in _The Chemist and Druggist_ of October and November, 1877, and
February, 1878, by Mr. W. G. Piper.
Next we come to the fanciful and poetic names of metals and their
salts, and of all sorts of chemical compounds, invented by the
alchemists. They gave the names of aquila alba, mercurius dulcis,
panchymagogum minerale, manna metallorum, draco mitigatus, and others
to calomel; regulus, or the little king, to antimony (gold being king);
lunar caustic, ethiops martial, and salts of Saturn; vitriol, tartar,
pompholix, and scores of others, not selected without judgment, but
intended rather to mystify the public than to instruct them.
Chemical nomenclature of the present day has gone to the
opposite extreme. The ingenious laboratory devisers of
synthetic products have developed a nomenclature which it is
impossible to use. It explains itself to the initiated, but
even for intercommunication between chemists, pharmacists, and
physicians words like tetrahydroparamethyloxyquinoline or calcium
betanaphthol-alphamonosulphonate insist on being simplified if the
substances they describe come into medicinal use; and to do them
justice it must be admitted that the inventors of the products are
always ready to meet this requirement with a more or less expressive
title which can be protected as a trade mark. This forces other
manufacturers to devise other distinct names for the same article, so
that among the new chemicals which have become popular within the past
thirty years there are sometimes a dozen designations for the same
substance.
A PHARMACEUTICAL VOCABULARY.
The subjoined list of technical terms is limited to the names of
pharmaceutical processes, products, and apparatus; and only (as a
rule, with some exceptions) of such as are not dealt with in other
sections. Many of the terms are obsolete, but are to be met with in old
treatises. Occasionally rather more than a bare definition has been
thought desirable.
* * * * *
Acetabulum. Originally a vessel used by the Romans for holding vinegar
at the table. Then a liquid measure about 2½ oz.
Acetum Philosophicum. Vinegar made from honey.
Acopon. A stimulating or anodyne liniment, almost of the consistence of
an ointment. If acopa contained aromatics they were called myracopa.
Adept. An alchemist who “had attained.”
Adust. A dried up condition of the humours.
Aggregatives. Pills devised by Mesué which were intended to purge all
the humours.
Alabaster. A special kind of carbonate or sulphate of lime used by the
ancients for ointment containers which were sometimes called alabastra.
The name is supposed to have been derived from a town in Egypt.
Album Rhasis. White lead ointment, which Rhazes was believed to have
introduced.
Alembic. The Arabic name for a still. It was adapted by the Arabs from
the Greek ambix, a vase, to which was prefixed the particle al. The
word became corrupted in English to Limbeck.
Alembroth. Sal Alembroth was the double chloride of mercury and
ammonium. Also called the salt of wisdom. The word has not been traced,
but has been supposed to be a Chaldaic term meaning the key of art.
Alexipharmic (in Greek alexipharmakon). A remedy against poison.
Alexiteria. Remedies against the bites of venomous animals.
Alhandal. The Arabic name for colocynth which was applied to certain
lozenges or tablets of that drug.
Alkahest. The universal solvent, or menstruum. The word has an Arabic
appearance, but cannot be traced to that language. It is believed
to have been one of Paracelsus’s many etymological inventions. The
derivation has been guessed to have been from the German al-geist,
all spirit, Paracelsus said it was a liquid to cure all kinds of
engorgements. Van Helmont’s Alkahest was capable of restoring to their
first life all the bodies of nature. Glauber’s Alkahest was nitrate
potash which had been detonated on live coals. It was carbonate of
potash.
Alkali, in Arabic al-qaly. Qaly meant to fry, and the technical term
was applied to the ashes of plants after frying or roasting.
Alkekengi. The Winter Cherry, formerly in much esteem as a remedy in
kidney and urinary complaints.
Alkool. This name was given to powders of the finest tenuity. It
was also applied to spirit of wine rectified to the utmost extent.
Boerhaave employed the term to indicate the purest inflammable
principle.
Aloedarium. A purgative medicine with aloes as the principal ingredient.
Aludels. Pear-shaped pots constructed so that they could be fitted one
into another, a series of them being used for sublimations. The name is
supposed to have had an Arabic origin, or it may have meant “not luted.”
Amalgam. A compound of mercury and some other metal. Believed to have
been a perversion of malagma, a soft ointment, with the Arabic article
prefixed.
