Potassae Bitartras.

Related entry: Potassae Bitartras under cathartics

Dose.—As a diuretic, ʒj to ʒij, largely diluted with water.

Cream of Tartar, elsewhere fully described, is entitled to a passing notice under this head. It is diuretic, cathartic, and refrigerant. It is a very good diuretic in those dropsies termed sthenic, given in small doses, largely diluted and frequently repeated. Its action as a diuretic is greatly promoted by giving it in some diuretic infusion or decoction, and hence its curative powers in dropsy augmented. It also acts as a refrigerant aperient; and, if the dose be large, as a hydragogue cathartic. Its utility in dropsy depends upon this combination of properties.

It is not as good as either the acetate or the citrate as a renal depurant, on account of its tendency to pass off by the bowels. An excellent and very pleasant diuretic and refrigerant drink in febrile and inflammatory diseases is prepared by dissolving one or two drachms of this agent in one pint of boiling water, to which sugar, lemon juice, or lemon-peel may be added: it is taken cold. Cream of Tartar Whey is prepared by adding about two drachms of the bitartrate to one pint of new milk; the curd is removed by straining; diluted with water, it forms a pleasant and useful driuk in dropsies, and some febrile diseases.

The American Eclectic Materia Medica and Therapeutics, 1898, was written by John M. Scudder, M.D.