ACCIDENTS CAUSED BY A VERY SMALL DOSE OF SANTONINE GIVEN TO A CHILD.
Santonine, being a tasteless vermifuge, is easily given to children, consequently its employment becomes daily more and more frequent; we therefore think it useful to expose the accidents which may follow the use of this medicine, when given in too large a dose. We refer to a case given in the Bulletin de Thérapeutique, by Dr. Spengler (d’Herborn). The patient, a child of four years old, who had been suffering for several months from intestinal worms, had taken at different times, and with success, a dose of a grain and a half. One day they gave him three grains in two doses; after the first dose he became troubled with pains in the epigastrium, colic, and vomiting. He had frequent stools, in which were found a number of ascarides. Notwithstanding these numerous evacuations, the bad symptoms continued to increase; his body became cold, his face livid, his eyes had a blue circle round them, a cold sweat broke out, his respiration became embarrassed, and his extremities convulsed. Besides these symptoms, M. Spengler mentions that there were dilatation of the pupils and great pain in the abdomen (not, however, increased by pressure). He prescribed milk in abundance, and after several evacuations, the potion of Rivière in an oily emulsion. The little patient was placed in a very warm bed; during the night he was much disturbed; the following day he took some doses of calomel, after which several worms were evacuated, and from that time he became convalescent. We have related this fact as a caution against the accidents which may result from the use of santonine, although the severity of the symptoms and the smallness of the dose may make us doubt whether the santonine was pure, or whether some other cause might not have produced the terrible results attributed to it.—Journal de Pharmacie et Chimie.
{17}
ON POISONING BY NICOTINE. Read before the National Academy of Medicine. BY M. ORFILA.
GENTLEMEN,—In laying before the Academy a memoir on Nicotine, on the 20th of last month, I stated that I did not think I ought to read it, fearing that it might exercise some influence on the proceedings which were to take place at Mons, eight days afterwards. My scruples are now entirely removed, because I was present at the three first sittings of the Court of Assizes at Hainault, and have heard the examination of the accused persons, and the depositions of some of the witnesses. My memoir, supposing it to be published to-morrow, and consequently much before the sentence will have been pronounced, will not aggravate the situation of the accused, nor increase the power of the ministers of justice. You will see, in fact, that after describing nicotine, I came to the conclusion, that it may be easily detected in the digestive canal, the liver, the lungs, and all those organs into which it has been carried after its absorption. Now, M. de Bocarmé confesses that he prepared some nicotine, that Gustave Fougnies took an appreciable dose of it, and died very shortly afterwards. Consequently, he cannot dispute the fact of M. Stas having found this alkaloid in the body of his brother-in-law. It is of little importance to us that Madame de Bocarmé accuses her husband of being the author of the crime, whilst he, on the other hand, attributes the death of Gustave to a mistake of his wife’s, who might inadvertently have poured the nicotine into a glass instead of wine. It will be for the jury to decide what truth there is in these assertions; as scientific men, we ought to confine ourselves in this case to the solution of the chemical and medical problems relating to this subject.
I think I ought to read to the Academy the textual memoir, without the preamble, which I composed a fortnight ago, when the principal circumstances, which have since been developed, were but imperfectly known.
The principal object of this paper is to show:—
1. That we may characterize pure nicotine as easily as we can a poison derived from the mineral kingdom.
2. That we may detect this alkali in the digestive canal, and assert its existence there, although it is present only to the extent of a few drops. {18}
3. That it is sufficiently easy to prove its presence in the liver and the other organs, after it has been absorbed.
1. Pure Nicotine may be characterised as easily as a Poison derived from the Mineral Kingdom.—Nicotine, discovered in 1809 by the illustrious Vauquelin, was studied in 1828 by Messrs. Posselt and Reimann, who found it in different species of nicotiana, in macrophylla rustica, and glutinosa. Messrs. Boutron, Charlard, and Henry described some of its properties in 1836. Havanna tobacco contains two per cent., that of Maryland 2·3, that of Virginia 6·9, that of Alsace 3·2, that of Pas-de-Calais 4·9, that of the Nord 6·6, and that of Lot 8. It is classed among the natural volatile vegetable alkalies, which are only three in number, namely, conicine, theobromine, and nicotine. This last is entirely composed of hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen. It may be represented as a compound of one equivalent of ammonia (H3N), and of one of a hydro-carbon containing four equivalents of hydrogen and ten of carbon (H4C10). It is now obtained by a much more simple process than was formerly adopted, which consists in passing the vapor of tobacco into water acidulated with sulphuric acid. Sulphate of nicotine is thus speedily produced, and this has to be decomposed by a strong alkali. It is then only necessary to apply sufficient heat to volatilize the nicotine. This mode of preparation indicates that smokers in respiring the smoke of tobacco introduce into their bodies a certain quantity of the vapor of nicotine.
