Cooley's Cyclopaedia of Practical Receipts Volume Ii Part 200

The Local Government Board may also declare by provisional order any rural district to be a local government district.

The Local Government Board has also the important power of investing a rural authority with urban powers as follows:

"The Local Government Board may, on the application of the authority of any rural district, or of persons rated to the relief of the poor, the a.s.sessment of whose hereditaments amounts at the least to one tenth of the net rateable value of such district, or of any contributory place therein, by order to be published in the 'London Gazette,' or in such other manner as the Local Government Board may direct, declare any provisions of this Act in force in urban districts to be in force in such rural district or contributory place, and may invest such authority with all or any of the powers, rights, duties, capacities, liabilities, and obligations of an urban authority under this Act, and such investment may be made either unconditionally or subject to any conditions to be specified by the board as to the time, portion of its district, or manner during, at, and in which such powers, rights, duties, liabilities, capacities, and obligations are to be exercised and attach, provided that an order of the Local Government Board made on the application of one tenth of the persons rated to the relief of the poor in any contributory place shall not invest the rural authority with any new powers beyond the limits of such contributory places" (Public Health Act, sec. 276).

_Powers and Duties of Sanitary Authorities._ In England urban sanitary authorities have very extensive powers and duties under the Public Health Act of 1875, and in addition they have to carry out the Bakehouse Regulation Act, and the Artisans' and Labourers' Dwellings Act. They also have power to adopt the Baths and Wash-houses Acts, and the Labouring Cla.s.ses' Lodging Houses Acts; but where adopted or in force, the powers, rights, duties, &c., of these Acts belong to the urban authority. The powers of any local act for sanitary purposes (except a River Conservancy Act) are transferred to the urban authority.

The powers of an English rural authority are exercised princ.i.p.ally under the Public Health Act, but they have also to carry out the Bakehouse Regulation Act.

The powers given by the Irish Public Health Act to Irish Sanitary Authorities are similar.

The Local Government Act is not in force there, and equal powers are given without distinction to urban and rural sanitary authorities.

The duties of sanitary authorities are to carry out the Acts which apply to them, and appoint certain officers, such as medical officers of health, inspectors of nuisances, clerk, treasurer, &c.

Speaking generally, it may be affirmed that all sanitary authorities are invested with ample powers for enforcing sanitary measures. Their duty consists in perfecting drainage, sewerage, and water supply. In towns they have the control of streets and houses, both private and public, and in all localities they possess ample powers to cause every species of nuisance to be abated, which is in the least inimical to health.

The Public Health Act contains a proviso for dealing with an authority which fails in its duty. Under these circ.u.mstances, the Local Government Board is invested with compulsory powers, and may compel the due performance of whatever it may deem necessary.

=SANITARY HERBAL BITTERS--Gesundheitskrauter-Bitter.= An indispensable household remedy for every family, for colic, stomach-ache, cramp in the bladder, flatulence, loss of appet.i.te, nausea, chronic liver diseases, constipation, and diarrha; also as a soothing agent for infants (Gottschlich). The fluid contains in 100 grammes the soluble portion of about 8 gramme opium. (Hager.)

=SANITARY LIQUEUR--Gesundheits Liqueur.= Swedish elixir of life, with rhubarb in place of the aloes, made into a liqueur with sugar and spirit.

(Hager.)

=SANITARY, POPULAR, ERRORS.= It is a popular sanitary error to think that the more a man eats the fatter and stronger he will become. To believe that the more hours children study the faster they learn. To conclude that, if exercise is good, the more violent the more good is done. To imagine that every hour taken from sleep is an hour gained. To act on the presumption that the smallest room in the house is large enough to sleep in. To imagine that whatever remedy causes one to feel immediately better is good for the system, without regard to the ulterior effects. To eat without an appet.i.te; or to continue after it has been satisfied, merely to gratify the taste. To eat a hearty supper at the expense of a whole night of disturbed sleep and weary waking in the morning ('Sanitary Record').

=SANITARY RATAFIA--Gesundheits Ratafia.= For removing all stomach, chest, and bowel complaints, indigestion, colic, diarrha, vomiting, flatulence, dysuria, and affections caused by chills. A clear brown schnapps containing, in 250 grammes by weight, 75 grammes sugar, 105 grammes water, 100 grammes strong spirit, 40 grammes each of tincture of orange peel and tincture of orange berries, 25 grammes each tincture of cloves and tincture of wormwood, 1 drop oil of peppermint, 5 drops acetic ether, and some drops of caramel. (Dr Horn.)

