices of certain vegetable substances to the consistence of a cream, and then setting them by for months, in a cool place, to allow the essential acid salts to concreted into crystals. See Crystallization.

14. The distilling in proper vessels vitriol or other substances which contain the sulphuric acid, in order to get it separate from them; and the burning of sulphur mixed with a small portion of nitre, under particular vessels, so contrived, and so placed, as to collect the same acid.

15. The distilling nitre, or sea salt, mixt with a certain portion of the sulphuric acid, in order to obtain pure the nitric or muriatic acid.

16. The subliming certain substances that become volatile by the application of heat, into proper vessels, and either to unite two of them together for the formation of a third, as is done in the preparation of the corrosive sublimate of mercury, when the muriatic acid is united to the quicksilver, or to separate the volatile parts of any substance from the fixed, as is done in the sublimation of volatile alkaline salts and of the acid of benjamin.

17. The melting by the force of fire such substances as become fluid by the application of heat, so that they may be separated from or united to other bodies. Thus Part III.

Materia Medica, &c.

Principles of particular management and the addition of certain substances, metals are separated from their ores. And rosin and bees-wax are intimately united together; or they are dissolved in fluid oils, for the preparation of plasters, ointments, liniments, &c. And sulphur is united to quicksilver for the making of a black or red sulphuret.

Oxidation. 18. The applying of heat to metals, either to oxidate them, or to separate certain volatile substances with which they are combined, or to purify them from more oxidable metals with which they are alloyed. Thus mercury is reduced to a red oxide merely by the continued application of heat and air; the sulphuret of antimony is deprived of its sulphur by roasting, and silver is separated from lead by being exposed to such a heat, as, while it only fuses the silver, reduces the lead to an oxide. See Chemistry.

Chap. II. Of the principal forms in which Medicines are exhibited.

The principal officinal preparations of the simple medicines, for the making of which directions are given in the Pharmacopoeias, consist of powders, pills, troches, electuaries, infusorial juices, extracts, infusions, decoctions, mucilages, emulsions and mixtures, syrups, tinctures, wines, for internal exhibition; and cataplasm, liniments, ointments, cerates, and plasters, for external application.

The form of powder is one of the most simple, and very convenient for the exhibition of a variety of medicines. It is of course adapted only to such substances as are easily reduced to powder, and such as are not too bulky to be taken in a moderate dose. Hence emollient and mucilaginous herbs and roots are improperly ordered in the state of powder, as they are too bulky; alkaline salts, whether fixed or volatile, are improper, as they in general either deliquesce in the air, or evaporate. Such articles as are of a very disagreeable taste, or offensive odour, are also more conveniently given in some other form.

In preparing compound powders, care should be taken that the several ingredients should be intimately mixed together. Some of them may in general be most properly powdered separately, but it is often of advantage to powder them together. They should be kept in a closely stopped phial, and such as are apt to lose part of their virtue by long keeping, should be prepared in small quantities.

The dose of powders should be so regulated as seldom to exceed a dram. The substance in which they are to be taken should be of such a nature as to mix properly with them, so that they neither float at the top, nor sink too rapidly to the bottom of the vessel.

The form of pill is most convenient for such articles as do not require to be given in a large dose, and are so unpleasant in taste or smell, that they cannot be conveniently given in the form of powder. As many patients can swallow pills, who cannot take medicines in a less solid form, those substances which are usually ordered in powder, are not unfrequently formed into pills, when their bulk is not so great as to render the pills too numerous for a single dose.

The most usual substances that enter into the composition of pills are resins, gum-resins, extracts, and similar medicines. Deliquescent salts are usually improper except in small quantity, and then they should be combined with some gummy powder. Such salts as are efflorescent, as carbonate of soda, may enter into the composition of pills; but they should be previously exposed to the air, so as to fall into powder. The liquid substances employed to form the pills into a proper mass, must be varied according to the nature of the more solid ingredients. Powders require syrup, mucilage, ballams, soap, conserve, or honey. Gum resins and extracts are sometimes sufficiently soft without any addition; but when this is required, a little spirit or wine is the most proper. Where the mass is to be composed of a mixture of gum-resins and powders, the former should be first moistened with the prescribed liquid, then the powders added, and the whole beaten well together, till they are reduced into a uniform plastic mass.

