Qualities. The Odour of the flowers is strong and fragrant; Taste, bitter and aromatic, with a slight degree of warmth. Chemical Composition. The active principles are essential oil, resin, and bitter extractive. Solubility. Both water and alcohol take up the active parts of the flowers; hot water, by infusion, dissolves nearly one-fourth of their weight, but boiling dissipates the essential oil, on which account they should never form an ingredient in a decoction. Uses. The flowers given in substance are said to have cured intermittents; they are however but rarely used; externally they are applied in fomentations. See Infusum Anthemidis. Officinal Preparations. Decoctum Anthemidis nobilis. E.D. Infusum Anthemidis. L.[[373]] There is a great variety in the quality and price of chamomile flowers; those which are large and whitish are to be preferred as the freshest; by keeping they become invalid, and are deprived of their aromatic principle and essential oil. They are always inferior in wet seasons. The double flowered varieties are also less powerful than the single kind, since the qualities reside in the disc florets.
ANTIMONII SULPHURETUM. L.
Sulphuret of Antimony.
Qualities. This article appears in the market in conical loaves, which are dark grey externally, but internally possess a bladed structure and considerable brilliancy; the Edinburgh and Dublin colleges direct this substance to be levigated with water, and kept in the state of powder; it should however never be purchased in that form, as it is not unfrequently adulterated with sulphuret of lead, whereas it cannot contain such admixture when its form is characteristically crystalline and bladed. Chemical Composition. Antimony 100, Sulphur 35·572. From the time of Basil Valentine to the present, this preparation has been known in the market by the name of Antimony, a name which it is evident can only with propriety be applied to the pure metal. Solubility. It is insoluble in water and alcohol; since however it is slightly acted upon by vegetable acids, cups were formerly made of it, which imparted to wine that stood in them for some time, an emetic quality.[[374]] Uses. It is principally employed for the preparation of the other antimonial combinations, for which purpose it is more eligible than the metal itself, as being less contaminated with metallic impurities. Its medicinal energies depend altogether upon the state of the stomach, and must therefore be extremely uncertain; when it meets with any acid in the stomach, it acts with extreme violence, a circumstance which requires precaution. It was formerly much more employed as an Alterative than at present. Stoll recommends its use in chronic rheumatism, and advises its union with Myrrh. In the treatment of affections of the skin it has been long used, both singly, and in union with other substances, such as Conium, Dulcamara, Guaiacum, &c. In Scrophulous diseases, connected with cutaneous eruptions, or ulcerations, it has been a favourite remedy with many practitioners, and it forms the basis of several foreign Nostrums. In times of remote antiquity it was used by females as a black pigment for staining the eye-lashes, a custom which continues to this day in the east.[[375]] It is at present given to horses mixed with their food, to make their coats smooth, and very large doses may be given to these animals without producing any deleterious effects. Officinal Preparations. Dr. Black constructed a table representing a view of all the preparations whose basis was antimony; many of these however have fallen into disuse, and the nomenclature of all is changed. The following arrangement of the medicines prepared from the sulphuret of antimony,[[376]] is presented to us by Mr. Thomson, in his London Dispensatory. 1. By trituration, Sulphuretum Antimonii Præparatum. E.D. 2. By the Action of Heat with Phosphate of Lime, (oxidized) Pulvis Antimonialis, L.D. Oxidum Antimonii cum Phosphate Calcis. E. 3. By the Action of Alkalies, (oxidized), Antimonii Sulphuretum Præcipitatum. L.E. Sulphur Antimoniatum Fuscum. D. 4. By the Action of Acids, (oxidized,) Antimonii Oxydum. L. Oxydum Antimonii Nitromuriaticum. D. Antimonium Tartarizatum. L. Tartris Antimonii, olim Tartarus Emeticus. E. Tartarum Antimoniatum, sive Emeticum, D. Vinum Antimonii Tartarizati. L. Vinum Tartaritis Antimonii. E.
Adulterations. The importance of employing this article in a state of great purity, for the preparation of so many active and valuable medicines, is obvious. It ought to be entirely volatilized by a read heat; Lead is discovered by its imparting to the antimony a foliated instead of a bladed texture, and from not being vaporizable; Arsenic, by the garlic odour emitted when thrown upon live coals; or by the numerous tests mentioned under the history of that article; Manganese and Iron, from not being vaporizable, and from other tests: the most usual adulteration is black oxide of iron, or the scoriæ of that metal, “Smithy dust.”
ANTIMONII SULPHURETUM PRÆCIPITATUM. L. E.
Sulphur Antimoniatum Fuscum. D.
Precipitated Sulphuret of Antimony.
Qualities. Form, a brilliant orange coloured powder; Taste, slightly styptic, but inodorous. Chemical Composition. Very complicated attractions are exerted during the preparation of this substance; the result of which is an hydro-sulphuret of Oxide of Antimony, with excess of sulphur. Solubility. It is quite insoluble in water. Uses. According to the dose, it is diaphoretic, cathartic, or emetic; it is, however, less certain than many other preparations, and, unless in combination with mercury, for cutaneous affections, is not very often employed. Incompatible Substances. All acids and acidulous salts increase its emetic properties; when therefore acid is suspected to prevail in the primæ viæ, it should be combined with soap, magnesia, (Form: 128,) or aromatic confection; on the contrary, the confection of roses, and vehicles containing acids, should be carefully avoided. Form of Exhibition. Pills. Dose, grs. 1 to v. Officinal Preparations. Pilulæ Hydrargyri Sub-Muriatis (H) L. Adulterations. It is often sophisticated with chalk and other extraneous matter; it ought not to effervesce with acids; it should be entirely vaporizable by heat, and its colour should be that of bright orange. A spurious article is vended, which consists of sulphur and sulphuret of antimony coloured with Venetian red.
ANTIMONIUM TARTARIZATUM. L.