=SANITARY SOUL, Flowers of.--Gesundheitsblumengeist.= A mixture of spirit, 500 parts; tinct. aromatica, 5 parts; oils of bergamot, lavender, and rosemary, of each 2 parts; oil of thyme, 3 parts; oil of spearmint, 1 part. (Hager.)

=SANITATION, DOMESTIC.= Not one of the least creditable or important benefits conferred of late years, by the efforts of philanthropic and enlightened enterprise upon the poorer cla.s.ses of this country, has been the erection--in cities and large towns more particularly--of healthy houses for them to dwell in. In the construction of these habitations the architects and designers have for the most part been guided by sound sanitary principles, the carrying out of which has been effected by means of legislative supervision, and if needful, of legislative action.

The result of these measures has, in most cases, been to provide residences for our poorer brethren, wherein, amongst other advantages, they enjoy the two primary ones of pure air and water. That the richer, upper, and middle cla.s.ses, whilst devising and achieving so much in the way of comfort and health for those beneath them, should themselves in so many cases live in houses notoriously unhealthy, and should fail to recognise the advantages of the compulsory enforcement of necessary hygienic arrangements, are anomalies so amazing as to be, at first sight, scarcely credible. Yet a little piece of statistics may serve to discomfit those who are incredulous on this point. The average mortality in London is 24 persons in a 1000. In the improved dwellings of the poor it is only 14 in the 1000.

This subject was ventilated in a very earnest and valuable paper read before the Social Science Congress at Brighton in 1875 by Mr H. H.

Collins. In this paper Mr Collins refers only to the houses of the metropolis and its suburbs, and maintains that, as far as regards the enforcement of sanitary precautions in house building, London and its suburbs are infinitely worse provided for than many second-rate provincial towns, most of which, he says, have the construction of their buildings and streets regulated by bye-laws issued under the powers of the Public Health Act, and sanctioned by the Home Secretary, whereas in London the various Acts of Parliament for this purpose have been inoperative. Mr Collins describes the insanitary condition of some of the high-rented houses he examined and says the descriptions which follow equally apply to many others situated in the most aristocratic quarters of London.

Imagine one of our legislators who, perhaps, had been voting for the pa.s.sing of the "Nuisance Removals Act," returning from his parliamentary duties to such a mansion as is portrayed by Mr Collins in the following extract:--"I have recently purchased on behalf of a client the lease of a mansion in Portland Place from a well-known n.o.bleman, who had spent, as I was informed, a fortune in providing new drainage; indeed, I found the princ.i.p.al water-closet built out of the house altogether; the soil-pipe of it, however, was carried through the bas.e.m.e.nt, where it was supposed to be connected with the drain. Upon removing the floor-boards to examine it, I found the ground surrounding the connection literally one ma.s.s of black sewage, the soil oozing through the point even at the time of the examination, and the connection with the main-drain laid in it at right angles. The 9-inch drain-pipes ran through the centre of the house, having a very slight gradient, and had evidently not been laid in many years, yet they were nearly full of consolidated sewage, and but little s.p.a.ce was left for the pa.s.sage of the fluid. With but a slightly increased pressure the joints would have given way, and the sewage would have flowed under the boards instead of into the sewer. The sinks, water-closets, and cisterns were all badly situated, and all more or less defective in sanitary arrangement. In the butler's pantry the sink was placed next to the turn-up bedstead of the butler, who must have inhaled draughts of impure atmosphere at every inspiration. The soil-pipes of the closets had indeed been ventilated with a zinc rectangular tube, but, as this had been so placed as to let the sewer-gas through an adjacent skylight into the house, and the odour being extremely disagreeable, it had been by his lords.h.i.+p's directions (as I am told) closed. Here was evidence that it had at all events been doing some service, and probably had only poisoned a few of the domestics. I found the bends of soil-pipes likewise riddled with holes, as described by Dr Leargus. There happened to be a housemaids'

sink situated close to a bedroom, the waste from which had been carefully connected with the soil-pipe, so that probably had the closets been satisfactorily ventilated, this arrangement would have defeated the object in view. I should also mention that the best water-closet was situated on the bedroom floor under the stairs, and was lighted and ventilated through a small shaft formed of wood boarding and carried to the roof; it also opened by a window to the main or princ.i.p.al staircase. The gutter of the roof ran through the bedrooms and under the floors; at the time of examination it was full of black slimy filth. This is a fair specimen of the sanitary arrangements of a n.o.bleman's town house, situated in one of the best streets of this great metropolis in the year of grace 1875."

