SJ* 
• 
ftimulate the firft paffages, and prove laxative ; and we are 
told by Dr. Cullen, that half an ounce or an ounce of Venice turpen- 
tine, triturated with the yolk of an egg, and diffufed in water, may 
be employed in the form of an injection, as the moft certain laxative 
in colics, and other cafes of obftinate coftivenefs. When turpentine 
nee 
is carried into the blood- veffels, it ftirnulates the whole fyftein ; he 
its ufe in chronic rheumatifm and paralyfis. Turpentine readily 
paffes off by urine, which it imbues with a peculiar odour 5 alfo by 
perfpiration, and probably by exhalation from the lungs : 
and to 
thefe respective effects are to be afcribed the virtues it may poflefs 
in gravelly complaints, fcurvy, and pulmonic diforders. In all thefe 
difeafes, however, an 
efpecially the I aft, this 
medicine 
j 
as well as 
fome of the gums and balfams of the terebinthinate kind, by acting 
as ftimulants, are often productive of mifchief, as was firft obferved 
by 
oerhaave, and lince by Fothergill 
6 
Turpentine 
be 
en 
muv, 
r* 
h ufed in gleets and fluor albus; its 
efficacy in the former of thefe diforders Dr. Cullen afcribes to its 
inducing fome degree of inflammation of the urethra ; in proof of 
which he fays, " I have had fome inftances, both of turpentine and 
balfam of copaiva, producing a manifeft inflammation in the urethra. 
?> 
to the degree of occafioning a fuppreffion of urine ; but when thefe 
effects went off, the gleet, which had fubfifted for fome time before, 
was entirely cured. 
The effential oil, in which the virtues of turpentine refide, is not 
only preferred for external ufe, as a rubifacient, &c. but alfo internally 
as a diuretic ; and by Pitcairn and Cheyne as a remedy for the fcia- 
tica ; but few ftomachs are able to bear it in the dofes they direct. 
Turpentine, fo much ufed formerly as a digeftive application, is in 
modern furgery almoft wholly exploded. 
F 
I 
N 
I 
S, 
■ 
