scribed. Two days afterwards, it was found that the man's speech was indistinct, and that he had some difficulty in adjusting the muscles of the face and mouth. The voluntary muscles of the limbs were in possession of their natural power; but the integuments of the left side of the body, from head to foot, had lost their sensibility, so much so, that a pin might be thrust into them without producing any sensation. The head was now leeched and blistered, and the bowels were freely purged. By these means the pain in the head and the febrile symptoms were removed, but the sensibility did not entirely return for some weeks. 2. The second patient was addicted to inebriety, and entered 4. The patient, in this instance, was seized with loss of motion in the right side of the body, with slight numbness in the face, and difficulty of adjusting the facial muscles. Sensibility was not impaired. The hepatic secretion was locked up, and the digestive organs disordered. The warm bath and mercurial purgatives were administered, and leeches were applied to the temples. It was a good while before this man was restored to health. These cases are curious in a physiological point of view, and corroborate the experiments made to determine the distinct origins of the nerves for sense and of those for motion. Med. and Phys. Journal. the hospital for an attack of pain From Baxter's Translation of Magendie's in the head, succeeded by loss of power in the upper and lower extremities of one side, while the sensibility was perfect. There were other symptoms of cerebral affection, as giddiness, slight distortion of the facial muscles, and impediment of speech. Purgation alone removed all the symptoms, except the loss of power in the muscles, which continued, more or less, till the man was sent as a pensioner to Chelsea. 3. A trooper, 30 years of age, was seized, while on guard, with giddiness and pain in the head, the tongue being furred and the bowels costive. He had the use of his limbs, but the integuments of the left side were insensible. The pulse being full, and up to 90, he was bled and purged freely, and then took a course of mercurial alteratives and aperients. With the improvement of his general health the sensibility of the skin returned. Formulary. OIL OF THE CROTON TIGLIUM. This oil is taken from the seeds of the croton tiglium, a dwarf tree of the family of the euphorbium, which grows in the East Indies. After the recent researches made by M. Caventou, it appears very certain that the croton tiglium is the same tree which produces the seeds known in commerce under the name of pignon d'Inde, which Messrs. Pelletier and Caventou analyzed in 1818, under the name of jatropha curcas. M. Caventou has supported this opinion by chemical experiments, which have proved to him that the oil taken from the pignon d'Inde differs in nothing from the oil of croton obtained directly from London. fact, the same odor, the same taste, same color, same manner of acting on chemical reagents; finally, the same energy in their therapeutic action, according to In the experiments made in the hospitals by Messrs. Recamier, Bally, and Kapeler. It is cultivated in Malabar, Ceylon, and in the Molucca Isles, on account of its medicinal properties. It is many years, 1630, since the croton oil was introduced into Europe; it was even employed in the interior with success by several physicians. In 1632, Artus Gyselius boasted of the use of this oil in dropsies. In the herbarium Amboinense of Rumphius, published at Amsterdam, in 1750, by Burmann, is found a description of the croton, the seeds of which furnish, by pressure, says the author, an oil which, taken in the dose of one drop, in Canary wine, was then a common purgative. In our time this remedy had entirely been forgotten in Europe, when M. Conwel, physician in the service of the English East India Company, at Madras, recalled attention to this oil, which is used generally in India, and the use of which has been introduced into England. The Mode of Preparation. mode of preparation followed in India to obtain the oil of croton, is not known; it appears, however, that it is by expression or ebullition. By digesting in sulphuric ether 100 parts of the bruised kernels, placing the whole on a filter covered with care during the filtration, and washing the remainder with a sufficient quantity of ether, M. Nimmo, of Glasgow, found that 4 parts remained and 60 parts were dissolved. By this process, of 300 grains, from which we must deduct 108 for the envelope, leaving 192 for the kernel, he has obtained two drachms of an oil which present ed the taste and medicinal perties of ordinary croton oil. pro An alcoholic solution of croton may be prepared, either by pouring alcohol on the grains, or on the oil itself: but M. Conwell does not point out, in the thesis which he supported before the Faculty of Paris, the proportions with which this solution should be made, which possesses the same properties as the oil; it appears that that which he prepared was much less active than the oil, for he gave it in the dose of a drachm. According to M. Nimmo, the activity of the croton is owing to a sharp resinous principle, soluble in ether, alcohol, and the fixed and volatile oils. According to the experiments of this physician, 100 parts of the kernels of the croton tiglium contain, of acrid principle, 27; fixed oil, 33; farinaceous matter, 40. 