On the organic materia medica of the British Pharmacopoeia : two lectures delivered before the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, on February 24th and March 23rd, 1864 / by Robert Bentley.

  • Bentley, Robert, 1821-1893.
Date:
[1865?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the organic materia medica of the British Pharmacopoeia : two lectures delivered before the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, on February 24th and March 23rd, 1864 / by Robert Bentley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    16/28 (page 16)
    limb of calyx five-parted, the segments ovate, reticulated. The segments are I however not ovate, as thus stated, but ohlonrj or ohloiig-lanceolate, as may be seen by the drawing. They have a fragrant balsamic odour; and their taste is at first but slight, although ultimately somewhat acrid and disagreeable. The flowers have been found to contain a small quantity of a peculiar volatile oil, hitter acrid resin, two kinds of tannin, and a substance called kwoseine, and other matters of no importance. The medicinal properties appear to be essen- tially due to the bitter acrid resin, and doubtless, to some extent, to the volatile oil and tannin. M. Pavesi, and subsequently M. Vee, have obtained a prin- ciple from Kousso which they have termed koiissine, and whicli they describe as yellow, bitter, and uncrystallizable. Is this the active principle ? Kousso has been in use as an anthelmintic in Abyssinia for more than two centuries, and it is very highly valued in that country. It was introduced into Europe about the year 1847, and when first tried in England, France, Germany, 1 and Switzerland, great exj^ectations were raised as to its valuable medicinal pro- perties. More recent trials, however, do not tend to confirm the extravagant notions then formed, and hence we regard this remedy as still upon its trial, and one which was well worthy of being placed in a Secondary List of the Materia Medica, but scarcely in so prominent a position as it has obtained in the British Pharmacopajia. The conflicting results which have been experienced from the employment of Kousso are, doubtless, in part due to its varying age when administered, as its • properties appear to be sensibly depreciated by keeping. The only officinal ' preparation is the Infusum, which should be taken in the morning fasting, and the last meal of the previous evening should have been slight. The infusion should not be strained, but the whole stin-ed up together; and the quantity j ordered in the Pharmacopoeia (four Jhiid ounces), containing a quarter of au 1 f ounce of Kousso, is the ordinary dose for an adult. i f; DiGiTALixuM.—This neutral organic substance, which is said to be the active \ principle of Digitalis, is another article which has now for the first time obtained a ' f place in the Materia Medica and Preparations of a Pharmacopoeia published in the United Kingdom. The process ordered in the Pharmacopoeia for its preparation is t( essentially that of M. Henry, which was itself a simplification of the one origi- its ually given by M. Homolle, who first succeeded in isolating this principle, which he termed digitaline. The characters given in the Pharmacopoeia are quite correct 'I as applied to this substance, but, unfortunately, the authors of tlie Pharmacopoeia appearto have overlooked the more recent memou of MM. Homolle and Quevenne, ' in which much new and additional information is given respecting the chemical constituents of digitalis.* In this later memoir they have siiown that the pro- per active principle (digitaline), which is intensely bitter, is commonly, as ob- tained by the ordinary or Pharmacopoeia process, mixed with at least two other peculiar neutral principles, which they have respectively named dirjitalin, and digitalose. As these are tasteless, and almost, if not entirely inert, they have given a process by which the active digitalinc may be separated from them, and obtained in a pui-e state. In this pure condition digitaline is not white, as de- scribed in the Pharmacopoeia, but of a pale _?/< How colour, and in other respects its characters and reactions do not altogether accord with tliose there given. It should bo further noticed that the term diijitaUn is employed in the Phar- macopeia for the active principle of digitalis, while the original discoverers call this—digitaline, and use the former name to designate au inert principle. This is also very unfortunate, and may lead to much confusion, more particularly so as, althougla the authors of the Pharmacopoeia have tulopted csisentially the process originally given for obtaining, as well as the chai'acters of digitaline, by alter- * Buiu'hanlat's 'Archives <le Physiolngie,' etc., Jan. 1854.