Amphora. An earthenware vessel with two handles wherewith to carry
it. Used by the Greeks and Romans for wine and oil. The Greek vessel
contained about 9 gallons; the Roman amphora was equivalent to nearly 7
gallons.
Analeptica. Restorative remedies.
Anoyntment. An old term for ointment.
Antidotary. A frequent title of books of formulas for medicines.
Antidote. Something “given against.” Originally, perhaps, an adjective,
and in old medicine employed for various remedies; now limited to
substances which will counteract the effect of poisons.
Apozems. Strong decoctions or infusions. A Greek word meaning “boiled
off.”
Aqua Mirabilis. Once a popular household remedy. Water distilled from
cloves, cardamoms, cubebs, mace, ginger, and other spices.
Aquila Alba. An old name for calomel.
Arcana meant secrets. The original idea of the word was things shut
up and protected as the occupants of Noah’s Ark were shut up. The
alchemists used the word arcanum freely, but it came to be applied
to medicines of known composition but of mysterious action. Arcanum
tartari was acetate of potash. Arcanum duplicatum was another name for
the Sal de Duobus or sulphate of potash which was supposed to combine
the virtues of nitre and vitriol.
Athanor was a self-supplying furnace, the coals or fuel being provided
in a reservoir above the fire and intended to be supplied to the
furnace automatically.
Balm and Balsam, which are words with the same origin, have always
been suggestive of medicinal and healing virtues. Probably balsam
has descended through the Greek and Latin from Semitic terms meaning
spices. The Hebrew Besem or Bosem, often translated “spices,” in one
place “cinnamon,” in another “calamus,” always meant some grateful
aromatic. But the opobalsamum or juice of the Balsam tree, the famous
Balm of Gilead, was Tsori in Hebrew. Old etymologists, supported
by Littré and other moderns, consider that Baal-schaman, prince of
oils, was the original word from which balsam was derived. The Arabic
Abu-scham, father of perfumed oils, was a name for the balsam tree.
Paracelsus taught that the human body contained a natural balsam which
tended by itself to heal wounds.
Basilicon ointment is first met with in Celsus. It means royal ointment
but no explanation of the origin of the term is given. He compounded it
of panax, (perhaps opopanax), galbanum, pitch, resin, and oil. Mesué
made a basilicon minus, composed of wax, resin, pitch, and oil. This
he also called unguentum tetrapharmacum, because it was made from four
drugs. Both of these were black ointments. Later the pitch was omitted
and the ointment was then named yellow basilicon. A green basilicon
ointment was also formulated in the early London Pharmacopœias,
containing verdigris, and used as a detergent. It is sometimes stated
that the ointment acquired its name because it contained the plant
basil (_Ocimum basilicum_) among its ingredients; but I find no
authority for this statement.
Baths. The most usual form of digesting substances in a gentle heat was
in a Balneum Mariæ, Bain-Marie, or as old English writers translated it
a St. Mary’s bath. It was supposed to have been derived from balneum
maris, as if sea water was used; but there is no justification for
this guess. Littré thinks it was called the bath of Mary because
of its gentleness. Sand-baths, cinder-baths, horse-dung baths, and
iron-filings baths were also ordered.
Bezoards. Mineral bezoard was diaphoretic antimony. Silician earth was
also called mineral bezoar.
Blisters. Freind says these were introduced into medicine in Venice and
Padua during the plague of 1576. Jerome Mercuriali wrote about them.
They superseded dropaxes and metasyncretics.
Bolus was a medicine of the consistence of an electuary or rather
stiffer, taken in pieces about the size of a bean. The Greek word meant
a lump of earth, and it was used medically by the Romans. It was the
same as katapotia.
Calx was the name applied to lime which had been burnt, and from this
it came to be applied to the white powdery product yielded by burning
metals. Thus came the calx Lunæ, the calx Saturni, the calx Jovis, the
calx Mercurii, and others. The ancient theory was that in burning the
metal the sulphur principle was driven out, and this was the parent of
Stahl’s phlogiston theory.
Caput mortuum and terres damnées were names applied to residues in
retorts after operations.
Carminative. A medicine which expels winds. One theory traces it
to carmen, a charm, but most authorities consider that it was an
application to medicine of the term carminare, to card wool, and
suggested that the remedy acted by combing through the humours.
