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

  • Potter, Samuel O. L. (Samuel Otway Lewis), 1846-1914.
Date:
1897
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 practical pharmacy, and minute directions for prescription writing / by Sam'l O.L. Potter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

    50/944 (page 44)
    duction of gastric juice, others by stimulating the local circulation, and several by exciting the activity of the nervo-muscular apparatus of the stomach. The first indication is met by the use of dilute alkaline solutions before meals,—the secon'd by administering any of the pungent carminatives, as the Aromatic Oils, Pepper, Mustard, etc., or by Alcohol and Ether in small doses, or by the Aromatic Bitters, as Gen- tian, Orange, etc., or the simple bitters, as Calumba;—while the third desideratum is secured by the use of such agents as Nux Vomica, Hydrastis, Arsenic, the dilute Mineral Acids and the Volatile Oils. Adjuvants to gastric digestion are the digestion-ferments. Pepsin, Ingluvin, Papain, also dilute HCl acid ; which may be used to supplement the gastric juice when deficient in quantity or quality. The juice of the Phieapple contains a very active digestive principle, and may be employed as an aid to digestion wdth excellent results. Pepsin acts in acid media, and is only applicable to gastric indigestion; Pancreatin acts in alkaline media, is destroyed by acids, and is only applicable to intestinal indigestion ; while Papain exercises its proteolytic power in either acid, alkaline or neutral solutions, and is equally applicable to either gastric or intestinal indigestion. Acids,—considered therapeutically and physiologically, are medicines which in concentrated form act usually as caustics, and when given in medicinal doses internally check the secretions of organs producing acid secretions with which they come in contact, and increase those of organs producing alkaline secretions. Thus a dilute acid given before meals will check the production of the acid gastric juice, but will stimulate that of the alkaline pancreatic juice. The chief members of this group are dilute form :— Acidum Aceticum. Acidum Citricum. Acidum Benzoicum. Acidum Hydrochloricum. the following, which should be given in very Acidum Nitricum. Acidum Phosphoricum. Acidum Sulphuricum. Acidum Nitro-hydrochloricum. Ant-acids or Alkalies,—from the same stand-point, are remedies which neutralize acids, check alkaline secretions and stimulate acid secre- tions, when in contact with the ducts of the organs producing them. Thus a dilute alkali given before meals will stimulate the production of the acid gastric juice, and if applied to the mouth of the pancreatic duct will check the secretion of the alkaline pancreatic juice. The principal articles which belong to this group are the following, which should always be administered in dilute solution; — Liquor Potassm, Liquor Sodse. Carbonates and Bicarbonates of Potas- sium, Sodium, Lithium, Magnesium and Ammonium. Calcined Magnesia (Magnesia). Lime-water. Chalk. Aromatic Spirit of Ammonia. Potassium Acetate. Potassium Citrate. Potassium Tartrate. Potassium Bitartrate. Sodium Acetate. Sodium Citrate. Lithium Citrate. The substances named in the first list are direct antacids, lessening the acidity in he stomach, and many of them also acting as remote antacids, lessening the acidity urine, as Potassa and Soda, and their Carbonates and Bicarbonates. Ammon?a Carbonates after absorption are eliminated as urea, and do not lessen the aci i y o urine. The salts in the second list are remote antacids, do not lesseii aadity ii stomach, but do that of the urine, being oxidized in the blood and excreted as Carbonates.