l.l'CALYPTUS. 757 



Or the foil wing may be used : 



K Ol. eucalypti .................................................................... ^j- 



Infus. lini ........................................................................ ^iiss. 



Syrupus .......................................................................... tss- 



Misce. Dose as above. 



As an anthelmic 30 to 60 minims ot the oil in mucilage of starch are 

 to be administered by enema. 



On the continent a eucalyptic tincture is the commonest fortn in 

 which eucalyptus oil is used, but besides the oil this contains a bitter 

 febrifugal principal, and traces of resins and acids which in the ordinary 

 process of distilling eucalyptus oil are kept back in the mother liquor of 

 the stills. The tincture is prepared by bruising three ounces of fresh 

 leaves, and covering them with six ounces of absolute alcohol, in which 

 they are digested at a moderate temperature, in a well-closed vessel, for 

 fourteen days at the end of which the leaves are well pressed and the 

 liquid filtered. This preparation has decided antipyretic properties, a 

 fact which along with its bitter taste led its first investigators to believe 

 that eucalyptus leaves contain an alkaloid like those of the cinchona 

 bark, but this idea was soon dispelled. However, there is no doubt that 

 this tincture possesses some of the properties of quinine ; thus by actual 

 experiment it has been found to exercise a contracting effect on a dog's 

 spleen, which is the action of quinine. In cases of malarial fever euca- 

 lyptic tincture is considered to rank next to quinine as a remedy ; in 

 many cases where quinine fails it proves successful, and it possesses the 

 decided advantage of being much cheaper and less troublesome in its 

 after-effects. In the continental preparations of the above tincture the 

 leaves of Eucalyptus globulus are always used, but there is no informa- 

 tion to be had as to the tinctures to be obtained from the leaves of other 

 oil-yielding species. As has been said before the name globulus carries 

 a glamour with it which there is no proper experimental evidence to 

 justify. Until the systematic details of comparative experiment are 

 given, the preference given to globulus preparations must be regarded as 

 arbitrary and accidental. There is certainly room here for an interest- 

 ing piece of pure pharmaceutical research which ought to occupy the 

 attention of some of our more scientific Australian pharmacists. 



CLINICAL REPORTS OF THERAPEUTIC PROPERTIES OF 

 EUCALYPTUS. 



REPORTS OF A GENERAL CHARACTER. 



REPORT i.* As to the therapeutics of Eucalyptus. Quite a volume 

 could be collected of the reports of successful cases. We spare you most 

 of this, and give only some of the more important and practical tests, or 

 new uses of the drug. 



O. Henri Leonard, M. D., in Xew Preparations, 1877, p. 6. 



