No. I. CALCINED MAGNESIA. This article, by neutralizing the acid formed in the stomach, speedily relieves the.. painful sensation termed heart-burn, and with it forms an aperient medicine, which operates gently on the bowels. The dose is from a tea-spoonful to a dessert-spoonful. It operates most pleasantly when administered with an aromatic, as peppermintwater, or with two grains of ginger-powder or grated nutmeg in spring water.

The purgative effects of calcined magnesia entirely depending on its meeting with an acid in the stomach, it frequently happens that a small dose will operate more on the bowels than a large one, in consequence of not meeting with a sufficient quantity of an acid to dissolve it; and as it scarcely produces any sensible effect if an acid does not exist in the stomach, no reliance can be placed on it as a purgative. When, therefore, a full dose of magnesia does not act on the intestines, the probability is, that there is not a sufficient quantity of acid present to dissolve it, in which case the patient should take a dessert-spoonful of lemon-juice to promote its aperient operation.

When acidity is the consequence of increased excitement or feverish state of the digestive organs, which is generally the case in young subjects, and particularly in nervous, inflammatory, or gouty habits, the beneficial effects of magnesia will be temporary, unless it be accompanied with a quieting or nervous stomachic. medicine, as calumbo, fumitory, &c. (See STOMACHICS, p. 47. and INDIGESTION.) When the complaint is obstinate, or of long standing, the prepared natron will prove more efficacious than: magnesia, and being perfectly soluble in water, is also more pleasant to take. (See PREPARED NATRON, No. 60., and LIME WATER.)

For correcting acidity in the stomach of children, attended: with costiveness, magnesia, either alone or combined with a little rhubarb-powder, is an excellent remedy; but when attended with looseness, or what nurses term griping stools, the compound cretaceous powder, No. 29., will prove equally efficacious in neutralizing the acidity, and at the same time will restrain the violence of the purging. If the evacuations be excessive, and attended with griping pains, a drop or two of laudanum should be added to each dose; but if not, lime water will answer best with a mild aromatic, as the absorbent mixture. (See LooSE NESS of CHILDREN, and Compound CretacEOUS POWDER.)

Calcined magnesia is generally preferred, on account of no fixed air being disengaged in the stomach or intestines, on uniting with an acid, which from the common magnesia (carbonate of magnesia) is extricated in considerable quantity. Fixed air is, however, so very grateful to the stomach, as often to remove nausea, and, so far from increasing flatulency in the intestines, will often correct and relieve it, the two gases being very different in their nature; but, when the patient is much oppressed with! air in the stomach, the calcined magnesia should be employed. (See FLATULENCY.)

The calcined magnesia, in the quantity of a tea-spoonful twice a-day, has been lately much recommended by Mr. Brande and others, as a remedy for the red gravel, and for correcting the gouty habit. A few cases of its accumulating in the intestines, to a considerable degree, have been published in the eleventh number of the Monthly Gazette of Health. This effect is to be attributed to its not meeting with a sufficient quantity of acid in the stomach to dissolve it. It has also been administered, in the desen of twenty grains twice a-day, by Dr. Kinglake and other eminent practitioners, with great success, in confirmed cases of diabetes. If that quantity should produce more than two fecal! evacuations daily, it may be given in a wine-glassful of lime waterɔini-nousi to lutucoqe.

