MEDICINAL USES 637 



blood-pressure and muscular weakness, paralysis of respira- 

 tion, and coma ; but the fatal effect of full doses was 

 frequently averted by artificial respiration. The respiratory 

 mucous membrane was congested, the lungs were congested 

 and sometimes consolidated, the kidneys inflamed, the urine 

 albuminous, occasionally bloody. In chronic poisoning 

 tissue metabolism appears to be impaired, and there is 

 fatty degeneration of the liver, as in phosphorus poisoning. 



I It is excreted chiefly by the lungs and kidneys, imparting 

 to the urine a green colour by direct, a brown by trans- 



: mitted, light. Compared with carbolic acid, thymol is not 

 so irritant, caustic, or poisonous ; when absorbed it does 



I not cause preliminary excitement, but from the first para- 

 lyses the nerve centres ; as an antiseptic it is stated to be 

 more powerful and permanent. Its high price precludes 



| its use as an ordinary antiseptic. Concentrated solutions 



; damage instruments. 



MEDICINAL USES. It has been prescribed in vesical 



I catarrh, and also as an intestinal disinfectant, horses taking 

 grs. xxx. to 3ij- ; dogs, gr. viii. to grs. xxx. per day, divided 

 into three doses. As a vermicide in strongylosis of foals, 

 grs. x. to grs. xv., dissolved in glycerin and alcohol, sus- 

 pended in milk or mucilage, or made into a bolus coated 

 with keratin, are given daily for four or five consecutive 

 days, and followed by a laxative. But its chief use is in 

 antiseptic surgery. Notwithstanding its greater cost, it is 

 sometimes substituted for carbolic, salicylic, and boric 

 acids. For allaying irritation and removing scales in chronic 

 eczema and lichen, 1 to 2 grains are dissolved in an ounce 

 of diluted spirit, or of potassium carbonate solution. For 

 <such purposes an ointment is also used, made with 10 to 

 40 grains to the ounce of vaseline. As a stimulating anti- 

 peptic in sore-throat and ozsena, it is used in the form of 

 gargle, spray, or inhalation. It is the active constituent 

 'pf Volckmann's antiseptic fluid, which, with one part 

 jihymol, contains 20 of alcohol, 20 of glycerin, and 960 of 

 ji^ater. This solution prevents the development of pyogenic 

 )rganisms. 



