A dispensatory, or commentary on the pharmacopoeias of Great Britain : comprising the natural history, description, chemistry, pharmacy, actions, uses, and doses of the articles of the materia medica / by Robert Christison.

  • Christison, Robert, Sir, 1797-1882.
Date:
1842
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A dispensatory, or commentary on the pharmacopoeias of Great Britain : comprising the natural history, description, chemistry, pharmacy, actions, uses, and doses of the articles of the materia medica / by Robert Christison. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    INTRODUCTION. Acills. tory consists of an outer tube of glass, brass, copper, or tinned-iron d f,—an inner tube of glass or block-tin c e, which is connected with the outer tube by a perforated cork at each end, and terminates either in a straight extremity, or in a curved portion for fixing it into a bottle when the liquid distilled is very volatile,—a funnel g It, perforating the cork at the lower end, for admitting a stream of cold water into the interval between the two tubes,—and a discharge-tube d i, perforating the upper cork, for the escape of the heated water. If water be supplied by the funnel g from a cistern by means of a block-tin syphon, with a stop-cock for regulating the Bow, and the water as it escapes at i be led into a bucket, or the sink of a cistern, the process of distillation may be allowed to go on for a long time without being watched. A refrigeratory, whose outer tube is twelve inches long, and about an inch and a-quarter in diameter, will be powerful enough to condense the whole vapour from a mattrass capable of containing two pints of rectified-spirit in a state of brisk ebullition. With such an apparatus, even me- dicinal hydrocyanic acid or sulphuric ether may be distilled quickly without loss even in summer, although water of ordinary tempera- ture be used for keeping the refrigeratory cool.—Mattrasses for this and other purposes are generally made too thin. They stand heat equally well when considerably thicker, provided they be blown uniform in that respect; and they are then much less apt to be broken by succussion of the boiling fluid, or in subse- quently cleaning them. In distilling acids and other volatilizable liquids, heat is com- monly applied by means of fuel through the medium of a sand- bath. But in operations on a moderate scale, there is great con- venience in substituting the heat of gas-burners, where coal-gas is made of fine quality, as in this city. The most serviceable flame I have used for the purpose is that of a horizontal rose-burner; that is, a burner with a flat circular head about an inch in diameter, perforated round its side with fourteen holes, not exceeding a six- tieth of an inch in diameter. A circle is thus formed of horizontal jets, which, bending slightly upwards towards their points, adapt themselves to the form of a mattrass or retort Owing to the fa-