Characters of pure Nicotine.—It is in the form of an oleaginous, transparent, colorless, tolerably fluid, anhydrous liquid, of the density of 1·048, becoming slightly yellow with keeping, and tending to become brown and thick from contact with the air from which it absorbs oxygen; its acrid odor resembles but slightly that of tobacco; its taste is very burning. It volatilizes at 77° F., and leaves a carbonaceous residue. The vapor which rises presents such a powerful smell of tobacco, and is so irritating, that it is difficult to breathe in a room in which one drop of it has been spilt. If this vapor be approached with a lighted taper, it burns with a white smoky flame, and leaves a carbonaceous residue as an essential oil would do. It strongly blues reddened litmus paper. It is very soluble in water, in alcohols, and in fat oils, as also in ether, which easily separates it from an aqueous solution. The great solubility of nicotine in both water and ether forms an important fact in its chemical history, as the greater number of vegetable alkalies, not to say all, if they dissolve easily in one of these liquids, are not readily soluble in the other. {19}
Nicotine combines directly with acids, disengaging heat. Concentrated pure sulphuric acid, without heat, produces with it a wine-red color; on the application of heat to this it becomes thick, and acquires the color of the dregs of wine; if it be boiled it blackens and disengages sulphurous acid. With cold hydrochloric acid it disengages white vapors as ammonia does; if the mixture be heated it acquires a violet color, the intensity of which increases with prolonged ebullition. Nitric acid, aided with a little heat, imparts to it an orange-yellow color, and white vapors of nitric acid are first given off, then red vapors of hyponitrous acid. If it be further heated the liquor becomes yellow, and by ebullition it acquires a red color resembling that of chloride of platinum. Prolonged ebullition gives a black mass. Heated with stearic acid it dissolves and forms a soap, which congeals on cooling, and is slightly soluble in water, and very soluble in heated ether. The simple salts of nicotine are deliquescent, and difficultly crystallizable. The double salts which it yields with the different metallic oxides crystallize better.
The aqueous solution of nicotine is colorless, transparent, and strongly alkaline. It acts like ammonia on several reagents; thus, it gives a white precipitate with bichloride of mercury, acetate of lead, protochloride and bichloride of tin; a canary yellow precipitate with chloride of platinum, which precipitate is soluble in water; a white precipitate with salts of zinc, which is soluble in excess of nicotine; a blue precipitate with acetate of copper. This precipitate is gelatinous and soluble in excess of nicotine, forming a blue double acetate, similar to that formed by ammonia with the same salt. It gives an ochre-yellow precipitate with salts of the sesqui-oxide of iron, insoluble in excess of nicotine. With sulphate of protoxide of manganese it gives a white precipitate of oxide, which speedily becomes brown by contact with the oxygen of the air. It separates the green sesqui-oxide from the salts of chromium. The red permanganate of potash is instantly decolorized by nicotine, as by ammonia, although this latter alkali acts more slowly and must be used in larger proportion.
The following reactions may serve to distinguish the aqueous solutions of nicotine from ammonia. Chloride of gold yields a reddish-yellow precipitate, very soluble in an excess of nicotine. Chloride of cobalt yields a blue precipitate, which changes to green; the oxide thus formed does not readily dissolve in excess of nicotine, whilst ammonia dissolves the green precipitate and forms a red solution. Aqueous solution of iodine gives a yellow precipitate with solution of nicotine, as chloride of platinum would {20} do; with an excess of nicotine it acquires a straw color, and it is decolorized by the action of heat. Ammonia, on the contrary, immediately decolorizes the aqueous solution of iodine without rendering it turbid. Pure tannic acid gives with nicotine an abundant white precipitate. Ammonia gives no precipitate, but imparts a red color.[4]
[4] It is interesting to compare the physical and chemical properties of nicotine with those of conicine.
