Gnaphalium Polycephalum

(Gwi Weed.)

BOTAHICAL Description Tiiis plant is indigenous and Imown by 'Hw various names of Indian Posey, Sweet Life Everlasting, Wliite Balsam, Old-fleld Balsam, etc. It is herbaceous and annual, with an erect, whitish, woody and much branched item, fl'om one to two feet in height. Letmm alt<?rnate, sessile, linear.! anoeo late, acute, entire, scabrous above, and whitish tomentose l>eneath.

Flowert tubular and yellow, in heads clus- tered at the summit of the panicled corymbose branches, oyate-conical before expansion, then .obovate, inroiucre imbricate, with whitish, ovate, oblong, rather obtuse scales. Ploreta of the ray, subulate — of the disc, entire. Receptacle, flat, nalced, pappus pilose, scalirous capillary.

It is found in Canada and various parts of t!ie United States, growing in old fields and on dry, barren lands, and bearing whitish yellow flowers in July and August. Tlie leaves have a pleasant aromatic smell, and an aro matic, slightly bitter and astringent, but rather an agreeable tasle. They yield their properties to alcohol and water.

Officihai, Pkbpara-TIOIIS. — Tincture of the plant

Abalogces. — Aniawm, Uluimmuilui,, Ipecucaunilttt, Alercurius, PulsaiUla. Head and Faoe. Giddiness, especially after rising from a recumbent position. Pain in the back of the head, of a dull, continuous chai-aeter,

with sliooting pain in the eyeballs. Neuralgic pain, of an intermittent form, of the superior max- illary of both sides. Dull, heavy expreeeion of countenance; face appears bloated. Fullness about the temples.

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S3S GHAPHALIDM POLTOEPHALDM.

Mouth feels parched and tastes badly, flat, sweetish, sickening taste in the month. Tongue covered with long white fur.

Platus of stomach, windy eructations, nausea and hiccough.

* Colic pains in various parts of the abdomen, which is senBi-

tive to pressure, in ccecum, Borborygmus, with much emission of flatiie.

BQctum and Stool. Looseness of bowels, with passage of pale-colored ftBces

Rumbling in the bowels, with stool before breakfast. *Diarrhceic discharges in morning and during the day, with irritable temper; pains in bowels in children.

* Vomiting and purging, like cholera morbus, in the night

and all nest day.

Constipation for three days after the diarrhcea {secondary).

Copious, watery stool at night, with much prostration, nausea, pain, and rumbling in the bowels.

Dark-colored, liquid, offensive stool in the morning, after- wards pain in the bowels all day.

Genito-tTrinary Organs.

Sensation of fullness and tension in the bladder, even when just emptied.

Pain in the kidneys, witli frequent but slight pain in prostate gland.

Increase of sexual passion, waking with an erection and urgent desire for an embrace (a thing which never occurred before); the desire was rather mechanical than passional.

" Irritation of the prostate gland.

Trunk and Superior Extremities.

Feeling of debility in the arras, with rheumatic-like pains.

Pains in the chest, darting from side to side,

Numbness of the lower parts of the back, mth lumbago.

Sensations of weight in the pelvis.

Inferior Extremities.

* Intense pain along the sciatic nerve, following its larger

ramifications.

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GOSsrnuM herbaceum. 333

&OSSYPIUM HERBACEUM.

{Cotton Plant.)

BOTAHICAL Dbsckiption. — A biennial or triennial herb, with a fusiform

root, giving off small radicles, and a round, pubescent, branching etem,

about Ave feetliigh. The lewou are hairy, palmate, with five Bub-lnnceolate,

rather acute lobes, three large ajid two small, lateral, a single gland on the

midvein below, half an inch from the base, Stipuki falcate-lanceolate.

Flowers yellow. Oalj/s; cap-shaped, obtusely flne-toothed, surrouaded by

an involueel of three united and cordate leaves, deeply and incisely lootUed.

Petals five, deciduous, with a purple spot near the base. Style simple,

marked with three or five furrows toward the apes. Stigmas three or five,

involved in cotton, somewhat plano-convex, and reniform. The parts used

in medicine are the inner bark of the root, and the seeds.

