Handbook of materia medica, pharmacy, and therapeutics : including the physiological action of drugs, the special therapeutics of disease, official and practical pharmacy, and minute directions for prescription writing / by Sam'l O.L. Potter.
- Samuel Otway Lewis Potter
- Date:
- 1897
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Handbook of materia medica, pharmacy, and therapeutics : including the physiological action of drugs, the special therapeutics of disease, official and practical pharmacy, and minute directions for prescription writing / by Sam'l O.L. Potter. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.
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![Others by lowering the excitability of the vagus end-organs in the lungs, and of other afferent filaments throughout the respiratory tract. Opmm has the most powerful influence as a sedative to the respiratory centre, and muci- agmous or saccharine substances soothe the local irritation, hence the latter are so fre- quently used as vehicles for the former in cough-mixtures. Hydrocyanic Acid has a similar sedative action hence the use in coughs of Prunus Virginiana and other substances containing it. Belladonna stimulates the respiratory centre, but at the same time lessens the excitability of the vagus terminations m the lungs, and completely arrests secretion rom the bronchi. Stramo7iiuin acts similarly. The principal pulmonary sedatives may be enumerated as follows:— r r j ] Opium. Belladonna. Stramonium. Hyoscyamus. Hydrocyanic Acid. Amyl Nitrite. Quebracho. Cannabis. Turpentine. Ethyl Iodide. Conium. Tobacco. Errhines and Sternutatories {En, in, Ehin, the nose ; Stemulo, I sneeze), are agents which produce increased nasal secretion and sneez- ing, when locally applied to the mucous membrane of the nose. The first term is usually applied to substances which cause increase of the mucus without sneezing, the latter to those which invariably produce sneezing. The drugs should be in powder for application. The stimulus produced by these agents is transmitted by the nasal branches of the fifth nerve to the respiratory centre, exciting the sudden and forcible expira- tory effort called sneezing ; also to the vaso-motor centre, contracting the smaller vessels throughout the body and producing a general rise in the blood-pressure. The principal agents of this class are— Tobacco, as snuff. Ipecacuanha. Saiiguinaria. Veratrum Album. Euphorbium. Sassy Bark. Saponin. Ginger. Capsicum. Hellebore. Ammonia. Cubebs. The last two named may be used as simple Errhines, as the vapor of dilute Ammonia- water or the smoke of burning Cubebs do not excite sneezing generally. Expectorants (^Ex, out of. Pectus, the breast),—are remedies which modify the secretion of the broncho-pulmonary mucous membrane, and promote its expulsion. They may be divided into— Nauseating Expectorants,—in large doses act mechanically by ex- pelling the mucus in the act of vomiting, in small doses by increasing osmosis from the inflamed mucous membrane. The members of this sub- division generally increase secretion and tend to lower the blood-pressure. The chief of them are the following named :— Antimony, Tartar Emetic. Apomorphine. Potassium Iodide. Ipecacuanha, Emetine. Quebracho. Lobelia. Pilocarpus (Jaborandi). Alkalies. Lobeline. Stimulant Expectorants,—are largely eliminated by the bronchial mucous membrane, which they stimulate, altering the secretion and facili- tating expectoration. These remedies generally diminish secretion and increase blood-pressure. They are—](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b24907303_0046.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
