This section is from the book "Recent Materia Medica: Notes On Their Origin And Therapeutics", by F. Harwood Lescher. Also available from Amazon: Recent materia medica.
(See Diospyros.)
A new antipyretic and anti-rheumatic.
The hydrochloride (soluble in 16 parts of water), is used in doses of 8 to 15 grains in water; up to 70 grains in 1 day. It reduces pain in swollen joints.
Identically the same thing as pure carbolic acid for internal use, but in detached crystals instead of in a solid crystaline mass.
In doses of 1 grain in ounce of water, good against vomiting.
Test for sugar in urine.
Dissolve 1 gramme and 1 1/2 grammes Acetate of Sodium in 165 m. water; boil with 5 times the quantity of urine for 1/2 hour; if sugar be present, micro-crystals of yellow needles will appear.
A white crystalline powder, odourless, easily soluble in alcohol. It is not employed in medicine. Phenolptalein being the finest possible indicator for alkalis, is only used for analytical purposes. Traces of alkali are detected by a red colour.
(See Euphorin.)
Bitter glucoside, found in the root-bark of the apple, pear, cherry, etc. It crystallizes in white silky needles; soluble in hot water and alcohol. Anti-intermittent, like Quinine. Dose, 10 to 15 grains. From this principle, the root-bark of Pyrus Malus is a tonic febrifuge. Dose of fluid ext., 1/4 to 1 ounce in the day.
Winter Cherry. South Europe. X. 0. Solanacea.
The berries are bitter from the presence of physalin, the active glucoside. Diuretic febrifuge, used in gout. In French Codex, 1884. Dose of tincture (1 in 4), 1 to 2 drachms.
Calabar bean. West Coast of Africa. N. 0. Leguminosa.
Reddish-brown smooth subreniform beans, about one inch long, the arched side marked by a broad furrow, down which runs the raphé as a long raised line. Valuable in tetanus and chorea. Dose of extract, 1/8 to 1/4 grain every hour. The ordeal poison of Calabar. The round cali nut, mucuna cylindrosperma, is a common adulterant.
 
Continue to: