Materia Medica; For the Use of Students (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1865 edition. Excerpt: ...the advanced stages of typhoid fever, pregnancy, &c. The operation of cathartics is promoted by the addition of small doses of emetics, and of the bitters. By combining those which act upon different portions of the alimentary canal, their operation is rendered less irritant, without any diminution of purgative efficiency. The griping and nauseating tendency of the drastic cathartics may be corrected by the addition of aromatics; carbonic acid water is a grateful vehicle for administering the saline preparations. Cathartics operate most speedily and favorably when given on an empty stomach, and susceptibility to their action is diminished during sleep, and increased by exercise. Mild diluent beverages promote their operation. In the event of hypercatharsis, opium should be administered by the mouth or rectum. LAXATIVES. Several articles of diet have a laxative operation on the bowels, and are useful in cases of habitual costiveness, as most of the ripe and dried fruits, --particularly tamarinds, peaches, apples, raisins, figs, and prunes, --West India molasses, honey, oatmeal, bran, &c. The following medicinal substances are usually arranged under the head of laxatives, and are employed in cases where we wish to open the bowels with the least possible irritation, --as in children and pregnant women, in inflammations or surgical operations about the abdomen and pelvis, in hernia, piles, affections of the rectum or womb, &c. Manna. Manna is the Concrete Juice, in flakes, of Fraxinus ornus, and of Fraxinus rotundifolia (Nat. Ord. Oleacese), small trees of Sicily, and Southern Italy. It is obtained from incisions into the stems of the trees. The best kind is produced during the height of the season, when the juice flows vigorously, and from the upper