Conicine is yellow; its smell resembles that of the urine of the mouse, and differs entirely from that of nicotine; it strongly blues reddened litmus paper. Added to water and shaken with it, it floats on the surface and is not readily dissolved. Ether dissolves it easily. When heated in a capsule it forms white vapors, having a strong smell of celery mixed with that of the urine of the mouse. Weak tincture of the iodine yields a white precipitate, which acquires an olive color with excess of the tincture. Pure and concentrated sulphuric acid does not alter it; when the mixture is heated it acquires a greenish brown color, and if the heat be continued it becomes blood-red and afterwards black. Nitric acid imparts to it a topaz color, which is not changed by the action of heat. Hydrochloric acid yields white vapors as ammonia does, and renders it violet, especially when heated. Tannic acid gives a white precipitate, and chloride of platinum a yellow precipitate. The red permanganate of potash is immediately decolorized. Corrosive sublimate yields a white precipitate. Acetate of copper gives a gelatinous blue precipitate, less soluble in an excess of conicine than is that formed with nicotine. Chloride of cobalt behaves with it as it does with nicotine. Chloride of gold gives a light yellow precipitate. Neutral acetate of lead does not give any precipitate; neither does the subacetate. Chloride of zinc gives a white gelatinous precipitate soluble in excess of the conicine. Sulphate of sesquioxide of iron gives a yellow precipitate. The words in italics indicate the means of distinguishing conicine from nicotine.
If to these chemical characters which permit one so easily to distinguish nicotine, we add those resulting from the action which it exercises on the animal economy, it will no longer be possible to confound it with any other body. The following are the results of the experiments I undertook in 1842 on this alkali, and which I published in 1843. (See the 4th edition of my work on Toxicology.)
First Experiment.—I applied three drops of nicotine on the tongue of a small but sufficiently robust dog; immediately afterwards, the animal became giddy, and voided urine; at the end of a minute, its breathing was quick and panting. This state lasted for forty seconds, and then the animal fell on its right side, and appeared intoxicated. Far from showing any stiffness or convulsions, it was feeble and flabby, although the fore paws slightly trembled. Five minutes after the administration of the {21} poison, he uttered plaintive cries, and slightly stiffened his neck, carrying his head slightly backwards. The pupils were excessively dilated; the respiration was calm, and in no way accelerated. This state lasted ten minutes, during which the animal was not able to stand. From this time the effects appeared to diminish, and soon after it might have been predicted that they would speedily disappear entirely. Next day, the animal was quite well. The nicotine I used was evidently not anhydrous.
Second Experiment.—I repeated the experiment with five drops of nicotine on a dog of the same description. The animal showed the same effects, and died at the end of ten minutes, although during four minutes he showed slight convulsive movements.
Opening of the Body the day following.—The membranes of the brain were slightly injected, and the superficial vessels were gorged with blood; this injection was especially observed on the left side, and in the lower part of the brain. The brain itself of the ordinary consistence, had the two substances of which it is composed, slightly disintegrated, the striated substance was much injected, as well as the pons varolii. The membranes which envelope the cerebellum were still more injected than the other parts. Between the first and second cervical vertebræ on the right side, that is, on the side on which the animal fell, there was a rather considerable effusion of blood. The lungs appeared to be in their natural state. The heart, the vessels of which were gorged with blood, was greatly distended, especially on the right side, with clots of blood; the auricles and the right ventricle containing much, and the left ventricle none. The superior and inferior vena cava, and the aorta, were equally distended with clots of semi-fluid blood. The tongue was corroded along the middle line, and towards the posterior part, where the epithelium separated with facility. In the interior of the stomach there were found a black pitchy matter and a bloody liquid, which appeared to have resulted from an exudation of blood. The duodenum was inflamed in patches; the rest of the intestinal canal appeared in a healthy state.
Since the above period I have made the following experiments, which I have frequently repeated with the same results, only that in some cases I have found the blood contained in the cavities of the heart in a fluid state, even when proceeding to dissection immediately after death; nevertheless the blood speedily coagulated.
