DERIVATION.--Castor oil is expressed from the seeds of a plant (Ricinus
communis) which grows in the East Indies and Africa in the character of
a tree and rises sometimes thirty or forty feet. It also grows in the
temperate latitudes of North America and Europe.
PROPERTIES.--Pure castor oil is a thick, viscid, colorless liquid, with
little or no odor and a mild though somewhat nauseous taste.
ACTION AND USES.--Good castor oil is a mild and speedy cathartic,
usually operating within four to five hours with little griping or
uneasiness, and evacuating the contents of the bowels without much
increasing the alvine secretions. Hence it is particularly applicable to
constipation from collections of abnormally hard faeces, and to cases in
which irritating substances have been swallowed or irritating substances
have accumulated in the bowels. From its mildness it is also especially
adapted to diseases of the bowels, as colic, indigestion, diarrhoea,
dysentery and enteritis. It is also indicated in overloaded bowels in
pregnancy combined with anodynes and antispasmodics to prevent griping.
Castor oil in two or three ounce doses conjoined with gruel and five or
six drops of oil of peppermint is suitable for foals and calves affected
with gastro-intestinal disorders. Castor oil is specially applicable in
canine practice, to evacuate the bowels, and in irritated conditions of
the digestive tract, in ounce doses mixed with equal parts of glycerine
and adding two or three drops of oil of wintergreen.
Castor oil may be given to horses in sixteen ounce doses conjoined with
oil of peppermint, twenty drops, or tincture opium, one ounce and
fluidextract of belladonna, one to two drachms, flour gruel, etc.
Castor oil in one to two drachm doses is especially valuable for
poultry.
Castor oil is used with equal success in the treatment of
gastro-intestinal disorders of cattle, sheep and pigs.
DOSE.--Horses and cattle, 12 to 16 oz.; sheep and pigs, 2 to 6 oz.; dogs
and cats, ¹⁄₂ to 2 oz.; poultry, ¹⁄₂ to 2 dr.
OLEUM TEREBINTHINAE--OIL OF TURPENTINE
Erroneously Called Spirits of Turpentine
DERIVATION.--A concrete oleo-resin from Pinus palustris Miller, and from
other species of Pinus. The oil is distilled, usually by the use of
steam, from the oleo-resin.
HABITAT.--Southern United States, from Virginia to the Gulf of Mexico.
PROPERTIES.--A thin, colorless liquid, having a characteristic odor and
taste. Soluble in three times its volume of alcohol; also soluble in an
equal volume of glacial acetic acid.
DOSE.--Carminative--Horses and cattle, 1 to 2 oz.; sheep and pigs, 1 to
4 dr.; dogs, 5 to 30 m. Best given in 8 to 10 times its bulk of cotton
seed oil, linseed oil or milk. Anthelmintic--Horses and cattle, 2 to 4
oz.; sheep and pigs, ¹⁄₂ to 1 oz.; dogs, ¹⁄₂ to 4 dr. Diuretic--Horses
and cattle, 2 to 4 dr.