ETHYL′AMINE. NH2(C2H5). Syn. Ethyl-ammonia. One of the bases of the ethyl-series, obtained by substituting one atom of hydrogen in ammonia NH3 by ethyl C2H5.
EUCALYP′TIN. A peculiar substance existing in Botany Bay kino. A substance exuded by several species of the Eucalyptus. It has been employed medicinally in diarrhœa.
EUCALYPTOL. See Eucalyptus.
EUCALYPTUS. The Eucalypti, of which there are many species, belong to the natural order Myrtaceæ, and are natives of Australia, where they are known under the names of “gum-trees,” or as “stringy-bark trees.” The most interesting and important characteristic of these plants is the power they undoubtedly possess of correcting, if not of removing, the pestilential exhalations which are regarded as the origin of the fevers that occur in marshy localities. This discovery is due to M. Ramel, and was made by him in 1856.
M. Gimbert, amongst other cases, cites one of a farm, twenty miles from Algiers, the atmosphere surrounding which was of a very pestilential character. In the spring of 1867 13,000 eucalyptus trees were planted on the farm, and M. Gimbert states that since then not a single case of fever has taken place, the freedom from disease occurring the same year the plants were placed in the ground, and the good effects commencing whilst the trees were only two or three mètres in height.
The following is extracted from ‘Les Mondes’ (1876):—“Between Nice and Monaco there is a locality so unhealthy that the Paris, Lyons, and Mediterranean Railway Company have been obliged to change every two or three months the watchman at a crossing there.
“Plantations of the eucalyptus have been formed there, and at present the same watchman has resided there for several months with his family without experiencing the least inconvenience.”
Again:—“In the Campagna, about three miles from Rome, there stand some deserted church buildings and a monastery, the latter having been abandoned because of the mortality amongst the monks caused by the noxious exhalations. Some six years since a company of French trappists, having obtained permission from the Italian Government, planted the grounds in and around the monastery with eucalyptus trees, and the result is stated to have been so total an immunity of the building from fever, although situated in the worst part of the Campagna, that the monastery is now tenanted, the health of the occupants being, it is said, unimpaired.”
The writer in the ‘Pharmaceutical Journal,’ who contributes this statement, adds:—“Whether this grand result has been obtained through the efficacy of the extract of the eucalyptus taken each morning with their cup of black coffee, or whether it is to be attributed to the effects of the plantations, I leave to scientific men to determine.”[284]
[284] Bentley.