The Falls City tribune., 1910-05-13
A Time HONORED REMEDY
OUR OLD FRIEND, THE "CAMPH-
IRE" BOTTLE.
Or Morsman's Tribute to and Eluci-
dalton Upon the Time-Hon-
ored Family Remedy.

The camphoi tree is a native OF
China. Japan and eastern Asia. II
crows i'm India to some extent and
ian be cultivated in California and
Florida. II is of exceedingly slow
growth and thus far has not tempted
American capitalists To try its cul-
tnre. The American is slow to plant
for his grandchildren TO reap
The trees grow to enormous size
and the leaves, branches, roots--in
act all the parts of the tree-eontain
eamphor, which is extracted by n
crude process of sublimation. Subli-
nation is distillation applied to solids
instead of liquids. The camphor be-
ing volatile when heated. Is Yapori2-
ID and CONCEALED in clay retorts.
Tbc product thus obtained is crude
eamphor and our supply comes al
most entirely from China and Japan.
The gum camphor sold in The shops
Is refined camphor. obtained by re
sublimiug the crude camnhor with
luicklime and purifying 1t. 1t comes
10 the dealer Ia waxy cakes about one
nch in thickness hat break with a
bright crystalline fracture, A freshly
broken piece Of camphor gum Is al
aost as transparent as a fragment of
glass. 1t has a penetrating, fragrant
ador that is familiar TO everyone
and that is not disagreeahle except
from its association with the sick
room. The taste Is warm and pun
sent. Il is quite volatile, as our
4andmothers learned when they put
il in their chests of clothing and furs
10 keep away moths. When they
opened the chests to get out the win
Tar wraps they found the camphor had
disappeared. For this use camphor
IA been replaced by N%apthalene in
ne form of moth balls.
There are TO or three varieties of
eamphor that are moi quite the same
chemically, or to be more exact, the
grouping of the compound radicals is
rot Identical, but the physical and
medical characteristics do not per
ceptibly differ. 1t is a complex, or
sanie compound and its chemistry is
100 abstruse for this article
Two artificial camphors have been
made by different processes that
are very like the natural drug in
every respect. except that when
freshly broken they lack the brilliant,
CLASSY appearance.
Artificial camphor has never been
mnch of n competitor of the true
sum. because the cost of production
about equals The import price. If
these conditions should change ii
would doubtless come into use and
weuld be a very salts factory substi.
the.
OH of eamphor is much used by
thH Chinese but is not highly valued in
this country. Il was formerly OBJ
tanned by then. by packing The crude
camphor in watts with holes in the
bottom and allowing ii to stand until
the ell drained ont Now it is press
ed ont by hydraulic pressure,
canton, Batavia. Calcutta aud Sing.
apotv are export points for cam
phor. and the island OF Formosa pro
duces Il larg percentage of the
Canton exports. II is not quite rs
high grade as the so-eallel Dutch or
Japan camphor, but the difference is
only in the crude sum. They are the
same after refining. The Dutch had
a monopoly of refining camphor foI
many years, but il is now refined il
his country md nearly al our i'm
ports are crude gum,
A small. clean fragment of eamphoI
dropped into water will move abou
in circular gy rations. but it will no.
do this if the water contains even
slight trace of oil or grease, for
which 1t is used as a test. 1t il
difficult in a little story like this t,
tell all about the various uses o
camphor. 1t has been used for al
most "all the ails that flesh is hei
10" and is beneficial in many. It /
. fayorite domestic remedy and ev
ezy family uses eamphor for some
thing. The older physicians used
in cholera, diarrhoea, vomiting, in
flamation and neuralgia of the ston
aeh, heart depression, nervous di.
-ases, headache, bronchitis, bladde
and urinary troubles, catarrh an
catarrhal colds. Externally the
used it for myalgia, rheumatism, lun
b&go, sciatiea, and for all case
shen a liniment was applicable.