The common magnesia being nearly neutralized by carbonie i acid gas, acts gently as an aperient when it does not meet with an acid in the stomach, and therefore, in many cases, is preferable to the calcined. It has also the advantage over the calcined, ofi mixing with the contents of the intestines, and, consequently, of not collecting in them. A bicarbonate of magnesia has lately! been introduced into practice by Mr. Howard, which acts with more certainty and more pleasantly, as an aperient, than eithers the calcined or common magnesia: and the dose being less bulky, it does not, like them, adhere to the palate and gullet. This preparation is superior to Henry's magnesia, and considerably cheaper, and may be more readily administered to children. The magnesia is frequently adulterated with chalk, which may be detected by putting a dessert-spoonful of the suspected magnésia into an ounce of the diluted vitriolic acid, No. 18. If the mag nesia be entirely dissolved, and the solution remain clear, it may be pronounced pure, but not otherwise. If the experiment be1 made with the common magnesia, there will be a considerable effervescence; but, with the calcined, there should be none. sol The new name for calcined magnesia is magnesia, and for com mon magnesia carbonate of magnesia. 2 ob das of bubba ad No. 2. EPSOM SALT. This salt operates more effectually and pleasantly on the bowels than any of the neutral ́ salts,^

rarely occasioning griping pains or sickness. Six drachms of this salt are equal to an ounce of the Rochelle. It may be taken, dissolved either in whey or common water, with the former, in the proportion of half an ounce to a quarter of a pint, it is not an unpleasant draught.

In elderly subjects, or in persons of a leucophlegmatic temperament, or who occasionally suffer from determination of blood to the head, or from indigestion arising from debility, the Epsom salt in any form, as well as the other saline aperients, are improper, and, by diminishing the temperature of the abdominal viscera, have frequently produced such a determination of blood to the brain as to occasion considerable giddiness, and even apoplexy. (See CATHARTICS, p. 19.) — The late Dr. Baillie was very partial to a solution of Epsom salt in infusion of red roses, in cases of indigestion, attended with costiveness, of young or feverish subjects, and in the constitutional constipation of young subjects; and Sir Henry Halford to a solution of it in infusion of camomile flowers in the same complaints. (See STOMACHIC MIXTURES, and STOMACHICS, p. 47.)- The solution of an ounce of the Epsom salt in a quart of pure soft water, in the quantity of a tea-cupful, every or every other morning, is a good remedy for inflammatory cutaneous eruptions and leprous affections of the skin, commonly termed landscurvy, and for inflammatory piles, habitual costiveness, indigestion, flatulency, and many constitutional and local affections in young subjects, or persons of an inflammatory habit. By the addition of two or three grains of salt of steel to the above solution, a chalybeate aperient water is formed, which has proved serviceable in some cases of green sickness, worms, indigestion, flatulency, &c.; and for the stomach complaints, affecting the lower class of people, it affords a very cheap and efficacious remedy. Should it prove too cold for the stomach, it may be rendered tepid, or a little ginger-powder may be added to it. From a wine-glass to a tea-cupful may be taken every or every other morning, according to its aperient effects on the bowels.

By dissolving half a drachm of the sulphuret of soda, and an ounce of Glauber's salt, in a quart of pure soft water, a sulphureous aperient water is made, not inferior to that of the sulphureous spa at Harrowgate; and, taken to the extent of a wine-glassful once or twice a-day, has proved very beneficial in acute rheumatism, inflammatory cutaneous affections, and piles.

A saline powder has been much advertised under the name of "Cheltenham Salt, or Chalybeate Aperient," which is not made from the Cheltenham water, and certainly possesses no advantage whatever over Glauber's salt, and, in many respects, is inferior to the Epsom salt. The salt made at Cheltenham by some of the

proprietors of wells does not contain all the medicinal virtues of the water, in consequence of the salts it contains being allowed to crystallize separately. Indeed, the article sold under the name of the True Cheltenham Salt, or Chalybeate Aperient," is nothing more than common Glauber's salt.

The demand for the Epsom salt having greatly increased within the last seven yeers, wholesale dealers in the article have been induced to adulterate it with the common culinary salt and Glauber's salt. The true Epsom salt may be distinguished by becoming more dry on exposure to the atmosphere, while the adulterated is rendered more moist by it.

Many fatal accidents have lately occurred, in consequence of the oxalic acid having been taken by mistake for Epsom salt, through the great similarity of the crystals. They may be easily distinguished by the taste, the oxalic acid being very acid, and the Epsom salt only saltish. On adding a little chalk, or carbonate of soda, or carbonate of potass, or salt of wormwood, to a solution of the oxalic acid, an effervescence will take place, whilst such addition to a solution of Epsom salt will have no such effect.

