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WARNING: All medicines, drugs, plants, chemicals or medicial precedures below are for historical reference only. Many of these treatments are now known to be harmful and possibly fatal. Do not consume any plant, chemical, drug or otherwise without first consulting a licensed physician that practices medine in the appropriate field.

Felter's Materia Medica on Gelsemium

COPAIBACOOF2
   An oleoresin derived from species of Copaiba growing in South America. Dose, 5 to 30 drops. Description.—A viscid, pale-yellow or brownish-yellow liquid, without or with a faint fluorescence (green), and having a bitter, acrid, and persistent taste, and a distinctive aroma. Soluble in chloroform, ether, dehydrated alcohol, and volatile or fixed oils; partly soluble in alcohol; insoluble in water. Specific Indications.—Vesical pressure and tenesmus, frequent urging to urinate, the urine passing in drops; itching, burning or smarting in the urethra after urinating; urethral mucoid discharges; laryngeal irritation; cough, with thick tenacious sputum, accompanied by loud rales. Action.—Copaiba is a stimulating antiseptic when applied to the skin and mucosa. Small doses taken internally act as a stimulant and antiseptic diuretic. It restrains excessive mucous discharges. When swallowed it causes gastric warmth, unpleasant eructations, and sometimes nausea and vomiting. Continued use impairs the digestive processes. It is readily absorbed, imparting its odor and bitterness to the secretions. While apparently eliminated by all the emunctories, it is chiefly passed in the urine in company with glycouronic acid. Large doses occasion gastroenteritis and haematuria. A transient measleslike eruption on the skin, with unpleasant formication and itching, or an erythematous, urticarial or bullous outbreak may occur from its use. It is not determined whether this is due to elimination-irritation, or to gastric disturbances produced by the drug. Therapy.—External. Copaiba is sometimes applied to frost-bites and chilblains, sore nipples, old ulcers, and anal fissures, and to fistulous tracts to soften hardened edges and surfaces; also in sluggish chronic skin affections when a stimulating antiseptic action is desired. Internal. Copaiba is a remedy for excessive mucous discharges after the subsidence of acute inflammation. For this purpose it is rarely used in chronic bronchitis, especially when coincident with a catarrhal condition of the bladder. It is of much value in intractable gonorrhea in the male to reawaken a dormant infection and recreate the active symptoms, after which the smaller doses are used to restrain the discharge and antisepticize the membranes. It should never be used in the acute inflammatory stage of gonorrhea, with pronounced urethral irritation and profuse secretion. This stage should be treated with Rx. Specific Medicine Aconite, 10 drops; Specific Medicines Gelsemium and Cannabis, one fluidrachm each; Simple Syrup, enough to make 4 fluidounces. Mix. Sig.: One teaspoonful every 3 hours. Having used the required local application, and rendered the urine bland by the use of small doses of sodium bicarbonate well diluted, employ the following after the acute phase has subsided: Rx Copaiba, 1 fluidrachm; Alcohol, 1 fluidounce. Mix. Dose, 5 to 10 drops in sugar and water 4 times a day. If chronic or unduly prolonged use the following: Rx. Copaiba and Spirit of Nitrous Ether, 1/2 fluidounce each; Liquor Potassae and Essence of Cinnamon, 1 fluidrachm each; Mucilage of Acacia and Simple Syrup, 1 fluidounce each. Mix. Sig.: One teaspoonful after each meal. Copaiba only helps gonorrhea when brought in direct contact with the parts affected, as it does when passed in the urine. For this reason it is more effectual in the male than the female in whom at least a part of the infection is vaginal. It is also less valuable by injection than when used internally. The foregoing treatment is Locke’s method, and is adapted to otherwise unconquerable cases. Most cases of gonorrhea are now readily cured by more modern means.1

ERYNGIUM