Cataplasm. From Greek kata-plassein, to apply over. Used originally
for both poultices and plasters. Cataplasmata were perfumed powders
sprinkled over the clothes, or sometimes depilatories.
Catholica. Electuaries which purged all the humours.
Cerates were ointments made solid by wax, but not so hard as plasters.
Cerevisiæ (Beers). Medicinal preparations made by adding medicines
to malt wort and letting them ferment together were popular in the
early part of the 18th century. It was believed that the process
of fermentation extracted the properties of drugs more effectively
than mere digestion. Quincy (1739) names thirty cerevisiæ, aperient,
antiscorbutic, diuretic, hysteric, stomachic, &c. Many of these were
compounded with numerous drugs.
Ceruse. Old Latin name for white lead. Flowers of antimony were called
ceruse of antimony. The name is supposed to have had some association
with wax, but the connection is not clear.
Cochleare. The usual prescription term for a spoonful, was in Latin
the twenty-fourth of a cyathus or wineglassful. It was an egg-spoon,
but owed its name to a pointed tip used to extract winkles from their
shells as we use pins, and, the cochlear being a small snail, the name
was transferred to the instrument. From it has descended the French
cuillier, a spoon.
Cohobation came to mean only the repetition of distillation, the
distillate being poured on the material from which it had already been
distilled, and again distilled. Paracelsus uses the term cohob to
signify a repetition of the same medicine.
Colcothar. The name was applied to the prepared rust of iron now called
rouge, but originally to the residue left in the retort after oil of
vitriol had been distilled from sulphate of iron. Paracelsus used, and
some say invented, the word; but Murray traces it through the Spanish
to an Arabic origin, qolqotar, which Doxy believes to have been a
corruption of the Greek Chalcanthos, a solution of blue vitriol (from
chalkos, copper, and anthos, flower). Colcothar was the same as crocus
Martis.
Collutories. Medicines of the consistence of honey for applying to the
gums and mouth. Honey and borax is an example. A fluid mouth-wash was
called a collution.
Collyrium. Collyria were “dry,” or powders such as alum, sulphate
of zinc, or calomel, which were insufflated into the eye; soft, or
pomades applied to the eyelids; and liquid, or eye lotions. The term
kollyrion was used in Greek medicine with the same meaning; it was
originally derived from kollyra, a roll of bread.
Conserves properly consisted of only one medicament and sugar.
Crocus (Saffron). The term was applied to certain metallic combinations
of a saffron colour, such as crocus Martis (rust of iron), crocus
Veneris (a copper oxide), and crocus Metallorum (liver of antimony).
Damocrates left a formula for Crocomagma, tonic cakes or trochiscs, of
which saffron was the principal ingredient.
Crucible. A vessel in which metals are melted. The word is generally
attributed to a supposed association with crux, crucis, a cross; but
this is not proved. It was originally the name of a night-lamp, and
several authorities consider it owes its name to the crossing of the
wicks.
Cucupha. A cap to be worn on the head in which certain aromatic drugs
were fixed with the idea of curing headaches.
Cucurbit. A gourd-shaped vessel of glass or earthenware used as a
retort.
Cyathus, translated wineglassful when the word appears in
prescriptions, was the ladle with which the wine was scooped out from
the cratera into the poculum. It was also a Roman measure, about the
twelfth part of a pint.
Decocta have been attributed to Nero as the inventor. At least they
appear to have originated in his household. They were simply boiled
water refreshed by ice, and often flavoured by fruits. These were
employed as beverages. “Et hæc est Neronis decocta” exclaimed the
fallen tyrant as he fled from Rome and allayed his thirst by scooping
some dirty water from a pond.
Deliquium. Deliquescence; as when salt of tartar was resolved into “oil
of tartar” by mere exposure to the air. This was called “deliquium per
se.”
Despumation. The removal of the froth from boiling honey or syrup.
Dia in the “Vision of William concerning Piers the Plowman” written by
Langland in 1377 occur the lines:
Lyf leuede that lechecraft lette shulde elde
And dryuen away deth with dyas and dragges.
Translated into modern English these lines would read “Life believed
that leechcraft should let (hinder) age, and drive away death with
dyas and dragges.” The dyas and dragges were evidently the means which
leechcraft employed. At that time and for long afterwards a large
number of compounded medicines bore titles with the prefix dia-.
