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The London Dispensatory, containing : 1. the Elements of Pharmacy ; 2. the botanical Description, natural History, chemical Analysis, and medicinal Properties of the Substances of the Materia Medica ; 3. the pharmaceutical Preparations and Compositions of the Pharmacopoeias of the London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Colleges of Physicians ; the Whole forming a Practical Synopsis of Materia Medica, Pharmacy, and Therepeutics
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PART II.

Materia Medica.

237

ried on in London and Liverpool. Thelichen, after being driedand cleaned is reduced to powder in a mill resembling an oil-mill. 1 It is then mixed in a vat with one half of its weightof pearl ash, and moistened with human urine: fermentationsoon succeeds, and is kept up by stirring, and by successiveadditions of urine, until the colour of the materials changesfirst to red and then to blue. In this state it is mixed witha third of its weight of good potash, and spread out to dry. 1Chalk is sometimes added to it, but with no other view than toincrease the weight. 3 It is generally sold in the form of cakes,but sometimes in that of a moist pulp.

Qualities. — Prepared argol has a slight violet odour, and amawkish taste, leaving some degree of pungency in the mouth.When moist, the form of the lichen is evident in the pulp.It communicates to water and to alcohol a beautiful violet co-lour, which however is very evanescent: all acids and saltswith an excess of acid change it to red, which is again de-stroyed and the blue restored by the addition of alkalies; andeven exposure to the air of a room in which many people areassembled, reddens the watery infusion. The tincture is leastliable to change when kept, if it be reddened by an acid andkept in close vessels.

Use. — This species of lichen is said to have been "admi-nistered medicinally with an intention of allaying the ticklingattendant on phthisis, and in hysterical coughs 4 ;" but we mustsuppose the recent lichen is meant, or before it has undergoneany preparation as a colouring matter. We know of no otheruse of the prepared lichen than as a dye stuffj or a chemicaltest of the presence of acids; and it is certainly the most delicate.

LINUM. 5 Spec. Plant. Willi, i. 1533.CI. 5. Ord. 5. Pentandria Pentagynia. Nat. ord. Gruinales Linn.

Caryophyllea; Juss.G. 590. Calyx five-leaved. Petals five. Capsule five-valved, ten-celled. Seed solitary.* with alternate leaves.Species I. L. usitatissimnni. Common Flax. Med. Bot. 2d ed.566.

t. 202. Smith Flora'Brit. 342. Curtis Lond.fasc. 5. t. 22.** with opposite leaves.Species 26. L. caiharticum. Purging Flax. Smith Flora Brit. 344.

Eng. Bot. 382.

1. LlNUM USITATISSIMUM.

Officinal. Lini usitatissimi semina. Lond. Edin. Linum ;semina. Dub. Linseed, and Linseed oil.

Syn. Grains de Lin. (F.) Leinsaamen ; Flachsaamen (G.) Semi di Lino (I.) Laxor (S.)Busrue (Arab.) Tisi (H.) Atasci (San.)

I Sometimes it is not ground, but prepared in the entire state,a Nicholson's Journ. 4to. it. 311.

3 Archilis chiefly used by the dyers, and in times of scarcity the lichen hai been»old at loooi. sterling the ton. It is often mixed with the lichen fuciformis.* Iran station of Ihe Dublin Pharmacop, p. 105. S A/w» Dioscoridis.

 
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