ig 2 poisons: their effects and detection. [§§ 238 , 239 . 
the other hand, it resembles carbolic acid in its reactions with ferric 
chloride and with nitric and sulphuric acids. 
§ 238. Creasote or Kreozote is a term applied to the mixture of crude phenols 
obtained from the distillation of wood-tar. It consists of a mixture of substances 
of which the chief are guaiacol or oxycresol (C v H 8 0 2 ), boiling at 200°, and creasol 
(CsHioCb), boiling at 217° ; also in small quantities phlorol (C 8 H 10 O), methyl creasol 
(C 9 H 12 0 2 ), and other bodies. Morson’s English creasote is prepared from Stockholm 
tar, and boils at about 217°, consisting chiefly of creasol; it is not easy, by mere 
chemical tests, to distinguish creasote from cresylic acid. Creasote, in its reactions 
with sulphuric and nitric acids, bromine and gelatin, is similar to carbolic and cresylic 
acids, and its solubility in most solvents is also similar. It is, however, distinguished 
from the tar acids by its insolubility in Price’s glycerin, specific gravity 1-258, whether 
1, 2, or 3 volumes of glycerin be employed. But the best test is its action on an 
ethereal solution of nitro-cellulose. Creasote mixes freely with the B.P. collodium, 
while cres3dic acid or carbolic acid at once coagulates the latter. With complicated 
mixtures containing carbolic acid, cresol, and creasote, the only method of applying 
these tests with advantage is to submit the mixture to fractional distillation. 
Fliickiger 1 tests for small quantities of carbolic acid in creasote, by mixing a 
watery solution of the sample with one-fourth of its volume of ammonia hydrate, 
wetting the inside of a porcelain dish with this solution, and then carefully blowing 
bromine fumes on to the surface. A fine blue colour appears if carbolic acid is present; 
but if the sample consists of creasote only, then it is a dirty green or brown. Excess 
of bromine spoils the reaction. 2 
§ 239. Carbolic Acid in Organic Fluids or in the Tissues of the 
Body. —If the routine process given at page 51, where the organic 
fluid is distilled in a vacuum after acidifying with tartaric acid, is 
employed, phenol or cresol, if present, will certainly be found in the 
distillate. If, however, a special search be made for the acids, then the 
fluid must be well acidified with sulphuric acid, and distilled in the 
usual way. The distillation should be continued as long as possible, 
and the distillate shaken up with ether in the apparatus figured at 
page 166. On separation and evaporation of the ether, the tar acids, 
if present, will be left in a pure enough form to show their reactions. The 
same process applies to the tissues, which, in a finely divided state, are 
1 Arch, der Pharmacie, cxiii. 30. 
2 Creasote is, without doubt, poisonous, though but little is known of its action, 
and very few experiments are on record in which pure creasote has been employed. 
Eulenberg has studied the symptoms in rabbits, by submitting them to vaporised 
creasote i.e. the vapour from 20 drops of creasote diffused through a glass shade 
under which a rabbit was confined. There was at once great uneasiness, with a watery 
discharge from the eyes, and after seven minutes the rabbit fell on its side, and was 
slightly convulsed. The cornea was troubled, and the eyes prominent; a white slime 
flowed from the mouth and eyes. After fifteen minutes there was narcosis, with 
lessened reflex action ; the temperature was almost normal. There was rattling 
breathing, and in half an hour the animal died, the respiration ceasing, and fluid 
blood escaping from the nose. Section after death showed the brain to be hypersemic, 
the mucous membranes of the air-passages to be covered with a thin layer of fluid 
blood, and the lungs to be congested ; the right side of the heart was gorged with 
fluid blood. 
The post-mortem appearances and the symptoms generally are, therefore, closely 
allied to those produced by carbolic acid. A dark colour of the urine has also been 
noticed. 