A dram of the pilular mass is generally divided into about twelve pills, so that each pill may weigh about five grains.

The masses for pills should be kept in bladders, and these should be moistened now and then, either with a little wine, or with some of the same liquid that was employed in forming the mass.

Troches or lozenges are hard, round, flat cakes, formed of such substances as are intended to be gradually dissolved in the mouth, and thus pass by degrees into the stomach, or in their passage thither act on the throat or larynx. They should be formed of such substances as are soluble in the saliva, and are not of a disagreeable taste. They usually contain a great deal of sugar, and some gummy matter to render them coherent.

Electuaries are less solid than pills, being of such a consistency that they may be rolled up into a bolus, so as to be easily swallowed. They are chiefly composed of powders mixed up with syrup or honey. The substances that enter into the composition of electuaries are chiefly the milder alternative medicines, or gentle laxatives. The stronger cathartics, emetics, and such substances as are of an unpleasant taste, such as bitters, the fetid gum-resins, and very heavy powders, are improper. The liquid employed to form electuaries is usually syrup or honey, the proportion of which is regulated by the nature of the more solid ingredients, but is usually of nearly equal weight.

Confections are now considered as synonymous with electuaries, as they differ from ordinary electuaries in nothing but being composed of more aromatic ingredients.

Conserves may be considered as electuaries formed of only two ingredients, one of which is sugar, and the other the pulp of some fruit, the petals of flowers, or the outer rind of Seville oranges.

Extracts and resins are pharmaceutical preparations, the rationale of which is very little understood. Dr Andrew Duncan Junr. has given an excellent account of them, which we shall here copy.

"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 congealed form, by the evaporation..." Extracts are of various kinds, according to the nature of the substances from which they are obtained, and the menstruum employed; but they commonly consist of gum, sugar, extractive tannin, cinchonin, 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 enumerated, 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 behind on evaporation are rather injurious than of advantage to the extract.

Water is the menstruum most commonly employed in making extracts, as it is capable of dissolving all the active principles except resin, and can have its solvent powers assisted by a considerable degree of heat.

Watery extracts are prepared by boiling the subject in water, and evaporating the strained decoction to a thick consistency.

It is indifferent with regard to the medicine, whether the subject 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 extraction, however, there is a very considerable difference; vegetables in general giving out their virtues more readily when moderately dried than when fresh.

Very compact dry substances should be reduced into exceedingly small parts, previous to the infusion of the menstruum.

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 principles of extracts are soluble in a very small proportion of water, there are others, such as tannin, of which water can dissolve only a small 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 substances will continue to colour deeply successive portions of water boiled with them, long after they are yielding nothing to it but colouring matter. Perhaps one of the best methods is to boil the subject in successive quantities of water, as long as the decoctions form a considerable precipitate with the test which is proper for detecting the substance we are extracting, such as a solution of gelatin for tannin, or alum for extractive, &c.

The decoctions are to be depurated by colature, and afterwards suffered to stand for a day or two, when a considerable quantity of sediment is usually found at the bottom. If the liquor poured off clear be boiled down a little, and afterwards suffered to cool again, it will deposit a fresh sediment, from which it may be decanted before you proceed to finish the evaporation. The decoctions of very refractory substances do not require this treatment, and are rather injured by it, the resin sub-

We would advise the decoctions 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. Therefore, 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 above directions, will be thrown away as sediment. The same objection applies more strongly to allowing the decoction to cool, and deposit fresh sediment, after it has been partially evaporated. Besides, by allowing the decoctions to stand several days before we proceed to their evaporation, we are in fact allowing the active principles 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 shallow 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 evaporating bason, may be effectually prevented, by carrying on the infusillation, after the common manner, no further than to the consistence of a syrup, when the matter is to be poured into shallow tin or earthen pans, and placed in an oven, with its door open, moderately heated; which acting uniformly on every part of the liquid, will soon reduce it to any consistence required. This may likewise be done, and more securely, by setting the evaporating vessel in boiling water; but the evaporation is in this way very tedious.

