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.

    1072/1132 (page 1040)
    as in the case of the purse, pipe, and lump isinglass of the shops. At other times it is laid open, and submitted to some preparation, being either dried unfolded, as in the leaf and honeycomb isinglass ; or folded, as in the staple and booh isinglass; or rolled out, as in the ribbon isinglass. When the isinglass arrives in this country, it is soaked, scraped, and cleaned. Formerly it was picked into shreds by women and children, but it is now usually rolled and cut into filaments by machinery. General Characters and Varieties.—Isinglass is whitish or yellowish in colour, light, coriaceous, semi-transparent, tasteless, inodorous, insoluble in cold water, readily soluble in boiling water, and forms a transparent jelly on cooling. Many varieties of isinglass are im- ported : the Russian kinds are the most esteemed, but the Brazilian, on account of its cheapness, is very extensively used. The source of Brazilian isinglass is unknown. The New York isinglass, Hudson's Bay isinglass, East Indian isinglass, and Manilla isinglass are not procured from species of Acipenser. Composition.—Isinglass of fine quality consists principally of gelatine about 98 per cent., albumen, membrane insoluble in boiling water, with salts of potash and soda, and some phosphate of lime. Physiological Effects and Uses.—The dietetical properties of isin- glass are well known. Considered medicinally, it is an emollient and demulcent. It is employed, dissolved in water or milk, and rendered palatable by acid and sugar, as a nutritious substance for invalids and convalescents. A solution of isinglass, with tincture of benzoin, is brushed over black sarcenet to form Court or Black Sticking Plaster. Isinglass is also employed as a clarifying or fining agent (for coffee, wines, and beer). Some of the constituents of these liquors unite with the gelatine, and form insoluble compounds, which precipitate, and in the act of precipitation the gelatine in- closes within its meshes the matters which rendered the liquid turbid. The great consumers of isinglass are the brewers, who employ principally the coarse Brazilian variety. Fifteen grains of good isinglass are sufficient to impart a firm consistence to one ounce of water. Pharmaceutical Use.—Isinglass has been placed in the Appendix to the Pharmacopoeia solely for testing. [§ Solution of Gelatine. Take of Isinglass, in shreds . . . .50 grains. Warm Distilled Water . . .5 fluid ounces. Mix and digest for half an hour on a water-bath with repeated shaking, and filter through clean tow moistened with distilled water. ]