Lexicon medicum; or medical dictionary; containing an explanation and comparative, botany, chemistry, materia medica, midwifery, pharmacy, physiology, practice of physic, surgery, and the various branches of natural philosopy, connected with medicine / Selected, arranged and compiled, from the best authors, by Robert Hooper.

  • Robert Hooper
Date:
1839
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Lexicon medicum; or medical dictionary; containing an explanation and comparative, botany, chemistry, materia medica, midwifery, pharmacy, physiology, practice of physic, surgery, and the various branches of natural philosopy, connected with medicine / Selected, arranged and compiled, from the best authors, by Robert Hooper. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    1407/1428 (page 1393)
    INII are found floating in the fluid of the allantois in mares. Great magical virtues were attributed to this substance, and it was much used in philtres or love potions. Hooper's pills. These are said by Dr. Paris to be composed of the aloes and myrrh pill, with sulphate of iron, canella alba, and a portion of ivory black. HYGIE'NE. The definition of this term given in the body of the work is faulty, but escaped the attention of the editor. Hygiene means that branch of medicine which relates to the preservation of health. II\MEMO LOGY. (Hymenologia, from vprjr, a membrane, and Kayos, a discourse.) That branch of anatomy which treats of membranes. Hy/stera-pe'tra. (From varrepov, the womb, and 7rerpa, a stone.) The ancient name of a stone which was said to resemble the uterus in shape, and supposed to act as an emmenagogue when bound on the thigh. INHALATION. The drawing in of vapours or gases along with the breath. This is prac¬ tised with a view to the immediate effect of certain substances on the mucous membrane of the air-passages. The vapours of the following substances have been employed in this way, by means of a simple contrivance called an inhaler, of which there are several modifications, un¬ necessary to be described here. 1. The steam of hat water. This is often very useful in slight cases of bronchitis, and some¬ times allays the cough in phthisis. Various emollient substances have been added to the water, but these have little or no effect. Nar¬ cotic substances, as opium, the seeds of henbane, &c., have also been used to medicate the water, and a slight tincture of their virtues seems to be communicated to the steam, as they often pro¬ duce drowsiness, and have more effect in allay¬ ing irritation than the simple vapour of the water. In slight inflammatory sore throat, the vapour of hot water gives great relief, and may be ad¬ vantageously conjoined with a little vinegar. 2. Tar vapour. This was highly extolled by Sir Alexander Crighton as a remedy for phthisis, in the cure of which disease, however, it has entirely failed, as might have been anticipated. -In chronic bronchitis this remedy has in many cases proved eminently useful, and the cases of ■>upposed phthisis which have been cured by it have doubtless been of this nature. The vapour ■is procured by heating tar over a spirit lamp, •laving previously added a little carbonate of wotash, to neutralise any pyrolygneous acid which the tar may contain. 3. Chlorine gas. This has been much extolled n France of late years, in the cure of phthisis, n England no such success lias attended its use ; t has, however, been found extremely serviceable 31 flaying dyspnoea. The inhalation should be ontinued for five or six minutes at a time, ■everal times a day. In some cases it will not tnswer at all, but increases cough and irritation. Hie mode of exhibiting this remedy is to pour ve clnips of a saturated aqueous solution of hlorine into a proper glass inhaler, containing •ater at 8C° Fahr., and let the patient inhale the 1593 :TUr °r,the cIllo.rine’ aIong w*th that of the ‘ U,' 1 fll'mUlty of ll]e solution of chlorine may be gradually increased to forty drops. 4. lhe vapour of iodine. This also has been eton,mended in phthisis, but it appears to have less efficacy than chlorine. Its most obvious operation, is that of increasing the bronchial secretion. 5. Oxygen and hydrogen gases have been employed in the cure of asthma and phthisis- and carbonic acid, and nitrous oxide, in the latter disease. They are now deservedly discarded. Intercalary days. Dies intercalares. Dies inlercedentes. Dies provocatorii. Those days m tlie course of a fever in which there is an attempt at a crisis, which is seldom perfect or s.iutnry, as the third, fifth, ninth, thirteenth, and nineteenth. See Critical days. . H’ecacuanha lozenges. These are made of ipecacuan, sugar, and mucilage of tragacanth. he proportion of ipecacuan is a quarter of a gram in some, and half a grain in others. They afford a very convenient means of exhibiting small doses of ipecacuan to act upon the bron¬ chial membrane. Jessop’s well. A spring four miles from Epsom, in Surry. The water is sulphureous, and resembles that of Harrogate. Junipeiius oxycedrus. Juniperusphccnicea. Berry-bearing cedar. The wood of this plant yields by distillation the fetid oil called huile de cade. The substance called American olibanum exudes from this species of juniper. Lac lunas. A name of the agaric mineral. Lac virgineum. Lac virginis. A name given, 1. To the mercurius philosophorum, a substance much talked of by the alchemists. 2. To an old preparation made by dissolving litharge, eerusse, and camphor, in vinegar, with the addition of water of solanum, of white lily, and of lettuce. It was named from its milky' appearance, and its use by young women as a cosmetic. 3. To a mixture of the alkoholic solution of a balsam with water, by which the benzoic acid and the resin ot the balsam arc precipitated, and a milky appearance thus given to the mixture. Lambdoides os. The os hyoides. Latis specularis. An old name of selenite or sparry gypsum, formerly used as a remedy for epilepsy and other diseases. LIGNIN. The woody fibre which consti¬ tutes the fibrous structured'vegetable substances, and is the most abundant principle in plants. The different kinds of wood contain about 96 per cent, of lignin. It is prepared by digest¬ ing the sawings of any kind of wood successively in alkohol, water, and dilute muriatic acid, until all the substances soluble in the menstrua are removed. Lignin lias neither taste nor odour, undergoes no change by keeping, and is insoluble in alkohol, water, and the dilute acids. By diges¬ tion in a concentrated solution of pure potash, it is converted, according to M. Braconnet, into a substance similar to ulmin. Mixed with strong sulphuric acid it suffers decomposition, d U