Modern domestic medicine : a popular treatise, describing the symptoms, causes, distinction, and correct treatment of the diseases incident to the human frame, embracing the modern improvements in medicine, to which are added, a domestic materia medica, a copious collection of approved prescriptions, &c. &c, The whole intended as a comprehensive medical guide for the use of clergymen, heads of families, emigrants etc. / by Thomas J. Graham.

  • Thomas John Graham
Date:
1872
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Modern domestic medicine : a popular treatise, describing the symptoms, causes, distinction, and correct treatment of the diseases incident to the human frame, embracing the modern improvements in medicine, to which are added, a domestic materia medica, a copious collection of approved prescriptions, &c. &c, The whole intended as a comprehensive medical guide for the use of clergymen, heads of families, emigrants etc. / by Thomas J. Graham. 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.

    100/828 (page 84)
    OXYMURIATE OF MERCURY.— See Bi-chloride of Mercury. PAREIRA BRAYA. This is a perennial plant, growing in the West India islands, and in South America. The root, which is the part employed, is brought to us from Brazil; it is long, thick, and covered with a furrowed brown bark.* It has little or no smell; the taste is bitterish, blended with a sweetness like that of liquorice. It has been for many years in high repute among the Bra- zilians as a remedy in all obstructions of the urinary organs. The common people of Jamaica use a decoction of it for pains and weakness of the stomach proceeding from relaxation, and it is probable that its effects in urinary disorders are due chiefly to its tonic influence on the bladder. Geoffry, in a paper inserted in the Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences for the year 1710, reports very favourably of it in ulceration of the kidneys and bladder; and Sir B. Brodie also speaks strongly in its favour. See his Lectures on Diseases of the Urinary Organs, p. 170. One of the most prominent symptoms of chronic inflammation of the bladder is an abun- dant discharge of a ropy adhesive alkaline mucus, and we have Sir B. Brodie’s testimony to the fact, that the use of the decoction of the root of the pareira brava is here frequently productive of excellent effects. The decoction is prepared by simmering four ounces of the root in three pints of water, until it is reduced to two pints, and then strained; the dose of this decoction is a small tea-cupful (about four ounces) twice or thrice a day. A little tincture of henbane may sometimes be advantageously combined with it. PAREGORIC ELIXIR. This is very similar to the compound tincture of camphor of the shops, and is made by mixing together two scruples of camphor, one drachm of hard opium in powder, one drachm of acid of benzoin, and two pints of proof spirit; which are allowed to digest for fourteen days, and afterwards filtered. It is advantageously employed to allay irritation and procure rest in habitual cough, chronic asthma, and thfe latter periods of ° <v * “ It is woody, fibrous, hard, twisted, of the size of a child’s arm, brown externally, of a yellowish grey colour internally, and marked with con- centric circles.”—EdiKirds's Materia Medica,]). 222.