XXXII. Observations and experiments on different extracts of hemlock

Abstract

Read May 24, | Wade, an eminent phyfician at *'64’ j f ^ / Lilbon, having lately communi­ cated to the London Medical Society, a number of cafles, in which the extrad of Hemlock prepared at Coimbra in Portugal, had been given with extraor­ dinary fuccefs, and having fent me at the fame time fpecimens of the fuccefsful extrad, and alfo of the extrads of Hemlock prepared at Lifbon and by Dr. Storck’s Apothecary at Vienna, which two lad-m en­ tioned extrads he had prefcribed for the fpace of three years, in various disorders, to little or noeffed; I thought an experimental inquiry into the com­ ponent parts of thefe extrads and that ufed in Lon­ don might be attended with fome ufeful or curious confequences; more efpecially as this medicine was near lofing its credit intirely, from its little fuccefs here in thofe diforders in which it had been m od drongly recommended by Dr. Storck. I think it not unneceffary to premife farther, that the extrad pre­ pared at Coimbra is not fo moid as the other extrads, and that it has been given for a conliderable time at the dofe of a drachm and a half twice a day with­ out producing the lead difagreeable fymptom.