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91.04.00f

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Ferdinand von Mueller to the Australasian Medical Gazette, 1891-04 [91.04.00f]. R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora, J.H. Voigt and Monika Wells (eds), Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, <https://vmcp.rbg.vic.gov.au/id//letters/1890-6/1891/91-04-00f-final.odt>, accessed June 13, 2026

1
Letter not found. The extracts given here are from 'The use of Eucalyptus branches and oil in medicine', Australasian medical gazette , May 1891, p. 241. It is dated to late April 1891 as the latest likely date it could have been sent, to reach Sydney in time to be included in the May issue of the journal.
[Baron Sir Ferd. von Mueller, K.C.M.G., F.R.S., M.D., &c, informs us that he has introduced in Victoria the use of green eucalyptus branches in sick rooms, by recommending that they be placed under the bedsteads and renewed when necessary, say every other day. This method he considers applicable in all infectious and contagious diseases wherever the eucalyptus branches can be obtained; it is said to have been very successful with phthisical patients, not only antiseptically, but also as a sedative, and to a certain degree, hypnotic.
This distinguished savant also sends us a paper on the internal and external application of eucalyptus oil, mixed with thymol, in scarlatina, read last year before the Epidemiological Society in London, by Dr. J. B. Curgenven, who, from the experience gained by the above treatment of scarlet fever during twelve months, has come to the following conclusions:
…
2
The text omitted here summarizes the conclusions of Curgenven (1891).
Baron von Mueller further says that the eucalyptus oil used in Europe has been distilled from
Eucalyptus Amygdalina

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, and not from E. Globulus, as the former kind produces far more oil than any other description; in fact, the oil made in Victoria is mostly the produce of E. Amygdalina, and after that of the mixed three or four kinds of Mallee Eucalyptus.]