Let us take another example:--"A few years ago a client of mine, who resided in a large house in a wealthy suburb, informed me that his wife and two daughters had suffered in health ever since they had occupied their house, that he had consulted several medical men without beneficial result, and that he wished me to make a survey of the premises. He paid a rental of about 200 per annum. I found that the drainage was in every way defective, although he told me that he had spent a large sum of money in making it 'perfect,' the gradients were bad, the pipes choked, and the joints unsound. The servants' water-closet was adjacent to the scullery, which was in communication with the kitchen, the sink being directly opposite the kitchen range. The water-closet was supplied direct from the cistern, the waste from which entered the drain, although it was said to be trapped. The waste of the sink was simply connected with the drains and trapped with an ordinary bell-trap, the cover or trap of which I found broken. Under the kitchen range hot-water tap I found a trapped opening, also leading into the drain. The domestics complained of frequent headaches and general depression, and I need not add that it excited no surprise, seeing that the kitchen fire was continuously drawing in from the sewers and house drains a steady supply of sewer-gas to the house and drinking-water cistern. In addition I found the bas.e.m.e.nt walls damp, owing to the absence of a damp-proof course and the want of dry areas. The upper water-closets, house-closets, and cisterns were situated over each other, off the first-floor landing, and directly opposite the bedroom doors. The bath and lavatory were fixed in the dressing-room, communicating with the best bedroom, the wastes from which were carried into the soil-pipe of closets. This latter was unventilated, but was trapped with an S pipe at bottom. The water-closets were pan closets, and were trapped by D traps.

The upper closet periodically untrapped the lower closet, and both traps leaving the impure air free access to the house and cistern, which latter was also in communication by means of its waste-pipe with the house-drains. The overflows from safes of the water-closets were practically untrapped. The peculiar nauseating odour of sewer-gas was distinctly perceptible, and I had but little doubt but that atonic disease was rapidly making its inroads on the occupants. The landlord refused to recognise the truth of my report. My client, acting on my advice, relinquished his lease, took another house, the sanitation of which was carefully attended to, and his wife and children have had no recurrence of illness."

Mr Collins mentions a very alarming and unsuspected source of aerial poisoning in many town-houses to be the existence of old disused cesspools in the centre of the buildings. These receptacles, which are frequently nearly filled with decaying faecal substances, are very often found to be insecurely covered over with tiles, stones, or boarding. To ensure the construction of a healthy dwelling-house, Mr Collins regards attention to the following conditions as essential:--"All subsoil should be properly drained, proper thickness of the concrete should be applied to the foundations, damp-proof courses should be inserted over footings, earth should be kept back from walls by dry areas properly drained and ventilated, external walls should be built of good hard well-burnt stock brickwork, of graduated thicknesses, and never less than 14 inches thick; internal divisions should be of brick in cement. The mortar and cement should be of good quality. All bas.e.m.e.nt floors should have a concrete or cement bottom, with air flowing under the same, and the boarding thereof should be tongued so as to prevent draught and exhalation penetrating through the joints of the same. Ample areas back and front should be insisted on, the divisional or party fence walls of which should never be allowed to exceed 7 feet in height, to allow free circulation and to prevent the areas becoming wells or shafts for stagnant air. The main drains should be carried through the back yards, and, to prevent inconvenience to adjoining owners from any obstruction, they should be laid in subways, so that the sewer inspector could gain ready access thereto without entering any of the premises or causing any annoyance to the tenants. No bas.e.m.e.nt should on any account be allowed to be constructed at such a level as will not permit of the pipes having good steep gradients to the sewer.

