686 ORD. XL. Oleracce. LAURUS CAMPHORA.: 
this process has long falas kept asecret; but others have succeeded 
in refining this ary and the manner of performing it is now 
detailed tad found to answer the purpose very well? | 
Pure Camphor is white, pellucid, somewhat unctuous to the 
touch; of a bitterish aromatic acrid taste, yet accompanied with 
a sense of coolness; of a smell fragrant, and approaching to that 
of rosemary, but much stronger. It is totally volatile and inflam- 
mable; soluble in vinous spirits, oils, and the, mineral acids; not 
in water, fixed or volatile alkaline liquors, nor in the acids of the 
vegetable kingdom. 
Camphor does not seem to have been known to the Greeks; 
but by the Arabians it was called Cafur, or Canfur, and was sup- 
posed to possess-a_refrigerant-powers~ To most small insects, 
and even to frogs and birds, the effluvia of Camphor prove very 
destructive, aS appears from the experiments of Menghini and 
Carminati.’ Taken inwardly by birds or quadrupeds, as rabbits, 
eats, dogs, sheep, &c. to the quantity of a dram, it has been found 
universally to produce deleterious effects ;* and in large doses it 
has occasioned symptoms equally dangerous on man, instances of 
which are related by Griffin, Alexander, Whytt, Collin, Hoffman, 
Callisen, Cullen, and others. Whether Camphor ought to be 
considered as a califacient and stimulant, or as a refrigerant and 
sedative, we are surprized should of late have become a subject 
~ ® The following method is directed in the Pharm. Suecica. p. 52, 
_ > Rec. Camphorez crude libras 
Calcis uste pulverate unciam unam. 
Simul trita immittantur cucurbite vitree late et depresse, atque arnex calore 
sensim aucto liquetur Camphora, Remisso postea calore sublimetur masse. pellu- 
cida, a scoriis, confracto vitro, separanda, 
4 Duncan’s Edinburgh New Dispensatory. 
* See Avicenna ed. Alpagi et Rinii. p. 563. . Also Serapion, 
* Mengh. Pipe Bonon. tom. 3. p. 314. sq. Carm, de animal. ex mephitibus 
interitu. p. 
* Carm. & Mengh, 1. ¢ 
