48 VEGETABLE DRUGS WITHOUT ORGANIC STRUCTURE. 



CAMPHORA. CAMPHOR. 



Camphora is a stearopten (having the nature of a 

 ketone) obtained from Cinnamomum Camphora (Linne), 

 Nees et Ebermaier, and purified by subhmation. 



Cinnamomum Camphora is a tree loo to 150 feet high, 

 a native of eastern Asia, where it is found in large num- 

 bers, both cultivated and wild. Camphor tree contains 

 camphor in all parts of the plant (perhaps failing a little 

 in the flowers), either in crystalline form or dissolved in 

 ethereal oil. 



By processes of oxidation camphor, Cj^jH^gO, is formed. 

 The method of preparing for commerce varies some- 

 what in the different provinces where it is manufactured. 

 In Formosa the trees are felled and the stem reduced to 

 chips. These are brought to simple ovens and exposed to 

 steam, and the vapors arising containing camphor are 

 condensed on the inside of rude receptacles, sometimes 

 iron pots, and from these scraped and sent for sublima- 

 tion. The Formosa camphor thus prepared is crude, 

 dark, and impure. 



In many of the Japanese provinces the chips and por- 

 tions of the plant are boiled in water in iron pots, the 

 vapor which arises condensing on straw or bamboo, 

 from which it is broken and packed for subsequent 

 purification. Japanese crude camphor is somewhat red- 

 dish in tint. 



In the refining processes the crude camphor, which 

 has a variety of foreign bodies included in it, is mixed 

 with various materials, coal, sand, or iron filings, heated 

 over a sand-bath, sublimed, and collected. In some 

 American manufactories the vapor is received in a cooling 

 room and precipitated as is sulphur. It is then pressed 

 in cakes and in this shape appears in the market. 



Description. — It is white, translucent, irregular, crys- 

 talline, waxy, shining, solid, breaking with a waxy tough 



