Rhus aromatica

Volume I — Appendix

° Intermittent fever, quotidian, with well-developed chill, fever, and sweat.

° Congestive or pernicious ague, quotidian, rarely good for quartan fever.

EHUS AEOMATIOA.

Description. — It is a shrub, growing from two to six feet high, inhabiting high rocky soil; stems straight, branching near the top; flowers yellow, fruit clustered, red, seedy, and acid. When the bush is broken it emits a strong odor, from whence it takes its common name.

Preparation. — Tincture from the bark of the root.

{No Provings.)

° Diabetes Insipidus. — Large quantities of urine of low specific gravity. Emaciated and haggard.

° Diabetes Mellitus. — Great lassitude and languor. Pain in the back, considerable thirst, appetite variable, sometimes ravenous, and sometimes deficient; skin sallow and doughy; temperature, 101|-°; slight cough and occasional nightsweats; loss of flesh ; sugar in the urine.

0 Incontinence of urine, whether from atony of the muscular, or irritation of the nervous fibre, which prevent normal distension.

° Constant dribbling of the urine. ° Enuresis nocturna.

° Haemorrhage of the kidneys, resulting from a diseased state of the whole system, or that which commonly precedes Bright' s disease.

° Haemorrhage from the bladder. ° Uterine haemorrhage. ° Menorrhagia.

° Summer diseases of children.

° Chronic Diarrhoea and Dysentery. — Stools sometimes copious or scanty, with pain ; discharge blood and mucus, or clear blood.

° Patient thin, anxious, sallow ; bowels flabby.

Volume II — Special Therapeutics

J. T. McClanahan, M.D., Brownville, Mo., writes concerning this plant :

In presenting this remedy to the medical world I do so from a firm and honest conviction that I am introducing one of the most valuable therapeutical agents ever introduced from the vegetable kingdom. Time and space will not admit of any further preliminary remarks, hence I enter into the merits of my subject at once. The only published information that I have seen concerning the Rhus aromatica is in Wood’s “ Classbook of Botany,” to which I would respectfully refer those interested. It is a shrub, growing from two to six feet high, inhabiting high rocky soil ; stems straight, branching near the top ; flowers yellow, fruit clustered, red, seedy, and acid. When the bush is fractured it emits a strong

odor, from whence it takes its common name. The bark of the root is the proper medicinal part.

This remedy was successfully used by my grandfather, Dr. John Gray, for over thirty years as a sovereign remedy in the treatment of diabetes, and to this use alone he confined it, and for many years after was used in the same capacity by my father, Dr. F. McClanahan. He it was, I believe, who first suggested its use in other diseased conditions of the genito-urinary organs. I could give many interesting illustrations of cures that have been related to me, more especially diabetes, but it is my purpose only in this article to relate cases in practice that have come under my personal knowledge and experience. I will not attempt to enter into any argument regarding the pathology of diabetes, for so far as I have been able "to learn such attempts have all been vague and unsatisfactory, and modern therapeutics has thrown very little light upon the treatment of this disease. Hence its treatment has been speculative and seldom curative. My first knowledge of this remedy, however, was in the treatment of this disease.

A few years since, when I was a student, Mr. A., aged twenty-seven, came under my father’s treatment, presenting a cadaverous appearance, emaciated, and haggard, with all the usual symptoms of diabetes insipidus. There was no particular change in the urine, except that it was very much increased in quantity and of rather low specific gravity. He was one of the most woe-begone-looking men I had ever seen, and to my mind he possessed little if any chance for recovery. But under the influence of teaspoonful doses of the powdered bark of the root, given in a wineglass of sweet milk, three times a day, together with proper diet, regular habits, etc., he made a complete recovery in four months, and to-day enjoys good health.

