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.)
138/504
![benefit, and in the same diseases in males an injection varying; in strength from gr. ij. to gr. xx. dissolved in f§j of water is injected into the urethra; such treatment, however, is not unattended with danger. Nitrate of silver is also employed with benefit, as a topical application in many forms of ulcerations of the gums, the tongue and the fauces ; in excoriations of the nipples, in the chronic stages of eczema, impetigo, and porrigo of the scalp; and in the acute stage of herpes preputialis, and herpes labialis. (See Tonics). Arsenici oxydum album, D. Acidum Arseniosum, L. [U. S.] Arsenicum album, E.—White oxide of Arsenicum; Arsenious acid; Arsenic. Preparation.—Arsenious acid is an article of the Materia Medica ; it is prepared by roasting metallic ores in which the metal is contained, especial- ly the arseniuret of cobalt, in a reverberalory furnance to which is attached a long chimney in a horizontal direction ; it is deposited on the floor of the chimney in the form of a grey powder which is refined by sublimation. The Dublin College directs a re-sublimation for medical purposes, Arsenici oxydum album sublimatum, which, however, is not required in consequence of the good quality of what is met with in commerce in the present day. Physical Properties.—In large, vitreous cakes or masses, whitish, sometimes having a yellow tinge ; transparent, but on exposure to the air soon becoming opaque like enamel, the opacity gradually extending to the centre of the masses ; the cakes are moderately hard and brittle. Arsenic is inodorous ; it is also nearly tasteless, but when the tongue is kept for a few moments in contact with a piece of arsenic, a slightly bitter and acrid taste afterwards becoming sweetish may be perceived. Its specific gravity, when transparent, is 3738, and when opaque, 3-699. Chemical Properties.—It is composed of 1 eq. of the metal arsenic, and three eq. of oxygen, (As O3). Exposed to a heat of 380° F., it sublimes unchanged, and as it cools condenses into small trans- parent crystals of adamantine lustre, which are regular octohedrons. At ordinary temperatures, water dissolves from an 800th to a 400th of its weight of powdered arsenious acid ; boiling water dissolves nearly a ninth of its weight, and on cooling to 60°, retains a 35th, (Christison). The solution reddens litmus paper slightly. The chemical characteristics of arsenious acid are as follows :—thrown on red hot charcoal or cinders it evolves a scarcely visible vapour, metallic arsenic, which has a strong alliaceous odour, and which at the distance of a few inches from the charcoal is converted into a dense white colourless smoke, arsenious acid ; heated with carbonace- ous matter in a glass tube, it is reduced and the metal sublimed, form- ing a greyish-black ring in a cooler part of the tune, and which by the application of heat to the outside of the glass, is resublimed in the form of arsenious acid ; its solution precipitates lemon-yellow with ammoniacal nitrate of silver, grass-green with ammoniacal sulphate of copper, and sulphur-yellow with sulphuretted hydrogen; put into a proper apparatus, as Marsh's test tube, or a Dobereiner's lamp, with zinc and sulphuric acid, arseniuretted hydrogen will be evolved, which, being ignited as it passes through the fine aperture of the exit tube, deposits metallic arsenic on a plate of glass or porcelain held in the flame, and arsenious acid if held a little above the flame.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21143602_0138.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
