in inflammatory fevers. When the skin is parched with great febrile heat, this mixture generally operates as a gentle sudorific, cools the body, allays thirst, increases the secretion of urine, and operates slightly on the bowels; but to produce these effects, it should be taken in a much greater quantity than is usually prescribed indeed, it is better calculated as a common beverage than a medicine; for such is its weakness, that unless it be taken to the extent of nearly a quart in the space of twenty-four hours, it cannot be expected to produce any salutary effect of consequence. The saline mixture, both in putrid and inflammatory fevers, succeeds better when given in the act of effervescence, which is done by dissolving a scruple of salt of wormwood in ant ounce of mint-water, and mixing with it, at the moment of taking, a table-spoonful of lemon-juice, sweetened with sugar, or a scruple of the crystallised lemon acid, with few grains of sugar, previously dissolved in an ounce of common water. The effervescence with lemon-juice being gradual, answers in this case better than the crystallised acid, the fixed air in the latter being disengaged too suddenly for a sufficient portion to be swallowed, through being deprived of its mucilage in the process of crystallisation; but when the recent juice cannot be readily procured, this inconvenience may be obviated, by dissolving in the acid a little white sugar; or the effervescence may be produced in the stomach, by first taking the solution of the salt of wormwood, and immediately afterwards the lemon-juice, or solution of the crystallised acid. The effervescence with the salt of wormwood, neutralised with fixed air (termed carbonate of potass), being considerably greater than with common salt of wormwood, it should be preferred for making the effervescing saline draught.

The saline draught, in a state of effervescence, is a good preventive medicine against the infection of contagious fevers, and may be employed as an auxiliary to the nitrous fumigation.— (See THE MEANS OF DESTROYING CONTAGIOUS EFFLUVIA.)

Lemon acid has lately been found very beneficial in cases of white gravel, and in those cases of calculi which form in consequence of the urine not being sufficiently acid to keep all its saline ingredients in solution. (See ANTALKALINES, p. 7. and

ANTILITHICS, p. 11).

The last new name for this preparation of lemon juice, is Citric Acid (Acidum Citricum).

No. 23. IPECACUAN POWDER, is a very safe, and in general an efficacious emetic, possessing the advantage of operating as an aperient medicine, without distressing the patient, when it fails properly to excite vomiting. It is, therefore, deservedly employed in almost every disease in which full vomiting is required. It is given from one scruple to twenty-five grains, mixed

with a little water, or with the emetic tartar.—(See EMETIC POWDER.)

In the small dose of one to three grains, ipecacuan powder furnishes an useful, active, and, at the same time, innocent sweating medicine* (See SUDORIFIC MIXTURES), and proves highly serviceable, combined with a quarter of a grain of opium, or five drops of laudanum, every two or three hours, in dysentery, obstinate purgings, asthma, and hooping-cough. The emetic dose of twenty-five grains, with a tea-spoonful of tincture of asafœtida, taken in a little peppermint-water at bedtime, has proved very beneficial in shortening, and sometimes preventing, the paroxysm of spasmodic asthma.

Ipecacuan powder, in the quantity of two grains twice a-day in a little peppermint-water, has been found very efficacious in spitting of blood and excessive active flooding, by Dr. Stoll, of Vienna; and ample experience in this country has proved it to be a safe and efficacious remedy in these cases; for when it exceeds its intended operation by exciting vomiting, the complaints have rather been relieved than aggravated by it. When the flooding is passive, that is, occurring in a weakly person of a relaxed habit, and whose system of blood-vessels is in an opposite state to that of plethora, especially after delivery, nauseous doses of ipecacuan might endanger life, by increasing the general languor. In such cases the best internal remedies are astringents with an aromatic, (See ASTRINGENTS), and application of cold vinegar and water to the abdomen, by means of a folded napkin. In the smaller dose of one or two grains every four hours, it produces a considerable determination to the skin, and promotes expectoration: hence it is a most valuable medicine in pleurisy, inflammatory affections of the lungs, recent coughs from obstructed perspiration, and the first stages of pulmonary consumption.-(See COUGH MIXTURES.) It has lately been much recommended in the small dose of one or two grains every morning, by a French physician, and by Dr. Buchan, in cases of the indigestion of elderly people, attended with an accumulation of phlegm in the gullet or windpipe. In debilitated elderly subjects, life so much depends on the stomach performing its office, that the small dose of one grain of ipecacuan, by disordering it, has occasioned death. When the stamina are good, by occasioning the internal membrane of the gullet and stomach to throw off the accumulated slime, it