Alcohol is by far too expensive to be employed as a menstruum for obtaining extracts, except in those cases where water is totally inadequate to the purpose. These cases are,

1. When the nature of the extract is very perishable when dissolved in water, so that it is liable to be decomposed before the evaporation can be completed, especially if we cannot proceed immediately to the evaporation.

2. When water is totally incapable of dissolving the substance to be extracted, and

3. When the substance extracted can bear the heat of boiling alcohol without being evaporated, but would be diffused by that of boiling water; that is, when it requires a heat greater than 176°, and less than 212°, for its evaporation.

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, Part III.

Materia Medica, &c.

Principles of 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 still 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 sufficient 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 infiltration should be performed, from the beginning, in the gentle heat of a water-bath. We need not suffer the alcohol to evaporate in the air; the greatest part of it may be recovered by collecting 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 referred for the same purpose 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.

"Pure resins are prepared, by adding to spirituous tinctures of resinous 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 as the spirit might have extracted at first along with it. But this is only practised for the purpose of analysis."

Of infusions and decoctions it is unnecessary for us to make any farther remarks, after what was observed in Nos. 200 and 201.

Mucilages are solutions of the pure gums, or of similar substances, in water. They should not be made too thin, as they are then more readily decomposed on exposure to the air.

Mixtures are liquid preparations composed of substances that are not soluble in water, as various powders, barks, roots, &c. Emulsions differ from mixtures in being composed of oily or resinous ingredients, suspended in water by means of yolk of egg, honey, or mucilage. Both these preparations should be made as they are required, as few of them keep well.

Syrups are solutions of sugar, either in plain water, in the juice of some fruit, or in some vegetable infusion or decoction. They are employed chiefly to render mixtures or other liquid medicines more palatable, or to mix up powders and other solid ingredients into pills, electuaries, or troches. The proportion of sugar employed in the making of syrups should be so regulated as to preserve the syrup in the same state as when first made. If too little sugar has been employed, the syrup will suffer decomposition, and ferment; if too much, part of the sugar will separate in crystals, leaving the remainder too weak.

Formerly the term tincture was employed to denote any transparent solution, whether in water or spirit, that was coloured. At present it is commonly applied to solutions made by digestion in alcohol, or in proof spirit, though it is frequently extended to solutions in ether, or in ammoniated alcohol. For the action of alcohol as a menstruum, see Chemistry.

In making alcoholic tinctures, we must observe that the virtues of recent vegetable matters are very imperfectly extracted by spirituous menstrua. They must therefore be previously carefully dried, and as we cannot affix the solution by means of heat, we must facilitate it by reducing the solvent to a state of as minute mechanical 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 compounded 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 of operating in so small a dose, that the quantity of alcohol taken along with it is inconsiderable.

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 menstruum.

They generally operate in doses so small, that they are rarely exhibited 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 separate nothing from it in a palatable form.

The London college directs all tinctures, except that of muriate of iron, to be prepared in close phials.

The Dublin college explain, that when any other substances are to be digested, they mean it to be done with a low degree of heat; and when they are to be macerated, it is to be done with a degree of heat between 60° and 90°.

Medicated wines and medicated vinegars differ from tinctures in nothing but the menstruum.

Of the external applications, the preparations of which are given in the Pharmacopoeias, cataplasm or cataplains, poultices may be considered as extemporaneous, being never kept ready made.

Liniments, ointments, and cerates, are compositions of fatty matters, either animal or vegetable, or both, employed as external emollients. They differ only in cerates—confinement, liniments being very soft, or nearly fluid; ointments sufficiently hard not to melt in the ordinary temperature of the atmosphere; and cerates being of such a confinement as to be readily spread on cloth, &c., without the assistance of heat. These last commonly contain a considerable proportion of wax; whence their name.

Plasters are more solid than cerates, and usually require the aid of heat to spread them on the proper substance for application, which is usually leather. Plasters sometimes contain powders in their composition, and in preparing them it is proper first to melt the fatty ingredients, and sprinkle in the powder when the melted matter is beginning to cool.

