Panegyric

“ For almost all who devote themselves to literature attempt to sing your praises in verse or prose; some of them venture to cover your whole career in a brief narrative, [3] while others devote themselves to a part only, and think that if they succeed in doing justice to that part they have proved themselves equal to the task.
Yet one can but admire the zeal of all who have made you the theme of a panegyric. Some did not shrink from the tremendous effort to secure every one of your achievements from the withering touch of time ”

“ The dose of the dried powder was from half a dram to a full dram, [324] and it was administered in wine, or mixed with cinnamon and sugar. It was frequently combined with hen-dung, or diluted with the urine of she-goats or he-calves. Some practitioners doubted whether it was superior to dove-dung for the same diseases. When used in whooping-cough or throat swellings, it was placed under the tongue of the patient. The following are the words with which Schurig begins his panegyric upon its virtues:—
“Calefacit et siccat vehementer; incidit, aperit; menses, secundinas, et urinas potenter movet ”

“ All panegyricks are mingled with an infusion of poppy. ”

“ The Panacæa is made of sweet Sublimate, and the later of corrosive Sublimate: To make the corrosive Sublimate, put sixteen Ounces of Mercury reviv'd from Cinnabar, into a Matrass, pour upon it eighteen Ounces of Spirit of Nitre; place the Matras upon the Sand, which must be somewhat hot, and leave it there till the Dissolution be effected: Then pour off this dissolved Liquor, which will be as clear as Water, into a Glass Vial, or into a Stone-Jug, and let its Moisture evaporate gently over the Sand-Fire, till a white Mass remains ”

“ In 1849 he delivered a course of lectures on ‘Animal Chemistry in its application to Stomach and Renal Diseases,’ which were published in the following year, and at once caused him to be recognised as an authority in those classes of diseases. He belonged to the school of Liebig, and though many of the views which he held in common with his master have been superseded, much of his work has preserved its value. Its weak point was a too direct application of the laws of chemistry to the complex phenomena of the human body. ”

“ Oxycroceum was the name of a plaster among the ingredients of which were vinegar and saffron.
Panchrest. A remedy for all complaints.
Panchymagogon. A medicine to purify all the humours. Pulp of colocynth, black hellebore, diagrydium, of each 21⁄2 ounces; senna, rhubarb, of each 4 ounces; species of diarrhodon abattis, hermodactils, turbith, agaric, aloes, of each 1 ounce. Make an extract with cinnamon water, adding the salt from the fæces. Dose, 20 to 30 grains. Calomel was called “mineral panchymagogon.”
Pedilavium. A decoction of herbs intended to bathe the feet with to induce sleep. ”

“ As examples the stems of Panicum flavidum, Panicum colonum, Panicum Crus-galli and Panicum fluitans may be considered. The stem of Panicum flavidum is broadly ovate in cross section with a flat front and is more or less solid, though occasionally the parenchymatous cells in the centre get broken. Two rows of vascular bundles surround a fairly large amount of parenchymatous cells of the ground tissue. There is a continuous ring of sclerenchyma separated from the epidermis by a fairly broad cortex. The cortex has a number of fairly large air-cavities separated by bands of parenchymatous cells. ”

“ Genuine panaritia only spring up in psoric ground, and in regard to extent and intensity of development, depend altogether upon the existing psoric taint. Hence it is indispensable to extinguish this taint by appropriate remedies. This is most effectually accomplished by at once giving Sulphur, the most powerful of our anti-psorics. Sulphur seems to attack the evil at its very foundation, and we feel perfectly satisfied with its action, except that we would like to hasten the course of the disease still more, in order to abbreviate the [54] tortures inherent in this malady. ”

“ This passes to the pancreas and causes increased secretion from that gland. It is probable that the pancreas in its turn also secretes something which activates a ferment in the muscles. It is evident therefore that the connexion between the different glands of the body is a very complicated one and that the effects of a drug which acts upon any one of them may be of a very far-reaching character. It is by no means improbable that all glands have a double or even triple function, and that sometimes the external may be even less important than the internal secretion. ”

