Seeds of Croton Tiglium. 63 



employed generally in the practice of medicine ia Europe. 

 The disagreeable taste, excessive acrimony, and the violence of 

 their operation, presented objections to their employment in 

 medicine ; and the danger which at times occurred in using 

 them, produced an impression so unfavourable, that they came 

 to be seldom used, and very soon, as if by common consent, 

 they were banished from medical practice. Such was the state 

 of medical knowledge relative to them, that few medical men 

 had any practical acquaintance with them, and such as had 

 read about them were led, by the statements which they pe- 

 rused, to view them as a remedy possessed of the highest de- 

 gree of virulence, such, indeed, as no men could be justified 

 in resorting to in practice without danger to their patients, 

 or incurring the risk of injury to their professional charac- 

 ter, by employing a remedy of so doubtful a nature. The 

 commendations which of late have been bestowed upon the 

 croton oil, and a sufficient quantity having been imported into 

 thia country for making trial of its efficacy, have had the 

 effect of reviving its use in medicine ; and already have many 

 valuable communications appeared in various periodical jour- 

 nals, by means of which the general sense of the medical 

 profession will soon be collected. Either it will be received 

 into modern practice, as a powerful remedy for the cure of 

 various diseases, or the opinions which contributed to banish it 

 out of the field of medicine will be confirmed, and again sub- 

 ject it to the same general proscription which formerly it seemed 

 so much to deserve. 



A considerable time ago I procured twelve drops of this oil, for 

 making a few trials of its efficacy, and would probably have used 

 it in the manner recommended upon the label, but for an econo- 

 mical reason, namely, to obviate the loss which would be sus- 

 tained by dropping, out of a large phial, the few drops I had 

 obtained. Recollecting the solubility of some of the fixed 

 oils, particularly castor oil, in alcohol, I poured upon the 

 croton oil two drams of alcohol sp. gr. .825 : by agitation I 

 perceived that a partial solution took place ; pouring this off, 

 two drams more of alcohol were added, by which an additional 



