Materia medica and therapeutics : for physicians and students / by John B. Biddle.

  • Biddle, John B. (John Barclay), 1815-1879.
Date:
1886
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Materia medica and therapeutics : for physicians and students / by John B. Biddle. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    by roasting. Coffee may be used for the general indications of antispasmodics, and is, besides, especially efficacious in reliev- ing the sopor produced by opium-poisoning. Both tea and coffee lessen the urea in the urine. Coffee is relaxing, while tea is astringent, since it contains tannin. Coffee is not officinal. Caffeina (caffeine) (officinal) (gr. J-iij) produces decided cere- bral effects, as excitement, wakefulness, and hallucination, and, when exhaustion sets in, sopor. It increases the number of the heart's beats, raises the arterial pressure, followed by feeble action and diminished blood-pressure. In frogs the motor and probably the sensory nerves are not affected by it. Injected into dogs and cats, it produces tetanus (Aubert). Applied to a cut-out muscle, it causes rigidity (coagulates the myosin) and abolishes the electrical contractility. Caffeine elevates and then lowers the animal temperature, and has decided diuretic powers (Gubler). In man, gr. viij-xij have caused decided cerebral effects, but no deaths have followed its use. Caffeine has been used as a cerebral stimulant in nervous headache (gr. j-ij), in cardiac dropsy (gr. v), and to antagonize morphine narcotism. Caffeine citrate is the salt most in use, and is a powerful diuretic. Caffeine valerianate is useful in hysterical vomiting, in the dose of I to 2 grains repeated. None of the salts of this alkaloid are officinal. III. Theobroma—Chocolate (noticed more at length under the head of demulcents—see Oil of Theobroma)—contains a nitrogenous principle, theobromine^ nearly identical in composi- tion with caffeine (C^HgN^Og). IV. Erythroxylon—Coca or Cuca.—The leaves of E. Coca {Nat. Ord. Erythroxylaceae) have long been used as a masticatory by the Indians in Peru for the purpose of enabling them to undergo fatigue, hunger, and thirst. An alkaloid termed cocaine (Cj^HgiNO^) * has been found in coca, also cocatannic * This alkaloid has attracted much attention, recently, from its power of pro- ducing local anaesthesia, which property, though first discovered by Professor von Anrep, of Charkov (Pfliiger's Archiv., 1879, ^^^v P- S^)? did not attract general attention until the publication of a paper on the subject by Dr. Karl Koller, of Vienna, in September, 1884. The hydrochlorate, which is preferred for medicinal use, occurs in monoclinic prisms arranged in radial groups, soluble in chloro- form, ether, alcohol, and water. When sulphuric acid is added to the salt, no