Vitriol

“ Spirits of the Oyl of Vitriol, and Precipitated by the Volatile Salt of the Spirit of Urine, which makes it the more probable, that the Redness drawn by the Oyl of Vitriol, was at least as well an extraction of the Tinging parts of the Roses, as a production of Redness; and lastly, if you be destitute of Spirit of Urine, you may change the Colour of the Tincture of Roses with many other Sulphureous Salts, as a strong Solution of Pot-ashes, Oyl of Tartar, &c. which yet are seldome so free from Feculency, as the Spirituous parts of Urine becomes by repeated Distillation. ”

“ Vit′rify, to make into glass.—v.i. to become glass.—ns. Vitrī′na, a genus of land molluscs forming a connecting-link between the slugs and true snails—the glass-snail; Vit′rine, a show-case made of glass and used to protect delicate articles. [L. vitrum, glass—vidēre, to see.]
Vitriol, vit′ri-ol, n. the popular name of sulphuric acid: a soluble sulphate of a metal—green vitriol=sulphate of iron, blue vitriol=sulphate of copper, white vitriol=sulphate of zinc.—v.t. Vit′riolāte, to convert into vitriol.—n. Vitriolā′tion, the act or process of converting into vitriol.—adjs. ”

“ The spirits of vitriol in which the rock-crystal had been dipped was sometimes filtered through blotting-paper and sold as crystal spirits of vitriol; this was asserted to be a powerful diuretic, from seven to ten drops being given at a dose in a cup of meat broth. [314]
As late as the last half of the eighteenth century a Dr. Bourgeois recommended the use of rock-crystal, calcined and ground, as a very excellent astringent in the most obstinate cases of diarrhœa. ”

“ Now common vitriol is a compound formed of sulphur and oxygen; two parts of the former being mixed with one of the latter; but if one unacquainted with this principle should attempt to make vitriol, and should put three parts of the sulphur to one of the oxygen, or two of sulphur to two of oxygen, there would either be a positive waste of a considerable portion of ingredients, or a new article would be formed essentially different from the desired acid. A want of knowing this valuable truth costs many an humble dyer a fortune. How evident is it then, that “Ignorance is a heavy tax.” ”

“ This mineral being moistened and exposed to the air, a crust is formed upon it, which is afterwards dissolved in water; and from this the crystals of vitriol are obtained by evaporation.
140The principal use of vitriol is in dyeing woollen articles, hats, and other manufactures, black. It is the basis of ink, and is used in the manufacture of Prussian blue. If it be reduced to powder by the action of fire in a crucible, and mixed with powder of galls, it forms a dry portable ink. Sulphuric acid (24) may be obtained from this kind of vitriol by distillation. ”

“ Take a handful (we suppose, three or four ounces) of green vitriol; dissolve it in half a gallon of boiling water; and, when cold, pour a quart of it on the feces immediately after each stool. In this simple manner, we are informed, the most unpleasant stench will be effectually neutralized; a circumstance of great importance in putrid and malignant fevers. ”

“ Clean boot tops with one ounce of white vitriol, and one ounce of oxalic acid dissolved in a quart of warm water. Apply with a clean sponge. Or, sour milk, one pint; gum arabic, half an ounce; juice of a lemon, white of an egg, and one ounce of vitriol, well mixed.
2249. Boot-top Liquid (2)
Oxalic acid and white vitriol, of each one ounce; water, one pint and a half. To be applied with a sponge to the leather, previously washed, and then wiped off again. This preparation is poisonous.
2250. Care of Gloves
Nothing looks worse than shabby gloves ”

“ For we see that the stones that are rich in vitriol, 262being often drench’d with rain-Water, the Liquor will then extract a fine and transparent substance coagulable into Vitriol ; and yet though this Vitriol be readily dissoluble in Water, it is not a true Elementary Salt, but, as You know, a body resoluble into very differing Parts, whereof one ( as I shall have occasion to tell You anon ) is yet of a Metalline, and consequently not of an Elementary Nature. ”

