Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  > 
March,  1SS6.  j 
On  New  Pulmonary  Medicaments. 
143 
give  too  large  doses,  and  of  the  tincture,  from  five  to  ten  drops,  before 
each  of  the  principal  meals,  are  enough.  Notwithstanding  all  these 
precautions,  you  will  not  be  able  to  keep  up  this  treatment  more  than 
a  week  without  interruption,  for  the  patients  are  apt  to  experience  a 
burning  sensation  in  the  stomach,  which  results  from  the  local  irritant 
action  of  the  medicament.  It  is,  therefore,  chiefly  as  a  succedaneum 
of  iodide  of  potassium,  when  the  latter  cannot  be  well  borne,  that 
you  will  resort  to  euphorbia  pilulifera. 
Terpin  and  terpinol  fulfill  indications  absolutely  different,  and  are 
applicable  in  catarrhs  of  the  lungs.  In  my  Clinical  Therapeutics  I 
have  insisted  on  the  great  advantages  which  may  be  derived  from 
copaiba  in  the  treatment  of  pulmonary  catarrh,  but  this  medication 
can  have  but  limited  application;  for,  to  say  nothing  of  the  repug- 
nance which  many  patients  have  toward  copaiba,  and  its  unfortunate 
association  in  the  minds  of  most  people  with  gonorrhoea  (which  in- 
creases the  prejudice  against  it),  there  are  certain  unpleasant  physio- 
logical effects  often  attendant  on  its  use,  such  as  eructations,  diar- 
rhoea and  divers  cutaneous  eruptions,  which  militate  against  the  use- 
fulness of  this  drug. 
Therefore,  while  recognizing  how  happily  copaiba  modifies  expec- 
toration, it  is  only  in  hospital  practice  that  I  apply  this  excellent  med- 
icament to  the  treatment  of  pulmonary  catarrh.  I  believe  that  I  have 
found  in  terpinol  a  very  fortunate  substitute  for  copaiba,  and  one  which 
offers  all  the  advantages  of  the  latter  without  any  of  its  disadvantages, 
When  turpentine  is  distilled  in  presence  of  an  alkali,  there  is  ob- 
tained a  special  hydrocarbon  having  for  formula  C10H16 ;  this  is  tere- 
binthene,  which  undergoes  hydration,  and  thereupon  furnishes  a  white, 
solid,  crystalline  body,  which  is  the  bihydrate  of  terebinthene,  or  terpin. 
This  terpin,  in  presence  of  an  acid,  such  as  sulphuric  or  hydrochloric, 
is  transformed  into  an  oily  body,  to  which  has  been  given  the  name 
of  terpinol. 
Terpin  was  employed  for  the  first  time  in  therapeutics  by  Prof. 
Lepine,  of  Lyons,  and,  as  a  result  of  experiments  on  man  and  ani- 
mals, he  found  that  this  body  might  be  with  advantage  substituted 
for  turpentine,  and  that  it  acted  as  expectorant  and  diuretic ;  his  dose 
of  terpin  is  twenty  to  sixty  centigrams  (three  to  ten  grains).  We 
have  reproduced  in  our  service  the  trials  of  Prof.  Lepine,  and  our 
pupil,  Dr.  Guelpa,  has  interested  himself  particularly  in  this  under- 
taking.   Terpin  presents  a  real  inconvenience  in  its  slight  solubility, 
