Lexicon medicum, or, Medical dictionary : containing an explanation of the terms in anatomy, botany, chemistry, materia medica, midwifery, mineralogy, pharmacy, physiology, practice of physic, surgery, and the various branches of natural philosophy connected with medicine : selected, arranged, and compiled from the best authors / by Robert Hooper.
- Hooper, Robert, 1773-1835.
- Date:
- 1838
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Lexicon medicum, or, Medical dictionary : containing an explanation of the terms in anatomy, botany, chemistry, materia medica, midwifery, mineralogy, pharmacy, physiology, practice of physic, surgery, and the various branches of natural philosophy connected with medicine : selected, arranged, and compiled from the best authors / by Robert Hooper. 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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![aBV arteals and lymphatics. See Lacteal and Lym- phatic. 2 Those medicines are so termed, which have no acrimony in themselves, and destroy acidities in the Btoinich and bowels; such are magnesia, prepared chalk, oyster-shells, crabs' claws, &c. 3. Substances are also so called by chemists, which have the faculty of withdrawing moisture from the atmosphere. Absorbing vessels. See Absorbent. ABSORPTION. (Absorptw; from absorbco, to suck up.) I. A function in an animated body, ar- ranged by physiologists under the head of natural ac- tions, li signifies the taking up of substances applied to the mouths of absorbing vessels ; thus the nutritious part of the food is absorbed from the intestinal canal by the Lacteats; thus mercury is taken into the system by the lymphatics of the skin, &c. The principle by which this function takes place, is a power inherent in the mouths of the absorbents, a vis insita, dependent on the degree of irritability of their internal membrane by which they contract and propel their contents for- wards. 2. By this term chemists understand the conversion of a gaseous fluid into a liquid or solid, on being united with some othersubstance. ltdiffers from condensation in this being the effect of mechanical pressure. [Absorption by plants.—In 1804, Dr. Foote sent to Dr. Mitchill of New-York, a peach, with the following account of it:— I present you with a peach by the bearer. You will readily perceive that I could not be induced to this from any thing very promising in its aspect, the richness of its flavour, or the singularity of its species. On tasting, you will find it highly charged with muriate of soda : and when I inform you that it has undergone no artificial management, but possessed this property when plucked from the tree, you may find some dilficulty in explaining the fact. This peach was presented to me by Mr. Solomon Brewer, of Westchester Co., New-York, my former residence. Mr. B. is a respectable man, and the pre- sent clerk of the town in which he lives. The history he gives me of this natural salt-peach is, that it grew in his neighbourhood, on a tree, around the body and roots of which had been accidentally poured a quan- tity of pork or beef-brine ; that its fruit ripens in the mouth of September ; that the effect of the brine had been, to produce a sickness and decay in the tree ; and that at this time (Sept. 1804) it presents the singular tact oi a tree hanging tolerably full of salt peaches. He was unable to intbrm me of the precise time of the occurrence, but that it was the lore-part of summer and after the fruit had obtained its shape and some size. This fact, as respects the vegetable kingdom, is in my mind an isolated one. 1 have felt the more interest in noticing this fact, as it contributes much to strengthen and confirm the opinion you long since advanced, that certain vegeta- bles, as wheat, partake much of the properties of the manure which is used as their aliment, and thence urge with much propriety the importance of the sub- ject to agriculturists.—See Med. Uepos. of New-York vol. viii. p. 209. A.] ' ABSTEMIOUS. (Abstemius; from abs, from, and tevietum, wine.) Refraining absolutely from all use of wme ; but the term is applied to a temperate mode of living, with respect to food generally. Abstk'ntio. Caelius Aurelianus uses this word to express a suppression, or retention: thus, abslentio turcorum, a retention of the excrements, which he mentions as a symptom very frequent in a satyriasis In a sense somewhat different, he uses the word ab- ttcnta, applying it to the pleura, where he seems to mean that the humour of the inflamed pleura is prevented, by the adjacent bones, from extending ABSTERGENT. (Abstergens; from abstcrgo, to cleanse away.) Any application that cleanses or clears away foulness. The term is seldom employed by modem writers. ' ABSTRACTION. (From