These preparations are obtained by expressing the juices from fresh
plants, and evaporating them in a water-bath; they are generally of a
lighter colour than common extracts, and they are certainly much more
active, although there is a great difference in the activity of
different samples; and perhaps the _medicinal_ powers of the juices
themselves are very much under the controul of soil and season. That
they _vary in quantity_ from such causes we have ample proof; thus in
moist seasons, Beaumé obtained five pounds of inspissated juice from
thirty pounds of _elder berries_, whereas, in dry seasons, he could
rarely get more than two. From _hemlock_ he procured in October, 1796,
7·5 per cent. of inspissated juice, and in May of the same year only
3·7; on the contrary, in August, 1768, 4 per cent., and in May, 1776, as
much as 6·5; but in general, the product in the autumnal months was the
most considerable.
The modes of preparing the inspissated juices of the same plant vary in
the different pharmacopœias, and in several points that are very
_essential_; some direct the expressed juices to be _immediately_
inspissated, others allow them to undergo a slight degree of
fermentation, and some _defecate_ them, before they proceed to their
inspissation.
EXTRACTUM (_Succus Spissatus._ E.) ACONITI. L.E. The medicinal
properties of this preparation are analogous to those of the recent
_Wolfsbane_, viz. narcotic, and in some cases diuretic, (see _Form.
128_.) It is however rarely used. _Dose_, at first, should not exceed
gr. ½, but it may be gradually increased. I have not yet, says Dr. Davy,
in a letter recently received from him, had much experience of the
_Extractum Aconiti_, but that little is favourable to its use; “in some
cases of chronic rheumatism, and in some of intermittent fever,
complicated with visceral disease, it has had a beneficial effect not to
be mistaken; the dose has been from one to two grains.” Dr. Stöerck, who
first tried this medicine, observed from it a powerful diaphoretic
effect; this, says Dr. Davy, “I have not noticed, and yet the extract
which I have used was prepared by Mr. Barry, _in vacuo_, which is
certainly far more powerful than that employed by Stöerck; the latter,
when applied to the tongue, “_levissimam tantum titillationem
excitabat_,” whereas that of Mr. Barry produces a most disagreeable
sensation of burning, which extends to the throat; and in one instance,
when applied to the tip of my tongue, it occasioned ulceration.”
EXTRACTUM BELLADONNÆ. L.E. See _Belladonnæ Folia_. _Dose_, gr. j,
gradually increased to gr. v, in the form of pill. Dr. Davy has made a
few trials of Barry’s Extract; the results of which he informs me are
not at all favourable to the use of this medicine; it is much more
powerful than the common extract, and can only be given with safety in
small doses; “in several instances,” says he, “I have not been able to
repeat a grain dose daily, more than thrice, on account of the alarming
symptoms produced, as head-ache, vertigo, indistinct vision with dilated
pupil, and, in one case, irritation of the bladder, occasioning very
frequent micturition; in chronic rheumatism and catarrh, with severe
cough, the only diseases in which I have yet given it, it has not
appeared to be in the least serviceable; it may probably prove valuable
to the oculist; from trials that have been made of it here by Mr.
Miller, Assistant Surgeon to the Forces, it has been found to dilate the
pupil beyond the common extract. Stöerck even introduced his extract
into the eye with impunity. Acrid as the preparation is which I have
used, the patients have never complained of it, nor have I known any
disagreeable effects from it, when applied in solution, sufficiently
dilute.”
EXTRACTUM (_Succus Spissatus._ E.D.) CONII. L. Much of this extract, as
it is found in commerce, has not been prepared with equal fidelity, nor
with due attention to the season when the plant is in its greatest
perfection; Dr. Fothergill says, “I know from repeated experiments, that
the extract which has been prepared from _hemlock_, before the plant
arrives at maturity, is much inferior to that which is made when the
plant has acquired its full vigour, and is rather on the verge of
decline: just when the flowers fade, the rudiments of the seeds become
observable, and the habit of the plant inclines to yellow, _is the
proper time_ to collect it;” the plants which grow in places exposed to
the sun should be selected, as being more _virose_ than those that grow
in the shade: still however with every precaution, it will always be
uncertain in strength. Orfila found that an extract prepared by boiling
the dried powder in water, and evaporating the decoction, was inert; in
fact, the whole of the activity of the plant resides in a resinous
element _insoluble_ in water, and for which I have proposed the name of
_Conein_. Extract of hemlock, when judiciously prepared, is a very
valuable sedative; I state this from ample experience, and when combined
with Hyoscyamus, and adapted by means of mucilage and syrup, to the form
of a mixture, it affords a more effectual palliative than any remedy
with which I am acquainted, for coughs and pulmonary irritation. _Form.
