Asclepias Syriaca

[MILKWEED. NATURAL ORDER, ASCLEPIADACE2E.]

Simple, stout ; leaves oblong-ovate ; short, acuminate, short petio- late, downy beneath ; pedicels shorter than the leaves, densely many-flowered ; cor. lobes ovate reflexed, four times shorter than the pedicels; hoods of the crown ovate, obtuse, not longer than the uncinate horn. A common, very milky herb, three to four feet high, in hedges and road-sides. Leaves five to eight inches by two to three inches ; veinlets, as in most species, nearly at right angles to the mid vein.

Ped. stout, between the petioles, bearing a globular umbel of a hundred greenish-purple flowers, few of which prove fruitful. Pods full of seeds with their long silk. (Wood.)

A minute description of this plant seems almost unnecessary, since it is too common in this country not to be well known. It emits a milky fluid when wounded; hence the popular name "milk weed." Its active principle is " asclepione." We use a tincture of the fresh root, if possible ; also of the dried root. From this the usual attenu- ations are prepared. Triturations also are used.

King says it is a "tonic, diuretic, alterative, emmenagogue, purgative and emetic" Anodyne properties have also been attributed to it. Drs. Clerborne and Pattee have experimented upon themselves with it. Dr.

II ale gives a very exhaustive article on the drug in his materia niedica.

528 ASCLEPIAS SYRTACA.

The following are symptoms produced by the drug upon the healthy: Dizziness. Violent headache between the eyes. Sense of constriction across the forehead. Feeling (after vomiting) as if some sharp instrument was thrust from one temple to the oth3i\ Dull and stupid appearance of the face.

Tongue covered with white fur. Tickling sensation in the fauces. Nausea. Violent vomiting and retching.

Severe and long continued vomiting, leaving behind it a sensation of rawness in the stomach and a slight pain, coldness of the surface of the skin, feeble pulse. Uneasiness and slight pain at the stomach. Increased secretion of bile. Slight inclination to evacuate the bowels.

Copious discharges from the bowels of a soft, fluid con- sistence, yellowish in color, and attended with some griping pain. Ardor urinae. Increased flow of urine. Quantity of urine passed averaged 135 ounces per day.

Tickling sensation at the end of the penis. Increase of bronchial secretions. Action of the heart less- ened. Hard sleep.

Coldness of the surface of the skin after vomit- ing. Diaphoresis. Skin quite moist. Profuse sweat (after one hour).

(Allen's Encyclopaedia.)

Clinical experience with this drug is almost wholly wanting. Physicians of our own school have used it to a very limited extent and then empirically. Its main use, so far, has been in dropsical effusions, and is based upon physiological effects of the drug rather than upon indications based upon the homoeopathic law. Dr.

Hale says : I once treated a case of general dropsy from disease of the heart. In the advanced stages, after all the usual remedies had, one after the other, failed to give relief, I resorted to the asclepias syriaca. Not having any tincture, I ordered an infusion, one ounce to a quart of water. The fresh root was used.

A table-spoonful of the preparation was given every two hours. Under its use the urine increased to nearly a gallon a day and the breathing was much relieved. Members of the physiological schools report a number of cases of dropsy successfully treated with the milkweed, and seem to think the remedy especially called for when the difficulty depends upon an hepatic derangement. Guided by a popular belief that milkweed is a valuable drug in the treatment of gonorrhoea and gleet, Dr.

Clerborne and others have ventured upon its use in such disorders, and the gentleman mentioned thinks that he has had satis- factory results.

While there is nothing in our limited knowledge of the drug to promise the milkweed an important place in our materia medica, it

ASCLEPIAS TUBEROSA. .V>9

may prove of use in headaches with vertigo ; in gastric difficulties of a milder type, especially if characteristic headache exists; in renal difficulties whose most prominent feature is a very decided increase of urinary secretion, and in post-scarlitinal dropsy.

DYSMENORRHEA.— Dr. J. C. Sanders gives the following indi- cations : Labor-like pains, intermitting and severe, and accompanied with copious discharge of pale, limpid urine; headache and nausea. (Cin. Med. Advance, July, 1877.)

Dr. Waters (Neio Remedies, July, 1878), says that the juice of milkweed applied to the surface of a wound, which has first been carefully cleansed and dried, will greatly hasten the process of heal- ing. He recommends blotting paper as a means of drying the surface and for affording a subsequent covering. The editor of the journal mentioned adds the following remark: "The juice of the milkweed contains a substance closely resembling india-rubber, and it is without question the formation of an artificial scab and conse- quent protection from atmospheric influences that gives this method any value above ordinary modes of treating wounds.

Fibrine of the blood-clot is very likely equally serviceable."