PART IV. PART IV. A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE ARTICLES OF THE MATERIA MEDICA, WITH THEIR OFFICINAL PREPARATIONS.

CHAP. I. Animal Substances.

1. PHOSPHORUS, see Chemistry Index.

Some daring practitioners have lately ventured to recommend the internal use of this active inflammable in the advanced stage of typhus, in palsy and other cases of great debility. Taken into the stomach in a moderate quantity (below a grain) it produces heat in that organ, accelerates the pulse, promotes perspiration, and is said to give unusual vigour to the body. In larger quantity it produces inflammation of the stomach and bowels, followed by gangrene and death. Dose one-eighth to one-fourth of a grain in ether, or incorporated with mucilage.

The internal use of this substance appears to us to be more than doubtful; but we think we have experienced some benefit from it externally, when dissolved in oil, in paralytic and rheumatic cases.

2. MURIATE OF AMMONIA, E. SAL AMMONIACUS, L. D. Muriate of ammonia. Sal ammoniac (D).

The purest muriate of ammonia of commerce is that prepared by sublimation, and which is formed of large convexo-concave cakes, firm and elastic, not easily broken, and difficult to be cut. It is of a yellowish white colour, of little smell, and of a very sharp saline taste.

It is found native in the neighbourhood of volcanoes; but is usually prepared for medical purposes either from the dung of animals that feed on salt marshes; or by decomposing sulphate of ammonia by muriate of soda, or by immediately combining ammonia with muriatic acid.

Internally it is sometimes given as a stimulant in typhus fevers in doses of 20 or 30 grains mixed with camphorated mixture; but it is principally employed externally in lotions and embrocations, either as a refrigerant to cool the surface in sprains and inflammations, or as a stimulant to disperse tumors or morbid accumulations of fluids, or to quicken the circulation, as in chill-blains, &c.

Officinal Preparations.

a. AQUA AMMONIAE, E. AQUA AMMONIAE PURÆ, L. LIQUOR ALKALIVOLATILIS CAUSTICUS D. Water of ammonia. Water of pure ammonia. Caustic solution of volatile alkali. Strong spirit of sal ammoniac.

This is prepared by decomposing muriate of ammonia by means of quicklime with the addition of water, and afterwards distilling off the strongest portion with a gentle heat. The preparations of the different colleges vary a little, the Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia ordering one pound of muriate of ammonia to one pound and a half of quicklime; the London one pound to two pounds; and the Dublin 16 ounces to two pounds. No great quantity of water is necessary. The lime is first flaked with part of the water, and after it is cold, the salt and soil of the water are added, and the distillation carried on in well-closed vessels. The Edinburgh college directs Woolf's apparatus to be employed as a receiver, and orders all the separate liquors to be mixed together.

The solution of ammonia should be perfectly limpid and transparent, should have an extremely pungent odour, should not effervescence with acids, and should produce no precipitate on the addition of alcohol or lime water. It should be kept in small bottles well stoppered with ground stoppers, and should stand in a very cool place.

This preparation is a very powerful stimulant, irritating and inflaming the skin and nostrils, when applied externally or sniffed up the nose. Hence its use as a rubefacient in rheumatism, cynanche, paralytic, and as a general stimulus in syncope, hysteria, &c. It is scarcely used internally. See below.

b. ALCOHOL AMMONIATUM, E. SPIRITUS AMMONIAE, L. SPIRITUS ALKALI VOLATILIS, D. Ammoniated alcohol. Spirit of ammonia. Spirit of volatile alkali.

This as prepared by the Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia is merely a solution of ammonia in alcohol, and is prepared by decomposing eight ounces of muriate of ammonia by 12 ounces of quicklime, with the addition of eight ounces of water and 5 ounces of alcohol, and distilling off the alcohol. The preparation of the London and Dublin colleges is made by mixing four ounces of muriate with six ounces of potash and three pints of alcohol. The latter therefore contains much carbonate of ammonia, and is not so strong as the former.

c. CARBONAS AMMONIAE, E. AMMONIA PREPARATA, L. ALKALIVOLATILE MITTE, D. Carbonate of ammonia. Prepared ammonia. Mild alkali.

