Page:Treatise on poisons in relation to medical jurisprudence, physiology, and the practice of physic (IA treatiseonpoison00chriuoft).pdf/701

 may not have been observed; but so far as they have been witnessed, they establish its claim to be considered a narcotic and acrid poison. Its effects appear to be singularly uncertain: at least they are very discrepant; and the reason for this is not apparent.

Its narcotic effects are well exemplified in an account given by Mr. Alexander from personal experience, and by Dr. Edwards of Paris, as they occurred in a patient of his who received a camphor clyster.

Mr. Alexander, in the course of his experiments on his own person with various drugs, was nearly killed by this poison, and has left the best account yet published of its effects in dangerous doses on man. After having found, by a previous experiment, that a scruple did not cause any particular symptom, he swallowed in one dose two scruples mixed with syrup of roses. In the course of twenty minutes he became languid and listless, and in an hour giddy, confused, and forgetful. All objects quivered before his eyes, and a tumult of undigested ideas floated through his mind. At length he lost all consciousness, during which he was attacked with strong convulsive fits and maniacal frenzy. These alarming symptoms were dispelled, on Dr. Monro, who had been sent for, accidentally discovering the subject of his patient's experimental researches, and administering an emetic. But a variety of singular mental affections continued for some time after. The emetic brought away almost the whole camphor which had been swallowed three hours before.

In Dr. Edwards's patient, the symptoms were excited by an injection containing half a drachm of camphor. In a few minutes he felt a camphrous taste, which was followed by indescribable uneasiness. On then going down stairs for assistance, he was astonished to feel his body so light, that he seemed to himself to skim along the floor almost without touching it. He afterwards began to stagger, his face became pale, he felt chilly, and was attacked with a sense of numbness in the scalp. On then taking a glass of wine, which he asked for, he became gradually better; but for some time his mind was singularly affected. He felt anxious, without thinking himself in danger; he shed tears, but could not tell why; they flowed in fact involuntarily. For twenty-four hours his breath exhaled a camphrous odour.

Hoffmann has related a case analogous to those of Alexander and Edwards. The dose was two scruples taken in oil; the symptoms vertigo, chilliness, anxiety, delirium, and somnolency.

These cases would seem to indicate very considerable activity; yet there can be little doubt that even larger doses have been at times taken with much less effect. Thus, from an account given by Dr. Eickhorn of New Orleans, of its operation on himself, when incautiously swallowed to the amount of two drachms in frequent small doses within three hours, it would appear that the only result was great heat, palpitation, hurried pulse, and pleasant intoxication,