Elements of pharmacy, materia medica, and therapeutics / by William Whitla.

  • Whitla, William, 1851-1933.
Date:
1889
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Elements of pharmacy, materia medica, and therapeutics / by William Whitla. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    477/656 (page 473)
    Pix Liquida Pix Burgundica is a mild rubefacient, and its physical qualities render it suitable as a basis for plasters. It is in this form that the drug is generally employed, and the good effects which have followed its application in lumhago, rheumatism, various painful joint and nerve troubles, have been attributed to some special stimulant or anodyne action which it was sup- posed to possess. It is, however, more likely that any good effect following the use of pitch, soap, resin, and various other plasters may be explained upon the hypothesis that the part after the application of the plaster is protected by it from variations of temperature, whilst the lymphatics are stimulated. The gentle pressure is productive of good, and aids absorption. Burgundy pitch has been supposed to exert some special action upon the rectum, and has been employed for hcemorvr holds, made into pills with the following liquid. Pix Liq.uida—Wood tar contains amongst its numerous and complex constituents some creasote and turpentine, upon which many of its properties depend. It is thus antiseptic and stimulating, and possesses considerable power in checking profuse bronchial secretion; it is also diuretic. But, since the improved methods of preparing carbolic acid have been exten- sively employed, tar as a remedial agent has fallen into com- parative disuse. There are, however, virtues possessed by tar which are not equally enjoyed by its more fashionable rivals : for example, as an expectorant tar is decidedly superior to any ■compound which can be distilled from it. It probably exerts its beneficial tonic effects upon the bronchial mucous mem- brane in the act of its elimination. The clinical observations of Burney Yeo, which have thrown much light upon the action of expectorant remedies, show that tar possesses most valuable expectorant qualities either when swallowed, inhaled as spray, or used as a fumigation. The experiments of Kinger on the administration of tar to patients with winter-cough show that this remedy has the