Thomson's Conspectus of the British pharmacopoeias.

  • Anthony Todd Thomson
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Thomson's Conspectus of the British pharmacopoeias. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    205/248 page 177
    BROMIDE OF POTASSIUM. (Potassii Bromidum.) Ah acri£ mineral poison. Sy?nptoms. Nausea, vomiting, quickened respiration and pulse, greai prostration of strength, death. Morbid Appearances. Congested state of the mucous membrane; spots of ulcerations, softenings. Tests. If any of the poison remain, dissolve and drop into the solution sulphuric acid, the colour and odour of free bromine are perceived. Add mucilage of starch, it will be coloured yellow. Take up the bromine with aether, and drop into the aethereal solution a solution of nitrate of silver: a whitish-yellow bromide of silver, insoluble in nitric acid, and in ammonia, will fall. Bromide of Potassium does not alter the colour of tea, or coffee, or milk, or wine. To detect it in these fluids, evaporate to dryness, decom- pose the vegetable matter by heat, and act, on the residue, in the same manner as on the pure bromide. Treatment. Empty the stomach with the stomach-pump and tepid water. Treat the nervous symptoms by stimulants. BRUCIA. (Brucia.) Symptoms. The same as those caused by strychnia. Tests. Brucia has a bitter taste. It is scarcely soluble in water at 60°, and it requires 500 parts of boiling water for its solution. It is dis- solved and coloured blood-red by nitric acid; and, on the addition of a solution of protochloride of tin, the red is changed to a beautiful deep violet. Treatment. The same as for poisoning by strychnia. BRYONY ROOT. (Bryonies Dioicce Radix.) An acrid vegetable poison. Symptoms. Violent vomitings, with severe colic pains and purging; great thirst; difficulty of breathing; and sometimes convulsions. Morbid Appearances. Evidences of inflammation of the mucous mem- brane of the stomach and rectum, and congestion of blood in the lungs. Test. This poison can only be recognised when the root itself, or a portion of it, can be obtained. It is large, fleshy, fusiform, marked externally with circles of a yellowish-white colour, and has a sweetish, yet acrid and bitter, disagreeable taste. Treatment. Excite vomiting by copious draughts of tepid demulcent fluids, and by irritation of the fauces; then administer milk and mu- cilaginous diluents, with opiates and emollient enemas. The lancet may be sometimes requisite. CAMPHOR. (Camphora.) A narcotic vegetable poison. Symptoms. Violent excitement of the brain and nervous system; vomiting; vertigo, preceded by pallid countenance; great anxiety; small pulse; difficult respiration, syncope, cold sweats, and con- vulsions. In some instances it has occasioned death. Morbid Appearances. Too few opportunities have occurred for as- certaining these with any degree of accuracy. Test. Camphor is always readily discovered by its peculiar odour. Treatment. Wine and opium, exhibited at short intervals until the symptoms abate. CANTHARIDES. See Blistering Flies. CARBONATE OF BARYTA. (Carbonas Barytce.) See Muriate or Hydrochlo rate of Baryta. CARBONATE OF LEAD. (Plumbi Carbonas.) A sedative metallic poison. (All the salts of lead are resolvable into the carbonate, which is the only direct poison of lead.)* Symptoms. Obstinate costiveness; violent colic, with retraction of the abdomen ; vomiting ; the pulse small and hard ; laborious breathing and tremors, terminating in paralysis of the extremities, and occasion- ally in death. The gums assume a blue tinge. * The acetate and diacetate are certainly poisonous in large doses, even when free acid is present. (Taylor's Med, Jur.)
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