100 parts of the croton oil contain, of acrid principle, 45; fixed oil, 55-100. Messrs. Pelletier and Vauquelin have made some experiments to separate the active principle of croton oil; but have not succeeded. M. Caventou has extracted the oil of the croton tiglium, by means of the action of alcohol at 38 deg. on the kernel of the seed reduced to paste. He left it to macerate forty eight hours and filtered; he added a second and a third portion of alcohol to the paste already drained; and submitted this to a strong pressure. He reunited the alcoholic macerations in the water bath of an alembic, and submitted them to distillation to draw off the alcohol, which might serve for another operation. The oil which remained in the water bath is filtered through a Joseph paper, and preserved in a bottle with a glass stopple. The quantity of oil obtained, with respect to the kernels, was 50 per cent. According to the researches of M. Caventou, it appears that the jatropeic acid cannot be the principle in which the drastic virtue of the oil resides. Action of Croton Oil on Men and other Animals. Croton oil is of an orange yellow; it has a very peculiar smell, sui generis; its taste is excessively acrid and pungent, like that of cinnamon; it has also a little of the taste of common ol. ricini. When a drop is put on the tongue, a few moments after a disagreeable sensation of heat is perceived, which extends to the back part of the throat; this sensation lasts several minutes to dissipate it, one or two spoonfuls of cold water may be taken; nevertheless, it may be considered as an obstacle to the administration of pure croton oil. M. Conwel having sent me last year a certain quantity, I commenced by trying its effects on animals. I first ascertained that this oil is purgative in an infinitely small dose, as, for instance, a drop or half a drop. In a larger dose, this oil became strongly drastic; it produced a violent inflammation of the intestinal canal, accompanied with repeated vomitings and continued dejections. Injected into the veins it produced also, according to the dose, either simple purgation, or inflammation of the intestinal canal, or even the death of the animal. Enlightened by these effects, I did not hesitate to employ the croton oil as a remedy; I gave it at the Hotel Dieu, in Paris, to several patients, men and women, confided to my care: the results could not be more satisfactory. One or two drops mixed in half an ounce of syrup purged gently and abundantly about fifteen patients placed under different circumstances. The effects ap peared so advantageous, that several students of the hospital desired to try the oil on themselves, and several used it with advantage, and expressed to me their satisfaction. I have employed several times in my private practice the oil of croton tiglium, and always without accident. Though I have never observed any inconvenience, I ought to say that M. Conwel has seen several experience nausea and vomiting. When the vomiting took place the purgative effect did not occur. M. Conwel says that the odor of oil of croton, respired several times from a bottle of six ounces, was sufficient to purge a young girl;* and an adult having made the some attempt, only experienced some nausea. The effect of the croton oil is very rapid it takes place often in about half an hour. Besides the alvine evacuations, the secretion of urine appears considerably augmented. Drs. Recamier, Kapeler, and Bally, have made numerous experiments with croton oil prepared by M. Caventou; they have always observed that one or two drops were sufficient to produce twelve, fifteen, or twenty stools. from France, while unpacking it, together * A gentleman who imports this article with a young man, his clerk, were exposed to the odor of it, which had such an tinued alvine evacuation, which lasted effect on their bowels as to produce confor some time.