Alkaline

“ The alkalies must be gradually discontinued, but the quinia continued. The diet should consist of beef tea or broth, with bread and milk; no solid food should be allowed. Woolen cloths, moistened with alkaline solutions, may with advantage be applied to the affected joints. To these laudanum may be added for its anodyne effect. The patient must be sedulously protected from vicissitudes of the temperature and be in bed between blankets. The alkaline treatment relieves the pain, abates the fever, and saves the heart by lessening the amount of fibrin in the blood. ”

“ An excess of alkali is present, however, as the solution has an alkaline reaction. Each “heaping teaspoonful” (which was found to be about 4.85 Gm.) contains about 0.044 Gm. of caffein (the manufacturers claim 0.0648 Gm. per heaping teaspoonful) . As taken, Alkalithia, therefore, represents caffein in a solution of alkali tartrate, citrate and bicarbonate containing free carbonic acid. If it is assumed that all of the tartrate and citrate in Alkalithia is converted into carbonate in the organism, a “heaping teaspoonful” of Alkalithia would represent about 2.9 Gm. of sodium bicarbonate. ”

“ If an alkaline solution mixed with an acid destroys its sourness, and prevents it from reddening vegetable blues, it is because the specific effect of the alkali is to combine with the acid, and form a compound with totally different qualities. ”

“ In the horse the alkalinity is mainly due to excess of lime bicarbonate, passing, with standing, into lime carbonate, the carbon dioxide being derived from organic acids (lactic, malic, citric, etc.) , by oxidation. The hippurates are also alkaline in reaction. In dogs the acidity is due to lime and soda phosphates, sulphates, urates and oxalates.
Pathologically we find the urine strongly alkaline from the evolution of ammonia from urea, in fermentations occurring with prolonged retention in the bladder or in cystitis. ”

“ When lime and magnesia are employed, they are boiled for a few minutes with the solution.
Props. Alcoholic or aqueous solutions of the alkaloids generally exhibit an alkaline reaction with vegetable colours. Like the alkalies, also, they combine with acids to form salts which, when dissolved in water, are capable of producing the ordinary phenomena of saline double decomposition. Their taste is usually intensely bitter.
The majority of the natural alkaloids contain carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen, and are, at ordinary temperatures, solid, and not volatile without decomposition. ”

“ The access of oxygen is in all cases easy to account for, but it must also be shown how the alkaline reaction is to be produced. We need not expect to find in animal organisms potash, soda, ammonia, and the other common alkalies; but it was established by experiment that the alkaline organic compounds cholin and neurin, which are present in animal tissues, would also serve to bring about the phenomenon of phosphorescence in the substances on which the experiments were made. ”

“ It usually forms needles or short crystals. It is alkaline, and by rubbing becomes negatively electric. It is almost insoluble in water, aqueous [315] ammonia, and solutions of the alkalies. It requires 10 parts of cold alcohol for solution, and dissolves readily in hot. Ether, hot or cold, is also a good solvent. 100 parts of benzene are required for 5·27 parts of thebaine, and 100 of amyl alcohol for 1·67 parts. Chloroform dissolves thebaine with difficulty out of both acid and alkaline solutions; petroleum ether extracts it from neither. Thebaine melts in a tube at 193°, sublimes at 135°. ”

“ The two are acid-sulphur and alkaline-sulphur, and both are heavily loaded with silica. Unlike European springs they gush out at boiling-point, and their potency is undoubted. Sufferers tormented with gout or crippled with rheumatism seek the acid waters; the alkaline act as a nervous sedative and cure various skin diseases. There are swimming baths for holiday-makers who have nothing the matter with them, and massage and the douche for the serious patients. Persons without money are cared for by the servants of the Government. ”

“ Alkalies for escharotic use are prepared like other alkalies by straining alkaline solutions as elsewhere explained in detail. They are made of three strengths, namely, weak, moderate and strong. He who wishes to prepare alkalies should in an auspicious day in autumn, fasting and in pure body, select a middle-aged, large-sized, uninjured ghantāpātali tree with black flowers (Schrebera swietenioides) growing on an approved spot on a mountain, and address it with certain mantras or incantations as a preliminary ceremony called adhivāsa. ”

