762

ELEMENTS OF MATERIA MEDICA.

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2. Of the Oil. [a.) On animals generally .—On(horses, dogs, rabbits, and birds), it acts as a powerful local irritantacrid. When taken internally, in moderate doses, it operates as a c ' ra ? •purgative; in large doses, as an acrid poison, causing gastro-entenMoiroud ( Pharm. Veter, p. 272) says, that from twenty to thirty dropof the oil are, for the horse, equal to two drops for man ; and t ‘twelve drops, injected into the veins, cause alvine evacuations in a 1 ( |minutes. Thirty drops, administered in the same manner, have caLlSaccording to this veterinarian, violent intestinal inti animation and spe e ■

death. A much less quantity (three or four drops) has, according to -wich (Wibmer, Arzneim. ii. Gifte , Bd. ii. S. 218), terminated fatally " ie jthrown into the veins. After death the large intestines have been i° uto be more inflamed than the small ones. Flies, which had eaten s°sugar moistened with the oil of croton, died in three or four hours,''wings being paralyzed or immoveable before death. ,

(6.) On man.—Rubbed on the skin it causes rubefaction and a P u . t j, eor vesicular eruption, with sometimes an erysipelatous swelling tsurrounding parts. When rubbed into the abdomen, it sometimes; Dnot invariably, also purges. Rayer [Treat, on Diseases of the Skin, 7Dr. Willis, p. 367) mentions a case in which thirty-two drops rubbedupon the abdomen produced purging, large vesicles upon the abdoin ^swelling and redness of the face, with small prominent, white, cro") ^vesicles on the cheeks, lips, chin, and nose. Applied to the eye, itrise to violent burning pain, and inflammation of the eye and face-one case it produced giddiness (Dierbach , Neueste Entd. in d.Mat.

1837, p. 201). Ebeling obtained relief by the application of a solo 1of carbonate of potash. Swallowed in small doses, as of one or two dr r^.it usually causes an acrid burning taste in the mouth and throat, andas a drastic purgative, giving rise to watery stools, and frequently ^creasing the urinary secretion. Its operation is very speedy. Freq" 611 . j_it causes evacuations in half an hour: yet it is somewhat uncerj .Sometimes six, eight, or even ten drops, may be given at a dose, "h 1 ^affecting the bowels. In moderate doses it is less disposed to c ^j(fvomiting or griping than some other cathartics of equal power. JV!*’* . ell[Lond. Med. Rep. vol. xvii.), however, observes that it produces u 11and griping more frequently than has been supposed. . oiY

The following is the only case, with which I am acquainted, of p 01 Jing by an excessive dose of croton oil:—A young man, aged 25, 11 j jn pwith severe typhoid fever, swallowed by mistake two and a half < ^ raC n ld»of croton oil. At the end of three-quarters of an hour the skin was cand covered with cold sweats; the pulse and action of the heart scarC t j,eperceptible ; respiration difficult; the points of the toes and finger s ^ 0 ,parts around the eyes and the lips, blue, as in malignant cholera;men sensible to the touch ; but no vomiting. In an hour and a half . ^were excessive and involuntary" alvine evacuations; sensation of h lirI ;in the oesophagus; acute sensibility of the abdomen; skin c ° ^respiration and circulation difficult; the cyanosis extendedwhole body; the skin became insensible ; and death occurred, with -of the symptoms of asphyxia, four hours after the poison was swan 0 ' j

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The intestines p reseI

No lesion was found in the gastric membrane,ulcerations, such as are characteristic of typhus fever [Journ. deMed. t. v. p. 509, 2 nde Ser.)

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