In article ,
Guess who wrote:
On Wed, 09 Mar 2005 21:03:08 -0000,
(Robert Bonomi) wrote:

In *small* quantities, it is also used as a substitute for "medicinal"
castor oil,

Hydrocarbon products are poisonous and carcinogenic.

So? In sufficient quantity, *anything* will kill you. Common 'table salt',
for one example. Or even pure oxygen.

And *everybody* that gets _any_ form of cancer has been found to have
consumed large quantities of Dihydrogen Oxide.

If you make a
statement like that, you need to supply the source.

I state as absolute fact that people *do* so use it. A fact that is
trivially easy to verify by consulting compendiums of 'folk remedies',
"patent medicines", "nostrums", etc.

Otherwise it's
unconscionable, and please define "small dose" in the event that
anyone who takes you at your word decides to give it a try on their
mother in law or little brother.

A great many medications -- be they "prescription", "over the counter",
or 'folk' remedies -- are well-known poisons. Used in 'palliative' doses,
they are not harmful to humans, while *killing* less-resistant, lower-
order, creatures.

I did not state that it was a 'desirable' substitute, nor that I
recommend such use.

Petroleum distillates, in quantities of "less than a mouthful" are well-
known *NOT* to be fatal, or even temporarily disabling. Proof is in the
man, _MANY_, *thousands* of people who have ingested such over the years,
from 'suck starting" a fuel syphon.