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.)
34/504
![Potassa carbonas e lixivocinere, D. Potass* carbonas, [U. S.] L. E. Carbonate of potash, prepared from potashes. Potass* carbonas e tartari crystallis, D. Potass* carbonas purum, [U. S.] E. Carbonate of potash prepared from crystals of tartar; Pure carbonate of Potash. Pearlashes or potashes are procured by lixivation from the ashes of many trees and land plants. They are imported in large deliques- cent masses of a dirty bluish-white color, packed in barrels ; and are principally brought from America, where they are prepared in very large quantity from the trees cut down in the clearing of land ; puri- fied by the process mentioned below, they are converted into pure car- bonate of potash. Preparation.—Carbonate of potash from potashes. Dub.— Pot- ashes, in coarse powder^; and cold water, of each, one part ; mix with tritu- ration, and macerate for a week in an open vessel, frequently agitating; filter and evaporate to dryness in a perfectly clean silver or iron vessel; towards the end of the evaporation frequently stirring with an iron spatula ; put the coarse powder thus obtained into close vessels. If the potashes be not sufficiently pure, roast them in a crucible until they become white, be- fore they are dissolved. Lond— Impure carbonate of potash Ibij.; dis- tilled water, Oiss.; dissolve the impure carbonate of potash in the water, and strain ; then pour it off into a proper vessel, and evaporate the waler, that the liquor may thicken : then stir constantly with a spatula till the salt concretes. Carbonate of potash may be procured more pure from the crystals of bicarbonate of potash heated to redness. Edin.— Obtained from the potashes of commerce by lixiviating, evaporating, and granulat- ing, by fusion and refrigeration. [U. S. Pure carbonate of potassa. Take of bitartrate of potassa fbij ; nitrate of potassa, Ib.ij. Rub them sepa- rately into powder; then mix, and throw them into a brass vessel healed neatly to redness, that they may undergo combustion. From the residue prepare the pure carbonate of potassa, in the manner directed for the car- bonate.]—Carbonate of potash from crystals of tartar, D. u Take any quantity of crystals of tartar; heat them to redness in a silver crucible lightly covered, until they cease to emit vapors; reduce the residue to a coarse powder, and roast for two hours with frequent stirring in the same crucible uncovered ; then boil it with twice its weight of water for a quarter of an hour ; and after due subsidence pour off the clear liquor ; let this be done three times ; filter the mixed washings, and evaporate in a silver ves- sel ; reduce the residual salt while becoming dry, by frequent stirring, to a granular form ; and then heat it to an obscure red. Before it has perfectly cooled, take it from the vessel, and preserve it in well stopped bottles. Pure carbonate of potash, E. Most readily obtained by heating crys- allized bicarbonate of potash to redness in a crucible ; but more cheaply by dissolving bitartrate of potash in 30 parts of boiling water, separating and washing the crystals, which form on cooling, heating these in a loosely- covered crucible to redness, so long as fumes are discharged, breaking down the mass and roasting it in an open crucible for two hours, with oc- casional stirring, lixiviating the product with distilled water, filtering the so- lution thus obtained, evaporating the solution to dryness, granulating the salt towards the close by brisk agitation, and heating the granular salt nearly to redness. The product of either process must be kept in well closed ves- sels. Physical Properties.—Carbonate of potash is met with in the form of coarse, white, crystalline grains, inodorous, with an acrid al- kaline taste. Chemical Properties.—It is composed of one eq. of potassa, and](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21143602_0034.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
