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.)
156/504
![Chemical Properties.—Various analyses have been made of sar- saparilla ; it appears to consist of volatile oil, nearly all of which is lost by drying, of a peculiar white crystallizable principle, which has been named smilacin {paraglin, salseparine, parallinic acid, of various chemists), acrid bitter resin, lignin, starch, and mucilage. It yields its active properties to boiling water by simple maceration ; and the continued boiling, to which it is submitted by the directions of the Colleges, for preparing the decoctions, the syrup, and the extracts, is not only perfectly useless, but highly injurious, and to this fact we may ascribe the great discrepancy of opinion which exists as to the medi- cinal properties of the drug. Adulterations.—The roots of various allied species which do not possess any medicinal property whatsoever, are mixed in America with the true sarsaparillas ; and in this country the inferior sorts are sold for the finer qualities. The former fraud may be detected by the taste, which is the surest criterion ; the latter by attending to the characters of the different species as given above. Therapeutical Effects.—Notwithstanding the little esteem that sarsaparilla is held in by many practitioners, a medicine possessing the great activity that it does in the recent state, as described by Dr. Han- cock, can be scarcely inert; unless, as before observed, we destroy its medicinal properties by the pharmaceutical processes to which it is submitted. Under its use, undoubtedly, diaphoresis is frequently pro- duced, and secondary syphilitic affections, especially nocturnal pains, ulcerations of the throat, and cutaneous eruptions have been speedily cured ; these effects, however, have been ascribed by many, and I must say with much reason, to the restricted diet to which patients are submitted while undergoing what is called an alterative course. The question of the powers of sarsaparilla in secondary syphilis is worthy of still further investigation, particularly if we consider the high price of the drug, and the great expenditure which its use in hos- pitals and public charities entails on these institutions ; and in any future trials it would be well to use a simple infusion, prepared with boiling water in the same manner and of the same strength, as the compound infusion of the Dublin Pharmacopoeia, substituting boiling distilled water for the lime water ordered in that formula. Dose and Mode of Administration.—In powder, the dose is from 3j. to 3ij- ; it is very seldom administered in this form ; but if the powder be good, as may be ascertained by the taste, it ought to prove the best mode of giving the medicine, it may be made into a bolus with honey.—Infusum Sarsaparilla compositum, D. (Sarsaparilla root, previously cleansed with cold water and sliced, §i. ; lime water, by measure ibj. ; macerate for 12 hours in a close vessel, shaking it occa- sionally and strain). Although lime water is here ordered, it is not so good a solvent for the constituents of sarsaparilla as distilled water. Dose, f§iv. to f§vj. two or three times a day.—Decoctum Sarsaparilla, D. Decoctum Sarza, L. E. (Sarsaparilla, sliced (and cleaned with cold water, D.), §iv. (§v., L. E.) ; boiling (distilled, L.) water, Ibiv. (Oiv., L. E.) ; macerate with a medium heat (near the fire, L.) for 4 (2, Pi.) hours in a vessel lightly covered ; take out, the root, bruise and replace it; (macerate for two hours further* L.)vboi i down to Ibij. by measure (Oij., L. E.), then (squeeze, L. E.), agul strain). Dose, f§iv.. to f§viij., three or four times a day.—Decoctum^iSarsaparillcE (SarZa, L. E.) compositum, D. L. E. [U. S.] (Decoction of sarsaparilla,](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21143602_0156.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
