OCR Text |
Show St SCOTCH FIR. SCOTCH FIR: better than those made of hemp; and the wooditself is sold in the streets of Dublin by the nameof bog-wood. h most species of fir possess in common the same medicinal properties, and all agree in affording the different pro. ducts of the turpentine kind; yet as it has been found that some species producethese different a rticles of the materia medicain greater purity, or in more abundance than othe we have ace ly assigned to each the respective article which it best supplies. This tree not only furnishes most abundantly the Pix liquida, or tar, but also from it may beobtained the com. monturpentine, and the white and yellowresins. OFFICINAL PREPARATIONS. Tar Water. (Aqua Picis Liquide. D.) Take of tar, two pints; ——— water, one gallon; Mix, bystirring them with a wooden rod for a quarter of an hour, and, after the tar has subsided, strain the liquor, and keepit in well-corked phials. aus ; Pens isi Tar water should have the colour of white wine, arid a sharp empyreumatic taste. It is, in fact, a solution of empyreumatic oil, effected by means of acetous acid. It was at one time much extolied as a panacea, but has of late been little employed. It acts as a stimulant, raising the pulse, and increasing the discharge by the skin and kidneys. It may be drunkto the extent ofa course of a day. pint or twois 1 : these be truly niv such, suc rhet if when All vegetables excey st mushrooms, . } : 2 Gh fe art treated isti 1 without addition, give out, in the first part and continue to give out of the more during the who e distillati This acid is somewhat P different according as it is that diffe > are burnt, in tioned ; and accordi found in consi pared for recei onlv by the 5 by Only i ie the countries where tar is prepared, particularly in North Americas this acid was accidentally employed asa medicine, It was found to prove very useful; and the benevolent and worthy bishop Berkeley being informedof this, was desirous of rendering such amedicine very generally known. But as the water collected, as we have said, during the burning of the wood, couldnot properly or conveniently be obtained in Britain, he perceived that aquantity of the acid remained in the tar as it was imported, and conceived that it might be extracted fromit by infusion in water. It is such an infusion that gives the celebrated tar water which has been so muchtalked of. It was at first by many persons celebrated as a very valuable medicine $ and, from my own observation and experience, I know it ia many cases to be such. But, as happens in all such cases, the commendations of it by the patrons and favourers of it were very often extravagant and ill founded; and though the persons who disparaged it had some foundation for their opilions, yet they also told many falsehoods concerningit. Although it would have been difficult, at that time, to bas lance between these opposite accounts, yet in the course of sixty years the matter has found its own balance. The excessive admiration of it has entirely ceased, and the most part of practi« tioners, from causes we could assign, have neglected the use of it; but there arestill many judicious persons who believe in, and employ, its virtues, In many instances this preparation has aps peared to strengthen the tone of the stomach, to excite appetite, Promote digestion, and to cure all the symptoms of dyspepsia. At the same time it manifestly promotes the excretions, pars ticularly that of urine ; and the same.may be presumed to happen in that of others. Fromall these operations it will be obvious, that in manydisorders of the system this medicine may be highly Weful, It may be, however, and has been a question, upon what, in the composition of tar water, these qualities depend: and I have bi doubt in asserting that it is entirely upon the acid produced hardly been remarkable b: Inm A drawn from different vegetables : but nowthem even inc water. ° 785 led from vege as in thedistiil " the manner above mentioned. Mr. Reid, the author of a dissertation on this subject, has renderedthis sufficiently probae ble, from the accounts of Glauber and Boerhaave with respect ‘0 the virtues of such an acid, and fromthe opinionof the bithop of Cloyne in preferring the Norwaytar to that of New England, as the acid part is not taken from the former so en2 Oo: |