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MATERIA M-EDICA. 



MATElilA MEDICA. 



B18 



itinerant dealer. As mechanical ingenuity Bupplied the flint and steel 

 and tinder-box to supersede the rubbing sticks, so has chemical in- 

 genuity made a wide step in advance, by showing how to furnish the 

 little splints or matches with a composition which will kindle by slight 

 friction. 



Whether called Congrcrcs, Lucifers, or Instantaneous Lights, these 

 small but valuable articles are now made in almost inconceivable 

 quantities. Hand cutting has long been unable to produce the splints 

 in sufficient quantity ; nothing less than steam power can do this. At 

 one among many saw-mills in London, these matches are made in the 

 following way. The wood employed is American yellow pine. It is 

 first sawn into blocks about 12 inches long, 5 or 6 wide, and 3 thick. 

 Several of these blocks are placed in a machine where a number of 

 revolving cutters, worked with great rapidity, slice the blocks up into 

 layers, and cut the layers into splints. One machine will cut up two 

 million splints in a day. The splints, as liberated from the machine, 

 Elide down into another room, where women and girls tie them \ip in 

 boxes, the boxes in parcels, and the parcels in bundles. These splints 

 are sold by the hogshead to the lucifer match makers, each hogshead 

 containing perhaps two million splints. At one saw-mill alone, it is 

 estimated that the timber of four hundred large pine trees is cut up 

 yearly for lucifer matches ; and there are some establishments in 

 England where as many as jive million splints are made in a day. If 

 the splints are to be cylindrical instead of square, the wood is shaped 

 by being forced through small circular apertures in a metal plate : great 

 pressure, and great sharpness at the edges of the holes, being necessary. 

 But G ermany exceeds even England in this branch of industry, as in most 

 other kinds of wood-work. In Saxony, undipped matches, two inches 

 in length, can be bought for 5 thalers per million, about 1400 for a 

 farthing; and boxes to contain them are sold at 2cl. per 100. At 

 various places in Bohemia, untipped splints are sold wholesale at a price 

 that scarcely amounts to one farthing per 3000 ; and at Schiittenhofen 

 tipped matches, boxes and all, containing 80 matches in each box, are 

 sold at the rate of about one penny for a dozen boxes. This degree of 

 cheapness was attained in 1851 ; and it is likely that prices have low- 

 ered rather than risen since. 



The chemistry of matches has undergone curious changes. At one 

 time phosphoric tapers were made,- complex, dangerous, and expensive. 

 These were supplanted by phosphorus bottles, in which sulphur matches 

 were ignited by contact with a bit of phosphorus. A more scientific 

 but less-used arrangement was the pyrophorus, in which light was pro- 

 duced by exposing to the air a calcined mixture of flour, sugar, and 

 alum. The instantaneous light of Volta was an elaborate apparatus for 

 producing light by the actiun of electricity upon hydrogen. Dobereincr's 

 instantaneous light was a little less complex than this. The light- 

 tyringe was a kind of squirt, which ignited a piece of German tinder 

 by means of the heat expelled from air when powerfully condensed. 

 All of the above were superseded, for popular use, by the oxymuriale 

 matches. Chlorate or oxymuriate of potash was mixed into a paste 

 with gum and vermilion ; matches were tipped with this composition ; 

 and when the tipped end of a match was dipped into a bottle containing 

 a bit of asbestus moistened with sulphuric acid, it instantly ignited. 

 Elegant metal boxes fitted with this apparatus had a very extensive 

 sale for many years, at prices which gradually fell from a guinea to a 

 shilling. It was not until friction was rendered adequate to the 

 kindling of a match, that the principle of cheapness came fairly into 

 play, by allowing the makers to dispense with liquids, bottles, and 

 complicated arrangements. The conyrcve vanquished all competitors 

 as a light-giver. The chemical composition which gives to the matches 

 their easy -igniting power, can now be bought at a very low price ; and 

 as children are chiefly employed in the manufacture, the matches can 

 be sold extremely cheap. Whether the colour be red, yellow, brown, 

 blue, or green, the composition possesses the requisite quality in respect 

 to ignition by friction ; and chemists are now acquainted with many 

 such. There are many processes and compositions adopted. In one, 

 the matches are dipped into a mixture of phosphorus, oil of turpentine, 

 and flowers of sulphur ; and afterwards into a mixture of gum arable, 

 chlorate of potash, and soot. In a second method the composition 

 consists of chlorate of potash, phosphorus, gum arable, and gelatine ; 

 the matches being dipped into melted sulphur before being dipped in 

 this composition. In a third method, the composition consists of gum 

 arabic, vermilion, phosphorus, and saltpetre. Chlorate matches are 

 dipped into a mixture of chlorate of potash, flowers of sulphur, 

 powdered sugar, gum arable, and vermilion. The dipping of the end 

 of the splint into melted sulphur, and then into a melted composition 

 of which phosphorus is one of the ingredients, is a very dangerous 

 employmerit, which has led to many sad calamities. It is also found 

 that the phosphoric fumes tend to induce jaw-diseases, and other 

 maladies, under which the work-people suffer. There is a kind of 

 phosphorus, called amorphous or allotropic, which is said to be free 

 from many of the evils of common phosphorus ; but various circum- 

 stances nave prevented its introduction to any great extent in the 

 match manufacture. 



