Am.  Jour.  Pharni.  | 
March,  1909.  j 
Medicinal  Earths. 
US 
quintessence  of  the  various  drugs,  the  more  the  variable  and  some- 
times adulterated  clays,  earths  and  boles  became  obsolete  and  purer 
aluminum  preparations  came  into  use  and  became  official. 
Argilla  alba  or  Bolus  alba  of  the  Pharmacopoeias  was  chiefly 
used  as  a  pill  excipient,  especially  for  deliquescent  or  easily  decom- 
posed salts.  However,  through  the  many  family  receipts,  handed 
down  for  centuries,  the  laity  kept  on  using  the  different  earths  for 
inward  troubles,  such  as  diarrhoea  and  dysentery,  as  well  as  external 
applications  in  the  form  of  clay  poultices  or  of  dry  powder,  as  for 
instance,  against  bee  stings,  ulcers  and  sores,  salt  rheum  and 
eczema,  and  all  kinds  of  inflammations. 
Therefore  the  apothecary  had  to  keep  in  touch  with  the  different 
earths.  Meanwhile  the  medical  profession  has  found  out  that  the 
quintessence,  the  active  principle  of  drugs,  as,  for  instance,  quinine 
and  morphine,  does  not  act  exactly  the  same  as  cinchona  and  opium, 
the  drug  itself ;  the  medical  profession  has  found  out  that  the  arti- 
ficial mineral  waters  are  not  quite  as  valuable  as  the  natural  waters 
direct  at  the  spring,  and  has  also  found  out  that  alumina  or  aluminum 
hydroxide  cannot  replace  the  old  "  Terrse." 
Let  me  give  you  another  example  which  confirms  the  motto  of 
Horace  cited  in  the  beginning : 
The  well  known  virtue  of  vegetable  drugs,  well  known  and  tried 
for  centuries,  was  in  the  course  of  time  ridiculed  and  forgotten. 
Medical  science  enthusiastically  used  mineral  poisons,  coal-tar  and 
aniline  derivatives  and  synthetic  chemicals  for  a  while,  until  to  their 
sorrow  they  discovered  bad  effects  resulting  from  their  use.  Then 
again  they  took  hold  of  the  remedies  of  old,  the  herbs,  roots,  etc., 
and  preparations  therefrom. 
And  the  Cataplasma  Kaolini  of  the  U.  S.  P.  VIII  indicates  such  a 
return  to  the  old  materia  medica.  In  this  cataplasm  we  find  the  old 
kaolin  in  combination  with  Glycerin.  Boric  Acid,  Thymol,  diethyl- 
salicylate  and  Oil  of  Peppermint,  essential  principles  or  quintessences 
of  such  old  time  remedies  as  Borax,  the  ancient  Chrysocolla  (from 
chrysos — gold — and  kolla — glue)  used  for  soldering  by  the  ancients, 
and  the  quintessences  of  Thyme,  of  Spirea  ulmaria  and  of  Mentha. 
Glycerin,  the  old  "  Oelsuess "  accidentally  discovered  in  1783  by 
the  zealous  Swedish  pharmacist  Karl  Wilhelm  Scheele  as  a  by- 
product in  the  preparation  of  Emplastrum  Plumbi.  evidently  is  added 
to  this  cataplasm  in  order  to  keep  it  soft,  and  also  by  its  hygroscopic 
power  to  act  as  a  mild  counterirritant  and  exosmotic. 
