CHAPTER XXXVIII.
OF POISONING WITH CAMPHOR, COCCULUS INDICUS, ETC.
The third group of the narcotico-acrids resemble strychnia in their action so far, that they occasion in large doses convulsions of the tetanic kind. But they differ considerably by producing at the same time impaired sensibility or sopor. They are camphor, Cocculus indicus, its active principle picrotoxin, the Coriara myrtifolia, the Upas antiar, a Java poison, and perhaps also the yew-tree.
Of Poisoning with Camphor.
Camphor dissolved in oil soon causes in dogs paroxysms of tetanic spasm. At first the senses are entire in the intervals; but by degrees they become duller, till at length a state of deep sopor is established, with noisy laborious breathing, and expiration of camphorous fumes; and in this state the animal soon perishes. A solution of twenty grains in olive oil will kill a dog in less than ten minutes when injected into the jugular vein. When camphor is given to dogs in fragments, it does not excite convulsions, but kills them more slowly by inducing inflammation of the alimentary canal. These are the results of numerous experiments by Orfila.[[2370]]
They are confirmed by others performed more lately by Scudery of Messina; but this experimentalist likewise remarked, that the convulsions were attended with a singular kind of delirium, which made the animals run up and down without apparent cause, as if they were maniacal. He also found the urinary organs generally affected, and for the most part with strangury.[[2371]] Lebküchner discovered camphor in the blood of animals poisoned with it.[[2372]]
Symptoms in Man.—The symptoms caused by camphor in man may not have been observed; but so far as they have been witnessed, they establish its claim to be considered a narcotic and acrid poison. Its effects appear to be singularly uncertain: at least they are very discrepant; and the reason for this is not apparent.
Its narcotic effects are well exemplified in an account given by Mr. Alexander from personal experience, and by Dr. Edwards of Paris, as they occurred in a patient of his who received a camphor clyster.
Mr. Alexander, in the course of his experiments on his own person with various drugs, was nearly killed by this poison, and has left the best account yet published of its effects in dangerous doses on man. After having found, by a previous experiment, that a scruple did not cause any particular symptom, he swallowed in one dose two scruples mixed with syrup of roses. In the course of twenty minutes he became languid and listless, and in an hour giddy, confused, and forgetful. All objects quivered before his eyes, and a tumult of undigested ideas floated through his mind. At length he lost all consciousness, during which he was attacked with strong convulsive fits and maniacal frenzy. These alarming symptoms were dispelled, on Dr. Monro, who had been sent for, accidentally discovering the subject of his patient’s experimental researches, and administering an emetic. But a variety of singular mental affections continued for some time after. The emetic brought away almost the whole camphor which had been swallowed three hours before.[[2373]]
In Dr. Edwards’s patient, the symptoms were excited by an injection containing half a drachm of camphor. In a few minutes he felt a camphrous taste, which was followed by indescribable uneasiness. On then going down stairs for assistance, he was astonished to feel his body so light, that he seemed to himself to skim along the floor almost without touching it. He afterwards began to stagger, his face became pale, he felt chilly, and was attacked with a sense of numbness in the scalp. On then taking a glass of wine, which he asked for, he became gradually better; but for some time his mind was singularly affected. He felt anxious, without thinking himself in danger; he shed tears, but could not tell why; they flowed in fact involuntarily. For twenty-four hours his breath exhaled a camphrous odour.[[2374]]
Hoffmann has related a case analogous to those of Alexander and Edwards. The dose was two scruples taken in oil; the symptoms vertigo, chilliness, anxiety, delirium, and somnolency.[[2375]]