Diachylon, diagrydium, diabolanum diakodion, diasulphuris are examples
of scores. Dia was the Greek preposition, meaning through or from,
which appears in a multitude of English words. In medicine it always
implies a compound, and in old English it is occasionally found alone
as in the instance quoted from “Piers Plowman.” Another given in the
Historical English Dictionary is from Lydgate (1430) “Drug nor dya
was none in Bury towne.”[5] In combination a few survivals remain in
the language as Diachylon, Diapente, and Diacodion, but in the old
medical formularies its use is very frequent. Generally it meant an
electuary or confection. Thus for example the P.L. of 1746 changed the
old Diascordium into Electuarium e Scordio. Apparently the dia- was then
going out of fashion.
Diagredium or Diagrydium. This term was often applied to scammony but
it was correctly reserved to a prepared scammony (see Dia); the object
being to modify the purgative action. One method was to place some
scammony in the hollow of a quince and keep it for some time in hot
ashes. This gave Diagredium cydoniatum. Or sulphur was burned under
a porous paper on which scammony was spread, and the preparation was
known as Diagredium sulphuratum. It was also combined with liquorice
and called Diagredium glycyrrhisatum.
Dropax was the name of a plaster employed as a depilatory. It was
applied warm and pulled off, with the hairs, when cold. It was the
Greek term for a pitch plaster.
Drug. The word “dragges” in the “Vision of Piers Plowman” (refer
to “Dia”) has been generally supposed to have been an earlier form
of drugs; but Skeat contended on philological grounds that the two
terms could hardly be the same. Dragges occurs also in Chaucer in the
description of the Doctour of Phisike:--
Ful redy had he his apothecaries
To send him dragges and his lettuaries.
and Skeat presumed that the dragges were a kind of medicinal sweetmeat
corresponding with the French dragées. But Murray has shown that in
most of the texts of Chaucer the word is droggis or drugges. So that
it is probable that the poet was using the term which we now almost
invariably confine to the raw materials of pharmacy. It might easily be
shown that in the past it was more generally applied. The etymology of
drug is doubtful. The majority of philologists trace it to Anglo-Saxon
dryg, and Dutch droog, both meaning dry, the sense originating from
dried herbs. There is, however, a Celtic word, drwg, in Irish, droch,
which has the meaning of something bad. But Littré suggests that the
primary signification of that word is that of an ingredient, and
therefore might have been the derivation of our drug. Most likely it
is the original of the word when employed as indicating something
worthless, as “a drug in the market.” It may well be therefore that
the word used in different senses has distinct derivations. (Two
interesting articles on this subject will be found in _The Chemist
and Druggist_ for February and March, 1882.)
Eclegma. Thick syrups given on a piece of liquorice root to suck with
the object of relieving coughs. (See Electuary for Derivation.)
Ecussons. Compounds of theriaca with some added opium used as plasters.
Edulcorate. To deprive substances of their acrid taste. Generally by
the addition of syrup.
Electuary. Old dictionaries give the origin of this word as from the
Latin electus, on the theory that an electuary was a composition
of selected drugs. It is, in fact, a Latin corruption of the Greek
ekleikton, which meant something that could be licked. See Eclegma.
Elixir. An Arabic word, al-iksir, which Littré says signified the
essence or the quintessence. Murray suggests that it may have had a
Greek origin. Xerion, a late Greek medical term, meaning a desiccative
powder for wounds, is the word which he supposes the Arabs may have
adopted. It is probable that elixir was from the first used to denote
a medicine; perhaps _the_ medicine, the great panacea which Arab
chemists sought for. For although alchemy, the name at least, may be
traced to their laboratories, it is certain that their early efforts
were rather in the direction of the discovery of remedies than in that
of the production of gold. By the alchemists of Europe and England,
however, elixir was understood in both senses. It meant both the
philosopher’s stone and the elixir of life. In “The Alchemist,” Ben
Jonson (1610) alludes to an old superstition thus:
He that has once the “flower of the sun”
The perfect ruby which we call elixir
... by its virtue
Can confer honour, love, respect, long life,
Give safety, valour, yea, and victory
To whom he will. In eight and twenty days
He’ll make an old man of fourscore a child.
The word has been a useful one for empirics many times since.
Emplastra are noted by Celsus, many of his formulæ being made with a
lead plaster basis as ours are to this day, litharge (spuma argenti)
and olive oil being boiled together.
