A new method for the improvement of the manufacture of drugs: in a treatise on the elixir proprietatis.

Date:
1747
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A new method for the improvement of the manufacture of drugs: in a treatise on the elixir proprietatis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    are probably compounded (k) of two Bodies only, very remote in their Natures, that is, a fimpleGum, and a Balfam, without any faponaceous Body to unite them, but rather that this Union has been accom¬ plished by fome natural Agitation in the Vegetable from whence they are taken, to which our Motion ufed in this Procefs may be fimilar: Whether this natural Motion may be occafioned by the Warmth of the Summer-Sun, or Force of the Winds fhaking the Trees and Plants, or perhaps from both together, affifled by fome additional Caufes of Motion unknown to me, whether Attraction, &c. is not very material to be known here; all which will appear more proba¬ ble from the following Trials, as far as can be con¬ cluded from Experiments made only on one of the oily Gums. We alfo learn from hence the probable Caufe of Emulfions, from Almonds, the cold Seeds, Poppy- Seeds, iAc. that they arife from the Mucilage of thefe Bodies having been beaten out, and diffolved in the watry Menjlruum ufed, with which their Oil alfo is conveyed and fufpended in minute Globules thro? that Fluid : But, as the Oils of thefe Bodies are of a dif¬ ferent Nature from the others, it may be pertinent to inquire how far this alfo is probable by Experiment. Exp. V. To a thick Mucilage or Solution of Gum Arabic. was added fome Oil of Almonds, which, by Agita¬ tion only, mixed alfo with common Water, in the Form of an Emulfion, not readily to be diftinguifhed from (k) Dr. Grew fuppofes it a volatile Salt, as is already men- tioned. See Boerhaanj. deSapone (Elem. Chem.) Dr. Grew tells us he made an oily Gum of the Texture of Ammoniacum or Galbanum, of a certain Powder andfaline Liquor, but molt ungeneroufly conceals the proper Names of the Ingre¬