Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/147

 O I L

O I L

our common china ware any degree of perfection, but ObferV' de 1' Afie. in the materia medica, the

tfot ring when ftruck upon does. We feldom fee this in it is very elegant when fine. Oil of the earth, oleum terrtv,

name of a thick mineral fluid of a dufky brownifh black, with a faint eaft of purple, and of the confidence of a thin fyrup, very little tranfparent, and of a ftrong pene- trating fmeli, like that of common lit of amber. It ouzes out of the cracks of rocks, in feveral parts of the ifland of Sumatra, and fome other parts of the Eaft Indies, and is much efteemed there in paralytic diforders ; but it is fel- dom imported into England, what our Eaft India furgeons and captains ui'ually bring over under this name, being on- ly a vegetable oil impregnated with the virtues of certain of their foffils by boiling. Hill's Hift. of EoiT 410. Oils infiammable tvith adds. See Inflammability, Oil of olives. The oil of olives having been publickly declared in England to be a certain remedy for the bite of a viper, the perfon who made the difcovery having fuffcred himfclf to be dangeroufly bitten, and recovered not only himfclf, but feveral animals bitten at the fame time, by this remedy alone, and that before a number of perfons of the greateft eminence i medicine, the royal academy at Paris were determined to give the oil a number of fair trials, and determine, beyond controverfy, a point of fo great importance, as whether this oil was, or was not, a remedy for this terrible poifon. Thefe experiments they have related in their memoirs; to thefe they have added the ftate of the bodies of animals, when opened, after they had cied of thefe bites; and to thefe they have fubjoiued fomc very ufeful reflexions. They occaiioncd feveral pigeons, fome voung chickens, two cocks, a goofe, a turkey, two cats, and eight dogs, to be bitten by vipers ; in examining the wounded part, there ufually appeared at firft only two little red fpots, though fometimes a imall quantity of blood, and very foon afterwards there began to appear a tumor, which, by degrees, encreafed and extended over the neighbouring parts. The creatures were bit in the thigh, or leg, and the whole limb foon after be came livid, and the fwelling, and colour, extended thence over the lower part of the belly ; and this was commonly followed by vomiting, and convuliions. The birds often bent their necks forward a3 if to vomit, and threw up only a quan- tity of phlegm, and death ufually foon followed thefe fym- ptoms.

Of four pigeons which were bitten by four different vipers at the fame time, and to which nothing was done to prevent thi effect of the poifon, they all died in a quarter of an hour, half an hour, or at the utmoft, a little more than an hour. Two other pigeons were bitten, and about three minutes afterwards the parts wounded were rubbed with oil of olives warmed ; but notwithftanding this, they both died, the one in twenty-five minutes, the other in an hour and half. Two other pige ons were bitten after this, and the wounded parts immedi ately rub'd with oil of olives, made very hot, without heat- ing the part ; the one of thefe died in fifteen minutes, and the other in an hour and half. Thefe had all been bitten on the thigh. They next caufed a pigeon to be bitten on the wing. and applied the oil immediately, but the bird died in five mi- nutes.

After this, eight pullets were bitten on the thigh. No appli- cation was made to any of thefe, they all fhewed the marks of being bitten, yet two of them cfcaped alive. Of the others, one lived an hour ; two that had been bitten, both by the fame viper, perifhed ; that which was firft bitten, in an hour, the other in an hour and a quarter ; and the other three, which were bitten by a viper which had, before that, bitten anothe. animal, perifhed ; the firft in an hour, the fecond in about feven hours, and the third in an hour and half. Eight other pullets were afterwards bitten by vipers, and the hot oil was applied to the wounded part at different times af- terwards, but none were fuffered to remain longer than ten minutes without it. Of thefe animals, three were faved ; th others died in a very little time : notwithftanding the applica- tion of the oil, one of them only excepted, which lived to the day after, but then died. Six other pullets were firft rub'd over with oil on the part in- tended to be bitten ; and, after the bite, the oil was carefully applied hot to the part feveral tim-.s ; but notwithftandingthis, they all died. One of them lived fix hours, but the others all penihed in a very lhort time after they received the podon.

Two large cocks were next bitten ; to one of them the oil was applied foon after he received the wound ; but he, notwith- ftanding, died in three hours. The other cock had not the ah applied, but an aitual cautery was brought near the wound, and held there about three minutes ; this creature perifhed alio in about two hours.

