ON THE PREPARATION AND MEDICINAL EMPLOYMENT OF ACONITUM NAPELLUS AND ITS ALCALOID ACONITINA.
"Aconitine will cure a local pain where every description of depletive and counter-irritant has failed."—London Medical Gazette, Nov. 5, 1836.
"Dr. Turnbull's work will be read with great interest by persons afflicted with neuralgia and other painful diseases. The profession is certainly indebted to him for drawing the attention of the public to an important, very potent, and much-neglected class of substances."—London Medical Gazette, April 1st, 1837.
"As a topical remedy, aconitine is most valuable for the relief of neuralgic and rheumatic pains. In neuralgia no remedy, I believe, will be found equal to it. One application of the tincture produces some amelioration, and after a few times use it frequently happens that the patient is cured. In some cases the benefit seems almost magical.—Pereira's Elements of Materia Medica, vol. II., page 1808.
"Of the great efficacy of aconitina in neuralgic and rheumatic affections, no one can entertain any doubt who has submitted the remedy to trial."—Pereira's Elements of Materia Medica, vol. II., page 1812.
Aconitine, discovered by Geiger and Hesse, in Aconitum Napellus and A. Ferox.—Our knowledge of this base is very limited. There is reason to think, from the experiments of Dr. Turnbull, either that the plant contains two bases, or that the aconitine of Geiger and Hesse is an altered product.
"Dr. Turnbull has succeeded in producing, but with difficulty and in small quantity, an aconitine possessing in perfection all the active properties of the plant. It produces numbness of the tongue when applied to it, and is said to contract the pupil, whereas Geiger's aconitine dilates it. In obtaining the aconitine of Turnbull, much appears to depend on the freshness of the plant; and the alkaloid itself is easily decomposed, especially by alkalies.
"As a remedy in neuralgia and similar painful and obscure diseases, the aconitine of Turnbull possesses most valuable powers. Could it be obtained at a reasonable price, it would be extensively employed. At present, however, only one manufacturer has been able to obtain it, and that in small quantity. The aconitine of Geiger and Hesse does not appear to possess the same action on the system.—Turner, Leibeg, and Gregory's Elements of Chemistry, 1842, page 1167.