— ii6 — 
5. Group of Uterine remedies, Emmenagogues, and 
Abortifacients. 
The common people had already discovered centuries ago that 
a few aethereo - oleosa not only act on the gastro - intestinal canal, but 
also on other organs in the abdomen, such as on the organ which 
secretes the bile, i. e. the liver, and particularly on the urogenital appa- 
ratus. This explains how it is that in all countries individual remedies 
containing essential oils (and always remedies of a heroic character) 
have been in use for the purpose of bringing about the menses, or for 
expelling the foetus, and that these remedies are probably still being used, 
in spite of all remonstrances by the medical profession. Whether there 
is among these remedies a single one that can be applied without injuring 
the patient, is a question which scientific pharmaco-therapeutics is up to 
the present unable to answer. But every practitioner must know the 
injurious effect of these remedies whose use is generally concealed from 
him. They are savin, thuja, European pennyroyal, rue, and arnica. 
The twigs of the savin- tree, Summitaies sabinae, represent of this 
group the remedy which is best known to the medical profession, as 
they are still official in most countries. Its toxic character is due to 
sabinol, a substance which Hildebrandt^) has recently submitted to a 
most careful study. In cats and dogs it brings about the discharge of 
blood in the urine, irritation of the genitalia, the formation of methaemo- 
globine, somnolence, etc. C. G. Santesson^), when microscopically 
examining rabbits poisoned with this substance, found fatty degeneration 
of the liver reminding of phosphorus poisoning. My assistant Dr. Jiirss 
discovered the same alteration of the liver in animals poisoned with 
thujone. Thujone is the active constituent of the oils of tansy, Thuja occident- 
alism Artemisia absinthium, and other plants which do not interest us here. 
For oil of European pennyroyal, a number of experimental examinations 
are available. According to all these, there can no longer be any doubt 
whatever, that pulegone, detected by Beckmann and Pleissner^), 
which in addition to menthol and menthone is present in this oil, accord- 
ing to Falk^), Lindemann^) and G. Martins^), causes, in a much 
^) Zur gerichtsarztlichen Kenntnis des Sadebaumoles. Sonderabdruck aus dem 
offiziellen Berichte der XVII. Hauptversamralung des PreuB. Medizinalbeamtenvereins, 
Jahrgang 1900. — Uber Synthesen im Tierkorper II. Verbindungen der Kampfer- 
gmppe Nr. 1 : Sabinol, der Terpenalkohol des Oleum sabinae. Arch. f. exp. Path, 
u. Pharm., Vol.45 (1901), no. 
^) Einiges liber die Wirkung des Sabinaoles. Skandin. Arch. f. Physiol. 11 (i 900), 228. 
3) L. Tetry, Bull. Soc. Chim. III. 27 (1902), 186. — M. Pleissner, Liebigs 
Annalen 262 (1891), I. 
4) Ther. Monatshefte 1890, 448. 
^) Arch. exp. Path. u. Pharm. 42 (1899), 356. — Ztschr. f. Biologie 39, I. — 
Zieglers Beitrage 27 (1901), 484. 
^) Arbeiten des Kaiserl. Ges.-Amtes 15 (1899), 443. 
