THE COMMON SASSAFRAS A POTENT DRUG AND

A DANGEROUS NARCOTIC.

BY CHARLES G. HILL, M. D.

Sassafras has been recognized as officinal by the United States. Dispensatory for many years. The older writers supposed it to possess valuable alterative properties and it was extensively used in combination with other drugs in rheumatism, scrofulous and syphilitic affections and various skin diseases. At the present day it is highly esteemed by the laity, in the form of sassafras tea, for "purifying the blood," a proceeding they consider very important in the spring of the year. Its reputed properties have not withstood the test of experience, however, and being regarded as practically inert, it is at the present day scarcely ever prescribed by the profession. With the views now held of its action or rather inaction, it is surprising that it is retained as a remedial agent worthy of a place in the Dispensatory. The older editions of the Dispensatory spoke of it as "stimulant and perhaps diaphoretic." They "doubted its possession of any peculiar tendency to the skin, independent of its mere excitant property," and claimed that it was wholly inefficient in lues venerea, in which disease it seems formerly to have held a high reputation. Farquharsen dismisses it with the following brief allusion: "This plant seems only to have acquired any therapeutic importance by reason of its combination with other drugs in the decoctum sarsaparillæ comp. The mucilage may be used as a soothing application in conjunctivitis. The oil is a pleasant flavoring substance and is considered carminative." The last edition of the Dispensatory regards it as only a pleasant flavoring for other drugs, and ignores any other effect that may have been attributed to it in the past.

The oil is a

A case of poisoning by the oil of sassafras that once came within my knowledge, proved that it possesses far more active properties than is generally supposed, and I have been able to demonstrate by experiments on the lower animals that instead of being a harmless, inert drug, it is a strong, nervous sedative, anodyne and soporific, and in overdoses, a dangerous narcotic poison. A policeman, attracted by the sound of a falling window and other suspicious noises proceeding from a gentleman's office down town, entered the room to ascertain the cause. He found no one present but a boy who was lying unconscious on the floor. He took him at once to the station-house, where I saw him shortly afterward. The officers had already diagnosticated his case as one of opium poisoning, and were vigorously striving to keep him awake by walking, flogging and such other means as are usually resorted to in these emergencies. His stupor was profound and he no longer made an attempt to walk, but was literally dragged about in their efforts to revive him. He spoke occasionally, but only to beg them to allow him to sleep. He was in a condition of great relaxation; skin covered with a profuse perspiration; countenance pallid; pulse rapid but weak and thready. His pupils were normal, and there was a strong odor of sassafras in his breath. As quickly as possible an emetic was administered, which produced a copious emesis, redolent with the odor of sassafras, with drops of the undissolved oil floating in the liquid. This was followed by free draughts of warm water until only a faint odor of sassafras was discoverable. The vomiting relieved him and he was soon restored to consciousness. He felt no discomfort except a sensation of weakness and exhaustion and was soon able to give the following account of himself: His employer having gone home, he was preparing to close up the office when he espied a bottle of the oil of sassafras which had been left on the desk. Remembering that sassafras had been recommended for the removal of an eruption that disfigured his face, he thought this a good opportunity for giving it a trial, and turning up the bottleto use his own language--he took two large swallows of its contents. In a few minutes he began to feel very stiff, as he expressed it, but proceeded to close up the shutters preparatory to

leaving for home. He raised the window for this purpose, but had not strength to hold it in this position and it dropped from his grasp, and at the same time he fell to the floor unconscious. The crash of the window and the noise of his fall fortunately attracted the policeman who, for once, happened to be in the right place at the proper time, and the subsequent history of the case has already been given.

