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.

    154/802 (page 72)
    1a This Is a low, branched fhrub, bearing leaves like thdfe of nignt- fhade; with white flowers, which ffand Jingle at the joints. The flower-cup changes into a membra- nous cover, which at length burfts and difcovers a fruit of a fine red colour, about the fize of a common cherry. The fruit ripens in Octo- ber, and continues frequently to the grows wild in Tome parts of France, Germany, &c. the beauty and late- nefs of its fruit have gained it a place in our gardens. Winter-cherries arc faid by mod writers to be extremtly bitter: but, as Haller juftly obferves, the cher ry itfelf, if carefully freed from the cover (which is very bitter and pungent) has merely a fubacid tafte. They Hand highly recommended as detergent, aperient, diuretic, and for expelling gravel; four, five, or more of the cherries are direCted for a dofe, or an dunce of the expreffed juice. Mr Ray tells us of a gouty perfon who was cured and kept free from returns of his diforder, by ta- king eight of thefe cherries at each change of the moon ; thefe occa- fioned a copious difeharge of ex- tremely fetid urine. ALLIARIyE folia: Hefperidii allium redolent is Tourn. Eryjmii alliarice Lin. Sauce-alone, or jack- by-the-hedge; the leaves. This is common in hedges and fhady wafte places, flowering in May and June. The leaves have a bit- terifh acid tafte; and, when rubbed laetwixt the fingers, a ftrong ftnell, approaching to that of garlick. They are recommended internally as fudorifics and deobftruents, fome- what of the nature of garlick, but much milder; and externally as an- tifeptics in gangrenes and cancerous ulcers. Iiildanus ufed to gather the herb for thefe laft purpofes iu the fpring, and expofe it for a day to the action of a dry air in a 'fhady place ; being then committed to the prefs, it yielded a juice pollening the fmell and tafte of the alliaria: this, he in- forms us, with a little oil on the furface, keeps in perfection for years; . whereas the herb in fubftance foon lofes its virtue in keeping. o Lin Garlick; the roots [ L. E.~] Thefe roots are of the bulbous kind, of an irregularly roundifh fliape, with feveral fibres at the bottom: each root is compofed of a number of lefier bulbs, called cloves of garlick, inclofed in one common membranous coat, and eafily fepa- rable from one another. All the parts of this plant, but more efpe- cially the root, have a ftrong offen- five fmell, and an acrimonious al- moft cauftic tafte. The root applied to the fkin inflames, and often ex- ulcerates the part. Its fmell is ex- tremely penetrating and diffufive; when the root is applied to the feet, its feent is foon dilcovevable in the breath; and when taken internally, its fmell is communicated to the urine, or the matter of an iffue, and perfpires through the pores of the ikin. This pungent root warms and flimulates the folids, and attenuates tenacious juices. Heuce in cold leucophlegmatic habits, it proves a powerful expectorant, diuretic, and emmenagogue ; and, if the patient is kept warm, fudorific. In humo- ral afthma3. and catarrhous diforders of the breatt, in fome feurvies, fla- tulent colics, hyfterical and other difeafes proceeding from laxity of the folids and trold fluggilh indif- pofition of the fluids, it has generally good effects: it has likewife been found ferviceable in fome hydropic cafes. Sydenham relates, that he has known the dropfy cured by the s nfc