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
Licence: Public Domain Mark
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.
34/826 (page 20)
![ACI [20] ACI ponent parts of the refpe£tive bodies. Strong acids, and exceffive cold, it is true, when applied to the flefh of living animals, mortifies-them ; but this mortification dif¬ fers greatly in its nature front that produced by fire, and by alkaline falts. South winds favour, but north winds check the progrefs of putrid diforders. Cold concentrated and joined to vegetable and mineral bodies, feems to be of the effence of the falts called acid. Acids differ in their fpecific gravity when compared with water. They are as follows : The acid of vitriol, as 18 to 10 Nitre 14 to 10, fome fay 15 to 10 Sea fait 12 to 10 ' Vegetables 10 plus to 10. This difference fhews, that fome acids are more tena¬ cious of water than others, and that when thefe acids are mixed with fixed alkali, fo as to form neutral frits, if the alkaline falts are the fame in proportion, it will be only increafed to the fame weight whether the vitriolic or the vegetable fait is ufed, e. g. to one ounce of fixed alkaline fait, add the vitriolic acid, and the neutral fait will weigh one ounce and three drams. The fame will occur if you ufe nitrous acid, muriatic acid, or vinegar. If the weaker acids are ufed, you muft pour on more of them to the fame quantity of alkaline fait to faturate it,, yet the fait will have only attracted the fame weight of acid from each. Acids differ in their colour, for the vitriolic is quite pale; the nitrous a dark yellow, always foaming; the marine a pale golden colour. If bottles containing thefe three acids, are flopped with cork, the cork is foon ting¬ ed by the vitriolic acid with a black colour; by the ni¬ trous, with a yellow; and by the marine, with a whitifh one. The vitriolic acid emits no vifible vapours in the heat of the atmofphere, but imbibes moifture therefrom; the nitrous and muriatic emit copious corrofive fumes; the nitrous, ayellowifh red; and the muriatic, white ones. As to tire virtues of the vegetable acid, to what is al¬ ready faid (fee Acetum) its fuperior efficacy on putrid gall, in refloring fweetnefs to it, deferves peculiar notice. All acids have a power to correct the putrid acrimony, but the power of fweetening feems proper to Ihe veget¬ able alone: befides, when a putrid colluvieslodges in the firft paffages, this acid gently tends to folicit its difcharge by ftool, an advantage not to be hoped for from the mine¬ ral tribe. The mineral acids when intimately joined with vinous fpirits, have effects fo fimilar to thofe of the vegetable Clafs, that their properties as medicines are almofl the fame; but when in their feperate flate, their inward ufe tends to coagulate the blood. In other refpedts, the effects of all the kinds of acids are fimilar. Acids gently irritate and contradl our fibres when taken in a dilute flate, and thus corroborate; they refifl a pu¬ trid tendency, and powerfully oppofe putrefcence when actually exifting; by the irritation they promote vari¬ ous fecretions; they excite an appetite, and aid digeflion; their cooling efficacy in fevers of every rank is not exceed- edby any thing in ufe, nor equalled for their general fafety, where caufes fo widely oppofiteproduce fuch fimilar com¬ plaints : in fome inftances of coughs and afthmas, by their irritation their efficacy is fingular; if the vegetable acid is made ufe of, the breathing is never difordered by it, though in fome inftances the mineral fort mayoffend. In dyfen- teries, and in diarrhoeas, produced by unripe fruits, the foffil acids allay the fermentation in the bowels, and when a putrid colluvies in the primie vise is the cauf'e, at once they will be propofed as the proper remedy. By their fe- dative quality hemorrhages are reftrained; and as bitters are neuteralized by acids, fo the excefs and acrimony of the bile are allayed by their ufe. For father fatisfadlion into their extent and ufefulnefs in the healing art, fee Farr on Acids. Acids, aftringents, and bitters, have a great affinity with each other. By a mixture with each other they lofe their properties. Vegetable acids leffen the aftridtive power of galls on leather, &c. The mineral acids have a con¬ trary effect. Bitters, both animal and vegetable, are neutralized by acids. See Dictionary of Chem. Neu¬ man’s Chem. Works, Percival’s Med. Effays. Acids corredl the deleterious effeCt of molt, if not all narcotic plants; but injure the phlegmatic habit, where the circulation is languid, the bile defective, or the di- geftion naturally weak. 7 