A manual of pharmacy / by William Thomas Brande.

  • Brande, William Thomas, 1788-1866.
Date:
M.DCC.XXV. [1825]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of pharmacy / by William Thomas Brande. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    Much has been said of the use of viscid mucilages in cases of poisoning, as a means of sheathing and protecting the alimentary canal; but they are not at all to be depended on. ACETOS^ FOLIA—The Leaves of the Rumex acetosa, or common Sorrel. This is an unnecessary incumbrance to the Materia Medica ; but it forms a good article of cookeiy, and an excellent sauce for stewed lamb or veal. ACETOSELLA—The common Wood-sorrel (oxalis aceto- sella), like the former, is an acidulous plant, deriving its sourness from the presence of quadroxalate of potassa. It is neither useful in physic nor cookery ; the object of retaining it, therefore, in the Materia Medica of the Pharmacopoeia, is by no means obvious. ACETUM — Vinegar. There are many processes, remark- ably different from each other, by which vinegar may be ob- tained. In wine countries it is procured by the exposure of wine to the action of air and a due temperature ; it is some- times made from solutions of sugar and saccharine fruits ; and in this country it is abundantly prepared from infusion of malt. In all these instances the liquids are suffered to fer- ment with more or less access of air, part of the oxygen of which is converted into carbonic acid, and the liquors, if originally vinous, become gradually sour, owing to the forma- tion of vinegar, or acetic acid. It is manifest that in all these cases the true acetic acid must not only be diluted with water, but contaminated by all the soluble matters contained in the fruit or materials em- ployed : among these we always find colouring matter, gum, starch and gluten, sugar, and a portion of alcohol; and fre- quently malic and tartaric acids, with minute portions of alkaline and earthy salts. Vinegars are also sometimes inten- tionally adulterated by sulphuric, muriatic, or even nitric acids. The former may be detected by the addition of ace- tate of baryta, which occasions a precipitate of sulphate of baryta, to be distinguished from the malate and tartrate of baryta (which also may be thrown down) by its insolubility in