666 CAM 
CAMPfiA'CHY (Bay of), a bay in the gulf of Mex¬ 
ico, on the Couth weft coad of Yucatan, and north of Ta- 
bafco. It takes its-name from the town of Campeachy. 
CAMPEA'CHY-WOOD,/. See H.imatoxylum. 
CAM'PEL TRE'VE, a town in France, in the de¬ 
partment of the Ille and Vilaine, and chief place of a canton 
in the did riel of Redon : 5^ leagues fouth-weft of Rennes. 
CAM'PEN, a town of the United Dutch States, fitu- 
ated on the weft fide of the river Kiel, near its mouth. It 
is large and handfome, fir ft built in the year 1286, and for¬ 
tified in the old manner. Among the public buildings, the 
mod remarkable are the town-houfe, and the churches of 
St. Nicholas and Notre Dame. It was formerly a place of 
great trade, but the port is now much choaked up by fand ; 
it is governed by ten echevins, four counfellors, and twenty- 
eight perfons named gemynts-luyden ; and has the privi¬ 
lege of coining money. Campen joined the confederacy in 
1578; it was taken by Chridopher Bernard de Galeau, 
bifhop of Munffer, the 23d of July, 1672, but was very 
foon after redored to the States: fifteen leagues north-cad 
of Amderdam, and thirteen north of Arnheim. 
CAMPENEAC', a town of France, in the department 
of Morbihan, and chief place of a canton, in the didridt of 
Ploermel : one league and a halfead of Ploermel. 
CAMPES'TRAL, adj. £ campejlris , Lat.] Growing in 
fields.—The mountain beech is the whited : but the cam- 
pejtral ,or wild beech, is blacker and more durable. Mortivicr. 
CAM'PI-fIRE, or CamThor-wood, and Campho'- 
Ra, in botany. See Laurus. 
C AMPES'TRE,y! a fort of cover forthe privities, worn 
by the Roman ioldiers in their field-exercifes ; being girt 
under the navel, and hanging down to the knees. The 
name is fuppofed to be formed from campus , the field, or 
place where the Roman foldiers performed their exercifes. 
CAM'PHI^il,^ [froniTistO caphura, Arab.] A very lin¬ 
gular vegetable iubdance, chiefly produced in the iflands 
of Sumatra and Borneo, in Japan and China, and in the pro¬ 
vince of Surinam in South America. It isextrafted prin¬ 
cipally from the roots, wood, and leaves, of the laurus 
oamphora, laurus cinnatnomum, &c. The method condfls 
in diddling with water in large iron pots, ferving as the 
body of a (fill, with earthen heads adapted, duffed witli 
draw, and provided with receivers. Moil of the camphor 
becomes condenfed in the folid form among the draw, and 
part comes over with the water. It is faid by fome to be 
fublimed without water; but Neumann thinks, perhaps 
without foundation, that filch" treatment would give an 
empvreumatic fmell to the.camphor. The rough camphor, 
as imported, refembles crude nitre, or bay-falt. It is im¬ 
ported in caniders. 
The refining of camphor was long a fecret with the Vene¬ 
tians, at the time when mod of the commodities of the Ead 
w ere brought into Europe by that people. The Hollanders 
have fince appropriated to themfelv.es this manufadhire. 
Neumann mentions one of the larged refineries at Amder¬ 
dam, in which werefifty furnaces, all managed by women. 
He was permitted to fee the whole operation, except the 
charging of the veffels. The fublimation was performed 
in low flat-bottomed glafs veffels, placed in (and ; and the 
camphor became concrete in a pure (fate againft the upper 
part, whence it was feparated with a knife, after breaking 
the glafs. Lewis, in a note on this padiige, afferts, that 
no addition is requifite in the purification of camphor; but 
that the chief point canfifts in managing the fire, fo that the 
upper part of the veffel may be hot enough to bake the 
fublimate together into a kind of cake. He thinks it more 
commodious to diffolve the crude camphor in ardent fpi- 
rit, and, after decantation or filtration, to didil off the fpirit, 
and fufe the camphor into a cake in a glafs veffel. Chaptal 
fays, the Hollanders mix an ounce of quicklime with every 
pound of camphor previous to the diffillation. 