This is prepared by mixing together one pound of muriate of ammonia, and twelve pounds of pure carbonate of lime or chalk, after being reduced to powder separately, and afterwards subliming.

This preparation, as it occurs in the shops, is composed of irregular masses of a very white, nearly opaque salt, of a strong pungent odour, and sharp alkaline taste. It requires to be kept closely stoppered from the air, by the action of which it crumbles into powder, and its volatile part is dissipated. When pure, it should be entirely volatilizable by heat, but if anything remains

(D) The letters E. L. D. affixed to the articles in this part denote that they are articles of the Edinburgh, London, or Dublin Pharmacopoeias. Part IV.

Materia Medica, &c.

History of mains, there is reason to suppose that carbonate of potash and lime is mixed with it; and those impurities are most likely to be present if it is purchased in the form of a powder.

Carbonate of ammonia in its medical properties resembles the solution of ammonia, but it is not so strong. It is chiefly employed for smelling bottles, which are used in cases of hysteria or syncope, and is often formed into a neutral salt with the juice of lemons, (citrate of ammonia) and given as a gentle diaphoretic. It is sometimes given alone, or mixed with aromatics, in the form of a bolus, as a diaphoretic or stimulant. Dose five to ten grains.

d. Aqua Carbonatis Ammoniae, E. Aqua Ammoniae, L. Liquor Alkali Volatilis Mitis, D. Water of carbonate of ammonia. Liquor of mild volatile alkali.

This is merely a solution of carbonate of ammonia in water, and might be properly prepared by dissolving a certain proportion of that salt in distilled water. The colleges of Edinburgh and Dublin direct it to be made by mixing together 16 ounces of muriate of ammonia, and the same quantity of carbonate of potash, pouring upon them two pounds of water, and distilling to dryness. In the London Pharmacopoeia, the proportions are one pound of the muriate, a pound and a half of potashes, and four pints of water, drawing off two pints by distillation with a slow fire.

This solution should be transparent and colourless; should produce a strong coagulum on the addition of alcohol, and should effervesce with acids.

It is often employed in medicine, both internally and externally. Internally it is given, first as an emetic, in a dose of from 1 to 2 drams; secondly, as a diaphoretic; dose about 50 drops; thirdly, as a stimulant, 20 drops to a dram; fourthly, as an antispasmodic, in a similar dose; fifthly, as an antacid; and sixthly, as an anthelmintic combined with oil into an emulsion.

e. Aqua Acetitis Ammoniae, E. Aqua Ammoniae Acetatae, L. Liquor Alkali Volatilis Acetati, D. Spiritus Mindereri. Water of acetate of ammonia. Water of acetated ammonia. Liquor of acetated volatile alkali. Mindererus's spirit.

This is a secondary salt, formed by neutralizing carbonate of ammonia with distilled acetic acid.

It forms a tolerably transparent solution, commonly of a greenish cast, of little smell, and of a weak saline taste. It should show no signs of effervescence on the addition of either acetic acid or carbonate of ammonia.

This medicine acts as a gentle diaphoretic, of considerable use in low fevers, and several inflammatory complaints. It may be given in a dose of 3—6 drams, in the form of a draught or julep. It should be assisted by warm clothing, and warm diluent liquors.

f. Hydrofulphuretum Ammoniae, E. Hydrofulphuret of ammonia.

This preparation has been newly introduced into medical practice, by the Edinburgh college, who direct it to be prepared by subjecting 4 ounces of water of ammonia to a stream of gas arising from a mixture of 4 ounces of sulphuret of iron, and 8 ounces of muriatic acid, previously diluted with 2½ pounds of water.

