New guide to health, or Botanic family physician : containing a complete system of practice, upon a plan entirely new : with a description of the vegetables made use of, and directions for preparing and administering them to cure disease ; to which is added a description of several cases of disease attended by the author, with the mode of treatment and cure / by Samuel Thomson.

  • Thomson, Samuel, 1769-1843.
Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: New guide to health, or Botanic family physician : containing a complete system of practice, upon a plan entirely new : with a description of the vegetables made use of, and directions for preparing and administering them to cure disease ; to which is added a description of several cases of disease attended by the author, with the mode of treatment and cure / by Samuel Thomson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    I shall leave it to the reader to reconcile, if he can, the inconsistencies and absurdities of the above statements of the effects of ratsbane; and ask himselfthe question, whether it can be possible for an article, the use of which is attended with such consequences, to be in any shape or form, prop- er to be used as medicine; yet it is a well known fact that this poison is in constant use among the fa- culty, and forms the principal ingredient in most of those nostrums sold throughout the country, under the names of drops, powders, washes, balsams, &c, and there can be no doubt that thousands either die, or become miserable invalids in consequence. liAntimony,in the modern nomenclature, is the name given to a peculiar metal. The antimonial metal is a medicine of the greatest power of any known substance; a quantity too minute to be sensi- ble in the most delicate balance, is capable of produ- cing violent effects, if taken dissolved, or in a solu- ble state. Sulphuretted antimony was employed by the ancients in Collyria, against inflammation of the eyes, and for staining the eye brows black. Its internal use does not seem to have been estab- lished till the end of the fifteenth century; and even at that time it was by many looked upon as poison- ous. All the metallic preparations are uncertain, as it entirely depends on the state of the stomach, whether they have no action at all, or operate with dangerous violence. The principal general med- cinal application of antimony has been for the use of febrile alfections. In the latter stage of fever, where debility prevails, its use is inadmissible. Of the propriety of using this metal as medicine, I shall leave it to the reader to judge for himself. Nilre—SaltPetre. This salt, consisting of ni- tric acid and potash,is found ready formed on the sur- face ef the soil in warm climates. Purified nitre