HAMAMELIS
   The leaves, bark and twigs of Hamamelis virginiana, Linné (Nat. Ord. Hamamelidaceae), collected in the autumn. Common in the United States. Dose, 5 to 60 grains. Common Names.—Witch-Hazel, Snapping Hazelnut, Winterbloom. Principal Constituents.—A bitter body, tannin, and a volatile oil. Preparations.-1. Aqua Hamamelidis, Hamamelis Water, (Distillate of Hamamelis, Distilled Witch-Hazel, Distilled Extract of Witch-Hazel). Dose, 5 drops to 2 fluidrachms. 2. Specific Medicine Hamamelis. Dose, 5 to 60 drops. Specific Indications.—Venous debility, with relaxed and full tissues; pallid mucosa or occasionally deep red from venous engorgement, or deep blue from venous stasis; excessive mucous flow, with venous relaxation; passive hemorrhages; prehemorrhagic states, with venous fullness; varicoses; hemorrhoids with weight and fullness; rectal prolapse; dull aching pain in pelvis, genitalia, or rectum, with perineal relaxation and fullness; relaxed or engorged and painful sore throat; gastro-intestinal irritability, with venous weakness and mucous or muco-bloody passages. Locally to inflamed, ulcerated or wounded skin or mucosa, especially where venous circulation is debilitated; contusions, bruises, and muscular soreness from exertion or exposure. Action and Therapy.—External. Witch-hazel bark and its fluid preparations are astringent. The distillate and the specific medicine are sedative and slightly astringent. The latter two form agreeably grateful and soothing applications to the skin and mucous surface in irritated and inflamed conditions and where venous relaxation is present. The specific medicine is an elegant and heavy distillate, carrying a large proportion of the oil, as compared to the ordinary distillate, and is much to be preferred where a bland and soothing yet astringent effect is required. Where more alcoholic stimulation is permitted or desired the ordinary distillate may be used. As a rule, the specific medicine is best for use upon mucous, and the distillate upon the cutaneous surfaces. Witch-hazel distillates are splendid applications for sprains, contusions, wounds and inflamed swellings, and for sunburn, tan, freckles, and dilatation of the capillaries of the skin. They are cooling and relieve smarting and pain. Used alone or combined with an equal quantity of bay rum they form an elegant face wash to remove excess of soap and heal abrasions after shaving. Witch-hazel is one of the most comforting applications for painful hemorrhoids. It may be used ice cold or hot, as preferred. Applied to the tender parts after the parturient toilet, it removes soreness of the tissues from childbirth. Rubbed upon the skin, or applied by means of compresses, it is an efficient lotion for muscular soreness and aching after severe exertion; from cold, exposure, or when due to bruises and strains. Its use should be accompanied with gentle massage. Compresses wetted with witchhazel give marked relief in acute cutaneous inflammations, chafing, and especially in mammitis. Incised wounds, ragged cuts from glass or tin, barbed wire injuries, and crushed fingers are quickly relieved of pain and heal rapidly when the following is applied: Rx Echafolta, 1/2 fluidounce; Asepsin, 15 grains; Specific Medicine Hamamelis and Water, enough to make 4 fluidounces. Mix. Apply upon gauze. A similar preparation, with but two drachms of the echafolta, or the distillate with menthol, makes a good dressing for burns and scalds. Glycerin and hamamelis, equal parts, or equal parts of Specific Medicine Hamamelis and Lloyd's Colorless Hydrastis give excellent results in irritation and inflammation of the aural canal due to inspissated cerumen, or to efforts to remove the latter. Sprayed upon the throat the specific medicine or the distillate, suitably diluted, is a useful and sedative astringent for angry and deep red sorethroats, with relaxation of membranes; or in pharyngitis, faucitis, and tonsillitis, with hyperaemia or congestion. The specific medicine is especially soothing and astringent in congestive nasal catarrh. Few local washes give greater relief in the angina of scarlet fever than those of which witchhazel forms a part. They relieve pain, cleanse the parts, and constringe the relaxed tissues and dilated vessels. It may also be added to local washes for use in diphtheria. Together with colorless hydrastis, or other non-alcoholic hydrastis preparations, with or without a grain of alum or of zinc sulphate, it is a most effective collyrium for acute conjunctivitis, with dilated conjunctival vessels. Especially is it effective in vernal conjunctivitis. The same combinations are exceedingly useful as an injection in gonorrhea, after the acute symptoms have subsided and a catarrhal state has supervened. Internal. Hamamelis has an important tonic effect upon venous debility, acting upon the coats of the veins throughout the body. Unlike some vascular remedies its action is not merely local, but extends throughout the whole venous system. It is therefore a remedy of much value in varicoses, hemorrhoids, and passive hemorrhages. When indicated, the tissues are pallid and relaxed, and in some instances deep red, due to venous engorgement. There is a sense of fullness or thickening and weight and congestion. These are especially prominent in the type of hemorrhoids benefited by hamamelis. It is of some value in oozing of blood from the mucosa, in passive bleeding from the nose, lungs, and stomach, but is a better remedy for the venous relaxation that precedes these hemorrhages and which renders their occurrence easy. It is of less value in hemoptysis than lycopus, and is adapted to such cases as are benefited by geranium and erigeron. Hamamelis is a decidedly useful remedy in congestive conditions with marked tissue debility. It should be given a fair trial in congestion of the ovaries, with dull aching pain and sense of weight and fullness; in chronic congestive conditions of the uterus, with soft and flabby cervi¹

