Opium, camphor and turpentine dissolved in spirits, and pronounced an excellent remedy.
- Ten drops of the oil of lavender, taken in a gill of French brandy, and repeated hourly if necessary.
Bilious Cholic.- A mixture in equal parts of gum opium, gum camphor, and spirits of turpentine, dissolved in spirits, is an excellent remedy. Chamomile tea, very strong, is also good in this complaint.
The House-Keeper's Guide and Indian Doctor, 1851. Public domain; transcription unaltered.
Three separate problems in one glass. The opium is an opioid at an unmeasured dose. The camphor is a convulsant in quantity. The turpentine is a solvent, and swallowing it damages the airway and the gut.
It would have worked, in the narrow sense that the opium stops you noticing the pain. It does nothing about the cause, and for a bowel obstruction — one of the things “bilious cholic” covered — masking the pain is precisely the wrong move.
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