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.)
167/504
![water the saline matters contained therein, filtering and crystallizing; after importation the salt is purified by solution and recrystallization. The Dub- lin College directs the commercial salt to be further purified, by dissolving in two parts of boiling water, filtering and crystallizing, when it constitutes the PolasscB nilras purijicatum. Physical Properties.—A solid colourless salt, in striated prismatic crystals generally six-sided, with dihedral summits, semitvansparent, inodorous, having a cooling, saline, slightly bitter taste. Sp. gr. 1933. Chemical Properties.—It is composed of one eq. of potassa, and one of nitric acid, (KO, NO5), is anhydrous, permanent in the air, fusible by a heat below redness into a limpid liquid, in which state, when cast in moulds, it forms sal-prunelle ; by a strong heat it is de- composed into oxygen, and hyponitrite of potash. Nitre is soluble in four parts- of water at 60°, and in about half its weight of boiling water ; during the solution cold is generated ; it is insoluble in abso- lute alcohol. Adulterations.—Nitrate of potash as met with in commerce, is often contaminated with sulphate or muriate of potash ; the presence of the former is detected by solution of muriate or nitrate of baryta, that of the latter, by solution of nitrate of silver, causing white precipitates, in a solution of the salt in distilled water. Therapeutical Effects.—In large doses, from 5vi. to §ij., nitre acts as an irritant to the gastro-intestinal mucous membrane, produc- ing sometimes nausea, vomiting, purging, and even death. In small doses, gr. xxx. to gr. xl., it increases the flow of urine, in which se- cretion it can be detected soon after it has been swallowed. It is generally employed as an adjunct to the vegetable diuretics in anasarca and ascites, but it is inadmissible in cases where there is any tendency to irritation or inflammation of the digestive tube. Nitrate of potash is greatly inferior as a diuretic to the acetate or bitartrate, and con- sequently in the present day, is more employed for its refregerant properties. (See Refrigerants.) Incompatibles.—Sulphuric acid; alum; sulphate of magnesia ; metallic sulphates ; and muriatic acid if heat be applied. Pyrola umbellata, herba, D. Pyrola, E. Chimaphila, [U. S.] L. Herb of Chimaphila, umbellata, E.—of Chimaphila corymbosa, L. of Pyrola umbellata, D.—[Leaves of Chimaphila umbellata, U. S.]—■ Winter-green ; Pyrola; Pipsisseiva. This plant is a native of North America, but is also found in the woods of Europe and Asia. It belongs to the Natural family Pyrolacem, and to the Linnaean class and order Decandria Monogynia. Botanical Characters.—A small perennial under-shrub; with ever- green, cuneato-lanceolate leaves, coriaceous, smooth and shining ; Flowers in a small corymb, reddish-white, fragrant. Physical Properties.—Although the entire herb is indicated by the colleges, the.leaves only are generally employed. In the fresh state when bruised they have a strong unpleasant smell, but in the dry state they are odourless ; they have a bitter-sweet, astringent, slightly aromatic taste. If applied to the skin when recently gathered, they act as slight vesicatories. Chemical Properties.—They contain, bitter extractive, resin, tan- 13](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21143602_0167.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
