This section is from the book "The London Medical Dictionary", by Bartholomew Parr. Also available from Amazon: London Medical Dictionary.
See Benzoinum.
Liquor AEthereus, See AEther.
Liquor cereris. See Alla.
Liquor metallicus. See Argentum vivum.
Liquor salis. See Circulatum.
Liquor veneris. See AErugo AEris.
Liquor amnii, in midwifery called the waters, is the fluid in which the foetus swims during gestation. The quantity of this fluid is different in different women, and in the same woman in different pregnancies. It is largest in the earliest months, and when the mother is past the prime of life, or the child is weak. At parturition the waters, as they are called, exceed two quarts, and sometimes scarcely two ounces. There are, occasionally, what are styled false waters, which are frequently discharged at different periods of pregnancy; but if the amnios be really ruptured, labour is inevitable. It is now admitted that this fluid is exhaled from the vessels of the foetus, and does not contribute to its nourishment. See Foetus and Amnion.
Liquor mineralis anodynus Hoffmani. Hoffman, the inventor of this medicine, highly extols it as an anodyne and antispasmodic. In the Paris Pharmacopoeia the following formula is given; but it is not certainly known to be that which Hoffman employed, as he never revealed it.
Hoffman's mineral anodyne liquor. - To one pint and a half of highly rectified spirit of wine, placed in a large glass retort, pour, by little and little, through a long stemmed glass funnel, half a pound of concenr trated oil of vitriol. Stop the mouth of the retort; digest for some days; and then distil with a gentle heat. At first a fragrant spirit of wine will arise, and after it a more fragrant volatile spirit, which is to be caught in a fresh receiver: the receiver being again changed, a sulphureous volatile acid phlegm comes over; and, at length, a sweet oil of vitriol, which should be immediately separated, lest it be absorbed by the phlegm. Mix the first and second spirits together; and, in two ounces of this mixture, dissolve twelve drops of the sweet oil just named. If the liquor hath any sulphureous smell, re-distil it from a little salt of tartar. This liquor is a mixture of what is styled the sweet spirit of vitriol, ether, and the oleum vini; a preparation not very different, probably, from the ether of Tickel. It is imitated in the London Pharmacopoeia, by adding three drachms of the oleum vini to two pounds of ether; and that of Dublin orders it to be prepared by drawing over one half of the residuum, after the vitriolic ether is separated. It is given as a sedative, and antispasmodic, in hysteric, arthritic, and other painful complaints; to adults from thirty to an hundred drops, or more, with some sugar, or in an appropriate mixture. See .AEther.
 
Continue to: