Transactions of the Royal Medico-Botanical Society of London / edited by W. H. Judd.

Date:
1839
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Transactions of the Royal Medico-Botanical Society of London / edited by W. H. Judd. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    by the late lamented Professor Geiger;* and shall as carefully abstain from mentioning those effects that appear to be al- ready clearly established by the present Professor Christison, in an elaborate paper on “ the poisonous propei’ties of Hem- lock and its alkaloid Conia.” His writings, however, on a subject so highly interesting and important, contain parts bear- ing so closely on my inquiry, that some little mention of them seems unavoidable, especially as to material points on which my experiments did not enable me, in several instances, to come to the same conclusions as to the effects produced by the Extractum conii, at least, on animals. The alkaloid and its combinations, with the exception of the muriate, I have not yet tried, considering them too scarce and too dangerous for general medicinal use : though their effects are very curious in a scientific point of view, I nevertheless have preferred expe- rimenting with the preparations from this plant termed extracts, believing them to be the more common, safe, and useful form of remedy. For this purpose they were obtained from the most respectable pharmaceutical chemists, and were made from the plants of last summer. The first of the extracts was prepared by Mr. Battley,f as described on the records of this Society, by exposing the expressed juice with of its bulk of water, in a Wedgwood evaporating basin, over the fire, until reduced to a proper con- sistence. The second was prepared by Messrs. Allen,;]: in vacuo. The third was prepared by Mr. Squire,]] by inspissating the expressed juice to the consistence of an extract, by spontaneous evaporation. The preparations varied considerably in colour, odour, and intensity of taste. * His work was put into my hands by our noble and indefatigable president, Earl Stanhope. t Fore Street, City of London. J Plough Court, Lombard Street. II Chemist to the Queen, Oxford Street, London.