No. 60. PREPARED NATRON. This salt dissolved in pure water, in the proportion of three drachms to a pint, forms a valuable alterative medicine; and in the dose of a wine-glassful two or three times a day, will prove highly beneficial to children affected with scrophula, rickets, scald-head, cutaneous eruptions, and acidity in the stomach.-(See RICKETS and SCROPHULA.)-A weak solution, as one ounce in ten pints of water, super-saturated with fixed air by Nooth's machine, is sold under the name of soda-water, and much recommended as a remedy for stone and gravel. When this water disagrees with the stomach, pills of dried sub-carbonate of soda and Castile soap afford a good substitute. (See ANTILITHIC PILLS.) When this article is completely neutralised with the carbonic acid, it is termed carbonate of soda, four drachms of which dissolved in a quart of water is superior as a medicine to the soda-water. The article sold in this country under the title of soda-water, is generally made with the carbonate of potash and oil of vitriol; and as a cooling beverage in summer it may answer as well as the true soda-water; but in its medicinal properties it is very different, and in cases of stone or gravel will prove of no utility. Prepared natron is a medicine of great power in the cure of many constitutional diseases; and although slow, is a more certain alterative in complaints of long standing than those of a more active kind. Its continued use has, in many instances, succeeded in dispersing scirrhous or cancerous tumours, and in the cure of obstinate cases of scrophula, after mercury and other more active alterative medicines had failed. When gout is attended with acidity in the stomach, it is a valuable palliative.— (See GOUT.)-To children, the solution of it in water, as recommended above, may be conveniently given in milk. -— (See LIMEWATER and RICKETS.) The new name of prepared natron is Subcarbonate of Soda (Soda Subcarbonas). Within the last two years iodine has been much employed as an anti-scrophulous medicine in preference to prepared natron. In some chronic cases of scrophulous tumefactions it has succeeded, but, generally speaking, a solution of prepared natron in an infusion of Peruvian bark has proved more successful in correcting the scrophulous habit.-(See ALTERATIVES, p.3. IODINE and SCROFULA, ANTACIDS, p. 6. ANTALKALINES, p. 7.) LAVEMENT BAG.-The use of this machine is to inject into the rectum a fluid, for the purposes of hastening the operation of an aperient medicine taken by the mouth, of allaying irritation, of procuring evacuations when the stomach will not bear an aperient medicine, and of supporting the strength of a patient when nutriment cannot be introduced into the stomach. (See LAVEMENS, and the LAVEMENT APPARATUS at the end of the APPENDIX.) PROBANG.This instrument is used for the purpose of removing from the gullet any article that may be lodged in it; as a pin, bone of a fish, &c. The sponge at the end should be moistened by immersion in warm water before it is introduced. (See SUBSTANCES lodged in the GULLET.) It is also of great service in hastening the operation of an emetic in cases of a deleterious article being swallowed, by irritating the gullet, &c. (See EMETICS, p. 30.) PRESCRIPTION S. For this important department of a Domestic Dispensatory, I have been very particular in selecting the prescriptions of eminent physicians and surgeons, the efficacy of which, in the cure of the diseases for which they are recommended, has been fully ascertained by long experience. The reader must bear in mind that the different stages of diseases very often require different modes of treatment, and the remedies which have succeeded in the last stage, especially when the constitution had been shaken, or the general strength considerably reduced, would have acted injuriously, had they been given during the first stage. Diseases are also modified by peculiarities and temperaments of the body: indeed, in the treatment of acute diseases, so much depends on constitution, that in the leucophlegmatic habit, even remedies may be necessary, which in the sanguinous habit would aggravate the complaint. It is, therefore, obvious, that it is impossible to give prescriptions for the cure or relief of a disease under all circumstances. In the employment of the local or external remedies, attention should also be paid to the general health, particularly to the stomach, intestines, and sanguiferous system. The diet in all cases of disease should be such as the state of the constitution may indicate, and should as much as possible act as auxiliaries to the medicinal agents. These circumstances would militate against domestic medicine, if medical men were to attend to them; but the fact is, patients are better acquainted with their own temperaments and peculiarities than their medical advisers, and but too many practitioners adopt the same treatment of a disease, without any regard to its stage and other circumstances. It is customary for chemists and druggists to charge a halfpint mixture or lotion, compounded according to a prescription, at the rate of half-a-crown or three shillings, a box of pills two shillings, and a draught one shilling, although the ingredients, if charged separately, would not amount to H one sixth of such prices. Apothecaries who make no charge for attendance are doubtless entitled to a good profit from their medicines; but druggists or chemists, whose time is not occupied by attendance on patients, have no right to make such exorbitant demands. At the Medical Hall, Piccadilly, the component parts of a medicine, made according to a prescription, are charged separately, and being compounded with the most scrupulous exactness, and with genuine drugs of the finest quality, the most implicit confidence may be placed in them. INTERNAL REMEDIES. BOLUSES. — The form of medicine termed a bolus is generally composed of powders formed into a mass with honey, syrup, or mucilage. By some practitioners it is considered a good form for such ponderous articles as calomel, oxide of bismuth, &c., which cannot be properly suspended in a thin vehicle. Some patients, on account of its consistency, can take medicines in this form, who cannot swallow a pill; and it has the advantage of operating more quickly than a pill, on account of being more readily mixed with the contents of the stomach. late years this form has nearly fallen