Three years ago Mrs. B., aged thirty-seven, mother of five children, presented herself to me for treatment. After a careful examination I diagnosed her case diabetes mellitus. The history of the case revealed the following facts : That ten months previous her attention was first attracted by frequent calls to micturate, and that she was obliged to get up during the night to void large quantities of urine, which had been steadily increasing until she had become so feeble that she was compelled to abandon her housework. There was also a sense of general lassitude and languor, with pain in the back and considerable thirst ; appetite variable, sometimes ravenous and sometimes deficient; skin sallow and doughy; temperature increased to 101J°; slight cough, and occasional nightsweats; loss of flesh ; pulse little affected, except that when diarrhoea would sometimes supervene for a few days it would present the usual feebleness and rapidity. Under the usual tests I found the urine to contain sugar — specific gravity 1.032. I gave the saturated tincture of the Rhus aromatica in half teaspoonful doses every four hours until she was under the influence of the remedy. A diminution of the amount of urine voided was marked from the first day. The dose was lessened and the interval lengthened from week to week, and finally, in three months, the medicine was discontinued. In the meantime strict dietary laws were observed, carefully avoiding such diet as favored the sugar-forming process in the body. She being of a scrofulous diathesis, I gave Cod-liver oil with hypophosphites for some time after having discontinued the Rhus aromatica. I have had the same result in two other cases of diabetes insipidus, which I will not give at

present, and I am at present treating a case of diabetes mellitus, a very interesting case, which I will report in a future article. In incontinence of urine, whether from atony of the muscular, or irritation of the nervous fibre, which prevent normal distension of the bladder, it is applicable. I have relieved several cases in which the person was unable to prevent a constant dribbling of urine — the condition rendering them offensive and uncomfortable ; also, those cases in which the patient has no control over the urine whatever, will be promptly met by the action of the Elms aromatica.

Mr. C., troubled for more than a year with an almost constant dribbling of urine, which rendered his existence miserable, disagreeable, and offensive, not only to himself, but to those around him. This condition of things,. I thought, was the result of an atonic condition of the bladder; hence I gave him an ounce vial of a strong tincture of Ehus aromatica, and ordered him to take ten drops three times a day. Improvement was marked from the beginning, and after eight weeks he was able to hold his urine to normal distension of the bladder.

Ella D. had suffered from enuresis for two years. Her mother said she seemed to have little or no control over her urine at times, and that it was no uncommon thing for her to wet the bed at night and herself during the day. She further stated that she had tried almost every physician and remedy within her knowledge, but without any permanent benefit. I accordingly ordered :

R. Tr. Ehus Aromatica, . . . . §ss.

Glycerin, . ^iss. — M.

Sig. Half teaspoonful three times a day, and to be careful to have her void her urine before retiring, and to have her get up immediately when she felt an inclination to urinate. As the case progressed, I ordered her to discontinue the morning dose, then the dose at noon, and finally the dose before retiring. At the expiration of three months all involuntary flow had ceased, and sufficient time has elapsed for me to pronounce the cure permanent.

The Ehus aromatica is also a valuable remedy in haemorrhage of the kidneys, resulting from a diseased state of the whole system, or that which commonly precedes Bright’s disease. Haemorrhage from the bladder, uterine haemorrhage , menorrhagia, and other excessive discharges, accompanied by a relaxed condition of the uterus. Of these I will speak in a future paper.

This is also a valuable remedy in the treatment of “ summer diseases of children,” and in chronic diarrhoea and dysentery. It is largely used in this part by the farmers in the form of a decoction for diarrhoea. One or two illustrations will serve my purpose here, and these are taken from a number of cases treated by me last summer.

August E. This little boy was taken early last summer with diarrhoea. Stools pale and thin, running from him like water ; no particular pain or fever. He was pale and emaciated ; limbs trembling ; scarcely able to stand alone ; skin usually cool and bowels flabby. R. Tincture rhus aromatica, ^ss., three drops in water after each stool. With proper diet and care the little boy recovered rapidly.

Mr. F. ; laborer; called July 17th. Stated that he was suffering from what the doctors called chronic dysentery, and that he had been in this condition for

two months. He further stated that he had averaged five stools each twenty -four hours for that length of time ; sometimes copious, sometimes scant — the latter accompanied with pain. At times stools consisted largely of blood and mucus ; at other times almost of clear blood. Patient was thin, countenance anxious, face expressionless, bowels flabby, skin sallow, and he was scarcely able to walk. This was a bad case, and I determined to use no other remedy until I had given the Rhus aromatica a fair trial. Under the influence of ten -drop doses of this remedy, together with boiled milk diet, my patient made a complete recovery. No other medicines necessary.

I will further state, before leaving the subject with my readers, that in my practice I have used no other preparation of the drug than a strong tincture made by myself.

I am satisfied that this remedy has such power over the atonic condition which obtains in such diseases as I have described as will render it a valuable addition to our Materia Medica ; and I am convinced that in cases which have been well selected its effects will be found to be uniform and certain.