Qualities. Form, a viscid and colourless, or pale straw-coloured oil; it is nearly inodorous, but on being swallowed, excites a slight sensation of acrimony in the throat. It has all the chemical habitudes of the other expressed oils, except those which relate to its solubility in alcoholic and ethereal menstrua. Med. Uses. It is mildly cathartic, and is particularly eligible in cases where stimulating purgatives would prove hurtful, but in obstinate constipation, where copious evacuations are required, this oil cannot be trusted, it will insinuate itself through the intestinal canal, bringing with it a small portion of the more fluid contents, but leaving behind it the collection of indurated fæces. Forms of Exhibition. The most efficacious mode of administering it is by floating it upon tincture of senna, or peppermint water, or some other similar vehicle; it is also sometimes given with success in coffee or mutton broth, or suspended in water by the intervention of mucilage, yelk of egg (Form. 75,) or by honey, which at the same time contributes to its laxative operation: alkalies, although they form an emulsion with it, convert it into a saponaceous compound, and impair its cathartic force. Dose, f℥ss to f℥iss. Adulterations. It is usually adulterated with olive oil or poppy oil, and when to a considerable extent, scammony is added to quicken its operation. There is however a peculiarity in castor oil which serves to distinguish it from every other fixed oil, viz. its great solubility in rectified spirit; for instance, f℥iv of alcohol of ·820 will mix uniformly with any proportion of castor oil, whereas it will not dissolve more than fʒj of Linseed Oil; and a still less proportion of the expressed oils of almonds and of olives; when the spirit is diluted, its action on all these oils is equally diminished, so that common spirit of wine has but little power even over castor oil; but here chemistry again interposes its aid, for by the addition of camphor, in the proportion of one part to eight of spirit, spirit of ·840 is enabled to dissolve castor oil, whilst it has no influence upon the other fixed oils; castor oil is also soluble in any proportion, in sulphuric æther of the specific gravity ·7563, while four fluid-ounces of the same liquid will only dissolve a fluid-ounce and a quarter of the expressed oil of Almonds; a fluid-ounce and a half of that of Olives; and two fluid-ounces and a half of Linseed oil. Vogel introduced a composition as a substitute for this oil, which some practitioners have greatly extolled; it consisted of nine grains of the extract of Jalap, and three grains of Venetian soap, triturated in a mortar with an ounce and a half of Olive oil.
SABINÆ FOLIA. L. (Juniperus Sabina.)
Savine Leaves.
Qualities. Odour, heavy and disagreeable; Taste, bitter, hot, and acrimonious. Chem. Comp. Essential oil, which may be obtained by distillation with water; fixed oil, bitter extractive, and resin. Solubility. Both water and alcohol extract its active principles. Med. Uses. It possesses highly stimulating properties, and has been used as a diaphoretic, anthelmintic, and emmenagogue. Rave, a German writer of great respectability, speaks of its use in chronic rheumatism in the highest terms; Alibert commends its anthelmintic powers, but its reputation has principally rested upon its generally acknowledged influence over the uterus. The testimony of Dr. Home of Edinburgh is strong in favour of its emmenagogue powers, but the adverse opinion of Dr. Cullen brought it into disrepute. It occasions a manifest flow of blood to the uterus, but this is probably sympathetically produced by its direct action on the large intestines; for if given in large doses it occasions great heat in the primæ viæ, hæmorrhage, and inflammation of the bowels. It is therefore inadmissible in all cases which are attended with fever, or much vascular action. When amenorrhœa depends upon a relaxed state of the general system, or on an inactive and torpid condition of the uterine system, it may often be employed with advantage. Wedekind, a German writer, extols it in the treatment of that atonic or relaxed state of the uterus, attended with an unnatural secretion and soft swelling of the uterus, which is sometimes met with in women who have suffered much from repeated childbearing, and which is so generally attended with a train of hysteric disturbances. Dr. Eberle says that he has occasionally employed it in cases of Amenorrhœa, in females of a relaxed habit of body; and although sometimes without success, he has had sufficient evidence of its powers to establish its claim to attention. In several cases, similar to those above stated, I have employed the Savin with much success, but I have found it very liable to disturb the stomach, and to produce head-ache. Forms of Exhibition. Some practitioners have recommended that of powder, but it is almost impossible to pulverize it without previously drying it at a temperature which will dissipate the essential oil, upon which its activity depends. The tincture affords a more convenient form, and a compound tincture formerly occupied a place in the Pharmacopœia, but has been abandoned. A decoction of an ounce of the leaves to a pint of water, with the addition of syrup, has been also recommended; an infusion, however, would be preferable. Dose, of the powdered leaves from grs. v to x; of the tincture fʒj; of the decoction f℥ss to f℥j. As an external local stimulant, or escharotic, the dried leaves in powder are applied to warts, flabby ulcers, and carious bones; and the expressed juice diluted, or an infusion of the leaves, as a lotion to gangrenous sores, scabies, and tinea capitis; or mixed with lard and wax as an issue ointment. The German writers speak very highly of its effects as a poultice to old and obstinate sores. Officinal Prep. Oleum Volatile Juniperi Sabinæ. E.D. (the dose of which is from one to three minims.) Extractum Sabinæ. D. (a very inert preparation.) Ceratum Sabinæ. L.
