452 CROTON OIL 



for the cure of mange. For enemata it is generally super- 

 seded by rape or linseed oil. As an external demulcent 

 it is unsuitable on account of its tendency to become rancid. 

 A few drops applied to the conjunctiva lessen irritation after 

 removal of a foreign body from the eye. Castor oil is often 

 employed with cocaine. 



DOSES, etc. Castor oil seeds are occasionally given to 

 the dog or pig to the number of six or eight, triturated 

 with linseed meal, made into bolus, or rolled in a piece of 

 meat. The dose of oil for the larger quadrupeds is about 

 a pint ; for sheep and pigs, f ij. to fgiv. ; for dogs, f3Jv. 

 to fjij. ; for cats, 3ij- to 3J V - ; f r poultry, f3ss. to f3J. 

 It may be given alone or mixed with linseed oil, with gruel, 

 milk, or aromatics ; to increase its activity it is combined 

 with a small quantity of oil of turpentine or of croton ; 

 to remove the cause of undue irritation, as in diarrhoea 

 and dysentery, it is prescribed with laudanum, or chloro- 

 form, and warm starch gruel. For delicate or pampered 

 dogs, a palatable laxative emulsion is made by shaking 

 together equal parts of castor oil and syrup of buckthorn 

 with ten to twenty minims of spirit of nitrous ether. 



CROTON SEEDS AND OIL 



CROTON SEEDS. Semina Crotonis. The seeds of Croton 



tiglium. (Not official.) 

 CROTOIST OIL. Oleum Crotonis. Oil expressed from the 



seeds of Croton tiglium. (B.P.) Nat. Ord. Euphor- 



biaceae. 



The Croton tiglium is a tree growing on the Indian con- 

 tinent, in Ceylon, and in many islands of the Indian Archi- 

 pelago. Its oval-shaped fruit or nut is somewhat larger 

 than a hazel, and contains three seeds about the size of 

 French beans, resembling castor oil seeds, brown, but un- 

 mottled, and when shelled weighing on an average three 

 grains each. They are odourless, with a taste at first mild 

 and mucilaginous, but soon becoming hot and acrid. When 

 heated they yield irritating fumes. The thin, brittle, ex- 

 ternal shell constitutes fully one-third of the weight of 