This preparation forms a solution of a dark green colour and very fetid odour. It should more properly be called fulphuret of hydrogenet of ammonia. It acts powerfully on the living system. It induces vertigo, drowsiness, nausea, and vomiting, and lessens the action of the heart and arteries. It therefore seems to be a direct sedative. According to the doctrine of the chemical physiologists, it is a powerful difloxygenizing remedy. It has only been used in diabetes by Dr Rollo and others, under the name of hepatised ammonia, in doses of five or ten drops twice or thrice a day.

g. Oleum ammoniatum, E. Linimentum Ammoniatum, L. D. Linimentum Volatile. Ammoniated oil. Liniment of ammonia. Volatile liniment.

Ammoniated oil is properly a soap, formed by combining a solution of ammonia, or of carbonate of ammonia, with olive oil. The Edinburgh college directs it to be prepared by mixing together two ounces of olive oil and two drams of water of ammonia. The London college has two preparations of this kind; a stronger, formed of one ounce of water of pure ammonia, mixed with two ounces of olive oil; and a weaker, of half an ounce of water of ammonia and one ounce and a half of oil.

This preparation is seldom kept ready made, as by standing it becomes thick, and is diminished in strength. It is of a light yellow colour.

Ammoniated oil is a useful external application in cases of cynanche and rheumatism, being either rubbed on the affected part, or applied to it spread on flannel, and changed occasionally.

h. Alcohol ammoniatum aromaticum, E. Spiritus Ammoniae Compositus, L. Spiritus ammoniatus, Alkali Volatilis Aromaticus, D. Aromatic ammoniated alcohol. Compound spirit of ammonia. Aromatic spirit of volatile alkali. Sal volatile.

This is a composition of ammoniated alcohol with various aromatic oils. In the Edinburgh Pharmacopoeia it is prepared by dissolving one dram and a half of oil of rosemary, and one dram of oil of lemon peel, in eight ounces of ammoniated alcohol; by the London college we are directed to prepare it of two pints of spirit of ammonia, and two drams of oil of lemon, and of oil of cloves; and by that of Dublin, of two pounds of spirit, and of oil of lemon and oil of nutmeg, each two drams.

It is of a light amber colour, and of a very fragrant smell. It is more palatable and less acrimonious than the other preparations of ammonia, and is well suited to spasmodic complaints, faintness, and weakness of the stomach. Dose from twenty drops to a dram.

i. Linimentum volatile, D. Volatile Liniment of the Dublin college.

A compound of one part of the above preparation and two parts of the Dublin soap liniment, of which hereafter. A stimulating external application.

k. Spiritus ammoniae succinatus, L. Succinated spirit of ammonia. This is prepared by dissolving a scruple of rectified oil of amber, and ten grains of soap in an ounce weight of alcohol, and then adding four measured ounces of water of pure ammonia.

It is at first of a milky colour, but gradually becomes more or less transparent by standing. It is considered as much the same with the French eau de luce.

It is an useful antispasmodic, whether sniffed up the nose or rubbed on the temples.

1. Alcohol ammoniatum foetidum, E. Spiritus ammoniae foetidus, L. Spiritus alkali volatilis foetidus, D. Fetid ammoniated alcohol. Fetid spirit of volatile alkali.

A solution of asafoetida in spirit of ammonia, which is prepared according to the Edinburgh college by digesting half an ounce of asafoetida in eight ounces of spirit of ammonia for 12 hours, and distilling off the spirit. The London college directs six pints of proof spirits, a pound of sal ammoniac, four ounces of asafoetida, and a pound and half of potash, to be mixed together, and five pints to be distilled off with a slow fire.

An excellent antispasmodic, particularly suited to hysterical cases. Dose from 30 drops to a dram.

Particular Animal Substances.

Class MAMMALIA. Order GLIRES.

3. Castor fiber, E. The Beaver. CASTOR-EUM, L. D. Caflor.

This is a substance secreted in a follicle situated near the anus of the beaver, perhaps the inguinal gland. It is of a dark brown colour, friable, of a pungent bitter taste, and a very strong unpleasant smell. It is contained in a roundish or flattened membranous bag. Bouillon la Grange has found by analysis, that it consists of mucilage, bitter extract, resin, a peculiar volatile oil, and a flaky crystalline substance resembling adipocere. Its volatile parts come over by distillation with water, and great part of the substance is soluble in alcohol.

