A new medical dictionary; or, general repository of physic. Containing an explanation of the terms, and a description of the various particulars relating to anatomy, physiology, physic, surgery, materia medica, chemistry, &c. &c. &c. ... / by G. Motherby.

Motherby, G. (George), 1732-1793.

Date:: 1791

Credit: A new medical dictionary; or, general repository of physic. Containing an explanation of the terms, and a description of the various particulars relating to anatomy, physiology, physic, surgery, materia medica, chemistry, &c. &c. &c. ... / by G. Motherby. Source: Wellcome Collection.

32/826 (page 18)

$ACE [ i all the faline parts ; pafs this decoftion through a filter, and evaporate to a due confiftence; after which fet it in a cool place to ihoot. See Stahlii Fund. Chem. p. 68. Of thefe two proceffes, the firft is perhaps belt adapted for plants of tire fweet, and the feeond for thofe of the acid kind, both which fort of plants give out all their virtue with their effential falts, confequently with a fmall portion of them dilfolved in a proper quantity of pure water, we may, as with the oleafacchara, prepare the waters of thofe plants, without the trouble of a diftillation, and alfo tire waters of thofe plants which cannot be ob¬ tained by the ufe of a Hill. The fait of wood forrel may be fubftituted for the fait or juice of lemons. Conferv. Lujulcd. Conferve of Wood Sorrel. Take the frefh leaves of wood forrel, and beat them into a conferve, with triple their weight of lump fugar. This preparation keeps well, and of all the conlerves this is the moll palatable, being agreeably acid, and pof- feffed of a favour fomewhat rel'embling fine tea. ACETOSA ESURINA. Efurine fpirit of vinegar. See Acetum Esurintjm. ACETOSELLA, Wood sorrel. See Acetosa. ACETUM. Vinegar. Vegetable liquors, in proportion to the quantity of their faccharine parts, ferment into a.weaker or ftronger kind of wine; a feeond fermentation produces vinegar; the next change they undergo is the laft, and that is into a putrid ftate. When malt liquor becomes acid it is called all!car. Al- legar. It is not fo proper either for medical ufe, or for preferving pickles, as the wine vinegar is; for it abounds too much with a glutinous matter that is productive of many difadvantages. If vinegar is diftilled with a heat not exceeding that of boiling water, it yields firft a phlegmatic liquor (which is a vinous fpirit; and may be ufed as fuch); then a llightly acid one, which is fucceeded by ftronger and ftronger acids, till the matter remaining becomes thick as honey; if now it is urged with a ftronger fire, an empyreumatic oil afeends, and a penetrating acid fpirit, tainted with the ill fmell and yellow colour of the oil; and at' laft there remains a black coal, which when burnt into white afhes, yields a confiderable proportion of fixt alcaline fait. The ftronger and more fpirituous the wine, the ftronger is the vinegar into which it is converted. Geoffroy fays, that vinegars made of the German and French wines, fa- turate from one-fortieth to one-twelfth their weight of fixt alcaline fait. The acetous acid is concentrated by congelation, taking care to throw out the ice before it thaws; by diftillation from alkalies, or from metallic bodies, particularly cop¬ per; by this laft method it may be made to faturate near equal to its own weight of a fixt alkaline fait. This acid is called radical vinegar. When the acid of vinegar is combined with alkalies, earths, or metals, dry the neutral fait fo formed, and then the acetous acid may be fepa- rated in a very concentrated ftate, by the addition of concentrated vitriolic acid. Vinegar is mixed with the mineral acids by fome frau¬ dulent dealers, but is thus dete&ed: if a faturated folu- tion of any calcareous earth, as chalk, made with ftrong vinegar, be added to fuch as is fufpefted of containing the vitriolic acid, no change will enfue if the fufpecled vinegar was pure ; but if it contained only a minute por¬ tion of that acid, the mixture will immediately become milky, and on Handing a Ihort time, depofits a white fediment. The diftilled vinegar fometimes contains a portion of lead, which is difeovered by taking a fmall portion thereof, and adding to it a little of the aqua kali. If on the mixture being made a cloudinefs appears, or a white powder falls, there is lead dilfolved in it. The acetous acid differs from all the others: it differs from all the acids in general in its particular odour; from the native vegetable acids, in fubtilty and volatility, and in not being obtainable in the form of a .concrete fait; from the mineral, in its habitude to different bodies, and the nature of the compounds it