   The rhizome of Eryngium yuccifolium, Michaux (Nat. Ord. Umbelliferae). A swamp and wet prairie plant found from Virginia to Texas. Dose, 10 to 40 grains. Common Names: Eryngo, Water Eryngo, Button Snakeroot, Rattlesnake's Master, Corn Snakeroot. Principal Constituents.—(Has not been analyzed.) Preparation.—Specific Medicine Eryngium. Dose, 5 to 40 drops. Specific Indications.—Burning pain, with renal, vesical or urethral irritability; painful micturition, with frequent urging to urinate; frequent, scanty and scalding urination; scanty urine, with frequent and ineffectual attempts to urinate; deep-seated pain in bladder extending into the loins; profuse mucous discharges. Action and Therapy.—The root of eryngium, when chewed, causes a profuse flow of saliva; in large doses it is emetic. Its chief properties are those of a diuretic and expectorant. While of considerable value in chronic laryngitis and bronchitis with free and abundant secretion of muco-pus, it is of most service in irritation of the bladder and urethra, with itching, burning, and constant urging to urinate. It is also useful in dysuria with tenesmus. For that condition in women during or following menstruation, or during the menopause, when sudden chilling throws the burden of excretion upon the kidneys, it is invaluable to control the bladder symptoms—as fullness, burning, itching, frequent attempts at urination, or when every movement of the body is accompanied by the involuntary passing of urine. We know of no remedy that acts so promptly and satisfactorily in such conditions. In the male it relieves uneasy sensations, with burning and itching throughout the vesical, prostatic, and urethral tracts, especially when following gonorrhea or gleet. It is not contraindicated by inflammation and is of great value in acute cystitis, with deep-seated, burning pain, and where normal secretion is scanty and pathologic catarrh is more abundant. It acts well with apis or gelsemium, with the latter especially when there is a hyperaemic state of the bladder. It relieves the burning pain of urination in gonorrhea. It is indicated to relieve the difficulties of voiding urine from the presence of gravel and of chronic nephritis; and it restrains the excessive discharges of chronic cystitis. When spermatorrhea. is provoked by urethral irritation, eryngium serves to limit the frequency of losses. Sometimes eryngium will be found useful in digestive disorders, with persistent gastric irritation and mucous diarrhoea. In these cases the tongue is red and tender, nausea is marked, and there is a strong for food.1

EUPATORIUM PURPUREUM
   The root of Eupatorium purpureum, Linné (Nat. Ord. Compositae). Low meadows and woods of the United States. Dose, 5 to 60 grains. Common Names: Queen of the Meadow, Gravel Weed, Gravel Root, Joe Pye Weed. Principal Constituents.—Volatile oil and a resin (eupatorine). Preparations.—1. Specific Medicine Gravel-Root. Dose, 1 to 60 drops. 2. Decoctum Eupatorii Purpureii, Decoction of Gravel Root (1 ounce to Water, 16 fluidounces). Dose, 1 to 3 fluidounces. Specific Indications.—Vesical irritation; incontinence of urine, painful and frequent urination; pain and weight in loins extending to the bladder; scant and milky urine with admixture of blood and mucus. Action and Therapy.—While of some value in chronic gastro-intestinal irritation, with catarrhal secretion, and in some forms of cough, with free expectoration, the chief use of gravel-root is to relieve chronic irritation of the urinary passages. For this purpose it is one of the most satisfactory of medicines. It is adapted to cases in which there is constant urging to pass urine, accompanied by a sense of obstruction, and the excretion is mixed with mucus and blood. Though not curative, it is often invaluable in chronic nephritis, to meet many of the unpleasant urinary symptoms. For the uric acid diathesis gravel-root is one of the best of drugs. It will not, as has been claimed, dissolve gravel, but by its diuretic action it eliminates those particles which may form the nuclei of larger concretions. Besides, its effects upon irritated or inflamed parts due to such deposits when present is to soothe and heal them. It especially relieves the deep-seated pelvic perineal aching common to sufferers from cystitis and subacute prostatitis, For passive hematuria it is one of the best drugs we possess. When hydragogues have been used to deplete the body in ascites, gravel-root, by stimulating diuresis, greatly retards the reestablishment of the effusion. Gravel-root relieves the urinary disturbances of pregnancy so far as difficulty in voiding urine is concerned. It is also very useful in prostatitis, acting best after the acute inflammatory condition has been subdued. Gravel-root is a neglected drug and often should be employed in urinary disorders where less efficient and more harmful agents are displayed. High-colored urine, with blood and solids and voided with pain, and milky-looking urine, should lead one to hope for good results from its use. If the specific medicine is administered it should be given in hot water. The decoction is often the best form of administration. It acts well with the special sedatives, and if fever is present or the skin is hot, dry, and constricted it may be given with aconite or gelsemium.1

