Homeopathy LibraryCaulophyllum Thalictroides
Hale - Materia Medica and Special Therapeutics of the New Remedies · Edwin Moses Hale · 8,374 chars
General
{Blue Cohosh, Bqwuw Moot.) Botanical Description,— This is a perennial smooth herb with matted, knotty rootstalks, sending up in early spring a simple and naked stem, a raceme or panicle of jellivish-green flowers supported on
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164 CATJLOrHTLLTIM THALICTKOIDES.
pedicels, and a liltle below, tiearing a large compound leaf composed of tlireeternate leaves, without any common petiole. The whole of the plant is covered with a greenish grey powder when yonng. Stem smooth, purple when young, one lo two and a-half feet high, dividing above into two parts, one ot which, a large divided leaf stalk; the other bears a smaller double ternate leaf at the base. Flowers appear in April and May, while llio leaf is yet small.
Sepals six, ■with tliree small bractlets at the base, egg shaped and oblong. Petals six, thick and gland like, somewhat kid- ney shaped, and a hooded body, with short claws, muoli smaller than the sepals, one at the base of eaoh. Pistil enlarged on one side, style short. Stigma minute and onesided; ovary bursting soon after flowering {by the presence of the tn'O erect enlarging seeds), and withering away; the spher. ical seeds remain naked on thin, thick-set seed stalks, looking like berries, tlie fleshy integument turning blue; albumen of the texture of horns; seeds, one or two about the size of a large pea, erect and globe-shaped, and ripen in the later part of summer, and are said to I'orm an excellent sub- stitute for coffee, when roasted.
Fruit, dr3', sweet, and insipid. The root, which is the officinal pai-t, is sweetish, bitter, and pungent, and affords a yellowish infusion, and yellow brown tincture. It is yellow inside, brown outside ; hard, irregular, knotty, branded with many fibres. Grows all over tlie United States, in low, moist, rich ground, or on moun. tains and shady hills, deep woods, or near running streams, or on grounds wh el have I een overflowed with water.
An active principle or resinoid is ob a ned I3 precipitation from the saturated alcoholic tincture, called Caulo] yll n It is soluble in water, and partly so in alcohol.
Officinat. pHEPAitATioNS. — (1), Tincture tVom the root, with strong alcohol d lu ona (2), t.ritarations of the pulverized root; (3), triturations of Cauloptaj 11 n
Analosueb — Ptdaalilla, Oimicifuga, Yibitrmim, Asarinn. Suta, Sen^eio, (Secale,) Oaimabii ind., Uva-urai, etc.
Head
Swimming in the head, a sort of vertigo, with dimness oi
sight. Sensation of fullness of the head, with pressure hehind the
eyes, and fullness of the temporal arteries. Dullness of the head, with contracted feeling of the skin of the
forehead.
Sensation as if pins stuck iu the forehead, with hard headache.
By spells a very severe pain in the temples, as if both t«mplea
would be crushed together. ° Kheumatie and neuralgic headaches; or headaches dependent
upon uterine disorder, or spinal irritation.
Eyes
Dimness of sight. Pressure behind the eyes; profuse flow of tears.
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OACLOPHYLLUM THALICTEOIDES. 165
Mouth
GenBation of dryiiees and heat in the mouth, Distress in the fauces that canees Irequent inclination to
swallow.
Teetli feel sore and elongated Tongue coated white.
" AphthEe of the month in pregnant and nursing women.
Stomach
Heat and fullness in the stomach, Great thirst. Distress in stomach and bowels, with drawing in right hypo-
chondrium. Empty eructations.
Canine hunger, with white-coated tongue. Preqnent gulping up of sour, bitter fluid, with vertigo. ° Spasms in the stomach, cardiaJgia, spasmodic vomiting, and
excessive nausea, attending uterine irntation. " Dyspepsia, with spasmodic irritation of stomach and bowels.
Abdomen
Distension of and rumbling in the abdomen, with tenderness.
Severe colicky pains every few minutes near the umbilicus.
" Spasmodic and flatulent colic. * Spasmodic action of the muscular tissues of the intestines,
from irritation of the motor nerves, or from rheumatism.
Stool
Constipation; stool every other day.
Watery stool, great quantity, but no pain.
Soft stool, very white.
Urinary Organs
Copious emissions of pale or straw>colored urine. Every few minutes sharp, stinging pain in glans penia.