“ Opopanax purges thick flegm from the most remote parts of the body, viz. the brain, joints, hands, and feet, the nerves and breast, and strengthens all those parts when they are weak, if the weakness proceed of cold, as usually it doth; it helps weakness of the sight, old rotten coughs, and gouts of all sorts, dropsies, and swellings of the spleen, it helps the stranguary and difficulty of making urine, provokes the menses, and helps all cold afflictions of the womb ”

“ The color varies from eosin-pink to deep crimson, depending upon the intensity of the reaction. A doubtful reaction should be considered negative.
7. Pancreatic Reaction.—Cammidge has shown that in cases of pancreatitis a substance capable of forming [p. 92] crystals with phenylhydrazin can be developed by boiling the urine with a mineral acid, and has offered the following test as an aid in diagnosis of this obscure condition. ”

“ This now out strips the capacity of very many rude and ignorant men, to whom it seems unlikely and impossible, that a Medicine of such wonderfull efficacy should lie hidden in so contemptible and base a thing as to deserve such a Title as a Panacæa: but especially seeing some unskilfull men, have instead of it, administred to the sick crude Antimony, and by saying it is my Panacæa have with a wicked boldness deceived men, and have hereby brought an Odium and contempt amongst very many men, upon this true Medicine of mine. ”

“ The hypothesis of pangenesis attempts to explain and connect together all the facts and conclusions which have been summarised in the preceding pages.168 This hypothesis assumes that each one of the countless cells of which the body of a higher animal is composed throws off a minute gemmule which, with those derived from other cells, exists in the body, and when supplied with nutriment multiplies by division. Each gemmule is capable of ultimate development into a cell similar to the one from which it, either directly or indirectly, arose. ”

“ The small sample of the bark at our disposal only enables us to add that an infusion produced with perchloride of iron a blackish precipitate, and that an infusion is not altered by tannic acid or iodohydrargyrate of potassium. If the inner layers of the bark are alone exhausted with water, the liquid affords an abundant precipitate with tannic acid; but if the entire bark is boiled in water, the tannic matter which it contains will form an insoluble compound with the bitter principle, and prevent the latter being dissolved. ”

“ In Merck’s Archives, page 11, we are told in an advertisement on ‘Phenalgin’ that it ‘is a compound of peculiar character which cannot be ex­tem­por­an­eous­ly made from powdered drug’ and ‘our process of manufacturing tablets is coincident with the manufacture of Phenalgin and is the result of a long series of careful experiments by which we are able to produce tablets of Phenalgin in a friable condition without losing any of its volatile constituents or undergoing chemical changes from heat or moisture’! ”

“ Here, and throughout the arguments of those who accept the hypothesis of Panmixia, there is an unwarranted assumption—nay, an assumption at variance with the doctrine in support of which it is made. It is contended that in such cases as the one given there will, apart from any effects of disuse, be decrease in the disused organs because, not being kept by Natural Selection up to the level of strength previously needed, they will vary in the direction of decrease ”

“ When broken transversely, they display a dark epidermis, forming part of a thick white bark which surrounds a slender woody column. The interior of the rhizome is compact, firm and horny, but when old becomes hollow, a portion of the tissue remaining however in the form of transverse septa.
The drug has a peculiar, somewhat terebinthinous and camphor-like odour, and a bitterish, aromatic taste. The root when just taken from the ground has no distinctive smell, but acquires its characteristic odour as it dries. ”

“ It is asserted that the dwindling of organs from disuse is due to the successive survivals in posterity of individuals in which the organs have varied in the direction of decrease. Where now are the facts supporting this assertion? Not one has been assigned or can be assigned. Not a single case can be named in which panmixia is a proved cause of diminution. Even had the deductive argument for panmixia been as valid as we have found it to be invalid, there would still have been required, in pursuance of scientific method, some verifying inductive evidence. ”