forms with them: thus, whatever the acetous acid joins, it is diflodged by the ap¬ proach of a mineral acid; and compounds formed of the acetous acid and fixed alkalies, diflolve in fp. vin. R. but fhpfe with the mineral acids aj*d the fame alkali will not. 8 ] ACE The fermentation which changes wine into vinegar gives the latter ieveral properties, extremely different from thofe of the former, e. gr : the firft diftillation from vinegar extinguilheth fire, but the firft from wine feeds it. Fermented vegetable fpirit is the only thing that, in¬ toxicates; and the fpirit of vinegar is the antidote to in¬ toxication. The fame liquor; which in the ftate of wine became weaker by boiling, in the ftate of vinegar becomes ftronger thereby. Vinegar diffolves animal earths, if not very much mixed with gelatinous matter; the earth of alum; the mineral calcareous earths; feveral metallic fubftances, as zinc, iron, copper, tin, lead, bifmuth, and the regnlus of an¬ timony. It diffolves the vegetable infpiffated juices, and extracts the virtues of many plants; but fometimes its acidity fpoils their medicinal qualities, though in other in- ftances it improves them; as in the intention of ufino the gum ammoniacum, garlic, fquills, &c. It mingles equally with the blood and its ferum, and with moft of the ani¬ mal fluids, without thickening them; but rather, as Boerhaave obferves, attenuates and refolves. Dr. Alfton of Edinburgh, fays that, “ It is antifeptic, and poffeffes all the virtues of the acids in general; that it is preferable to lemon juice, or any mineral acid; it peculiarly cor- re£Is narcotics, as opium, hemlock, henbane, deadly nightffiade, &c. to the ill effects of which it is the antidote.’’ In inflammatory and putrid diftempers, in many inftances, its efficacy is truly wonderful; in ardent fevers it is one of the moft certain antiphlogiftics and fudorifics; in pu¬ trid diforders it equally excels as a prefervative and re- ftorer. Fainting, lethargic and hyfteric paroxyfms are much relieved by it, if applied to the nofe and mouth j even in many inftances more than by volatile alkaline fpirits, or fetid gums. In the ardent biliary fevers, as the miliary, it is a powerful affiftant. It cures furfeits from animal food. It is faid to cure the bite of a mad dog. Externally applied vinegar is a powerful refolvent and relaxant. When applied to any fenfible membrane, it acts as an aftringent; and, more or lefs diluted with water, is an excellent gargle for an inflamed throat, alfo for an injection to moderate the flour albus. In Ihort, to relate its many good qualities as a medicine might well be the fubjeft of a particular treatife. See Acid a. An imprudent ufe of vinegar is not without confiderable inconveniencies; large and frequent dofes too much co¬ agulate the chyle, and produce not only a leannefs but an atrophy; when taken to excels, to reduce a corpulent habit, tubercles in the lungs and a confumption has been the confequence: young children, old people, thofe whofe circulation is languid, vital heat defe&ive, and digeftion weak, fhould be very {paring in its ufe. The dofe, according to the different circumftances of the cafe requiring it, and the conftitution of the patient, may be from ^fs* to § iij. See the Di&ionary of Chemiftry, tranflated from the French of Mr. Macquer, edit. 2. article Vinegar. Cul- Ipn^e TVTClf MP ACETUM DISTILLATUM, feu Sp. Aceti. Di¬ stilled vinegar. Diftil wine vinegar with a gentle heat as long as the drops fall free from an empyreuma. The firft pint that is drawn off is a weak vinous fpirit, and fhould be taken away, another receiver being placed for the acid. Malt vinegar, however ftrong, byreafon of its vifeid quality, is not only improper for diftillingon ac¬ count thereof, but alfo bccaufe it fo readily receives an empyreumatic tafte; a circumftance to which the belt wine vinegar is fubjeht, if more than about two-thirds is drawn over. That called —colchicum autumn. See Colchi- CUM.—Esurinum, Hungry Vinegar. When vinegar is concentrated it creates an appetite, hence this name; called alfo acetofa efurlna.—Lythargyritis, and Plumbi. See Plumbum.—Prophylacticum is thus made. R flor. lavend. & rorifrn. fol. rutsc, abfinth. falvire, menth. aa m. i. aceti vini cong. i. infund, in B. A. per 8 dies. R hujustindf. ib. i.eamph. 3 iij. m. f.—Acetum acet. proph. alfo called the vinegar of the four thieves ; for during the plague at Marfeilles, four perfons by the ufe of it, attended many of the lick unhurt; under the colour of their fervice, they robbed the fick and the dead, one of them being apprehended, faved himfelf from the gallows by difeovering this remedy.—Scill^e. See Scilla. ACFIAHE$