The dictionary of medical and surgical knowledge and complete practical guide in health and disease for families, emigrants, and colonists / by the editor of the "Dictionary of useful knowledge" [i.e. Robert Kemp Philp], etc. [With illustrations.].

Date:
MDCCLXIV [1864]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The dictionary of medical and surgical knowledge and complete practical guide in health and disease for families, emigrants, and colonists / by the editor of the "Dictionary of useful knowledge" [i.e. Robert Kemp Philp], etc. [With illustrations.]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

    55/768 (page 47)
    maimer, a fever mixture of singular elEcacy is obtained. Take of— The liquorof the acetate of animonia .... ounces. Antimonial ivino... 3 cbachms. Syrup of sallron ... 2 drachms. Camphor vater . . . 3|^ ounces. Sph’its of nitre ... 3 drachms. Mix: take two tahlespoonfuls every two hours. “Spirits of sal volatile,” tinctura am- monite composita. This popular and useful prepai’ation is prepared by mixing alcohol, in which some essential oils have been dissolved, with liquor of ammonia, and then distilling the whole. As a stimulant and antispasmodic, the dose of sal volatile in water is from 10 to 30 drops, according to circumstances. The latter dose, in half a tumbler of water, repeated, if necessary, in half an hour, has a singular effect on an in- toxicated person, by restoiing him to the full possession of his senses in a very short time. See Drunkenness. The “nitrate,” “nitro-sulphate,” “tar- trate,” “phosphate,” and a few other salts of ammonia, are sometimes employed as diaphoretics and dimetics, but theu' use is by no means large, being chiefly employed as manures. There are several tinctures in the pharmacopoeia to which ammonia is added—as those of iron, valerian, opium, guaiacum, &c.—the pro- perties and doses of which will be given under each in its proper order. AMMONIACTJM.—A gum resin, and very valuable drug, obtained by exudation from the shrub l)orema ammoniacum, a native of Africa and the East Indies, and is procured in small opaque drops or tears, of a yellowish or brown colour, and a faint aromatic smell, insoluble in spirits of wine, and water, though by long trituration it becomes suspended in the latter, and forms a very excellent medicine, called, from its white colour, the rnilk or lac ammoniacum. Ammoniacum acts medicinally as an expectorant, stimulant, and antispas- modic; though, when taken in large doses, it ojjcratcs directly on the bladder or the bowels. The only preparations into which it enters are the compound squill j)ill, the ammoniacum and mercury plaster, and the mixture or milk of ammoniacum, referred to above. In all cases of cough, cold, and op- pression of the chest, this (baig becomes one of the most important expectorants 47 we possess, especially where there is much thick, tenacious phlegm. The milk of ammoniacum is made by rubbing down 2 drachms of the gum in a mortar, with 8 ounces of cold water, adding the water drop by drop, till a smooth, cream-hke fluid is obtained, when the water may bo added in larger quantities, till the whole is incorporated. To make this prepara- tion properly, a quarter of an hour’s constant rubbing is requisite, and that, too, before the bulk of the water is added. To insui'e the more complete suspension of the ammoniacum, and also to save time in the operation, a few grains of potass or carbonate of ammonia should be used with the gum. The dose of the simple milk of ammoniacum is from a dessert to a tablespoonful, repeated every foiu horn’s. The following combination wiU be found invaluable in all cases of hard, dry, and obstinate cough;— Cough Mixture.-—Take of^— Milk of ammoniacum . 4 ounces. Syrup of squills and syrup of tolu, of each . 6 drachms. Laudanum 1 drachm. Spirits of nitre, and an- timonial wine, of each 3 drachms. Mix. A tablespoonful of this cough mixtm’c may be taken every two hours for an adult, and given to children in doses of from half a teaspoonful to a full dessertspoonful, according to the age. The plaster is used to dissipate chi’onic sweflings, the stimulating pro- perties of the gum being thought to cause the absorption of the mercury; the benefit, how’ever, of this prepai’ation is very ques- tionable. The pills fom a good expec- torant in cases of asthma and ordinary colds, and may be taken in doses of one every six hours. See Squill. AMMONIAC, SAL, or Muriate of Ammonia. See Sal Ammoniac. AMMONIUM. — As Sh Humphry Davy succeeded in discovering the metallic base of the two fixed alkalies, it lias been supposed that a similar result might bo jirocurcd from ammonia; as yet, however, the fact has not been satisfactorily proved. AMNIUM.—The internal membnme that surrounds the child in the womb; a thin, transiiarcnt texture, like a bladder, in which (he ftetus floats in a (luid called (he licfuor amni, which, at the time of childbirth, is discharged, and called (ho breaking of the neater. Sec Memjjkaneb, Laijouu, Pregnancy. AMOMUM.—The bo(anical name of a genus of aromatic plants, of which