GELSEMIUM
   The dried rhizome and roots of Gelsemium sempervirens (Linné,) Aiton (Nat. Ord. Loganiaceae). Dose, 1/10 to 1 grain. Common Names: Yellow Jasmine, Yellow Jessamine, Carolina Jasmin. Principal Constituents.—Two bitter alkaloids—crystallizable gelsemine, the paralyzing agent, and amorphous gelseminine, a very toxic and tetanizing principle, and a volatile oil. There is also present gelseminic acid (beta-methyl-aesculetin). Preparation.—Specific Medicine Gelsemium. Dose, 1/10 to 10 drops. Usual method of administration: Rx Specific Medicine Gelsemium, 10 drops to 1 fluidrachm; Water, enough to make 4 fluidounces. Mix. Sig.: One teaspoonful every 1 to 3 hours. Specific Indications.—Hyperemia; bright eyes, contracted pupils, great heat, and nervous unrest; mental irritability; insomnia, with nervous excitation; pain over the whole head; tremulousness, with great nervous excitement and high temperature; irritation of urinary tract; dysuria, with scant secretion of urine; arterial throbbing, with exalted sensibility; pinched, contracted tissues; convulsions, with hyperaemia; thin, dry, unyielding os uteri, with dry and hot vaginal walls. Action.—Gelsemium acts chiefly upon the spinal cord, first impressing the sensory tract, even to the extent of producing complete anesthesia; later, its dominant action occurs, that of expending its force on the motor neurons, causing paralysis of motion. Sometimes this sequence is reversed. Upon the higher brain it has but slight effect, but upon the motor filaments of the nerves of the head, particularly the third and sixth cranial pairs, its action is profound. This is well shown by the resultant palpebral ptosis and relaxation of the jaw. Respiration is first stimulated, then depressed. Moderate doses do not appreciably disturb the circulation. Toxic doses, however, depress both the pulse rate and the blood pressure. In man convulsions do not occur. Both gelsemium and gelsemine, when dropped into the eye, cause violent dilation of the pupil, with accompanying paralysis of accommodation. The mydriasis is not so lasting as that from atropine. Gelsemium is quickly absorbed and spends its force in about three hours. The alkaloid gelsemine, correspondingly more active, is eliminated unchanged by way of the kidneys. Death from gelsemium is due to asphyxia. Gelsemium does not affect all human beings alike, some' being but slightly influenced by it while others are profoundly impressed. The smallest active doses (ranging from 5 to 15 minims of the specific medicine or fluidextract, according to susceptibility) occasion a languid sense of ease and slight lowering of the force and frequency of the pulse. Larger doses induce a desire to lie down, and cause vertigo, disturbed sight, and sometimes orbital pain. Continued small doses may, after several hours, provoke vomiting; otherwise it has little or no effect upon the stomach or bowels. Toxicology.—Toxic doses produce extreme muscular relaxation and prostration, double vision (sometimes blindness), widely dilated and immovable pupils, internal squint, and the eyelids droop and are raised with difficulty, or complete paralytic palpebral ptosis occurs. Often the patient sinks in his tracks, or if he stands he staggers. Sensibility is greatly impaired, the jaws drop and speech fails. Breathing becomes slow, labored, and shallow; the pulse rapid, weak, and thready; the skin is wet with cold sweat, and the body-heat markedly depressed. Drowsiness may be felt, but consciousness is usually retained until just before death, evidence that the higher cerebral centers are but slightly involved. Death takes place from centric respiratory paralysis, and almost simultaneous arrest of the action of the heart. The cardinal symptoms of poisoning by Gelsemium, therefore, are ptosis, diplopia, dropping of the lower jaw, and absolute muscular prostration. In poisoning by gelsemium or its alkaloids, the emetic or stomach pump should be used if the patient is not