Copal

“ Camphor acts more powerfully upon copal than any other substance. If the latter be finely powdered, and a small quantity of dry camphor rubbed with it in the mortar, the whole becomes in a few minutes a tough coherent mass. The process here described, will dissolve mere copal than the menstruum will retain, when cold. Hence, the most economical method will be, to let the vessel which contains the solution, stand for a few days; and, when it is perfectly settled, to pour off the clear varnish, and leave the residuum for a future process. ”

“ Even the presence of it is very poisonous to some people and all workers in it are more or less affected.
The solvent or vehicle of the modern copal varnishes consists principally of linseed oil with some turpentine. Their base is Copal, a fossil, resinous substance of vegetable origin. The gums of which they are made have been chemically altered by long exposure in the earth. Other gums, as mastic, dammar, sandarac, and even resin are sometimes mixed with copal to cheapen the product or to cause more rapid drying. Copal is a generic name given originally to all fossil resins. ”

“ The rubber production of the country is to some extent controlled by the market price, which is at present very low (1921) .
[106] COPAL.—Some quantity of a kind of copal resin is collected from Cyanothyrsus oblongus (syn. C. ogea) , and is exported under the name of “Ogea gum.” The quality appears to be similar to that obtained from the Gold Coast Cyanothyrsus sp., and which is sold under the name of “Accra copal.” Both are obtained in a fresh and a fossil state. ”

“ These operations being finished, wash lightly the tendons and nerves with boiled flax seed oil; this layer being dry, give a second over the whole limb; finally, several layers of copal varnish will terminate the operation. The first layer of copal varnish to be applied to the arteries with a slight addition of vermillion, and of Prussian blue, for the veins.
“In order to preserve the liver, it is necessary first to inject the vena porta and excretory ducts with white varnish, to which has been joined one-fifth of turpentine varnish, and some coloring matter, such as red lead. ”

“ From the Arab Sandarus, which their pharmacopœia applies to the transparent resin Sandaraca or Sandarach. Our copal is a corruption of the Mexican Kopali—any gum. It is called anime or animi in the London market, and by the workman French varnish. The copals of Mexico, of New Zealand (popularly termed Cowace copal) , and of the West African coast, are inferior kinds. The ‘Damar,’ or gum found about Cape Delgado, floats in water, and may be unripe copal washed out by the wet season. ”

“ Take a pint of nut, or poppy oil, put it into a large earthen vessel; let it boil slowly over a moderate fire; add by degrees two ounces of white lead, and stir it continually, till the whole is dissolved. Prepare a pint of the copal-oil varnish heated in a separate vessel; pour this gradually into the hot oil, and stir them together till all the spirit of turpentine is dissipated; let it stand till cold, when it will be fit for use.
It is obvious that, as this is a compound of the copal-varnish with the least exceptionable of the drying oils, it will partake of the properties of each. ”

“ From the trunk and on the ground I picked up specimens of the gum which exudes from the bole and boughs when injured by elephants, or other causes. This is the Chakazi, raw copal, whence the local ‘Jackass copal:’ it has rarely any ‘gooseskin,’ and it floats, whilst the older formation sinks, in water. Valueless to us, it produces the magnificent varnishes of China and Japan. ”

“ Some rate its specific gravity so high as 1·139, which I should think one of the errors with which chemical compilations teem. Copal is too hard to be scratched by the nail, whence the excellence of its varnish. It has a conchoidal fracture, and is without smell or taste. When exposed to heat in a glass retort over a spirit lamp it readily melts into a liquid, which being further heated boils with explosive jets. A viscid oily-looking matter then distils over. After continuing the process for some time, no succinic acid is found in the receiver, but the copal blackens in the retort. ”

“ Indian copal.—The text is kankamon, which is mentioned by Pliny as a dye (probably in confusion with lac) ; by Dioscorides as the exudation of a wood like myrrh, and used for incense. Pliny (XII, 44) says that it came "from the country that produces cinnamon, through the Nabataean Troglodytae, a colony of the Nabataei." Glaser (Skizze, 196) is positive that it is no Arabian product. Col. Henry Yule identifies it with Indian copal, Malabar tallow, or white dammar, the gum exuded from Vateria Indica, Linn., order Dipterocarpeae ”

