OCR Text |
Show 588 CAMPHOR TREE. CAMPHOR TREE. ifor above nue applied to coutiRene persons, if the plaster was allowed ed to give omitt pce : time it was twelve hours, and while at the same come would ury a ptrang the patient a large quantity of drink, oil, and even the on notwithstanding the unction of camphorated The practitioners lly. exhibition of a quantity of camphor interna the pares of camphor in of this country have lost their faith in and for preventing the rides; cantha of correcting the acrimony trust en eind toa strangury that might otherwise arise, they the plaster’s not to and on, emulsi Arabic large exhibition of being allowed to lic on too long. art ation, is its Another virtue ascribed to camphor in combin preparations moderating the action of mercury; and if the saline or, this absof mercury aretriturated with a portion of camph mercury, tracts a part of the acid that had been united with the than before, and therefore renders the preparation more mild preparation the ly entire e depriv not and at the same time does ence of muchof its deobstruent virtue. ‘This. we have had experi turbeth mineral, of in that very acrid preparation of mercury the by being and also in the mercurius dulcis or calomel, which, ready less triturated with cansphor, become less purgative, and ations prepar the of to excite salivation. lowfar this mitigation in the cure of of mercury leaves them equally powerful as before siphylis, L cannot certainly determine ; but am of opinion that it does not, if they be employed in the same quantities as they would have been before. ‘This mitigation of the saline preparations of mercury, by 4 combination with camphor, will be readily admitted; but many practitioners go further, and allege that mercury, in every condition, united with camphor, becomes a more mild substance, less irritating to the system, while it is equally powerful in curing the diseases to which it is otherwise adapted. I must admit the experience of the practitioners of Francein this matter, but those of this country know nothing of it; and I can assert, that in manytrials a quantity of camphor added to our common mercurial ointment, neither prevented the unction, in the usual quantity, from exciting salivation, nor rendered the symptoms of it more mild than usual. A peculiar combination of camphor,said to haye considerable effects, is that with opium. The employment of opium is in many persons attended with some inconvenience and disorder, knows it to as I have observed above; and every practitioner §89 be alleged by some respectable persons, that camphor joined with it prevents these disorders. It may be so, but I have not found it in my experiments. I have found large doses of camphor dispose to sleep, but commonly with that same confusion of head, and turbulent dreams, which sometimes arise from the use of opium; and | have not found that a small quantity of camphorhas anyeffects in increasing the power of opium, or of rendering the operationof it different from what it would have been if employed alone. But against the respectable authorities of Lasonne and Halle, I must suspect that my experiments have not been madeproperly, or often enough. Thereis still another instance of the improvement of a medicine by a combination with campher. Mr. Lasonne assures us that camphor, joined with the Peruvian bark, gives it more energy and force, whether it be to be employed for the pur- pose of curing fever or gangrene; andI believe this to be well founded. After thus treating of the virtues of camphor, we must speak of its dose and exhibition. It will appear clearly from whatis said above, that it may be given in doses of very different quantities; and it appears to me from manytrials, that doses of a fewgrains, repeated only after long intervals, have hardly any effect at all, and that, to obtain sensible effects from it, it must either be given in large doses, not under that of twentygrains, or, if given in smaller doses, these must be repeated frequently after short intervals. ‘The latter practice is preferred by some emi- nent practitioners. To what length in either way we mayproceed, I have not experience enough to determine with any precision. From theeffects of two scruples given in one dose in the case narrated above, and in another quoted from Dr. Hoffman, it would appearthat such doses are violent and dangerous; but from some other experiments it appears that larger doses have been sometimes given with impunity: and whenit is given in divided doses, it appears from Collin’s experiments that it may be given to the quantity of a drachm, or two drachms in the course of a day; and in one ofhis experiments it was given to the quantity of half an ounce: and the same will appear from the history which I have given above. It is probable that from large doses only considerable effects are to be expected ; and as, from many experiments, it appears that the effects of camphor are not very durable in the body, it will be obvious that the |