Euonymus atropurpurea

Volume I — Special Symptomatology

(Wahoo.)

Description. — A small shrub or bush, known by several other names, as Indian Arrow-wood, Burning-bush, Spindle-tree, etc., with smooth branches, rising from five to ten feet high* The E. Americanus is a smaller shrub, with smooth, four-angled branches. The name Wahoo is applied to both. They grow all over the United States, in woods and thickets and river bottoms, and flower in June. The flowers of the former are dark purple, enclosed in a crimson, five-angled pod; the latter has yellow and pink flowers, in a dark red pod, rough, warty and depressed.

Both are very beautiful objects in autumn.

Officinal Preparations. —Tincture of the bark.

Analogues. — China, (?) Epat.perf. (?)

Brain.

A sick, weakening sensation all through the nervous system.

She seemed so drawn up from the floor that it seemed difficult to place her foot down when walking, with sufficient firmness to stand.

A. tipping-over sensation when sitting and walking.

A. dull, heavy pain through the front upper portion of the head.

An enlarged, blurred feeling in the head.

Stomach and Bowels.

A deathly sickness at the stomach, with perspiration and heat in the face, in alternation with chills on the back, and back part of the arms; (vinegar removed these symptoms).

A drastic cathartic, its operation being attended with deathlike nausea, excessive tormina, prostration, and cold sweats.

The evacuations are profuse, violent, and accompanied with much flatus.

0 Diarrhoea, with severe colic. (?)

Fever.

0 Intermittent fevers. (?) A favorite domestic remedy.

Volume II — Special Therapeutics

This indigenous remedy — commonly known by the Indian name of Wahoo, and by the common name of Burning bush — has not been sufficiently studied. It has been exceedingly popular as a domestic remedy, and a nostrum called “ Wahoo Bitters” once had a high reputation for the cure of ague. Whether it possesses any antiperiod ic power has never been accurately determined. I am inclined to class it with Chelone, Eupatorium perf., and others of a similar nature, whose specific virtues can only be known through careful provings.

From the few pathogenetic symptoms which have come under my observation, I will predict its value in intermittent fever, attended, as is common in certain seasons, by exhausting diarrhoea. It is certainly homoeopathic to attacks of diarrhoea similar in character to cholera morbus, for it causes violent, profuse evacuations, with excessive tormina, much flatus, cold sweats, prostration, deathlike nausea, and vomiting, with chills. (See Symptomatology.)

Since the above was written some very interesting experiments have been made with Euonomin, the active principle of this drug. These experiments were made by some English physicians, and published in the “ British Medical Journal.” They decide that,

Euonymin is a hepatic stimulant in man as it is in the dog. Two grains of it, made into a pill with confection of roses, and taken at night, seem to be as efficient a remedy as Iridin. If the dose be not too great it leaves no depression. As it is a feeble intestinal stimulant, it is well to follow it in the morning by a

dose of Pullna water or other saline aperient. I have been much struck with the success of Euonymin in functional hepatic derangements in several persons who have tried nearly all the commonly used cholagogues with varying and limited success. I have no doubt that in consequence of our experiments Euonymin will come to be a universally employed hepatic stimulant.

Dr. Paine, in his work on “ Concentrated Medicines,” written many years before the above experiments, says, that in a proving on himself, “ half a drachm caused nausea, vomiting, purging, and bilious discharges from the bowels.” He pronounced it the best hepatic stimulant in use.

Dr. Paine declares it will cure diseases of the bones by its general effects on the lime ; that it arouses the action of the pancreas and increases the secretion of the gastric juice.

I have used it extensively of late in hepatic derangements, giving small doses (3X trituration) in excessive secretion of bile, and the lx trituration in deficiency.

Dr. Holcombe has read the above experiments to advantage, for he reports the following experience of Euonymin in albuminuria :

Case I. — I made last winter a clinical discovery which promises to be one of considerable importance. 1 had been prescribing occasionally during the past year for a young gentleman afflicted with dyspepsia, chronic catarrh, and sick headaches. The latter symptom had become especially annoying, and one evening, while engaged in social converse, his head slightly aching, my patient fell into a violent and prolonged convulsion, followed by stupor and headache for some hours. The next day I analyzed his urine, and found it loaded with albumen ; indeed the albuminous deposit occupied more than one-half the space which was at first occupied by the urine alone. I thus discovered that an insidious Bright’s disease was at the bottom of all his troubles.

I treated him for three months with various remedies. Helonias, Macrotin, Mercurius corros., Arsenicum, Gelsemium, Aurum, and the Phosphate of strychnia, and Iron figured successively or alternately in the management of the case. He was sometimes better and sometimes worse, hardly ever free from headache, and the urine never absolutely clear of albumen. The severer the headache, the more heavily was the urine loaded with albumen. I could not see that my remedies had made any serious impression on the case, and I was very much disheartened. He was pale, ansemic, thinner in flesh, low-spirited, and I felt confident that unless more efficient remedies were given he would have more convulsions.

About this time I happened to read in an allopathic journal of some experiments made upon dogs with Calomel, Podophyllin, and Euonymin, to ascertain their relative value as cholagogue purgatives. It was asserted that Euonymin

was far superior to the others for exciting a free flow of bile. Regarding dyspepsia and arrested or perverted hepatic function as morbid steps almost always preliminary to the development of Bright’s disease, I had determined to put my patient steadily for awhile on a liver remedy, and it occurred to me soon that I had discovered the right thing. I gave him two or three grains of the 1st cent, trituration of Euonymin, three times a day.

At the expiration of a week he reported himself as free from headache, and in every respect better. To my surprise, as well as delight, there was not a particle of albumen in his urine. Another week of the same treatment and the same favorable report was made. I gave him a placebo during the next week, and he came back complaining of rheumatic pains all over. I gave him Macrotin, and on his next weekly visit he had severe headache, no appetite, nausea, and strongly albuminous urine. I returned to the Euonymin and the urine became normal in a few days. I continued the Euonymin steadily for two or three months, and the patient improved regularly. He fattened ten pounds, had very little headache or dyspepsia, and the urine continued perfectly free from albumen. As he had not made a satisfactory change of climate for many years, I advised him to visit Waukesha and drink moderately of the Bethesda water during the summer. He has been there six weeks at the present writing (August), and reports himself in excellent condition.

Case II. — Very soon after discovering that Euonymin caused the disappearance of albumen in the above case, I tried it upon another. A tall, very thin young gentleman had been visiting my office for more than a year, complaining of pains in the back and head. He was slightly dyspeptic and always lowspirited and despondent. His urine contained albumen in very small quantities at every analysis, and Strychnia was the only remedy I gave him which caused its disappearance for even a short time. I prescribed the Euonymin, and in a couple of weeks no albumen was to be found. Now, after four months, using it only occasionally, he has gained considerably in flesh, has no pains anywhere, and the urine is perfectly normal.

The two above cases given are very suggestive, and although it would be premature to claim Euonymin as a great remedy for Bright’s disease, it is certainly one worth the earnest attention of the profession. I have frequently prescribed it successfully for pains in the back, loins, hepatic and splenic regions, of obscure origin, but very probably connected with kidney troubles not revealed by the exudation of albumen.