“ The East African seaboard, from Ras Gomani in S. lat. 3° to Ras Delgado in 10° 41′, with a medium depth of 30 miles, may indeed be called the “copal coast;” every part supplies more or less the gum of commerce. Even a section of this line, from the mouth of the Pangani River to Ngao (Monghou) , would, if properly exploited, suffice to supply all our present wants.
The Arabs and Africans divide the gum into two different kinds. The raw copal (copal vert of the French market) is called sandarusi za miti, “tree copal,” or chakází, corrupted by the Zanzibar merchant to “jackass” copal. ”

“ Many of the natives assert that the copal still grows on different trees, and that it acquires its excellent qualities as a resin by dropping off and sinking several feet into the soil, whereby it is cleansed, and obtains, after a lapse of many years, its hardness, inflammability, and transparency.106
Dragon's Blood is the juice of certain tropical plants of a red colour, especially of the tree Pterocarpus draco. After the juice is extracted, it is reduced to a powder by evaporation. It is used for darkening mahogany, colouring varnishes or polishes, etc., and for staining marble. ”

“ Copal is found in a fossil state in very large quantities. The natives collect the gum by searching in the sandy soil, mostly in the hilly districts, the country being almost barren, with no large tree except the Adansonia, and occasionally a few thorny bushes. ”

“ With a little care every kind of tropical fruit, of very fine quality, grows abundantly; vanilla is found wild: plenty of copal can be gathered from the trees, as well as honey and wax, the product of harmless wild bees. ”

“ When the fit is over keep the head cool. If there have been white stools, give a grain or two of calomel, and repeat it every three or four hours for three or four times until the stools become green or dark. Keep the bowels open by castor oil, and let the patient be put on a milk diet. The latter part of the above treatment is inserted for the benefit of the emigrant or other individual having no means of obtaining proper medical aid.
COPAHINE. Copaiba balsam made into a mass with wax and powdered cubebs, divided into hard egg-shaped pills weighing 5 decigrammes each and sugar coated. ”

“ In many cases, when these horses have died, calculi have been found in some part of the alimentary canal. Habitual costiveness and the presence of calculi, are frequent causes of spasmodic colic. The seat of colic is occasionally the duodenum, but oftener the ileum or the jejunum; sometimes, however, both the cæcum and colon are affected. Fortunately, we are acquainted with several medicines that allay these spasms; and the disease often ceases as suddenly as it appeared.
Remedies.—Turpentine is one of the most powerful remedies, especially in union with opium, and in good warm ale. ”

“ Hippocrates treats very sensibly of the colic pains which occur in summer, recommending for them emetics of tepid mulse and vinegar, warm clysters, the warm bath, fomentations, soporifics, and purgatives, according to circumstances. When the pains are seated in the lower part of the belly, he merely gives clysters and laxatives.
Galen gives a long list of preparations for colic. They consist principally of narcotics, such as opium, henbane, and mandragora, along with carminatives and aromatics, as anise, pepper, valerian, cinnamon, saffron, gentian, and the like. ”

“ Indeed, the ordinary outward signs of colic are observed. At first the pulse is strong, which weakens, and runs rapidly, from 80 to 100 beats a minute. As the disease progresses the pulse becomes irregular and the animal dull and listless. Treatment consists of simple agents. If the disturbance is due to some potassium compound, give oil; if to ammonia, give vinegar; if from turpentine, give oil and opium, the opium in teaspoonful doses every couple hours. After recovery, let only easily digested food be provided.
GID IN SHEEP. —A disease of the brain due to a worm in the brain substance. ”

“ They may take a glass of sallad oil, with a little brandy or rum every morning, but should never take spirits alone. Liquid aliment is best for them; as fat broths, &c. but low living is bad. They should frequently go a little out of the tainted air; and should never suffer themselves to be costive. In the West Indies, and on the coast of Guinea, it has been found of great use, for preventing this colic, to wear a piece of flannel round the waist, and to drink an infusion of ginger by way of tea. ”

