-':■! 7 



Besides the animal substances already considered, there are 

 others generally enumerated by writers on the materia medica 

 and toxicology. Thus the Phosphate of Soda, used in medicine 

 as a cathartic, is procured by a complicated process from the 

 burnt bones of quadrupeds ; and Phosphoric Acid, which enters 

 into many chemical compounds, and from which that remarkable 

 inflammable substance phosphorus is obtained, is procured by a 

 chemical from animal substances. Empreumatic animal oil which 

 has been employed as an antispasmodic and vermifuge, is obtainad 

 by distillation from the bones and horns of animals. The basis of 

 Sal Ammoniac, or Muriate of Ammonia, which is used internally 

 as a diuretic and diaphoretic, and externally as a discutient to 

 indolent tumours, is procured by distillation from the urine and 

 bones of animals. And Prussic Acid, the most powerful of all 

 narcotic substances hitherto discovered, is obtained from animal 

 matter, in a state of putrefaction.* 



* For a fall account of the medical properties and uses of Prussic Acid, see 

 Medical Botany, vol. iii. art. 117. 