The celebrated sweating powder of Dr. Dover is composed of one part of ipecacuan powder, one of opium powder, and eight of vitriolated kali, commonly called sal polychrest. From ten to twenty grains may be taken in any convenient vehicle in rheumatic affections. The patient should lie between the blankets or in a flannel shirt, and take, as soon as he begins to perspire, some warm liquid, in small portions, frequently; such as thin gruel, bohca-ten, or weak white-wine whey.

has proved very beneficial; but even in such case a tonic medicine should be employed. (See STOMACHICS.)

Ipecacuan has the property of diminishing the soporific effects of opium and other vegetable poisons, and hence it is recommended as a powerful auxiliary to the emetic tartar, for the purpose of exciting vomiting, when too great a quantity of a vegetable poison has been taken into the stomach.-(See TREATMENT OF POISONS.)

No. 24. ESSENTIAL SALT OF BARK. This preparation contains, in a concentrated state, the volatile and active properties of the Peruvian bark, in a high degree of perfection, and answers every purpose of the powder, without producing nausea, vomiting, or purging, which are frequently excited by the powder, and sometimes by the decoction of bark.

Ten grains of this preparation are equal to a drachm of the bark in substance. It is much more pleasant to the palate and stomach, and may, with equal advantage, be employed where the use of a strengthening medicine is indicated. In intermittent and remittent fevers, ten grains may be taken every two hours, either in the form of a pill, or dissolved in an ounce of camphor-ated julep, as recommended for the camphorated bark mixture; but for typhus fever in an advanced stage, putrid sore throat, or mortifications, red port wine is a better vehicle; with which, in the proportion of three drachms to a quart, it makes an elegant tincture, possessing all the active properties of the Peruvian bark, and at the same time free from the pernicious effects of the ardent spirit of wine, with which the simple and compound tinctures are made.

This valuable preparation of the Peruvian bark was first made in France, by the Count de Garraye, and first prescribed in this country by Dr. James Carmichael Smyth, who, from repeated trials, gave it a decided preference. Apothecaries in the country, unacquainted with the preparation, and some, perhaps, from sordid motives, have, in compounding prescriptions, substituted for it the common extract, which is a different article, and does not contain the resinous and volatile parts of the bark.

The sulphate of quinine has been lately introduced into the practice of medicine by some French chemists and physicians, as containing, in a state of great concentration, all the peculiar medicinal properties of the bark. It is only its bitter principle, and being free from the peculiar astringent quality, in which the tonic power of the bark principally resides, it is inferior to the preparation termed the essential salt of bark. In cases of indigestion arising from debility, or in elderly subjects, the sulphate of quinine generally disorders the stomach, and thereby increases the general debility of the system. In cases of ague this article.

has been very successfully prescribed by Dr. Elliotson, Dr. De Lys, and other eminent physicians.-(See QUININE and SULPHATE OF QUININE.)

No. 25. SALT OF STEEL. - This preparation of iron has been long held in high estimation as a great strengthener of the stomach and bowels, and at the same time, by increasing the red globules of the blood, affords a valuable remedy in dropsical complaints, green sickness, and other diseases of debility, attended with poverty of blood.

From its poisonous effects on white-blooded animals, it proves a very powerful vermifuge, taken in the dose of five grains. (dissolved in a glass of water), when the stomach is most empty. It is not so safe nor so generally efficacious in expelling worms as the basilic powder. (See ANTHELMINTICS, p. 9.)