“ On the contrary, People have lived above twenty four Days upon Water only, which can happen no otherwise than by diluting the Fluids, and consequently keeping them from this Alkaline State. In short, if the Juices of an Animal Body were either Acid or Alkaline, so as to cause an Ebullition by Mixture of their Opposites, they would burst the Vessels. ”

“ Independent of any chemical effect, alkaline substances are found by daily experience to allay the morbid irritability of the urinary organs in a manner not yet explained; alkalies may also prove generally serviceable in these disorders, by acting immediately upon the digestive organs, for the disposition of forming calculi is always, more or less, accompanied with the indications of deranged digestion; and it is probable that the first link of the series of actions, which cause this disposition, has its origin in the stomach. ”

“ It is soluble in 5 parts of absolute alcohol, in 13 of ether, and in 1400 (1800, Walz) of boiling water, the solution in each case having a decidedly alkaline reaction on litmus. It dissolves readily in bisulphide of carbon, as well as in dilute acids. The salts hitherto known are uncrystallizable. The solution of a neutral acetate affords an abundant white precipitate on the addition of an alkaline phosphate, nitrate or iodide, of iodohydrargyrate or platino-cyanide of potassium, perchloride of mercury, or of nitric or iodic acid. ”

“ See Acid. [Ar. al-qalīy, ashes.]
Alkalify, al′ka-li-fī, v.t. to convert into an alkali.—v.i. to become alkaline:—pr.p. al′kalifying; pa.p. al′kalifīed.—adj. Alkalifī′able, capable of being converted into an alkali. [Alkali, and L. facĕre, to make.]
Alkaloid, al′ka-loid, n. a vegetable principle possessing in some degree alkaline properties.—adj. pertaining to or resembling alkali. [Alkali, and Gr. eidos, form or resemblance.]
Alkanet, al′ka-net, n. a plant, native of the Levant and Southern Europe, cultivated for its root, which yields a red colouring matter: the dye itself. [Sp. alcaneta.] ”

“ Like them, however, it dissolves ice, and deprives alum, and some other saline substances, of the water which they contain. United with fixed air, it makes the concrete volatile alkali; with marine acid air, the common sal-ammoniac; and with water, the caustic volatile alkali.
The electric spark, or a red heat, converts alkaline air into three times its bulk of inflammable air; and the calces of metals are revived in alkaline, as well as in inflammable air; but there remains about one-fourth of its bulk of phlogisticated air. These facts shew that alkaline air consists chiefly of phlogiston. ”

“ Venous blood contains more diffusible alkali than arterial blood and is more bactericidal; dropsical effusions are more alkaline than normal lymph and kill bacteria more easily. In a condition like diabetes, when the blood is less alkaline than it should be, the susceptibility to infectious diseases is increased. Alkalinity is probably beneficial because it favors those oxidative processes in the cells of the body which are so essential for the maintenance of healthy life. ”

“ In chemistry, a name commonly given to any proximate principle of vegetable origin possessing alkaline or basic properties, however feeble. In its most extended sense the term embraces all organic bases, whether obtained from the animal or vegetable kingdom, or produced artificially. The alkaloids form a numerous and important class of bodies. They exist in nature nearly always in the form of salts, the acid being often, like themselves, peculiar to the plant, or class of plants, in which they are found ”

“ They are especially useful in men who drink too little water at home, in gouty and plethoric subjects, and in states of acid stomach digestion and chronic constipation. The alkaline and saline waters are the best, the former containing a notable proportion of the carbonate or bicarbonate of sodium, potassium, or lithium—the latter having neutral salts in considerable quantity. ”

“ Alkalies and alkaline salts, after neutralizing the excess of acid, precipitate the alumine. It is also decomposed by carbonate and muriate of ammonia, carbonate of magnesia, and tartrate of potass, by lime-water, acetate of lead, and the salts of mercury, as well as by many vegetable and animal substances, especially galls and kino. It is on this account very injudicious to combine alum with any vegetable astringent with a view to encrease its virtues; thus the “Pulvis Sulphatis Aluminæ compositus” of the Edinburgh college, is less powerful than any of the ingredients of which it is composed ”

