The elements of therapeutics : a clinical guide to the action of medicines / by C. Binz ; tr. from the 5th German ed., and ed., with additions, in conformity with the British and American pharmacopoeias, by Edward I. Sparks.

  • Karl Binz
Date:
1877
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The elements of therapeutics : a clinical guide to the action of medicines / by C. Binz ; tr. from the 5th German ed., and ed., with additions, in conformity with the British and American pharmacopoeias, by Edward I. Sparks. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    of the powdered root, of wMcli each ounce represents an ounce of the root.) Dose, TT|^nj.—xx. A tincture, made by percolating §ij. of the dried and powdered root with f 3XX. of proof spirit, has been used in this country and in Germany. ■^Dose, TTj^v.—xv. Dose of the powdered root, gr. j.—ij.] A certain antagonism to the alkaloids of the Solanum family, and especially to belladonna, is shown by the Physostigmatis Faba. Calabar Bean, derived from the Physostigma Yenenosum, one of the Papilionace^ growing in Western Africa. Its active consiitueiits are two alkaloids which have only recently been isolated from each , other, Physostigmin and Calaharin, the first of which is soluble in aether, the second not (Harnack and Witkowski). Physostigmin is amorphous, reddish, and resinoid. We need only consider it, inasmuch as calabarin has tetanising properties, and is, therefore, not yet available for medical purposes. Eserin (Duquesnel) is very closely allied to chemically pure physostigmin. In warm-blooded animals physostigmin has been found to be a poison, which directly paralyses the motor and sensory v)ortions of the spinal cord, while it apparently leaves the functions of the sensorium intact. Large doses only destroy life by paralysing the respiratory centre. The heart's action is increased, either through stimulation of the excitomotor ganglia, or else of the muscle itself. Hence the arterial pressure rises, but the pulse be- comes somewhat retarded; though why this happens is as 3^et unexplained. The vasomotor centre is weakened by physostigmin, so that small doses of it cause diminished blood-pressure up to the point at which their stimulating