The new name for the Epsom salt is sulphate of magnesia (sulphas magnesia).

No. 3. CASTOR OIL.-The oil of the castor seeds (palma christi), in the quantity of one to two large table-spoonsful, is a valuable purgative medicine in cases of spasmodie colic, habitual costiveness, and piles. It may be taken conveniently with a little peppermint-water (swallowed as it floats on the top). The addition of a table-spoonful of the compound tincture of senna will render it less nauseous, and, at the same time, quicken its operation. If this mode of exhibiting it be objected to by the patient, an emulsion may be made by rubbing the castor oil with about the fourth part of the yolk of an egg, in a mortar; and, when well blended, by adding, very gradually, an ounce of peppermint-water, and, lastly, some sugar.

Castor oil is an aperient particularly applicable to inflammatory affections of the membrane of the windpipe, intestines, kidneys, bladder, prostate gland, and rectum. In cases of indigestion from nervous excitement, and of debility, it is very apt to occasion nausea that remains for many days.

The oil expressed from the castor seeds in this country, sold under the name of cold-drawn castor oil, is less nauseous than that prepared in the East or West Indies. It may be known by its pale and transparent appearance.

Since the publication of the last edition of this work, the Croton oil has been much employed in cases of obstinate costiveness in the place of castor oil, or to quicken its action in cases of obstinate

constipation in such cases of emergency which require the speedy operation of a purgative. The dose of the Croton oil is from one to two drops. (See CROTON OIL.)

No. 4. TINCTURE OF RHUBARB. This tincture is strongly impregnated with the virtues of rhubarb root, and Cardamom seeds In the quantity of half an ounce to an ounce, diluted with an equal quantity of water, it affords an excellent warm purgative draught for colicky or flatulent affections of the bowels. In weakness and laxity of the stomach and intestines, attended with a sluggish state of the viscera (frequent causes of indigestion and flatulence in elderly subjects), this tincture may be advantageously taken, in conjunction with the essential salt of bark, as directed for the stomachic mixture, No. 61.; and, when accompanied with heart-burn or vomiting of acid matter, the prepared natron, No. 60., will prove an useful addition, particularly if the subject be of a gouty habit. On account of the stimulating nature of the spirit and cardamom seeds, it should not be indiscriminately administered in every case of pain in the bowels, or at least in such quantity as to operate as a purgative, but employed more as a warm stomachic medicine, in the quantity of two or three tea-spoonsful in a little mint-water, to which a little rhubarb or jalap powder may be added, when it is necessary to empty the bowels.

With Mr. Abernethy, a mixture of equal parts of tincture of rhubarb and compound tincture of senna, in the dose of a tablespoonful, in about two table-spoonsful of water, every or every other morning, is a very favourite warm stomachic aperient, particularly during the use of the blue pill, in cases of indigestion, or sluggish state of the alimentary canal, or of the liver, in elderly or debilitated subjects.

No. 5. CAJEPUT LINIMENT.- This article is the soap liniment, commonly called opodeldoc, with an addition of the cajeput oil. It is a very efficacious topical remedy for rheumatism, paralytic affections, sprains, bruises, chilblains, and for dispersing indolent tumours. It should in chronic cases be well rubbed over the affected part, by means of flannel, as the friction considerably promotes its efficacy, and, in some cases of nervous or muscular debility, is of greater consequence than the liniment. Fomentations, or the warm vapour or the warm-water bath, and also the internal use of the blue pill, render a part more susceptible of the action of a stimulating liniment.

In cases of bruises or other accidents, when the part is inflamed, or the surface very tender, diluted Mindererus's spirit, No. 10., or lotion of extract of lead, No. 30., is preferable to this liniment, as the friction employed in its application may aggravate the mischief.