ON  OXIDE  OF  SILVER  WITH  GRAPE  SUGAR. 
405 
Thus  I  have  seen  patients  who  had  experienced  great  relief 
from  the  use  of  the  leaves  of  borage  and  pellitory — plants  con- 
taining, as  is  well  known,  much  nitrate  of  lime. 
The  fault  which  almost  all  patients  find  with  narcotic  plants, 
smoked  in  pipes  or  in  the  form  of  cigarettes,  is  a  copious  pro- 
duction of  smoke,  which  fatigues  them,  and  sometimes  excites 
cough — a  symptom  they  are,  on  the  contrary  employed  to  allay. 
In  order  to  obviate  this  inconvenience,  I  have  added  nitre  to 
the, leaves  of  belladonna  and  of  stramonium,  by  watering  these 
plants,  dried  and  conveniently  spread  out,  with  a  solution  of 
nitrate  of  potash,  in  the  proportion  of  three  ounces  of  the  salt  to 
rather  more  than  two  pounds  avoirdupois  of  the  plants.  It  will 
easily  be  understood,  that  as  this  solution  penetrates  the  entire 
vegetable  tissue,  the  latter  will,  when  dry,  burn  completely, 
without  the  formation  of  the  pyrogeneous  products  above 
alluded  to. 
I  have  for  many  years  prepared  cigarettes  according  to  this 
formula,  and  the  benefit  derived  from  their  use  by  a  great  num- 
ber of  patients  induces  me  to  publish  it,  and  to  call  the  attention 
of  practitioners  to  this  mode  of  treatment,  consisting  in  the 
smoking  of  narcotic  plants  combined  with  nitre. — Dublin  Hosp. 
Graz.,  March  1,  1858. 
INCOMPATIBILITY  OF  OXIDE  OF  SILVER  WITH  GRAPE  SUGAR. 
Editor  of  Journal  of  Pharmacy  : 
Dear  Sir, — You  will  confer  an  obligation  upon  Pharma- 
ceutists, by  giving  the  proper  manipulation  for  the  preparation 
of  pills  of  oxide  of  silver. 
The  enquiry  is  based  upon  the  requirement  of  the  following 
formula. 
&    Oxide  of  Silver,  Bi. 
M.  ft.  pilulas,  xl. 
When  formed  with  honey,  flour,  &c,  a  chemical  change  took 
place  in  half  an  hour,  attended  with  the  parting  of  an  apparent 
smoke  and  a  cracking  of  the  pills  as  if  they  were  baked  clay. 
