Supplement to the Edinburgh new dispensatory / by Andrew Duncan.

Date:
1829
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Supplement to the Edinburgh new dispensatory / by Andrew Duncan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    durable, and it does not allow nearly so much red matter to be deposited as when a weaker alcohol is used for its preparation.* * * §— Ch. and It. Tinctura hellebori nigri.—Black hellebore root contains a very abundant resinous principle; proof spirit is therefore not proper for making this tincture. It is alcohol at 32° Baume (rectified spirit) which should be used.—Ch. and R. Tinctura humuli lupuli.—This is the proper place to re- view the latest investigations on the subject of hops, and which should have been introduced before, (in the observations on the Materia Medica.) In 1811, M. Blanche ■)* published that the extract of hops contained nitrate and hydrochlorate of potass. In 1813, he ex- tracted from the yellow powder of hops from 60 per cent, of pure resin, a little sebaceous oil, a bitter substance. He then proved that the active principle of hops resided in the yellow powder. In fact, when the calycinal leaves are deprived of it, they are deprived of their smell also. They are but feebly bitter, and no longer afford to alcohol any resin. Dr Yves, physician at New York, has also published an analysis of hops, j and designated in his paper the yellow powder under the name of Lupulin. In 1822, MM. Payen and Chevallier published a very elaborate paper on hops, its culture in France, and its analysis. § They further established that the yellow grains contain, besides the bitter principle and the resin, carbonic acid, traces of osmazome, of gum, and of silex. Lupuline is to hop, according to the opinion of M. Planche, what quinia is to cinchona, strychnia to nux vomica; but he has not placed it in the rank of alkalies. It is aromatic, tonic, and narcotic, and might be of great assistance in weakness of the stomach, and in those symptomatic diseases followed ordi- narily by a weakened excitability. In many cases lupuline pro- vokes sleep, and appeases excessive nervous irritation, but without causing costiveness, or diminishing the tone of the stomach, thus augmenting the primary malady, as opium does. M. Planche thinks that pills are perhaps the only form that it is proper to em- ploy in order to appreciate the effects of this principle. Dr Frank recommends an ointment prepared with this powder and axunge against cancer in the last stage of that disease, when * Pharm. Gallica. 4to. 1818, P. 120. •f Manuel des plantes usuelles et indigenes, par D, Loiseleur-Deslongchamps. Paris, 1819. See T. ii. p 503. Also Cours de Matiere Medicale, par D. Hanin. Paris, 1819. See T. i. p. 353. Fornmlaire pharmaceutique des hopitaux militaires, par M. Laubert. Paris, 1820. See p. 54. Journal de Pharmacie, T. viii. p 228. X Annals of Philosophy, 1821.