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.

    1080/1132 (page 1048)
    is closed, into corresponding cavities of the npper jaw ; teeth of upper jaw small, conical, concealed in the gums. Spiracular orifices united at the upper part of the snont into a single spont-hole directed to the left side. Tail narrow, conical. Habitat.—Pacific and Indian Oceans. [§ Cetaceum. Spermaceti. Nearly pure cetine, obtained, mixed with oil, from the head of the Sperm whale, Physeter macrocephalns, Linn., inhabiting the Pacific and Indian Oceans. It is separated from the oil by nitration and pressure, and afterwards purified.] Extraction.—In the right side of the nose and upper surface of the head of the whale is a triangular-shaped cavity, called by the whalers 'the case.' Into this the whalers make an opening, and take out the liquid contents (oil and spermaceti) by a bucket. The dense mass of cellular tissue beneath the case and nostril, and which is technically called 'junk,' also contains spermaceti, with- which and oil its tissue is infiltrated. The spermaceti from the case is carefully boiled alone, and placed in separate casks, when it is called ' head matter.' Purification.— The substance called ' head matter' consists of spermaceti and sperm oil. Its colour is yellow. Its consistence varies with the temperature. In cold weather it consists of a con- gealed mass (spermaceti) surrounded and infiltrated by oil. To separate the latter as much as possible, it is put into filter bags. The solid thus obtained is then submitted to compression in hair bags, placed in an hydraulic press. It is then melted in water, and the impurities are skimmed off. Subsequently it is remelted in a weak solution of potash. It is then fused in a tub by the agency of steam, ladled into tin pans, and allowed slowly to concentrate into large, white, translucent, crystalline masses. Commercial sperma- ceti usually contains a minute portion of sperm oil, which is best- removed by boiling in alcohol. The cetine or pure spermaceti is dissolved, and is deposited on cooling. This process should be repeated so long as the alcohol extracts any oil. General Characters.—Pure spermaceti is crystalline, pearly-white, glistening, and translucent, with little taste or odour, reducible to powder by the addition of a little rectified spirit. It is insoluble in water, and slightly soluble only in alcohol, even at a boiling tem- perature. It is scarcely unctuous to the touch; and does not melt under 100°. Physiological Effects and Uses.—Emollient and demulcent. Inter- nally it has been employed in irritation and inflammation of the alimentary canal (as diarrhoea and dysentery) and of the bronchial