A dispensatory, or commentary on the phgarmacopoeias of Great Britain.

  • Robert Christison
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A dispensatory, or commentary on the phgarmacopoeias of Great Britain. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    requires confirmation. It is much used by some as a tonic in chro- nic diseases and in convalescence ; and it is a good refrigerant in the sweating of hectic and irritative fever, though inferior in this respect to sulphuric acid. The preparations and doses of nitric acid are the following:— Acidum nitricum, gutt. v. ad gutt. xx. Acidum nitricum dilutum, D. gutt. x. ad gutt. xl. Acidum nitricum dihttum, E. L. dr. ss. ad dr. ii. Unguentum acidi nitrici, D. for external use. ACIDUM NITROMURIATICUM, D. Nitromuriatic Acid. Process, Dub. Take of Mix them in a cooled vessel, and preserve Nitric acid, one part by measure ; the mixture in a cool dark place, in a Muriatic acid, two parts. well-closed bottle. For. Names.—Fr. Eau regale.—Ital. Acqua regia.— Ger. Konigswasser. Nitromuriatic acid [Nitrohydochloric acid. Aqua regia] seems to have been known to the Arabians in the eighth century, as they were acquainted with a solvent of gold. It is prepared by mixing together nitric and muriatic acids. Va- rious proportions are used according to the purpose to which the acid is to be applied. The proportions adopted by the Dublin Col- lege are convenient for general as well as medical use. The result is not a mere mixture of the two acids: For the muriatic acid is resolved into chlorine and hydrogen, the nitric acid into nitrous acid and oxygen; water is consequently formed; and if the muriatic and nitric acids be used in their correct equivalent proportions, the water holds in solution nothing but chlorine and nitrous acid. Of course there may be an excess of either of the acids employed for preparing nitromuriatic acid. It is easily distinguished from other acids by its suffocating odour of chlorine, and its property of promptly dissolving gold. It readily parts with its chlorine, unless preserved in very close bottles; and if concentrated acids be used for making it, the loss of chlorine is rapid, especially under an ele- vation of temperature ;—so that dilution with one or two volumes of water is advisable when it must be kept long. Nitromuriatic acid possesses the powerful corrosive, irritant ac- tion of the other strong mineral acids, and is a dangerous poison, either when swallowed, or when its emanations are inhaled. It was introduced into the Dublin Pharmacopoeia in 1826, in conse- quence of its having been at the time a fashionable remedy in the form of foot-bath for the treatment of syphiloid disorders and chro- nic diseases of the liver. It was strongly recommended for these purposes not long before by Mr Scott of Bombay, and his re- commendation brought it for a season into notoriety. But it is now, I believe, entirely abandoned. The usual method of ap- plying it was in the form of a foot-bath, consisting of an ounce and a-half of the strong acid in a gallon of water, and continued daily for twenty minutes. It was sometimes also employed inwardly. A solution of a drachm of corrosive sublimate in an ounce of t|ie
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