Handbook of materia medica, pharmacy, and therapeutics, including the physiological action of drugs, the special therapeutics of disease, official and practical pharmacy, and minute directions for prescription writing

Front matter

^ -Jill'- *W

•y

.**

Preface To The Seventh Edition

The sixth edition of this book was one-eighth larger than its immediate predecessor, and was almost a new book, although retaining the general plan and the special features which have proved so acceptable in previous editions.

In the section on Materia Medica, etc., there were inserted thirty-three new articles, including those on Cactus, Carbonic Acid, Formalin, Oil of Myrtle and Oxygen ; also briefer notices of new preparations and remedies, such as Aseptol, Aseptolin, Borine, Bromelin, Dulcin, Ferratin, Kola, Lactophenin, Lycetol, Lysidin, Malakin, Migranin, Trikresol, Tannigen, Solanum, etc. Serum-therapy has achieved such importance during the past two years that it cannot be ignored in any work which professes to keep abreast of the progress in therapeutics. The author has deemed this subject worthy of full though concise treatment, under the new titles Toxins, Antitoxins and Animal Extracts, in the first part of the book, and has inserted brief cross-references thereto under the appropriate disease-headings in the section on therapeutics.

The list of rewritten articles in the first part includes those on Acetanilid, Antipyrin, Aurum, Bismuth, Boric Acid, CafTea, Calcium, Cannabis, Chloral, Chloroform, Chlorine, Cinchona, Cod-liver Oil, Creosote, Duboisia, Grindelia, Hyoscyamus, Iodine, Magnesium, Nux Vomica, Opium, Paraldehyde, Phenacetin, Phosphorus, Physostigma, Pilocarpus, Pulsatilla, Sassafras, Sodium, Strontium and Tobacco. Besides these, the articles on Alcohol, Carbolic Acid and Digitalis were entirely rewritten for the fifth edition and may be ranked equally as new matter.

In the section on Therapeutics, new articles are inserted on Abasia, Acne Rosacea, Actinomycosis, Chyluria, Collapse, Tubercular Larnygitis, Tubercular Meningitis, Tubercular Peritonitis, Acute Tuberculosis, Tuberculous Affections and Myxedema. One hundred and nineteen articles in this portion of the book have been rewritten, and the text of the section has been everywhere expanded by the incorporation of many hundred items from recent authorities, current medical literature and the author's personal experience in practice.

In the Appendix the article on The Treatment of Poisoning has been

ix

X PREFACE.

carefully revised and enlarged, with the object of bringing the contained information into available shape for rapid reference in emergencies. The List of Latin Words and Phrases has been increased by the addition of five pages, and is believed to be the most complete list of this kind now published.

For this, the seventh edition, the text has again been subjected to a thorough and critical revision, has been largely rewritten and greatly expanded by the introduction of new matter. The subject of Dietetics has been introduced under the titles Albumin and Amylum in the section on Materia Medica.

Sam'l O. L. Potter.

College of Physicians and Surgeons, San Francisco, January, 1899.

EXTRACTS FROM THE PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

The author's intention has been to produce a book which would embrace in a single volume the Essentials of practical Materia Medica and Therapeutics, treating of each subject in as concise phraseology as possible consistent with the delineation of every important feature. He has also endeavored to formulate such minute and definite directions for the framing of Prescriptions as might elucidate what to many is a very difficult problem. Furthermore, he has tried to present as much information upon the subject of Pharmacy as every physician should possess, in order to handle the implements of his profession with confidence, and to direct their use by others with pharmaceutical accuracy.

The complete fulfilment of these aims would be realized if the book should take rank as a working companion to the advanced student and the junior practitioner; and be deemed by them a reliable guide through the forest of observations and experiments on drug actions and uses, which makes progress slow for the already over-burdened mind, when ploughing through the more exhaustive and exhausting text-books.

Although this book is essentially a compilation, as all books of its class must be, there will be found in its pages much original matter derived from the writer's own experience in professional life. The arrangement of the matter will be found to be in some respects unique. After full consideration of the many arrangements of the Materia Medica in vogue, a modified

PREFACE. XI

alphabetical plan was adopted, by which the advantages of the alphabetical order might be retained, while permitting the grouping together of agents which are closely related, physiologically and therapeutically, under the title of the principal member of the class — the chief, as it were, of that particular clan. Thus, under the title Amyl Nitris will be found mention also of the Ethyl, Sodium and Potassium Nitrites, and their congener Nitro- Glycerin, all of which are closely allied to the first-named and to each other, in respect of their actions and uses. A very elaborate section on Drug Classification is placed before the Materia Medica, in order to supplement such deficiencies in grouping as are inevitable in an alphabetical arrangement.

In detailing the characteristics of an important drug, its physical properties and chemical constituents are first briefly enumerated, then its preparations are described in the official language of the pharmacopoeia, usually somewhat abbreviated; any important unofficial preparations are also noted, and all the compounds into which it enters are enumerated. Next the physiological action is taken up, its characteristic features being first described ; then the actions resulting from an ordinary medicinal dose, next those produced by small doses continued, and finally those from a toxic dose. These are followed by a brief account of its antagonists, antidotes and incompatibles, if any; and a concise summary of its therapeutical applications closes the article ; — the whole presenting, it is hoped, a clearly defined word-picture of the drug under consideration. Every article and preparation comprised in the last edition of the U. S. Pharmacopoeia is fully noticed, while all the prominent unofficial agents receive such mention as their respective importance seems to demand.

