210 
BRITISH PHARMACEUTICAL CONFERENCE. 
distilled in the neighbourhood of Bern. In odour it resembles the fine, 
transparent and fragrant turpentine which is yielded by the trunk in very 
small quantity, and which was formerly found in the shops under the name 
of Strasburg Turpentine. _ , ~ 
The oils of Canella, Chian Turpentine, Ptychotis and Origanum were dis¬ 
tilled for chemical examination, and have not been employed in medicine. 
That of Lignaloe is used in Mexico as a perfume.* 
CARBOLIC ACID AND HUMAN PARASITES. 
BY T. A. READWIN, F.G.S., ETC. 
There are plants and animals which derive their nourishment from, and 
reproduce, and grow, in, or upon, other plants and animals. Such plants and 
animals are called 'parasites, because they so feed and are so nourished. All 
plants and animals, probably, are fed upon by parasites. All vegetal para¬ 
sites that have been observed upon or in the human body belong to the 
lowest forms of vegetation, namely, the Algae and the Fungi. The animal 
parasites discovered belong, also, to the lowest forms of animal life. Someot 
the animal parasites are of considerable size and power; but many of both 
vegetal and animal parasites are extremely microscopic. Both kinds are found, 
either upon the exposed surface of the skin and mucous membranes, or float¬ 
ing in the fluids of the body. 
Animal parasites were at one time regarded as the chief cause ot disease ; 
some of these, however, are known to live on the surface of the human body 
(epizoa); others, in the interior (entozoa). 
Parasites having been found on and in most parts of the body, both ot the 
healthy and the diseased, it becomes an inquiry of the highest importance, 
whether an efficient antidote to these ills which human flesh is said incorrectly, 
I think, to be heir to, can be found. .... 
That antidote, I believe, has been found in carbolic acid ; this extraordi¬ 
nary tar-product, in a dilute form, is known now to destroy all the low forms 
of life, whether animal or vegetal. 
It has long been held that the air we breathe for life, contains also ex¬ 
tremely active powers of destruction, and that filth and offensive odours are 
detrimental to health; but, only comparatively recently, however, has it 
been discovered that the air holds, also, floating in it, myriads of the minutest 
germs of plants and animals, and that these mysterious atoms alight some¬ 
times upon the bodies of living beings, enter their lungs, their blood, their 
tissues, and there develope and multiply exceedingly, and become the sources 
of disease, infection, and death. f 
It is now certain that these putrefying (septic) germs are great causes o 
putrefactive fermentation ; that fermentation is intimately connected vith in¬ 
flammation ; that most diseases result from inflammation; that carbolic acic 
(antiseptic) will kill all septic germs, and thus remove many causes of disease ; 
that glycerine is a very powerful healing-agent; that carbolic acid is freei} 
soluble in glycerine; and that their united, application has resulted in the 
speedy cure of some of the most dangerous diseases. It follows, therefore, 
that these new therapeutic agents demand very special attention. . 
As a rule, it is better to dissolve the crystallized carbolic acid (Calvert s) in 
the proportions of one part by weight of the acid to six of glycerine ( carbo - 
* Some account of the wood from which it is obtained, will be found in a paper by Mr. 
Collins in the Pharm. Journ. and Trans, for April 1869, p. 590. 
