(seq. 407)

400

Materia Medica

Stimulants

be sometimes the case, but I think it acts more properly by
stimulating the proper action in the urethra. I gave XV or XX [15 or 20] drops three or
four times a day. I also gave it in pills it has been advised in Fluor
Albus. Dr Cullen does not approve of it, because he says there
are few female stomachs that will bear a sufficient quantity Dr
Henderson relates a case of the Abdominal Dropsy which was rapidly
cured by the use of turpentine pills, the virtues of turpentine are said
to depend on an essential oil which if rubbed on the spine is said
to prevent the recurrence of Intermittants. It is a usefull diuretic,
since it produces alarming and sometimes fatal inflamation of the
Urinary passages, in Sciatica Dr Home employ’d it to advantage
it has been used in hemorrhages from the intestines dissolved in the
yolk of an egg, and taken in water, the burgundy pitch is usefull in
some cases of deafness introduced into the ear. A burgundy pitch
plaster has been used in Tenea Capitis it is supposed to remain on
the head untill it is encorporated with the hair when it is pulled of [off].

Tar. This is a kind of Half burt [burnt] turpentine, it is somewhat
Empyrumatic, the powers of tarr are supposed to be somewhat similar to
turpentine, but they are not quite, and it is more disagreeable to the
stomach, the tarr has been mixed with gravy, wax &c, as a remidy for lepra,