Dr. Pereira's Elements of materia medica and therapeutics : abridged and adapted for the use of medicine and pharmaceutical practitioners and students and comprising all of the medicines of the British Pharmacopœia, with such others as are frequently ordered in prescriptions or required by the physician / edited by Robert Bently and Theophilus Redwood.

  • Jonathan Pereira
Date:
1872
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Dr. Pereira's Elements of materia medica and therapeutics : abridged and adapted for the use of medicine and pharmaceutical practitioners and students and comprising all of the medicines of the British Pharmacopœia, with such others as are frequently ordered in prescriptions or required by the physician / edited by Robert Bently and Theophilus Redwood. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    1068/1132 (page 1036)
    Adulterations.—Flour is sometimes mixed with honey. This adulteration may be readily detected by its insolubility in cold water, and by the following test:—boiled with water for five minutes and allowed to cool, it does not become blue with the solution of iodine. In an interesting communication ' On Honey,' by Mr. Stoddart of Bristol (see Pharm. Journ. vol. x. 2nd ser. p. 142), the author says, ' I have often examined specimens adulterated with pea- or bean-flour, turmeric, pipe-clay, brown sugar, treacle, gypsum, yellow ochre, fine sand, and water.' He also states that the honey which is imported from the Continent is largely adulterated with starch or sugar. Composition.—The constituents of honey vary somewhat, accord- ing to the food of the bees, the season, the age of the animals, the mode of extracting it from the combs, &c. It must, however, be regarded at all times as a concentrated solution of sugar, mixed with odorous, colouring, gummy, and waxy matters. The saccharine matter is, according to Stoddart, in fresh honey of three kinds, all of which are derived from the decomposition of cane sugar or sucrose: one kind is crystallisable, and analogous to glucose or the sugar of grapes ; another is uncrystallisable sucrose or inverted sugar, and similar to the uncrystallisable brown syrup of the sugar-cane; and the third kind is crystallised sucrose. The proportions of these vary according to the age of the honey. Physiological Effects.—Honey is emollient, demulcent, and laxative. When fresh, it is apt to occasion indigestion and colic. Therapeutics.—Mixed with flour, and spread on linen or leather, it is a popular application to promote the maturation of small abscesses and boils. It sometimes forms a constituent of gargles, partly on account of its taste, partly for its emollient operation. It is also used as a vehicle for the application of other more powerful agents to the mouth and throat, especially in children. It is occa- sionally employed as an emollient and demulcent in inflammatory affections. In troublesome coughs, barley-water, mixed with honey, and sharpened with slices of lemon, and taken warm, forms a very agreeable and useful demulcent. [§ Mel Depiiratum. Clarified Honey. Take of Honey 5 pounds. Melt the honey in a water-bath, and strain, while hot, through flannel previously moistened with warm water.] The object of this process is to deprive honey of certain impurities, which render it apt to ferment; but the flavour and odour of the honey are somewhat injured by the operation. Pharmaceutical Uses.—Clarified honey is an ingredient in borax