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.)
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![principles. Exposed to the air it is apt to become very hard owing to the presence of the sulphate of lime, the setting of which is supposed to be the cause. Assafoetida softens with a moderate heat; and is inflammable, burning with a fuliginous flame. It is partially soluble in alcohol, ether and vinegar ; and it may be formed into an emulsion with water. It is reduced to powder with difficulty, unless it be tritu- rated with carbonate of potash. Therapeutical Effects.—Assafoetida is a powerful stimulating antispasmodic, especially adapted for the spasmodic nervous diseases of females, as hysteria and some forms of chorea and epilepsy. No remedy we possess is so successful in the treatment of hysteria, ad- ministered either during the paroxysm or in the interval ; in a hysteric paroxysm, we are frequently unable to administer medicines by the mouth : when, given in the form of enema, assafoetida is found to be very effectual. In the convulsions of infants, especially when de- pendant on flatulence, and in the flatulent constipation of the aged, few remedies are more efficacious. It has been also employed with much benefit in the chronic spasmodic stage of hooping cough, in pure spas- modic asthma, and in that peculiar spasmodic difficulty of breathing, so frequently the attendant of chronic catarrh. Assafoetida has been also used as a vermifuge. Dose and Mode of Administration.—Gr. x. to 3ss. in pills 01 emulsion.—Mistura Assafoetida, [U. S.] D. L. (Assafoetida, [5ij. U.S.] 3i. (3v. L.) ; [water Oss. U. S.J ; pennyroyal water, fgviij. (water, a pint, L.) ; Rub the assafoetida with the water, gradually poured in, until an emulsion is formed). Dose, f§ss. to fgiss.; used also as an enema for children.—Tinctura Assafoetida, D. L. E. (Assafoetida, §iv. [U. S.] (§v. L. E.) ; rectified spirit, by measure ibij. (Oij. [U. S.] L. E.); (water, fgviij. D.) ; macerate for 14 (7, E.) days and filter). Dose, f3ss. to f5ij.—Spirilus Ammonia• fcetidus, D. E. (Spirit of ammonia, by measure Ibij. (f§xss. E.) ; assafoetida, §i|. (§ss. E.) ; Macerate in a close vessel for three days, agitating occasionally ; then pour off the clear liquor, and distil Ibiss. by measure ,• D.— Break the assa- foetida into small fragments ; digest it in the spirit for twelve hours ; distil over f§xss. by means of a vapor bath ; E.)—L. (Hydrochlorate of ammonia, §x. ; carbonate of potash, §xvj,; rectified spirit; and water, of each, Oiij. ; assafoetida, §v. ; mix and distil, with a slow fire, three pints). Dose, f3i- This is merely a solution of the volatile oil of assafoetida in the spirit of ammonia.—Pilula Galbani, comp., [U. S. Galbanum, myrrh, each §iss ; assafoetida, §ss. ; syrup, q. s. Beat to- gether so as to form a mass, to be divided into 180 pills,] D. L. (As- safoetida, §ss. ; myrrh; and sagapenum, of each, |iss. ; galbanum, §j.; treacle (syrup, L.), a sufficiency).—Pilula Assafoetida, E. (Assafoe- tida ; galbanum; and myrrh, of each, three parts; conserve of red roses, four parts, or a sufficiency). Dose, gr. x. to 9j.—Enema fati- dum, D. E. (Add two drachms of tincture of assafoetida to the enema catharticum).—Emplastrum Assafoetida, E. (Litharge plaster; and assafoetida, of each, §ij.; galbanum; and bees' wax, of each, §i. ; liquefy the gum resins together and strain them, then add the plaster and wax also in the melted state, and mix all thoroughly). Applied externally in hysteria, flatulence, and hooping cough. Castoreum, [U. S.] D. L. E. A peculiar secretion {concretion, L-), from the praputial follicles of Castor fiber; L. E. Castor. The](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21143602_0048.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
