CROTON OIL. 
§§ 631-633.] 
is a croton oil liniment containing three parts of croton oil to eleven 
of equal parts of oil of cajuput and rectified spirit. 
§ 631. Dose. —The oil is given medicinally as a powerful purgative 
in doses up to 65 mgrms. (about a grain). It is used externally as an 
irritant or vesicant to the skin. A very dangerous dose would be from 
fifteen to twenty times the medicinal dose. 
Effects. —-Numerous cases of poisoning from large doses of croton 
oil are recorded in medical literature, but the sufferers have mostly 
recovered. The symptoms are pain, and excessive purging and vomiting. 
In a case of a chemist, 1 who took half an ounce of impure croton 
oil instead of cod-liver oil, the purging was very violent, and he had 
more than a hundred stools in a few hours ; there was a burning pain in 
the gullet and stomach, the skin was cyanosed, the pupils dilated, and 
great faintness and weakness were felt, yet the man recovered. A child, 
aged four, recovered from a teaspoonful of the oil given by mistake 
directly after a full meal of bread and milk. In five minutes there were 
vomiting and violent purging, but the child was well in two days. A 
death occurred in Paris, in 1839, in four hours after taking two and 
a half drachms of the oil. The symptoms of the sufferer, a man, were 
those just detailed, namely, burning pain in the stomach, vomiting, and 
purging. Singularly enough, no marked change was noticed in the 
mucous membrane of the stomach when examined after death. An 
aged woman died in three days from a teaspoonful of croton-oil embro¬ 
cation ; in this case there were convulsions. 
In the case of Reg. v. Massey and Ferraud , 2 the prisoners were 
charged with causing the death of a man by poisoning his food with 
jalap and six drops of croton oil. The victim, with others who had 
partaken of the food, suffered from vomiting and purging ; he became 
better, but was subsequently affected with inflammation and ulceration 
of the bowels, of which he died. In this case it was not clear whether 
the inflammation had anything to do with the jalap and croton oil or 
not, and the prisoners were acquitted. In a criminal case in the United 
States^ a man, addicted to drink, was given, when intoxicated, 2 drachms 
of croton oil in a glass of whisky. He vomited, but was not purged, 
and in about twelve hours was found dead. The mucous membrane of 
the stomach and small intestines proved to be much inflamed, and in 
some parts eroded, and croton oil was separated from the stomach. 
§ 632. Post-mortem Appearances. —Inflammation of the stomach 
and intestines are the signs usually found in man and animals. 
§ 633. Chemical Analysis. —The oil may be separated from the con¬ 
tents of the stomach by ether. After evaporation of the ether, the 
blistering or irritant properties of the oil should be tested by placing a 
droplet on the inside of the arm. 
1 Revue de Therapeut., May 1881. 
2 Orfila, i. 108. 
