222 Medico-Botanical Society. 



except when mixed with alcohol gives but in its combustion a 

 dense smoke. Neither the alkalies nor acids seem to exert 

 any sensible action on the native oil. Upon dropping into 

 it sulphuric acid, the latter assumes a momentary brownish 

 tinge, but soon regains its transparency, remaining immiscible 

 at the bottom of the vessel. The oil of laurel dissolves 

 camphor, caoutchouc, wax, and resins, and readily combines 

 with the volatile and fixed oils. It is insoluble in water ; 

 soluble in alcohol and cether. Though the specific gravity of 

 the oil exceeds that of {Ether, yet the compound formed by 

 combining them in the proportion of one part of the former 

 to two of the latter, floats upon the surface of pure aether, and 

 •may therefore be the lightest of all known liquids. 



" With respect to the medicinal properties of the native oil> 

 it bears when externally applied the character of a powerful 

 ■discutient, and appears when exhibited internally to be a 

 diaphoretic, diuretic, and resolvent. By many it is believed to 

 be analeptic, alterative, anodyne, and to promote the exfolia- 

 tion of carious bones. Without listening to the extravagant 

 reports of the Indians, who exalt it into a panacea, we must 

 admit that its efficacy has been demonstrated in cases of rheu- 

 matism, swellings of the joints, cold tremours, pains in the 

 limbs, and in various disorders supposed to originate in a 

 vitiated state of the blood i^niala saiigrc). 



" In all these cases it is exhibited in doses of 20 to 24 drops 

 on sugar twice a day, accompanied by frequent and long con- 

 tinued friction of the parts affected with the oil ; while the body 

 is kept moderately warm and a free use of diluting drinks pre- 

 scribed to the patient. The same practice is said to have been 

 attended with the happiest effect in paralytic disorders : for this 

 I cannot vouch ; but have found it a valuable remedy in cases 

 of nervous and rheumatic head-ache, sprains, and bruises. A 

 decoction of the root has been employed as an alterative in 

 various chronic complaints, and with much success. I am fully 

 aware of the re-action that often results from over-excited and 

 disappointed expectation, and the discredit into which a new 

 remedy frequently falls in consequence of the unmerited en- 

 comiums which those who bring it into notice liave injudiciouly 

 bestowed upon its virtues : 



Quicquid excessit inochim 

 Pendet instabili loco. 



"However slight the credibility we may feel inclined to at- 

 tach to the evidence of the Indians, (upon which our knowledge 

 of the medicinal properties of the native oil almost entirely 

 reposes,) llie infornialion derived from experience surely 

 claims that ntlL-ntion. and jn^tly cliallcngcs lliat cxinnination 



which 