Third Experiment.—At eleven o’clock I administered, to a dog of moderate size, twelve drops of nicotine. A few instants afterwards {22} giddiness came on, and he fell on the right side; he soon manifested convulsive movements, slightly at first, then sufficiently strong to constitute a tetanic fit with opisthotonos; he was in a remarkable state of drowsiness, and uttered no cry. His pupils were dilated; there was no action of the bowels, nor vomiting. He died at two minutes after eleven. The body was immediately opened. The abdomen and thorax, on being cut open, sometimes emitted a very decided smell of tobacco. The heart contained a considerable quantity of black coagulated blood. There was more in the right auricle and ventricle than in the left. The lungs appeared in a normal state. The stomach contained about forty grammes of a thick, yellow, slimy liquid; and here and there parts of the mucous membrane were inflamed. The œsophagus, the intestines, the liver, the spleen, and the kidneys, were in a normal state. The epithelium was easily detached from the tongue; the base of this organ was red and slightly excoriated. The brain was more injected than its enveloping membranes; the pons varolii was the same as in the second experiment.
Fourth Experiment.—I applied on the eye of a dog of moderate size one drop of nicotine; the animal instantly became giddy and weak in its limbs; a minute afterwards he fell on his right side and manifested convulsive fits, which became more and more powerful; the head was thrown back. At the end of two minutes the convulsions ceased, and extreme weakness ensued. Five minutes afterwards the animal could stand, but was unable to walk. Ten minutes later he was in the same state without having vomited or had any action of the bowels. Urged to walk, he made a few undecided steps, then vomited about one hundred grammes of a greyish alimentary paste. At the end of half an hour he was in the same state. It was evident that he was recovering. The conjunctiva was sensibly inflamed, and the transparent cornea was, to a great extent, opaque.
2. We may detect nicotine in the digestive canal, and affirm its existence there, although it may be only present to the extent of a few drops. I would call the particular attention of the Academy to this paragraph; I have never, in the course of my numerous experiments, seen animals whose death has been almost instantaneous, either vomit or have any action of the bowels.[5] If it be the same with man, as everything tends to prove it is, the Chemist will, under such circumstances, be in the most favorable {23} condition for detecting the poison, as there will most frequently be a sufficient quantity in the canal to determine its presence.
[5] If life is prolonged the animals vomit.
Before describing the two processes to which I had recourse for the determining the existence of nicotine in the stomach and intestines, as well as in the œsophagus, it may be observed that I acted separately on the liquid and solid matters contained in these organs, and on the organs themselves.
First Process.—The contents of the stomach and intestines, or the organs themselves, are placed in a considerable proportion of sulphuric ether; after twelve hours of maceration, it is to be filtered; the ether passes through, holding nicotine in solution; most frequently when the matters on which the ether has acted are fatty, the ether holds in solution a soap composed of nicotine and one or several fatty acids; it may also happen that it contains non-saponified nicotine. The ethereal liquid is evaporated almost to dryness by very gentle heat. The greasy and soapy product obtained rarely shows any alkaline reaction. It is to be agitated, without heat, with caustic soda dissolved in water, to decompose the soap and set free the nicotine. The whole is then to be put into a retort furnished with a receiver plunged in cold water, and heat applied to the retort until no more liquid remains in it. The liquid condensed in the receiver contains either all, or at least a large proportion of the nicotine. It is well to know that, 1st, when heat is applied to the retort, the matter froths, augments in volume, and would certainly pass into the receiver, if the retort was not very large in relation to the quantity of liquid operated upon; 2ndly, even at a temperature of 212° Fahr., the vapor of water carries with it a certain quantity of nicotine, therefore the operation should be carried on as much as possible in close vessels. If these precautions be observed, the distilled liquid will be limpid and colorless; it suffices then to concentrate it over a water-bath, to about a sixth of its volume, to obtain with it all the reactions of nicotine.
