Therapeutics, materia medica and pharmacy : the special therapeutics of diseases and symptoms, the physiological and therapeutical actions of drugs, the modern materia medica, official and practical pharmacy, prescription writing, and antidotal and antagonistic treatment of poisoning / by Sam'l O.L. Potter.

  • Samuel Otway Lewis Potter
Date:
[1931], ©1931
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Therapeutics, materia medica and pharmacy : the special therapeutics of diseases and symptoms, the physiological and therapeutical actions of drugs, the modern materia medica, official and practical pharmacy, prescription writing, and antidotal and antagonistic treatment of poisoning / by Sam'l O.L. Potter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    *3 in -ous having the lesser quantity. When there are more than two such com¬ binations the prefix hyper- or per- is affixed to the highest, and hypo- to the lowest. A few acids (as hydrochloric) contain no oxygen, these are known as hydracids; but all acids contain hydrogen. They change the color of litmus from blue to red, and unite with bases to form salts. Their physiological actions are chiefly due to their powers of neutralizing alkalies, withdrawing water from the tissues, and precipitating the globulins and some other pro¬ teins. They are poisonous to protoplasm, somewhat antiseptic, and many of them are powerfully corrosive to the tissues. Taken internally in dilute solution they have a sour taste, and cause an astringent sensation in the mouth and throat, induce a reflex flow of saliva, and in the stomach displace weaker acids from their combinations. Applied to the mouths of ducts from glands having an alkaline secretion they stimulate the latter, but check the secretion of glands producing acid secretions. This doctrine has but a limited application, as they do not pass beyond the stomach in their own form, though they increase the flow of the alkaline pancreatic juice by reflex action. In the blood and tissues they exist as salts by combination with the alkalies of the body, and if administered in sufficient quantity to neutralize the latter the animal dies, its blood being unable to carry carbon dioxide from the tissues to the lungs. They are rapidly excreted by the kidneys as acid salts, increasing the acidity of the urine. Therapeutically they are em¬ ployed locally as caustics, styptics and anhidrotics, and internally in very dilute form as refrigerants, stomachics, astringents, hemostatics, and antidotes in poisoning by alkalies. Incompatible with Acids generally are: Alcohol with strong acids; Alkalies, Alkaloids; Benzoates and Borates with strong acids; Bismuth and Ammonium Citrate, Bicarbonates, Bromides of weak bases, Carbonates, Chlorides of weak bases, Glucosides, Iodides of weak bases, Metallic Salts with organic acids, Pancreatin, Potassium and Sodium Tartrate, Potas¬ sium Tartrate, Salicylates, Silicates. [See also the particular Acids in Part I.] Alkalies are compounds possessing certain properties in common, viz.— solubility in water, neutralizing acids and with them forming salts, saponify¬ ing fats, changing reddened litmus back to its original blue color, and altering the color of turmeric from yellow to brown. The alkalies proper are the five hydroxides, of Potassium, Sodium, Lithium, Cesium, and Rubidium, and the volatile alkali Ammonia, a gaseous compound of N and H3. They are strong, electro-positive bases, uniting with acids to form salts. The oxides of calcium, barium, strontium and magnesium are called alkaline earths, are but slightly soluble in water, and much less corrosive than the alkalies proper. In medicine the term alkali includes also such salts as have an alkaline reac¬ tion, as carbonates, bicarbonates, and borates. The physiological action of the hydrates and carbonates of the alkali metals is due entirely to their powerful hydroxyl constituent, and depends chiefly on