Dr. Hood's plain talks about the human system - the habits of men and women - the causes and prevention of disease - our sexual relations and social natures - embracing common sense medical adviser... (14589705689)

Identifier: drhoodsplaintalk00hood (find matches)
Title: Dr. Hood's plain talks about the human system : the habits of men and women - the causes and prevention of disease - our sexual relations and social natures - embracing common sense medical adviser...
Year: 1902 (1900s)
Authors: Hood, G. Durant
Subjects:
Publisher: Chicago : Hood Medical Book Co.
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress



Text Appearing Before Image:
by climbingplants or by the adjacent trees. When at length the tree is down, and the uselessbranches have been cut off, the outer coat is removed by striking it with a mallet,and the inner bark so exposed is often further cleaned by a brush. The bark is thendivided by regular incisions circumscribing the pieces which are to be removed, andthese are separated from the trunk with a knife, the point of which is carried as BARK AND QUININE. 757 closely as possible to the sulj^^ wgo& ILa ainiensions and regularity of thepieces necessarily depend more or less on the position in which the tree has fallenand other circumstances, but generally, for the convenience of transport, they aremade from fifteen to eighteen inches long and four or five inches wide. The bark isusually dried in the sun, and is in some cases submitted to pressure to induce it toretain its shape and prevent it from curling up into quills. Quinine is prepared from cinchona on a large scale, the different barks yielding
Text Appearing After Image:
Fig, 8.—OOIXECTOTG CIHCE03A BABE. from three to ten per cent. It is met with in beautiful, silky, snow-white crystals,having a pure intensely bitter taste. It is but slightly soluble in water, but soondissolves on the addition of a few drops of acid. It is the chief alkaloid or activeprinciple contained in bark, the use of which it has to some extent superseded. Thesmallness of the dose required is a great advantage, a grain or a grain and a half beingequal to a drachm of the bark. When very large doses of bark or quinine are administered, a condition isinduced which is known as cinchonism or quinism. The symptoms to whichcollectively this term is applied are headache, noises in the ears, deafness, flashesof light before the eyes, confusion of sight, giddiness, and sometimes even slight 758 MATERIA MEDICA, delirium. Usually the headache is dull, heavy, and stupefying, but when a doseof twenty-five or thirty grains has been given, it is often agonising. Fortunatelythese symptoms are