Colonial North America: Countway Library of Medicine

232

Materia Medica

Tonics

stimulating = I do not use injections near as strong as Bell, and Hunter, and cannot recommend them that are so strong. Powerfull injections often produce hernia Humoralis. I would recomend and prefer this formula

Rx Verdigris Ʒi [1 dram] Sal. Ammoniac Ʒiiij [4 drams] Aqua Font X ℥ [10 ounces]

use it as an injection.

Vitriol Coerul. This has been considered as a sulphate of copper but it is a super sulphate. It has been used with advantage in intermittants the dose should be from ¼ of a grain to 1 grain, three or four times a day as the stomach can bare it. Dr Dan recommends it highly, in the year 1808 I used it in the Pennsylvania Hospital in intermittant fevers when all other medicines had failed. Where it produced nausea I found it better. I have never used it hemorrhagy except those from the lungs which I shall speak of hereafter. Dr Spaulding who attended lectures here last winter informed me that in Uterine hemorrhage he had used it with great advantage in such doses as would create nausea. Dr Monroe used it with success in two cases of intermittants that had resisted every other medicine, he used it in the form of pills

Rx Vitriol Coerul grs.iv. [4 grains] Extract Cort. Peruvianus grs.XXX. [30 grains] M. Fit. Bol. No 16. Each of those

234

Materia Medica

Tonics

pills contain ¼ of a grain of Blue Vitriol, one of them should be taken four times a day, at first they prove nauseous but they gradually loose this effect by being made use of for a few days. I had no experience in the use of this medicine, But from observation I think it acts more efficaciously when it is made to produce nausea. It has been used in gleets by Dr Shippen.

Cuprum Amoniacum. This is made by rubbing two parts of the supersulphate of copper with three of Vol. Sal. Amoniacum in a glass mortar this has lately been supposed to be a sulphate of copper combined with ammonia it has been recommended in many diseases but in none more properly than in Epilepsy or convulsive diseases in giving this medicine we should begin with ¼ of a grain and gradually increase it to 1 grain five or Six times a day it has made remarkable cures, but too much has been ascribed to it. But Dr Dunkan of Edinburgh speaks verry highly of it and think he has made some great cures = it has been known to produce salivation an instance of which lately occurred in the city.= Dr Cullen says he has given it to the extent of five grains and found it more manageable than the blue Vitriol. It has cured many cases of true epilepsy but has

430

Materia Medica

Errhines

writers as a stimulatory, and among others Dr Cullen says that the juice snuffed up the nose on his trial excited no durable or large evacuations, the powdered root of the Beet is likewise an errhine.

Tobacco. The powder of this plant is a considerable errhine but custom renders it useless as a stimulatory it will still however continue to occasion a considerable discharge. Dr Cullen says and I agree with him that it is dangerous to leave of snuff suddenly after having been accustomed to take it, especially to those who have short wicks and are subject to compression of thought, it is proper that both physician and patient should recollect this, since the sudden abstinence from snuff might induce gout, dimness of sight &c. Snuff is not always a simple powder of tobacco but I have heard that it is adulterated with finely Pulv. Glass in order to render it more irritable to the nose of our Ladies and Gentlemen who are in the habit of taking snuff. Sal Ammoniac and potash are certainly added, the following observations of Dr Cullen deserves attention among the effects of Snuffing, says he I have all the symptoms of dyspepsia induced by it, these were relieved by abstainance from the article. I think the use of snuffs bad practice, and that it is especially prejudicial in persons disposed to melancholia but I cannot agree with him that nervous affections are more common

464

Materia Medica

Sialagogues

from intermittant and remittant fevers, or from obstruction of the viscera, but it should not be employ’d in those cases untill the phlogistic diathesis of the system has been somewhat reduced. I think it better suited to anasarca than ascites, it sometimes fails to do good in dropsy which afterwards yields to the diuretic medicines, upon the whole I am of opinion that mercury has done good in dropsy, but it frequently has also been productive of evil, it promotes absorption.

Jaundice. I have but little to say when we consider the cause and aspects of this disease we might suppose mercury to be usefull and according it is said to be so by Dr Clark, Dr Saunders, and Monroe. In Germany mercury has been employ’d to advantage, & it has sometimes been preceded by Sal. Ammoniac as an emetic.

Epilepsy. It has been frequently used with a view to excite salivation but I find few cases of cures recorded. Some physicians say who have employ’d it, that it suspended the disease and moderated the symptoms, even this is effecting a verry desirable end, but I think that tonics generally answer better. I consider mercury best adapted to those cases attended with plethora. Dr Hoffman gave the preparations of mercury in this disease. Some epileptic patients have been found with an effusion in the ventricles of the brain, mercury by