The specific gravity of turpentine oil is ·864; its boiling point, when consisting of pure terebenthene, 156°, but impurities may raise it up to 160°; it is combustible and burns with a smoky flame. Oil of turpentine is very soluble in ether, petroleum ether, carbon disulphide, chloroform, benzene, fixed and essential oils, and by the use of these solvents it is conveniently separated from the contents of the stomach. It is insoluble in water, glycerin, and dilute alkaline and acid solutions; and very soluble in absolute alcohol, from which it may be precipitated by the addition of water.
It is polymerised by the action of strong sulphuric acid, the polymer, of course, boiling at a higher temperature than the original oil. With water it forms a crystalline hydrate (C10H20O2,H2O). On passing nitrosyl chloride gas into the oil, either pure or diluted with chloroform or alcohol, the mixture being cooled by ice, a white crystalline body is deposited, of the formula C10H16(NOCl). By treating this compound with alcoholic potash, the substitution product (C10H16NO) is obtained. By treating turpentine with an equal bulk of warm water, and shaking it in a large bottle with air, camphoric acid and peroxide of hydrogen are formed. When turpentine oil is left in contact with concentrated hydrochloric acid, there is formed terebenthene dihydrochloride (C10H162HCl), which forms rhombic plates, insoluble in water, and decomposable by boiling alcoholic potash, with formation of terpinol, (C10H17)2O. The dihydrochloride gives a colour-reaction with ferric chloride. This is an excellent test—not, it is true, confined to oil of turpentine—but common to the dihydrochlorides of all the terpenes. A few drops of the oil are stirred in a porcelain capsule with a drop of hydrochloric acid, and one of ferric chloride solution; on gently heating, there is produced first a rose colour, then a violet-red, and lastly a blue.
§ 152. Effects of the Administration of Turpentine.—L. W. Liersch[143] exposed animals to the vapour of turpentine, and found that a cat and a rabbit died within half an hour. There was observed uneasiness, reeling, want of power in the limbs (more especially in the hinder extremities), convulsions partial, or general, difficulty of respiration; and the heart’s action was quickened. Death took place, in part, from asphyxia, and in part was attributable to a direct action on the nervous centres. The autopsy showed congestion of the lungs, ecchymoses of the kidney, and much blood in the liver and spleen. Small doses of turpentine-vapour cause (according to Sir B. W. Richardson)[144] giddiness, deficient appetite, and anæmia. From half an ounce to an ounce is frequently prescribed in the country as a remedy for tape-worm; in smaller quantities it is found to be a useful medicine in a great variety of ailments. The larger doses produce a kind of intoxication with giddiness, followed often by purging and strangury, not unfrequently blood and albumen (or both) is found in the urine. When in medical practice I have given the oil, and seen it given by others, in large doses for tape-worm to adults, in perhaps 40 cases, but in no one instance were the symptoms severe; the slight intoxication subsided quickly, and in a few hours the patients recovered completely. Nevertheless it has been known to destroy the lives of children, and cause most serious symptoms in adults. Two fatal cases are mentioned by Taylor; one was that of a child who died fifteen hours after taking half an ounce of the oil; in another an infant, five months old, died rapidly from a teaspoonful. The symptoms in these fatal cases were profound coma and slight convulsions; the pupils were contracted, and there was slow and irregular breathing. Turpentine is eliminated in a changed form by the kidneys, and imparts an odour of violet to the urine; but the nature of the odoriferous principle has not yet been investigated.
[143] Clarus in Schmidt’s Jahrbücher, Bd. cxvii., i. 1863; and Vierteljahrsschr. für ger. Med., xxii., Oct. 1862.
[144] Brit. and For. Med.-Chir. Review, April 1863.