CROTON TIGLIUM. 
31 
possesses medical properties ;* in the Eastern nations it is valued 
for its purgative, diaphoretic, and diuretic qualities ; the seeds have 
-a nauseous, acrid, burning taste, aBd purge sharply in doses of one 
grain ;f the roots are likewise powerfully cathartic, and are used in 
Batavia, and other parts, as a specific for the dropsy ; tlie wood of 
the trunk and branches, in small doses, acts upon the skin and 
kidneys, and the leaves in powder are used by the Japanese, as a 
topical remedy for the bites of serpents. 
la this country, the fixed oil, expressed from the seed, has been 
lately brought into general use, through the exertions of Dr. Conwell : 
and the valuable scientific and chemical experiments of Mr. Frost, 
Dr. Nimmo, aud others, have contributed not a little in rescuing a 
valuable medicine from that oblivion into which it had sunk, X in con- 
sequence of the untoward accidents frequently produced by its use. 
The oil of croton is of an orange or deep yellow colour, and of a 
peculiar smell, sui generis: and of an extremely acrid and pungent 
taste. The genuine oil, in doses of from one to two minims, proves 
powerfully cathartic ; its effects are generally very rapid, frequently 
■supervening at the expiration of half an hour ; and in cases of obsti- 
nate constipations, when other medicines have failed, it will be found 
a valuable remedy. Where the oil of commerce is used, the greatest 
caution will be required in prescribing it ; in most instances, one 
minim (or even less, if the oil be genuine) will be found to produce 
copious evacuations; and we would by no means recommend a 
repetition of that dose for at least some hours. The safest, and per- 
haps the best, way of administering the croton oil, is in combination 
with other aperients, § to increase their active properties : the follow- 
ing will be found a useful combination — 
R. 01. Tiglii, m. ij.; Pil. Coiocynth, 9 ij. Ft. massa et divid. in 
pilul. decem ; from two to three of these pills may be given 
every two, three, or four hours, if necessary. 
* See Dr. Ainslie's Materia Medica of Hindostan. 
+ The purgative properties of the seeds reside in a fixed oil, which can be separated 
by expression in the way in which castor, and other fixed oils, are usually obtained, 
t " The oil of croton, was introduced into Europe in the year 1630, and was era- 
ployed internally with success by several physicians. In 1632, Artus Gyselias 
extolled it in dropsy. In the Herbarium Amboinense of Rumphius, published at 
" Amsterdam, 1750, by Bermann, a description of the croton is contaiued ; the seeds 
" of which, says the author, yield on expression an oil, which, when taken in the dose 
*' of one drop in Canary wine, was at that time a common purgative." 
Appendix to Magendie's Formulary, by K. Dunglison, M. D. 
§ One of the best modes of exhibiting the 01. Tiglii, is in combination with the 
Ol. Papav. or 01. Amygd. in the proportion of one drop of the former to an ounce of 
either of the latter, the mode recommended in Hufeland Journal der practishen Heil- 
kuttde, for making artificial castor oil. 
