or STROBILES, which are also largely employed in the preparation of malt liquors, and are known as hops. Near their base are two small round, dark seeds, covered with aromatic glands or grains, which are the active portion of the hops, and are termed lupulin. They are separated by threshing, rubbing, and sifting the scales, and constitute about a sixth part of the weight of hops.

LUPULINUM (Lupuin) is officinal, and consists of rounded or reniform, rather transparent grains, of a cellular texture, and a golden-yellow colour. It is slightly soluble in water, and completely so in alcohol, and is composed of a volatile oil, a bitter principle termed lupulite, resin, tannic acid and other matters. The scaly bracts contain a small portion of lupulinic matter.

Effects and Uses.-Hops are tonic and feebly narcotic. The narcotic properties probably reside in the volatile oil, and the tonic properties in the bitter principle. They are said, also, to possess anaphrodisiac and astringent properties, and sometimes prove diuretic. The odourous emanation is employed as an hypnotic by means of the hop-pillow. Internally, they are given to relieve restlessness, induce sleep, and allay pain, and are also much employed for their stomachic and tonic effect. The combination of tonic and hypnotic virtues renders hops an excellent remedy in mild forms of mania-a-potu. Topically, they are employed in the form of fomentation or poultice, in painful swellings and tumours.

Administration.-Hops are given in the form of infusion (not officinal-dose fžij to fživ) and tincture (dose fɔ̃j to f3iij).

The best preparation for internal use is LUPULIN, in the dose of gr. v to gr. xij, in powder or pills. The fluid extract of lupuline may be used in doses of f3ss-ij. It is best given mixed with a little syrup and then largely diluted. The oleoresin also is officinal; dose, mij-xxx.

DULCAMARA.

The YOUNG BRANCHES of Solanum Dulcamara, the Woody Nightshade, or Bittersweet (Nat. Ord. Solanaceae), a European vine, naturalized in the United States, possesses combined narcotic and diaphoretic properties. The active principles are a poison

ous alkaloid termed solanine (CHNO), which has been found also in Solanum tuberosum, or common potato, and S. nigrum, or black nightshade, and a glucoside dulcamarin (C2H3O10).

FIG. 8.

In the dog gr. iv ss of the alkaloid, given hypodermically, have caused death, the symptoms being convulsive respiration, general convulsions, and tetanic cramps (Fraas and Martin).

Effects and Uses.—In small doses the most obvious effects of bittersweet are an increase in the secretion from the skin and mucous surfaces, with some diminution of sensibility. There are recorded cases of its having caused vomiting and cerebral congestion. Its action on the pupil is uncertain. In excessive doses it is an acro-narcotic poison. It is often used in the form of decoction, dose, fži-ij, in painful cutaneous affections, and also in chronic catarrh, rheumatism, and gout. A fluid extract is officinal; dose, f3j, largely diluted.

ORDER II.-ETHEREAL ANESTHETICS.

The term Anæsthetics (from a, non, and aïolŋ015, sensation), properly speaking, includes all agents which diminish sensibility and relieve pain. It has, however, been used to denominate a class of ethereal remedies which are applied by inhalation, and produce such a condition of temporary insensibility as to prevent pain during surgical operations and parturition.

The vapours usually employed to produce anæsthesia are those of ETHER and CHLOROFORM.. Many other substances have, however, lately been introduced as anæsthetics.

ETHER-ETHER.

Ether is prepared by the distillation of alcohol and sulphuric acid, and is afterwards rectified by redistillation with solution of potassa. For inhalation, however, it is further purified by being shaken with water, by which it is freed from alcohol, and this, as well as acid contaminations, are afterwards removed by the agency of calcium chloride and freshly calcined lime. Thus purified, it is designated as ÆTHER FORTIOR-STRONGER ETHER.

Although commonly termed sulphuric ether, in allusion to the sulphuric acid used in its preparation, yet ether contains no sulphuric acid. By the action of the acid upon alcohol, ether is formed by the substitution of ethyl (C,H,) for one atom of hydrogen in alcohol (C2H,HO). Chemically, ether is ethyl oxide (C2H)2O.