too weak. Tannic acid (or strong infusion of store tea) should be administered, external heat applied, and artificial respiration attempted as soon as breathing shows signs of failure. Stimulation of the respiratory function should be enforced by the hypodermatic use of atropine, and that of the heart by ammonia, ether, alcohol and digitalis, the first three in the order named, to sustain the organ until the digitalis, which should be given at once, can act. It has been asserted that morphine completely antidotes the poisonous effects of gelsemium. As gelsemium poisoning is quite rare the antidotal treatment is none too well established and is, therefore, based mostly on general principles. Therapy.—Gelsemium is primarily the remedy for acute hyperemia of the brain and spinal centers. All through the woof and warp of its therapy runs the thread of nervous excitation and unrest; and often fever, spasm, and pain. In proper doses it relaxes high nervous and muscular tension. By diminishing the velocity of the blood current to the head and spinal tract it prevents spasmodic action. It is, therefore, a remedy for hyperaemia; never a remedy for congestion. It is the specific agent for relief in the nervously excited and highly feverish state, for the child with hot head and tremulous and jerky muscles, for great restlessness with elevation of temperature; for the touchy and grouchy but feverish individual who magnifies his ailments; and for those who dread even the simple ordeals and trials of life. The most direct indication for its employment is exaltation of nervous function. It is contraindicated by a weak heart and feeble circulation. As an antispasmodic it stands unrivaled save by lobelia and bromide of potassium, with both of which it acts kindly and harmoniously. “The flushed face, bright eye, contracted pupil, increased heat of head, great restlessness and excitation” are the classic indications for it as first formulated by Scudder, and these stand among the truest of speci1

MACROTYS (Cimicifuga racemosa)CIRAC
   The rhizome and rootlets of Cimicifuga racemosa (Linné), Nuttall (Nat. Ord. Ranunculaceae). A conspicuously handsome perennial widely found in rich woodlands of the eastern half of the United States. Dose, 1 to 20 grains. Common Names: Black Snakeroot, Black Cohosh, Rattleweed. Principal Constituents.—No alkaloidal principles have been isolated from the drug, but it yields a mixture of resins upon which, according to some, the virtues of the plant depend. An impure mixture of the resins is variously known as cimicifugin, macrotin, or macrotyn, and was one of the early Eclectic resinoids. Though not without value, the latter is now scarcely ever employed. Preparation.—Specific Medicine Macrotys. Dose, 1/10 drop to 20 drops. Specific Indications.—Heavy, tensive, aching pain (Scudder); pain characterized as rheumatic-dull, tensive, intermittent, drawing, and seeming as if dependent upon a contracted state of the muscular fibers; soreness of muscular tissues, as if one had been pounded or bruised; the so-called rheumatoid pain; stiff neck; aching of whole body from colds, the onset of fevers, or from muscular exertion; lumbago; bruised feeling of muscles of the forehead, with stiffness of the ocular muscles; soreness and stiffness of the throat with sense of muscular drawing in the pharynx and fauces; muscular pains in the loins, thigh, or back, of a drawing character; deepseated boring and tensive pains; rheumatoid dyspepsia, associated with rheumatism of other parts, and in those having a rheumatic diathesis who experience dull, aching pain and tenderness in stomach and bowels, with tendency to metastasis, and aggravated by food and drink, the stomach feeling as if painfully contracting upon a hard body or lump; the soreness and aching intestinal pains of abdominal grip, when of rheumatoid type; sore, bruised sensation in the respiratory tract; chronic muscular rheumatism; ovarian pains of a dull aching character; dragging pains in the womb, with sense of soreness; the dull tensive pains incident to reproductive disorders of the female, as well as the annoying pains accompanying pregnancy; false pains; afterpains; weak, irregular uterine contractions during labor; irregular, scanty, or delayed menstruation, with dull pain and muscular soreness; chorea, with absentio mensium; and rheumatism of the uterus. Action.