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ELEMENTS OF MATERIA MEDICA.

These are distinguished, according to the nature of their prepon-derating constituent, into the acidulo-alkaline (as those of Pougues, Vichy,Mont d’Or, Spa, Setters, Bilin, Altwasser, &c.), the acidulo-chalybeate(as those of I'linsberg, Giessliiibel, Fachingen, and Pynnont), and dieacidulo-saline (as those of Wildungen, Kissingen , Schwalheim, &c.)

[For further information concerning the acidulous waters, consult Lee’sAccount of the Watering-Places of the Continent ; and the article on mineralwaters, by Dr. Thomson, in the Cyclopcedia of Medicine.]

Antidotes.— In accidents arising from the inhalation of carbonic acidor carbonic oxide, proceed as follows :—remove the patient immediatelyinto the open air, and place him on his back with his head somewhatelevated. Produce artificial respiration by pressing down the ribs, andforcing up the diaphragm, and then suddenly removing the pressure.Dash cold water over the body, and abstract a small quantity of bloodeither by venesection or cupping. Stimulants of various kinds may beemployed either internally by the stomach, or in the form of frictions, orinhalations (as of ammonia, weak chlorine, &c.)

Alcohol. — Alcohol.

History. —Fermented liquors were known in the most remote ages ofantiquity. The sacred historian tells us ( Genesis , cli. ix.) that after theflood (which is supposed to have occurred 2,348 years before Christ),“ Noah planted a vineyard: and he drank of the wine, and was drunken.”llomer, the most ancient of all the profane writers, and who lived morethan 900 years before the Christian era, also frequently mentions wine,and notices its effects on the body, mind, &c. ( Odyssey , ix. and xxi.)Herodotus ( Euterpe , lxxvii.), who wrote 445 years before Christ, tells us,that the Egyptians drank a liquor fermented from barley.

It is uncertain at what period vinous liquors were first submitted todistillation. Morcwood ( Essay on Inebriating Liquors, p. 107) consi-ders the Chinese to have been acquainted with this process long beforethe rest of Asia, Africa, and Europe. It is usually stated that Albucasis ,who is supposed to have lived in the 12th century, taught the mode ofprocuring spirit from n ine (Gmelin, Handbuch d. Chemie , Bd. 2, p.274).Raymond Lully in the 13th century was acquainted with spirit, aswell as with the mode of depriving it of water by means of carbonate ofpotash.

Preparation. —The preparation of alcohol may be divided into threestages: the production of a fermented vinous liquid ; the preparation fromthis of an ardent spirit by distillation; and, lastly, rectification or purifi-cation.

Stage 1. Production of a Vinous Liquor. —When vegeta-ble substances are placed in contact with air and moisture, they undergothat kind of decomposition which is denominated fermentation. Theproducts of this process vary at different periods or stages; and on thisdepends the distinction into kinds or varieties of fermentation. Thusstarchy liquids, under some circumstances, become saccharine ; the pro-cess being termed the saccharine fermentation. Sugar dissolved inwater, and mixed with glutinous matter, is converted into carbonic acidand alcohol; and to this process the name of vinous fermentation isapplied. Vinous liquids are capable of generating acetic acid, and theprocess is denominated acetous fermentation. Lastly, most vegetable