October 21,1371.] THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
321 
CHINESE PEPPERMINT OIL. 
BY PROFESSOR FLUCKIGER. 
According to a notice contained in the American 
Journal of Pharmacy , May 1871, p. 223,* the Chinese, 
■when suffering with facial neuralgia, use oil of pep¬ 
permint, which they lightly apply with a camel-hair 
pencil. This application has now found its way to 
the opposite shore of the Pacific, where the immi- 
b ro Uon of Chinese people is very considerable. The 
American journal, indeed, states that Chinese phar¬ 
maceutists in San EVancisco, as well as in New York, 
sell the said remedy for *«mralgia, and that it has 
already gained some repute. The, oil for this pur¬ 
pose is put up in small phials containing about half 
a drachm. 
I had the opportunity, some weeks ago, of a con¬ 
versation with a Swiss merchant, coming from San 
Francisco, who not only corroborated the above in¬ 
formation, but showed me a phial containing the 
“Chinese medicine,” which he had bought there 
himself in a Chinese pharmaceutical shop. The 
owner of the phial had frequently used it, and spoke 
in high terms of the good effects of the oil. The 
phial contained, I think, even less than half a 
drachm /price one dollar!), and was labelled, FooJc 
Chang Yung, wholesale and retail druggist and 
chemist, 744, Sacramento Street, Corner Dupont, 
San Francisco. 
I was suspicious enough to suppose the oil to be 
common peppermint oil of American or English 
origin, procured perhaps by the Chinese in San Fran¬ 
cisco, although the said merchant firmly believed, 
for good reasons as he thought, it was directly im¬ 
ported from Cliina. 
Having pointed out the magnificent fluorescence 
which nitric acid imparts to peppermint oil,f I found 
that the above Chinese oil partakes not at all of this 
reaction; it is not coloured by nitric acid (T20 sp. 
gi\), even when gently warmed with it. 
A few drops of the oil exposed for some hours 
only on a glass slide yielded abundantly crystals of 
a camphor, reminding me in every respect of the 
solid Japanese peppermint oil, which during the past 
few years has been met with in European trade. 
In both the above respects the Chinese peppermint 
oil is consequently different, at least to most of the 
specimens of European and American oil at my 
command, although it has the same agreeable flavour. 
Does it, that is to say its solid part, which appears 
.to be prevailing, agree with the Japanese drug? I 
have ascertained that the latter is not altered by the 
treatment with nitric acid ; it may therefore very 
likely be identical with the crystallizable part of 
Chinese oil. I have also been informed by the said 
Swiss gentleman that the “ Chinese medicine ” in 
cold weather solidifies even in California. 
I should be happy if my fragmentary observations 
could induce some resident in China or Japan to 
devote some investigation to the mother-plant of the 
Eastern oils under notice, and to the production of 
the latter. Is the solid Japanese oil obtained by 
means of cooling from a liquid similar to the Chinese 
oil ? Chinese oil is said to be distilled at Canton. | 
As to the former I beg to remind that it has been 
# See Pharm. Journ. No. 26, 1870, p. 426. 
f See Phaeii. Journ., Feb. 1871, p. 682, and Aug/1871, 
p. 714; also American Journ. of Pharm. 1871, p. 164. 
X Hanbury, Pharm. Journ., Sept. 1871, p. 244. 
Third Series, No. 69 . 
shown by Oppenlieim and by Gorup-Besanez # to 
agree with the formula C 10 H lg + FI 2 0, and to possess 
the nature of an alcohol. This so-called Menthol 
appears to be.identical with peppermint-camphor, 
which sometimes in cold separates from peppermint 
oil; their identity, however, is not quite satisfactorily 
proved. Camphor obtained from peppermint oil has 
been analysed by Dumas, by Blanchet and Sell, and 
also b} r Walter, f Its percentage composition is the 
same as that of menthol. 
VESICATING INSECTS. 
BY M. C. COOKE, M.A. 
(■Continued from page 262.) 
Spanish Fly, Lytta vesicatoria, Fabr. ; bright 
glossy brass-green or bluish, glabrous, beneath more 
glossy with a few hairs; breast densely pubescent, 
finely punctured; head and thorax with a longitu¬ 
dinal channel; elytra with two slightly raised lines : 
tarsi violaceous; antennae black, with the basal joint 
brassy.—Pereira, Mat. Med. ii. p. 742, f. 117; Steph. 
Med. Zool. t. 26, f. 2 ; Brandt and Ratzeb. ii. t. xviii. 
f. 1-6 ; Muls. Vesicants, f. 14-18.—Form elongated, 
almost cylindrical; length 6-11 lines, breadth 1-2 
lines; colour brass or copper-green; odour nauseous, 
unpleasant. Body covered with wliitisli-grey hairs, 
which are most numerous on the thorax. Head 
large, subcordate, with a longitudinal furrow along 
its top. Eyes lateral, dark brown. Thorax not larger 
than the head, narrowed at the base. Elytra 4-6 
lines long, and from f-1^ lines broad; costa slightly 
margined. Wings ample, thin, membranous, veined, 
transparent, pale brown; tips folded. Legs stout, 
4-6 lines long, the hinder ones longest; tibiae cla- 
vate, in the female all terminated by two small 
moveable spurs, in the male the two hinder pairs of 
extremities alone have this arrangement, the anterior 
ones having but one spur; last joint of the tarsi 
with a pair of bifid claws. Abdomen soft, broadest 
in the female. In the female, near the anus, are 
two articulated caudal appendages (Pereira). 
Native of the south of Europe. Found in France, 
Germany, Hungary, Russia, Siberia and England 
(rarely) on Oleaceous and Caprifoliaceous plants. 
It is unnecessary to enter upon the details of this 
insect here, since it is included in all works on 
materia medica, and is the common officinal vesicant 
of Britain and other European countries. 
Lytta Fallasii, Gebl.,is very much like the common 
blistering-fly in colour and in size. It is a native of 
Siberia, and specimens may be sometimes picked 
out from amongst “ Russian Cantharides.” One 
distinguishing feature is, that the posterior tarsi of 
L. Pallasii are toothed, whilst those of L. vesicatoria 
are not. 
L. phalerata , Walt., is a Turkish species closely 
allied to the foregoing, but, being a hairy insect, it 
would be easily detected if mixed with cantharides. 
We are not aware of its having been employed for 
that purpose; and, if so, it is probably a good vesi¬ 
cant itself, so that its mixture would not be fraudu¬ 
lent to the extent hereafter to be noted, in which 
* { Comptes Rendus,’ liii. 379, 483; Journ. Cliem. Soc. xv. 
24; c Jakresberickt der Ckeinie,’ von Kopp und Will., 1861, 
683. 
f Gmelin, Org. Chemistry, viii. 450, 
