Cornus florida

Volume I — Special Symptomatology

(Dogwood, Boxwood.)

Botanical Description. — This is a handsome little tree, usually from fifteen to twenty feet high; common throughout all our forests; conspicuous in spring-time by its festoons of large white blossoms, and equally so during the autumn for its clusters of scarlet berries.

In this genus of Cornacae there are about twenty species, of which America has, north of Mexico, eleven. The flowering Dogwood is the most beautiful and showy plant of its genus. It is too well known to need description.

Officinal Preparations. — Tincture with strong alcohol from the fresh bark; dilutions. Analogues. — China, (?) Nux vomica. (?)

Head.

Sensation of fullness and pains in the head, with gastric derangement.

Severe headache, with, quick pulse and violent pains in the bowels.

Cerebral fullness, with constant tendency to sleep.

Stomach.

Nausea, vomiting, pain in the stomach, with headache. ° Acid pyrosis; painful and slow digestion.

Abdomen and Stool. Violent pain in the bowels, with purging.

Fever.

Increased temperature of the body, hot sweat, fullness in the head.

"Intermittent fever; the paroxysm preceded for days by sleepiness; sluggish flow of ideas; headache of a dull, Heavy character; nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite; sometimes bilious or watery diarrhoea; chill, with cold, clammy skin; nausea and vomiting, and violent pain in the bowels; fever, with violent headache; hot but moist skin; stupor; cerebral fullness; pulse quick and hard; confusion of intellect, etc.

Volume II — Special Therapeutics

This shrub or small tree is the true dogwood, although where it got this name I never knew. It presents a very beautiful appearance in the early spring, when, before the leaves appear, the tree

is white with its snowy and showy blossoms. The sepals, however, and not the petals, are the most showy portion of the flower. The bark is intensely bitter, and among the common people is used largely as a tonic, and as a substitute for Quinine in ague. An active principle, called Cornin, was at one time sold, but it is unreliable. In large doses Cornus causes a fulness in the head, with some pain, quick pulse, and gastric irritation. I have used the tincture in obstinate intermittents where Quinine had been abused, and found that when the following group of symptoms were present it usually cured :

The ague paroxysm is preceded for days by sleepiness, sluggish flow of ideas, headache of a dull, heavy character. The paroxysms are attended by nausea, vomiting, and sometimes watery or bilious diarrhoea. In the chill there is cold, clammy skin ; in the fever violent headache, with throbbing, stupor, confusion of intellect, and vomiting.

The tincture should be given in doses of five or ten drops, every two hours, in the apyrexia. The 2d or 3d dil. every hour during the paroxysm.

In some old cases of dyspepsia, when the chief symptom is acid pyrosis, this remedy, like Columbo, Chelone, China, and Nux, will often effect very satisfactory cures.