Eucalyptus Globulus

[FEVEE TEEE. NATUEAL OEDEE, MYETACEiE.]

Of the one hundred and thirty-four members of the eucalyptus family, this is one of the noblest. It is, like nearly all of its rela- tives, a native of Tasmania and Australia, and stands prominent among its fellows for its gigantic proportions, reaching, in some in- stances, a height of three hundred feet and a circumference of more than thirty feet. Its foliage is thin and oddly twisted. The leaves are green with a bluish tint, are thick, have a well-marked nervule running through the centre, are shaped like a spear, strongly curved, and possess an aromatic, camphor-like odor.

The wood, which is

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very hard and so valuable that it is exported for ship-building, exhales a similar aroma.

It is said that some forty-five years ago, illness obliged an officer of the English navy to put into Botany Bay, where he witnessed some very remarkable cures performed with the eucalyptus; com- municating his experience to some French physicians, the attention of the medical world was called to its remarkable efficacy in some peculiar fevers, resulting at last in the general acceptance of the belief, that the very culture of the tree improves, to a surprising degree, the sanitary condition of low, marshy, miasmatic districts.

Experiments on a large scale have been made, with a view of test- ing this. In various parts of the world, thousands of trees have been planted in low and swampy spots, noted for the constant occurrence of malignant fevers ; these experiments have been moderately suc- cessful. It is said that at the Cape this procedure has been fol- lowed by a speedy and notable improvement in the general health. In Algiers, some thirteen thousand trees were planted on the banks of a river where the air was truly pestilential ; and when the trees were only nine feet high, the inhabitants enjoyed perfect immunity from their old scourge.

In Cuba, Italy, in the neighborhood of Oonstantina and in various other places similar results were obtained.

The eucalyptus is a tree of exceedingly rapid growth, and thrives in poor soil. Its roots penetrate deep into the ground and by taking up the moisture which saturates the subsoil, do as effectual draining as can be done by an elaborate system of pipes or ditches. This alone is presumed to be an important consideration in planting large numbers of the tree in miasmatic districts.

Eucalyptus contains chlorophyl, resin, tannin, lime, alkaline sails and an essential oil, eucalyptol, which latter contains nearly all the active properties of the plant.

A moderate dose of eucalyptol, ten to twenty drops, at first accel- erates the pulse, produces general excitement, shown by irrisistiblo desire for moving about, and a feeling of buoyancy, increased appe- tite, strength and sexual desire. It is an intoxicating medicine, but, unlike opium or a large dose of alcohol, these effects are not fol- lowed by brutishness and torpor, but by a general calmness and soothing sleep. Intoxication is not constant ; often it only stimu- lates.

M. Gubler says, this excitement may amount to fever; and Gimbert believes that he has produced fever in a dog by subcutaneous injection. M. A.

Sicard suffered from a severe attack of migraine

after inhaling eucalyptol. In one case it produced cerebral conges- tion, with much excitement, and in another painful palpitation of the heart. This essential oil, however, rarely provokes these symp- toms, and in strong men only after ten or twelve drops, while five to six drops may produce them in nervous persons.

It affects animals as man. They become active, and their senses are made more acute. Excitement is followed by tranquility and lethargy. Arterial tension is diminished ; the temperature falls.

Circulation is stimulated by the action of the remedy on the sympa- thetic. Even moderate doses, if continued for some time, produce an asthenic state. The temperature falls a degree to a degree and a half below natural. The pulse becomes less frequent, and may fall to fifty beats per minute.

The senses (and the muscular sense) are blunted. The functions of the brain are unaffected, there is no stupor, and the size of the pupil is unaltered. The reflex functions k l the cord are depressed. These symptoms are more easily produced in old people, may excite alarm, but are without seriousness and are removed by a cup of coffee.

Eucalyptus, when fatal, kills by destroying the excito-motor functions of the cord ; the temperature also falls considerably. An old man with vesical catarrh took, by mistake, eighty drops of eucalyptol, which produced feelings of in- ternal heat and paralysis of the extremities. He had only an ob- jective consciousness of his extremities, and when he shut his eyes, he was unaware of their existence. When he wished to move his arms or legs they obeyed him imperfectly, the movement being feeble and disorderly.