A goofe was next bit by a viper, and the bite feeming doubt- ful whether it had penetrated farther than the (kin, another viper was made to bite it a fecond time ; the oil was applied immediately afterwards to the wound, and the application con- tinned a long time with frequent repetitions ; but, notwith- standing this, the ufual fymptoms appeared, and the creature died ,n two hours and a quarter. A large turkey was next Supi'L. Vol. II.

bitten, and the two firft bites appearing dubious, he was wounded a third time; the oil was applied in time, and re- peated many times; but, notwithftanding this, the ufual fymptoms appeared, but after about three hours they abated, and the creature continued out of order for three days, and fi- nally recovered.' Eleven days afterwards the fame turkey was again bitten by a viper, and no application was made ; he was fick again for about two days, but at the end of 'that time he recovered.

A young kitten was bit on the nofe by a viper ; the oil was applied, and the creature was well the next day. A grown cat was bitten by four vipers, and the oil was applied ; the creature made her efcape, but fhe was feen alive afterwards. Eight dogs were bitten, fome on the thigh, fome on the nofe, and others under the belly. Three of thefe had no applica- tion made to them ; a tumor, and lividnefs fucceeded the bite, but they all recovered, as well as the other dogs who were rub'd with the oil ; one of thefe was a young puppy. The laft dog that was bitten was of the Danifh breed, and was very large, though but two months old ; ke was bitten by feveral vipers, and that in feveral parts, and the application of the oil was not made till after an hour and half. The tumors on the bitten parts growing very large, there were fcarificitions made in them, and hot oil poured into them. The creature fhewed many figns of convulfions; his breath grew hard, his limbs failed him, he vomited, and purged, and, in fine, he died about eight-and-forty hours after the biting, notwithftanding this clofe application of the oil.

From thefe experiments, there is little credit to be given to this boafted remedy. The pigeons which were bitten by vipers all died, notwithftanding all that could be done by it; the article of the pullets is not at all more favourable to it; fome having efcaped to which it was applied, and others died ; and of thofe which were bitten, and had no application made to them, fome alfo lived ; and the oil was found to produce no good eff.-ct in a great many others in the fame circumftanc.es. The turkey which lived with the application of the oil, we find could live alfo without it; and though fome dogs lived which were bathed with oil after the bite, fome alfo lived to which nothing was applied, and the oil, with all favourable circum- ftances, we fee, could not cure the Danifh dog : fo that, up- on the whole, if the oil be a remedy for the bite of a viper it is, at leaft, a doubtful one, and far from the infallible cure it was fuppofed to be.

The great inftance of the man's being recovered who was bitten on purpofe to try the experiment, is far from proving the oil an infallible remedy, iince he had other remedies ad- miniftered to him, and there have been feveral inftancci of men being cured by thefe without the application of the oil. And it is to be obferved, that the bite of a viper is not al- ways certain death to a man, if he ufe no remedies at all but that many have recovered, notwithftanding that the fym- ptoms which afie£ted that perfon have appeared upon them. We fee very plainly by the before recited trials, that of feveral animals of the fame kind, bitten at the fame time by vipers lome have recovered, and others have died, and this equally when this fuppofed remedy was, or was not applied to them. And, in the fame manner, it may hap- pen to men, that of numbers who have been bitten, fome would recover, and others die, whether any means were ufed or not. Mcmoires Acad. Scienc. Par. 1737. See the article Poison. Oil of fajfafras. Many of the vegetable Is obtained by diftil- lation, will be found, under certain circumftances, to approach to camphor. The oil of thyme may be cryftallized, accord- to a procefs of Mr. Newman's, who calls it, in that, camphor a thymi. Phil. Tranf. N^ 479. p. 379.

The oil of faffafras is peculiarly liable to cryftallization in certain circumftances, and that into the molt beautiful forms. Mr. Maud gives an account of a quantity of this oil, which having flood expofed to the air in a very frofty nicht in an open vefl'el, was in the morning found changed three parts in four of it into very beautiful and large cryftals : they were of an hexagonal form, very tranfparent, and of three or four inches in length, and half an inch in thicknefs. Thefe cryftals fubfided in witer, and were ii-.diffoluble in it ; they were readily inflammable at the fire, and were reduced by heat to their priftine fluid ftate : hence it is evident that they ftill retain the natural qualirie; of an oil, though they appear under fo very different a modification of their parts. What is moil remarkable in this change, is, the metamorphofis of a fluid to a folid body, of fo determinate and regular a fi- gure, and that thefe cryftals fhould be perfectly clear and colourlefs, though the liquor from which they froze, was of a yellowifh colour, not unlike that of Madeira wine. This feem- to afford a new inftance of cryftallization, which is generally accounted for by the particles of a fluid, or thofe of any other body fufpended in a fluid, being brought nearer by cold, and, at length, coming within the fphc-re of each other's attraction, unite together into an immediate comaS. This oil being a very heavy fluid, much heavier than water, is the more likely thus to unite, as its parts are nearer together. This may be a hint to the curious to difcover wherein confifts the difference of folidity and fluidity ; and it likewife fhews K k how