LAURUS CAMPHORA. 
223 
accompanies several febrile disorders ; and on this assumption we 
would recommend the use of the warm bath where deleterious effects 
are produced by an over-dose of this substance * Camphor taken 
inwardly by birds, or quadrupeds, as rabbits, dogs, sheep, &c. to the 
quantity of a drachm, has invariably been found to produce delete- 
rious effects. In some experiments upon dogs, M. Defermon found 
that contraction of the spleen takes place, producing a rugose ap- 
pearance of its surface, and a movement throughout the whole 
vise us. 
As a local application camphor is used in frictions, dissolved in 
oils, alcohol, or acetic acids, for allaying rheumatic and muscular 
pains; with the addition of laudanum it has been found very effica- 
cious when rubbed on the abdomen, in flatulent colic, dysentery, 
and visceral inflammation ; as a coUyrium it is useful in ophthalmia, 
and dissolved in oil as an injection in ardor urinse ; in tenesmus occa- 
sioned by ascarides, or other irritations of the rectum, it has been 
found useful as an enema. "A pill of camphor and opium, or a 
solution of camphor in spirit of turpentine, put into the hollow of a 
carious tooth, affords almost immediate relief in tooth ache. Twenty 
or thirty grains of camphor added to a common poultice and 
applied to the perinaeum allays chordee in gonorrhoea/'f 
Camphor should be given in a state of very minute division, other- 
wise it is apt to produce pain in the stomach; for this purpose it 
ought to be well triturated in a mortar with some dry powder, as 
nitre or sugar : but the best way to reduce it to a fine powder is by 
the addition of a few drops of alcohol, or it may be rubbed up with 
mucilage and almond emulsion so as to suspend it in water, and this 
form is preferred by many to pills or boluses. We have found the 
Mistura Camphora one of the best preparations, where the camphor 
was inteaded to act merely as a cordial or diaphoretic. 
Off. Pp. Acidum Acetosum Camphoratum, E. D. 
Emulsio Camphorata, Ei 
Linifflentum Camphorae, L. E. D. 
Camphorae Comp. L. 
Saponis, L. E. D. 
Mistura Camphoree, L. D. 
Spiritus Camphorae, L. E. D. 
Tinctura Camphorae Comp. L. E. D. 
* Opium is recommended as the best antidote to an over-dose of camphor, 
t Thomson's Mat Med, 
