A dispensatory, or commentary on the pharmacopoeias of Great Britain : comprising the natural history, description, chemistry, pharmacy, actions, uses, and doses of the articles of the materia medica / by Robert Christison.

  • Christison, Robert, Sir, 1797-1882.
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A dispensatory, or commentary on the pharmacopoeias of Great Britain : comprising the natural history, description, chemistry, pharmacy, actions, uses, and doses of the articles of the materia medica / by Robert Christison. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    974/1062 (page 922)
    a powerful, penetrating, balsamic, peculiar odour, which differs somewhat according to the turpentine whence it is derived or the heat used in distilling it; and it has a disagreeable aromatic, bitter, and sometimes acrid taste, which also varies w'itli the same circum- stances. The blandest kinds are said to be procured from American and Venice turpentine or Canada-balsam, and by the process of dis- tillation with water not carried too far. The odour and taste may be removed in a great measure by agitating it repeatedly with an eighth of its volume of rectified-spirit (Nimmo); but its composition is probably altered by the process. Tt boils at 312°, and the tem- perature rises to 350° as the ebullition proceeds. A cold of-17® causes it to deposit crystals, which are a hydrate of the pure oil. At a high temperature it burns with a fierce, dense, red flame and much black smoke. Under exposure to the air it slowly absorbs oxygen and becomes thick. It is very sparingly soluble in water, moderately so in alcohol, and readily in ether. It inflames when immersed in chlorine gas; and iodine dropped into it is partly dis- solved, and partly dispersed with an explosion. It absorbs muria- tic acid gas in large quantity, and is converted into a crystalline compound called Artificial-camphor, which consists of one equiva- lent of acid and one of the radical oil of turpentine, called by Dumas Camphene. It dissolves resins, fixed oils, fats, many alkaloids and neutral crystalline principles from the vegetable world, and also caoutchouc.—The variation of the temperature as its distillation proceeds would lead to the supposition that ordinary purified tur- pentine-oil is not a simple oleaginous principle; and accordingly late investigations seem to show, that it consists of several proxi- mate principles, the most abundant of which is nearly tasteless and scentless, while another concentrates in itself the taste and odour of the drug (Blanchet and Sell). When recent it is probably a pure hydro-carbon; but when kept for some time it always con- tains a little oxygen. The radical oil, or that part which enters into combination with muriatic acid gas, is comppsed, according to Dumas, of ten equivalents of carbon and eight of hydrogen, that is, 88.24 and 11.76 per cent, by weight; and Blanchet and Sell have obtained the same results with oil prepared from Alsace-tur- pentine, and purified by distilling it from chloride of calcium. This principle is Camphogen or the Camphene of M. Dumas. It forms camphor by combining with one equivalent of oxygen; and with two equivalents of the same element it forms camphoric acid. Actions and Uses.—Oil of turpentine is the most important of the medicinal agents derived from the natural products of the pines. Its actions are complex. Physiologically it is irritant, stimulant, cathartic, diuretic, and diaphoretic. According to some it is also in large doses a narcotic, and in small doses a tonic. Therapeu- tically it is anthelmintic, and, in relation to chronic mucous dis- charges, an astringent. 4