Second Process.—The method of which I am now going to speak is evidently superior to the preceding. The matters contained in the stomach and intestines, or the organs themselves, as well as the œsophagus, are macerated in water acidulated by pure and concentrated sulphuric acid, taking, for instance, four or five drops of acid to one hundred and fifty or two hundred grammes of water. At the end of twelve hours it is to be filtered; the liquid, which is generally of a yellow color, contains sulphate of nicotine and a certain quantity of organic matter. It is then to be {24} evaporated almost to dryness in close vessels over a water-bath; then treated with a few grammes of distilled water which dissolves the sulphate of nicotine, leaving the greater part of the organic matter undissolved; it is now to be filtered; the filtered liquor is to be saturated with a little pure hydrate of soda or potash, in order to take the sulphuric acid, and set free the nicotine. The mixture of nicotine and of sulphate of soda or potash is to be put into a retort, and heated as described in the first process; the distilled liquid is to be evaporated over a water-bath in order to concentrate the solution of nicotine.
Instead of distilling the liquor by heat, I have often treated it with ether; this latter decanted and submitted to spontaneous evaporation leaves the nicotine.
Everything tends to show that nicotine may be detected by other processes. Thus by treating the digestive canal with absolute alcohol, with the addition of a little soda, it would be dissolved, and by the reaction of the soda, a soap would be formed with the fatty matter, which would set free the nicotine; it would then only remain to distil it by heat, after having evaporated to dryness. Perhaps, also, it might be separated by acting on the tissues with pure soda or potash, then evaporating to dryness and heating it in closed vessels.
3. It is sufficiently easy to prove the presence of nicotine in the liver and other organs after it has been absorbed.—In 1839 when I had shown that poisons after having been absorbed might be extracted from the organs where they had been carried with the blood, I insisted so strongly on the necessity of examining these organs with a view to the detection of poisons, that it has now become the custom to proceed in this way. How often does it happen, that, in consequence of repeated vomiting and action of the bowels, and also from complete absorption having taken place, there remains no trace of the poison in the digestive canal? Moreover, it is evident, that, in getting the poison from the organs to which it has been carried by absorption, we obtain, in reality, that portion of the poison which has been the cause of death, unless it be shown that it was carried to those organs after death by absorption. M. Stas has conformed, most wisely, to this precept. For my part, I could not, in my researches, neglect this important branch of the investigation. The livers of those animals which I had poisoned with twelve or fifteen drops of nicotine, when submitted to one or other of the processes I have described, furnished me with appreciable quantities of this alkali. I scarcely obtained any from {25} the blood contained in the heart, but I had only operated upon a few grammes. Moreover, experience teaches that a great number of poisons absorbed rapidly pass from the blood into the organs, and most especially into the liver.
It may be readily conceived that the research for absorbed nicotine might be fruitless in those cases where death was occasioned by only a few drops of this body; but then the presence of the alkali may be detected in the digestive canal.
Gentlemen, after results such as those obtained by M. Stas and myself, society may feel satisfied. Without doubt intelligent and skilful criminals, intent on puzzling the Chemists, will sometimes have recourse to very active poisons, but little known to the community at large, and difficult to detect; but science is on the alert to surmount all difficulties. Penetrating to the recesses of our organs, she extracts evidence of the crime, and furnishes one of the great elements of conviction against the guilty. Do we not know that at the present time poisonings by morphine, brucine, strychnine, nicotine, conicine, hydrocyanic acid, and many other vegetable substances which were formerly believed to be inaccessible to our means of investigation, may be discovered and recognised in a manner to be perfectly characteristic?
During my stay at Mons, and consequently since the deposit of this memoir, I have had at my disposal the complete and remarkable Report of M. Stas, and I have satisfied myself:—
1st. That this Chemist has obtained nicotine from the tongue, from the stomach, and liquids contained in it, and also from the liver and lungs of Gustave Fougnies.
2ndly. That he also obtained nicotine by properly treating the boards of the dining-room where Gustave died, although these boards had been washed with warm water, with oil, and with soap.—Repertoire de Pharmacie.
The Count Hippolyte Visarte de Bocarmé confessed his guilt, and was executed at Mons.
{26}
ON THE ESTIMATION OF THE STRENGTH OF MEDICINAL HYDROCYANIC ACID, OF BITTER ALMOND WATER, AND OF CHERRY LAUREL WATER. BY J. LIEBIG.
Liquids which contain prussic acid, and are mixed with caustic potash ley until they have a strong alkaline reaction, yield, on the gradual addition of a diluted solution of nitrate of silver, a precipitate, which, on being shaken, disappears to a certain extent. Alkaline liquids containing prussic acid, may also be mixed with a few drops of a solution of common salt without the production of any permanent precipitate, until at last, on an increased addition, chloride of silver falls down.
