Caulophyllum Thalictroides

[BLUE COHOSH. NATURAL ORDER, BERBERIDACE2E.]

A curious plant in the woods, growing from Canada to Carolina and Kentucky. Plant glaucous, purple when young. Stem from one to two and a half feet high, round, dividing above into two parts one of which is a common short petiole of a triternate leaf, the other bears a twoternate leaf and a racemous panicle of greenish flowers. Leaflets paler beneath, two to three inches long, lobed like those of the Thalictrum or Aquilegia.

Seeds two, mostly one by abortion, naked after having burst the caducous, thin, pericarp, deep blue, re- sembling berries on thick stipes. May. (Wood.)

This plant, the only one of its genus in this country, is also known by the names of Squaw-root, Pappoose-root. Its brown, knotty, hard root, yellow inside, is the officinal part ; from it a dark-brown, alco- holic tincture is prepared.

Oaulophyllum acts upon the muscular tissue, and especially upon the uterine motor nerves. The proving of Dr. Burt and large clini- cal experience show, that the drug affects particularly the smaller joints : fingers, wrist, knees, ankles, feet, toes, causing constant draw- ing, flying pains in the various joints, changing about constantly, se- vere pains in the wrists and fingers, with stiffness of the fingers and severe cutting pains in the fingers when shutting the hand. Its most valuable effects are produced upon the uterine motor nerves, causing spasmodic pains in the uterus, with fulness and tension in the hypo- gastric regions and a feeling as if the womb were congested.

While the curative range of caulophyllum is not large, it is one of those remedies, which are of value in diseases of frequent occurrence in daily practice. We use it in

RHEUMATISM of the small joints with swelling and a tendency to shift about constantly. Spasmodic rigidity of the muscles of the back and neck ; panting, breathing with oppression on the chest ; great nervous excitement.

HEADACHES of rheumatic origin or complicated with charac- teristic derangements of the female sexual apparatus. Frontal head- ache, with a contracted feeling of the skin of the forehead ; pressure over the left eye with severe, spasmodic pains in the temples, as if they would be crushed together ; aggravated by light and stooping, and worse from noon until night.

670 CAULOPHYLLUM THALICTORIDES.

Caulophyllum lias been used in the treatment of the following dis- eases peculiar to women :

LEUCOKRHGEA of profuse, bland mucus ; yellowish-brown spots on the forehead.

DYSMENORRCEA, characterized by labor-like pains, often of great intensity ; scanty menstruation ; general nervous excitement.

METRORRHAGIA accompanied by painful uterine contraction and and by great excitement of the nervous system. If a miscarriage threatens and the amount of blood lost is large, the remedy some- times acts with surprising promptness in checking the flow of blood, thus preventing the greatest danger in the case. In the haemorrhage which may follow miscarriages or delivery at full term and which de- pends upon a lack of contractive energy of the uterus, larger doses of the tincture should be used promptly. In

OBSTETRICAL PRACTICE caalophyllum may not compete with ergot in the violence of the contractions which it causes, but it is less fitful in its action, a point of supreme importance to the ac- coucheur.

The expulsion of retained secundines "may be brought about by the internal administration of caulophyllum. Not long ago we were called to see Mrs. C, who was flowing, not severely, but constantly. She had miscarried in the fourth month of gestation, and was pre- sumed to have expelled the placenta, Her attending physician had given china, belladonna, sabina and other remedies, high and low. Eive-drop doses of the caulophyllum caused the expulsion of the after- birth and the cessation of the flow.

The power of this interesting drug over uterine contractions, makes it a most important agent in the

Preventative treatment of abortion, not only in staying the haemor- rhage from the womb, but in allaying uterine contraction, even if caused by an inherent irritability of the muscular fibres or produced by reflex action.

We use the tincture of the root and dilutions. Caulophyllin rep- resents the active principle of the plant ; triturations are made from it. The dry powdered root, and triturations made from it, may also be used.

CAUSTIC UM. 071