All sinks should be placed next external walls, having windows over the same, and removed from the influence of the fire-grates. All wastes should discharge exteriorly over and not into trapped cess-pits, all of which should be provided with splas.h.i.+ng stones fixed round the same. The bas.e.m.e.nt cisternage should be placed in convenient and accessible positions, protected from dirt and guarded from the effects of alternations of temperature. They should be of slate and galvanised iron, and never of lead or zinc. They should be fitted with overflows discharging over the sink, or over trapped cesses as just mentioned. They should be supplied with stout lead encased, block-tin pipe, the services therefrom for all drinking purposes should be of the same description, and should be attached to an ascending filter, so that water may be delivered free from lead or organic impurities. Lead poisoning is more frequent than is generally believed. Cupboards under stairs, under sinks, under dressers, or out-of-the-way places should be avoided, and when fitted up should always be well ventilated. All pa.s.sages should be well lighted and ventilated. Borrowed lights are better than none at all. Every room should be furnished with a fireplace, and Comyn and Chingo ventilators over doors and windows should be freely disposed. It would conduce to the health of the house, without adding one s.h.i.+lling to its cost, to build next the kitchen flue a separate ventilating flue, and to conduct the products of combustion from gas and other impure or soiled air, &c., into the same, from ventilators placed in the centre of or close to the ceilings, as may be found most convenient. By carefully proportioning the inlet and outlet ventilation, the air will be kept moving without draught, and preserved in a pure and sweet condition for respiration. The windows and doors will then serve only their legitimate objects of admitting light, and of affording ingress and egress to the various apartments. The staircase should be made the main ventilator of the house, and it is essentially necessary to preserve the air surrounding the same, uncontaminated, pure, and undefiled. It will be better to light and ventilate it from the top; and to prevent the Ethiopians or blacks of London finding their way into the house, an invisible gauze net may be placed under it, which can periodically be easily removed and cleansed, or it may be furnished with a movable inner, ornamental flat light.

Under no circ.u.mstances must lavatories or sinks be brought in connection with the drains. Most people desire the bath-room to be in proximity to the bedrooms; whether so placed or not, all connection with main drainage must be studiously avoided. The hot and cold pipes, known as the flow and return pipes, should be of galvanised iron, with junctions carefully made with running joints in red lead; on no account should these be in contact with any other pipes. The wastes from the bath safe (and lavatories if any) should be carried through the front wall of the house, and should turn over and into rain-water head, covered with domical wire grating to prevent birds building their nests therein, and carried down to the bas.e.m.e.nt area, where they must discharge over a trapped cess-pit, as before described, surrounded with a splash-stone or curve to obviate the nuisance of the soap-suds flowing over the pavement. A brush pa.s.sed up and down these waters now and then will effectually remove any soapy sediment which may cling to their surfaces. The waste from bath, &c., into heads should be furnished with a ground valve flap and collar to prevent draught, and the bath should be fitted with india-rubber seatings between the metal and wood framing. Mansarde or sloping roofs should be avoided; they are injurious to the health of the domestics, whose sleeping chambers they are generally appropriated to; they are unhealthy, hot in summer, and prejudicially cold in winter, laying the basis for future disease for those least able to bear it. Gutters taken through roofs, known as 'trough,' should never be permitted; they congregate putrescent filth, which remains in them for years to taint and poison the atmosphere."

Consult also, as supplementing this subject, the articles DRAINS, DUSTBINS, CESSPOOLS, TANKS, TRAPS, WATER-CLOSETS.

=SAN'TALIN.= The colouring principle of red sanders wood.

=SAN'TONIN.= C_{15}H_{18}O_{3}. _Syn._ SANTONIC ACID; SANTONINUM, L. The crystalline and characteristic principle of the seed of several varieties of _Artemisia_.

_Prep._ (Ph. Baden, 1841.) Take of worm-seed, 4 parts; hydrate of lime, 1-1/2 part; mix, and exhaust them with alcohol of 90%; distil, off 3-4ths of the spirit, and evaporate the remainder to one half, which, at the boiling temperature, is to be mixed with acetic acid in excess, and afterwards with water; on repose, impure santonin subsides; wash this with a little weak spirit, then dissolve it in rectified spirit, 10 parts, decolour by ebullition for a few minutes with animal charcoal, and filter; the filtrate deposits colourless crystals of santonin as it cools; these are to be dried, and kept in opaque bottles.

Mr W. G. Smith, M.B., states that two singular effects are known to result from the administration of santonin in moderate doses, viz. visual derangements and a peculiar alteration in the colour of the urine. He adds that three hours after taking 5 gr. of pure white santonin, he became conscious, while reading, of a yellowish tint on the paper, and a yellow haze in the air. His own hands, and the complexions of others, appeared of a sallow unhealthy colour; and the evening sky, which was really of a pale lavender colour, seemed to be light green. Vision was not perfectly distinct for some hours, and was accompanied by a certain vagueness of definition. Mr Smith endorses the observations of previous observers who had noticed that the urine of persons under the influence of santonin is tinged of a saffron yellow or greenish colour. The coloured urine resembles that of a person slightly jaundiced, and like this permanently stains linen of a light yellow colour.

