Medicines, their uses and mode of administration : including a complete conspectus of the three British pharmacopoeias, an account of all the new remedies, and an appendix of formulae / by J. Moore Neligan.
- John Neligan
- Date:
- 1849
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Medicines, their uses and mode of administration : including a complete conspectus of the three British pharmacopoeias, an account of all the new remedies, and an appendix of formulae / by J. Moore Neligan. 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.)
108/504
![as the evacuations caused by it contain a quantity of bile. It is rarely used at present, but has been recently brought under the notice of the profession by Dr. Ure of London, as likely to prove a useful purgative in gouty affections. It should be always combined with some other cathartic, as with senna, for if given alone it is apt to produce vomit- ing. Manna, D. [U. S.J L. E. Concrete juice ofFraxmus ornus, D.— Of Ornus Europcea, [U. S.] L.—Sweet concrete exudation, probably from several species of Fraxinus, and Ornus, E. Nearly all the spe- cies of genera Fraxinus and Ornus yield manna, but the greater por- tion of what occurs in commerce is obtained from the Fraxinus rotun- difolia ; a native of the South of Europe, chiefly of Sicily and the South of Italy. It belongs to the Natural family Oleacece, and to the Linnaean class and order Diandria Monogynia. Botanical Characters.—Fraxinus ornus is a small tree ; Leaves, oppo- site, pinnate ; Panicles, large, many flowered ; Flowers, small polygamous, white; the whole tree resembles much in appearance the common ash of our climate. Preparation.—The juice of the stem exudes spontaneously either from fissures in the bark, through punctures made by insects, or more usually from incisions made expressly with a hooked knife. It concretes rapidly on the tree, and is then removed, by the hand. Physical Properties.—Two sorts are commonly met with in the shops. 1st.—Flake manna, Manna cannulata ; it occurs in stalacti- form pieces, from one to six inches in length, and one or two inches in width, uneven, rugged, porous and friable ; of a dull yel- lowish-white colour ; presenting a furrow on the surface by which they adhered to the tree, on which side they are usually somewhat soiled ; it has a faint, somewhat nauseous odour, and a sweetish in- sipid taste. 2nd.—Fatty manna, Manna pinguis; it is in soft, viscid, fragments of a brownish-yellow colour, much soiled and mixed with impurities ; its odour is very nauseous, and its taste viscid and disa- greeable. Chemical Properties.—Manna consists of a peculiar saccharine principle named Mannite, uncrystallisable sugar, gummy matter, nitro- genous matter and moisture ; it contains about'40 per cent of mannite and about 10 per cent of sugar. It softens with the heat of the hand, and melts at a temperature a little higher ; it is soluble in three parts of water at 60°, and in eight parts of rectified spirit. Mannite, its ac- tive principle may be obtained by boiling manna in alcohol, and pour- ing off the spirit, from which as it cools the mannite is deposited in crystals. Flake manna, which is alone employed in medicine, is not liable to adulteration. Therapeutical Effects.—Manna is a very mild laxative, employ- ed only in the diseases of children and delicate females ; in the pre- sent day it is seldom administered alone, being generally used for sweetening cathartic mixtures. When first gathered, manna does not possess any laxative properties, and is employed as a nutritive article of diet in the countries where it is produced. Manna, when it has become hard from keeping, is an excellent basis for forming the more active medicines into pills.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21143602_0108.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
