VARIETIES. 
277 
Of the individual salts I only determined the acids quantitatively, as 
the material was not enough to do the same with the bases. In 1000 parts 
I found, 
Hydrochloric compounds . . 1.708 
Phosphoric compounds . 1.633 
Sulphuric acid compounds . . 2.29 
Poisoning oy Oleum Gaultherice. By Thomas J. Gallaher, M. D., of 
Pittsburg, Penn. — [In the Medical Examiner for June 1852, we find the 
details of a case of poisoning, where a child nine years of age swallowed, 
as near as could be ascertained, about half an ounce of the oil of winter- 
green, from which he recovered by treatment. We received it too late to 
be noticed at page 210. The concluding remarks of Dr. Gallaher are ex- 
tracted for the benefit of our readers. — Editor.] 
Remarks. — The principal object in reporting this case is to record the 
effects of the Oleum Gaultheriae upon the human subject, when given in 
an over dose. But few instances of poisoning from this article are on re- 
cord, and these are not accurately described, therefore the medicinal and 
toxicological properties of it are but imperfectly known. "Writers describing 
gaultheria attribute to it only aromatic and slightly astringent properties. 
Instances are mentioned of death from its use in large doses, from its 
causing inflammation of the stomach. 
The case above described clearly shows that this plant, or at least its 
essential oil, possesses more properties than are usually attributed to it. 
The peculiar symptoms which are produced by its specific action in this 
instance, were, 1st, great dulness of hearing, without a general disturbance 
of the cerebral functions ; 2, a slow, laborious and loud respiration, not 
stertorous ; 3, a most voracious appetite for food, accompanied by symptoms 
which indicated gastro-enteric inflammation. These symptoms plainly in- 
dicate that Oleum Gaultherise acts as a direct and powerful sedative, when 
given in an overdose, upon those nervous centres which govern the func- 
tions of hearing and respiration ; and that it is a powerful irritant to the 
gastro-enteric mucous membrane, with which it comes in contact, lighting 
up in it intense inflammation, which inflammation was accompanied by a 
peculiarly morbid condition of the gastric nerves, as evidenced from the great 
appetite with which it is attended. It does not appear to exert any specific 
influence over the cerebro-spinal centres generally, but only upon a few 
situated in the medulla oblongata. 
The Union Medicate states that 1812 there were 537 medical men practis- 
ing in Paris, whilst in 1851 there were 1,352, being an augmentation of 
815 in forty years. The population of Paris in 1812 was 547,756 inhabi- 
tants, or 1,018 persons for each medical man ; at present it is 900,000, or 
666 for each medical practitioner. — Ibid. 