The sphincters retained their tenacity. A cup of coffee removed these symptoms. (Dr. Kinger in London Medical Record.)

It has been claimed that a close similarity exists between quinine and eucalyptus, not only in their curative effects in intermittent fevers, but in their antiseptic action. To prove this, experiments were made, under the direction of Professor Binz, which demonstrated the fact that eucalyptus (the oil) prevents decomposition in albu- minous solutions or blood, and retards the growth of fungi in solutions of tartaric acid or tannin; it hinders alcoholic fermenta- tion much more than quinine does. Gimbert found, that after the injection of eucalyptol into a rabbit, the blood which was afterward drawn, did not decompose, and the body became mummified, but did not decay.

Dr. Fawcett, an Australian physician, took a decoction of the green leaves and obtained the following symptoms :

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First proving. — Eruptions on the skin of an herpetic character ; glandular enlarge- ments and foul, indolent ulcers. Tenderness and burning sensation, in the region of the stomach and bowels, with great heat in the rectum, which was followed by tenes- mus with discharge of mucus and great prostration. Violent purgation and haemor- rhage from the bowels ensued.

Second proving. — Rheumatic pains, jerking, tearing, stitching, worse at night. Burning sensation in the epigastric and umbilical regions, together with tormenting thirst, faintness, vertigo, dimness of sight; a sense of fulness in the head, with dull, frontal headache, a tightness across the bridge of the nose, as if profuse epistaxis would set in. In both upper and lower extremities, pricking sensations were first noticed and followed by painful aching in both arms and legs, together with a sense of fulness in the veins, and a stiff, weary sensation, as if too lazy to move.

Third proving. — Eruptions similar to those experienced during the first proving, together with swelling in different parts of the body. One below the nipple on the right side, about the size of a filbert, the seat of stabbing and darting pains.

The physiological school have used eucalyptus in the treatment of that class of diseases which would usually call for quinine, as fevers, neuralgia, ni^ht-sweats and malarial diseases generally. The dried leaves rolled up into a cigar, or crumbled and smoked in a pipe, have been recommended as highly efficient in relieving the suffocative spells of asthma and dyspnoea. Eucalyptus is probably homoeopathic to

INTERMITTENT FEVER, characterized by a dull congestive headache, with vertigo ; malaise ; rheumatic pains of a stiching character ; pain in the bowels ;

DIARRHCEA, with thin, watery stools, preceded by sharp pain in. the bowels ;

NEURALGIC AND RHEUMATIC PAINS of a malarial origin ;

RHEUMATISM, characterized by paroxysmal increase of the pulse, general malaise ; nodular swellings over the metacarpal and metatarsal joints.

The skin-symptoms, experienced by Dr. Fawcett, seem so well- marked that they might be utilized in the sick-room, as additional indications for the selection of the remedy, or in prompting its use in the treatment of foul, indolent, scrofulous ulcers, characterized by and depending upon disturbances in the vegetative sphere.

The antiseptic properties of eucalyptus have led to its employ- ment, topically, in uterine catarrh, ozcena, cancer, gangrene aud other affections characterized by great fetor.

Dr. Benj. Bell [Edinburgh Med. Jour.) reports the case of an old gentleman, very ill with malignant ulceration of the stomach, greatly relieved by the use of eucalyptus. " Great quantities of blood have been vomited from time to time and at short intervals, seldom ex-

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ceecling a fortnight ; the stomach, after becoming painfully distended with a sour, burning fluid, was relieved by frequent vomiting, while life itself seemed possible only with extreme lightness of diet and most vigorous self-denial. * * * He has taken the tincture of eucalyptus twice daily for many months, and during all that time has scarcely had even a threatening of those painful and exhausting attacks, which had latterly occurred almost every week." It is also stated that eucalyptus is an excellent remedy in the early stages of acute catarrh of the head, accompanied with shivering, yawning and feverishness.