—Upon man moderate doses of cimicifuga give slowly increased power to the heart and a rise in arterial pressure. Large doses impress the cerebrum decidedly, and probably other parts of the nervous system not yet definitely determined—occasioning vertigo, impaired vision, pupillary dilatation, nausea, and vomiting of a mild character, and a reduction in the rate and force of the circulation. A condition closely resembling delirium tremens is said to have been produced by it. Full doses cause a severe frontal headache, with a dull, full or bursting feeling. This headache is the most characteristic effect observed when giving even therapeutic doses. While large amounts may poison, no deaths have been known to occur from its use. The physiological action has been well determined upon animals, but it gives no hint as to the possible relationship of the drug to its practical therapy and clinical worth, admitted as valuable by practitioners of all schools of medicine. In small doses cimicifuga increases the appetite and promotes digestion. Larger amounts augment the gastro-intestinal secretions. It is excreted by both the skin and kidneys, imparting to the urine the peculiarly earthy odor of the drug. It also stimulates the bronchial secretion, making it a serviceable though not pronounced expectorant. That it acts upon the uterine, and possibly other smooth muscular fibers of the tubular organs or the nerves supplying them, is evident from its known power of increasing and normalizing weak and erratic contractions during labor. It also stimulates the function of menstruation and is said to increase the venereal propensity in man. Therapy.—Macrotys is primarily a remedy for rheumatoid and myalgic pain and in disorders of the reproductive organs of women. It apparently possesses sedative, cardiac, anodyne and antispasmodic properties, and is an ideal utero-ovarian tonic. Macrotys was introduced into Eclectic medicine by King in 1844 as a remedy for acute rheumatism and neuralgia with such success that it gradually came to be recognized as a leading medicine for these disorders. The extensive list of indications given at the beginning shows sufficiently its general scope of application. While many still regard it as one of the first of antirheumatics, others, and we are among the number, regard it as less fully an antirheumatic than as an anodyne for pain simulating rheumatism, or the so-called “rheumatoid pain”. The original indication as enunciated by Scudder is “heavy, tensive, aching pain”. This is essentially different from the exquisitely sensitive and acute pain of acute articular rheumatism. It is not to be understood that it is of no value in this affection, but that it is of greater worth as an associate remedy. It assists in relieving the pain, but rheumatism is, without doubt, an infectious disorder and needs something more directly antagonistic to the infecting agent, and the salicylates prove better than any others for this purpose. As a matter of fact, the indications for both macrotys and sodium salicylate are usually present. As they do not interfere with each other, they may be judiciously given together, and administered in this manner aid the action of each other so that lesser doses of the salicylates are required. Rx Sodium Salicylate, 2 drachms; Asepsin, 10 grains; Specific Medicine Macrotys, 1-2 fluidrachms t; Fluidextract of Licorice, 2 fluidrachms; Water enough to make 4 fluidounces. Mix. Sig.: One teaspoonful every two or three hours as seems to be demanded. When pain persists in spite of this medication, and fever is active, aconite, veratrum or gelsemium, parti1

PIPER METHYSTICUM
   The root of Piper methysticum, Forster (Nat. Ord. Piperaceae). South Sea Islands. Dose, 5 to 60 grains. Common Names: Kava-Kava, Ava, Ava-Pepper Shrub, Intoxicating Long Pepper. Principal Constituents.—Starch (50 per cent), methysticin (C15H14O5), the methyl ester of methysticic acid; kavahin (methylene protocatechuic aldehyde, identical with heliotropin or piperonal); and the chief active principle, an acrid resin (2 per cent) separable into the local anesthetic alpha-resin and the less active beta-resin. Preparation.—Specific Medicine Piper Methysticum. Dose, 5 to 60 drops. Specific Indications.—Irritation, inflammation, or debility of the urinary passages; chronic catarrhal inflammations; vesical irritation and inflammation; vesical atony; painful micturition, strangury, and dysuria; gonorrhea, slow and intractable; gleet; anorexia; gastric atony; pale and edematous tissues, with scanty or irregular flow of urine, and indisposition to exertion; dizziness and despondency; neuralgia, idiopathic or reflex. Action.