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ACONITE. 245

being deposited during the process of fermentation), or from
crude cream of tartar.
It is in the form of white or colorless crystals, irregular, six-
sided prisms, and is soluble in water and alcohol, and wholly dis-
sipated by heat.
Medical Properties and Action.—It is refrigerant, and dissolved
in water and sweetened, is a good substitute for lemonade.
In large doses it is an irritant poison, and when its internal use
is followed by a red and dry tongue, it should be discontinued.
It is often administered in the form of effervescing powders.
Therapeutic Uses.—Internally it is employed as a refrigerant in
inflammatory and febrile diseases, irritability of the stomach,
nausea and vomiting, dyspepsia, and diseases attended with copious
secretion of mucus, dysentery, etc., etc.
Dose.—Of tartaric acid, gr. x to gr. xx, dissolved in water and
sweetened.
Dental Uses.—In combination with an equal quantity of
chloride of lime, it is employed for bleaching discolored teeth.

ACOXITUM—ACONITE.
WOLFSBANE, MONKSHOOD.
Source.—Aconite is obtained from the dried, tuberous root of
Jconitum Napellus., a perennial plant abounding in the mountains
of Europe and Asia. The leaves and root are both used, but the
latter is the most powerful. The alkaloid Aconitia or Aconitine^
a sedative poison, is obtained from the root, and is externally em-
ployed for neuralgic affections, producing a sensation of heat and
pricking, succeeded by a feeling of numbness and constriction in
the part on which it is rubbed ; and very satisfactory results have
been obtained from the internal administration of Duquesnel's
Aconitia, in neuralgia of the fifth pair of nerves. Another prin-
ciple of aconite, suggested by Duquesnel, is known as Napelline^
which is less powerful than aconitia, but possesses important
hypnotic properties, and is substituted for opium and chloral, es-
pecially in cases of wakefulness and mental excitement during
neuralgic attacks.
Medical Properties and Physiological Action.—Aconite is a pow-