This section of the book is from "The Complete Herbalist" by Dr. O. Phelps Brown. Also available from Amazon: The Complete Herbalist: The People Their Own Physicians By The Use Of Nature's Remedies.
ACETA or VINEGARS are medicinal preparations where vinegar is used as the dissolving agent.
AQUAE or WATERS consist of water impregnated with some medicinal substance, as a volatile oil.
CERATES are agents intended for external application, and are composed of wax, spermaceti, combined with fatty matter, and in which resins and powders, etc., are frequently amalgamated.
DECOCTIONS are solutions procured from the various parts of herbs by boiling them in water.
ENEMAS or INJECTIONS. These consist of medicinal agents in the form of infusion, decoction, or mixture, and designed to be passed into the rectum and other passages.
EXTRACTS. When an infusion, decoction, or tincture is reduced to a soft solid mass, by evaporation, it is termed an extract.
FLUID-EXTRACTS. These are concentrated medicinal principles, not reduced to a solid or nearly semi-fluid consistence, the evaporation not being carried so far as in ordinary extracts.
INFUSIONS are solutions of vegetable principles in water, effected without boiling.
LINIMENTS. These preparations are designed for external application, and should always be of such a consistence as will render them capable of easy application to the skin with the naked hand or flannel.
LOTIONS. These comprise all compounds used as external washes in which vegetable substances are dissolved.
MIXTURES are either liquid or solid compounds, and which are suspended in aqueous fluids by the intervention of some viscid matter, as mucilage, albumen, etc.
OILS are the products of various herbs by distillation with water.
PILLS are medicinal properties formed into a mass and rolled into globular forms. A bolus is a large pill.
PLASTERS are designed for external application; the medicinal agent is usually spread on cloth or chamois leather.
SATURATES are similar to fluid-extracts, being, however, prepared without the employment of heat.
SYRUPS are liquid medicines of a viscid consistence, produced by concentrated solutions of sugar alone or mixed with honey.
TINCTURES. These are preparations obtained by subjecting medicinal herbs to the action of alcohol.
TROCHEES or LOZENGES are medicinal substances in powder, which are formed into solid cakes by the aid of sugar and gum.
UNGUENTA or OINTMENTS are fatty matters, in which are incorporated certain medicines, and are designed for external use.
WINES. These are tinctures of medicinal agents which are insoluble in water, or which do not require a stimulant a solvent as alcohol, but which are capable of yielding their virtues to wine.
 
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