followed by good results. The treatment, however, has not proved sufficiently successful to warrant its employment to the exclusion of other measures.

Administration.-A cantharidal blister should not be allowed to remain on the skin for more than twelve or twenty-four hours, six to eight hours usually being sufficient.

When blebs are formed, they should be carefully opened at their most dependent parts. When the serum has drained away the part should be dressed with a layer of borated cotton kept in place by the aid of a few strips of adhesive plaster. Should the blistering by cantharides occasion too great pain, a poultice made of breadcrumb and solution of subacetate of lead, to which is added or grain (0.008 or 0.01 Gm.) of morphine sulphate or other soothing application, should be applied to the blistered part. The obstinate ulcers which sometimes follow the use of cantharides blisters may be treated effectively by Goulard's cerate.

It is said that the strangury which plasters of cantharides frequently cause may be prevented by sprinkling the surface of the plaster with powdered camphor or sodium bicarbonate.

For internal use the tincture of cantharides is the only preparation to employ.

son.

Sinapis Alba-Sinapis Alba-White Mustard.

U.S. P.

Origin. The seed of Brassica alba L., Hooker filius et Thomp

Sinapis Nīgra-Sinapis Nīgræ-Black Mustard.

U.S. P.

Origin. The seed of Brassica nigra L., Koch.

Both the white and black mustard are annual plants, indigenous in Southern Europe and Western Asia, cultivated, and sometimes found wild, in the United States.

Description and Properties.-WHITE MUSTARD SEEDS are almost globular, about 1 inch (2 Mm.) in diameter, with a circular hilum; testa yellowish, finely pitted, hard; embryo oily, with a curved radicle and two cotyledons, one folded over the other; free from starch; inodorous; taste pungent and acrid.

BLACK MUSTARD SEEDS resemble the preceding in shape, but have a diameter only of inch (1 Mm.); blackish-brown or deep red

dish-brown, with a testa covered with shallow pits, and when crushed and macerated with water acquiring a strong and pungent

odor.

WHITE MUSTARD SEED contains an almost tasteless, yellowish, fixed oil, and a substance known as sinalbin, which is the chief constituent. This substance may be converted into allyl sulphocyanide (a volatile oil) by the action of the ferment myrosin and water. BLACK MUSTARD SEEDS contain the same fixed oil as the white mustard, and a glucosid, sinigrin, which by the action upon it of myrosin in contact with water converts it into sulphocyanate of acrinyl (the volatile oil of mustard). To this volatile oil of mustard, which is official, is due both the pungent taste and odor of the moistened powder.

Dose.-1-4 drachms (4.0-15.0 Gm.).

Official Preparation (of Black Mustard Seed).

Chărta Sinapis-Chǎrtæ Sĭnapis-Mustard Paper.

Oleum Sinapis Volătile-Olei Sinapis Volătilis-Volatile Oil of Mustard. U. S. P.

Origin.—A volatile oil obtained from Black Mustard by maceration with Water and subsequent distillation.

Description and Properties.-A colorless or pale yellow, limpid, and strongly refractive liquid, having a very pungent and acrid odor and taste. Freely soluble in alcohol, ether, or carbon disulphide. Used externally.

Official Preparation.

Linimentum Sinapis Compositum-Linimĕnti Sinapis Compositi-Compound Liniment of Mustard.-Formula: Volatile Oil of Mustard, 30; Fluid Extract of Mezereum, 200; Camphor, 60; Castor Oil, 150; Alcohol, to 1000, by solution. Used externally.

Physiological Action.-Externally and Locally.-Mustard is irritant, counter-irritant, rubefacient, and vesicant. Any degree of irritation, from slight redness of the skin to severe blistering, may be produced by mustard. It is more rapid in its action than cantharides, and when applied to the skin there is produced almost immediately a sensation of warmth, which rapidly passes into a severe burning pain. This irritation of the sensory nerves is succeeded by paralysis and more or less loss of sensation, so that if mustard be allowed to remain on the skin until blistering ensues there is a decided diminution of pain.

The local application of mustard reflexly stimulates the heart and respiration.

Internally.-Mustard in small amounts is taken as a condiment, and is a powerful stimulant of the gastro-intestinal tract. Large doses irritate the stomach and act as an emetic, producing prompt emesis without depression, owing to the reflex stimulation of the heart and respiration.

The volatile oil of mustard is never intentionally given internally. It is a powerful caustic irritant, a single drop upon the tongue producing an intense burning pain in the throat, stomach, and nose.

Therapeutics.-—Externally and Locally.-MUSTARD may be used locally for the same purposes as cantharides, being superior to the latter-named drug when a simple rubefacient effect is desired. Mustard when applied locally is more of a stimulant to the circulatory and respiratory systems than cantharides, and is therefore an efficient remedy in syncope, asphyxia, and coma.

