804 
THE PHARMACEUTICAL JOURNAL AND TRANSACTIONS. 
[April 6, 187ii. 
THE OCCURRENCE OF COPPER IN 
CAJUPUT OIL.* 
BY EDWARD HISTED, 
Pharmaceutical Chemist, Brighton. 
It was observed many years ago by Gnibourt that 
cajuput oil frequently contains copper; but the fact 
has been much doubted, for neither Brande nor 
Pereira, both of whom directed attention to the j 
subject, was ever able to detect a trace of that 
metal in any sample of the oil submitted to exami¬ 
nation. 
Some months ago my friend Mr. Hanbury in¬ 
formed me that the occurrence of copper in cajuput 
oil, at least occasionally, was indubitable, and in¬ 
vited me to re-examine the question, by testing 
several samples which he had collected, and which 
he placed at my disposal. I willingly accepted the 
task, the results of which I beg leave now to lay 
before the Pharmaceutical Society. 
The method of testing for copper which I adopted 
was the following:— 
A fluid dram of the oil is evaporated to dryness 
in a Berlin-ware capsule, and the resinous-looking 
film which remains coating the sides of the porce¬ 
lain is then charred by heating the latter to dull 
redness over a Bunsen’s burner. A drop of nitric 
acid added before the capsule is quite cold, readily 
dissolves any copper present, and affords a solution 
to which, when slightly diluted, the usual tests for 
that metal can be applied ; of course, on a very 
small scale. 
The samples sent to me by Mr. Hanbury, or ob¬ 
tained from other sources, were the following :— 
No. 1. Cajuput oil, imported about 1830, 
colour very pale green, and the usual charac¬ 
teristic odour:— 
No. 2. Cajuput oil, given by Admiral Laplace 
on his return from circumnavigating the globe 
in the ‘ Artemise,’ 1839. From the collection 
of De Lens:—colour, fine deep green, odour 
very agreeable. 
No. 3. Cajuput oil, London market, 1870. 
No. 4. Cajuput oil, London market, 1871. 
No. 5. Cajuput oil, a shade darker than the 
two former, and with an odour in which citro- 
nelle oil was, as I thought, recognizable. 
No. G. Cajuput oil, resembling samples Nos. 
3 and 4, from my own stock. 
Treated in the manner I have described, each of 
these samples gave indications of copper, the pre¬ 
sence of which I proved by ammonia, ferrocyanide 
of potassium, solution of arsenic and reduction by 
metallic iron (deposited on a needle). 
In some samples the copper may be separated by 
agitating the oil with solution of ammonia, the oil in 
such case losing its colour and the water becoming 
blue. 
That copper is not of necessity present, because 
the oil has a green hue, was well proved by Guibourt, 
who distilled the leaves of several species of Mela¬ 
leuca, Metrosideros and Eucalyptus, cultivated at the 
Jardin des Plantes in Paris, and obtained Lorn them 
volatile oils of a fine green colour. 
I have also tested the essential oils of bergamot, 
wormwood and cubebs, but without finding any 
trace of copper. 
* Read at the Evening Meeting of the Pharmaceutical 
Society of Great Britain, April 3, 1872. 
If ordinary cajuput oil is redistilled, I find the 
product to be perfectly colourless, a result analogous, 
as Mr. Hanbury has reminded me, to that obtained 
with oil of thyme, which, as drawn from the plant, 
is of a deep brown, but becomes colourless by redis¬ 
tillation. But cajuput oil acts readily on metallic 
copper, and my colourless oil, after a few days’ con¬ 
tact with copper filings, became quite green, and 
afforded the same reactions as the crude oil of com¬ 
merce. 
With regard to the amount of cupreous contami¬ 
nation, the French writer already quoted states 
that he found cajuput oil of very green colour to 
contain of copper 0T37 grams in each 500 grams; 
but that usually it is in still lower proportion ; too 
small, in fact, to render the oil unfit for medicinal 
use. 
THE PHARMACY OF THE BIBLE.* 
BY J. T. SLUGG, F.R.A.S. 
I use the word pharmacy in its literal and broadest, 
not in its conventional and narrow sense. It cannot be 
otherwise than interesting to gather together, and pass 
in review, the teachings of the Bible, whose history goes 
back four thousand years into the past ages, as to matters 
connected with our own daily calling. After a careful 
investigation of the subject, I am bound to acknowledge 
at the outset, that whilst on the one hand there are 
references to many of the diseases which have afflicted 
mankind in ancient times, there is very little to be learnt 
in the Bible as to the nature of the remedies employed, 
or the healing art in general. We read of physicians 
and of apothecaries, and of the “ many medicines of the 
Egyptians;” and Solomon who wrote, we are told, on 
natural history, seems to have included in his favourite 
study some knowledge of the medicinal use of various 
plants, etc., but the results of his study are lost to the 
world. The drug known as “balm of Gilead” was sup¬ 
posed to have a medicinal virtue. We meet with what 
is a very popular remedy in the present day, prescribed by 
the prophet for a boil of a very serious nature, from which 
King Hezekiah was suffering, viz. a plaster of fgs, which 
was successful in its results. We learn something of what 
we may call a domestic remedy for a wound, in the time 
of the Saviour, in the parable of the good Samaritan, 
who, finding the wounded man, bound up his wounds, 
pouring in oil and wine. Though poisons are frequently 
mentioned in the Bible, there is no direct reference to 
vegetable or mineral poisons as a means of destroying 
life ; those mentioned being the poisons of animals, as of 
serpents, asps and dragons. In the list of the evil prac¬ 
tices of the day given by St. Paul in his Epistle to the 
Galatians, occurs the word “ witchcraft.” The Greek 
word for this is “ pharmakeia,” from which our word 
pharmacy is derived. It has been suggested that poison¬ 
ing is meant. No doubt it does either mean that, or 
what is more probable, the preparation of magical po¬ 
tions, and what were then believed in, and greatly used, 
philtres. We read of eye-salve in Revelation, but have 
no means of ascertaining of what the eye-salve then in 
use was composed. It is worthy of note, that there is 
an occasional trace of chemical knowledge in the earliest 
times; for instance, the calcination of gold by Moses; 
the action of vinegar on natron, and of the cleansing 
properties of soap. We find also a direct reference to 
the business of a druggist, though not by name, in the 
Song of Solomon, where, in connection with perfumes, 
we read of “ the powders of the merchant.” In Exodus 
(c. xxx. v. 23) we have a regular Hebrew prescription, 
* Read at a meeting of the Manchester Chemists and 
Druggists’ Association, March 8, 1872. 
