1346
ELEMENTS OF MATERIA MEDICA.
nOl)S c
(Savary, Letters on Greece, p. 109, Lond. 1788). As soon as S j?is brought on shore, it is squeezed and washed to get rid of the g e ‘ amatters, otherwise putrefaction speedily ensues. o f tb e
Description. —Commercial sponge \spongia ) is the dry skeleton 0 .animal, from which the gelatinous flesh has been removed, as j 1 ^ - 0 r
tioned. When deprived of stony concretions, &c. found in the 1of the mass, it is soft, light, flexible, and compressible. ^ ^^lls up"it evolves an animal odour. It absorbs water, and thereby s "' e g0 j fl -Nitric acid colours it yellow. Liquor potasste dissolves it: 1,1 ,,p>
- The finer ^Turkey fj,.
tion forms a precipitate on the addition of an acid,are those which have the greatest firmness and tenacity. tv-
is the most esteemed kind: Bahama sponge is of very inferior flTo whiten sponge it is sometimes bleached. . f r oii>
Composition. —Well-washed sponge, freed as much as possm „earths and salts by dilute acids, was analysed, in 1828, by(Bert. Jahrb. Bd. xxx. Abt. ii.), who found it to consist of a sU a . a jef,similar to osmazome, animal mucus, fat oil, a substance soluble * na substance only soluble in potash, and traces of chloride of sodium,sulphur , phosphate of lime (?), silica, alumina, and magnesia- 0 fHatchett [Phil. Trans, for 1800, p. 327) found sponge to . c ° I ^ r ittl e ’gelatin, (which it gradually gave out to water), and a thiipmembranous substance, which possessed the properties oi c ° a ->albumen. ...
Uses.— The extensive economical uses of sponge are familiar O f0-one. To the surgeon it is of great value on account of its softnessn^sity, elasticity, and the facility with which it imbibes fluids,surgical operations is well known. It has also been applied to c cand ulcers for imbibing acrid discharges. The sponge-tent ( s P° n ^rata), prepared by dipping sponge into melted wax, and cofflp ^libetween two iron plates till the wax hardens, was formerly inll *L J5 o"'for dilating sinuses and small openings, but it is seldom resorted ^Spongia vsta. Pulvis spongim ustce, D. Calcined or burnt sp ^fji(Having cut sponge into pieces, beat it to free it from little stone s ^ [( , t , jtit in a closed iron vessel until it becomes black and friable, and r£ ( i c in c ®to powder, D). Preuss (Pharm. Centr. Blatt. fur 1837, 169) c ‘
1000 parts of sponge: of these, 343‘848 parts were destroyed ’
The residue consisted of carbon and siliceous insoluble matters,chloride of sodium, 112'08; sulphate of lime, 16 - 430; iodide o/^
2U422; bromide of magnesium, 7 - 570 ; carbonate of lime, 103nesia, 473; protoxide of iron, 28 - 720 ; and phosphate of lime, . g ^j/i()Burnt sponge, when good, should evolve violet fumes (vapour oj aS twhen heated with sulphuric acid in a flask. It has been empl°Jresolvent in bronchocele, scrofulous enlargement of the lymphati c ^ fl ,&c. Its efficacy is referrible to iodine and bromine. Iodine i s , n (Jjfmost invariably substituted for it. Dose, 5j- to 3iij.form of electuary or lozenges, (trochisci spongim ustm).
It is give»
in