[Reprinted from The Medical News, July i, 1893.] 
POISONING BY OIL OF CEDAR 
By F. K. BROWN, M.D , 
OF PHILADELPHIA. 
Mrs. P., twenty-three years old, married, having one 
child and being pregnant three months, took half an 
ounce of oil of cedar at io o’clock p.m. In an hour she 
was seized with vertigo and a sensation of pins and 
needles all over the body, immediately followed by a 
convulsion lasting three minutes and attended with loss 
of consciousness, rigidity of the body, frothing at the 
mouth, stertorous breathing, and bilious vomiting. 
Ten minutes after the first convulsion there followed 
another, lasting about ten minutes and attended with the 
same symptoms as the first, except that the vomited 
matter was thin and watery at first, afterward resembling 
coffee-grounds, and finally becoming almost black. 
There was no diarrhea and no micturition. 
When I saw the woman, two hours after she had 
taken the oil of cedar, she was apparently unconscious, 
but by vigorous shaking could be aroused. Her face 
was pale, her expression anxious, and she was some- 
what delirious and much afraid that she would die. The 
skin was cold and clammy; the pulse was rapid and 
weak, scarcely perceptible at radial artery; the first 
sound of the heart could be but feebly heard. 
Respiration was rapid. There was still a little vomit- 
ing of coffee-ground material, and complaint of severe 
bearing-down pain as though her pelvic organs would 
be expressed. I at once administered hypodermatically 2 
strychnine sulph., grs. and prescribed : R. Bismuthi 
subnitratis, gr. xx ; strychninse sulphatis, gr. ; mor- 
phinse sulphatis, gr. J; M. S. Every hour. I also ordered 
spiritus frumenti, 3ij, every twenty minutes, and hot 
blankets and hot bottles to be applied to the extremities. 
In an hour the patient was much improved. There 
had been no vomiting for half an hour. The pain was 
much less and the heart-sounds were much clearer, with 
a pulse of 90. The respirations were twenty-two per 
minute. The skin was warm and moist. The pre- 
scription of bismuth, strychnine, and morphine was con- 
tinued every three hours. The whiskey was discontinued. 
Ten hours later I found the woman out of bed. She 
maintained that she felt as well as usual. There had 
been no more vomiting and there was no pain, but she 
stated that a dark-colored discharge took place from 
the vagina, which continued until the end of preg- 
nancy. There was suppression of urine for thirty-six 
hours. The patient did not miscarry, but went to full 
term, and was delivered of a full-sized but not healthy- 
looking child.