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fyftem to a greater degree of perfection. Thus the genus Samida formerly placed among the Dodecandria Monogynia is here brought into the fame order of the Decandrie clafs; the Schinus among the Decandria is removed from the Monogynia to the Tri- A gynia order; the Spondias from the Enneandria trigynia, to the Decandria pentagynia; the Bombax from the Polyandria monogynia to the Monadelphia pentandria; the Gundelia among the Syngenefia, from the Polygamia æqualis to the fruftrance of the fame clafs. The Zanthoxylum from the Pentandria to the Dicecra clafs; the Fevillea, on the authority B of Dr Brown, from the Monsecia Syngenefia, to the Diaecia pentandria; the Ciffampelos, from the Divecia bexandria to the Monadelphia of the fame clafs; the Apluda, from the

merit, when he faya: Nemo veros ftirpium caracteres adfpexit propius, nemo majores in rei berbariæ gratiam labores iniit, nemo denique mortalium per plurima fæcula tanta præftitits quot unus.ille Princeps Botanicorum, cujus eximia merita, æternumque nomen grata unquam non agnofcet pofteritas, nullaque inique livoris macula difipabit. Scopoli Pref. ad Flor. Carniolicum,

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An Account of the Oleum Palmæ Chrif ti, or Caftor Oil, a fafe and efficacious Cathartic in bilious Cafes, hitherto almoft wholly unknown; from a Differtation lately published by PETER CANVANE, M.D. Phyfician at Bath.

Tis univerfally allowed that no

Triandria to the Polygamia claís; the Clufia,thing is more wanted in the art of

from the Polyandria to the Polygamia claís i the Minofa genus from the Polyandria mono

healing, particularly in bilious cafes, than a vegetable purgative that will

gyna to the Polygamia monoecia claís; and Cat gently on the bowels in a small,

the Pifonia from the Dioccia pentandria to the Polygamia dioecia. Among these removes the most material, of which we have fpeci fied, we do not find that our author has taken notice of the Ilex Aquifolium, or holly, which ftands in his characters among the Tetrandria tetragynia; whereas the obfervations of Dr Martyn, Dr Waifon, and Mr D Miller, published in the Philo ophical Tranfactions, Vol. 48, p. 613, have proved that it hould have a place among the P.lygamia

tricetia:

Our author we obferve has has more occafion to make removes among the plants of the monoecia, dipecia, and polygamia claffes, than in any other part of his fyftem, which is not to be wondered at, fince obfervations have now confirmed it,that there are plants of thofe claffes which in their younger state have produced only male flowers, afterwards both male and female, and at length only female. Thefe confiderations, together with the great laceration which these claffes make in the natural fyftem, would almoft tempt one to wish that the genera had been difpofed among the other claffes as they should fall in, according to number and fituation of parts.

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It would be tedious were we to attempt to point out the many alterations and improvements the author has made in fubdi. viding the orders, the genera and species and in amending the leffer branches of the fyftem; it is fufficient to obferve that the prefent volume may be confidered as a most elaborate and compleat compendium of the science of botany, and we make no doubt will be received with great pleasure by the naturalifts of all nations, and particularly by those who are attached to the Linnaan scheme, the illuftrious author of which is H far above all praise that we can bestow, but we cannot help subscribing with great pleafure to that encom um which a late ingenipus author thinks to juftly due to his great

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quantity, with little or no irritation: Four of the fir medical characters now in the world have written on the cotica pictonum, or dry belly ache, Dr Huxham of Plymouth, Dr De Haen of Vienna, Dr Thierry of Paris, and Dr Tronchin of Amfterdam: Thefe gentlemen have unanimously agreed that the cure should be commenced with purgatives, but they knew no medicine of that claís appropriated to the purpofe; for thofe that operate principally by relaxing, if they are given in fuch quantities and form as feem beft to answer the intention, the dofe required is fo large that they will frequently be rejected by the stomach; and those that operate chiefly by irritation are justly dreaded and condemned, because they draw the bowels into fpafmodic contractions.

As the oleum palma chrifti is precifely the medicine required in this cafe, the making it known is a fingular fervice to mankind. Dr Carvane has used it 14 years, 7 in America, and 7 in Europe, and he folemnly affirms, that except the bark in intermittent fevers, he never met with a medicine of more certain effect.

