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.

    1123/1180 (page 1091)
    Characters and Tests.—A light yellowish brown powder, having a faint, but not disagreeable odour, and a slightly saline taste, without any indication of putrescence. Very little soluble in water or spirit. Two grains of it with an ounce of distilled water, to which five minims of hydrochloric acid have been added, form a mixture in which 100 grains of hard-boiled white of egg, in thin shavings, will dissolve on their being digested together for about four hours at a temperature of 98°. Dose.—2 to 5 grains.] Various processes have been suggested for getting pepsin in a suitable state for use in medicine. The process of the French Codex will be found described at p. 1059 of this book, but that method of obtaining it has long been superseded by others of a more practical nature, and the one now introduced into the Pharmacopoeia is essentially that by which pepsin in its most concentrated and reliable condition is prepared. This is not pure pepsin—indeed it is doubtful whether such a thing as pure pepsin has ever been ob- tained ; but in the state in which it is produced by the Pharma- copoeia process it is a powerful digestive agent, and it may either be administered in the solid state as produced, or used as the basis of some other form. [§ Pilula Scammonii Composita. Compound Scammony Pill. Take of Resin of Scammony . ^ Resin of Jalap . . I of each . 1 ounce. Curd Soap in powder . J Strong Tincture of Ginger . . 1 fluid ounce. Rectified Spirit .... 2 fluid ounces. Add the spirit and tincture to the soap and resins, and dissolve with the aid of a gentle heat; then evaporate the spirit by the heat of a water-bath until the mass has acquired a suitable consist- ence for forming pills. Dose.—5 to 15 grains.] There has hitherto been no formula in the Pharmacopoeia for a purgative pill without aloes, and the compound scammony pill now introduced is intended to supply the want that has been felt on that account. Resin of jalap with hard soap dissolved in spirit and evaporated to a pilular consistence is used in Germany under the name of ' Jalap Soap,' and it has been found to act more effectively than the resin alone. The compound scammony pill is made in a similar way with the addition of ginger.