This

The phosphate of iron is recommended by Mr. Carmichael, an eminent surgeon of Dublin, as a remedy for cancer. ingenious author, supposing that iron is held in solution in the blood by the phosphoric acid, recommends the saline preparations to be made with this acid, in order that it may sooner, and in greater quantity, enter the circulation. The preparations he has found most successful, are the oxyphosphate, the sub-oxyphosphate, and phosphate of iron. (See CANCER.)

The salt of steel readily dissolves in water, and, in the proportion of a grain to a pint affords a good substitute for the native chalybeate waters. Thirty grains dissolved in a quart of sherry wine, make a very excellent chalybeate wine, of which a small wine-glassful may be taken two or three times a day.

In cases of green-sickness and irregularity of the menstrual evacuation, it has been found to answer best when combined with aloes, a form for which is given among the remedies recommended for green-sickness. If piles or any inflammatory affection of the rectum exist, the alkaline extract of jalap should be substituted for aloes.

In cases of dropsy, whites, and gleet, the extract of rhatanyroot will prove a very powerful auxiliary in the following proportions:

Take of salt of steel,

Extract of rhatany-root,
Alkaline extract of jalap,
Oil of caraway seeds,

ten grains.
one drachm.
twenty grains.
ten drops.

With simple syrup, make into twenty pills, two to be taken twice a day, with a wineglassful of the infusion of buchu leaves.

When the countenance is florid, and the patient of a plethoric or feverish habit, steel is improper, even in cases of suppression or retention of the menses.

The last new name for Salt of Steel is Sulphate of Iron (Ferri Sulphas).

No. 26. RHUBARB POWDER.-Rhubarb has long been held in high estimation as a mild and efficacious aperient medicine; and, on account of its operating with less violence or irritation than any other aperient medicine, is generally employed with pregnant women and children. Besides its purgative quality, it is celebrated for an astringency, which strengthens the tone of the stomach and intestines, and hence proves useful in disorders arising from laxity of the fibres, or sluggish state of the bowels. The purgative dose is from one to two scruples, in a little peppermint-water, to which ten grains of calcined magnesia may be added, when acidity prevails in the stomach.

A powder composed of six parts of rhubarb, two of calomel, and a little ginger powder, is an efficacious remedy for worms, in people whose bowels are weak and irritable. For the purpose of suspending the calomel, it should be taken in a thick vehicle, as honey or jelly, or made into pills with a little syrup.

In complaints of the stomach, which are generally termed bilious, arising from inactivity of the liver; rhubarb does not operate so efficaciously as the Bengal antibilious pills, which not only act on the stomach and intestines, but remove the cause existing in the liver. (See APERIENT PILLS, No. 46.)

A mixture of fifteen grains of rhubarb, a scruple of calcined magnesia, a drachm of white syrup of poppies, two drachms of compound tincture of cardamom seeds, and two ounces of dillwater, in the dose of a tea-spoonful, will prove very beneficial in removing many disorders to which children are subject from redundancy of acidity in the stomach and intestines, and is more safe and efficacious than the advertised carminatives, which, by occasioning costiveness, not unfrequently produce considerable mischief. (See ABSORBENT MIXTURE.)

Rhubarb is not only rendered more aperient by a small addition of sal polychrest, but its secondary constipating effects are in some degree obviated by it. Dr. Hugh Smyth and Dr. Warren were very partial to this latter combination, as a stomachic medicine, in the small dose of five grains of rhubarb, and fifteen grains of sal polychrest, in peppermint-water, about twice a day. In larger doses it is very apt to occasion griping pains.

In cases of constitutional costiveness in young subjects, rhubarb is an improper aperient on account of increasing the disposition to constipation. (See ALKALINE EXTRACT OF JALAP.)

In diseases attended with extreme debility of the system, where it is necessary to relieve the bowels, rhubarb, on account of possessing a tonic power, may be benefically administered when no other medicine can be with safety employed.