The plant from which this oil is extracted is the Ricinus Americanus major, caule virefcente H. R. P. It is the Nhambu guacu of Pifo, and the Ricinus Americanus fructu rafemofo bifpido of Sir Hans Sloane.

It is called ricinus because it bears a feed like a tyke, of which ricinus is the Latin name: It is alfo called palme Chrifti because the leaves refemble the palm of the hand; it has by fome been quality, and by a corruption of this called agnus cafus, from its cooling

name its oil has been called caftor oil. We call it the great fpunge.

The plant grows as tall as a little tree, and is fo beautiful that Millar fays it deferves a place in every curi- A ous garden, and he planted it himself at Chelsea. It expands into many branches, the leaves are fometimes two feet in diameter, and the item as large as a middle fized broom staff; towards the top of the branch it has a cluster of flowers, fomething resembJing a bunch of grapes; the flowers are fmall and ftaminous, but on the body of the plant grow bunches of rough triangular husks, each con. taining three fpeckled feeds, generally fomewhat less than horfe beans; the fheil is brittle, and contains white kernels of a fweet, oily, and nauseous tafte.

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From this kernel the cil is extracted, C and if the medicine fhould become officinal, the feeds may be imported at a reasonable rate, as the plant grows wild and in great plenty in all the Britifb and French American islands.

The feeds of this plant were given by Hippocrates, but they were fometimes very violent in their operation; and it is very remarkable that oils ob tained by expreffion are mild and lenient, tho' the fubftances from which they are extracted are very acrimonious. Mustard feed, which is to acrid as to be cauftic, yields an oil by expreffion as mild as that of fweet almonds.

corrugation, they muft operare as laxatives.

Conftitutions that are dry and hot, atrabilious and troubled with the piles, will be purged by oily medicines when the ftrongest draftics will produce only anxieties, sweats, and vomittings, without purgation.

Caftor oil, though the moft efficacious in removing the dry belly-ache, and the iliac paffion, two of the most painful and dangerous diforders to which we are liable, yet is fo gentle that a tea spoonful has been given with fuccefs to infants, to lubricate the paffages, and expel the meconium.

It is of the greateft efficacy in clyfters, and when children cannot be made to fwallow any medicine, if the navel and hypochondria be rubbed with this oil, it will produce one or two phyfical tools.

Given in fmall draughts, or by clyfter, or by embrocation, it is an excellent and wonderful vermifuge: The very smell of the oil will purge fome very delicate and weakly children; and, indeed, as Boerhaave obferves, that part of a medicament which purges, D bears a very small proportion to the whole mafs: If euphorbium, or coloquintida, be diffolved in water, and the water be afterwards gently evaporated, fo as to leave them again dry, though the mafs will be scarce perceptibly lessened, yet they will have loft all the parts that rendered them purgative, and remain wholly unactive.

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The oil of the ricinus, or, as it is commonly called, caftor oil, is efficacious in all obftinate conftipations, Pound the kernels in a mortar, or and is a fovereign medicine in all bili-grind them in a mill, tie up the pounous, calculus, and nephritic com-ded mass in a ftrong thick new canplaints, in warm bilious conftitutions; but it does not fucceed fo well in cold phlegmatic habits.

The manner of obtaining the caftor (oil by expreffion is this:

vafs bag, and put it into a prefs between 2 iron plates, fqueeze it ftrongly, Fand the oil will run out in ftreams into the receiving veffel.

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It may be procured by decoction, but then it is by no means fo good.

The dofe is from two to three or four fpoonfulls for adults, in two fpoonfulls of pepper-mint water,or the Tinét. flgmacbica of the London Difpenfatory.

It has been observed of oils, that in a dyfentery they bind, but that in hypochondriacal affections they relax, and it has therefore been made a queftion whether they are laxative or aftringent: But the different effects in dyfenteries and hypochondriacs will be eafily accounted for, if we confider that the caufe of a dyfentery is fomething acrid that vellicates the fibres of the inteftines, and that mild oils obtunding the acids muit prevent the ir ritation, and fe operate as aftringents, but that in hypochondriacal affections H per mint water. the paffages of the intestines are dry and crifp, and their furfaces unequal and rough; and that as mild oils luhricate and remove the crifpinefs and See the plate hereto annexed.