This phenomenon depends on the fact that oxide of silver and chloride of silver are soluble in the generated cyanide of potassium, until there is found a double salt, composed of equal equivalents of cyanide of potassium and cyanide of silver, which is not decomposed by an excess of alkali. Liebig’s method of estimating the prussic acid consists in determining the quantity of silver which must be added to an alkaline liquid, containing prussic acid, until a precipitate appears. Each equivalent of silver corresponds to two equivalents of prussic acid. Having caused several experiments to be made, which prove the efficacy of this method; and having carefully observed that the presence of formic acid and muriatic acid in the prussic acid, does not interfere with the correctness of this method, the author gives the following directions for examining different liquids containing prussic acid:—The aqua amygdalarum amarum being turbid, must be clarified by the addition of a known quantity of water: 63 grs. of fused nitrate of silver are dissolved in 5937 grs. of water; 300 grs. of this liquid corresponds to 1 gr. of anhydrous prussic acid. Before applying the test, the vessel with the solution of silver is to be weighed, and of the latter so much is added to a weighed quantity (e.g. 60 grs.) of prussic acid, mixed with a small portion of potash ley and a few drops of a solution of common salt, shaking it in a common white medicine glass until a perceptible turbidness takes place, and does not disappear on shaking. The solution of silver is now again to be weighed; and supposing 360 grs. are found to have been employed for the test, the 60 grs. of the tested prussic acid contain 1,20 grs. anhydrous prussic acid, or 100 grs. contain two grains. {27}
Aqua laurocerasi, which the author examined, contained in one litre, one decigram, and the same quantity of aqua amygdal. amar. 7·5 decigrammes of anhydrous prussic acid.—(In Pharmaceutical Journal, from Ann. de Chem. U. Pharm. Bd. lxxvii.)
THE PHARMACOPŒIA OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
The appearance of a new edition of the Pharmacopœia is to the apothecary always a matter of high interest; to it he looks for the recognized improvements in the various processes which he has constantly to perform; by it essentially he is to be guided in all the officinal preparations which he makes; and from it he learns what new articles, by their intrinsic merits and through the vogue they have obtained, are deemed of sufficient importance to be recognized officinally as additions to the materia medica. The general arrangement of the new Pharmacopœia is the same as that of 1840. Owing to the wise principles which governed the earlier framers of the Pharmacopœia—though, from the progress of botanical science, the scientific names of the plants to which many of the articles of the vegetable materia medics are referred, have been changed, and with improvements in chemistry, the nomenclature of several salts has been altered—this has led to little alteration in the designations employed in the Pharmacopœia. Assafœtida is now referred to Narthex Assafetida, instead of Ferula A.; Diosma is, after the Edinburgh Pharmacopœia, termed Barosma; Camphor to Camphora officinarum; Cardamom to Elettaria Cardamomum; Cinchona flava to C. calisaya; Cinchona pallida to C. condaminea and C. micrantha, while the source of Cinchona rubra is not yet indicated. Colocynth is now termed the fruit of Citrullus colocynthis; kino is said to be the inspissated juice of Pterocarpus marsupium, and of other plants; quassia is referred to Simaruba excelsa, and uva ursi to Artostaphylos uva-ursi.
Of the names of the articles of the materia medica, as was before stated, very few are changed. Myroxylon, of the old Pharmacopœia, is now Balsamum Peruvianum, Tolutanum, Balsamum Tolutanum; Diosma, {28} after the Edinburgh Pharmacopœia, is now Buchu; Zinci carbonas is changed to the old name, calamina; iodinum, following the British Pharmacopœias, is iodinium, and brominum, brominium. Port wine has been introduced, and consequently, instead of the Vinum of 1840, we have now Vinum Album, Sherry, and Vinum Rubrum, Port Wine.