ACIDITAS, Acidity* Difeafes from tins caufe are frequent. The feat of acidity in our bodies, as a difeafe, is prin¬ cipally the ftomach and tire fmall inteftines. An acid acri¬ mony is never fenfibily prevalent in the blood: yet urine hath been fermented into wine* An acid acrimony may derive its origin either from too great laxity and debility of the organs of digeflion, or from an excefs of acefcent food. The ferment excited in our food by the ftomach is fui generis ; if any part of our aliment is not digefted by the proper ferment of the ftomach, it will run into its own ferment, and if vegetable it will be¬ come four. The food of children is for the moil part of the vegetable kind, and readily turns four in the ftomach if the body be any way difordered, hence molt of their diforders are accompanied with the evident figns of acidity,. as green ftools, gripes, &c. Dr. Buchan obl'erves, in his Domeftic Medicine, that many affert a prevailing acid to be the caufe of all difeafes in children, but that the acidi¬ ty in their ftomach, See* is oftener an effect than a caufe of their complaints. It is not acidity, but its excefs that injures. The redundant acid in the prime vise is known by the fournefs of the erudfations, the frequent cardlalgia, with curdling of the chyle, &c. in the ftomach, flatulence, and fpafms in the inteftines ; when this caufe is exceffive in its degree, the bile is inert, the belly coftive, and the nourifhment is unduly fupplied, a palenefs becomes gene¬ ral in the fkin, an itching comes on, and puftules appear here and there, and a train of nervous fymptoms foon fucceed. Indeed, in all difeafes peculiar to children, there are for the molt part the fymptoms of an excefs of irritation, the pulfe fometimes beats one hundred, or one hundred and twenty in a minute, the ftomach is fick, the veffels of the fkin are contradted, and epileptic or convulfive fymptoms appear. Infants are frequently fwept off by this diforder. A- mong adults, the weakly and fedentary are the only fub- jedts of it, except among the poor, whofe fcanty fupplies reduce them to this unhappy flate. The cure when adults are the fubjedts, confifts of a diet fitted to oppofe this faulty habit; animal food, and vegSVibles of the aromatic alkaline kind : thefe, with mo¬ derate exercife at proper intervals, bid fair for a recovery. Abforbent medicines may palliate fymptoms in the fto¬ mach and inteftines, but the limat. ferri will moft con¬ duce to an effedtual and abiding cure. Children lhould be exercifed more, and fed lefsthan isufual; irregularity- in thefe begets flatus, acidity, &c. Antimonial emetics re¬ peated every twenty-four or forty-eight hours, until the more difagreeable fymptoms abate, are highly ufeful. Small dofes of P. Rliaei, with magnef. alb. fo as to keep the belly foluble, is better than purging ; and to this end give fmall dofes frequently. To free from flatulency, R. ol. eff. fern, famic. d. gr. i. fac. alb. vel ocul. 69. pp. gr. v—x. m. & rep. bis vel ter in die. As to abfon- bents, a mixture of the magnefia a. with the ocul. 69. or other calcareous earths, ought generally to be preferred, and the dofes fliould be very frequently repeated until fome relief is obtained, and then their diftances may be increafed. See Van Swieten’s Commentaries on Boerhaavers A- phorifms. Medicamentorum Formule, Dris. Hugh Smith. Buchan’s Domeftic Medicine. London Pradtice of Phyfic, edit. 3. Armftrong on Difeafes fatal to In¬ fants. Mofs on'the Management of Children, &c. ACIDULAL Calledalfo Ferrates. Mineral watep s that contain a brifk fpirit when unaccompanied with heat are thus named; but if they are hot alfo, they are called therm#. As to the antiquity of their ufe, fee Galen, Cceliua Aurelianus, Pliny, &c. who fpeak largely of their virtues. Hoffman and many authors highly extol them, whilft others fobferve that a pure water, on account of its fimplicity, fuch as that from Malvern and Toplits fprings, is to be preferred both for drinking and for bathing; and that in want of thefe, they may be well fupplied by diltilled rain, or any other that is foft and pure. Objectors fay, that the medicinal qualities in thefe waters only quicken their operation as water, but contribute nothing farther, and that folutions of the like materials are of equal efficacy : to which the beft reply has been, that the mineral contents are often volatile, and of parts more fubtile than thofe of art’s producing; and that when the powers of nature arc expiring, experience proves](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30451772_0034.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
