Qualities. Form, pods, long, pointed, and pendulous; Colour, when ripe, a bright orange red. Odour, aromatic and pungent. Taste, extremely acrimonious and fiery. Solubility. Its qualities are partially extracted by water, but more completely by æther and spirit. Chemical Composition. Cinchonia, resin, mucilage, and an acrid principle said to be alkaline.[[446]] Incompatible Substances. The infusions of capsicum are disturbed by Infusion of Galls; Nitrate of Silver; Oxy-muriate of Mercury; Acetate of Lead; the Sulphates of Iron, Copper and Zinc; Ammonia, Carbonate of Potass, and Alum, but not by sulphuric, nitric, or muriatic acid. Medicinal Uses. It is a most powerful stimulant to the stomach, and is unaccompanied with any narcotic effect; as a gargle in cynanche maligna, and in relaxed states of the throat, it furnishes a valuable remedy; combined with purgatives, it proves serviceable in dyspepsia, (Form: 78,) it has lately been given with success in the advanced stages of acute rheumatism; in various diseases attended with cold feet, it has been recommended to wear socks dusted with Cayenne Pepper. Forms of Exhibition. It may be given, made into pills with crumb of bread, or in the form of tincture, diluted with water; for the purpose of a gargle, a simple infusion in the proportion of gr. j to f℥j of boiling water, or fʒvi of the tincture to f℥viij of the Infusum Rosæ, may be directed. Dose, of the substance, gr. vj to x, of the tincture fʒj to fʒij in an aqueous vehicle. Officinal Preparations. Tinct: Capsici: L.D.[[447]]
Cayenne Pepper is an indiscriminate mixture of the powder of the dried pods of several species of capsicum, but especially of the Capsicum baccatum, (Bird pepper.)
Adulterations. Cayenne pepper is generally mixed with muriate of soda, which disposes it to deliquesce. Red Lead may be detected by digesting it in acetic acid, and adding to the solution sulphuret of ammonia, which will produce, if any lead be present, a dark coloured precipitate; or the fraud may be discovered by boiling some of the suspected pepper in vinegar, and after filtering the solution adding to it sulphate of soda, when a white precipitate will be formed, which, after being dried and exposed to heat, and mixed with a little charcoal, will yield a metallic globule of lead.
CARBO LIGNI. L.E.D. Charcoal.
Qualities. It is a black, inodorous, insipid, brittle substance; when newly prepared it possesses the property of absorbing very considerable quantities of the different gases; it is also capable of destroying the smell and taste of a variety of vegetable and animal substances, especially of mucilages, oils, and of matter in which extractive abounds; and some medicines are said to be even deprived of their characteristic odour by remaining in contact with it, as Valerian, Galbanum, Balsam of Peru, and Musk. The use of charring the interior of water casks, and of wrapping charcoal in cloths that have acquired a bad smell, depends upon this property; for the same reason it furnishes a very excellent tooth powder,[[448]] for which purpose, that which is obtained from the shell of the cocoa nut is to be preferred. None of the fluid menstrua with which we are acquainted have any action whatever as solvents upon carbon.[[449]] Medicinal Uses. It is antiseptic, and has been administered internally, to correct the putrid eructations which sometimes attend dyspepsia, but in order to produce this effect it should be newly prepared, or such as has been preserved from the access of air, for it operates by absorbing the putrid gas, as well as by checking the decomposition of the undigested element.[[450]] Dose, grs. x to ʒj. It has been lately asserted to possess powers as an antidote to arsenic; if this be true, its action can only be mechanical by absorbing like a sponge the arsenical solution, and thereby defending the coats of the stomach from its virulence.[[451]] Charcoal, when mixed with boiled bread, forms a very valuable poultice for foul and gangrenous sores. In a state of impalpable powder, it is said to be effectual as a styptic; Dr. Odier informs us that the celebrated powder of Faynard, for stopping hemorrhage, was nothing more than the charcoal of beech-wood finely powdered.
Charcoal is prepared for the purposes of medicine and the arts, from a variety of substances, viz.
Burnt Sponge. Spongia Usta. L. Consists of charcoal with portions of phosphate and carbonate of lime, and sub-carbonate of soda; it has been highly commended in bronchocele and scrophulous complaints, in the form of an electuary, or in that of a lozenge, and it has been lately asserted that it owes its power to the presence of Iodine.
Vegetable Æthiops. Pulvis Quercus marinæ. From the fucus vesiculosus, or bladder-wrack, used as the preceding.
Ivory Black. Ebur Ustum. From ivory shavings burned; used as a dentifrice and a pigment, under the name of “blue-black,” for its hue is bluish; but bone-black is usually sold for it.
Lamp Black. Fuligo Lampadum. By burning resinous bodies, as the refuse of pitch, in furnaces of a peculiar construction.