COAL TAR AND SOME OF ITS MEDICINAL PRODUCTS. 
43 
we have phenol, ortho-cresol, para-cresol, meta-cresol, phloral, 
rosalic acid and creosote. 
Phenol-Phenylic Alcohol-Carbolic Acid is one of the 
most useful and widely known products of coal tar. It was 
discovered and isolated in 1834 by Runge, who gave it its 
name, but the honor of introducing it to the profession belongs 
to Calvert. Of its value in medicine, or more strictly speaking, 
surgery, you are of course well aware. 
Naphthalene occurs as a white shining crystalline solid, melt¬ 
ing at 176° F. Boils at 423 0 F.; is soluble in ether, alcohol, 
chloroform, and the oils, insoluble in water, but imparts its taste 
and odor to water in which it has been boiled for some time. 
Naphthalene is toxic to all fungi and micro-organisms, and for 
this reason it is a valuable antiseptic; manufactured now on a 
very large scale, it is consequently cheap, a point of consider¬ 
able importance in our practice. It is of value in skin diseases, 
especially those of a parasitic nature, such as mange, scabies, 
fanus, etc.; as an expectorant in bronchitis and other respiratory 
diseases it has proven very useful. Dose for horse, 3 ss 
to 3 i. 
Naphthol-B . Naphthol occurs in coal tar, but is usually pre¬ 
pared by direct method from naphthalene. It is a yellowish 
white powder, possessing the well-known phenol odor and pun¬ 
gent taste. It is permanent in the air, and soluble in 1,000 
parts of cold and seventy-five parts of boiling water and soluble 
in all parts of alcohol, ether and oil. Its antiseptic and physio¬ 
logical actions were discovered and investigated by Bouchard, 
who found that a strength of 1-3,000 solution was sufficient to 
arrest the growth of pathogenic cultures in an agar tube, and as 
it is practically non-poisonous (the toxic dose for a man being 
ten ounces) is, I think, a valuable remedy, which would be use¬ 
ful in diarrhoea, dysentery and influenza, where the alimentary 
track is involved. Kaposi recommends a solution in oil of one 
to 250 as highly useful in conjunctivitis, laryngitis, etc. In man 
it has been used with much success in la grippe, and in cases of 
influenza in our patients, might also prove of value, being ad- 
