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

  • Jonathan Pereira
Date:
1874
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

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

    1107/1180 (page 1075)
    Sapotacece.] GUTTA-PERCHA. [1075] softens and becomes plastic in hot water. In this state it may be readily moulded into any required shape, and joined by pressure to other pieces which have been also rendered plastic by heat. When it cools it resumes its original hard and tough nature. According to the experiments of Oudemans, pure gutta-percha is a hydro- carbon isomeric with oil of turpentine, and analogous to caout- chouc. Uses.—The uses of gutta-percha in the arts are most extensive. It also serves some useful purposes in medicine, surgery, and phar- macy. A solution of it in chloroform has been used by Sir James Simpson and others, as a dressing of wounds. When a thin layer of the solution is spread upon the skin or any other surface, the chloroform rapidly evaporates, and leaves a film or web of gutta- percha possessing all the tenacity and other properties of that sub- stance. A layer of it of the thickness of good writing-paper has perhaps as much strength and tenacity as to hold the edges of a wound together with all the required strength and firmness of sutures. Mr. Acton finds that a compound solution of caoutchouc and gutta-percha may be used to form a kind of membrane to pro- tect the skin against the action of contagious poisons. The solution is 'prepared by adding a drachm of gutta-percha to an ounce of benzol, and ten grains of india-rubber to the same quantity of benzol, each being dissolved at a gentle heat, and then mixed in equal proportions. It may be used to protect the hands in post- mortem examinations, to prevent excoriation of the cheek in gonor- rhoea! ophthalmia, and in covering parts contiguous to a sore where the water-dressing is used. In the treatment of club-foot and frac- tures, Mr. Lyon has found it a useful mechanical agent. Pharmaceutical Use.—It is introduced into the British Pharma- copoeia for the preparation of a solution of gutta-percha, which is employed in the preparation of mustard paper. [§ Liquor Gutta-percha. Solution of Guttapercha. Take of Gutta-percha, in thin slices . 1 ounce Chloroform ... 8 fluid ounces Carbonate of Lead, in fine powder 1 ounce. Add the gutta-percha to six fluid ounces of the chloroform in a stoppered bottle, and shake them together frequently until solution has been effected. Then add the carbonate of lead previously mixed with the remainder of the chloroform, and having several times shaken the whole together, set the mixture aside, and let it remain at rest until the insoluble matter has subsided. Lastly, decant the clear liquid, and keep it in a well-stoppered bottle.]