-A. T. This oil is also employed in frictions round the umbilicus. According to M. Conwel, 4 drops applied in this manner have produced a purgative effect. A slight eruption follows the use of this method. They have seen, nevertheless, that it would be well, till we that it offers the inconvenience are better informed, to continue of exciting vomiting, like that the use of the simple croton oil; which comes from England. nevertheless, it is probable that Cases in which it should be ad- it is prepared by saturation. ministered. The croton oil may be used as a common purgative, when there exists no sign of irritation in the stomach or intestinal canal; in old men, in the same circumstances as for veratrine; but the croton oil ought, moreover, to be preferred, when ordinary purgatives have been administered without success, in apoplexies and in dropsies; finally, when there exists mechanical or other obstacles to the employment of an ordinary medicine, and especially when it is necessary that the effect should be rapid. Dr. Ainslie, physician at Madras, published in that city, in 1813, a work on the materia medica, in which he recommends the external use of croton oil in rheumatic affections. Dr. Kinglake cites several cases of obstinate constipation, which he cured by the aid of only 1 drop of croton oil, given in the form of pill. He cured in particular, in this manner, an individual seized with the paint er's colic. Soap of croton oil.—The therapeutic administration of this oil presents inconveniences with regard to the exact determination of drops. M. Caventou has prepared a soap with the base of soda, which has been employed with great success by Dr. Bally. Mode of preparation. This soap is prepared cold, by triturating two parts of oil and one part of lie called soap makers' lie. When the combination has acquired consistence, it is poured into pasteboard moulds, and, after a few days, it is cut off in slices, which are preserved in a large mouthed phial, well stopped. Mode of employing it. Dr. Bally has given this soap in the dose of two or three grains, dissolved in a little water, or fin sugar, or in pills; the effect is the same as that of the oil of croton. The American translator adds, "I have used this by mixing 8 drops of the oil with 6 grains of caustic potash, or to saturation, dissolving in pure water two drachms, and giving from 3 to 6 drops, with excellent effect." A New Styptic.-At a meeting of the members of the Medical Botanical Society, held lately, Sir George M'Gregor, the president, in the chair, Mr. Frost brought before their notice a spe Dysentery. In a succinct account of this disease, as it prevailed at Tours in France, during the autumn of 1826, much stress is laid on the good effects of the long popular practice of giving opium to allay the nausea, colics, tenesmus and frequent dejections, so distressing in dysentery. The medicine was giving by the mouth, and with injections. Another remedy, also of long usage in the disease, and eulogized in very strong terms, is the sulphate of magnesia, Epsom salts administered daily in doses of from two to six drachms, alternately by the mouth and per anum. In those cases treated empirically, there were many unpleasant symptoms and effects display ed, such as conjunctivitis going on to chemosis, and more particularly pains and swelling of the larger joints resembling articular fibrous rheumatisms. Local depletion from the eye by scarifications, and from the joints by leeches and cupping, followed in the latter by emollient and topical baths and blisters and regular compression, was the most successful treatment.-Journ. Gen. de Médecine, &c. The Smallpox prevails in Nova Scotia to a considerable extent. The disease is extending so fast that 66 every person seems alarmed, and every precaution is adopted to prevent the spread of so dangerous an infection." Effects of Fear.-The Warrenton Reporter mentions a singular and ed in that village last week. Joel shocking occurrence which happenMitchell, a freeman of color, aged 45 or 50, who was to have been tried before the Superior Court, for a most atrocious murder, by stabbing, committed on the body of Miles Ralph, another man of color, in Halifax county, some time ago,-on being sent for by the Court to take his trial, was seized with such violent fear and apprehension, added to which was thought to be but slight, an indisposition for several days, that he expired in the yard before he could be placed at the bar or got into the Courthouse. Professor Scarpa.-We are glad to learn that this distinguished Anatomist and Pathological Surgeon yet lives, contrary to the report of some Journalist, and that he is about publishing a new work under the title "De Anatome et Pathologia Ossium Commentarii," with six plates. Vide Ed. Med. and Surg. Jour. for July, containing an extract of a letter to Mr. Wishart, dated Pavia, May 21, 1827. Dr. C. D. Meigs, of Philadelphia, will publish early in the next summer a volume of Physiological Essays. |