19._ is that from which I have derived the greatest benefit in such
cases. See also _Form. 2, 3, 4, 19, 57_. Since the fourth edition of the
present work, I requested my friend Dr. John Davy to make trial of its
efficacy in the Military Hospital at Chatham, and I here introduce his
report upon the subject;—“My experience of the effects of the _Extractum
Conii_ perfectly agrees with that of Dr. Paris, as stated in the fourth
edition of the Pharmacologia, and I am of his opinion that when properly
prepared, and administered, it is a very valuable sedative; I have given
it to the extent daily of from a scruple to a drachm, in chronic
catarrh, and in phthisis pulmonalis, either alone or in conjunction with
the Extract of Hyoscyamus, and it has afforded more relief than any
other medicine that I have tried. From two or three trials of it in
pneumonia, I am disposed to think it may be very serviceable in certain
forms of this disease, in which venesection is contra-indicated by
extreme debility; and also in measles. In the trials alluded to, I
commenced giving it in the large dose of a drachm, daily, suspended in
water containing in solution a grain of _Antimonium Tartarizatum_. In a
very few instances, where I have from the commencement given it in a
large dose, as from ʒj to ʒiss, it has occasioned hallucination of
ideas, which in two cases was attended with excitement of the sensorium
and increased action of the heart, and in one case, with diminished
activity of both. The Extract of Conium, prepared by Mr. Barry, is the
most powerful one I have ever used, indeed, until I tried it, I had no
just idea of the virtues of Conium as a medicine; but I am now disposed
to give credit to Stöerk’s account of its efficacy in various chronic
diseases; and I have no doubt but that this valuable medicine has fallen
into comparative disrepute and disuse from the bad quality of the
extract commonly employed.” Dr. Maton has found that the value of this
extract is greatly increased by including the seeds in its preparation.
_Dose_, grs. v to ℈j; or more, twice or thrice a day; in a full dose it
produces giddiness, a slight nausea, and a tremor of the body; a
peculiar heavy sensation is also experienced about the eyes; and the
bowels become gently relaxed: unless some of these sensations are
produced, we are never sure that the remedy has had a _fair trial_ of
its effects. Patients will generally bear a larger dose at night than at
noon, and at noon than in the morning.
EXTRACTUM ELATERII. L. This substance spontaneously subsides from the
juice of the wild cucumber, in consequence I presume of one of those
series of changes which vegetable matter is perpetually undergoing,
although we are hitherto unable to express them by any known chemical
law. It is therefore not an _extract_, either in the chemical or
pharmaceutical acceptation of the term, nor an _inspissated juice_, nor
is it a _fecula_,[502] as it has been termed; the Dublin College has
perhaps been more correct in simply calling it _Elaterium_, the name
given to it by Dioscorides.
It occurs in commerce in little thin cakes, or broken pieces, bearing
the impression of the muslin upon which it has been dried; its _colour_
is greenish, its _taste_ bitter, and somewhat acrid; and when tolerably
pure, it is light, pulverulent, and inflammable.
The early history of this medicinal substance is involved in great
perplexity, each author speaking of a different preparation by the same
name; for instance, the _Elaterium_ of Dioscorides must have been a very
different substance from that of _Theophrastus_; and, wherever
Hippocrates mentions the term, he evidently alludes to _any_ violent
purgative. “_Hippocrati Elaterium medicamentum est quod per alvum
expurgat._” (_Bod: in Theophrast_.) This will, in some degree, reconcile
the discordant testimonies of different authors with regard to the
powers of _Elaterium_; for example, Dioscorides states its dose to be
from grs. ii to ℈j—in Ætius, Paulus, and Actuarius, it is recommended to
the extent of ʒss—in Mesue from ℈ss to ℈j—in Bontius (_Med: Ind:_) from
℈j to ʒss—Massarias exhibits it in doses of gr. vj—Fernelius and
Sennertus to ℈j—Herman from grs. v vj—Quincy to grs. v—and Boerhaave
does not venture to give more than gr. iv—while the practitioners of the
present day limit their dose from gr. ½ to grs. ij. Dr. Clutterbuck,
with a laudable intention to discover some method of procuring this
article at a cheaper rate, and at the same time of establishing some
process which might ensure a preparation of more uniform strength, has
lately performed a series of interesting and instructive
experiments,[503] the results of which prove in a satisfactory manner
“that the active principle of this plant is neither lodged in the roots,
leaves, flowers, nor stalks, in _any considerable quantity:_ nor is it
to be found in the body of the fruit itself, or in the seeds, but in
_the juice around the seeds_; the substance which spontaneously subsides
from this liquor, obtained without pressure, is _genuine_ Elaterium, the
quantity of which, contained in the fruit, is extremely small, for Dr.
Clutterbuck obtained only six grains from _forty_ cucumbers.” This
gentleman communicated the detail of these experiments to the President
of the College of Physicians, who requested me, as professor of Materia
Medica, to report upon them. I accordingly deemed it to be my duty to
enter upon a series of new experiments, which I have lately completed,
with the able assistance of Mr. Faraday, in the laboratory of the Royal
Institution. The results of which will shew, that although Dr.
Clutterbuck found that an _eighth_ part of a grain of elaterium seldom
failed to _purge violently_, yet, strange as it may appear, that _not
more than one grain in ten_ of elaterium, as it occurs in commerce,
possesses any active properties, and that this decimal part is a
vegetable proximate principle, not hitherto noticed, to which I shall
give the name of ELATIN. I shall subjoin the detail of my experiments,
and I think it will appear that their results will authorise me to
express the chemical composition of Elaterium in the following manner.
F. Water ·4
{ B. Extractive 2·6
I. { B.DJ Fecula 2·8
{ C. Gluten ·5
K. Woody matter 2·5
H. _Elatin_ { 1·2
G. Bitter Principle {
———
10 grains.
Proximate Analysis of Elaterium.
_Experiments. Series 1st._