abstraho, to draw away ) A term employed by chemists in the process of humid distillation, to signify that the fluid body is again drawn off irom the solid, which it had dissolved. A'bscs. The Egyptian lotus. Abvacua'tio. (From abvacuo, to empty.) A mor- bid discharge; a large evacuation of any fluid, as of ACA blood from a plethoric person. A term used by somo old writers. ACA'CIA. (Acacia, a:, f. anaicia; from axa^u, to sharpen.) The name of a genus of plants hi the Lin- mean system. Class, Polygamia; Order, Monacia. The Egyptian thorn. Acacia catechu. This plant affords a drug, form- erly supposed to be an earthy substance brought from Japan, and therefore called terra Japonica, or Japan earth ; afterwards it appeared to be an extract prepared in India, it was supposed till lately, from the juice of the Mimosa catechu, by boiling the wood and evapo- rating the decoction by the heat of the sun. But the shrub is now ascertained to be an acacia, and is termed Acacia catechu. It grows in great abundance in the kingdom of Bahar, and catechu comes to us principally from Bengal and Bombay. It has received the follow- ing names: Acachou; Favfel; Cmtchu; Caschu; Ca- techu; Cadtchu; Cashow; Caitchu; Castjoe; Cachu; Cate; Kaath. The natives call it Cutt, the English who reside there Cutch. In its purest state, it is a dry pulverable substance, outwardly of a reddish colour, internally of a shining dark brown, tinged with a red- dish hue; in the mouth it discovers considerable ad- stringency, succeeded by a sweetish mucilaginous taste. It may be advantageously employed for most purposes where an adstringent is indicated ; and is particularly useful ia alvine fluxes, where astringents are required. Besides this, it is employed also in uterine profluvia, in laxity and debility of the viscera in general; and it ia an excellent topical adstringent, when suffered to dis- solve leisurely in the mouth, for laxities and ulcerations of the gums, apthlhous ulcers in the mouth, and simi- lar affections. This extract is the basis of several formula; in our pharmacopueias, particularly of a tinc- ture : but one of the best forma under which it can be exhibited, is that of simple infusion in warm water with a proportion of cinnamon, for by this means it is at once freed of its impurities and improved by the addi- tion of the aromatic. Fourcroy says that catechu is prepared from the seeds of a kind of palm, called aieca. Sir Humphrey Davy has analyzed catechu, and from his examination it ap- pears, that from Bombay is of uniform texture, red- brown colour, and specific gravity 1.39: that from Ben- gal is more friable and less consistent, of a chocolate colour externally, but internally chocolate streaked with red-brown, and specific gravity 1.28. The catechu from either place differs little in its properties. Its taste is astringent, leaving behind a sensation of sweetness. It is almost wholly soluble in water. Two hundred grains of picked catechu from Bombay afforded 109 grains of tannin, 06 extractive matter, Umucilage, 10 residuum, chiefly sand and calcareous earth. The same quantity from Bengal; tannin 9? grains, extractive matter 73, mucilage 10, residual matter, being sand, with a small quantity of calcareous and aluminous earths, 14. Of the latter, the darkest parts appeared to afford most tarmin, the lightest most extractive matter. The Hin- doos prefer the lightest coloured, which has probably most sweetness, to chew with the betei-nut. Of all the astringent substances we know, catechu appears to contain the largest proportion of tannin; and Mr. Purkis found, that one pound was equivalent to seven or eight of oak bark for the purpose of taiuiing ieather. [The tinctura Japonica is a powerful and useful astringent in looseness of the bowels. Many persons take this preparation when they are not aware of it, and when there is no occasion. It is used to colour fictitious and imitation brandies made in the United States, and from the quantity used, these liquors al- ways produce costiveness. A.] Acacia Germanica. German acacia. 1. The name of the German Mack-thorn or sloe-tree, the Prunus spinosa of Linnams. 2. The name of the inspissated juice of the fruit, as made in Germany; which, as well as the tree, is there called also Acacia nostras. It is now fallen into disuse. Acacia Indica. Sec Tamarindus Jndica. Acacia nostras. See Acacia Oermanica. Acacia vera. 1. The systematic name of the tree which affords gum-arabic, formerly supposed to be a Mimosa. Acacia:—spinis stipularibus patcntibus, foliis bipinnatis, partialibus eztimis glandula mter- stinctis, spicis globosts pedunculitis, of Wildenow](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21129605_0016.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