The best caflor comes from Russia, but a great deal is brought from Canada. The Russian caflor is in larger, rounder bags, and is of a much stronger smell than the Canadian.

Caflor is one of our most established antispasmodics, and was much esteemed and extolled by Dr Cullen. It is chiefly prescribed in hysteria, but seldom alone or in substance. Dose from 10 to 30 grains in a bolus.

Officinal Preparations.

a. Tinctura castorei. Tincture of Caflor.

The London and Dublin colleges direct two ounces of powdered Russian caflor to be digested ten or seven days in two pints (London), or two pounds (Dublin), of proof spirit. According to the Edinburgh formula, an ounce and half of Russian caflor is to be digested for seven days in a pound of alcohol, and the tincture strained through paper.

This tincture is of a dark brown colour, and possesses all the valuable properties of the simple drug. Dose from 30 drops to a dram. It is sometimes used as an external application in ear-ach; equal parts of this and tincture of opium being dropped into the ear.

b. Tinctura castorei composita, E. Compound tincture of caflor.

This is prepared by digesting an ounce of powdered Russian caflor, and half an ounce of asafoetida, in a pound of ammoniated alcohol for seven days, filtering the liquor through paper.

A more powerful antispasmodic than the former; dose from 20 to 40 drops.

4. Moschus moschiferus, E. The musk animal. MOSCHUS, L. D. Musk.

Musk is a resinous matter secreted in a receptacle situated near the navel of the musk animal. See MAMMALIA Index.

This substance is, when dry, of a reddish brown or rusty black colour, somewhat unctuous, and of a more or less granulated appearance: it has a bitterish and rather acid taste; a fragrant smell, agreeable at a distance, but so strong as to be highly unpleasant when smelt near to. So violent indeed is the smell of musk, when fresh taken from the animal, or from quantities put up by the merchants for sale, that it has been known to force the blood from the nose, eyes, and ears, of those who have imprudently inhaled its vapours; and we are assured by Chardin, that whenever he engaged in the purchase of musk, he found it always necessary to cover his face with several folds of a handkerchief, in order to be sufficiently secure against the sudden effects of the smell.

As musk is an expensive drug, it is frequently adulterated by various substances; and we are assured that pieces of lead have been found in some of the receptacles, inserted in order to increase the weight. The most usual mode of adulterating it is by taking the musk from the bag, and mixing it with dried blood coarsely powdered. This may in general be detected by observing that the bag has been opened; by the fetid smell which the substance emits when heated, and by the smell of ammoniacal gas which is perceived when the adulterated musk is rubbed with potash.

This substance is particularly efficacious, and there is scarcely any substitute for it in particular cases. When properly administered it sometimes succeeds in the most desperate cases. It raises the pulse without producing much heat; it removes spasmodic affections, and is found to have considerable effect on the nervous system, increasing the powers of thought, sensation, and voluntary motion.

It may be employed in all cases of typhus fevers; in particular, where there is much delirium, subulatus tendinum, &c. It is also employed in febrile eruptions, and in many spasmodic diseases, as the croup, epilepsy, tetanus, &c.

Officinal Preparations.

a. Tinctura moschae, D. Tincture of musk.

This is prepared by macerating two drams of musk musk in a pound of rectified spirit of wine for seven days, and straining the liquor.

The tincture of musk may be given in doses of a dram. Part IV.

Materia Medica, &c.

History of dram or two. It is best mixed with honey or syrup, as the addition of water renders it turbid.

b. Mistura moschata, L. Musk mixture.

This is directed by the London college to be made by rubbing two scruples of musk, first with one dram of double refined sugar, then with the addition of the same quantity of powdered gum arabic, and six ounces of rose water, added by degrees.

The musk must be well rubbed with the sugar and gum, before the rose water be added, otherwise a separation will take place. It is best to make this preparation only when required, as it does not keep well.

Musk mixture is given in most of the cases in which the simple drug is indicated. Dose, an ounce or an ounce and a half.