—Piper Methysticum stimulates the salivary but not the cutaneous glands, and strongly excites the kidneys to watery diuresis, proportionately less solid material being voided in the urine. Upon the stomach it acts much like the stimulant bitters, increasing the appetite, and produces neither diarrhea nor dysentery. The central nervous system is stimulated by it to a species of intoxication, somewhat resembling but differing, however, from that caused by ethylic inebriation. Large doses will cause a drowsy and reserved intoxication, with confused dreams. The taste being agreeable, it is said one easily becomes a proselyte to its seductive qualities. The intoxicating drink prepared from it by the natives of certain Pacific islands induces an intoxication of a reserved drowsy character attended with confused dreams. Its long-continued use by them has caused more or less obscuration of vision and a dry, cracked, scaly and ulcerated skin, and lesions closely allied to leprosy. Therapy.—Piper methysticum, “the intoxicating long pepper”, is not an old medicine, though under the name of kava-kava and closely similar appellations it has been used in the preparation of a disgusting ceremonial drink among certain South Sea Islanders from early times. As a medicine it has the fourfold quality of being stimulant, sialagogue, tonic, and anaesthetic. Its field of action is upon the sensory nerves and mucous tracts of the body, more especially those of the genitourinal and gastro-intestinal tubes. Piper methysticum is an appetizer and tonic to the gastro-intestinal organs, this influence being especially marked when associated with urinary disorders. The patient is pale, the urinary product inconstant in quality; the tissues, especially of feet and legs, are edematous patient is indisposed to exertion, and has the general appearance of one with Bright’s disease, yet there is no albumen nor evidence of any particular disease. Such symptoms clear up quickly under this remedy, and the appetite is quickly restored. Piper methysticum augments digestion and promotes better assimilation. The glandular activity of the digestive tract is increased, natural secretion and excretion favored, constipation is overcome, and hemorrhoids, if present, are reduced. It also exerts a marked curative influence in chronic intestinal catarrh. The best known remedial action of this drug is upon the genito-urinal tract, in which, through presumably decreasing the blood supply by contracting the capillaries, it allays irritation with its consequent pain in urination, difficult micturition, and inflammation with discharges of mucus or muco-pus. Its reputation as a blennostatic in gonorrhea is well sustained, but, as with all remedies, the specific condition must be present for its best results. It relieves in that form of acute gonorrhea which is sluggish, tardy in responding to treatment, and tending toward the establishment of gleet. It is also a good agent in gleet. In the more acute cases it favorably assists the action of gelsemium, belladonna, and macrotys; while if there is marked debility it may be given with nux vomica or strychnine. Piper methysticum increases the power to urinate and, through its anaesthetic qualities, alleviates pain in the bladder and urethra, hence its value in debilitated and irritated conditions of those organs. It thus becomes an effective remedy sometimes in dysuria, painful micturition, strangury, chronic inflammation of the neck of the bladder, acute urethritis, nocturnal enuresis of old and young when due to muscular atony, and old feeble cases of catarrh of the bladder. It is also of some value in acute vaginitis, chronic bronchitis, rheumatism, and dropsy due to renal inefficiency. Piper methysticum is a remedy for neuralgic pain, especially of the branches of the 5th nerve. It sometimes relieves ocular and aural neuralgia, toothache when not due to dental caries, neuralgia of the stomach and intestines, and neuralgic and spasmodic dysmenorrhea. Such reflex neuralgias as abdominal neuroses due to prostatic, urethral, or testicular diseases, or pectoral neuralgia arising reflexly from nervous dyspepsia are cases for the exhibition of Piper methysticum.1


References

1) Felter, Harvey Wickes, 1922, The Eclectic Materia Medica, Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Cincinnati, Ohio.