MELALEUCA LEUCADENDRON. ORD. XXIX. Hesperidea. 5Ay 
considers as the most certain criterion of the genuineness of the 
oil. From its exorbitant price it is frequently adulterated, and 
_ therefore is seldom found in perfect purity in Europe. 
Cajeput oil appears to be a powerful medicine, and is much 
esteemed in Germany, as well as in India, in the character of a 
general remedy in chronic and painful complaints; it is used for 
the same purposes for which we employ the officinal xthers, to 
which it seems to have a considerable affinity; the Cajeput how- 
ever is more potent and pungent: taken into the stomach, in the 
dose of five or six drops, it heats and stimulates the whole system, 
proving at the same time a very certain diaphoretic, by which 
probably the good effects it is said to have in dropsies and inter- 
mittent fevers, are to be explained. For its efficacy in various 
spasmodic and convulsive affections, it is highly esteemed; and 
numerous instances of its successful employment are published by 
different authors.* It has been also used both internally and 
externally with much advantage in several other obstinate dis- 
orders, as palsy, hypochondrical and hysterical affections, deafness, 
defective vision, tooth-ach, gout, rheumatism, menstrual obstruc- 
tions, herpetic eruptions, &c. of which Thunberg gives a par- 
ticular relation,‘ : 
The dose is from two to six and even twelve drops. _ 
The berries and leaves of Myrtus communis, and the bark of 
Myrtus caryophyllata, or cassie caryophyllate corter, referable to 
this order, have also been admitted into the Materia Medica; the 
former in the character of an aromatic and astringent, and the 
Jatter as a substitute for cloves. 
» ‘These are respectively cited by Murray, to whose work we refer those readers 
who wish for a fuller account of this article, 
eee OP pe 
The odour of cajeput oil is remarkably destructive to insects: a few drops, in a 
cabinet or drawer, wherein animal or vegetable specimens of natural history are 
kept in a dried state, have on this account been found very useful, 
