Oleum santali

Volume I — Special Symptomatology

(Oil of Sandalwood.) This is probably an oi1 extracted from the wood of the Santalum album a tree found growing in India. Officinal Preparations.— Oil ; dilutions or triturations. Analogues.— Copaiva, Cubebs, Erigeron, Erechthites, Turpentine, etc. Urinary Organs. 0 Chronic catarrhal states of the mucous membrane of the urinary organs.

0 Gonorrhata — after the first few days (after Cannabis and Gelseminum). (Hale.)

low or green. (lb-) ° Chronic cystitis/ mucus sediment in the urine.

[This remedy was introduced into practice by physicians in India. It is far superior to Cubebs and Copaiva, and experience has demonstrated that it is the nearest a specific for Gonorrhoea of any drug known. It is usually given (allopathically) in capsules (three a day), each containing about thirty drops, and very successfully. My own experience with the oil is that it acts best after Gelseminum and Cannabis have reduced the active inflammation. I use the 1 x trit., or dilution, a dose (ten grs. or gtts.), every two or three hours. It generally cures in eight or ten days.in uncomplicated cases. Hale.]

Volume II — Special Therapeutics

This oil is extracted from the wood of the Santalum album, a tree growing in the Indies, China, Hindoostan, and Ceylon. In “ A Materia Medica of Indian Drugs,” published in 1826, in London, written by Dr. Ainslee, who was of the Medical Staff of Southern India, I found the following account of its uses. He says :

Sandal-wood in powder is prescribed by the Vytians in “ardent remittent fever,” from its supposed sedative and cooling qualities ; they look upon it as a valuable medicine in gonorrhoea , given in cow’s milk (a virtue that it is considered to possess by Bumphius). In cases of morbid thirst it is recommended to be taken in cocoanut-water, and in hot weather, after bathing, the powder is rubbed over the body, equally to cool it and check a too copious perspiration. The Mahometans are in the habit of preparing, with the most yellow and finer parts of the wood, an oil, which they value highly as a perfume. The yellow is the inner part of the tree, and is of great hardness and fragrance, particularly near the root of the tree ; the white is the exterior part of the tree, is less firm, and has but a faint odor.

Perfumes from this wood, says Lourerizo, are highly esteemed by Eastern nations, being useful remedies, they suppose, in vertigo, palsy, and restraining vomiting and fluxes. The Arabians place Sandal-wood among their class “ Cardiaca.”

Our knowledge of the virtues of this agent came to us through East Indian physicians or travellers in Asiatic countries. The general testimony is to the effect that it is considered very useful by native physicians in the East for all affections of mucous surfaces, especially those of the respiratory and urinary organs. You will find no mention of it in the allopathic textbooks, although

it is used very extensively by that school. in the treatment of gonorrhoea. Probably the reason why they do not mention it is because the vendors of quack medicines seized upon it and prostituted it, just as they have done with Buchu and many other important medicines.

I look upon the Oil of sandal-wood as a very valuable medicine. It is analogous in effect to Copaiva, Cubebs, Erigeron, Turpentine, Stannum, and perhaps Sepia and Pulsatilla. We ought to have provings of this oil, but none have been undertaken.

I believe that in the treatment of gonorrhoea, or any catarrhal state of the urinary passages, it is superior to the above-named medicines in many cases. We cannot give definite indications for its use yet; and the only indication I can give you is this : It is useful in cases when the apparently indicated remedies have been used with little or no benefit, the discharge continuing in large quantity, and is painless, thick, yellow, or green. I sometimes give it for these symptoms before I try Copaiva, Cubebs, or Erigeron, and after the inflammation, pain, and scalding have been removed by Gelseminum and Cantharis or Cannabis. My usual dose is a drop or two of the pure oil, or ten drops of the lx dil., or a few grains of the lx trit., every four or six hours. Allopathists prescribe it in capsules, each containing fifteen or twenty drops, three or four times a day. They consider it necessary to combine it with Oil of cinnamon, to prevent “nausea and gastric derangement,” vomiting, and other morbid conditions of the stomach, the exact character of which provings only will show.

I have found it curative in one case of catarrh of the bladder , and in another where some disease of the kidneys had existed for years, characterized by a peculiar white sediment in the urine. It removed this symptom while the patient was under its use for a gleet, which it also cured.

I expect it will be found useful in old mucous coughs, in laryngeal and bronchial catarrhs, and probably in some uterine and vaginal discharges.

A recent writer on allopathic Materia Medica cautions against giving too large doses of Sandal-wood oil, “ for,” he says, “ it has been known to cause very painful aching of the back and loins, such

as is present in many serious renal diseases.” This, then, may be set down as a characteristic symptom. In a few cases of renal disease of an obscure character, when other medicines did not act well, the above symptom was removed by Oleum santalum, 2X trituration.