A manual of materia medica and therapeutics : including the preparations of the pharmacopoeias of London, Edinburgh, and Dublin, with other approved medicines / by J. Forbes Royle.

  • Royle, J. Forbes (John Forbes), 1798-1858.
Date:
MDCCCLVI [1856]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of materia medica and therapeutics : including the preparations of the pharmacopoeias of London, Edinburgh, and Dublin, with other approved medicines / by J. Forbes Royle. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

    797/818 (page 783)
    Petroleum. Naphtha. Creasotum et Mist. See also Stimulant Tonics, Diaphoretics, Expectorants, and Diuretics. Diffusible Stimulants.—These, which include Alcohol and Ether, are usually distinguished from other Stimulants by the rapi- dity with which they excite the whole system through the medium of the brain and nerves. These effects, in moderate doses, are exhilarant, and soon pass off; in larger they produce intoxication, which is followed by exhaustion and collapse, and the comatose state characteristic of drunkenness. Though Opium and the several preparations of Hemp are used in all Eastern countries as Excitants, they are so soon followed by symptoms of collapse, that it will be preferable to arrange them, as well as others, under one of the sections of Narcotics. Ether, though at first excitant, is after- wards so soothing as to be prescribed in nervous affections and frequently with opiates. When inhaled it produces insensibility to pain, like Chloroform. Spiritus Vini Gallici, et Mistura. Spir. rectificatus et tenuior. Vinum Xericum and other wines. iEther. IE. Sulph. Spir. iEtheris comp. Spir. iEther. Nitrici. Chlo- roform, et spiritus. Special Excitants are distinguished by being local in their action, and exciting only particular nerves, as Strychnia does those of the spinal cord, especially the motor branches, thus causing a contraction of muscles. Special Excitants.—Nux Vomica. Tinct. et Extr. Strychnia. Brucia. Toxicodendron. Arnica montana. Ergot of Rye. 3. Depressents or Contra-Stimulants. The author has grouped together the Narcotics, Antispasmodics, Refrigerants, and Sedatives, not that they can be considered as re- sembling each other physiologically in action (though the Sedatives are often united with Narcotics), but because all are employed to subdue inordinate action, the Refrigerants and Sedatives when occurring in the circulation, Narcotics to assuage pain, control rest- lessness, and to procure sleep, while Antispasmodics have a quieting effect on the disordered nervous system. Narcotica. Hypnotica. Anodyna. Narcotics are so named from rap nr], the torpedo, which stupefies any other animal which it touches, because stupefaction is the most striking symptom of some, though not of all the medicines which are usually included under the head of Narcotics. The name, there- fore, being objectionable, Dr. Pereira suggested that of Cerebro- Spinals, as including all those which affect either the brain or spinal marrow, and their respective nerves. But the great peculiarity of this group of medicines is that hardly two of them resemble each