Handbook of materia medica, pharmacy and therapeutics : including the physiological action of drugs, the special therapeutics of disease, official and extemporaneous pharmacy, and minute directions for prescription writing / by Sam'l O.L. Potter.

  • Potter, Samuel O. L. (Samuel Otway Lewis), 1846-1914.
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Handbook of materia medica, pharmacy and therapeutics : including the physiological action of drugs, the special therapeutics of disease, official and extemporaneous pharmacy, and minute directions for prescription writing / by Sam'l O.L. Potter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

    64/860 (page 54)
    The7^apeutics. Though Alcohol is decidedly injurious in health, in disease it is a most useful agent. It is invaluable in diphtheria, poisoning by cardiac depressants and snake-venom, adynamic fevers and cardiac failure from any cause. It is an excellent dressing to wounds and bed-sores, may prevent colds from exposure by relax- ing the peripheral vessels and restoring the balance of the circu- lation, and in phthisis it does good if it promotes digestion and assimilation. In atonic indigestion of nervous and depressed subjects, cholera infantum, diarrhoea, etc., brandy is universally found to be beneficial. In the vomiting of yellow fever or of sea-sickness iced champagne is very efficient. In anaemia and chlorosis good red wines are almost indispensable, as also in convalescence from acute diseases, sudden and profuse hemor- rhage, and in many other morbid conditions. Koumiss is an excellent food and stimulant in feeble digestion, phthisis, chronic bronchitis, and in all adynamic states in which the effects of alcohol and nutrients are indicated. The stomach is very tolerant of koumiss even when it will bear nothing else, and as it increases the body nutrition remarkably it is of great value in the treatment of all the cachexiae. Each quart is esti- mated to contain 4 ounces of solid food, besides i to 3 per cent, of alcohol. ALLIUM, Garlic,—is the bulb of Allium sativum, a plant of the nat. ord. Liliacese, indigenous to Asia, but cultivated in Europe and America. It is sub-globular and compound, consist- ing of eight bulblets, covered by dry, membranous scales. Its odor is pungent and disagreeable and its taste is warm and acrid. It contains a Volatile Oil, which consists mainly of the Sulphide of AUyl (C^Hg^S, on which its qualities depend. Allied species are Allium Cepa, the Onion, and Allium Porrum, the Leek. • Preparation. Syrupus Allii,—contains 15 per cent, of Garlic, Sugar 60, Dilute Acetic Acid 40 parts. Dose, ,5J-iv, according to age. Physiological Action and Thcrapetitics. Garlic, Leeks and Onions are stimulant to the digestion and to the nervous system, and are supposed to have a special influ- ence upon the bronchial secretion. Garlic is also thought to be emmenagogue and anthelmintic. It promotes diaphoresis and