462 MEDICINES. 



A BOTTLE, OR PAPER OP MAGNESIA *. 



As a generally recommended cure for the heartburn, 

 by correcting acid on the stomach ; a trifling preventive 

 to the gout; a pretty good aperient medicine, par- 

 ticularly if taken with acid, which gives it somewhat 

 the effect of Epsom salts ; and a very good medicine 

 when mixed with rhubarb, which counteracts its cold- 

 ness on the stomach. 



* Carbonate of soda is now so generally preferred, that I was on 

 the point of erasing magnesia from the list ; when I saw, in the 

 u Age" paper, a letter from my friend, Sir Anthony Carlisle, which, 

 by his permission, I here subjoin : 



" Langham Place, July 3, 1830. 



" Sirs. I have made several trials with your purified Magnesia, and 

 common j ustice demands a statement of the results. During my long 

 continued professional experience, I have had many occasions for 

 seeking some harmless corrector of acidity incident to the stomach and 

 bowels. I have generally found the magnesia in ordinary use to be 

 hurtful to the digesting power of the stomach when repeatedly given ; 

 and, in some instances, both in children and grown persons, it concretes 

 into balls in the intestines, which is a dangerous occurrence. If, as you 

 assert, the purified magnesia, now offered to the public, is freed from 

 lime, and the poisonous earth called barytes, it must be inoffensive to 

 the stomach, and not liable to concretion. I have uqder these im- 

 pressions, directed Lock yer's Magnesia to be taken, in several instances, 

 with remarkable benefit. I think it is a more potent cathartic, and 

 less hurtful to digestion, than any other magnesia ; and when it meets 

 with alimentary acid, it must become a purgative liquid solution, 

 and therefore incapable of concretion. I have sometimes directed 

 twenty grains of your purified magnesia to be mixed in an ounce of 

 infusion of rhubarb, and half an ounce of decoction of the yellow 

 Peruvian bark, to be taken as a corrector of heartburn, and at the 

 same time as a gentle aperient. I am, &c. 



" ANTHONY CARLISLE. 



" To Messrs. Aldwinckle and Bromfield, Lockyer's Magnesia Warehouse, 

 237, Tottenham-court-road, corner of Bedford-street." 



