Part 39

PROPERTIES.--Pure castor oil is a thick, viscid, colorless liquid, with little or no odor and a mild though somewhat nauseous taste.

ACTION AND USES.--Good castor oil is a mild and speedy cathartic, usually operating within four to five hours with little griping or uneasiness, and evacuating the contents of the bowels without much increasing the alvine secretions. Hence it is particularly applicable to constipation from collections of abnormally hard faeces, and to cases in which irritating substances have been swallowed or irritating substances have accumulated in the bowels. From its mildness it is also especially adapted to diseases of the bowels, as colic, indigestion, diarrhoea, dysentery and enteritis. It is also indicated in overloaded bowels in pregnancy combined with anodynes and antispasmodics to prevent griping. Castor oil in two or three ounce doses conjoined with gruel and five or six drops of oil of peppermint is suitable for foals and calves affected with gastro-intestinal disorders. Castor oil is specially applicable in canine practice, to evacuate the bowels, and in irritated conditions of the digestive tract, in ounce doses mixed with equal parts of glycerine and adding two or three drops of oil of wintergreen.

Castor oil may be given to horses in sixteen ounce doses conjoined with oil of peppermint, twenty drops, or tincture opium, one ounce and fluidextract of belladonna, one to two drachms, flour gruel, etc.

Castor oil in one to two drachm doses is especially valuable for poultry.

Castor oil is used with equal success in the treatment of gastro-intestinal disorders of cattle, sheep and pigs.

DOSE.--Horses and cattle, 12 to 16 oz.; sheep and pigs, 2 to 6 oz.; dogs and cats, ¹⁄₂ to 2 oz.; poultry, ¹⁄₂ to 2 dr.

OLEUM TEREBINTHINAE--OIL OF TURPENTINE Erroneously Called Spirits of Turpentine

DERIVATION.--A concrete oleo-resin from Pinus palustris Miller, and from other species of Pinus. The oil is distilled, usually by the use of steam, from the oleo-resin.

HABITAT.--Southern United States, from Virginia to the Gulf of Mexico.

PROPERTIES.--A thin, colorless liquid, having a characteristic odor and taste. Soluble in three times its volume of alcohol; also soluble in an equal volume of glacial acetic acid.

DOSE.--Carminative--Horses and cattle, 1 to 2 oz.; sheep and pigs, 1 to 4 dr.; dogs, 5 to 30 m. Best given in 8 to 10 times its bulk of cotton seed oil, linseed oil or milk. Anthelmintic--Horses and cattle, 2 to 4 oz.; sheep and pigs, ¹⁄₂ to 1 oz.; dogs, ¹⁄₂ to 4 dr. Diuretic--Horses and cattle, 2 to 4 dr.

PREPARATIONS

LINIMENTUM TERBINTHINAE--TURPENTINE LINIMENT

Composed of resin cerate, 650 parts; oil of turpentine, 350 parts; melt the resin cerate and add the oil of turpentine.

OLEUM TEREBINTHINAE RECTIFICATUM--RECTIFIED OIL OF TURPENTINE

Made by slaking oil of turpentine with an equal volume of Solution of Sodium Hydroxide, and distillation.

PROPERTIES.--A thin, colorless liquid, having the same properties as oil of turpentine and should be the one used for internal use.

DERIVATIVES OF TURPENTINE

TEREBENUM--TEREBENE

Made by the action of sulphuric acid on oil of turpentine and by distillation.

PROPERTIES.--A colorless, or slightly yellowish, thin liquid, having a rather agreeable thyme-like odor, and an aromatic, somewhat terebinthinated taste. Only slightly soluble in water, but soluble in three times its volume of alcohol.

DOSE.--Horses and cattle, 2 to 4 dr.; dogs, 5 to 15 m. Dilute same as oil of turpentine.

TERPINI HYDRAS--TERPIN HYDRATE

The hydrate of the diatomic alcohol Terpin.

DERIVATION.--Rectified oil of turpentine, alcohol and nitric acid are mixed together in a shallow porcelain dish, and after three or four days terpin hydrate crystallizes out. The crystals are collected, drained, dried on absorbent paper and purified by recrystallization in alcohol.

PROPERTIES.--Colorless, crystals, odorless, having a somewhat bitter taste. Soluble in 200 parts of water, 10 parts of alcohol.

ACTIONS.--Externally--Oil of turpentine is rubefacient, irritant and counter-irritant; vesicant if rubbed in or confined, also a powerful antiseptic and disinfectant; is absorbed by the unbroken skin.

Internally--Is diuretic, stimulant, carminative, antispasmodic, hemostatic and anthelmintic; it is irritant, and large undiluted doses may cause gastro-enteritis and paralysis of nerve centers.