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Medicine (Take of Peruvian bark ounces)

Take of Peruvian bark, 4 ounces; proof spirit, 2 pints. Digest for 10 days and strain.

It may be given from a teaspoonful to an ounce, or an ounce, according to the different purposes it is intended to answer. Huxham's Tincture of Bark.

Take of Peruvian bark, powdered, 2 ounces; the peel of Seville oranges, dried, 1½ ounces; Virginian snakeroot, bruised, 3 drachms; saffron, 1 drachm; cochineal, powdered, 2 scruples; proof spirit, 20 ounces. Digest for 14 days and strain.

As a corroborant and stomachic, it is given in doses of 1 to 3 drachms; but when employed for the cure of intermittent fevers, it must be taken to a greater extent.

Tincture of Guaiacum, Take of guaiacum, 4 ounces; rectified spirits of wine, 2 pints. Digest for 7 days and filter.

What is called gum guaiacum is, in fact, a resin, and perfectly soluble in alcohol. This solution is a powerful stimulating sudorific, and may be given in doses of about an ounce in rheumatic and asthmatic cases.

Ammoniated Tincture of Guaiacum.

Take of resin of guaiacum, in powder, 4 ounces; ammoniated alcohol, in powder, 1½ pounds. Digest for 7 days and filter through a paper.

This is a very elegant and efficacious tincture; the ammoniated spirit readily dissolving the resin, and, at the same time, promoting its medical vir. tues. In rheumatic cases, a tea, or even tablespoonful, taken every morning and evening, in any convenient vehicle, particularly in milk, has proved of singular service.

Compound Tincture of Benzoin.

Take of benzoin, 3 ounces; purified storax, 2 ounces; balsam of Tolu, 1 ounce; socotrine aloes, an ounce; rectified spirits of wine, 2 pints. Digest for 7 days and filter.

This preparation may be considered as an elegant simplification of some very complicated compositions, which were celebrated under different names; such as Baume de Commandeur, Wade's Balsam, Friar's Balsam, Jesuit's Drops, etc. These, in general, consisted of a confused farrago of discordant substances. The dose is a teaspoonful in some warm water four times a day, in chronic bronchitis and spitting of blood. It is useful, also, when applied on lint, to recent wounds, and serves the purpose of a scab, but must not be soon removed. Poured on sugar it sometimes checks spitting of blood immediately.

Tincture of Catechu.

Take of extract of catechu, 3 ounces; cinnamon, bruised, 2 ounces; diluted alcohol, 2 pints. Digest for seven days, and strain through paper.

The cinnamon is a very useful addition to the catechu, not only as it warms the stomach, but likewise as it covers its roughness and astringency, This tincture is of service in all kinds of defluxions, catarrhs, loosenesses, and other disorders where astringent medicines are indicated. From one to three teaspoonsful may be taken every now and then, in red wine, or any other proper vehicle Godbold's Vegetable Balsam.

A pound of sugar candy, dissolved by heat, in a quantity of white wine vinegar, and evaporated to the measure of 1 pint, during which operation as much garlic as possible is dissolved with it, answers all the purposes of Godbold's Vegetable Balsam, and is probably the same medicine. Spirit of Nutmeg. 1 gallon; water sufficient to prevent burning.

Distil off a gallon.

This is used to take off the bad flavor of medicine, and is a grateful cordial. Lavender Water.

The common mode of preparing this, is to put 3 drachms of the essential oil of lavender, and a drachm of the essence of ambergris, into 1 pint of spirit of wine.

Water of pure Ammonia.

Take of sal ammoniac, 1 pound; quick-lime, 2 pints of the water. Let them stand together an pounds; water, 1 gallon. Add to the lime two hour; then add the sal ammonia, and the other six pints of water, boiling, and immediately cover the vessel. Pour out the liquor when cold, and distil off, with a slow fire, one pint. This spirit is too acrimonious for internal use, and has therefore been chiefly employed for smelling in faintings, etc., though, when properly diluted, it may be given inwardly with safety.