It may be made into a potio alba by mixing two or three fpoonfulls with a fufficient quantity of the yolk of eggs to incorporate it thoroughly, and then adding two ounces of fimple, and two or three drachms of compound pep

It may be given to children mixed with boney.

The author treats of this medicine with respect to the dry belly-ache, to

fevers

fevers, bilious. complaints in general, the tetanus, or cramp, the gonorrhoea, and other diseases.

I. In the dry belly-acbe he fays the great point is to keep the belly open, that the noxious and irritating matter contained in the inteftinal canal may have a free paffage out of it. Dr Can vane's method, therefore, is first to open the body by an emolient clyfter as follows:

R Deco&t. comm. pro clyfter, uncias viii.
Ol. Ricin. uncias iii.
Sapon nigri unciam fs.
Vin. Antimonial turb. dragmas vi.
Afafoetid. (v.o. folut.) dragmas iii.
M. f. Enema fatim injiciendum & pro re
nata fing. noctib. repetend.

After this he gives a table-fpoonful of the oil, either with pepper-mintwater, or the tinct. fomachica, and repeats it every hour, or half hour, till it produces a ftool, which the 4th spoonful generally does if it remains upon the ftomach. If the ftomach will not keep it he gives two ounces of the infufion of ipecacuanha, drawn from a tea pot with boiling water (the quantity of the root he does not mention, confequently the ftrength of the infufion is not ascertained) this, he says, will act without much training, and better than the powder or tincture. If after two, or three pukes the naufea continues, fo that the oil cannot be kept on the ftomach, he gives a neu tral faline draught, with fimple and compound mint-water, in actu fermentationis fumendus; if this does not fucceed he repeats the fame draught with a fmall pill of a grain and an half of the Thebaic extract, to be repeated occafionally; this feldom fails to enable the ftomach to retain the oil till it has done its office.

The belly must be continued open by the following potio alba: R Aq. Menth. fimpl. fefquiunciam. Ol. Ricin. (v. o. folut) dragmas ii. Aq. Mentb. fpir. dragmas iii. Syr. Alib. dragmam i. M. f. bauft. 6a quoq, bora repetend. In the mean time the following anodyne bolus is to be freely given to take off the pain if it is great:

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fight, great weakness in the loins, a tingling or uneafy fenfation thro' the whole fubftance of the medulla spinalis, the doctor repeats the clyfter before defcribed, and orders blifters to the thighs and arms, and finapisms to the A foles of the feet, to be renewed every fix bours, and the following liniment: B Spir. volat. ammon. unciam i. Camph. in f. v. v. f. dragmas iii. Liniment vol. dragmas vi. Unq. Nervin unciam fs. Piffelai Indic.

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Ol. Palm. Chrift, aa unciam i. Balf. Peruvian uncias ii m. F. Linimentum quo illinatur dorfum & fpina dorfalis poft friĉitones.

At the fame time the Barbadoes tar is likewife to be taken inwardly, as there is nothing more likely to prethis diforder; and during the whole vent the paralyfis fo often attending time of the paroxyfm emolient embrocations of this oil, with fpirits of wine, and balfam of Peru, mult be often repeated, and cloths dipped in it must be applied, and tightly bound round the whole abdomen, to which bladders filled with warm water may be alfo applied with advantage.

After the pains are gone, the patient fhould carefully abstain from malt liquor, and every thing that is windy.

II. In Fevers. Fevers being nothing elfe than a struggle of nature to throw off the morbific matter they fometimes indicate one evacuation, fometimes another.

In low nervous fevers this oil will not fucceed, but in ardent and inflammatory fevers it has fucceeded when nitrous medicines and James's powders have failed, giving every other day two fpoonfulls of the oil, and in the intermediate days three or four fpoonfulls of the caftor emulfion every fix hours.

The caftor emulfion is made with fix or eight almonds, and one caftor mut ftripped of its pellicle, and boiled in a pint of water.

The Doctor fays, he has a fervant who was fome time ago taken with the worft fymptoms of an inflammatory fever and fore throat, but he had reafon to fufpect the pain in the throat to be gouty, because one night he had a pain in his great toe, during which the other pain abated. As he had been two or three days without a stool, the Doctor gave him two spoonfulls of caftor-oil in a little pepper-mint water, which produced four ftools; the next morning his fever left him, and

he

64 Account of the Oleum Palmæ Chrifti, or Caftor-Oil.

he had a regular fit of the gout, which lafted ten days, and which he had not had for many years before..

