A manual of pharmacy / by William Thomas Brande.

Date:
1825
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of pharmacy / by William Thomas Brande. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    satisfaction, and might, without inconvenience, be expunged from the list of the Materia Medica. Obstinate chronic rheu- matism is the only disease in which it ever appears to have been useful. ADEPS —■ The Lard of the Sus Scrqfa, or Hog. —This is a very useful article in the formation of ointments, and the more tenacious and unctuous class of liniments. It com- bines with the fixed and volatile oils, with camphor, and with the resins. It fuses at a temperature of about 100°, and, like other varieties of fat, it appears to consist of an oil and a suet in combination, which may be imperfectly separated by pressure between folds of bibulous paper. Chevreul has called the former ingredient elaine, and the latter stearine; from the Greek words shaiov and o-TE«p, signifying oil and tallow. By long exposure to air, lard becomes rancid and sourish, and in that state acquires certain solvent and oxi- dating powers which it did not before possess. iERUGO —Verdigris; Impure Subacetate of Copper.—This is a very impure and consequently uncertain preparation of copper, and should be omitted in the list of Materia Medica. If an acetate of copper be at all required, the crystallised verdigris should be employed; but, as far as all pharma- ceutical uses are concerned, the sulphate of copper may be substituted. The London Pharmacopoeia directs the old mel JEgyptiacum, or oxymel ccruginis, under the title of linimen- tum ccruginis, and this is certainly a useful detergent applica- tion to some ulcerating sores ; but a solution of sulphate of copper in common oxymel is a preferable substitute. Independent of the adulterations to which common verdi- gris is subject, there is a substance occasionally found in trade, under the name of English verdigris, which is made by triturating acetate of lead and sulphate of copper with a certain quantity of chalk and water; the mixture is dried in cakes, and grape-stalks added ad libitum. According to Dr. Paris, powdered verdigris is the active ingredient in the quack medicine called Smel/ome’s Eye-Salve. ALLII RADIX —The Root of the Allium sativum, or com-