The new dispensatory: containing I. The elements of pharmaceutical chemistry. II. The materia medica ... III. Pharmaceutical preparations. IV. Medicinal compositions ... Being an attempt to collect and apply the later discoveries to the Dispensatory published by W. Lewis ... / By gentlemen of the Faculty of Edinburgh [i.e. C. Webster and R. Irving].

Date:
1786
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The new dispensatory: containing I. The elements of pharmaceutical chemistry. II. The materia medica ... III. Pharmaceutical preparations. IV. Medicinal compositions ... Being an attempt to collect and apply the later discoveries to the Dispensatory published by W. Lewis ... / By gentlemen of the Faculty of Edinburgh [i.e. C. Webster and R. Irving]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    140/802 (page 88)
    faturated : and in both, the acids made ufe of were fo very different from any that can be fuppofed ever to exift in the human body, that little can be concluded from them with regard to the medical effe&s of thefe abforbents. Trial ffiould have been made with the mild ve- getable acids; as the juices of cer- tain fruits, four fermented liquors, or rather with four milk. Never- theless thefe tables, though not fo perfect as could be wifhed, have their ufe in the hands of fuch as can make proper allowances. Earths not diffoluble in Acids, or other Liquors. The .earths of this kind may be ranged in two claffes - Clafs i. Hard cryflalline Earths: As the Ruby, Garnet, Emerald, Sapphire, Hyacinth, and other precious Stones; Cryftal, Flint, &c. THESE kinds of fubftarices were introduced into medi- cine, and many fabulous virtues at- tributed to them, by the fuperfli- tion of the earlier ages. Some of them are fill preferved in foreign pharmacopoeias, but at length very juftly expunged from our’s, not-, withftanding what fome late wri- ters of repute fpeak of their medical virtue. Thefe indilfoluble hard bo- dies are not capable of producing any other eft’edl than by their rigid angular particles (which, though le- vigated with the utmoft care, the microfcope ftill difeovers in them) to offend or wound the inteftines. In levigation thc^ wear off fo much from the hardeft marble inttruments, as will equal or exceed their own weight: from this circun.ffance we may account for their having fnme- time« appeared to a& as abforber.ts. Some of thefe ttoncs, expoied to a vehement fire, become in fome mea- fure friable; but neverthelefs remain indiffoluble. Mod of the coloured ones by this treatment lofe their co- lour, and in this (late prove nearly of the fame quality with common cryftal; fuch are, the fapphire, emerald, amethyft, and cornelian: others melt into a blackifh vitreous matter, from which a portion of iron is obtainable by proper fluxes; as the hyacinth and garnet. Geof- frey concludes from hence, that thofc ftones really poflefs fome me- dical virtues, depending upon their metallic part: but the quantity of metallic matter, fufficient to give th cm a conliderablc tinft, is fo ex- ceedingly fmall, and fo inclofed in a ftony matter, not at all foluble by any of the known menflrua, as fcarce to admit of any poflihility of its a&ing in the human body. Clafs 2. Softer Earths; the talky, gypfeous, and argilla- ceous. The talcs and gypfums have unaiious foftnefs and filver hue, rarely been ufed as medicines. Hand recommended externally as Some of the former, from their cofmetics j and fome of the latter, 3 on