Definition: Fomentation, Poultice
Fomentation, Poultice: A warm, moist substance applied to the body (sometimes with compression) to relieve pain or inflammation.
Definition: Cathartic, Purgative, Aperient
Cathartic, Purgative, Aperient: Tending to cause evacuation of the bowels. An aperient is generally milder than a cathartic or a purgative.
Definition: Carminative
Carminative: Preventing the formation, or easing the passing, of gas from the alimentary tract.
Definition: Tolu
Tolu: A balsam from a South American tree of the genus Myroxylon. It was traditionally used for the relief of asthma and coughing, and in wound treatments.
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.