Vegetable Acids.

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Vegetable Acids used in Medicine.

Acidum, Aceticum Dilutum, Diluted Acetic Acid,—Dose, ʒj-ij.

*Acetum, Vinegar—an impure dilute acetic acid, formerly official.

Acidum Citricum, used as Limonis, Lemon-juice,—Dose, ℥ss-ij.

Acidum Tartaricum,— Dose, gr. x-xxx. 20 grains neutralize 27 grs. of Potassium Bicarbonate. Pulvis Effervescens Comp., see under Sodium.

Physiological Action. In concentrated form they have escharotic powers, and produce gastro-enteritis if swallowed. In dilute form they diminish thirst and allay restlessness. They form salts in the stomach, thus enter the blood, and are there oxidized, producing carbonic acid, which increases the acidity of the urine. They promote secretion, and increase the water of the urine. Long continued they cause emaciation and poverty of the blood, in fact a general scorbutic condition. Tartaric Acid has been fatal in a dose of ℥j. Acetic has caused death once. Citric seems to be non-toxic in man.

Therapeutics. Tartaric Acid is rarely used except in the effervescing powders, Citric being preferred. The latter is used in—

Scurvy, as a prophylactic and a curative agent, in form of Lemon juice.

Acute Rheumatism,—Lemon-juice freely, ℥j-ij used 4 or 5 times a day.

Fevers,—Lemonade to be used freely, as a refreshing and refrigerant drink.

Inflammations,—Dilute Acetic us superficial inflammations of the skin.

Skin Affections, as warts, pityriasis, etc. ,—Glacial Acetic as a caustic.

Obesity,—Lemon juice to correct fatness, acts by impairing digestion.

Atheromatous Degeneration may be retarded by the daily use of Lemon juice, which dissolves the excess of inorganic matter, permitting its elimination.

A Compend of Materia Medica, Therapeutics, and Prescription Writing, 1902, by Sam'l O. L. Potter, M.D., M.R.C.P.L.