“ In the cure of a gleet proceeding from relaxation, the principal design is to brace and restore a proper degree of tension to the debilitated and relaxed vessels. For this purpose, besides the medicines recommended in the gonorrhœa, the 329patient may have recourse to stronger and more powerful astringents, as the Peruvian bark, [3] alum, vitriol, galls, tormentil, bistort, ballustines, tincture of gum kino, &c. The injections may be rendered more astringent by the addition of a few grains of alum, or increasing the quantity of vitriol as far as the parts are able to bear it. ”

“ Withering states, from his own experience, that, in cases of poison having been accidentally swallowed, or in which it becomes necessary to produce an immediate vomiting, such distilled water is preferable to any other preparation; as it does not excite the painful contractions, which are sometimes consequent on the use of white vitriol, and thus defeat the object for which the latter is administered. ”

“ From the distillation of vitriol and urine an anti-epileptic medicine was obtained.— (Idem, vol. ii. p. 271.)
From the above-mentioned “spiritus urinæ per distillationem” was prepared “magisterium urinæ seu microcosmi,” useful in cases of atrophy; it also prevented the pains of the stone, if taken monthly before the new moon.— (Etmuller, vol. ii. p. 266.)
Human ordure. “Stercus (carbon humanum Paracelsi, aliis sulph. occiden.) emollit, maturat, anodynum est. ”

“ Meanwhile, the wound was kept clean and cool.
(1) Green vitriol, ferrous sulphate heptahydrate, a compound of iron, sulphur, and oxygen, crystallised with seven molecules of water, represented by the formula FeSO4 [.] 7H2O. On exposure to the air it loses water, and is gradually converted into basic ferric sulphate. For long, green vitriol was confused with blue vitriol, which generally occurs as an impurity in crude green vitriol. Blue vitriol is copper sulphate pentahydrate, CuSO4 [.] ”

“ And if the disorder be suffered to take its usual course, death is the inevitable consequence.—In cases of this dangerous nature, mephitic or fixed air, produced from a mixture of chalk and oil of vitriol, has been injected into the intestines, by means of the instrument employed for tobacco clysters ”

“ In every kind of blush the arterial blood is propelled into the capillaries faster than the venous absorption can carry it forwards into the veins, in this respect resembling the tensio phalli.
Can the beginning vinous or acetous fermentation of the aliment in weak stomachs contribute to this effect? or is it to be ascribed to the greater power of association between the arteries of the face and the fibres of the stomach in some people than in others?
M. M. Eat and drink less at a time, and more frequently. Put 20 drops of weak acid of vitriol into water to be drank at meals. ”

“ It may be permitted, however, to observe, that the most discerning practitioners may be led into a notion, that a very safe medicine does harm, when it is exhibited at the worst stage of a disease, in which hardly any medicine whatever has been found to do good. In every stage of this disease, elixir of vitriol may be used. It is a pleasant and safe medicine, but particularly efficacious when the patient is troubled with wasting sweats. ”

“ To make the spirit of urine by distillation, some took the urine of a healthy man, some that of a wine-drinking boy of twelve years (pp. 81, 82) . This spirit was administered in lung troubles, in dropsy, suppression of the menses, all kinds of fevers, retention of urine, calculus, etc. (p. 85) ; also in eye troubles, strangury, diabetes, podagra, catarrh, melancholia, phrensy, cardialgia, syncope, dysentery, plague, malignant fevers (p. 86) .
The “spirit of urine” was again distilled with vitriol to make an anti-podagric remedy (85) . ”

“ The dose was ʒ i to ℥ ss every 4, 6, or 8 hours with 10, 15, or 20 drops of elixir of vitriol in diluted wine. Huxham says of this tincture “it tends to strengthen the Solids, to prevent the further Dissolution and Corruption of the blood and in the event to restore its Crassis.” He has previously stated that it is a very useful remedy “not only in slow, nervous fevers, but also in the putrid, pestilential, and petechial, especially in the Decline.” But he adds, “if the patient is costive or hath a tense and humid abdomen, I always premise a dose of rhubarb, manna, or the like.” ”