Water of Acetated Ammonia.

Take of ammonia, by weight, 2 ounces; distilled vinegar, 4 pints; or as much as is sufficient to saturate the ammonia.

This is an excellent diaphoretic saline liquor.

Taken warm in bed, it proves commonly a powerful sudorific ; and as it operates without heat, it is used in febrile and inflammatory disorders, where medicines of the warm kind, if they fail of procuring sweat, aggravate the distemper. Its action may likewise be determined to the kidneys, by walking about in cool air. The common dose is half an ounce, either by itself, or along with other medicines adapted to the intention. Its strength is not a little precarious, depending on that of the vinegar.

Black Pectoral Lozenges.

Take of extract of liquorice, gum arabic, each, 4 ounces; white sugar, 8 ounces.

Dissolve them in warm water, and strain; then evaporate the mixture over a gentle fire till it be of a proper consistence for being formed into lozenges, which are to be cut out of any shape.

White Pectoral Lozenges.

Take of fine sugar, 1 pound; gum arabic, 4 ounces; starch, 1 ounce; flowers of benzoin, & of a drachm.

Having beaten them all in a powder, make them into a proper mass with rose-water, so as to form lozenges.

These compositions are very agreeable pectorals, and may be used at pleasure. They are caling the tickling in the throat, which provokes culated for promoting expectoration, and allaycoughing. Syrup of Ginger.

Take of ginger, bruised, 4 ounces; boiling distilled water, 3 pints. Macerate four hours, and strain the liquor; then add double refined sugar, and make into a syrup.

This syrup promotes the circulation through the extreme vessels; it is to be given in torpid and phlegmatic habits, where the stomach is subject to be loaded with slime, and the bowels distended with flatulency. Hence it enters into the compound tincture of cinnamon and the aromatic powder.

Dyspeptic patients, from hard drinking, and those subject to flatulency and gout, have been known to receive considerable benefit from the use of ginger tea, taking two or three cupfuls for Take of bruised nutmegs, 2 ounces; proof spirit, breakfast, suiting it to their palate. Syrup of Poppies.

Take of the heads of white poppies, dried, 3+ pounds; double refined sugar, 6 pounds; distilled water, 8 gallons.

Slice and bruise the heads, then boil them in the water to three gallons, and press out the decoction. Reduce this, by boiling, to about four pints, and strain it while hot through a sieve, then through a thin woollen cloth, and set it aside for twelve hours, that the grounds may subside.

Boil the liquor poured off from the grounds to three pints, and dissolve the sugar in it, that it may be made a syrup.

This syrup, impregnated with the narcotic matter of the poppy-head, is given to children in doses of two or three drachms, and to adults of from half an ounce to one ounce and upwards, for easing pain, procuring rest, and answering the other intentions of mild medication. Particular care is requisite in its preparation, that it may be always made, as nearly as possible, of the same strength.

Syrup of Violets.

Take of fresh flowers of the violet, 1 pound; boiling distilled water, 3 pints.

Macerate for twenty-five hours, and strain the liquor through a cloth, without pressing, and add double refined sugar, to make the syrup. This is an agreeable laxative medicine for young children. Syrup of Squills.

Take of vinegar of squills, 2 pounds; double refined sugar, in powder, 3 pounds.

Dissolve the sugar with a gentle heat, so as to form a syrup.

This syrup is used chiefly in doses of a spoonful or two for promoting expectoration, which it does very powerfully. It is also given as an emetic to children.

Oxymel of Squills.

Take of clarified honey, 3 pounds; vinegar of squills, 2 pints.

Boil them in a glass vessel, with a slow fire, to the thickness of a syrup.

Oxymel of squills is a useful aperient, detergent, and expectorant, and of great service in humoral asthmas, coughs, and other disorders where thick phlegm abounds. It is given in doses of two or three drachms, along with some aromatic water, as that of cinnamon, to prevent the great nausea which it would otherwise be apt to excite.

In large doses it proves emetic.

