A handbook of local therapeutics / edited by Harrison Allen.

Date:
1893
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A handbook of local therapeutics / edited by Harrison Allen. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    (Rosenberg, Berliner klin. Wochenschrift, 1885, No. 48). It relieves nasal reflex neuroses. S. Spicer ^Brit. Med. Jour., September 13, 1890) applies glyco-gelatin cylinders to hollow oval vulcanite plugs; they can be variously medi- cated. GELSEMIUM, Gelsemium. Yellow Jasmine. The rhizome and rootlets of Gelsemium sempervirens:' (U. S. P.) A fluid extract (one cubic centipietre of which represents one gramme of gelsemium) and a tincture (one hundred parts of which represents fifteen parts of gelsemium) are official. Diseases of the Eye.—Gelsemium has been recommended for use in ophthalmic therapeutics as a Mydriatic. Tweedy {Lancet, 1877, vol. I, p. 852) found that a solution of four grains of the hydrochloride to the ounce would produce maximum dilatation of the pupil in from fifty to seventy minutes, but that to ensure complete paralysis of the accom- modation within three hours, a solution of at least eight grains to the ounce must be used every fifteen minutes for the first hour, and every half hour afterward. He claims for it an advantage in refractive work in the fact that sufficient accommodation to enable the patient to read returns in from ten to fifteen hours, and that in thirty hours it is practi- cally restored, although the pupil remains dilated for several days; but the time demanded by the slowness of its action is sufficient objection to its use in practice, and, as Wood suggests, such frequently repeated applications of a strong solution may not be without danger of poisoning by absorption. The introduction of homatropin has, at any rate, set aside any claims that it might have had. In a number of cases, in which the external muscles were tested before and after its use, gelsemium was found to have had a depressing effect upon the external rectus. In one case recorded, this muscle, as tested by prisms, had lost half its power. GERANIUM.* Geranium. Cranesbill. The rhizome of Geranium maculattim.'''' (U. S. P.) A fluid extract (one cubic centimetre of which represents one gramme of geranium) is the only official prepara- tion. The drug deteriorates on keeping, and is best when collected in April. Geranium is astringent. General Surgery.—A decoction is made by boiling an ounce of the drug to the pint of water, thus forming an astringent lotion, which is *Not to be confounded with rose geranium {^Pelargonium roseum). Essence of rose geranium is one of the numerous agents which have been proposed to cover the odor of iodoform. Five minims of the essence may be added to each drachm of iodoform 16