Emulsion, from emulsus the past participle of emulgere, to milk out,
was originally applied to the milky liquid extracted from almonds.
Subsequently extended to other milky fluids.
Enchrista. Liquids, Celsus says, “quæ illinuntur,” but the word
linimentum had not been formed in his time. He uses the word
Linamentum for a sort of lint. Acopa were a kind of liniment.
Enema or clyster or glyster are all used to signify either the
injection or the instrument by which the injection is applied. Enema
(properly pronounced with the accent on the first syllable) means
something sent; clyster was the Greek word for the instrument.
Ens. A favourite term with old metaphysicians and alchemists with the
same meaning as essence. Supposed to have been derived from Esse, to be.
Epithema. An alcoholic fomentation or liquid medicine applied to the
heart and stomach as a stupe.
Epithemation was the name of an application described by Galen as of a
consistence between that of a cerate and that of a plaster.
Errhines, called Nasalia in Latin, are substances snuffed up the
nostrils to excite sneezing.
Gas was a word invented by Van Helmont. Several guesses have been
hazarded as to the idea which suggested the term. The Dutch geest,
spirit or ghost, seemed the most likely. The German gäschen, to
ferment, has also been proposed. But in 1897 Dr. F. Hurder discovered a
paragraph in Van Helmont’s writings which stated definitely that he had
derived the word from chaos.
Gilla Vitriola. The name first given to white vitriol. Gilla meant
simply salt.
Gutteta. A term for epilepsy. Pulvis de Gutteta was a remedy against
epilepsy.
Hepars were chemicals of a liver colour, as hepar antimonii, hepar
sulphuris.
Infusions first appeared in the London Pharmacopœia of 1720. In the
revised edition of that issue (1724), however, the three infusions of
1720 appear as Decocti, the title of Infusum being abandoned, but the
directions for the three preparations referred to still give “infunde”
and not “coque.” In the edition of 1746 Infusa re-appear as such,
and “Macera” appears in the directions for the first time. In the
1788 edition Inf. Amarum Simplex becomes Infusum Gentianæ Compositum,
and aqua bulliens gives place to aqua fervens. In 1809 the number of
Infusions is raised from four to eighteen.
Julep, a term made popular in medicine by the Arabs. It was used by
them exclusively for clear, sweet, liquids. Nothing oily or with a
sediment could be a julep. The name is said to be a Persian compound
from gul, rose, and ap, water; applied to rose tinted waters. It has
lingered in modern pharmacy as camphor or mint julep, but in neither of
these cases is it correctly applied, as they are not sweetened. The old
way of making camphor julep was to hold a piece of camphor by pincers,
inflame it, and plunge it in water, repeating this operation frequently
until the water acquired a strong flavour of camphor.
Katapotia. The most usual form of medicine among the Greek pharmacists
was the confection or electuary, a composition of drugs made to a
proper consistence generally with honey. Frequently these electuaries
were called “antidotes,” things given against this or that disease.
There were antidotes against gout, against stone, against colics,
against phthisis, etc. The taste of these antidotes was always
unpleasant, so it became the custom to order them to be made up into
little balls of such or such size. The Greeks called these little balls
“katapotia,” that is, things to be swallowed. “Take a katapotium the
size of a bean” would be an ordinary Greek direction. Galen describes a
composition of 1 part of colocynth, 2 parts of aloes, 2 of scammony,
1 of absinth juice, and a little mastic and bdellium, which was to
be formed into katapotia, each of the size of a dried pea. Trallien
refers to this same pill, but names the size as that of a kokkion, a
seed. This was the origin of our pil. cochiæ or cocciæ as they came to
be known. By this time the names globulus, glomeramus, and pilula had
taken the place in Latin of katapotium. Actuarius says expressly that
what the Greeks called katapotia the Romans knew as pilulæ. Trochisci
were katapotia made very hard.
Lac Virginale. The name was applied to a dilute solution of acetate of
lead (Goulard’s water) and also to water made milky by the addition of
a little tincture of benzoin. Both were used by young girls for their
complexions.
Lapis Infernalis. Nitrate of silver.
Lapis Medicamentosus. An astringent stone of which oxide of iron was
the principal ingredient.
Lapis Mirabilis. An application for wounds, of which green vitriol was
the essential ingredient.