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.

    89/1180 (page 57)
    SULPHUR. Sulphur or Brimstone. 8 = 16 or S = 32. History.—Sulphur (from Sal, and Trvp fire) has been known from the most remote periods of antiquity. The word brimstone (brynston as written by Piers Ploughman) signifies brennestone or bumstone. It is found in both kingdoms of nature. Native sulphur is found either imbedded in rocks or produced by sublimation (volcanic sul- phur.) Sulphur is also found in the mineral kingdom in a state of com- bination, as in the various forms of pyrites. It is also a constituent of various animal and vegetable substances, such as albumen, &c. Preparation.—Sulphur is procured in two ways ; by the purification of native sulphur, or by the decomposition of the native sulphides. The sulphur of British commerce is almost exclusively obtained in the first way. It is brought principally from Sicily. Crude or rough sulphur comes over in irregular blocks or masses, whose colour is somewhat paler than that of refined sulphur. Fine Sicilian sulphur contains not more than 3 per cent, of foreign matter, chiefly earthy, but not at all arsenical. Vauquelin distilled 200 grains of rough sulphur, and obtained a residuum of 0'82, composed of silica, carbonate of lime, iron, bituminous charcoal, alumina, and magnesia ; but the proportion of earthy matter is generally more considerable. Sulphur obtained from pyrites usually contains orpiment (As2S3). Refining.—There are three modes of refining sulphur: viz. first, fusion and decantation ; secondly, distillation ; thirdly, sublimation. Formerly sulphur was refined by fusing it in an iron caldron, allowing the earthy impurities to subside, and ladling out the super- natant liquid sulphur. At present, sulphur is refined by distillation and sublimation : by distillation, massive sulphur is obtained : by sub- limation, powers of sulphur. [§ Sulphur Sublimatum, Sublimed Sulphur. Sulphur, prepared from crude or rough sulphur by sublimation. Characters and Tests.—A slightly gritty powder of a fine greenish- yellow colour, without taste, and without odour unless heated; burning in open vessels with a blue flame and the evolution of sul- phurous acid. Entirely volatilised by heat; does not redden moistened litmus paper. Solution of ammonia, agitated with it and filtered, does not on evaporation leave any residue. Dose, 20 grains to 1 drachm.] The tests indicate the absence of earthy matters, of adhering acid, and of sulphide of arsenic. Pure sulphur is also entirely soluble in boiling oil of turpentine. Physiological Effects.—Sulphur taken into the stomach is, for the