“ These three varieties of alkalies should be used according to the state of the disease. In weak persons, the alkaline water without the addition of other caustic ingredients, should be applied to strengthen the parts."
Characteristics of the Good and the Bad Alkali
On this subject there are the following verses:
"Good alkaline caustics should be neither too strong nor too weak. They should be white in colour, smooth and soapy to the touch, should not spread beyond where they are applied, and act rapidly and successfully. These are the eight good properties of caustics. ”

“ Variations to the acid side may, for a short time at least, be as low as 7.0, although not much lower without fatal results; 7.0 is considered the point where coma occurs. Variations to the alkaline side (Alkalosis) beyond 7.8 are accompanied by symptoms of tetany, although one is not at present justified in assuming that all tetany is either caused, or accompanied, by alkalosis. So, the extreme range of reaction compatible with life probably lies approximately between pH of 7.0 and 7.8. ”

“ Chemical Composition. Resin, mucilage, extractive matter, gallic acid, and some salts; 397an alkaline element (Hyoscyama) is said to constitute its active principle. This principle differs from other vegetable alkalies, in being able to resist a low red heat, without undergoing decomposition. Solubility. Water freely extracts the narcotic powers of this plant, and decoction destroys them; diluted alcohol is the best menstruum. Incompatibles. Precipitates are produced by acetate of lead, nitrate of silver, and sulphate of iron; vegetable acids weaken its narcotic powers. ”

“ Why the Acid Neutralises the Alkali
"If you question, my son! how is it that the application of the pungent acid of kānjika relieves the burning of the fire-like hot alkaline caustic, then hear the following explanation from me. Alkalies possess all the tastes except that of the acid. The acrid taste prevails in it and the saline one to a less degree (cf. ante p. 28) . The sharp saline taste when mixed with acid becomes very mild, and gives up its sharp quality. From this modification of the saline taste, the pain of caustics is relieved just as fire is extinguished by water." ”

“ Alkalis or alkaline potions will prove positively injurious to a patient laid up with fever or hæmoptysis, to a man of bilious temperament, to an infant, or to an old man, and they will work similar mischief in a weak person, or in a patient suffering from vertigo, insensibility, syncope and Timira (darkness of vision) . ”

“ Without a restrainer, the tendency is for those parts to be first reduced, but the action extends to that which has not been acted upon by the light. It has been usually said that alkaline development is only available for bromide of silver, but my experience has taught me that iodide of silver is as amenable to alkaline development as the bromide, although not so rapidly, and that chloride is very amenable to it, and will give most beautiful pictures. ”

“ As the sulphates of ammonia, of nicotine, aniline, quinoleine, picoline, and petinine, are entirely insoluble in ether, the water acidulated with sulphuric acid contains the alkaloid in a small bulk, and in the state of a pure sulphate; but as the sulphate of conia is soluble in ether, the ether may contain a small quantity of this alkali, but the greater part remains in the acidulated watery solution. The ether, on the other hand, retains all the animal matters which it has taken from the alkaline solutions. ”

“ Neither the strong acids nor alcohol, when considerably diluted, occasion any disturbance in it; but sulphuric æther and its compound spirit, the tincture of muriated iron, and sub-acetate of lead, produce very dense precipitates: the acetate of lead only occasions decomposition, when an alkaline salt is present in the formula; the volatile alkali curdles the mucilage, and hard calcareous waters render the mixture difficult and often impracticable. ”

“ In these diseases of the mouth, accessory instruments, in the shape of caustics only, should be used. Alkaline solutions are administered internally in chronic or slow poisoning, abdominal tumours, ascites, loss of appetite, indigestion, disinclination for food, tympanitis, urinary deposits, calculi, internal or deep-seated inflammation, intestinal worms, poisoning. and piles. Alkalies do not agree with children, old and weak people, and persons having a tendency to hæmorrhage from internal organs, or a bilious temperament. They are injurious in fever, giddiness. ”