As a stimulant in these conditions, a large MUSTARD POULTICE is applied to the legs.

A MUSTARD BATH, in the strength of 1 drachm (4.0 Gm.) to I gallon (3785.43 Cc.) of water, is an efficient means of breaking up a cold, and if properly used is of service when the rash in measles or scarlet fever has receded.

The menses may often be re-established when suppressed by a MUSTARD SITZ-BATH, taken at the time of the expected period.

Internally. Other than the use of mustard as a condiment, the drug is given only to produce vomiting, being one of the best emetics in indigestion and narcotic poisoning.

Obstinate hiccough has sometimes been arrested by an INFUSION

OF MUSTARD.

Administration.-A mustard plaster, or sinapism, is prepared by mixing equal parts of wheaten or rye flour with water to the consistence of a thick paste, which is spread on linen or cotton cloth and applied to the skin. A dampened piece of gauze interposed between the plaster and the skin will prevent the former from adhering.

A mustard cataplasm is a weaker preparation. A flaxseed or cornmeal poultice is made, to which a small quantity of ground mustard is added. This is intended to maintain a gentler but more prolonged action than the sinapism.

"Mustard leaves," or plasters which may be obtained ready pre

pared at drug-stores, are intended to be simply dipped in water and applied to the skin. Their activity may be lessened by interposing a thin piece of linen or cotton cloth between the plaster and the skin.

Liniments containing oil of mustard are efficient rubefacients, care being taken to adapt the strength of the preparation to the delicacy of the skin.

When mustard is taken as an emetic, it is given in the form of an infusion, in the proportion of 1, 2, or 3 drachms (4.0, 8.0, or 12.0 Gm.) to I pint (473.17 Cc.) of water.

A preparation known as mustard whey is sometimes given. It is prepared by boiling 1 ounces (46.65 Gm.) of bruised mustard seed in a mixture of 1 pint (473.17 Cc.) of milk and 1 quart (946.35 Cc.) of water, until it is curdled, when the whey should be strained off.

GROUP XX.-RUBEFACIENTS.

THESE are drugs which, when locally applied, are intended to produce temporary redness and congestion of the skin. Some of them are vesicant if applied in full strength, and if their contact with the skin be sufficiently prolonged, vesication, or even total destruction of tissue, may result.

The following list embraces the principal rubefacient drugs:

Rubefacients are used for their influence upon the skin itself or for their effect on deep-seated structures.

Rubefacients are efficient means of relieving neuralgic pains, conditions of nervous debility, nervous excitement, the sense of fatigue, and as an aid in narcotic poisoning, also to hasten the absorption of inflammatory exudates, to remove the swelling and restore the function of chronically inflamed joints, etc.

Rubefacients should ordinarily be applied with friction, as rubbing of the skin aids the action of many of them.

Save one, all the rubefacients mentioned in the preceding list have been considered elsewhere in the present work.

Pix Burgundica-Pīcis Burgundica-Burgundy

Pitch.

U. S. P.

Origin. The prepared resinous preparation of Abies excelsa Poiret, the spruce fir, or Norway spruce, a stately tree growing in Northern Asia and Northern Europe, and frequently cultivated in the United States.

Description and Properties.-Hard, yet gradually taking the form of the vessel in which it is kept, brittle, with a shining, conchoidal fracture, opaque or translucent, reddish-brown or yellowishbrown; odor agreeably terebinthinate; taste aromatic, sweetish, not bitter. It is almost entirely soluble in glacial acetic acid or in boiling alcohol, and partly soluble in cold alcohol.

Burgundy pitch contains a resin and a volatile oil in variable proportion.

Used externally.

Official Preparations.

Emplǎstrum Pīcis Burgundica-Emplǎstri Pīcis Burgundica-Burgundy Pitch Plaster.-Contains 90 per cent. of Burgundy Pitch. Used externally.

Emplǎstrum Pīcis Cantharidātum-Emplăstri Pīcis Cantharidāti—Cantharidal Pitch Plaster (WARMING PLASTER).—Contains 8 per cent. of Cerate of Cantharides. Used externally.

Burgundy Pitch is contained in Emplăstrum Fĕrri and Emplăstrum Ōpii.

Physiological Action and Therapeutics.-Burgundy pitch when applied to the skin in the form of a plaster occasions redness and a papular eruption, accompanied by itching. If the plaster is allowed to remain in contact with a delicate skin for too long a period, there may be produced a vesicular or even pustular eruption.

The chief uses of Burgundy pitch plaster are to protect, sustain, or stimulate the part to which it is applied.

The plaster is an efficient remedy in subacute and chronic pleurisy, chronic bronchitis, lumbago, muscular rheumatism, etc.

Before applying a Burgundy pitch plaster to a hairy skin, the hair should be shaved off. The removal of the plaster may be facilitated by warming it, applying to the back of the plaster a hot bottle or hot water-bag. Any particles of pitch which may