1. Formosa or China Camphor, imported in chests lined with lead or tinned iron, and weighing about 1 cwt. each; it is of a light brown, small in grain, and always wet, as the merchants cause water to be poured into the cases before shipment, with a view, it is pretended, of lessening the loss by evaporation. The exports of this camphor from Tamsui in Formosa[1905] were in peculs (one pecul = 13·33 lb. avdp. = 60·479 kilogrammes) as follows:
| 1870 | 1871 | 1872 | 1875 | 1876 | 1877 |
| 14,481 | 9691 | 10,281 | 7139 | 8794 | 13,178 |
The shipments of camphor from Takow, the other open port of Formosa, are of insignificant amount. Planks of camphor wood are now exported in some quantity from Tamsui.
2. Japan Camphor is lighter in colour and occasionally of a pinkish tint; it is also in larger grains. It arrives in double tubs (one within the other) without metal lining, and hence is drier than the previous sort; the tubs hold about 1 cwt. It fetches a somewhat higher price than the Formosa camphor.
Hiogo and Osaka exported in 1871, 7089 peculs (945,200 lb.), and Nagasaki 745 peculs (99,333 lb.), the total value being 116,718 dollars.[1906] In 1877 the value of camphor exported from Japan was stated to be equal to 240,000 dollars. The imports of Unrefined Camphor into the United Kingdom amounted in 1870 to 12,368 cwt. (1,385,216 lb.); of Refined Camphor in the same year to 2361 cwt.[1907]
Camphor is largely consumed by the natives of India; the quantity of the crude drug imported into Bombay in the year 1872-73 was 3801 cwt.[1908]
Uses—Camphor has stimulant properties and is frequently used in medicine both internally and externally. It is largely consumed in India.
Other kinds of Camphor; Camphor Oils.
Camphor, as stated above at page 512, was the name originally applied to the product of Dryobalanops; it was then also given to that of Camphor Laurel, and in 1725 Caspar Neumann, of Berlin, first pointed out that many essential oils afford crystals (“stearoptenes” of later chemists), for which he proposed the general name of camphor. Many of them are agreeing with the formula C₁₀H₁₆O, and there are also numerous liquids of the same composition. It would appear, however, that no stearoptene of any other plant is absolutely identical with common camphor; Lallemand’s statement ([see p. 479]), that oil of spike affords the latter, requires further examination.
Many other liquid and solid constituents of essential oils, or substances afforded by treating them with alcoholic potash, answer to the formula C₁₀H₁₇(OH). Among them we may point out the two following: they are the only substances of the class of “camphors,” besides common camphor, which are of some practical importance.