Eespiratory Organs. ° Spasmodic affections of the thoracic organs.
Back
Dull pain in the lumbar region. Severe drawing pain in the sterno-cloido mastoid that draws
the head to the left side.
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166 CABLOPHyLLUM THAUCTEOIDES.
Upper Extremities.
Elbows and wrists ache.
Constant flying pains in the arms and legs.
* Severe drawing pains in tlie joints nf the arms and legs; also
in wrists and flngera.
* Shutting the hand produces severe cutting pains in the second
joints of all the fingers; tliey are very stiff'. ' Inflammatory rheumatism of the joints of the bands.
Lower Extremities.
Drawing pains in tbe thighs, knees and legs.
Very sharp pains in left knee joint.
Ankle and toes of left foot are painful.
Knees feel very weak when walking.
All his joints crack frequently when walking and turning.
Pain in feet and toes, worse at night.
Generative Organs.
* Sensation as if the nterns was congested, with fullness,
heaviness, and tension in hypogastric region.
* Spasmodic pains in tbe uterus, and various portions of the
hypogastric region.
" Suppression of the menses, with spasms of the uterus, ° Dysmeiiorrhtea, spasmodic pains in the uterus.
"Menorrhagia, with threatened abortion; from want of good
contractions after confinement, " False pains during pregnancy. ° Prevention of premature labor, almost a specific. ° Dcilcient labor from rigidity of os uteri. ° Suppressed lochia, with uterine cramps.
" Ketroversion of the uterus, causing paraplegia. ° Drawing in the groins (uterine ligaments.) " Labor-like pains, occurring in any uterine disease. ' Abortion, with little or no flooding.
"Gonorrhtea (?)
" Inter-miUent MiennG contractions.
(Secale causes cfnfo'nwowa.) Menses too soon, (three days.) Relaxation of tbe oa uteri.
Profuse secretion of mucus from the vagina.
Increases the natui-al pains of labor.
Jfa^e.^Stinging pains in glans penis.
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CEAKOTHUS AMEElCAMfS. 167
CEANOTHUS AMERICANUS.
[Mem Jersey/ Tea. Jied Soot)
BoTANiCAii Dbscihptioh,— Tlie Ceanotliua is a small shrub, growing from tliree to four feet high, from a dark rod root, which varies widely.
During the Revolutionary war, the leaves were used as a suhstitute for tea. {I Mve tasted tea inade from tTiem; it tastes very mach like a poor quality ef ilack tea.) The leavea are egg-shaped, the broad end at base, with three ribs, toothed edges, downy beneatli, very beautiful green ia summer, but in the autumn turn & very brigbt and beautiful red ; liave a long leaf stalk.
The branches are downy.
Tlie flowers grow in white clusters.
The calyx has five lobes, which are colored, and curved in, the lower part with a thick disk cohering with the ovary, Uie upper part separating across the fruit.
The petals are spreading, hood-shaped, on slender claws, longer than the calyx.
The fruit lias three lobes, and when ripe splits into three carpela.
OfpicinaI/ PREPABATioNa.— Tincture of tbe leaves; dilutions.
An AlXtSUEB, — ( ? ) ,
Mind
Used as a substitute for tea/ said to have slightly exhilarating effects.
Mouth
° Sore mouth after fever.
(?) Aphthte of nursing children.
(!)
Throat
° Ulcerated sore throat after scarlatina. (?)
[During the late civil war I used this plant for splenitis, and so well satisfied have I been witli the results that for six years I do not remember using anything else for enlarged spleen.
I have used it in the worst cases I ever saw, from, tender infancy to old age.
I have yet to see or hear of its failure in a single case, however inveterate, —Dr. — -, Atlanta Med.
Jour.] ° Enlarged spleen in a child a few weeks old, congenital.
" Enlarged spleen after ague, and abuse of quinine.
[The dose was a few drops, or teaspoonful, of the tincture, and the appli- cation of the tincture over tbe spleen.]
[In chronic cases, when the organ is no longer tender, under the use of tlie tincture, even without the friction, *( woa becomes painful and tender, then sinks very rapidly to its normal size, and so remains, the patient no longer conscious of its presence. — Atlanta Medical and Stirgical /ourwri.]
Respiratory Organs. " Chronic bronchitis.
Generative Organs.
" Leucorrhcea.
GonorrhtBa.
Sj'philis.
(/)
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168 CEDEOH.