ANIMAL CHARCOAL.

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substance both with respect to animals and vegetables. Burdin (quotedin the Diet de Mat. Med. of MM. Merat and de Lens) gave a pound ofit daily without producing any other effect than that of blackening thestools. A variety of properties and virtues have, however, been ascribedto it, as I believe, without foundation: thus it has been termed anodyne,emmenagogue, tonic, purgative, &c. In Hahnemann’s Traite de MatiereMedicate (traduit par A. J. L. Jourdan), no less than thirty-five pages areoccupied with the enumeration of the symptoms produced by less thanone-millionth of a grain of this substance!!

Uses. —In this country, charcoal is used as a therapeutic agent, prin-cipally as a disinfectant and antiseptic, to absorb the fetid odour evolvedby gangrenous and phagedenic ulcers. For this purpose it may be usedin the form of powder or of poultice. Its disinfecting and antisepticpowers, however, are much inferior to those of chlorine, or of the chlo-rides of lime and soda. As a tooth-powder it is a valuable agent, freeingthe teeth from the foreign matters which cover them, and at the sametime counteracting the unpleasant smell of the breath arising fromdecayed teeth or disordered stomach. Brachet ( Considerations surV Usage du Carbon en Medecine, Paris , 1803) states, that it checks cariesof the teeth. Areca nut charcoal is a favourite variety for tooth-pow-ders Internally, charcoal has been exhibited in various affections ofthe alimentary canal, such as dyspepsia, cardialgia, diarrhoea, and dysen-tery. The beneficial effects said to have been produced in these casescan only be referred to the action of charcoal on the secretions of thebowels ; an explanation apparently supported by Dr. Chapman’s state-ment, that in dysentery, where the stools are highly acrid and offensive,charcoal entirely divests them of their bad smell and acrimony. Inconsequence of the advantage said to have been obtained by Dr. Cal-cagno, of Sicily , by the use of charcoal in intermittents, it was tried byDr. Calvert, physician to the British forces at Palermo , and with suc-cess. ( Edinb. Med. and Surg. Jour. vol. x., p. 15). In this country, however, it is, I believe, never resorted to in ague by medical practitioners.Dr. Daniel, of Savannah, has recommended it in obstinate constipation,and in the nausea and confinement of bowels which frequently attendpregnancy. It has also been used in various other diseases, but expe-rience has not confirmed its efficacy.

Administration. —The dose of charcoal, as ordered by differentwriters, varies from ten grains to a table-spoonful or more.

In the Dublin Pharmacopoeia there is a formula for a wood charcoalcataplasm (cataplasma carbonis ligni). It may be prepared by mixingfinely powdered charcoal with a common linseed poultice ; it is appliedto fold ulcers to destroy their offensive odour.

3. Car'bo Anima'lis. — An'imal Char'coal.

History and Synonymes. —This substance must have been knownfrom the most ancient times. The kind usually met with in the shopsis prepared from bones, and is termed bone black, or, more commonly,ivory black, (ebur ustum nigrum ).

Natural History. —It is always an artificial product.

Preparation. —The mode of preparing animal charcoal from boneshas been already described. (See Ammonia Hydrochloras).