5. Cervus Elaphus, E. the Stag. CORNU CERVINUM, L. D. Hartshorn.

The horn of the stag differs little from bone, except in containing more cartilage. It was formerly employed in the preparation of ammonia, whence that alkali was denominated hartshorn, and at present there are two or three modifications of ammonia that are directed to be prepared from this substance. It is also burnt to form pure phosphate of lime.

Officinal Preparations.

a. Phosphas Calcis, E. CORNU CERVI, VEL CERVINUM USTUM, L. D. Phosphate of lime. Burnt hartshorn.

The Edinburgh college directs this to be prepared by burning pieces of hartshorn till they become perfectly white, and then reducing them to a fine powder.

Burnt hartshorn was formerly given as an antacid; but its efficacy in that way appears to be trifling, as the phosphoric acid is not easily separated from the lime, and of course the latter will not neutralise the acid morbidly secreted in the alimentary canal. Of late pure phosphate of lime has been recommended as a remedy for rickets, with the view of supplying solid matter to the bones. Dose about ten grains.

b. Liquor volatilis CORNU CERVI, L. D. Volatile liquor of hartshorn. Spirit of hartshorn.

c. Sal CORNU CERVI, L. D. Salt of hartshorn.

d. Oleum CORNU CERVI, L. D. Oil of hartshorn.

These are all made from one chemical operation. A quantity of hartshorn is put into a retort, and submitted to a heat that is gradually increased. First the volatile liquor comes over, then the salt, and lastly the oil. After the salt and oil are separated from the liquor, this is distilled again two or three times with a moderate heat, by which it is rendered more pure.

The salt is purified by mixing it with an equal weight of prepared chalk, and then subliming.

The volatile liquor and salt of hartshorn differ little from the water of carbonate of ammonia, and the solid

Vol. XII. Part II.

carbonate, except in containing a quantity of empyreumatic oil. They are in fact less pure than the above mentioned preparations of ammonia, and might be entirely set aside. They are chiefly used to fill up in cafes of fainting or hysteria.

These preparations may be made from the bones or horns of any animal, where hartshorn cannot be conveniently procured.

e. Oleum animale, L. OLEUM CORNU CERVINI RECTIFICATUM, D. Animal oil. Rectified oil of hartshorn. Dippe's oil.

This is made by distilling the oil of hartshorn that rises in the preceding operation, twice or three times, either by itself, or with the addition of water.

Animal oil was formerly much employed as a powerful antispasmodic. Dose 15—30 drops. When given six hours before the accession of a paroxysm of an intermittent fever, on an empty stomach, it is said to have kept off the paroxysm.

6. Ovis Aries, E. the Sheep. SEVUM OVIL, L. D. Mutton suet.

Mutton suet is employed in the preparation of several ointments and cerates, which will be mentioned hereafter.

Order 6. Belluae.

7. Sus scrofa, E. the Hog. ADEPS SUILLUS, L. D. Hogs lard.

Used also in the preparation of liniments, ointments, &c., and sometimes employed alone as an external emollient.

Order 7. Cete.

8. Physeter macrocephalus, E. Spermaceti. Whale. Sperma Ceti, L. D.

This is a white flaky substance, that is found in certain cells in the head of the spermaceti whale. See Cetology, No. 66, and Chemistry, No. 2860.

As an emollient, spermaceti is employed both internally and externally. Internally it is given in the form of emulsion mixed with mucilage or yolk of egg, or mixed with syrup into a linctus, in cases of catarrh, ardor urine, &c. As an external application, it enters into the composition of the following

Officinal Preparations.

a. Unguentum Spermatis Ceti, L. D. Spermaceti ointment.

This ointment is prepared by melting together six drams of spermaceti, two drams of white wax, and three ounces of olive oil, over a slow fire, stirring them constantly till they are cold.

b. Ceratum Spermatis Ceti, L. D. Ceratum simplex, E. Spermaceti cerate. Simple cerate. White cerate.

In the preparations of this cerate, the proportions of the Edinburgh pharmacopoeia differ from those directed by the colleges of London and Dublin. The former orders five parts of olive oil, three of white wax, and one of spermaceti; the two latter, half an ounce of spermaceti, two ounces of white wax, and four ounces