40 New preparation of Balsam Copaiva. 



which has deen denominated cornine, and which has been 

 very carefully and accurately described by Dr. Samuel G. 

 Morton in the Philadelphia Journal of Medical and Physical 

 Sciences. From the most respectable sources in the med- 

 ical profession, from various parts of the United States where 

 the article has been sent, the most favourable accounts have 

 been received of the unequivocal success of the cornine in 

 the treatment of intermittent fevers in the same doses as the 

 quinine, and the only circumstance which precludes its com- 

 petition with that substance, is the extremely minute compar- 

 ative proportion of cornine yielded by the cornus florida. 



Art. IV. — Observations on a new preparation of Balsam 

 Copaiva; by George W. Carpenter, of Philadelphia. 



f Balsam Copaiva being a medicine used in the practice of al- 

 most every physician, its characters, effects and uses are con- 

 sequently familiar to them. It is admitted by all, to be one 

 of the most nauseous and disagreeable articles of the ma- 

 teria medica. Disguised or mixed as it may be, its unpleas- 

 ant nature is still manifest, and little if at all diminished, 

 communicating its nauseous taste and imparting to the breath 

 its disagreeable odour which is experienced for several hours 

 after each dose, and frequently acting as an emetic, or ca- 

 thartic* From these circumstances, its use is frequently 

 abandoned in cases where it otherwise would be of the 

 highest utility, and even where it is almost indispensible, and 

 other remedies much less efficient are substituted, thus pro- 

 tracting the cure which could have been speedily effected 

 by the copaiva. 



Since the introduction of this remedy down to the pres- 

 ent period, it has ever been a desideratum to obviate these 

 inconveniences, and it is a circumstance not less unfortunate 



* Our distinguished Professor of Practice, in the 1st vohime of his Therapeu- 

 tics, page 417, observes, that two circumstances frequently interfere with the 

 exhibition of copaiva, and detract from its utility. It sometimes purges, and 

 when it does, its efficacy is lost or greatly diminished. If laudanum does not 

 check this injurious tendency, it must be discontinued till the bowels recover 

 their tone. To the stomachs of some persons the copaiva is so exceedingly of- 

 fensive, that it cannot be retained. As it is hardly possible to disguise the 

 taste of the article, it is sometimes very difficult to overcome this prejudice.— 

 See Chapman's Therapeutics. 