The second part of the book is devoted to Pharmacy, and has been written from the standpoint of a conviction that many young practitioners would gladly dispense their own medicines, if provided with a few practical directions on the subject; thereby saving many a dollar from the drugstore, preventing in their own practices at least the " renewals" which constitute so bad a feature of modern pharmaceutics, and gaining for themselves a practical acquaintance with their professional weapons which cannot but make them better physicians and more accurate prescribes. In this section of the book Prescription Writing receives full consideration, and many standard formulae are given as samples of prescriptions of each kind in extemporaneous use.

In the third part the subject of Special Therapeutics is treated of elaborately, and in the form of an alphabetically arranged Index to the treatment of diseases, as laid down by the most recent authorities. Every indication for the use of a drug is referred to its author by his initial, and to the most prominent articles are appended a few selected formulae, to serve as guides to the neophyte in prescribing.

Xll PREFACE.

Nearly all the regular text-books have been laid under contribution in the preparation of the book, but especial use has been made of the works of Brunton, Ringer, Wood, Phillips, Waring and Bartholow, in their latest editions ; as well as of the writer's verbatim notes of two courses of didactic and clinical lectures delivered by Professors Da Costa and Bartholow in the Jefferson Medical College and Hospital and in the auditorium of the Pennsylvania Hospital. On page 594 will be found a full list of the authorities referred to by initials in the section on Special Therapeutics.

The Appendix contains numerous Tables, comprising diagnostic hints, Latin terms and phrases, formulae for hypodermic use, metric equivalents, and specific gravities and volumes ; also Notes on temperature in disease, on the use of the clinical thermometer, the treatment of poisoning, and the examination of urine; also Formulas representing the most noted patent medicines.

The Index has received special attention, from a conviction that, if well made, it is the best part of a good book. Every title, synonym and other reference of importance is included therein, double and treble entries being made in every instance which seemed to require such repetition.

The term "officinal," as applied to drugs recognized by the pharmacopoeia, has been discarded, the word <l official " being used instead; for the simple reason that the idea to be conveyed is expressed more correctly by the latter term than by the former one. When none but official drugs and preparations were kept in the officina or drug store, it was eminently proper to call them "officinal," but inasmuch as this class does not nowadays constitute much over one-fourth part of the officinal stock, it is a wilful desbasement of our professional weapons, as well as an inexcusable misnomer, to apply the shop-title to them any longer.

Cooper Medical College, San Francisco, December, 1886.

Table Of Contents

PACK

INTRODUCTION, . 17

Pharmacy, 17

PART II.— PHARMACY AND PRESCRIPTION WRITING, ... 521 Pharmacopoeias and Dispensatories, 521

Metric System, 524

Approximate or Domestic Measures, .525

Specific Gravity and Specific Volume, 526

xiii

XIV TABLE OF CONTENTS.

PAGE

Analysis of a Prescription, 527

Procedure in Writing a Prescription, 528

Use of Latin in Prescriptions, 531

Principles of Combination, , ... 533

Metric Prescriptions, . . . 534

Abbreviations, 536

Renewals of Prescriptions, 536

Prescription Blanks, 538

Chemical Incompatibility, 539

Pharmaceutical Incompatibility, 541

Therapeutical Incompatibility, 542

Rules for Avoidance of the Dangers of Incompatibility, ... ... 542

Filling a Prescription, ... 545

Stock Solutions, 546

Rules for the Pharmaceutical Student, 546

Official Pharmacy, 547

Official Operations, 547

Aceta to Vina, 556—593

Excipients for Emulsions, .560

Excipients for Mixtures, 572

Excipients for Pills, 577

PART III.— SPECIAL THERAPEUTICS, 594 References and Bibliography, , . . 594

Abasia and Astasia to Yellow Fever, 595-843

APPENDIX, . 844

Latin Terms, Phrases, etc., used in Prescriptions, 844

Latin Numerals, . . . 856

Latin Verbs, Participles, Prepositions, etc. , 857

Genitive Case-endings, 857

Hypodermic Formula, . . 858

Chlorodyne, Comparisons of Ten Formulae therefor, ..... 860

Tables of Differential Diagnosis, 865

Forms of Bright's Disease, 865

Carditis, Endo- and Peri-, 866

Cerebral Concussion and Compression, . 866

Chancre and Chancroid, 866

TABLE OF CONTENTS. XV

PAGE

Cholera, 867

Croup and Diphtheria, 867

Epilepsy and Hysteria, ... 867

Gout and Rheumatism, 867

Hematemesis and Hemoptysis, 868

Phthisis, Tubercular and Non-tubercular, 868

Pleurisy and Pneumonia, 868

Scarlet Fever, Measles and Smallpox, 868

Typhus and Typhoid, 869

Vomiting, Cerebral and Gastric, 870

Yellow Fever and Bilious Remittent, 870

Notes on Temperature in Disease, 870

Clinical Thermometry, 870

Temperature in Phthisis, 872

Temperature in Typhoid Fever, 872

Temperature in Scarlatina, 872

Temperature in Measles, 872

Temperature in Diphtheria, 872

Co-relation of Pulse and Temperature, 872

Deposits in Urine, 874

Necessary Apparatus, 874

The Treatment of Poisoning, 875

Antidotes and Antidotal Measures, 875

Antagonists and Antagonistic Measures, 879

Poisons, their Antidotes and Antagonists, 879

Tables.

Table of Specific Gravities and Volumes, 890

Table of Drops and Weights of a Fluidrachm, 891

Table of Weights and Measures, 891

Table of Metric Conversions, 892

Table of Equivalent Weights and Measures, Inside of Cover.

Table of Prescription Doses and Quantities, Inside of Cover.

INDEX, 893

EXPLANATION.

Numerals unqualified, under the subtitles Preparations in Part I, denote grammes for solids and cubic centimeters for liquids.

For Signs and Abbreviations used, see pages 523 to 525.