The elements of a new materia medica and therapeutics : Based upon an entirely new collection of drug-provings and clinical experience / By E.E. Marcy, J.C. Peters & Otto Füllgraff.

  • Marcy, E. E. (Erastus Edgerton), 1815-1900.
Date:
[1850?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The elements of a new materia medica and therapeutics : Based upon an entirely new collection of drug-provings and clinical experience / By E.E. Marcy, J.C. Peters & Otto Füllgraff. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    ACIDUM FLUORICUM. FLUORIC ACID, This acid plays an important part in the animal economy. Brugnatelli believed that he had discovered the existence of this acid in the gastric juice of birds, and Treviranus also believed that, when the contents of the intestinal canal of fowls were digested in porcelain vessels, the glazing was attacked on account of the presence of Hydro-fluoric-acid. Again, the Fluoride of Calicum is so integral a part of the enamel of the teeth, that we must ascribe to its presence (at least in part) the polish and extraordinary hardness of that substance. The presence of Fluoride of Calcium has also been determined with certainty in the bones of almost all animals. Berzelius found 2. lg- of Fluoride of Calcium in the Dentine, and 3. 2ft in the enamel of a man's teeth. The presence of fluorine in blood and milk has been clearly demonstrated by Dr. George Wilson. In regard to the origin of the Fluoride of Calcium, Lehmann says we cannot doubt that it is easily conveyed into the animal system with the food; we need only remember that many mineral waters contain traces of fluorides, and that plants take up a little Fluoride of Calcium from micaceous soils. Fluoride of Calcium was detected by Berzelius in the Carlsbad water, and has been found in other mineral waters. Fluoric-acid is a solvent for some elementary principles which resist the action even of Nitro-hydro-chloric-acid; thus it solves Silica in particular, also Silica and Silicic-acid. It is especially useful as a solvent of Silex in the animal economy, for small quantities of Silica are found in the blood, in the white of egg, in bile, in urine, and in the solid excrements, and occasionally in certain morbid concretions; it has also been shown by numerous experiments that Silica forms an integral constituent of hair and feathers, and hence it is evident that a perfect solvent for it is required in order that it may be readily con- veyed through the most minute capillaries to its appropriate destination. Fluoric-acid is an admirable solvent; its vapor is more pungent than Chlorine, or any of the irritating gases. Of all substances it is the most destructive to animal matter; it produces the strongest caustic effects; when applied to the skin it causes violent pain, the parts around become white and painful, forming a dense pustule filled with matter; even a very small and hardly visible quantity will produce the same effects, though only after the lapse of several hours. The smallest quantity applied to the hand excites violent itching, and pustules filled with matter are soon formed, according to Liebig; in fact the acid unites itself to the skin to such a degree, that it cannot be washed off even by means of carbonate of soda, although the pain may be mitigated. The solution of ^th of a grain, and even that of j^th does not produce either pain or redness; -^th of a grain, however, produces some pain, 12