Leptandra Virginica

[BLACK ROOT, CULVER'S PHYSIC. NAT. ORDER, SCROPHULARIACEiE.]

Erect, tall, glabrous ; the leaves are verticillate in fours, fives and sixes, are lance-ovate to lance-linear ; spikes mostly several, panicu- late. Perennial. Grows in the woods, thickets and barrens from Canada to Georgia, west to Iowa. A conspicuous plant, arising from two to five feet.

The stem is simple, straight, smooth, with whorls of acuminate, finely-serrate leaves which are sub-petiolate and glaucous beneath. The flowers are numerous, nearly sessile, in spikes three to ten inches long. Corolla white, tubular, pubescent inside. Stamens and style twice as long as the coralla.

Flowers in July. (Wood.)

The root is the medicinal part of the plant. A tincture of the fresh root is to be preferred to all other preparations, the leptandrin included.

The following is a synopsis of the symptoms caused by leptandrin in doses of one to forty grains and by the fluid extract of leptandra in doses of twenty to one hundred and sixty drops upon Dr. Burt, and of the first decimal trituration of leptandrin upon a medical student.

MiND.-r-Gloomy.

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Yellow coating of the tongue; yellow coating along the center. Unpleasant, flat taste in the mouth.

Dull aching pain in the lower part of the right hypochondriac region, near the gall bladder, with dull aching dis- tress in the umbilicus and rumbling of the bowels. Sharp, cutting- pains in the bowels with a desire for stool. Dull, aching distress in the umbilical region, with occasional sharp pains. Pains in the umbilical and hypogastric regions, greatly aggravated by drinking cold water ; dull, aching, burning distress in the region of the gall- bladder, with frequent chilliness along the spine; great desire for stool.

Rumbling and cutting pain in the bowels with great desire for stool, followed by a very profuse, black, fetid stool, cream-like in consistency, which ran like a stream from, the bowels, giving a great deal of relief.

Diarrhoea of clay-colored evacuations. Stools of dark, fetid papescent matter, preceded by cutting, sharp pains in the bowels with much rumbling and faintness ; constant dull, hard pain in the umbilicus ; stools, with a large quantity of mucus in them ; stools cannot be retained ; stool, first hard, black, lumpy, afterward soft and mushy.

Urin aey Organs. — Urine scanty, very red ; neutral.

Dull ache in the lumbar region, with occasional sharp pains.

Lameness and aching in the wrists.

Gexeral Symptoms. — Languor ; skin hot and dry, with frequent pain in the bowels ; jaundice with its usual symptoms.

The most prominent feature of the pathogenetic record of lep- tandra is its remarkable action upon the liver and upon the intestinal tract. In the original record of the proving of Dr. Burt we find constant mention made of exceedingly sharp -pains in the hepatic region, near the gall-bladder and running upward toward the spine ; we find an increase of the biliary secretion ; characteristic discharges from the bowels and constitutional symptoms, such as headache, slight fever and yellowish coating of the tongue, which

"30^ LEPTA2STDBA VIKGINICA.

undoubtedly depend upon the profound disturbance which the drug- force has created in the liver.

The entire intestinal track becomes involved. There are sharp, cutting pains all through the bowels, followed by the characteristic, black stools, which become watery and show a free admixture of intestinal mucus, if the use of the drug is continued.

The curative sphere of leptandra is limited to diseases which are caused or accompanied by derangements of the liver and intestinal disturbances to which the drug stands in homoeopathic rapport;

You will find it of value in the treatment of the following diseases :

BILIOUS FEVERS.— Bilious and bilious typhoid fevers with faintness and weakness in the epigastric region ; pain in the various abdominal regions ; aggravated by drinking cold water ; headache with vertigo ; heat, dryness and yellow coloring of the skin ; char- acteristic stools.

DROPSY depending upon obstruction of the portal system.

HEADACHES, accompanied by vertigo, yellow coating of the tongue, faintness ; depending upon bilious disturbances, which would come within the curative range of leptandra.

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