1184
ELEMENTS OF MATERIA MEDICA.
Physiological Effects.— Analogous to rosin and the turpentines ( scCpp. 708 and 717).
Uses. —Mastic is rarely employed as a medicine. It has ^used to check excessive discharges from the mucous membranes;leucorrhcea, gleet, chronic pulmonary catarrh, old diarrhoeas, &c. "
tists occasionally employ it for filling up the cavities of carious teThe Turkish ladies chew it to sweeten the breath, and preserve the eand gums. Dissolved in alcohol it forms a very useful cement andnisli. A solution of it in oil of turpentine is a common varnish. ( jj_
Administration. —It is exhibited as an adjunct only to other me .cines. It is a constituent of the dinner pills (composed of aloes, a Jmastic and red roses, aa 3\j •; syrup of wormwood, q. s.), as which it ser ' . flto divide the particles of the aloes. It is a constituent of the tin ,. sammonite composita, Ph . L.; formerly called eau de luce or s P trammonite succinatus, which I have before (p. 234) referred to, buformula of which I omitted to give. .
Tinctura Ammonim composita, L. Spiritus Ammonite succinEau de Luce. (Mastic , 5ij.* ; Rectified Spirit, f Six.; Oil of k aven te»lxiv.; Oil of Amber, tuiv.; stronger Solution of Ammonia, Oj- ^ ace j ea rthe Mastic in the Spirit, that it may be dissolved, and pour off th e ctincture ; then add the other ingredients, and shake them all togeth er bMilky, owing to the separation of the mastic from its spirituous stion by the ammonia.—Stimulant and antispasmodic (see p. 234). vgtt. x. to gtt. xxx.
Rhus Toxicoden'dron, Linn. L. D. —Trailing Poison-oak or Sumncb-
Sex. Syst. Pentandria, Trigynia.
(Folia, L. D.)
History.— The attention of medical practitioners of this country ^first drawn to the medical properties of this plant, in 1793, oyAlderson, of Hull (Essay on Rhus Toxicodend. 3rd ed. 1804).
by Comutus, in his Plant. Canad. Hist. Pans,
10 )\ , petal*
first described by Comutus, in his Plant. Canad.
(Busse, Diss. Inaug. de Rhoe Toxicod. Berol. 1811, p
Botany. Gen. Char .— Calyx small, five-partite, persistent. ^five, ovate, spreading. Stamens five, all fertile in the male andphrodite flowers. Ovary one, somewhat globose, one-celled- e j] e djshort, three, or stigmas three sessile. Drupe almost juiceless, one-nut bony, perhaps by abortion one-seeded, and sometimes tw’O- °* t j, e
seeded. Seed exalbuminous, invested by the funiculus arising 1 )e r
base of the nut; cotyledons foliaeeous; radicle incumbent on theedge of the cotyledons (D. C.)
Sp. Char .— Leaves pinnate with an odd leaflet, trifoliateangularly incised, pubescent (D. C.) , a
Shrub , one to three feet high. Stems many, branching, covere a gbrown bark. Flowers greenish-white. Fruit a round dmpe, a t ]ielarge as a pea.— Juice acrid, milky, becoming black by exposureair, and forming an indelible ink when applied to cotton or linen-