into disuse. Of 4 to 6 grains. Conserve of Hips, sufficient to form a Bolus. This Bolus is generally given at night, and if it should not sufficiently act on the bowels, an aperient draught the following morning. In cases of worms and obstructions in the liver, it is a common practice to give a full dose of Calomel at bed-time, and an active purgative draught, as Infusion of Senna, the following morning. CHALYBEATE BOLUS. This composition has been very successfully administered three times a day, in Tic Douloureux. Mr. Hutchinson, who first recommended it for the cure of this disease, directs the Carbonate of Iron to be gradually increased to one drachm. SUDORIFIC BOLUS. Take of Guaiac Gum Powder, 10 grains. Ipecacuan do. 2 grains. Flowers of Sulphur, 15 grains. This is a valuable remedy, taken at night, for Chronic Rheumatism, and also for Acute Rheumatism in elderly subjects. It is an improvement on what is termed the Chelsea Pensioner's Specific. VERMIFUGE BOLUS. Take of Basilic Powder, 1 scruple. Conserve of Wormwood, sufficient to form a Bolus. To be taken at bed-time. This was a very favourite remedy with the late Dr. Campbell of Hereford, and Dr. Cheston, of Gloucester, for the expulsion of worms from the alimentary canal.-See BASILIC Powder. CLYSTERS OR LAVEMENS. The term lavement, or clyster, signifies any liquid medicine injected into the rectum, or great intestine. This form of medicine, although much employed on the Continent, has not met with that attention in England, to which its importance entitles it, partly through the antipathy of patients, but principally on account of the difficulty of procur ing a person to administer it properly. To render this mode of exhibiting medicine more popular, several instruments have been lately invented, to enable a person to administer a lavement to himself with facility.* The lavement is used for the same purposes as mixtures. Thus, in cases of costiveness, it not only softens the fæces collected in the lower intestine (often the cause of costiveness), but also, by stimulating the rectum, &c., occasions purging. In cases of obstinate costiveness, or obstructions in the bowels, a lavement accelerates the operation of purgative medicines taken by the mouth. In cases of violent diarrhoea, dysentery, and the purging of children, a lavement of vegetable jelly (as starch or arrow-root, to which laudanum may be added, in case of violent pains or irritation) is a most important remedy. The Peruvian bark may also be exhibited this way to a patient whose stomach will not bear it, in intermittent fevers, and also laudanum, in acute pain in the bowels. Clysters are likewise used as a fomentation in cases of inflammation of the bladder, womb, or bowels: and for nourishing the body when the stomach will not retain food, or the patient is not able to swallow it, through inflammation of the throat, or obstruction in the gullet. In no part of the world is the class of remedies termed lavements or clysters so seldom used as in England. In France and Italy the lavement apparatus is deemed as necessary an appendage to the toilet as the tooth-brush, bottle of odoriferous essence, or water-jug, it being common in that country for males and females to take a clyster every forenoon. It has been said, and perhaps with truth, that the females of France are more These machines may be seen and obtained at 170, Piccadilly. (See description of apparatus for medical purposes, at the end of this Dispensatory. healthy than those of Great Britain; which is attributed by a late writer to their keeping "the intestinal canal in a regular state, by the occasional and almost daily exhibition of a domestic clyster." The difference of the climate, and the small quantity of vinous and spirituous liquors the French are in the habit of taking, and the frivolity of their minds, may account in a great measure for their being more free from disease than the English. That many formidable maladies may be fairly imputed to constipation, we think no practitioner of experience will deny. For our own part, we are satisfied that if the lower portion of the alimentary canal does its duty, the upper portions, as stomach and duodenum, will do theirs. Experience has convinced us of the fact, that if an invalid from indigestion will take care of the colon and rectum, so as not to allow them to be overloaded, and keep up the secretion of the colon, the stomach, duodenum, and liver will take care of themselves. On taking the office of the colon, in the animal economy, into consideration, the class of remedies termed clysters is a most important one. In my late treatise on the means of regulating the alimentary canal, in cases of constitutional constipation, and in various constitutions and predispositions, I have particularly noticed the cases in which clysters may be administered with great advantage. The following remarks on this class of remedies, from the pen of an experienced French physician, who has witnessed the effects of various clysters for fifty years, possess much very valuable practical information. "The term clyster, or lavement, signifies all medicaments introduced in a liquid form into the large intestine (rectum). It is generally administered in a tepid state. When it is intended to operate immediately on the internal surface of the intestine, so as to allay inflammatory action or irritation, it is given cold. "In administering a clyster, attention should be paid not only to the quantity but degree of temperature of the fluid; for if too abundant, by occasioning over distension of the rectum, it is apt to excite an unnecessary degree of irritation in the internal membrane of the intestine which receives it. In affections where the intestines are in a state of irritation, a stimulating clyster might produce much mischief. It must not be forgotten that a simple clyster ought to precede a stimulating one. By such practice the large intestines are disencumbered, and room left for the medicaments to operate on the upper portion of the intestinal canal. Clysters act on the interior of the rectum and colon, and their influence is afterwards extended to the small intestines. "The advantage principally gained by this class of remedies is the evacuation of the fæcal matter contained in the large intestines. Warm water is sufficient to produce this effect; and it is generally this liquid which is used when we would only empty |