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.

    69/368 (page 57)
    (6.) Extradum Ergotce Fluidum, U.S. (Ergot, glycerin, acetic acid ; 1 in 1.) Dose, TT]^xxx.—Ix. The German Pharmacopoeia only allows ergot to be used which is less than one year old, and even this period is too long. To be certain of success, only the fresh drug or the extract recently prepared from it should be used. The contradictory results obtained by different observers, are partly due to their disregard of the fact that the active principle of ergot readily undergoes spontaneous decomposition. Folia Tabaci. • Tobacco, from Nicotiana Tabacum, a well-known member of the Solanaceae. Its most important constituent is Nicotin (CjoHj^I^g)) ^^ alkaloid somewhat resembling conia, but v/hich among other properties is more readily soluble in water. Action.—That of an extremely violent nerve poison, which first causes excitement and afterwards paralysis. There is probably no part of the nervous system which is not thus affected by nicotin. A detailed analysis of the symptoms is only interesting to the toxicologist. The important fact for the physician is that nicotin has a direct effect upon the ganglia and muscles of the intestine, and thus induces a tetanic condition throughout its whole length. The bowel is pale, and the small arteries are in a state of strong contraction. The latter is quite inde- pendent of the contraction of the intestine, and also of the influence of the vaso-motor centre (Basch and Oser), Trifling doses only excite increased peristaltic action of the bowel. The stage of increased activity may be followed by a jDeriod of relaxation. Li this case the splanchnic nerve loses its controlling power, though it is as yet unknown whether this