Purified camphor is a white, concrete, cryffalline, ftib- 
dance, not brittle, but ealily crumbled, having a peculiar 
confidence refembling that of fpermaceti, but harder. It 
has a ft long lively fmell, and an acrid lade ; is fo volatile 
3 
CAM 
as totally fo exhale, when left expofed in a warm air ; is 
light enough to fwimon water ; and is very inflammable, 
burning with a very white flame and fmoke, without any 
refidue. The roots of zedoary, thyme, rofemary, fage, 
the inula helenium, the anemony, and other vegetables, 
afford camphor by didillation. It is obfervable, that alt 
thefe plants afford a much larger quantity of camphor, 
when the dip has been differed to pafs to the concrete date, 
by feveral months drying. Thyme and peppermint, flowlv 
dried, afford much camphor ; and M. Achard has obferved 
that a fmell of camphor is. difengaged, when volatile oil 
of fennel is treated with acids. The combination of diluted 
nitrous acid with the volatile oil of anife afforded him a 
large quantity of crydals, that poffeffed mod of the pro¬ 
perties of camphor ; and he obtained a fimilar precipitate 
by pouring the vegetable alkali upon vinegar faturated 
with the volatile oil of angelica. From all thefe fadfs, 
Chaptal concludes, that the bafe of camphor forms one of 
the condituent parts of fome volatile oils, in which it exids 
in the liquid date, and does not become concrete but by 
combining with vital air. 
Camphor is not foluble in water in any perceptible de¬ 
gree, though it communicates its fmell to that fluid, and 
may be burned as it floats upon its furface. It has been 
obferved by Romieu, that fmall pieces of camphor floating 
on water have a rotary motion, which he aferibes to.elec¬ 
tricity. Ardent fpirit, ethers, and oils, diffolve camphor 
very plentifully. The former of thefe dilfolves much more 
by heat, though when cold it takes up three-fourths of its 
own weight. The furplus taken up by heat is feparated, 
in crydals of a plumofe form, by cooling. Nitrons acid, 
which afts fo violently on efl’ential oils as to caufe inflam¬ 
mation, didolves camphor without producing heat or agi¬ 
tation. The camphor becomes fluid, and floats on the 
furface of the acid like oil, and has been called oil of cam¬ 
phor. Neumann fays it combines with the mod concen¬ 
trated part of the acid. The vitriolic a-cid unites alfo with 
camphor, forming a coloured fluid, which at length be¬ 
comes of a dark reddifh brown colour. Other acids alfo 
diffolve it. Alkalis precipitate -it heavier, harder, and 
much lefs combudible. The addition of water to the fpi- 
rituous or acid dilutions of camphor inflantly feparates it. 
Camphor may bt powdered, by moiflening it with fpirit 
of wine, and triturating it till dry. It may be formed into 
an emulfion, by previous grinding with near three times 
its weight of almonds, and afterwards gradually adding 
the water. Yolk of egg and mucilages are alfo effectual 
for this purpofe, but fiugar does not anfwer fo well. When 
nitrous acid is diftilled repeatedly in large quantities from 
camphor, it converts it into a peculiar acid. M. Kolc- 
garten diftilled this acid eight times from it, and obtained 
a fait in parallelopipedons, which reddened fyrup of violets 
and the tindlure of turnfole. Its fade is bitter, and it 
differs from the acid of l'ugar more particularly in not pre¬ 
cipitating lime from marine acid. This peculiar acid 
forms, with vegetable alkali, a fait in hexagonal crydals; 
with mineral alkali, irregular crydals; with volatile alkali, 
needle.formed and prifmatic cryftals; and with magnefia, 
ia white pulverulent fait. It dilfolves copper, iron, bif- 
muth, zinc, arfenic, and cobalt. The folution of iron 
affords a yellowifli white infolu.ble powder. With man- 
ganefe it forms cryftals with parallel fides, fomewhat re¬ 
fembling bafaltes. 
Camphor is known to be good, if when it is put upon 
hot bread it turns moift ; if it becomes dry, it is bad. It 
fliould be kept clofe in a bottle or a bladder, not to pre¬ 
vent it from lofing its quality, but to preferve the whole 
of it from exhaling away. As camphor is fo extremely 
ufeful a medicine in a variety of cafes, it is neceffary to 
give its effedf on the human machine in the, cleared point 
of view we are able. And fird, the quedion is,' whether 
its powder is of a dimulant or fedative nature ? Dr. Cullen 
feems clearly to have proved the lad, when taken intotha 
domach : externally it is certainly dimulant; for when 
received into the mouth it has an acrid fade, and, though 
