1176

ELEMENTS OE MATERIA MEEICA.

in moderate doses it creates a sensation of warmth in the stomach, g 1 'rise to eructations having the odour of the balsam, and not unfreq uen PJ.occasions nausea, or even actual vomiting. The continued use ®often impairs the appetite, and disorders the digestive functions, J 1 a ]may be regarded as the local effects on the stomach. The constitutingeffects, or those which result from the absorption of the balsam, or ofactive constituent, the oil, are those of a stimulant whose influence ^principally directed to the secreting organs, more especially to the ^cous membranes and to the urino-genital apparatus. The oil passesof the system in part by the lungs, and the odour of its vapour is rea ,detectable in the breath of persons taking it. The urine is increasequantity, and altered in quality: thus its colour is heightened, its 0 j gbecomes balsamic, and its taste bitter ; moreover, not unfrequently 1turbid, as if containing mucus. The influence of copaiva over thecous membrane lining the urethra, is shown even in the healthy st ate > gthe warmth and tickling sometimes experienced in this part, both beand after evacuating the urine, as observed by Kbnig, a medical stu ^(Wibmer, Wirk. d. Arzneim. u. Gifte. Bd.i. 184), in his experiments"this medicine; and also by the marked influence which the balsa®in mucous discharges from this membrane—an influence familiarevery tyro in medicine. Furthermore, it is said occasionally to have p ^duced unpleasant irritation of the testicles, though I have never obsel l erthis. It also acts as a stimulant, but in a less marked manner, to 0mucous membranes; namely, the bronchial and gastro-intestinal m ^branes. The greater influence of copaiva over the urethral thanother mucous membranes is by some explained thus:—Besides the i>' eence which this receives in common with the other membranes P 0 fsame class, by the general circulation, it is exposed to the local J e f.copaiva contained in the urine as this fluid is expelled from the bla ^ gIf this hypothesis were correct, the influence of copaiva over the ® ulining of the bladder would be greater than that over the urethral ® ^brane. Not unfrequently it gives rise to an eruption, usually of a seacolour, referrible to either urticaria or erythema, though some dcsc rl ^. eas being miliary. Vesicular eruptions are also spoken of, but *

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lie

never seen them. Mr. Judd ( Pract. Treat, on Urethritis andLond. 1836) has depicted two eruptions caused by the balsamcalls small puniceous patch ervption; the other was a papular eru fn r it.Rheumatism has also been ascribed to the use of the balsam 'and For. Med. Rev. vol. viii. p. 280; and Lancet, vol. ii- f° r *P-826). . . . , oC ca-

Large doses of copaiva irritate the gastro-intestinal canal, an j oggsion a sensation of heat at the pit of the stomach, nausea, vomiting?of appetite, and purging, with, not unfrequently, griping pains 0 . gbowels. The W'hole system becomes powerfully stimulated, the p u ,fuller and more frequent, the skin hotter, and thirst and headache ar ® P 0I) .duced. Occasionally, haematuria and dangerous ischuria are broug .“ I saw,” says Kraus ( Heilmittellehre , 621, Giitt. 1831), “ a ver - V j- eVC dgerous case, of thirty-six hours standing, almost instantaneously reby the application of a warm poultice (made of four ounces ol the 7^cyamus plant) over the genital organs.” The same author also sa)the repeated use of large doses occasions, “ in young marriageaW ^jects, a measle-hke eruption over the whole body, which I ha'