2io MATER r A MEDICA AND THERAPEUTICS. 



ACTION AND USES. 

 1. IMMEDIATE LOCAL ACTION AND USES. 



Lemon juice in the mouth and stomach has the same action 

 as citric acid, and is used chiefly to relieve thirst and 

 produce effervescing mixtures and drinks. 



2. ACTION ON THE BLOOD, AND SPECIFIC ACTION AND USES. 



Lemon juice enters the blood as alkaline citrates, potash 

 salts, and phosphoric acid. Here the citrates are in part 

 oxydised into carbonic acid and water. (See Acidum Citricum.) 

 The potash and phosphoric acid probably act upon the red 

 corpuscles, of which they are both important constituents. 



Lemon juice is used with great success in the prevention 

 and treatment of scurvy, a disease the exact nature of which 

 is still obscure, but which is no doubt produced by the want 

 of the juices of fresh vegetable and animal food. The citric 

 acid, the potash, and the phosphoric acid have severally been 

 credited with the beneficial effect by different authorities. 

 Lemon juice has also been given in acute rheumatism, but is 

 probably useful only in as far as it conveys alkalies into the 

 blood and tissues. 



3. REMOTE LOCAL ACTION AND USES. 



Those, which are of great importance, are fully described 

 under Citric Acid. 



Belae Fructus BAEL FRUIT. The dried half- 

 ripe fruit of .flCgle Marmelos. From Malabar and 

 Coromandel. 



Characters. Fruit roundish, about the size of a large 

 orange, with a hard woody rind ; usually imported in dried 

 slices, or in fragments consisting of portions of the rind and 

 adherent dried pulp and seeds. Rind about a line and a 

 half thick, covered with a smooth pale-brown or greyish 

 epidermis, and internally, as well as the dried pulp, brownish- 

 orange or cherry-red. The moistened pulp is mucilaginous. 



Composition. Bael is believed to contain a kind of tannio 

 acid, but has not been thoroughly analysed. 



Preparation. 

 Extraction Belss Liquidum. 1 in 1. Dose, 1 to 2 fl.dr. 



