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.

    59/1180 (page 27)
    with an excess of nitric acid, is not rendered turbid by nitrate of silver, or by chloride of barium.] The last-named six tests show the absence of carbonic acid, lime, metallic impurities, sulphur, chlorine, and sulphuric acid. Physiological Effects.—The local action of strong solution of ammonia is exceedingly energetic. Applied to the skin it causes pain, redness, vesication, and destruction of the part; thus acting, first as a rubefacient, then as a vesicant, and lastly as a caustic, or corrosive. Its emanations are also irritant: when they come in contact with the conjunctival membrane, a flow of tears is the result; when inhaled, their powerful action on the air-passages is well known. Persons in syncope are observed to be almost imme- diately raised from a death-like state merely by inhaling the vapour of this solution. In cases of insensibility it must be employed with great caution; for, if used injudiciously, serious or even fatal con- sequences may be the result. When swallowed it acts as a power- fully corrosive poison. In small or therapeutic doses, such as we are accustomed to employ in the treatment of diseases, ammonia acts as a diffusible stimulant, excitant, or calefacient. It produces a sensation of warmth in the mouth, throat, and epigastrium, fre- quently attended with eructations. A temporary excitement of the vascular system succeeds, but this quickly subsides. The heat of the skin is sometimes increased, and there is a tendency to sweating, which, if promoted by the use of warm diluents and clothing, fre- quently terminates in copious perspiration. But the skin is not the only secreting organ stimulated to increased exertion; we observe the kidneys produce more urine, and frequently the quantity of bronchial mucus is increased. The nervous system is also affected, and the activity of its functions heightened. Ammonia does not render the urine alkaline. If we compare the effects of ammonia with those of other stimu- lants, as camphor, wine, and opium, we observe, in the first place, that the influence of ammonia is principally manifested in the ganglionic and true spinal systems, while the other stimulants above mentioned affect the cerebral system. Thus the effects of ammonia are usually exhibited on the circulation, respiration, secretion, and spasmodic actions ; but camphor, wine, and opium, though they also affect these functions, yet they principally affect the intellectual functions. Secondly, the effects of ammonia are more transient than those of the other agents just referred to. Thirdly, the vas- cular excitement caused by wine and opium is attended by dimi- nished mucous secretion, and is allied more to an ordinary febrile attack. Therapeutics. — Ammonia is adapted for speedily rousing the action of the vascular and respiratory systems, and for the prompt