Reports of the Medical Society of the City of New-York on nostrums, or secret medicines.
- Date:
- 1827
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Reports of the Medical Society of the City of New-York on nostrums, or secret medicines. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
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![[ -18 ] frain from stimulating drinks, and to take Ibod that is nutritious and of easy digestion. Tlie ptisan directed by Laffecteur, docs not contain nearly as much sarsaparilla as the officinal decoction. His strongest is made by boiling two ounces of the root in six pints of water to four pints ; whereas the Edinburgh College direct four ounces in four pints, boiled to two. Patients will take a strong decoction as reachly as a weaker one, and as M. Alibert justly observes, large quan- tities of it fatigue the stomach, so that patients cannot con- tinue the quantity directed by Laffecteur. We have usu- ally employed the decoction, in the strength and quantity directed by Mr. Fordyce; that is, three ounces of the root in six pints of water, boiled to two pints. This quantity patients may be induced to drink in the course of the twenty four hours, and to continue for a considerable time. Mr. Fordyce thinks that the complaint of authors, that the decoction hurts the tone of the stomach, arisen from its being prepared by long maceration of the root, which ren- ders it very liable to spoil soon, and thus prove injurious. His plan is to prepare it by boiling it immediately in a given quantity, as above observed, and to make it fresh every two days; keeping what is to be used on the second day, in a cool cellar. As this intelligent surgeon did more with this decoction, than any other author with whom we arc acquainted, and indeed, nearly as much as can be accomplished with the remedy under consideration, his opinion in every thing concerning its administration, is entitled to great weight; and for that reason, we call in question tlie propriety of the directions of the Colleges which order these decoctions to be prepared by long previous macerations of the sarsa- parilla. Before closing this report, we shall take the liberty of subjoining an extract from Mr. Fordyce's excellent paper](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21150084_0048.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
