Nature's hygiene : a series of essays on popular scientific subjects : with special reference to the chemistry and hygiene of the eucalyptus and the pine / by C.T. Kingzett.

Kingzett, Charles Thomas.

Date:: 1880

Credit: Nature's hygiene : a series of essays on popular scientific subjects : with special reference to the chemistry and hygiene of the eucalyptus and the pine / by C.T. Kingzett. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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$tlie atmosphere surrounding the forests no less than 92,785,023 tons of peroxide of hydrogen, and 607,587,945 tons of the camphoric substance CioHigOs. This quantity of peroxide of hydrogen could oxi- dise an enormously large amount of organic matter, rendering it harmless; for instance, say vegetable matter which may be undergoing decomposition, and thereby producing malarial fever until it becomes thoroughly antisepted, or oxidised, thereby removing the malarial poison. In this way the peroxide of hydrogen could part with nearly half its weight of nascent oxygen. Then, again, the antiseptic powers of such an immense quantity of camphoraceous material can be conceived, if we reflect that a solution containing only a few grammes to the litre is sufficiently strong to preserve animal matter almost indefinitely, free from decomposition, as demonstrated by experiment. The writer has not met with any figures showing the weight of foliage to the individual trees from which the sanitary value of a single tree could be estimated; but there can be no doubt that even this must be very considerable. Now, what is true about the eucalyptus and its oil is true also of the pine-tree and its turpentine, and if anything, on even a more extensive scale. That this is so, is evident from the very great quantity of turpentine which finds its way into commerce; and even this amount, great as it is, represents but a mere fraction of that produced in nature. Oil of turpentine is contained in the wood, bark,$