Definition: Emollient
Emollient: softening, soothing, making less harsh or abrasive, moisturizing.
Definition: Aqua Vitae, Ardent Spirit
Aqua Vitae or Ardent Spirit generally signifies a strong distilled spirit, most usually brandy or whisky.
Definition: Tincture
A tincture is an alcoholic solution of a non-volatile substance (for example, tincture of iodine).
“Very uniform and reliable tinctures may be made of most indigenous plants, by procuring the part to be employed, at the proper season, while it is green and fresh, bruising it well, and covering it with good strong whiskey, or with alcohol diluted with one part of water to three of alcohol, corking tightly, and letting it stand about fourteen days, when the tincture may be filtered or poured off from the drugs, and will be ready for use. Prepared in this imperfect manner, they will be found to be much more reliable than any of the fluid extracts found in the drug-stores. An excess of the crude drug should be used in preparing the tincture to insure a perfect saturation of the alcohol with its active principles.”
Source: The People’s Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English or, Medicine Simplified, R.V. Pierce.
Filed under Definition | Tags: alcohol, extract, iodine, plant, solution, tincture, whiskey, whisky | Comment (0)Definition: Deliquated
Deliquated means a substance which has been melted or dissolved.
Definition: Injection
In general, within the remedies featured on this site, an injection was not the type we would expect today, using a syringe tipped with a needle! Rather, it was an indication that the substance concerned should be used as an enema.
Definition: Vermifuge
A vermifuge is a substance which causes the expulsion of internal parasites — usually worms — from the body.
Definition: Cholera Morbus
An acute inflammation of stomach and upper bowel. This is most common in young people in late summer, after indiscretion in eating.
Symptoms: Sometimes the patient feels tired, then nausea, etc. The attack though is usually sudden, with nausea, vomiting, and cramp-like pains in the abdomen. The contents of the stomach are vomited. The bowel discharge at first is diarrhea and later like rice water. Repeated vomiting and purging, with severe cramps. It looks like true cholera.
[Ed: In modern terms this would usually be called ‘gastroenteritis’.]
Source: Mother’s Remedies: Over One Thousand Tried and Tested Remidies from Mothers of the United States and Canada, T. J. Ritter
Filed under Definition | Tags: abdomen, bowel, cholera, cholera morbus, diarrhoea, gastroenteritis, nausea, stomach, vomiting | Comment (0)Definition: Expectorant
An expectorant is a substance which aids in the secretion or discharge of phlegm, mucus or other substances from the chest or respiratory tract.
Definition: Pectoral
A pectoral medicine is one which is used to relieve illness, irritation or other disorder in the chest or respiratory tract.
Definition: Scorbutic
Scorbutic: pertaining to scurvy.