TREA TMENT 



T769 



treated should be kept in bed, and care taken that the bowels have 

 been well opened. 



Thymol, introduced by Bozzolo, should be given in cachets, or as 

 an emulsion. Generally 15 to 30 grains are given, and two hours 

 later another 15 to 30 grains, followed in some cases by a third 

 dose of 15 to 30 grains after another two hours. If the bowels 

 do not act within four hours of the last dose, a saline aperient 

 should be given. The treatment may be repeated on the following 

 day. Another method is to give 10 grains in cachets at night until 

 the desired result is attained. Yet another method, recommended 

 by the International Health Board, is to mix it with an equal quan- 

 tity of bicarbonate of soda, as this addition is believed to aid the 

 cure and prevent unpleasant symptoms. 



Thymol is a very poisonous drug in large doses, causing first 

 irritation of the cerebral centres, with excitement and vertigo, 

 while a dark colour may appear in the urine, or, according to Blum, 

 may be produced by the addition of hydrochloric acid to the urine. 

 According to the same authority, this colour exists in the form 

 of a chromogen in the urine, the chemical nature of which is 

 threefold: thymolsulphuric acid, thymolhydrochinon sulphuric 

 acid, and thymolgly curie acid. In larger doses the nerve centres 

 are paralyzed, the blood-pressure falls, and the patient dies of 

 collapse. 



Thymol, however, is very insoluble in water — only i in 1,500 of 

 cold water — ^but it is easily soluble in alcohol, ether, chloroform, 

 glycerine, and turpentine; hence no alcoholic stimulant whatever 

 must be given to a patient who is to take or has taken thymol, 

 and not merely must care be taken not to order stimulants, but the 

 nurses must be warned of the danger of giving them. Thymol is also 

 soluble in oil. Hence no purgative of castor oil should be ordered 

 after its administration. Thymol certainly should never be given 

 if there is marked visceral disease, nor do we think that it should 

 be given in very profound anaemia — i.e., when the number of red 

 cells is below 1,500,000 per cubic millimetre. It is, however, very 

 satisfactory in its lethal action on the worms, but the treatment 

 must be repeated in many cases in a week, and again repeated if 

 ova are seen in the faeces. Sandwith recommends a hypodermic 

 injection of strychnine before thymol is administered. 



Eucalyptus Oil and Chloroform.- — ^A much less dangerous treat- 

 ment is by oil of eucalyptus and chloroform, which may be 

 preceded by a saline purgative given a few hours earher. 



The usual formula is: — 



One half to be given first thing in the morning, and the other half 

 in half an hour. The chloroform is probably the active principle 

 of this mixture. It does not work as satisfactorily as thymol, but 



Olei eucalypti 

 Chlorolormis 

 Olei ricini 



Tl^xxx. 

 TT\xlv. 

 3x. 



