52 MATERIA MEDICA AND THERAPEUTICS. 



be combined with, fused potash to form a convenient caustic, 

 potass a cum calce, Vienna paste, for ordinary use. Dusted on 

 the skin as chalk, or applied in lime-water, it is astringent and 

 desiccative (drying), and is used to promote the healing of 

 burns, eczema, and ulcers. The linimentum calcis is a valuable 

 application to burns. 



Internally. The local effect of lime is antacid, like the 

 alkalies and magnesia, combined with an astringency peculiar 

 to itself. Tn the mouth, chalk is used as an antacid and phy- 

 sical dentifrice. Admitted into the stomach and intestines, as 

 lime-water or the carbonate, lime unites with the free acids 

 of the contents, and acts upon the structures of the gastric 

 wall. It is accordingly useful in acid dyspepsia, with heart- 

 burn, given after food, e.g. as the bismuth lozenge. Lime- 

 water prevents the gastric juice from curdling milk in 

 large lumps, and is extensively given to artificially-reared 

 infants, the liquor calcis saccharatus being an excellent form 

 when dilution of the food is injurious. Its power of combi- 

 nation with acids also makes time a valuable antidote for 

 poisoning by the mineral acids, oxalic acid, and chloride of 

 zinc, and one which is always available in the form of wall- 

 plaster ; it must be freely given. The action of lime on the 

 glands of the stomach appears to be depressant, and it is, 

 therefore, not suited for administration before meals. Lime- 

 water is, indeed, a general gastric sedative of some value, 

 arresting some kinds of vomiting, especially in the acid dys- 

 pepsia of infants, and in pregnancy. 



But little of the alkaline effect of lime or chalk can re- 

 main in the bowels beyond what has been exerted on the chyme. 

 The astringent action of these familiar drugs in diarrhoea may 

 be in part due to their antacid property, in part to an 

 obscure sedative effect on the intestinal glands (?and vessels), 

 which diminishes the excretion of water into the bowel. 

 The lime salts can be traced along the whole length of the 

 canal, and most of their bulk is finally expelled unabsorbed. 

 Lime and chalk thus come to be two of our most valuable 

 astringents in diarrhoea, either alone or with aromatics, opium, 

 or vegetable astringents, as in the officinal preparations. 



Lime-water is also employed locally as an enema for killing 

 the thread- worm, and as a vaginal injection in leucorrhoea. 



2. ACTION ON THE BLOOD. 



Lime enters the circulation in very small quantities 

 only, and appears in the serum as the phosphate. It probably 

 increases the alkalinity somewhat, but no special use is made 

 of it for this purpose. 