The best test for santonin in the urine is an alkali, upon the addition of which the urine immediately a.s.sumes a fine cherry-red colour, varying in depth according to the amount of santonin present. Potash was found to be the preferable alkali.

_Prop., &c._ Prismatic or tubular crystals; inodorous; tasteless, or only slightly bitter; fusible; volatilisable; soluble in 4500 parts of cold and about 250 parts of boiling water; soluble in cold alcohol and ether; freely soluble in hot alcohol. It is much esteemed as a tasteless worm medicine, and is especially adapted to remove lumbricales (large round worms).--_Dose_, 6 to 18 or 20 gr., repeated night and morning, followed by a brisk purge.

(Ph. B.) Boil 1 lb. of santonico, bruised, with 1 gall. of distilled water, and 5 oz. of slaked lime, in a copper or tinned iron vessel for an hour, strain through a stout cloth and express strongly. Mix the residue with 1/2 gall. of distilled water and 2 oz. of lime, boil for half an hour, strain and express as before. Mix the strained liquors, let them settle, decant the fluid from the deposit, evaporate to the bulk of 2-1/2 pints. To the liquor while hot add, with diligent stirring, hydrochloric acid, until the fluid has become slightly and permanently acid, and set it aside for five days that the precipitate may subside. Remove, by skimming, any oily matter which floats on the surface, and carefully decant the greater part of the fluid from the precipitate. Collect this on a paper filter, wash it first with cold distilled water, till the was.h.i.+ngs pa.s.s colourless and nearly free from acid reaction, then with 1/2 fl. oz. of solution of ammonia, previously diluted with 5 oz. of distilled water, and, lastly, with cold distilled water, till the was.h.i.+ngs pa.s.s colourless.

Press the filter containing the precipitate between folds of filtering paper, and dry it with a gentle heat. Sc.r.a.pe the dry precipitate from the filter, and mix it with 60 gr. of purified animal charcoal. Pour on them 9 fl. oz. of rectified spirit, digest for half an hour, and boil for ten minutes. Filter while hot, wash the charcoal with 1 fl. oz. of boiling spirit, and set the filtrate aside for two days in a cool dark place to crystallise. Separate the mother liquor from the crystals, and concentrate to obtain a further product. Collect the crystals, let them drain, redissolve them in 4 fl. oz. of boiling spirit, and let the solution crystallise as before. Lastly, dry the crystals on filtering paper in the dark and preserve them in a bottle protected from the light.

=SAP GREEN.= See GREEN PIGMENTS.

=SAPONIFICA'TION.= See SOAP.

=SAP'ONIN.= _Syn._ SAPONINUM, L. A white, non-crystallisable substance, obtained by the action of hot diluted alcohol on the root of _Saponaria officinalis_ (Linn.), or soapwort.

_Prop., &c._ Saponin is soluble in hot water, and the solution froths strongly on agitation. The smallest quant.i.ty of the powder causes violent sneezing.

=SARCOCOL'LA.= A gum-resin supposed to be derived from one or more plants of the natural order _Renaeaceae_, growing in Arabia and Persia. It somewhat resembles gum Arabic, except in being soluble in both water and alcohol, and in having a bitter-sweet taste. It was formerly used in surgery.

=SAR'COSINE.= C_{3}H_{7}O_{2}N. A feebly basic substance, obtained by boiling kreatine for some time with a solution of pure baryta. It forms colourless, transparent plates, freely soluble in water, sparingly so in alcohol, and insoluble in ether; it may be fused and volatilised.

=SARSAPARIL'LA.= _Syn._ SARSae RADIX (B. P.), RADIX SARZae, RADIX SARSAPARILLae, SARZA (Ph. L. & E.), SARSAPARILLA (Ph. D. & U. S.), L.

"Jamaica sarza. The root of _Smilax officinalis_, Kunth" (Ph. L.); "and probably of other species." (Ph. E.)

The sarsaparillas of commerce are divided by Dr Pereira into two cla.s.ses:--'Mealy sarsaparilla' and 'non-mealy sarsaparillas.' In the first are placed Brazilian or Lisbon, Caraccas or gouty Vera Cruz, and Honduras; the second includes Jamaica, Lima, and true Vera Cruz.

The mealy sarsaparillas are distinguished by "the mealy character of the inner cortical layers, which are white or pale-coloured. The meal or starch is sometimes so abundant, that a shower of it, in the form of white dust, falls when we fracture the roots." The medulla or pith is also frequently very amylaceous.