MATE'KIA ME'DICA is that branch of medical science which 

 treats of the articles employed in the practice of medicine, and embraces 

 an explanation of the nature and modes of action of those substances 

 which are had recourse to in order to restore the healthy state of the 

 humin frame when its functions or structure are impaired by disease 



Thus defined it comprehends both pharmacology and therapeutics. 

 The former means an account of drugs, simple or prepared, in reference 

 to their physical character, natural history, commercial history, che- 

 mical composition, and modes of exhibition. The latter means an 

 exposition of the principles which should regulate their employment. 

 The pharmacological part of the subject is sufficiently treated of under 

 each article, as it presents itself in alphabetical order, and it is only 

 requisite to treat here of the general principles involved in their prac- 

 tical application. For the full and satisfactory comprehension of this 

 department, a previous knowledge of the structure of the body, or 

 anatomy, and, above all, of general anatomy, and of the respective 

 duties or offices performed by its component organs while in a state of 

 integrity, or physiology, and of the various degrees of departure from 

 these, when from any cause they become deranged in their action, or 

 pathology, and the signs by which the morbid states are indicated, or 

 nosology, is required. These departments of science are studied only 

 by those persons who intend to follow the medical profession, and at 

 their hands only can a skilful employment of medicines be expected. 

 Something however may be done for the advantage of the public by 

 pointing out how medicines act, and in what way they prove remedial. 

 The object of the administration of a medicine is to arrest the progress 

 of diseased action, and to remove the consequences of its existence, 

 that is, to restore the individual to perfect health, such as he enjoyed 

 before the organ or organs received the impression of the morbific 

 cause ; or where both or either of these objects cannot be accomplished, 

 so to retard the career of the unhealthy operations, as to prolong life 

 to the latest possible period. To improve and perfect this most im- 

 portant branch of the healing art is the end and aim of all the other 

 branches of medical science. The means of accomplishing this object 

 have varied in the different stages of human civilisation, and according 

 as different theories of the nature or cause of diseases have prevailed. 

 Many of the medicines formerly in use were of a disgusting or repulsive 

 nature, or of a kind devoid of any active principle, and therefore inert. 

 Many also owed their introduction into practice to superstition, 

 credulity, or a misapplication of the principles of natural and chemical 

 philosophy, and have long been discarded by scientific practitioners, 

 though frequently retained by the populace or by quacks. The medicines 

 used in the present day are still drawn from all the three kingdoms of 

 nature, though the animal kingdom yields few, the vegetable kingdom 

 a considerable number, and the mineral kingdom the greatest number 

 and generally the most active. 



In general few articles produce much effect on the human frame, 

 either in a state of health or disease, which are not possessed of marked 

 sensible qualities, impressing the senses of smell or taste in a distinct 

 manner. Hence bland insipid articles are mostly better fitted to 

 furnish nourishment than medicines, being completely digested, and 

 creating no disturbance or change of action of the vital powers of the 

 system ; medicinal substances on the contrary do not appear to be 

 thoroughly digested, but a portion remaining unassimilated acts in 

 some measure as a foreign body, and produces a stimulant or alterant 

 effect on the vital power. Many medicines are indeed absolutely 

 poisonous if given in large doses, or where no diseased state of the 

 system requires their administration. For disease often gives to the 

 system a power of sustaining the action of a dose of medicine which 

 would produce serious disorder if given to a person in health ; the 

 morbid state of the system seemiug to act as an antidote to the 

 medicine, while the medicine acts as an antidote to the diseasa health 

 being the result of their neutralising power. 



Medicines produce two distinct effects : one termed the primary, or 

 in some cases, as when given to a healthy person, the physiological 

 effect ; the other secoudaiy, or curative, which can only take place 

 when there exists a disease to be removed. The former is generally 

 uniform or constant ; the latter too often variable and uncertain. To 

 lessen the degree of uncertainty in the latter and most important of 

 the two kinds of action, many zealous medical men have instituted 

 experiments with different medicines on themselves or others ; while 

 chemists have carefully investigated the chemical composition of the 

 articles, and sought to discover their active principles, or to explain 

 their modes of action. Notwithstanding these valuable aids, thera- 

 peutics is still the most imperfect of all the departments of medical 

 science, partly from the difficulties inherent in the subject, and partly 

 from inability in medical men to weigh correctly the evidence 

 respecting the effects of medicines. The union of several articles in 

 one prescription, by which we attempt by one stroke to remove several 

 symptoms, tends still further to obscure the results, and to vitiate the 

 conclusions which may be drawn. The polypharmacy of the ancients 

 has been in a great measure abandoned, but still it must be confessed 

 that simplicity in prescribing is not sufficiently studied. (Holland's 

 ' Medical Notes and Reflexions on Medical Evidence, and on Methods 

 of Prescription.') On the opposite hand, the attempts to isolate the 

 supposed active principle of many vegetable remedies, and to administer 

 it apart from the others, though in some instances advantageous, by 

 diminishing the size of the dose, or concealing the unpleasantness of 

 the taste, have not produced the consequences expected ; for example, 

 in most cases cinchona bark administered in some of the old prepara- 

 tions will be found a more valuable tonic than quinine. The superiority 

 of many mineral waters, which contain a variety of ingredients in a 

 state of extreme dilution, over the exhibition of the saiine materials 



