Asclepias cornuti

Volume I — Special Symptomatology

(Silk Weed.)

Botanical Description. — This is the Asclepias cornuti of Gray. (1 retain the name Syriaca given it by Linnseus, as in the first edition.) The plant is known as Milkweed in many parts of the country, has a large, stout, simple, somewhat branched stem, growing from two to five feet high. The leaves are egg-shaped, elliptical, spreading, opposite, with a short but distinct stem, gradually acute, and downy or hairy beneath. The Jloicers are fragrant; umbels several, axillary, nodding, dense, round, each of twenty or more flowers. Calyx segments lance-shaped. Corolla pale or greenish purple, reflexed, leaving the corona, which is of nearly the same hue, quite conspicuous. But few of the flowers prove fertile, producing oblong-pointed pods or follicles, covered with sharp prickles which contain a mass of long silky fibres with seeds attached, and which fibres have been used for beds, pillows, and in the place of fur in manufacturing hats.

History. — This herb is indigenous to the United States, inhabiting rich soil, uncultivated fields, etc., and bearing whitish-purple flowers from June to September. When wounded it emits a milky fluid which contains water, wax-like fatty matter, gum, caoutchouc, sugar, various salts, etc. A crystalline, resinous substance allied to lactucone, has been obtained from the juice of the A. cornuti, to which the name of the Asclepione has been given. It is procurred by boiling and then filtering the juice and separating the Asclepione from the filtrate by ether, from which it may be subsequently obtained by evaporation, and purified by several washings with pure ether. Asclepione thus obtained is a crystaline solid, without

taste or smell, and is readily dissolved by spirits of turpentine, pure acetic acid, and sulphuric ether.

Officinal Preparations.— Tincture of the fresh root by maceration with strong alcohol; dilutions. Triturations of the dried root; and tincture by maceration with dilute alcohol.

(Triturations of a solid extract of the milky juice, made by evaporation at a low temperature over a water bath.)

Analogues.— Asclepias tuberosa, Bryonia, Colchicum, Senega, and the analogues of Asclepias tuberosa.

Head.

Headache, with scanty urine.

Headache, with vertigo, dullness and stupidity.

• Headache, from suppressed perspiration, or from the retention

of effete matters in the system. c Nervous headaches, followed by profuse diuresis. Violent headache, confined principally between the eyes. Severe headache, quick, full pulse, and nausea. A feeling as if some sharp instrument was thrust through

from one temple to the other. A sense of constriction across the forehead.

Mouth and Throat. Burning and tickling in fauces, with nausea and headache. Tongue coated with a white fur.

Stomach.

Excessive nausea, with violent headache.

Slight pain in the stomach, with diuresis and inclination to

evacuate the bowels. Vomiting, severe and long continued, with retching, leaving a

sensation of rawness in the stomach, and a slight pain,.

with cold skin, feeble pulse, and a feeling as if some

sharp instrument was thrust through from one temple

to the other. Great appetite, even a few hours after a meal. Increased appetite, notwithstanding the vomiting and head;

ache, with constipation.

Abdomen and Stool.

Frequent movements from the bowels. Diarrhoea, with persistent nausea and vomiting. Inclination to evacuate the bowels, with nausea and diuresis-.

Copious evacuations in the evening, soft, brown, with slight colic.

Soft yellow stool at noon, with increase of appetite. Diarrhoea, with excoriation of the anus. Copious evacuations without pain or other unpleasant effects. 0 Expulsion of worms — (ascarides.)

° Constipation, pain in right side, lower extremities, and loss of appetite.

Urinary Organs.

Enormous increase of urine, ( primary,) from 35 to 128 ounces. Scanty urine, with headache, (secondary.) Profuse urine after headache. Pale-colored urine, with lighter specific gravity. Burning sensation in the urethra when urinating. ° TJrasmia, preceded by profuse, then scanty or suppressed urine.

° Post-scarlatinal dropsy.

° Dropsy from suppressed perspiration, or renal disease. ° General dropsy from heart disease.

[This medicine is one of the few like Colchicum, Bryonia, and Cimicifuga, that increase notably the solid matters in the urine, namely, from 568 grains to 700 grains. — Hale.}

Generative Organs. (Female.) * Intermitting, bearing-down, labor-like pains, (in

a case of dropsy.) Dysmenorrhoea, accompanied with diuresis. ° Suppression of the menses, in a case of dropsy. (Male.) Tickling sensation at the end of the penis. Burning in the urethra when urinating.

Bronchia, Lungs. Severe bronchial irritation, with burning and tickling in

fauces.

0 Influenza; catarrhal fevers; and bronchitis.

Back and Extremities. ° Acute rheumatism, confined to the large joints, with much

pain and swelling. ° Pains in the limbs.

[I would urge a trial of this remedy in rheumatism, when Colchicum and Cimicifuga seem inefficient.— Hale.~\

Volume II — Special Therapeutics

This is really a potent plant, and one that ought to prove useful if prescribed with judgment. The proving by Dr. Clerborne was a singularly careful physiological experiment for a member of the allopathic school to make.

The head-symptoms were quite notable, and the following symptoms are especially valuable :

(1.) “When the drug did not cause sweating or profuse urination , it caused violent headache with vertigo, pulse quick, full, 92.”

(2.) “A feeling as if some sharp instrument was thrust through from one temple to the other, with feeble pulse and cold skin.”

(3.) “Violent headache between the eyes; a sense of constriction across the forehead.”

I would particularly recommend it in

Congestive headaches from suppression of sweat or urine and fever. Also

Nervous headaches, which are attended by dry skin and scanty urine, cool skin and feeble pulse, and followed by sweating or profuse urination. In the latter cases it may rival Ignatia, Pulsatilla, or Gelseminum.

Diarrhoea, brown or yellow, with nausea and vomiting, and the headache above described in the second symptom.

Constipation has been cured by the administration of 10 to 30 drops of the tincture three times a day.

I predict that its chief curative value will be confined to those cases in which the organic and inorganic solids, which should be eliminated by the urine, are not excreted fully. Like Colchicum it causes the amount of solids excreted to greatly increase (from 565 grs. to 700 grs.), or an increase of 132 grs. in six days. This power would make it the best remedy in the urcemia of pregnant women, or for any cause ; also in post- scarlatinal dropsy, when it would rapidly eliminate the poison of the disease, and prevent the unpleasant sequelse.

Dropsy, especially when caused by renal diseases of an obstructive character, ought to be cured as readily by Asclepias s. as by

Apocynum, and perhaps more promptly. In the provings it caused the urine to increase from the normal quantity of 35 ounces to 135 ounces in six days. This shows its immense power over the secretory power of the kidneys, and that it is secondarily homoeopathic to dropsy, for the secondary effect of such hyperstimulation must be an almost complete arrest of secretion and excretion. It has cured many cases of renal dropsy when given in the tincture and infusion. I have palliated many cases of cardiac dropsy by its use, and with many of my colleagues it has a high reputation in acute cases of anasarca from sudden check of perspiration. Since the last edition of this work was issued, clinical experience has verified its great value in all forms of dropsy.

It is homoeopathic to dysmenorrhoea and threatened abortion , when the pains are intermittent, and pressing from the sacrum to the hypogastrium, with scanty flow.

Rheumatism has been successfully treated by many physicians by the use of this species. Dr. Lee says it rivals Cimicifuga. Dr. Pattee states that in six cases of acute rheumatism it caused the average duration to be confined to eight days. The inflammation was confined to the large joints, with considerable pain and swelling. It had a remarkable effect in relieving the pain. The lowest dilutions will probably be found most useful.