“ This cavity, common to all the higher animals, is known as the coelom; it is lined by cells, which cover the intestines as well as the inside of the body-wall; and upon the intestine assume the form so characteristic of the group, namely, that of large yellow cells loaded with secreted matters, and called "chloragogen-cells" by Claparède. The coelom communicates with the exterior by means of the dorsal pores, the nephridia, and the ducts of the reproductive organs. As in all animals which possess a coelom, the reproductive tissues, ova and sperm, are developed on its walls. ”

“ Or syringe with the juice of the root of laserwort. This melts down the callus: of verdigris, dr. xij; of ammoniac, dr. ij; mix with vinegar, and form into an oblong collyrium.
A collyrium which I use for removing the callosities of fistulæ. Mix with vinegar equal parts of ammoniac perfume, of copperas, of verdigris, of misy, of chalcitis, and of gum.—Another, from the surgical works of Heliodorus: Of calamine, of misy, of copperas, of burnt copper, of gum, of each, dr. iv; of crude chalcitis, dr. iij; mix with the urine of a young person not come to manhood, and form collyria. ”

“ It is excellent in indigestion with flatulence; it checks gastric fermentation, expels the gas and overcomes irregular and violent gastro-intestinal movements; hence, is also very good in spasmodic colic. In spasmodic colic, best to combine with cannabis indica or belladonna. When used as a vermifuge it should be followed by a purge. Used diluted one to ten to dislodge worms in the rectum. A most reliable remedy for collapse. Ether and alcohol are indicated in parturient paresis, ether with aqua ammonia may be used intravenously when the cow is unable to swallow. ”

“ When it increases greatly, it covers the pupil itself. Wherefore, large and chronic pterygia can only be extirpated by a surgical operation. But the smaller and more recent ones may be worn down by the abstergent applications, such as those used for trachoma and leucoma. Among the simple remedies are burnt copper, and copperas with the gall of swine, which answer well. The following is a more potent remedy: Of copperas, p. i, of gum, p. ss.; triturate with [419] wine, and anoint, or form into collyria. ”

“ It agrees with Maly’s abietic acid from colophony in composition, but not in any other way. Copaivic acid is readily soluble in alcohol, and especially in warmed copaiba itself; much less in ether. We have before us crystals, no doubt of copaivic acid, which have been spontaneously deposited in an authentic specimen of the oleo-resin of Copaifera officinalis from Trinidad, which we have kept for many years. The crystals may be easily dissolved by warming the balsam; on cooling the liquid, they again make their appearance after the lapse of some weeks. ”

“ And the animal hot from work, on drinking very cold water, often gets colic. Then, too, a change of food, or a change from dry feed to green food or eating some root crop when the animal is not used to it, may bring on the disease.
Then, again, some horses and cattle are more given to colic than others. Some individuals are never troubled, and others are almost constantly under its influence. If much inflammation sets in, a very serious case is on your hands. Two kinds of colic are known—the spasmodic, a contraction, commonly known as cramps of the bowels ”

“ M. M. If the pain be great, venesection by leeches on the temple, or cutting the temporal artery, and one purge with three or four grains of calomel should be premised. Then the Peruvian bark twice a day. Opium from a quarter to half a grain twice a day for some weeks. Bathe the eye frequently with cold water alone, or with cold water, to a pint of which is added half an ounce of salt. White vitriol six grains dissolved in one ounce of water; a drop or two to be put between the eyelids twice a day. Take very small electric sparks from the eyes every day for a fortnight. ”

“ TINCTURA CALUMBAE—TINCTURE OF CALUMBA
Made by maceration and percolation of calumbae, with alcohol and water.
Dose.—Horses and cattle, 2 to 4 ozs.; sheep and pigs, 1⁄2 to 1 oz.; dogs, 1 to 2 dr.
Actions and Uses.—Calumba is a bitter, gastric stimulant and carminative. It promotes secretion of gastric juice and improves the appetite. As it contains no tannin it is devoid of astringency and may be prescribed with preparations of iron. Like qussia, calumba infusion may be used to destroy worms in the horse’s rectum. ”