Silphium lacinatum

Volume I — Special Symptomatology

(Resin-weed, Compass-plant.)

Botanical Description.— This plant is found growing on the prairies of Illinois and Wisconsin, from thence southward and westward. Flowers in July. On the wide, open prairies, the lower leaves are said to present their edges uniformly northward and southward. It is very rough and bristly throughout, with a stout stem, pinnate leaves, petioled and clasping at the base. Heads, few, and somewhat racemed.

Officinal Preparations.— Tincture of the leaves; dilutions.

Analogues.— Cubeba, Copaiva, Terebinthina, etc.

° Catarrhal affections, and diseases of the mucous membranes. 0 Chronic catarrh of the nasal passages. 0 Chronic laryngitis and bronchitis.

° Asthma, humid, with concomitant catarrhal affections of the

bronchial mucous surfaces. 0 Horses that eat of the leaves mixed in hay, are cured or

relieved of the "heaves," and chronic loose coughs. * Catarrh of the bladder. Gonorrhoea and gleet.

Volume II — Special Therapeutics

This common plant of our prairies contains a large quantity of balsamic and resinous juice. Physically and medicinally it resembles such remedies as Copaiva, Turpentine, and Cubebs. It also resembles Stannum and Sambucus.

It has been found useful in catarrhal asthma , chronic bronchitis, and catarrhs of the respiratory organs generally.

Some of our physicians value it very highly in catarrh of the bladder.

I have used it quite successfully in a few cases of asthma, that reminded me of the “ heaves ” in horses — (horses are often cured of heaves by eating the leaves).

It is considered curative in gonorrhoea and gleet. All the mucous surfaces of the body seem to come under its influence. The high dilutions are adapted to the acute stages; the lower to the chronic.

Dr. George A. Hall, of Chicago, once published the following fragmentary proving, and clinical cases, in the “Investigator:”

About ten years since my attention was first called to the above remedy in the treatment of “ mucous asthma,” “ bronchitis,” “ catarrh,” and other diseases involving mucous surfaces.

Proving. — I have attempted several provings with Silphium, which have been unfortunately interrupted, but succeeded in eliciting the following primary symptoms :

(The 1st dec. trit. was given in doses of two grains, gradually increased to ten grains every two hours.) It produces a scraping, tickling, and irritation of the fauces and throat ; nausea, sick, faint feeling, and a sense of goneness in epigastrium ; a desire to hawk and scrape the throat, throwing off a thin, viscid mucus. Irritation extends up posterior nares, involving mucous membrane of nasal passage, producing sneezing, followed by a discharge of limpid, acrid mucus from the nose, attended with a constriction and pressure in the supraorbital region.

Engorgement and thickening of mucous membrane of the throat, extending down as far as could be seen ; a rough cough, attended with expectoration of yellow mucus.

A constriction and tightness of lungs, with a constant disposition to raise ; hacking, spasmodic cough.

Tongue covered with a whitish slimy coat, attended with a dry sensation, as if burned with hot soup. Urine high-colored and scant ; frequent passages, accompanied with a sense of heat or burning at the meatus urinarius during passage of urine. Stools natural in form, but covered with white slimy mucus.

An internal, feverish sensation, but pulse not accelerated. Want of appetite.

Clinical Observations. — For ten years I have used Silphium in asthma with large quantities of stringy mucus, in influenza, coryza, catarrh, and believe it to be the best remedy we have in phthisis when gray or yellow mucus is expectorated copiously, causing rapid exhaustion.

I used the 2d dec. trit., in one or two grain doses every two hours, until expectoration is diminished perceptibly, and then at intervals of four or six hours, until expectoration is diminished to a degree consistent with other symptoms of the case.

Case. — I will report one case, in which I first employed Silphium with the

happiest result. Mr. II - , aged fifty. five years. Ilad phthisis of twenty

years’ standing. For several years he had been under the care of L. M. Kenyon, one of the closest prescribers in Western New York.

Upon the slightest exposure or cold the patient would suffer with congestion of mucous surfaces, followed with copious expectoration of stringy, frothy, lightcolored mucus, which would exhaust him rapidly, sometimes confining him to his bed for weeks in spite of the best-selected remedies, expectorating from one to three pints of mucus in twenty-four hours. After the patient came under my care, Dr. Kenyon sent me a dec. trit. of Silphium, with a request that I should try it in his case. It was not long before I had an opportunity of doing so, for he was taken with one of his usual attacks with unusual severity. On this occasion I prescribed, in the morning, Silphium, the 2d dec. trit., two gr. powders, every two hours, until expectoration diminished perceptibly.

The following morning I found my patient laboring under great apprehension as to the result of the remedy he had taken. On inquiry I learned he had only taken three powders, when cough and expectoration diminished so rapidly as to excite alarm, and he discontinued their use.

During the night he raised less than a teacupful, compared with a pint and a half the night before. There was no increase of fever, no soreness of lungs, or difficulty of breathing more than usual, but an increased desire for food. The fears of my patient vanished when I assured him he was decidedly better, and

the remedy had excelled my expectations. Many times since, during the past ten years, I have used Silphium in the same case, under similar circumstances, with equally pleasing results.

I seldom give the tincture, as its curative effect has never been as satisfactory as the trituration, and I seldom give it above the 3d. I have used it in dysentery, when attacks have been preceded by constipated stools covered with white mucus. I believe it to be one of the chief remedies in the treatment of the “epizootic,” and in the catarrhal influenza now so prevalent in this city.