This suggestive case led me to make numerous experiments on the lower animals with very interesting results. Ten drops of the oil were injected hypodermically under the skin of a mouse. The animal quickly succumbed and died convulsed. By repeated experiments I was able to so regulate the dose as to get the characteristic effects of the drug without causing the speedy death of the mouse. A glass rod was dipped into the oil and held in front of a mouse and he seized it with his mouth. This was repeated at intervals of a few minutes until a sufficient quantity was taken to produce the desired effect. The first symptom observed when a small quantity was thus taken, was a slight convulsive movement which was repeated at intervals of a few seconds, and agitated the animal's body very much like a severe hiccough. This gradually increased in severity, the movements became more unsteady, the body more arched and the limbs so stiff that the mouse stood on tip-toe. It was noted that the one idea of escaping from the trap still predominated over all else, as he continued to climb up on the bars of the cage, only to fall on his side or back at each convulsion until no longer able to rise.

I have repeated these experiments many times with great uniformity of result. Sometimes they would dance about for half an hour with a peculiar convulsive movement that would jerk the head and front feet from the table. Again they would fall on their side with each convulsion and regain their feet immediately, only to repeat the same movement. With cats and dogs the result was somewhat different. A drachm under the skin of a cat caused such profound insensibility that she was supposed to be dead and thrown away, but it seems that only one of the reputed nine lives of the animal had been reached, as the

next day she turned up none the worse for the experiment. A full grown dog was paralysed in his hind legs by a similar dose, hypodermically, over the loins, but recovered. Many other experiments might be added but I will not trespass on your time. There is one other property possessed by this drug that is worthy of mention. In this "Bacterian" age, it is interesting to note that the oil of sassafras is a germicide and anti-ferment of no mean quality. In some clumsy experiments, made by myself, I have estimated its potency in this field as about one-half the strength of carbolic acid. But I cannot claim the discovery of this fact as original with myself. It has long been used as a domestic remedy for the destruction of lice and other vermin. The late Dr. Rezin Thompson,* of Nashville, Tenn., who died 20 years ago, and who, by the way, is claimed to be the first advocate of the germ theory in disease, strongly recommended the oil of sassafras in the treatment of zymotic diseases, because he found it to be a powerful insecticide. It is said that he was wonderfully successful in the treatment of typhoid fever with his famous syrup, which consisted of the oil of sassafras, the expressed juice of the green peach leaves and other ingredients of less importance.

In conclusion, I must apologize for such an imperfect paper on a subject susceptible of the most important and interesting. development. I did not intend to publish my views on the nature and effects of this drug until my investigations had been more extensive. My object in doing so is to impress upon the profession the fact, that the common sassafras, so far from being an innocent and useless drug, possesses properties of the most potent character, capable if properly understood of proving a valuable addition to our therapeutics, or if ignorantly and carelessly used, of being dangerous and even fatal to human life. If the crude facts given in this paper will induce abler hands to investigate the subject, I believe a rich harvest of therapeutic discoveries will be their reward.

*Vide Phila. Med & Surg. Reporter of Mar. 8 & 22, '84.

RESULTS FROM THE INVESTIGATION AND STUDY

OF COW-POX.*

BY ST. GEO. W. TEACKLE, M. D.

State Vaccine Agent of Maryland.

At the last meeting of this Society, I read a paper entitled "A Case of Spontaneous Cow-pox and Results obtained from Crusts derived therefrom." In that paper I gave an account of a case of cow-pox occurring in Baltimore county, separated from any appreciable source of contagion by a distance of at least three miles, and upon this absence of any appreciable cause of contagion, I claimed it as a true case of spontaneous cow-pox. I also exhibited a calf that had been successfully inoculated by crusts obtained therefrom, but greatly to my disappointment, I am obliged to report that from crusts obtained from the inoculated heifer, I got only negative results. In speaking of the above case to herdsmen and dairymen, I learned some very important facts, and upon studying up the subject more thoroughly, I have arrived at some conclusions not heretofore advanced. These conclusions are as follows:

1st. That cases identically similar to those from which Jenner conceived the grand idea of vaccination as a preventative and ameliorator of small-pox, and from which the first vaccination was performed in 1796, are continually occurring, especially during visitations of small-pox. We all know to what a great extent small-pox existed at the time Jenner proposed vaccination, that it existed almost everywhere and at all times of the year, and,

*For discussion of this paper, see Minutes of meeting April 25, 1884, p. 20.