(C. Eq.=6.)

An elementary body found pure, or almost so, in the diamond, plumbago, and anthracite; combined with other elements, it enters into almost all vegetable and animal substances. In medicine it is now only employed in the form of charcoal, of which there are two varieties, vegetable and animal.

Carbo Ligni. Wood Charcoal

Wood charred by exposure to a red heat without access of air.

Prep. Obtained by burning wood with a limited supply of air, by which the hydrogen, etc., are burnt off, and the carbon remains. Wood yields from seventeen to twenty-three per cent. It is met with either in the form of the pieces of wood from which it was made, or as a black powder.

Prop. & Com. It is odourless and almost tasteless; it possesses the power of absorbing gases and odours to a great extent, especially when recently prepared; besides carbon, it contains some salts, about two per cent. It is insoluble in water, and in close vessels is neither melted nor volatilized by the most intense heat.

Off. Prep. Cataplasma Carbonis, Charcoal Poultice. (Wood charcoal, in powder, half an ounce; bread, two ounces; linseed meal, one ounce and a half; boiling water, ten fluid ounces. Mix the water, bread, and linseed; then add half the charcoal, and sprinkle the remainder on the surface.)

Therapeutics. It has been employed on account of its absorbing power, as an antiseptic and corrector of acidity and flatus of the stomach and intestines, and to correct the state of the fasces in some diseases. As an external application it is used in the form of poultice, to prevent the foetor of ulcers, etc. Dr. Stenhouse has recently proposed its being used in the manufacture of respirators for those who are subjected to the influence of injurious gases or vapours. Internally it is given in certain forms of dyspepsia, accompanied with flatus and acidity.

Dose. Internally from a teaspoonful to a tablespoonful, recently made, and carefully preserved in stoppered vessels. It is sometimes made into a biscuit and thus employed; sometimes also it is given in the form of lozenges.

Bone Black

Ivory Black, Animal Charcoal, Appendix A. The residue of ox and sheep bones which have been exposed to a red heat without the access of air, reduced to powder: it contains about 10 per cent. of carbon, the remaining 90 per cent. consisting of phosphate, with a little carbonate, of lime.

Carbo Animalis Purificatus. Purified Animal Charcoal. Bone black, deprived of its earthy salts.

Prep. It is prepared by treating bone black with very dilute hydrochloric acid, to remove all the salts; then washing and drying, and afterwards heating to redness in a covered crucible.

Prop. & Comp. Inodorous and almost tasteless; absorbs gases and odours, and has also great power in abstracting almost all principles from their solutions, such as alkaloids, bitter and colouring matters, etc.

Therapeutics. Animal charcoal may be used in the same way and for the same purposes as vegetable, in addition to which the author has shown that its antidotal power against vegetable poisons is very great, rendering inert opium, nux vomica, aconite, and almost all the active organic poisons. In pharmacy it is used to deprive alkaloids and other principles of their colour. etc.

Dose. As an antacid and corrector of foetor, from a teaspoonful to a tablespoonful; as an antidote, from half an ounce to two ounces or more, according to the amount of poison taken; it may be suspended in water for a short time, and thus administered. Common bone black in the state of fine powder may be used as an antidote or externally applied; it is much more powerful than the purified charcoal, if estimated by the amount of contained carbon.