Vinegar of Squills.

Take of squills, recently dried, 1 pound; vinegar, 6 pints; proof spirit, pint. Macerate the squills with the vinegar, in a glass vessel, with a gentle heat, for twenty-four hours, then express the liquor, and set it aside until the fæces subside. To the decanted liquor add the spirit.

Vinegar of squills is a medicine of great antiquity. It is a very powerful promoter of secretion, and hence it is frequently used with great success as a diuretic and expectorant. The dose of it is from a drachm to half an ounce. Where crudities abound in the first passages, it may be given at first in a larger dose, to evacuate them by vom- Iting. It is most conveniently exhibited along with cinnamon, or other agreeable aromatic waters, wnich prevent the nausea it would otherwise, even in small doses, be apt to occasion.

Tar-water.

Take of tar, 2 pints; water, 1 gallon. Mix, by stirring them with a wooden rod for a quarter of an hour, and, after the tar has subsided, strain the liquor, and keep it in well-corked phials.

Tar-water should have the color of white wine, and an empyreumatic taste. It is frequently used as a remedy in chronic bronchitis. It acts as a stimulant, raising the pulse and increasing the discharge by the skin and kidneys. It may be drunk to the extent of a pint or two in the course of a day.

Decoction of Sarsaparilla.

Take of sarsaparilla root, cut, 6 ounces; distilled water, 8 pints. After macerating for two hours with a heat about 195°, then take out the root and bruise it; add it again to the liquor, and macerate it for two hours longer; then boil down the liquor to 4 pints, and strain it. The dose is from 4 ounces to half a pint, or more, daily.

Compound Decoction of Sarsaparilla.

Take of sarsaparilla root, cut and bruised, 6 ounces; the bark of sassafras root, the shavings of guaiacum wood, liquorice root, each 1 ounce; the bark of mezereon root, 3 drachms; distilled water, 10 pints.

Digest with a gentle heat for six hours; then boil down the liquor to one-half (or five pints), adding the bark of the mezereon root towards the end of boiling. Strain off the liquor. The dose is the same as the last, and for the same purposes.

These decoctions are of use in purifying the blood, and resolving obstructions in scorbutic and scrofulous cases; also in cutaneous eruptions, and many other diseases. Obstinate swellings, that had resisted the effects of other remedies for above twelve months, have been said to be cured by drinking a quart of decoction of this kind daily for some weeks. Decoctions of sarsaparilla ought to be made fresh every day, for they very soon become quite fetid, and unfit for use, sometimes in less than twenty-four hours, in warm weather.

Decoction of the Woods.

Take of guaiacum raspings, 3 ounces; raisins, stoned, 2 ounces; sassafras root, sliced, liquorice root, bruised, each 1 ounce; water, 10 pounds.

Boil the guaiacum and raisins with the water, over a gentle fire, to the consumption of one-half, adding, towards the end, the sassafras and liquorice, and strain the decoction without expression. This decoction is of use in some rheumatic and cutaneous affections. It may be taken by itself, to the quantity of a quarter of a pint, twice or thrice a day, or used as an assistant in a course of mercurial or antimonial alteratives; the patient in either case keeping warm, in order to promote the operation of the medicine.

Water-gruel.

Put a large spoonful of oatmeal into a pint of water, stir it well together, and let it boil 3 or 4 minutes, stirring it often. Then strain it through a sieve, put in some salt according to taste, and, if necessary, add a piece of fresh butter. Stir with a spoon until the butter is melted, when it will be fine and smooth. Raisins are often added to it.

Panada.

Put a blade of mace, a large piece of the crumb of bread, and a quart of water, in a clean saucepan. Let it boil two minutes, then take out the bread, and bruise it very fine in a basin. Mix with it as much of the warm water as it will require, pour away the rest, and sweeten it to the taste of the patient. If necessary, put in a piece of butter of the size of a walnut, but add no wine.

Grate in a little nutmeg if requisite.

Isinglass Jelly, etc.