“ If the power of a remedy be so greatly modified by circumstances affecting its solubility, as we have already proved, it cannot be a matter of surprise that the still farther diminution of its cohesion should occasion a corresponding influence upon its energies; indeed it would appear that some few substances are entirely inert when applied under any other form, see Hydrargyrum, in the after part of this work. We are, moreover enabled by these means, to bring various bodies into immediate contact with organs, which are inaccessible to such remedies in every other state of aggregation. ”

“ Cutch when dry breaks easily, showing a shining but bubbly and slightly granular fracture. When it is soft and is pulled out into a thin film, it is seen to be translucent, granular and of a bright orange-brown. When further moistened and examined under the microscope, it exhibits an abundance of minute acicular crystals, precisely as seen in gambier. We have observed the same in numerous samples of the dry drug when rendered pulpy by the addition of water, or moistened with glycerin and viewed by polarized light. ”

“ Cold bath is not suitable in plague patients on account of the movement of the body which it entails, and also on account of the serious cardiac depression which accompanies the disease. Two grains of phenacetin with 1 grain of hydrobromate of quinine is a safe antipyretic. ”

“ The transverse section of the cane exhibits numerous fibro-vascular bundles, scattered through the tissue, as in other monocotyledonous stems; yet these bundles are most abundant towards the exterior, where they form a dense ring covered with a thin epidermis, which is very hard by reason of the silica which is deposited in it. [2688] In the centre of the stem the vascular bundles are few in number; the parenchyme is far more abundant, and contains in its thin-walled cells an almost clear solution of sugar, with a few small starch granules and a little soluble albuminous matter. ”

“ Microscopic Structure—The outer layer of a dried fig is made up of small, thick-walled and densely packed cells, so as to form a kind of skin. The inner lax parenchyme consists of larger thin-walled cells, traversed by vascular bundles and large, slightly branched, laticiferous vessels. The latter contain a granular substance not soluble in water. In the parenchyme, stellate crystals of oxalate of calcium occur, but in no considerable number. ”

“ First, it illustrates the fact that the published formulas of the “ethical” proprietaries are not always reliable. The Campho-Phenique Company has been very willing to give out a formula, purporting their product to be 51 per cent. camphor and 49 per cent. phenol (carbolic acid) . Now, these two drugs will make a liquid mixture, and any druggist can make it, and the mixture will have about the same consistency and appearance as Campho-Phenique. ”

“ The phalangia deposit their ova in a thick basket which they weave, upon this they incubate. The smooth kinds produce a small number, the phalangia a great many. When they are grown, they surround their parent in a circle, kill and throw her out. They often seize the male in the same way if they can catch him, for he assists the female in incubation. Sometimes there are as many as three hundred round a single phalangium. ”

“ In truth, the problem is by no means so simple; for the conditions governing the solvency of uric acid in the blood are bewilderingly complex, subject as they are to the manifold variations in solubility exhibited by crystalloids in the presence of the many divers colloids. ”

“ Beveridge claims that secretin prepared by digesting intestinal mucosa with a weak acid at a temperature slightly below boiling, and mixed with 0.2 per cent. to 2 per cent. blood serum, albumin or peptone (1) remains active for at least six months, (2) stimulates the pancreas when given by mouth, and (3) “may be injected intravenously in man, if desired.” The only thing in the letters patent in support of these claims is the statement: “I have found out by actual tests that the preparation maintains its stability for five or six months.” ”

“ Whether judgment be based on the determination of the bismuth, the sulphur or the iodin, the results just given clearly show that the claims made concerning the composition of “Anusol Hemorrhoidal Suppositories” are not substantiated by the facts.​— (From The Journal A. M. A., Oct. 2, 1909.)
AROMATIC DIGESTIVE TABLETS W. A. Puckner and L. E. Warren
It has been amply demonstrated91 that pepsin and pancreatin, when in solution, mutually destroy each other; if the solution be acid, the pepsin destroys the pancreatin; if alkaline, the pancreatin destroys the pepsin. ”