The non-mealy sarsaparillas "are characterised by a deeply coloured (red or brown), usually non-mealy, cortex. The cortex is red, and much thinner than in the mealy sorts." "If a drop of oil of vitriol be applied to a transverse section of the root of the non-mealy sarsaparillas, both cortex and wood acquire a dark-red or purplish tint;" whilst in the preceding varieties, the mealy coat, and, sometimes, the pith, is but little altered in colour. "The decoction of non-mealy sarsaparilla, when cold, is somewhat darkened, but does not yield a blue colour when a solution of iodine is added to it." The aqueous extract, when rubbed down with a little cold distilled water in a mortar, does not yield a turbid liquid, nor become blue on the addition of iodine. The reverse is the case with the decoction and extract of the mealy varieties.

The JAMAICA, RED JAMAICA, or RED-BEARDED SARSAPARILLA (SARZA JAMAICENSIS--Ph. D.), is the variety which should alone be used in medicine. This kind yields from 33 to 44% of its weight of extract (Battley, Hennell, Pope), and contains less starchy matter than the other varieties. It is distinguished by exhibiting the above peculiarities in a marked degree, by the dirty reddish colour of its bark, which "is not mealy," and by being "beset very plentifully with rootlets" (fibres).--Ph.

L. Its powder has also a pale reddish-brown colour. The other varieties of sarsaparilla, viz. the Lisbon, Lima, Vera Cruz, and Honduras, are frequently subst.i.tuted for the Jamaica by the druggists in the preparations of the decoctions and extracts of this drug; but the products are vastly inferior in quant.i.ty, colour, taste, and medicinal virtue, to those prepared from the officinal sarsaparilla. Decoction of sarsaparilla, when made with the Honduras root, is very liable to ferment, even by a few hours' exposure, in hot weather. We have seen hogsheads of the strong decoction, after exposure for a single night, in as active a state of fermentation as a gyle of beer, with a frothy head, and evolving a most disagreeable odour, that was not wholly removed by several hours' boiling.

When this occurs the decoction suffers in density, and the product in extract is, consequently, considerably lessened. Yet this is frequently allowed to occur in the wholesale laboratory, where the rule should be--always begin a 'bath of sarza' (as it is called), and, indeed, of other perishable articles, early in the morning, and finish it, completely and entirely, the same day.

Sarsaparilla has been recommended as a mild but efficacious alterative, diaph.o.r.etic and tonic. It has long been a popular remedy in chronic rheumatism, rheumatic and gouty pains, scurvy, scrofula, syphilis, secondary syphilis, lepra, psoriasis, and several other skin diseases; and, especially, in cachexia, or a general bad habit of body, and to remove the symptoms arising from the injudicious use of mercurials, often falsely called 'secondary syphilis.' During its use the skin should be kept warm, and diluents should be freely taken. Its efficacy has been greatly exaggerated. It is, however, much more effective in warm than in northern climates.--_Dose._ In substance, 1/2 to 1 dr., three or four times daily; but, preferably, made into a decoction or infusion.

The articles so much puffed under the names of American or United States sarsaparilla and extract of sarsaparilla are "nothing more than the decoction of a common herb, a sort of 'aralia,' inhabiting the swamps and marshes of the United States. When cut up it has the appearance of chaff, but not the slightest resemblance in character, colour, or taste, to even the most inferior species of smilax (or sarza). The decoction is sweetened with a little sugar, flavoured with benzoin and sa.s.safras, and, finally, preserved from decomposition by means of the b.i.+.c.hloride of mercury." "I have heard of several cases of deadly sickness, and other dangerous symptoms, following its use." "We do not believe that a particle of real sarsaparilla ever entered into the composition of either of the articles referred to." ('Med. Circ.,' ii, 227.) See DECOCTION and EXTRACT.

=SARSAPARIL'LIN.= _Syn._ PARIGLIN, PARILLIC ACID, SALSAPARIN, SMILACIN. A white, crystallisable, odourless, and nearly tasteless substance, discovered by Pallotta and Folchi, in sarsaparilla.

_Prep._ The bark of Jamaica sarsaparilla is treated with hot rectified spirit, and the resulting tincture reduced to about one third by distilling off the spirit; the residual liquid is then filtered, whilst boiling, slightly concentrated by evaporation, and set aside to crystallise; the crystalline deposit is redissolved in either hot rectified spirit or boiling water, and decoloured by agitation with a little animal charcoal; the filtrate deposits crystals of nearly pure smilacin as it cools. It may also be extracted by boiling water.