The experiments of Orfila have shewn that Savine exerts a local action, but that its effects depend principally on its absorption; through which medium it acts on the nervous system, the rectum, and the stomach. It still enjoys amongst the vulgar the reputation of being capable of producing absorption.
SACCHARUM. L.E.D. Sugar.[[625]]
Sugar, as a pharmaceutical agent, is employed for accelerating the pulverization of various resinous substances, and when exhibited with the most acrid of them, it prevents their adhesion to the coats of the intestines, by which they might irritate and inflame them; it is also extensively used on account of its power in preserving animal[[626]] and vegetable substances. (See Conservæ.) Milk boiled with fine sugar will keep for a great length of time, and might be very conveniently employed during a long voyage. Dr. Darwin also observes that fresh meat cut into thin slices, either raw or boiled, might be preserved in coarse sugar or treacle, and would furnish a very salutary and nourishing diet to our sailors. Sugar exerts also some chemical affinities which are highly interesting to the pharmaceutic chemist. Vogel has published a paper to shew, that when sugar is boiled with various metallic oxides, and with different metalline salts, it has the property of decomposing them; sometimes reducing the oxide to the state of a metal, and at others depriving the oxide only of one of the proportionals of oxygen; thus sulphate of copper and nitrate of mercury are precipitated in a metallic form, whilst peroxide of mercury and acetate of copper are converted into protoxides; corrosive sublimate is changed into calomel, but calomel is not susceptible of any further decomposition. All those metallic salts which have the power of decomposing water are not affected by sugar, as those of iron, zinc, tin, and manganese. It appears, moreover, that sugar has the property of rendering some of the Earths soluble in water. Sugar in water, at the temperature of 50°, is capable of dissolving one half of its weight of lime; the solution thus produced is of a beautiful white-wine colour, and has the smell of fresh-slacked quick-lime. It is precipitated from the solution by the carbonic, citric, tartaric, sulphuric, and oxalic acids; and it is decomposed, by double affinity, by caustic and carbonated potass and soda, and by the citrate, tartrate, and oxalate of potass, &c. The union of sugar with the alkalies has been long known, and in the decomposition of the solution of lime in sugar by the salts above mentioned, the acid unites with the lime, and the alkaline base forms a compound with the sugar.
SAPO. L.E.D. Soap.
I. Durus. (Hispanicus.) Hard, or Spanish Soap.
Chemical Composition. Oil 60·94, soda 8·56, water 30·50; the water is partially dissipated by being kept, and the soap therefore becomes lighter. Muriate of Soda is also an essential ingredient[[627]] of hard soap. Solubility. Water dissolves about one-third of its weight of genuine soap, and forms a milky solution; alcohol also dissolves it, and affords a solution nearly transparent, although somewhat gelatinous.[[628]] Incompatible Substances. 1. All acids and acidulous salts, which combine with the alkali, and develope the oil. 2. Earthy salts, e. g. Alum; muriate and sulphate of lime; sulphate of magnesia. 3. Metallic salts. Nitrate of silver; ammoniated copper; tincture of muriated iron; ammoniated iron; acetate, sub-muriate, and oxy-muriate of mercury; sub-acetate of lead;[[629]] tartarized iron; tartarized antimony; sulphate of zinc, copper and iron. 4. All astringent vegetables. 5. Hard water. Medicinal Uses. In large doses it is purgative; in smaller ones, it is decomposed in transitu, and its alkali is carried to the kidneys; in this way it may act as a lithonthriptic; or it may produce its effects by correcting any acidity which may prevail in the primæ viæ, for the weakest acid is capable of decomposing soap, and of uniting with its alkaline base; a solution of soap in lime water was long regarded as one of the strongest solvents of urinary calculi that could be administered with safety, but the result of such a mixture is an insoluble soap of lime, and a solution of soda; in habitual constipation, and in biliary obstructions, it is frequently prescribed in conjunction with rhubarb, or some bitter; in which cases it can only act as a laxative, or as a chemical agent, in increasing the solubility of the substance with which it is united. It has been also given in solution as an antidote to metallic poisons, and it is often successfully injected as a clyster, in unrelenting and habitual costiveness; as an external application, it is used in the form of liniment, (see Linimenta.) Its pharmaceutical value, in forming pill-masses, has already been considered (page 196), and the following formulæ afford examples of such an application, viz. 14, 80, 105, 118, 165. Officinal Preparations. Pil. Saponis cum Opio. L. (L). Pil. Scillæ comp. L. (M). Pil. Aloet. E. (L). Pil. Aloes et Assafœtidæ. E. (I). Pil. Aloes cum Zinzib. D. (L). Pil. Colocynth. comp. D. (L). Emplast. Saponis. L.E. Ceratum Saponis. L. Liniment. Saponis. comp. L. Liniment. Saponis cum Opio. L. Adulterations. Pulverized Lime, Gypsum, or Pipe clay, are sometimes added; but the fraud is easily detected by solution in alcohol, when the earthy matters fall down.