OIL OF CAJEPUT TREE. 211 



known in Britain, is now admitted into the Materia Medica of all 

 the principal foreign pharmacopoeias, 



It is imported into Europe from the East Indies, and is distilled 

 chiefly in the island of Banda. Thunberg * savs that it has the ap- 

 pearance of an iuflamabie spirit, of a green colour, and so com- 

 pletely volatile that it evaporates entirely, leaving no residuum ; its 

 odour ib of the camphoraceous kind, with a terebinthinate admix- 

 ture : when it is applied to the nostrils copiously, its smell is at 

 first ungrateful, but in a small quantity, or at a distance, its odour 

 is very agreeable. Goetz, + on the contrary, says it is limpid, or 

 rather yellowish, and that on being kept in a vial not closely corked, 

 it diffuses at first a pleasant odour, which gradually changes to one 

 somewhat like that of turpentine, and at length becomes similar to 

 that of savine. lis taste, he says, is aromatic, and approaching to 

 that of the oil of rosemary. A single drop, applied to the temples, 

 produces a peculiar sensation in the interior canthus of the eyes, and 

 excites tears, wlncn he considers as the most certain criterion of the 

 genuineness of the oil. From its exorbitant price it is frequently 

 adulterated, and therefore is seldom found in perfect purity in 

 Europe 



Gttjepnt oil appears to be a powerful medicine, and is much es- 

 teemed in Germany, as well as in India, in <ne character of a gene- 

 ral remedy in chronic and painful complaints; it is used for the 

 same purposes for which we employ the officinal ethers, to which it 

 seems to have a considerable affinity; the cajeput however is more 

 potent and pungent : taken into the stomach, in the dose of five or 

 six drops, it heats and stimulates the whole system, proving at the 

 same time a very certain diaphoretic, by which probably the good 

 effects it is said to have in dropsies and intermittent fevers, are to be 

 explained. For its efficacy in various spasmodic and convulsive 

 affections, it is highly esteemed ; and numerous instances of its suc- 

 cessful employment are published by different authors J. It has 

 been also used both internally and externally with much advantage 

 in several other obstinate disorders, as palsy, hypochondncal and 

 hysterical affections, de a fness, defective vision, tooth-ach, gout, 



* In Vet. Acad. Handl. 1782. p. 223. + Comm. Nor. 1731.;?. 5. 



| These are respectively cited by Murray, to whose woik we refer those 

 readers who wish for a fuller account of this article. 



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