“ His Vitriolic solution [8] is certainly an useful remedy in relieving dyspnœa [Pg 54] and promoting expectoration. Instead of debilitating as antimonials do, he assures us, that its emetic effects are instantaneous, not harassing the patient, but always leaving the stomach strongly invigorated. Mr. Warburton, the present House Physician of the New-York Hospital, has assured me, that he has frequently prescribed it in that Institution with evident benefit. ”

“ Nitre, vitriol, cinnabar, alum, salt ammoniac, sublimated mercury, rock salt, alcali salt, common salt, rock alum, alum schist (?) ”

“ The same remedy may act in more than one way, e.g. alcohol, besides stimulating the secretory organs directly, is a stimulant to the circulation, and thus increases the pressure within the vessels. Diuretics are prescribed when the quantity of urine is much diminished, or when, although the quantity may be normal, it is wished to relieve some other organ or set of organs of part of their ordinary work, or to aid in carrying off some morbid product circulating in the blood, or to hasten the removal of inflammatory serous exudations, or of dropsical collections of fluid. ”

“ It has been already shown that the blood, when in a natural condition, has a tendency to coagulate around pus, and, probably, many other fluids, even out of the body (Experiments i, v) , [Pg 8] and that this property is exercised in a still more remarkable manner in the living vessels (see Experiments vii, viii) . Foreign matter, even after it has got into the veins, may then, by the same means, be prevented from proceeding farther towards the centre of circulation. The process that takes place under such circumstances, is strictly analogous to union by the first intention. ”

“ A Diuretic effect is very frequently occasioned by substances which act on the stomach and primæ viæ, producing a peculiar state of these organs, which sympathetically affects the whole body, and more particularly the absorbent system, and the vessels concerned in the secretion of urine from the blood. As this primary influence upon the stomach, and the effects to which it gives rise in remote parts, are very different in their character, according to the nature of the remedy employed, and the state of the system at the time of its administration ”

“ From these facts it is manifest, in opposition to commonly received opinions, that the diastole of the arteries corresponds with the time of the heart's systole; and that the arteries are filled and distended by the blood forced into them by the contraction of the ventricles; the arteries, therefore, are distended, because they are filled like sacs or bladders, and are not filled because they expand like bellows. It is in virtue of one and the same cause, therefore, that all the arteries of the body pulsate, viz., the contraction of the left ventricle ”

“ Every one knows how plentifully plunging into cold Water provokes Urine, which proceeds no doubt from the constriction hereby made of the Fibres of the Skin and Vessels. Thus this outward Cure differs not much in effect from the inward Medicines beforementioned, but must necessarily have the better of them in this Respect, that when the Fermenting Blood stretches its Vessels, the exceeding weight of the ambient Fluid resists and represses this Distension, and so prevents the Effects of It. ”

“ This fact, which, taken by itself, might appear of little consequence, assumes considerable importance when considered as one of the inherent properties of the blood, at all times ready, under favourable circumstances, to be called into action in the living body. The conditions under which pus will determine the coagulation of the blood, and those under which it will circulate in the living vessels, require to be accurately ascertained, before we can rightly interpret the discordant evidence which we at present have upon this point. ”

“ If the thinness and whiteness of the urine, and the other symptoms indicate a cold intemperament, hot wine and prepared wines will be proper; also diuretic food and medicines, and hot hip-baths. When, in conjunction with the whiteness, the urine appears thicker than natural, we are to suspect a pituitous humour obstructing the neck of the bladder, and must use oxymel, and the compositions from hyssop and pennyroyal, or marjoram, or thyme, or laserwort, boiled in honied water, and the hotter embrocations. ”

“ CHAPTER VII THE BLOOD PASSES THROUGH THE SUBSTANCE OF THE LUNGS FROM THE RIGHT VENTRICLE OF THE HEART INTO THE PULMONARY VEINS AND LEFT VENTRICLE That this is possible, and that there is nothing to prevent it from being so, appears when we reflect on the way in which water permeating the earth produces springs and rivulets, or when we speculate on the means by which the sweat passes through the skin, or the urine through the substance of the kidneys. ”