1416
ELEMENTS OF MATERIA MEDICA.
Brandes’s Analyses.
VO
13-85
105
.
005
0-20
33-60
Other salts.
... 2-82
Mucus.
... 2 30
Matter soluble in alcohol .
9*30
19 20
Moisture and loss .
... 22-93
Canadian Castor.
.. 10000
Russian Castor .
...
I00'°
These analyses do not agree with my experiments and observations. The_qof carbonate of lime assigned to Canadian castor is much too large. By mC1 ~ aT s.60 grains of good American castor in a platinum crucible I found only 1 0
ashes, which if the whole were lime would be equal to little more than 3’57 p erchalk. ceV e r11 *
1. Volatile Oil of Castoreum. —This is obtained by distilling the same water^^ntimes with fresh portions of castor. It is pale yellow, and has the odour 0with an acrid bitter taste. Bonn says he obtained 34 per cent, of oil, but tn
be some error, in this statement.
2. Castorine; Castoreum Camphor , Gmelin.—A crystalline, fatty, non-sap j,ble substance. It is fusible, and in the liquid state floats on water. When p° T) itr lCquite white. It is soluble in ether and boiling alcohol. By long ebullition wi ^pet-acid, it is converted into a yellow crystallizable acid, called castoric acid. I ga ]ts 0castorate of ammonia is crystallizable, and forms white precipitates with toesilver, lead, and protoxide of iron, and green precipitate with the salts 0 tb eCastorine is obtained by boiling castor in alcohol; the castorine deposits
liquor cools. Scarcely any can be got from American castor. , o< q 0 uf P
3. Resin. This is dark brown, has an acrid and bitter taste, and a slight eC ip 1 '
castor. It is insoluble in pure ether, but dissolves readily in alcohol. Water rtates it from its alcoholic solution. ^t
Physiological Effects. —Castor is usually denominated a st ^cl^and antispasmodic. Since the time of Hippocrates it has been regas endowed with a specific influence over the uterus. . o 11 *
In 1768, Mr. Alexander ( Experimen. Essays, p. 83) took it 111 Vjjctrdoses to the extent of two drachms ; and the only effect he exp eifrom it was disagreeable eructations. In 1824, Jorg and hismales and females ( Material. zu einer kunft. Arzneimittell. Leip z, j’’ „ce >Land. Med. Gaz. vol. xxvi. p. 952) submitted themselves to its 10but the only effects were a slight uneasiness in the epigastric reg i#disagreeable eructations having the odour of castor, and which ^ e efallayed by breakfast or dinner, and only ceased at night tvhcame on. _
These facts seem to shew that castoreum possesses but little h* 1power : yet Dr. Cullen (Mat. Med.) declares that on many ,°^ ca p )e coi )j£!is certainly a very powerful antispasmodic. Its odorous particle ^absorbed, for they have been recognized in the urine by their s . flIlS 0Uses. —Castoreum was formerly in great repute in those . e p jlep s - v ’the nervous system denominated spasmodic, such as hysteria^and catalepsy, more especially when these diseases occurred W ca )ldand were attended with uterine disorder. In those kinds of l e n0r th e _nervous, this medicine has also been recommended. In tJl jo P r °parts of Europe it is used for its supposed uterine influence,
p-