OCR Text |
Show 814 BITTER CUCUMBER, OR COLOQUINTIDA. without effect. I have frequently ordered a scruple of this ex. tract, and as much mercurius dulcis sublimatus, to be made up into eight pills with syrup, and directed patients who seemed to be in the most imminent danger for want of stools, to takefour of these pills immediately, and afterwards two of these every hour till they operated; and they generally answered the purpose. Some desperate cases required a larger dose; and I have seen one or two instances where twoscruples of these pills were taken for a dose, with good eflect. Ilowever, it ought to be observed with regard to these pills, as well as to all others where mercuryis an ingredient, that if they do not soon operate by stool they ought to be laid aside, and other purging medicines tried in their place; otherwise they may be in danger of taking to the mouth, andraising a salivation. The colocynthis the purgative ingredient in most of the purging beers andales used by the Common people. As it is the resinous parts of this medicine that are the most acrid, a watery tincture drawn without heat, or an extract made from such a tincture, has been thought preferable to the colo. cynth in substance by some; and when it is given in substance, the triturating it with sugar or testaceous substances has been found to render it muchmilder. OFFICINAL PREPARATIONS. Comrounp Extractor Cotocynru. (Extractum Colocynthidis Compositum. D.) Takeof pith of colocynth, cut small, six drachms ; hepatic aloes, an ounce anda half; scammony, half an ounce; lesser cardamom seeds, husked and bruised, one drachm ; Castile soap, softencd with warm water, so as to have a gelatinous consistence, three drachms; warmwater, one pint : Digest the colocynth in the water, in a covered vessel, with a moderate heat, for four days. To the liquor, expressed and filtered, add the aloes and scammony, separately, reduced to powder: then evaporate the mixture to a properthickness for making pills, having added, towards the end of the evaporation, the soap jelly and powdered seeds ; and mix all the ingredients thoroughly together. BITTER CUCUMBER, OR COLOQUINTIDA. Compound Pitts or ALors. 815 (Pilule Aloes Composite. L.) Take of socotrine aloes, powdered, one ounce; extract of gentian, half an ounce; oil of caraway seeds, two scruples; syrup of ginger, as muchas is sufficient: Beat them together. Although soap can scarcely be thought to facilitate the solu. tion of the aloes in the stomach, as was supposed by Boerhaave and others, it is, probably, the most convenient substan ce that can be added to give it the proper consistence for making pills. When extract of gentian is triturated with aloes, they re-act upon each other, and become too soft to form pills, so that the addition of any syrup to the mass, as directed by the Londoncollege, is perfectly unnecessary; unless at the same time some powderbe added to give it consistency. These pills are much used as warm and stomachic laxatives: they are very well suited for the costiveness so often attendant on people of sedentarylives, and, upon the whole, are one of the most useful articles in the materia medica. |