Part 37

Emulsion, from emulsus the past participle of emulgere, to milk out, was originally applied to the milky liquid extracted from almonds. Subsequently extended to other milky fluids.

Enchrista. Liquids, Celsus says, “quæ illinuntur,” but the word linimentum had not been formed in his time. He uses the word Linamentum for a sort of lint. Acopa were a kind of liniment.

Enema or clyster or glyster are all used to signify either the injection or the instrument by which the injection is applied. Enema (properly pronounced with the accent on the first syllable) means something sent; clyster was the Greek word for the instrument.

Ens. A favourite term with old metaphysicians and alchemists with the same meaning as essence. Supposed to have been derived from Esse, to be.

Epithema. An alcoholic fomentation or liquid medicine applied to the heart and stomach as a stupe.

Epithemation was the name of an application described by Galen as of a consistence between that of a cerate and that of a plaster.

Errhines, called Nasalia in Latin, are substances snuffed up the nostrils to excite sneezing.

Gas was a word invented by Van Helmont. Several guesses have been hazarded as to the idea which suggested the term. The Dutch geest, spirit or ghost, seemed the most likely. The German gäschen, to ferment, has also been proposed. But in 1897 Dr. F. Hurder discovered a paragraph in Van Helmont’s writings which stated definitely that he had derived the word from chaos.

Gilla Vitriola. The name first given to white vitriol. Gilla meant simply salt.

Gutteta. A term for epilepsy. Pulvis de Gutteta was a remedy against epilepsy.

Hepars were chemicals of a liver colour, as hepar antimonii, hepar sulphuris.

Infusions first appeared in the London Pharmacopœia of 1720. In the revised edition of that issue (1724), however, the three infusions of 1720 appear as Decocti, the title of Infusum being abandoned, but the directions for the three preparations referred to still give “infunde” and not “coque.” In the edition of 1746 Infusa re-appear as such, and “Macera” appears in the directions for the first time. In the 1788 edition Inf. Amarum Simplex becomes Infusum Gentianæ Compositum, and aqua bulliens gives place to aqua fervens. In 1809 the number of Infusions is raised from four to eighteen.

Julep, a term made popular in medicine by the Arabs. It was used by them exclusively for clear, sweet, liquids. Nothing oily or with a sediment could be a julep. The name is said to be a Persian compound from gul, rose, and ap, water; applied to rose tinted waters. It has lingered in modern pharmacy as camphor or mint julep, but in neither of these cases is it correctly applied, as they are not sweetened. The old way of making camphor julep was to hold a piece of camphor by pincers, inflame it, and plunge it in water, repeating this operation frequently until the water acquired a strong flavour of camphor.

Katapotia. The most usual form of medicine among the Greek pharmacists was the confection or electuary, a composition of drugs made to a proper consistence generally with honey. Frequently these electuaries were called “antidotes,” things given against this or that disease. There were antidotes against gout, against stone, against colics, against phthisis, etc. The taste of these antidotes was always unpleasant, so it became the custom to order them to be made up into little balls of such or such size. The Greeks called these little balls “katapotia,” that is, things to be swallowed. “Take a katapotium the size of a bean” would be an ordinary Greek direction. Galen describes a composition of 1 part of colocynth, 2 parts of aloes, 2 of scammony, 1 of absinth juice, and a little mastic and bdellium, which was to be formed into katapotia, each of the size of a dried pea. Trallien refers to this same pill, but names the size as that of a kokkion, a seed. This was the origin of our pil. cochiæ or cocciæ as they came to be known. By this time the names globulus, glomeramus, and pilula had taken the place in Latin of katapotium. Actuarius says expressly that what the Greeks called katapotia the Romans knew as pilulæ. Trochisci were katapotia made very hard.

Lac Virginale. The name was applied to a dilute solution of acetate of lead (Goulard’s water) and also to water made milky by the addition of a little tincture of benzoin. Both were used by young girls for their complexions.

Lapis Infernalis. Nitrate of silver.

Lapis Medicamentosus. An astringent stone of which oxide of iron was the principal ingredient.

Lapis Mirabilis. An application for wounds, of which green vitriol was the essential ingredient.

Looch--sometimes loch, lohoch, lohoth--was a thick liquid, between a syrup and an electuary, almond emulsion being frequently the basis, which formerly patients were ordered to suck on a stick of liquorice cut in the form of a pencil for throat and lung irritation. Sometimes stronger medicines, like kermes mineral and ipecacuanha, were administered in this way. The word was of Arabic origin, and was derived from the verb la’aka, to lick.

Maceration is the digestion of a solid body in a liquid for the purpose of dissolving its active principles.

Magdaleon. Originally a mass or paste such as crumb of bread (Greek, magdalia), or it may have been used for pill masses made up with crumb of bread. The term became limited to plasters in cylindrical form.

Magistery. A word much in favour with the alchemists and old pharmacists. It had not a very definite meaning, but was understood to be a substance so converted as to present the virtues of the material from which it had been made in their most effective form. Boyle mentions that Paracelsus uses the word to signify many different things, and Boyle himself has not a clear idea of what he understands by it, for, he says, “the best notion I know of it is that it is a preparation whereby there is not an analysis made of the body assigned, nor an extraction of this or that principle, but the whole or very near the whole body, by the help of some additament, greater or less, is turned into a body of another kind.” Boerhaave, however, takes the pretensions of the makers of magisteries to be that they change a body into another form, as, for instance, solid gold into liquid, without any addition. According to Littré, precipitates generally were considered to possess the properties of the bodies from which they were obtained, and thus became magisteries. The magistery of bismuth is the one which has survived the longest with us. Resin of jalap was also regarded as a magistery.

Magma was the residuum left in the press after pressing out the menstruum. It was also used to describe other substances of a soft consistence.

Magnes Arsenicalis was a compound of sulphur, arsenic, and antimony, which, either in the form of powder or made into a plaster, was applied to syphilitic sores to draw out the virus. Angelo Sala was the inventor of the plaster.

Malagmata were substances applied to the skin to soften it, such as poultices.

Malaxation was the process of making a pill mass or a plaster soft enough to be worked.

Manica Hypocratis (Sleeve of Hippocrates) was a long linen bag used to filter pharmaceutical preparations.

Manipulus, a handful, often prescribed as an approximate measure of the quantity of herbs or flowers to be used in a pharmaceutical process.