Ether is a transparent, inflammable, colourless liquid, with a

It wholly

strong, fragrant odour and a hot, pungent taste. evaporates in the air, so rapidly as to cause a considerable degree of cold; combines with alcohol and chloroform in every proportion, and dissolves in ten times its volume of water. The specific gravity of pure ether is 0.713, of stronger ether (consisting of about 94 per cent. of ethyl oxide and about 6 per cent. of alcohol containing a little water) 0.725, of ordinary officinal ether (about 74 per cent. of ethyl oxide and about 26 per cent. of alcohol containing a little water) 0.750. The boiling-point of stronger ether is about 98° F.

Effects and Uses when Swallowed.-When taken into the stomach, ether produces a primary stimulant and secondary narcotic effect, the stage of excitement being, however, very transient. Before the narcotic effects set in, the heart's beats are increased, the face is flushed, and the skin becomes moist. It has long been employed as an antispasmodic and anodyne remedy in asthma, angina pectoris, hysteria, cramp of the stomach and bowels, spasm of the gall-ducts, etc.; and, from its combined stimulant and antispasmodic virtues, it has been found useful in the latter stages of typhus, attended by subsultus tendinum, etc. As a topical anodyne, ether is a very good application in nervous headache and earache; applied by means of an atomizer, it causes local anesthesia; it has been also applied with advantage in aphthæ, stomatitis, diphtheria, and other affections of the mouth and throat; and, from its refrigerant effects, it has been used in the reduction of strangulated hernia, and as a cooling lotion in cerebral affections. If evaporation be repressed, when it is applied locally it acts as a rubefacient, and may be employed for counter-irritation.

Dose, f3ss to f3j, to be increased when habitually used. may be incorporated with water by rubbing it up with spermaceti, in the proportion of two grains to a fluidrachm of ether, or it may be given in capsules of sugared gum.

Effects and Uses when Inhaled.-The first effects of the inhalation of ether are a sense of strangulation and cough, from its local irritant action. When the vapour is absorbed into the system through the pulmonary surface, the nervous functions are successively and progressively affected. The mental facul

ties and volition become first impaired; insensibility and unconsciousness rapidly supervene, during which susceptibility to pain is lost, and the patient lies in a trance-like sleep, resembling death. This condition is often preceded by one of excitement, during which patients sometimes weep, laugh, moan, sing, rave, or present pugnacious manifestations. In the beginning of etherization, the circulation is accelerated, but it is afterwards depressed. The period of full ether-narcosis lasts from five to ten minutes, and the patient ordinarily recovers without serious inconvenience, although headache, nausea, drowsiness, and languor sometimes ensue for a few hours. Occasionally, congestion of the brain or lungs, cataleptic rigidity with prolonged insensibility, and, in females, hysterical phenomena, ensue after etherization; but these effects are uncommon, and it is believed that death has never followed the use of ether, when care has been taken to admit atmospheric air into the lungs along with the ether. During the stage of insensibility, convulsive twitches or muscular rigidity are occasionally noticed; the breathing is sometimes stertorous; the iris becomes fixed; the pupils are dilated; the eyeballs are upturned; and the orbicularis palpebrarum does not contract when touched. Insensibility to pain in some cases takes place before unconsciousness; and when patients are recovering from the latter state, the mental faculties are often completely restored, while insensibility to pain continues. A brief period of anesthesia, lasting less than a minute, has been noticed to occur before complete insensibility, which may be taken advantage of for short operations. When ether narcosis is fully established, the functions of the nerve centres are involved in the following order, viz., the cerebrum, the sensory centres of the cord, the motor centres of the cord, the sensory centres of the medulla oblongata, and lastly, the motor centres of the medulla oblongata. The functions which continue to act are those presiding over circulation and respiration.

Since the year 1846, the inhalation of ether, first resorted to in our own country, has been practiced very generally in all parts of the world, with the greatest success, for the prevention of pain in surgical operations; and its use has been also ex