The Doctor fays, he has feen this oil cure the bilious yellow fever of the West Indies; first exhibiting an emetic, then the oil and emulfion occafionally, at the fame time giving diluting acids, which, efpecially in the beginning, are of great fervice,

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III. Bilious diforders in general, or diforders that arife from a vitiated bile, are more effectually relieved by this oil than any other medicine, as B no medicine does in the fame degree cool, purge, and correct the acrimony of that humour.

IV. The aphtha,thrush, or fare mouth. This diforder is chronical and acute; the chronical has been known only within a few years; it is endemial in warm climates, and feldom or ne ver seen in cold ones, except brought thither by the patient.

The acute, which is well known in Europe, is commonly attended with a fever.

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The cause of the chronical aphtha is an acrid lymph, turned at length D upon the whole inteftinal tube. To cure this the Dr vomits with 15 grains of ipecacuanha in fubftance, and next day gives a full dofe of the caftor-oil, to be afterwards occafionally repeated in fuch proportions as fhall be thought proper; After this the workings and efforts of nature should not be difturbed by too frequent purges, fince the end is better anfwered by gentle diaphoretics and tempering emulfions prepared with almonds, and a small quantity of poppy-feed. The patient, during the whole cure, should take every morning and evening a pint of warm milk, in which an ounce of mutton fuet has been melted; this will alfo perform miracles in the dy fentery. When the patient complains of pains in the fhoulders and feet, a perpetual blißer applied to the part affected is of great fervice.

When the aphtha has refifted the caftor oil, ipecacuanha, and rhubarb, it has often yielded to forrel whey and vinegar whey. The following topical application, where the aphthe can be touched, is almost infallible :

Mel, rofar. uncias ii.

Borac dragma iii.
Sp. Vitriol, dragmas ii.
Probably, fays the doctor, if this
compofition was well diluted and con-
veyed into the ftomach and intestines,

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it would be as efficacious as forrel or
vinegar whey.

V. The tetanus. This is a continual
and involuntary contraction and ri-
gidity of all or most of the muscles in
the human body. The Doctor has
cured it by fomenting the præcordia,
jaws, neck, and 1pine, with warm ca-
ftor-oil, and Barbadoes tar, then giving
two or three fpoonfulls of the oil, with
a clyfter of the fame, repeating every
three or four hours emolient fermen-
tations, and anointing the parts af-
fected; after which he has recourfe to
musk and opium, having given to za
; but
grains of opium in 20 hours
gives emolient relaxing clyfters with
the caftor-oil every day to prevent
coftiveness.

After the cure the bark and antiepileptics fhould be perfifted in for fome time.

A courfe of warm tar-water taken by half a pint morning and evening, cured a woman of the crimp, which had afflicted her feveral years.

VI. Calculous complaints. Dr Mead was of opinion that the calculus was a tartar formed in the kidneys by a preternatural coagulation; and that the proximate caufe of the difeafe is a tartarous falt conveyed out of the blood into the fmall ducts of the kidneys. This notion of the difeafe indicates two intentions of cure; r. to prevent the falts from shooting into chrystals; 2. to keep the chrystal from coalefcing into a tone. To prevent the chryftalization of the falts, lixivial falts, or the lees of foap feem to be extreamly proper: To prevent the coalefcence of the chryitals, oily medicines are peculiarly adapted, and of thefe the castor oil is most efficacious, The treatment of the ftone is very different in the fit and out of it. In the fit the inflammation is to be taken off the parts by bleeding, and by emolient and turpentine clyfters with caf.. tor oil, the fame oil taken internally and warm baths. After the fit re

courfe must be had to lithontriptics and diuretics. The lixivium faponaceum diluted in ale or veal broth, and the castor oil blended, have cured, fays the Doctor,many calculous complaints. He adds, that Dr Chittick's medicine, which he believes to be foap lees (fee H Vol. xxxIII. p. 471. and Fol. xxxiv. p. 207, 331.) never performed any cure but what the caftor-oil in the fit, and the lixivium out of it has executed and will execute.

Out of the fit the Doctor gives twice a week

a week two or three spoonfulls of the oil, and in the intermediate days gives at firit to drops of the lixivium in a pint of ale, or veal broth.

