Civ = 12.

The element carbon (L. carbo, coal, Skt. cra, to cook) in the free state is of the greatest service in its several forms (official and non-official), while in combination it is of infinite importance, as it enters into the composition of many medical compounds.

Carbo Ligni. Wood Charcoal. - (Syn., Carbo Lig., Charcoal, Vegetable Charcoal, Carbo Prseparatus, Carboe Ligno; Br. Wood Charcoal; Fr. Charbon vegetal, Charbon de Bois; Ger. Carbo Ligni pulveratus, Gepulverte Holzkohle, Praparirte Kohle.)

Manufacture: Charcoal is prepared from soft wood (willow, poplar, etc.) by exposure to red heat (300° C; 572° F.) without access of air, then very finely powdered. In burning wood thus in a retort or under turf, the hydrogen and oxygen are driven off, leaving only carbon; if much air admitted there also will be considerable ash. It is a black, odorless, tasteless powder, very light, non-gritty, burning without luminous flame. Tests: 1. Boil 1 Gm. + potassium hydroxide T. S. (3) + distilled water (10) - filtrate only slightly brown. 2. Incinerate 1 Gm. - ash 7.5 p. c. Should be kept in well-closed vessels. Dose, gr. 15-60 (1-4 Gm.).

Preparations. - (Unoff.): Trochisci Carbonis Ligni - wood charcoal 30 Gm., tragacanth 4, sugar 66, vanillin .3, water q. s. 100 troches. Biscuit. Capsules. Mostly taken in water.

Properties. - Disinfectant, absorbent, deodorizer, decolorizer. Absorbs gases, condensing them within its pores, especially oxygen. When thus condensed, charcoal has an oxidizing action like ozone, parting readily with its oxygen in the presence of oxidizable substances. It easily oxidizes H2S, thus decomposing organic matter when in the dry form.

( ses. - Diarrhoea, dyspepsia with fetid breath, gastralgia, pyrosis, diabetes, constipation, nausea, intermittent fevers, worms, large doses purgative. Externally in dressing wounds, ulcers, gangrenous sores, fetid stools in typhoid fever, etc.

Allied Products:

1. Carbo Animalis, Animal Charcoal, Bone - Ivory-Black, Official 1820-1910

Carbo Animalis, Animal Charcoal, Bone - Ivory-Black, Official -. Obtained from bones by boiling them in water to remove fat, placing them in iron cylinders which are subjected to intense heat without access of air; the volatile products (gases) escape through a small opening, while there remain in the retorts an ammoniacal aqueous liquid (bone spirit), a blackish tar (bone oil), and charcoal. It is a dull black granular, fine powder, odorless, almost tasteless, insoluble in water, alcohol; ignited yields grayish ash 85 p. c, soluble in hydrochloric acid by the aid of heat; contains carbon 10 p. c, calcium carbonate and phosphate 85-90 p. c. Carbo Animalis Purificatus, is much richer in carbon as the calcium salts have been removed by boiling gently for 10 hours animal charcoal 100 Gm., hydrochloric acid 300 Gm., water 600 Ml. (Cc), adding water occasionally to maintain volume, washing and drying residue. It is a dull black, odorless, tasteless, insoluble powder. Great absorbent (coloring matter, alkaloids, bitter principles, metallic salts, glucosides, etc. - extracted by boiling in alcohol), poisoning by opium, aconite, strychnine, etc. Dose, gr. 15-60 (1-4 Gm.); for poisoning - give purified charcoal ℥ss (15 Gm.) for each grain (.06 Gm.) of poison (alkaloid, etc.), let remain in stomach 10 minutes, remove by pump or emetic; if longer time allowed reabsorption may take place.

2. Carbonei Disulphidum, Carbon Disulphide, Cs2, Official 1880-1910

Carbonei Disulphidum, Carbon Disulphide, Cs, Official -. Obtained by heating charcoal to redness in a vertical cylinder and adding sulphur through a lateral tubule near the bottom; the sulphur melting and vaporizing, combines with the carbon and the carbon disulphide formed distils over through condensing tubes that collect the crude carbon disulphide but allows hydrogen sulphide to escape; it is then agitated with milk of lime, rectified over chlorinated lime solution, litharge, mercury, mercuric chloride, anhydrous copper sulphate, or 2 p. c. of a bland fixed oil, which removes sulphur and disagreeably smelling sulphur compounds. It is a clear, colorless, refractive, diffusive liquid, strong, characteristic, but not fetid odor, sharp, aromatic taste, soluble in alcohol, ether, chloroform, fixed or volatile oils, water (526), sp. gr. 1.256. Anaesthetic, rubefacient, antiseptic, anodyne, refrigerant, irritant, poisonous; mostly externally; opening abscesses, evulsion of nails, headache, toothache, neuralgia, enlarged lymphatics, goitre, lupoid, syphilitic growths, deafness due to lack of nervous energy; solvent for rubber, oils, etc.; internally - gastric cancer (pain), nausea, vomiting, gastralgia, enteric fever. Workmen exposed to its fumes have headache, vertigo, nervousness, voluble talking, incoherent singing, laughing, weeping, weakness, loss of sexual power, impaired vision, hearing, memory, death. Poisoning: Powerful narcotic, causing sleep, coma, running, rapid, feeble pulse, stertorous breathing, loss of reflex action, cold, clammy sweat, low temperature, death. Give emetics, potassium bromide, hydrated chloral, stimulants, ammonia inhalation, warmth to body, cold douche to head, artificial respiration. Should be kept cool, remote from lights or fire, in partially filled, well-stoppered bottles or tin cans. Dose, ev-15 (.3-1 Ml. (Cc.)), well diluted.