Analogdbs.— .^gurum, Apu, Oimicifiiga, Bryonia, Pulsatilla, Sepia,

Liliuw,, Secale, Saiina, Uatilago.

Stinging pain in the head, going from the forehead to tha

vertex. ° Pain, first burning, then stinging, extending from both tem- poral bones to the middle of the frontal bones. ° Drawing pain over the eyes, with stinging pain in the pupils. ° Giddiness of the head.

Ifoae. Both nostrils swollen and inflamed, the left one most so.

Tonsils much swollen, the right one most.

Gaatrie. Nausea, with accumulation of saliva in the month. * Nausea, with inclination to vomit before breakfost in flit

morning. ( WilUamson.) Taste of bad eggs, better after breakfast.

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884 GOSSYPICM

Rotating sensation in the pit of the storaaeh, with iineasinese, anxiety, and aighiug.

Stitching in the right liypochoncJrimn, lasting for a few min- utes, and then drawing pain from both hypochondriac regions to the pit of the stomach.

° Anorexia, with uneasy, depressed feeling at the scrobiculis cordis, at the time of the menses. Genital Organs.

Stinging pain in both ovarian regions, and at the same time drawing toward the uterus, lasting about ten minutes at a time.

Menses too watery and nineteen days too late.

Soreness between the thighs and vulva, with a watery secretion.

Soft tumor between left thigh and vulva, first the size of a pea, and increasing to the size of a pigeon's egg, secreting a watery fluid, with sticking pain as if caused by a needle, worse at night.

Swelling of the outer part of the left labium, accompanied with intolerable itching; some swelling in the right labium.

The outer skin of both labia studded with innumerable pale, somewhat reddish granules.

Is said to cause miscarriage at any period of pregnancy, hut sufficieut proof of this is wanting.

" Amenorrhea,' dysmenorrhea; monorrhagia. ( Williamson.)

* Morning sickness, ° during the early months of pregnancy, with the following symptoms: sensitiveness over the hypogastric region; prostration of the nervous system almost to syncope; and in the morning nausea from the least motion soon after waking, w'ith distress in the pit of the stomach; and, immediately on raising tlie bead, retching and violent efforts to vomit; at first very little comes up, except wind, with a loud noise; soon after, saliva and some thick fluid is discharged, and, occasion- ally, after much retching, a little bilions matter, but rarely any iugesta; wind is often discharged from the bowels during the efforts to vomit. (/S.)

" Morning vomiting, followed by faintness; she was unable to rise from the bed. (Jb.)

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GOSSYPIUM HEEBACEUM. 355

''Parturient Gx^n\&ive e&orta wiihont pain. (?) (SectHewU^ pain.)

* Sterility^ from utenne torpor.

* The menstrual flow lasts abont tweiitj-fonr hours, and then

becomes very sparse and painful. ° Retained plaeenta. ° Scanty and painful or painless menses. ° Amenorrhea, with anemia, dyspeptic symptoms, etc.

Tearing pains in the right arm and hand, and jumping pain

from one finger to another. Pale, rec^, papular eruption on the back of both hands, with

and worse in the warmth of the bed. Stinging, drawing, tearing, and burning pain in the lower

Trembling, twitching, and wearj' sensation in the legs. Small, round, dark red spots, with pale red spots, aroimd the

patelliB, on the shine and ankles, itching intensely.

Itching of the skin over the whole body. General lassitude, with pains as if beaten. Genera! external chilliness, with internal heat.

The pains are wandering, come and go (like Pulsatilla). The pains are generally from above downward, aggravated by

motion, relieved by rest. The itching changes to burning after scratching. The symptoms observe alternate periods of aggravation and

amelioration (like Bell, and Seeale). Sympathetic symptoms of the stomach, heart, bowels, and

nervous system, arising from disturbance of the uterine

functions, connected with menstruation or pregnancy.

[All the above pathogenetic aymptoms, aad many of the curative, as

well as the characteristic indications, are talten from a report by the late

Dr. Williamson, of Philadelphia. But one proving was made; othera ai*

needed to verify it. — Hafo.]

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836 GYMNOCtAlroS CiNADENSia.