OF MADRAS .
107
Doses.— Of the black oil, from ten to thirty minims, three or four
times in the twenty-four hours ; and of the fixed oil, from twenty
minims to one fluid drachm, gradually increased.
European Drugs , for which they may be substituted.—Juniper, sp.
æther. nit., buchu, broom, phosphates, hypophosphites and strychnia.
Remarks.—The seeds of C. paniculata " are of a rusty brown color,
of an ellipsoid form, about one-fifth of an inch in length, leaving when
crushed on paper an only stain. Remains of the globular three-valved
fruit, which is of the size of a pea, are usually found mixed with them."
( Pharm. of India, p. 56.) The oil extracted from these seeds by com
-
pression (fixed oil) is yellow or reddish yellow with a peculiar and rather
disagreeable taste and smell. The compound empyreumatic oil (black
oil), is very black and about the thickness of honey. It possesses a very
peculiar and characteristic taste and smell, both of which being very
smoky, unpleasant and somewhat aromatic. Oleum nigrum or black oil
is a specific in Beriberi, but before I speak of it from. my own experience
and knowledge, I think it is better to give the reader first the benefit of
the opinions of the two great authorities on the drug, namely, Drs.
Herklots and Malcomson, as explained by Dr. E. J. Waring in his
Manual of Practical Therapeutics, p. 347 : —
" In Beriberi, it was first employed by the late Dr. Herklots, who states
that he lost 1 in 50 cases of Beriberi treated by it (meaning black oil ),
while he had 11 deaths out of 15 before he adopted its employment.
Although it is generally admitted to be a valuable remedy in this disease.
no such success has attended its employment in the hands of others. Mr.
Malcomson relates cases in which its effects were most unequivocal, but he
states that he knows of many cases in which it failed to produce any good
effect ; and I believe this to be the experience of most medical officers who
have employed it. Mr. Malcomson concludes that the Oleum nigrum pos
-
sesses more power over the nervous affections than Treeak Farook (+ + +)
and less over the œdema and the dropsical symptoms generally."
As already explained, there are several varieties of black oil or cleum-
nigrum, and as they are all not of the same quality and efficacy, the
results of their use are necessarily very various. There is no wonder,
then, that the opinions of the medical officers, who have employed the
medicine, are so widely divided as those in the paragraphs quoted above.
I have been using the black oil myself occasionally in my practice
during the last thirty-nine or forty years, and, for about fifteen years at
the commencement of this period, my opinion as to its therapeutic value
was not very high ; but, ever since I began about twenty-five years
ago to employ the varieties of this drug obtained from Vizagapatam,
Masulipatam and Ellore, I consider it the best and most efficacious of
all the remedies ever suggested for the treatment of Beriberi, and quite
agree with Dr. Herklots in everything he has said in its favor. I
recollect many cases of Beriberi which were not benefited for weeks or
months under the use of other medicines, but began at once to improve
when placed under the course of black oil. The first good effect of this
medicine, according to my own observation, is generally an increase in
the quantity of urine and with this the dropsical effusion begins to
disappear. A relief in paralytic and anesthetic symptoms is also
noticed about the same time, but generally after the abatement of