(seq. 553)

546

Materia Medica

Cathartics

than Emetic effects, if the Sulfuric Acid be distilled several times from
antimony and this be ground to a fine powder, it may be used as an
Emetic and Cathartic, Bernhoff approv’d of this medicine as a
Purge, there is a medicine called Antimonia Cathartica, which
Mr Wilson of England assures infallibly produces an evacuation.

Miscellaneous Cathartics. Or such as
cannot be referred to either of the above heads.

Clysters. These
are certainly some of the best cathartics we use they are of various forms,
as with Oil, Water, Salt &c.

Carbon. You may be a little
surprized at my introducing this substance as a purgative, it has long
been used as an antiseptic in ulcers to correct the factor and prevent
mortification, from its known efficacy in that affection I was led to give
it internally in ulcers of the throat, attended with intolerable factor and
succeeded completely. I have since used it frequently and with the same
success, in a dose of one table spoonfull 3 or 4 times a day in removing
costiveness by a safe and lenient Catharsis. I have used it in Dyspepsia
but I cannot say within a success, also in acidities of the stomach
attendant upon pregnant women but with the same effect. Yet I have
used it with great advantage in the fevers attended with foetid stools
which is a fact of some consequence to be recollected.