but if one ounce of pure lemon-juice, or twice that quantity of good vinegar, be added to every grain of opium, or to twenty-five drops of laudanum, we can declare from experience, that such a compound will produce a very different effect. Instead of stupifying the head, and producing troublesome costiveness, it will not only relieve the bowels, but also occasion a degree of chearfulness never attainable by the use of opium alone, or strong liquors, and afterwards induce a composed and refreshing sleep. Hence the use of acids, to persons who are habitually obliged to take considerable doses of opiates, cannot be too strongly recommended. In the form of clysters, the mild vegetable acids, such as vinegar diluted with an equal quantity of cold water, are a safe and effectual remedy for costive habits: and few persons will be inclined to doubt their good effects, when sprinkled about the floors and walls of rooms inhabited by patients labouring under putrid disorders, especially in the heat of summer. As a proper substitute for the acid of lemons, we refer to the article Barberries.
The mineral acids, however, are productive of very different effects: when applied in a diluted state to the human body, whether externally or internally, they generally contract, and gently stimulate, the animal fibre; but, in a concentrated form, violently stimulate, corrode, and destroy its texture. With respect to their comparative activity, the nitric acid, or aqua fortis, is the most volatile; the vitriolic acid, the most diffusible; and the marine acid, or spirit of salt, perhaps the most active and permanent in its effects on the human system. Hence the last has lately been used by Dr. Reich of Erlang, in Germany, with unexampled success, in the cure of the true typhus, or putrid nervous fever, after all other remedies had proved ineffectual. This bold practitioner did not hesitate to give the muriatic acid, diluted with the smallest possible quantity of water, to an extent almost exceeding belief; though his cures appear to be sufficiently attested by the Royal College of Physicians at Berlin. The particulars of these extraordinary facts, we propose to lay before the public under the head of Fever.
ACORNS, or the seeds of the oak, though not at present an article of human subsistence, yet, if we may credit the testimony of ancient writers, formed no small part of the diet of the ancient Germans and Britons; and the desire to possess what was then considered as a table delicacy, was often a cause of hostilities between various nations. They have seldom been used for medicinal purposes. We have, however, the testimony of several foreign practitioners in their favour, and especially that of Dr. Marx. In describing the valuable properties of acorn-coffee, he asserts that this preparation has often cured obstructions arising from an accumulation of mucus in the viscera, and removed nervous complaints, when all other remedies have been tried in vain. The following is his method of preparing the acorn-coffee:
Take sound and ripe acorns, peel off their shells or husks, divide the kernels, and, after gradually drying, roast them in a close vessel, keeping them in continual motion. In this process, however, particular attention should be paid, that they may not be burnt, or roasted to excess.
Take of the powder, when ground like other coffee, half an ounce, or
