A manual of pharmacodynamics / by Richard Hughes.

  • Hughes, Richard, 1836-1902.
Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A manual of pharmacodynamics / by Richard Hughes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    milk for the 2nd, and so on to the 6th. After the 6th decimal the further dilution is carried on according to the centesimal scale, and is commonly effected by solution. A grain of the 3rd trituration is dissolved in fifty drops of water, and to this are added fifty drops of alcohol. A drop of this fourth dilu- tion is mixed with ninety-nine drops of alcohol for the fifth potency, and so on. Long ago, however. Dr. Madden advised* that all the potencies of insoluble substances should be pre- pared by trituration ; and the recommendation is now very generally carried into effect. Struck by the remarkable development of medicinal power obtained by this process of trituration—even such inert bodies as the metals becoming actively pathogenetic and curative— Hahnemann was led to employ it in the preparation of several vegetable substances, as lycopodium and charcoal, with the result of elevating them to a high rank as medicines. The process of trituration is also resorted to in the case of such products as coral and sponge, and (as an alternative to a tinctui'e prepared by percolation) of such dry plants or por- tions of plants as Ipecacuanha and Nux vomica. The globules or pilules used in homoeopathic practice are small spheres of sugar of milk, prepared by immersion for some time in the tincture of the drug they are intended to represent. The former were introduced by Hahnemann to reduce still farther the quantity of the drug administered ; the latter perform no such office, and are employed simply for convenience. Both labour under the objection of being second-hand preparations ; and we cannot desire to furnish an additional element of uncertainty to a process already so perilously delicate as that of attenuation. Tinctures and triturations are the form in which our drugs are most gene- rally used, and to my mind are greatly preferable to any other. The globule, however, is still a useful form in which to administer medicines to infants. * British Journal of Homceojathy, v. 372-3.