EUCALYPTUS ACMENOIDES. 



As the species here under consideration is eminently an oil-yielding one, some further 

 observations, beyond those offered in the text of E. salubris and B. salmonophloia, may be 

 adduced from Prof. Hugo Schulz's special work, the details of which are more extensively 

 translated in the Australian Medical Gazette 22-23, 45-49 and 66-73 (1883). Prof. Gimbert 

 was the first, who experimented on the physiologic effect of Eucalyptus-oil (that of E. globulus). 

 One drachm of the re-distilled oil, divided into two doses, produced heat of the fauces, warmth 

 in the stomachic region, also eructation, cephalagia and then calm sleep. Prof. Siegen, in 

 administering one drachm of the oil within five hours, found drowsiness induced by it, with 

 tremulancy and considerable depression of the system ; in the cutaneous exhalations and also in 

 the diuresis the odor of the oil was perceptible for many hours afterwards. Single doses, so large 

 as two drachms of the purified and oxygenized oil, taken by Prof. Schulz, did not affect hurtfully 

 the digestion, caused however a feeling of lassitude and some nausea. The much more irritating 

 raw oil, when externally applied under exclusion of the atmospheric air, produced a sensation 

 much like that from a sinapism ; the skin became diffusely reddened and pustulated. These 

 appearances wore away slowly, and even for two weeks subsequently traces of the application were 

 observable in cutaneous defoliations. The effect of external application of the purified and 

 oxygenized oil was much milder, but miliary pustules sudamen-like appeared also. About two 

 weeks after the experiment a reddish exanthema arose on the chest, and developed copious 

 pustules comparable to those of Acne ; this eruption lasted for nearly a month, terminating in 

 decrease of rubescence, exsiccation of the pustules and desquamation of the cutis. 



Eucalyptus-oil is able for some time to remain undecomposed in the human system, and in 

 the expiratory air its presence can be perceived for two or three days after taking a large dose of 

 the oil. No irritation is produced by Eucalyptus-oil on the organs of digestion, a fact in most 

 favorable contrast to the effect of oil of turpentine and other volatile vegetable oils ; nor are the 

 kidneys injuriously irritated by this oil. Gimbert and Siegen observed already, that the internal 

 use of the oil of Eucalypts or its hypodermic injection decreases the body-temperature of the 

 human constitution readily by 2° F. The discovery of the antipyretic value of Eucalyptus-foliage 

 arose with Drs. Tristany and Trixidor as early as 1865. Prof. Schulz, after experimentally 

 bringing rabbits into a fever-state by injecting putrid liquids from meat or decaying hay, was 

 able through counter-injection of Eucalyptus-oil to reduce the body-temperature of the animals 

 thereby to the extent of 4° P. in three hours. Prof. Schulz points out, as indeed shown manifold 

 before, that all terpens and analogous chemical compositions possess in a high degree the ability 

 to attract oxygen and to form ozone, which latter is readily passed on again to matter, fit to 

 undergo a higher stage of oxydation ; thus any living cells on contact with the ozonigerous oil 

 become more speedily and more strongly oxygenated ; the oil however takes up again a new 

 supply of oxygen from its surroundings, not however for an indefinite period, as the oxydation- 

 process changes it gradually into a resinous substance. The oil circulates through the organism 

 in the minutest atoms, its physiologic action being therefore rapid and extensive. The effect of 

 the oil on the reflex-action is powerful ; circumscribed neuralgias can often be subdued by merely 

 applying this remedy to the epidermis, it being so well able to penetrate the cutaneous layers. 



Explanation of Analytic Details.— 1, an imexpanded flower, the lid lifted; 2, longitudinal section of an 

 unexpanded flower ; 3, some of the outer stamens detached ; 4 and 5, front- and back-view of an anther with part of 

 filament ; 6, style and stigma ; 7 and 8, lougitudinal and transverse section of a fruit ; 9 and 10, sterile and fertile seeds ; 

 11, portion of a leaf; all figures magnified, but to various extent. 



