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.

Robert Hooper

Date:: 1832

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.)

Title Page

78/894

AsTiMomi tartarizati visum. Wine of tartar- lzed antimony. Take of tartarized antimony, one scruple; boiling distilled water, eight fluid ounces; ratified spirit, two fluid ounces. DisMilve the tartar ized antimony in the boiling distilled water, and add tiie spirit to the filtered liquor. Four fluid drachms of this contain one grain of tartarized antimony. ANTIMONITE. A salt formed by the combina- tion of the antimonous acid with alkaline and other bases. See Antimony. ANTIMONIUM. See Antimony Antimonium calcinatum. An oxyde of antimony. Antimonium diaphoreticum. An old name lor an oxyde of antimony. Antimonium tartarizatim. Tartarus rmcticus ; Tartarum rmeticum; Tartarus antimonialus; Tar- tris antimonii aim potassa; Tartarum stibiatum. Tartar emetic. It is obtained bv boiling the fusible oxyde of antimony with supertartrate of potassa, the excess of tartaric acid dissolves the oxyde, and a triple salt is obtained by crystallization. The London Phar- macopoeia directs thus Take of glass of antimony finely legivated, supertartrate of potassa in powder, of each a pound: boiling distilled water a gallon; mix the glass of antimony and the supertartrate of potassa well together, and then add them by degrees to the distilled water, which is to lie kept boiling and con- stantly stirred; boil the whole for a quarter of an hour, and then set it by. Filter it when cold, and evaporate the filtered liquor so that crystals may form in it. A solution of this salt in dilute wine is ordered in the Pharmacopoeia. See Antimonii tartariiati vi num. Tartar emetic is the most useful of all th antimo- nial preparations. Its action is not dependent on the 6tate of the stomach, and, being soluble in water, its dose is easily managed, while it also arts more speed- ily. In doses of from one to three, four, or five rains, it generally act-s powerfully as an emetic, and to em- ployed whenever we wish to obtain the effects which result from full vomiting. As patients are differently affected by this medicine, the safest mode of exhibiting it is: lie. Antimonii tint urnzuti, gr. iii. Ai/uo: di.-til- latir, |tv. Misce et cola. Dosis $ ss. pmni horse quad- rante, donee supervened! vomitus. For children, emetic tartar is not so safe for an emetic as ipecacuanha powder: when great debility of the system is present, even a small dose has been known to prove fatal. Sometimes it proves cathartic. In smaller doses it excites nausea, and proves a pow- erful diaphoretic and expectorant. As an emetic it is chiefly given in the beginning of fevers and febrile diseases; when great debility is present, and in the advanced staires ot' typhoid fever, its use is improper, and even sometimes fatal. As a diaphoretic, it is given in small doses, of from an eighth to a quarter of a grain; and as an expectorant, in doses still smaller. Emetic tartar, in small doses, combined with calomel, lias been found a powerful yet safe alterative in ob- stinate eruptions of the skin. ft. Antimonii tartari- zati, gr iv. Hydrargyri submuriatis, gr. xvi. Con- fectionis rosm gallic™, q. s. Divide in pil. xxiv. Capiat i. mane nocteque ex thea sassafras. In the form of powder, or dissolved in water, it is applied by a pencil to warts and obstinate ulcers; it is also given in the form of clyster, with a view to pro- duce irritation in soporose diseases, apoplexy, ileus, and strangulated hernia. The powder mixed with any fluid, and rubbed on thescorbiculus cordis, excites vomiting. Another property which tartar emetic has, when rubbed on the skin, is that of producing a crop of pustules very like to the small-pox, and with this view it is used against rheumatic pains, white, and other obstinate swellings. The best antidote against the bad effects of too large a quantity of this and other antinionial preparations, is a decoction of the bark of cinchona; in defect of which, tea and other astrin- gents may be used. In a larger dose, this salt is capa- ble of acting as a violent poison. The best antidotes are demulcent drinks, infusions of bark, tea, and BUl- phuretted hydrogen water, which instantly converts the energetic salt into a relatively mild sulphuret: anodynes are useful afterward. Antimonium vitrifactum. Glass of antimony. An oxyde of antimony, with a little sulphuret. ANTIMONY. {Antimonium, i. n. Avriuovtov- The