The secondary list of the materia medica, a peculiarity of our national pharmacopœia, is still retained, to what good purpose it is hard to understand. The framers of the book state that “it has the advantage of permitting a discrimination between medicines of acknowledged value and others of less estimation, which, however, may still have claims to notice.” The advantage is not a very evident one. The distinction that is attempted is very difficult to make satisfactorily; it will vary with individuals, and, we fancy, too, with the place at which it is made. Certainly few in New York would put Angostura bark with Horsemint (Monarda), and Queen’s root (Stillingia) in the primary list; while Apocynum cannabinum, one of the most active of our diuretics, and Malefern, in tape-worm, one of the most certain anthelmintics, are exiled to the secondary. If popular, instead of professional reputation, is to be the criterion, are not Arnica, and Matricaria, and Benne leaves, and horehound, quite as well entitled to a place in the primary list as many of the articles that now figure there? And are there not twenty simples in use among the old women of the country that deserve a place in the national Pharmacopœia as well as may weed, and frost wort, and fever root? Though, too, new articles should not readily be admitted until time has fixed their value, we should like to have seen some notice of Matico and of the salts of Valerianic acid. We are sorry, too, to see the old definition of rhubarb still adhered to; “the root of Rheum palmatum and of other species of Rheum;” that of the Edinburgh Pharmacopœia, “the root of an unknown species of Rheum,” thus rendering the Russian or Chinese rhubarb alone officinal, is very much preferable.
Of the substances introduced into the Materia Medica, the chief are Aconite root (aconiti radix), Extractum cannabis (extract of hemp), Oleum morrhuæ (cod liver oil), Oleum amygdalæ amaræ (oil of bitter almonds), and Potassæ chloras (chlorate of potassa). By Arnica in the last Pharmacopœia was understood the root and herb of Arnica montana; for these, in the present—the name remaining unchanged—the flowers are substituted. The additions to the Materia Medica have been made with judgment, and certainly nothing has been admitted with the exception perhaps of {29} Helianthemum (Frostwort), of doubtful utility, or that has not for some time been submitted to the test of experience.
The preparations introduced are all familiar to the pharmaceutist, and have for a long time been kept in most good shops. It is singular that in the last Pharmacopœia, by nitrate of silver was understood the fused nitrate. This oversight has been corrected, and by Argenti nitras now is understood the salt in crystals, while the common lunar caustic is Argenti nitras fusa. Among the new preparations are the active principles of Aconitum Napellus (Aconitia), Oxide of Silver, Iodide of Arsenic, Chloroform, Collodion, a number of fluid extracts, Citrate of Iron, Glycerine, Solution of Citrate of Magnesia, the oils of Copaiba, Tobacco, and Valerian, Iodide of Lead, Potassa cum calce, Bromide of Potassium, Syrup of Wild Cherry bark—of gum—and Tinctures of Aconite root, Kino, and Nux Vomica, and compound tincture of Cardamom.
The Iron by hydrogen, as it has been sometimes rather awkwardly termed, the Fer réduit of the French, after the British Pharmacopœias, is termed Ferri pulvis, powder of iron. Soubeiran’s formula for the preparation of Donovan’s Liquor (Liquor Arsenici et Hydrargyri Iodidi) is given as much simpler and of easier preparation than the original formula of Donovan; there is, too, a good formula for the extemporaneous preparations of pills of iodide of iron. The solution of the Persesquinitrate of Iron, as it has been sometimes termed, appears as solution of Nitrate of Iron; it is a preparation that soon becomes altered by keeping. Tincture of Aconite root is directed to be made by macerating a pound of bruised Aconite root for fourteen days with two pints of alcohol, expressing and filtering. A process by percolation is also given. This is weaker than the tincture of either of the British Pharmacopœias, and weaker, we believe, than the tincture ordinarily employed here. As an external application, for which it is chiefly used, this is a great disadvantage, and when administered internally, the varying strength of a medicine so powerful will be attended with serious evils.
The old formulæ for the preparation of the alcoholic extract of aconite and of the extractum aconiti (expressed juice), are retained, both being made from the leaves. The extracts when thus made, even when properly prepared, are for the most part inert. No formula is given for the preparation of an alcoholic extract from the root.
There are three new preparations among the ointments:—Unguentum Belladonnæ, Potassii Iodidi, and Sulphuris Iodidi. The ointment of Iodide {30} of Potassium is directed to be made by dissolving a drachm of the iodide in a drachm of boiling water, and afterwards incorporating the solution with the lard.
On the whole, there is much more to praise than to find fault with in the Pharmacopœia. Upon some of the preparations we will hereafter find further occasion perhaps to comment.