LYCOPUS^LYSH2
   The whole herb Lycopus virginicus, Linné (Nat. Ord. Labiatae). Common in shady, moist and boggy places throughout the United States. Dose, 1 to 60 grains. Common Names: Bugle Weed, Sweet Bugle, Paul’s Betony. Principal Constituents.—Tannic and gallic acids, a crystallizable glucoside, resin, and a volatile oil. Preparation.—Specific Medicine Lycopus. Dose, 1 to 60 drops. Specific Indications.—Vascular excitement, with rapid, tumultuous action of the heart, but lacking power; hemorrhage, passive and in small quantities, resulting from determination of blood to the lungs, kidneys, or gastro-intestinal canal; chronic debilitating cough, with weak and rapid heart action and expectoration of mucus or muco-pus; morbid vigilance and wakefulness, with inordinately active but weak circulation; albuminuria with the above characteristic circulatory disturbances; polyuria and some cases of diabetes with rapid heart action. Therapy.—Lycopus is sedative, subastringent, and tonic. No other drug exactly duplicates its value in circulatory disturbances. Apparently gits force is chiefly expended on the vascular structures and the sympathetic nervous system. Its sedative action is most certain when the circulation is excited-even tumultuous-with lessened cardiac power. This evident want of heart-energy, with quickened velocity, is the most direct indication for lycopus. For this purpose especially it is greatly valued in the advanced stages of acute diseases with great debility, and in chronic diseases with frequent pulse. Its action upon the stomach is kindly, and being a mild gastric tonic the appetite is sharpened and digestion facilitated. Normal secretion is favored by it, and blood-making and nutrition improved. Upon the cardio-vascular system it has been compared in action to digitalis, though it is far less powerful than that drug, and besides is non-poisonous and not cumulative. The influence of lycopus extends to all parts under control of the vegetative chain of nerves. Lycopus is preeminently useful in passive hemorrhage, when the bleeding is frequent and small in amount. Thus it has acted well in epistaxis, hematemesis, hematuria, metrorrhagia, and intestinal bleeding. Its greatest utility, however, is in passive pulmonary hemorrhage (hemoptysis). It probably acts by controlling the rapidity of the blood-current. In the first-named hemorrhages it may also act upon the unstriped muscular fibers, but in the pulmonary form these smooth fibers are largely absent in the small vascular terminals where the bleeding is most likely to occur. Therefore the control over the velocity of the circulation, and not its vaso-motor effects, seems the most rational explanation of its control in bleeding from the lungs. Whatever the cause of its action, it is nevertheless most decidedly effective. Lycopus, by lessening irritation, allaying nervous excitement, and slowing and strengthening the heart, and consequently reducing fever and pain, is often successfully used in acute pulmonic complaints. It is more valuable, however, in chronic lung affections, to fulfill the same purposes, besides controlling or tending to prevent hemorrhage. In chronic bronchitis, with copious expectoration, and in chronic interstitial pneumonia, it has rendered good service. While by no means to be rated as an antitubercular agent, its cardio-vascular control and antihemorrhagic power make it an agent of unrivaled worth in those who show every evidence of tending toward a phthisical end, and we believe it will do as much as a medicine can do to stay the distressing ravages of pulmonary tuberculosis. When established it aids in relieving cough, pain, fever and the rapid and excited heart action. In pulmonary hemorrhage we have frequently used with it specific medicines ipecac and cinnamon with the happiest of results. The chief guides to its selection in respiratory therapeutics are the hemorrhage and circulatory excitability. In heart disorders, both functional and organic, lycopus should not be disregarded. It may be used where digitalis cannot be employed on account of its offensive action upon the stomach. Administered to patients suffering from endocarditis and pericarditis it has sometimes subdued the inflammation. It is a good remedy in cardiac palpitation, dependent upon irritation of the cardiac nerve centers, or when arising from organic lesions. It is best adapted to those forms of heart disease characterized by irritability, irregularity, and weakness, with dyspnea and praecordial oppression. Lycopus powerfully increases the contraction of the non-striated muscular fibers, particularly those of the heart and arteries, hence its value in cardiac dilatation and hypertrophy—conditions which have been known to undergo marked improvement under its administration. It quickly relieves the suffering and anxiety nearly always experienced in heart diseases; and is of especial value to relieve the rapid heart action of excessive smokers. Lycopus is a remedy for morbid vigilance and insomnia attendant upon either acute or chronic diseases; and is especially serviceable when sleep is prevented by the exaggerated force of the heart. It has been ill-advised, and is largely over-rated, for the cure of diabetes and the relief of chronic nephritis. The most it can do in these conditions is to allay unpleasant heart symptoms and quiet nervous unrest. It has favorably influenced the circulatory aberrations in exophthalmic goitre, but far more often it has failed. Painful and distressing forms of indigestion are sometimes relieved by it, and it has been employed with advantage in simple diarrhea (lientery), dysenteric diarrhea, and especially in the diarrhea of phthisis, and the gastric disturbances of the drunkard.¹