origin of this word is very obscure. The most ANT received etymology is, from avrt, against, and' povi{t a monk; because Valentine, by an injudicious ad- ministration of it, poisoned his brother monk metal found native, bul very rarely; it has, in that slate, a metallic lustre, and is found i of different shapes; iN colour is while, between those of tin and siher. [tgeneral!] mall por- tion of arsenic. It is likewise met with In the stale of an oxyde, antimonial ochre. The most abundant ore of it is that in which it is combined u ith sulphur, the gray ore of antimony, or sul/iliurit of antimony. The colour of this ore i- bluish, or steel-gray, of a me- tallic lustre, and is often extremely beautifully varie- gated. Its texture is either compact, foliated, or striated. The striated is found both Crystallized, massive, and disseminated: there are many varieties of this ore. Properties of Antimony.—Antimony is a metal of a grayish while, having a slight bluish shade, and very brilliant. Its texture is lamellated, and exhibits plates crossing each oilier in every direction. Its sur- face is covered with herbarisations and foliage. Its specific gravity ls 6.702. It is sufficiently hard In scratch all the soft metals. It is very brittle, easily broken, and pulverizable. It fuses at 810° Fahr. It can be volatilized, and burns by a Btrong heal. When perfectly fused, ami Buffered to cool gradually, it crys- tallizes in oclahedra. It unites with sulphur and phosphorus. It decomposes water strongly at a red heat. It is soluble in alkaline sulphurets. Sulphuric acid, boiled upon antimony, is feebly decomposed Nitric acid dissolves it in the cold. Muriatic acid scarcely acts upon it. The oxygenated muriatic acid lias inflames it, and the liquid acid dissolves it with facility. Arsenic acid dissolves it by heat with diffi- culty. It unites, by fusion, with gold, and renders it pale and brittle. Platina, silver, lead, bismuth, nickel, copper, arsenic, iron, cobalt, tin, and zinc, unite with antimony by fusion, and form with it compounds, more or less brittle. Mercury does not alloy with it easily unless very pure. We are little acquainted with the action of alkalies upon it. Nitrate of potassa is decomposed by it. It fulminates by percussion with oxygenated muriate of potassa. Antimony forms three, probably four, distinct combinations with oxygen; i. Theprotoxyde, a blackish gray powder obtained from a mixture of powder of antimony and water at the positive pole of a vollaic circuit. 2. The deutoxyde, obtained by digesting the metal in powder, in muriatic acid, anil pouring the solution in water of potassa. Wash ami dry the precipitate. It is k powder of a dirty white colour which melts in a moderate red heat, and crystallizes as it cools. 3. The tritoxyde, or antimonious acid, which as immediately produced by the combustion of the metal, called formerly, from its fine white colour, the argen- tine flowers of antimony. It tonus the salts called antimonites with the different bases. 4. The peroxyde, or antimonic mid. This is formed when the metal in powder is ignited along with six times it- weight of nitre in a silver crucible. The excess of potassa and nitre being afterward sepa- rated by hot water, the antimoniate of potassa is then to be decomposed by muriatic acid, When the insolu- ble antimonic acid of a straw colour will he obtained. Methods of obtaining antimony. ]. To obtain anti- mony, heat 33 parts of filings of iron to redo project on thein, by degrees, 100 parts of antimony; when tin' whole is in fusion, throw on it, by degrees, 20 parts of nitrate of potassa, and after a few minutes quirt fusion, pour it into an iron mejting cone, pre• viously heated and greased. 2. It may also be obtained by melting eight parts of the ore mixed with six of nitrate of potassa, and three of supertartrate of potassa, gradually projected into a red hot crucible, and fused. To obtain perfectly pure antimony, Margra&f melted some pounds of the sulphuret in a luted crucib thus scoritied tiny metals it might contain. Or the antimony thus purified, which lay at the bottom, he took sixteen ounces, which he oxydized cautiously first with a slow, and afterward with a strong heat, until it ceased to smell of sulphur, and acquired a grayish-white colour. Of this gray powdeT he took four ounces, mixed them with six drachms of supertartrate of potassa, and three of charcoal, and kept them in

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