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Sometimes he gives instead of it the oyster-fhell lime water, and he adds, that lime water is a powerful remedy against mifcarriages in wo. men. The Dr is of opinion that the caftor-oil has a lithontriptic quality. . For the fake of those who greatly diflike its smell and rafte, a few drops of the oil of rofes, or a few fpoonfuls of rofe-water may be added in the beating up the feeds or nuts into a pafte. This will rarify the oil, facili-B tate its extraction, add to its colour, and correct its tafte. This is a fecret first communicated by Dr Weftmacott in his Scripture Herbal, in the use of the expreffed oil of sweet and bitter almonds.

The Doctor takes this opportunity C to acquaint his Weft Indian readers, that they have an excellent medecine for all gravelly complaints in what is called the bottle cod root, a fpecies he fuppofes of the raphanus, or raphanoidos, which has all the pungency of the raphanus, or borse radish, and all the mucilaginous property of the marfhmallows.

VII. Gonorrhea and fluor albus. In

thefe disorders caftor-oil will not only purge but mend the habit; it will prove an excellent balfamic, and may be taken combined with aromatics, and in fome cafes with calomel.

Women who are thin and apt to be coftive are often miferably afflicted by an obstruction from an indurated matter in the colon, perceptible even to the touch, and fometimes mistaken for the placenta, or the spleen: This' obftruction can be removed only by lenient porges, for if draftics are giv en, vomitings, cholics, and hysterics will enfue. In this cafe a spoonful of caftor oil taken by the mouth, and four or five (poonfulls thrown up in the form of a clyfter, will certainly expel the infarction.

In gonorrheas it anfwers the fame end as capivi.

In all pectoral and confumptive cafes it is the best and fofteft purge that can be taken. In the Weft Indies the patient fhould at the fame time take an infufion or decoction of the wild liquorish, or bead-vine, sweetened with the fyrup of calabash.

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We have nothing in Europe comparable to the laft medicine in confump-: tive cafes.

The caftor-oil given in small quan(Gent. Mag. FEB. 1765.)

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tities, and affifted by proper diluents, will become aperient and deobftruent, and may be rendered either fudorific or diuretic; its ufe, therefore, in many chronical cafes is evident.

Lastly, the caftor-oil is an excellent purge in the gout, and has been used externally in dropfical cafes with fuccefs, for rubbed over the abdomen, after a few draftics, especially the e laterium, it has produced a great and fudden difcharge of urine.

Upon the whole, it is not the dector's intention that this medicine fhould be confidered as a catholicon. It will, like all others, be excellent or otherwife, as it is well or ill applied.

Perfons afflicted with bilious diforders, acute fevers, inflammatory dif eafes, and all of warm bilious conftitutions, will find great benefit from the use of it. On the contrary, perfons afflicted with cold diforders, cachexia, leucophlegmatia, and dropfi. cal complaints fhould by no means take it, for in thofe diforders and conftitutions it will caufe fpafms, and fometimes convulfions.

Some Account of a Work lately published,
entitled, A Revifal of SHAKESPEAR'S
Text.

TH
HIS is an attempt to restore the
text of Shakespeare where it has.
been injured, not only by the igno
rance or negligence of editors, or
printers, but by the innovations of
critics. The author fays, he has care-
fully collated Mr Pope's and Mr Tib-
bald's editions, has confidered the cri-
ticifms of Dr Warburton, now Bishop
of Gloucefter, the remarks of Mr Upton,
Mr Johnson's remarks on Macbeth, and
Tibbald's Shakespeare reflored, with fome
pieces of lefs importance.

Where the text is obfcure, and fupposed therefore to be corrupt, he has admitted fuch emendations as appeared to him to reitore the true reading, when any fuch were to be found; when they were not, he has endea voured to fupply the defect by conhas appeared to him to have been un jectures of his own, and when the text juftly charged with obfcurity, he has defended it from alterations, by fhewing that no alteration was neceffary.

The following specimens may both entertain the reader, and enable him to form a judgment of this work. TEMPEST. Act I: Scene 2. (The old reading.).

like one

Who baving, into truth, by telling of it,
Made fuch a finner of his memory,
To credit his own lie, he did believe
He was, indeed, the duke,

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