Modern domestic medicine : a popular treatise, describing the symptoms, causes, distinction, and correct treatment of the diseases incident to the human frame embracing the modern improvements in medicine to which are added, a domestic materia medica a copious collection of approved prescriptions, &c. &c together with an appendix on the cold water system the whole intended as a comprehensive medical guide for the use of clergymen, heads of families, and emigrants, in the absence of their medical adviser / by Thomas J. Graham.

  • Graham, Thomas John, 1795?-1876
Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Modern domestic medicine : a popular treatise, describing the symptoms, causes, distinction, and correct treatment of the diseases incident to the human frame embracing the modern improvements in medicine to which are added, a domestic materia medica a copious collection of approved prescriptions, &c. &c together with an appendix on the cold water system the whole intended as a comprehensive medical guide for the use of clergymen, heads of families, and emigrants, in the absence of their medical adviser / by Thomas J. Graham. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    37/820 (page 11)
    BLACK DROP. This is a preparation of opium, which has long been sold as a nostrum. It is powerfully anodyne, and antispasmodic, producing the ordinary effects of opium, without affecting the head, or confining the bowels. For general use it is certainly preferable to laudanum or solid opium, but is not superior to Battley s Solution of Opium. The secret of its preparation has never been discovered till lately, when the manuscripts of the late Edward Walton of Sunderland, one of the near rela- tions, it is said, of the original proprietor, fell into the hands of the late Dr. Armstrong, who has published the manner in which it is prepared, which is as follows; take half a pound of opium sliced, three pints of good verjuice, (juice of the wild crab,) one and a half ounce of nutmegs, and half an ounce of saffron. Boil them to a proper thickness, then add a quarter of a pound of sugar, and two table spoonsful of yeast. Set the whole in a warm place near the fire, for six or eight weeks; then place it in the open air till it becomes a syrup; lastly, decant, filter, and bottle it up, adding a little sugar to each bottle. The ordinary dose of the Black Drop is twelve or fifteen drops, one drop being equal to three of laudanum. But it is often given to the extent of twenty or thirty drops at a dose. BLUE PILL. The mercurial pill, usually called blue pill, is a mild and valuable alterative, of great service in disorders of the digestive organs, and also in many severe diseases, both external and internal, which originate in congestion or obstruction. It was the favourite remedy of that celebrated, but eccentric man, Mr. Abernethy, whose recommendation of it has been the principal cause of its high repute in the present day. He employed it in almost all cases of disease, whatever were the character, stage, or peculiar circumstances of the malady; but he was far more cautious in its exhibition than the generality of his followers, for, under his directions, it was always taken in small doses, and never became injurious. It is, however, a mistaken notion to suppose that it is generally applicable to the stomach and bilious complaints, which are so frequently met with in medical practice. Many of such cases are of recent origin, accompanied with a considerable share of re- maining strength of stomach, and often with some local malady, and then the good effects of the blue pill are fre-