322 MATERIA MEDIC A AND THERAPEUTICS. 



2. ACTION ON THE BLOOD. 



Camphor enters the blood freely from the unbroken skin 

 and mucous surfaces, and is found in it unchanged. 



3. SPECIFIC ACTION AND USES. 



In the organs and tissues a portion of the camphor 

 administered is found unchanged ; the rest appears to combine 

 with glucose. The nervous system is chiefly affected by this 

 drug, which in doses above those usually ordered may so act on 

 the cerebrum as to produce a kind of intoxication, with con- 

 fusion of mind, speech, gait, and gesture, and thereupon con- 

 vulsions, probably originating in the medulla. Moderate doses 

 are said to produce an aphrodisiac, followed by an anaphro- 

 disiac, effect. Camphor has accordingly been used in nervous 

 prostration, especially towards the end of acute specific fevers, 

 such as typhoid ; in poisoning by opium and other narcotics ; 

 in alcoholism, including delirium tremens ; and in various 

 nervous disorders, dependent probably on disturbance of the 

 cerebral and spinal centres, such as insanity, hysteria, 

 whooping cough, chordee or priapism, spermatorrhoea, etc. 

 In large doses of pai-ticular preparations, and probably on 

 certain subjects, instead of excitement camphor produces rapid 

 depression, chiefly referable to the heart, namely, failure of 

 the pulse, pallor, coldness and moistness of the surface, im- 

 paired local sensibility, and unconsciousness. The respiration 

 is much disturbed after full doses, in association with con- 

 vulsions and coma. Moderate doses, as we have seen, 

 stimulate the heart reflexly from the stomach. The effect of 

 camphor on metabolism is unknown ; it lowers the body tem- 

 perature both in health and in pyrexia, an action which may 

 contribute to its value in fevers. 



4. REMOTE LOCAL ACTION AND USES. 



Camphor is excreted unchanged by the respiratory organs, 

 on which it probably acts like turpentine, and is a common 

 ingredient of expectorant mixtures, especially as the Compound 

 Tincture. The skin also throws out camphor, which increases 

 and gives its odour to the perspiration, the effect being 

 refrigerant, and probably accounting for the use in common 

 colds of the homoeopathic solution, " spirit of camphor," which 

 is a very powerful preparation, occasionally causing death. 

 The kidneys do not excrete camphor as such, but as a complex 

 product. 



Sassafras Radix SASSAFRAS ROOT. The dried 

 root of Sassafras officinale. From North America. 



