Part 17

ANISUM--ANISE

ORIGIN.--The anise plant is a native of Egypt and the Levant, but has been introduced in various parts of that continent. It is also cultivated occasionally in the gardens of this country. The fruit is abundantly produced in Malta and Spain; in Romagna, in Italy, whence it is largely exported through Leghorn, and in Central and Southern Russia.

DESCRIPTION.--Ovoid, laterally compressed, 4 to 5 m. m. long; carpels usually cohering and attached to a slender pedicel; grayish or greenish-gray to grayish brown; each with a flat face and five light brown filiform ridges and about 16 oil-tubes; odor and taste agreeable and aromatic. The anise berries are dried and ground, this being the form in which it is usually used.

DOSE.--Horses and cattle, 1 to 2 oz.; sheep and pigs, 2 to 3 dr.; dogs, 10 to 30 gr.

OLEUM ANISI--OIL OF ANISE

A volatile oil distilled from the fruit of star anise.

PROPERTIES.--A colorless or pale yellow, thin and strongly refractive liquid, having the characteristic odor of anise, and a sweetish, mildly aromatic taste. Specific gravity about 0.975 to 0.985. Soluble in an equal volume of alcohol.

DOSE.--Horses and cattle, 20 to 30 m.; sheep and pigs, 5 to 10 m.; dogs and cats, 1 to 5 m.

ACTIONS.--Anise is an aromatic stimulant, stomachic and carminative. It is used to relieve indigestion and flatulence, to communicate an agreeable flavor to many medicines, and to diminish the griping of purgatives. Oil of anise resembles in action other volatile oils.

USES.--The oil of anise is employed with olive oil or alcohol to kill fleas or lice on dogs, rubbed over the skin; and one drop of the pure oil may be placed on the feathers of fowl to cause destruction of lice. The oil of anise is sometimes prescribed to disguise the odor of drugs, and is ordered in cough mixtures for its expectorant properties.

The fruit is given all animals (generally powdered) on their food--frequently with sodium bicarbonate and ginger--to relieve mild forms of indigestion and flatulence through its stomachic and carminative effects.

ANTIMONII ET POTASSII TARTARS--ANTIMONY AND POTASSIUM TARTRATE--TARTAR EMETIC

DERIVATION.--Make a white paste with cream of tartar, antimony trioxide and water. Set aside 24 hours, boil in water 15 minutes and crystallize.

PROPERTIES.--Colorless, transparent crystals of the rhombic system, becoming opaque and white on exposure to the air, or a white granular powder without odor and having a sweet, afterwards disagreeable, metallic taste. Soluble in water, insoluble in alcohol.

DOSE.--Horses and cattle, 2 to 4 dr.; sheep, 2 to 5 gr.; pigs, ¹⁄₂ to 1 gr.; dogs, ¹⁄₁₀ to ¹⁄₂ gr. As an emetic for pigs, 4 to 10 gr.; dogs, 1 to 2 gr.

ACTIONS.--Tartar emetic is a systemic and local emetic, a diaphoretic, cardiac and arterial sedative and a gastro-intestinal irritant. It is a powerful waste producer and stimulates the secretions of the stomach, intestines, salivary glands, liver and pancreas. Large doses cause nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea, while toxic doses are followed by vomiting (in animals that can vomit), serious blood purging, great depression of the circulation and respiration weakness, collapse and death. Tartar emetic is also a vermifuge.

USES.--Tartar emetic is too mild as an emetic in poison cases. In asthma of dogs it may be used in from ¹⁄₁₀ to ¹⁄₂ grain doses to relax spasm and promote secretion. For horses its most valuable use is to expel the common round worms from the intestines, for which it is very efficacious; given in two drachm doses once or twice daily in the feed for four to six days, or one-half ounce dissolved in water is given on an empty stomach followed by a full dose of linseed oil.

ANTIPYRINA--ANTIPYRIN

Phenyl-hydrazine is acted upon by aceto-acetic ether, when phenyl-monomethyl-pyrazolon, ethyl alcohol and water results.

PROPERTIES.--Colorless, odorless, scaly crystals, of a bitterish taste. Soluble in water, ether and chloroform.

DOSE.--Horses and cattle, 3 to 4 drs.; sheep and pigs, ¹⁄₂ to 1 dr.; dogs, 5 to 20 grs.

ACTIONS.--Powerful antipyretic, anodyne and local anesthetic, antiseptic, cardiac depressant; it reduces temperature very quickly, usually within half an hour and the effects continue two or more hours. It can be administered by the mouth, hypodermically or intertracheally; as an antiseptic it diminishes oxidation, and promotes heat loss by dilating the cutaneous vessels, but more probably by depressing the activity of the calorifacient centers.

USES.--Used in high fever where the temperature must be reduced quickly, as in sun-stroke, acute rheumatism; in man a solution of antipyrine from four to ten per cent strength up, is sprayed into the nostrils for hay-fever. Acetanilide is a better and safer and much cheaper drug for febrile diseases.

AQUA AMMONIAE FORTIOR--STRONGER AMMONIA WATER

An aqueous solution of ammonia containing twenty-eight per cent, by weight of the gas.

DERIVATION.--Evolve ammonia gas by heating ammonium chloride with calcium hydrate and pass it into water.

PROPERTIES.--A colorless, transparent liquid, having an excessively pungent odor and a caustic alkaline taste.

DOSE.--Horses and cattle, 2 to 4 drs.; sheep and pigs, ¹⁄₂ to 1 dr.; dogs, 5 to 10 m. Should be diluted one drachm to one pint of water.