Gossypium herbaceum

Volume I — Special Symptomatology

(Cotton Plant.)

Botanical Description.— A biennial or triennial herb, with a fusiform root, giving off small radicles, and a round, pubescent, branching stem, about five feet high. The leaves are hairy, palmate, with five sub-lanceolate, rather acute lobes, three large and two small, lateral, a single gland on the midvein below, half an inch from the base. Stipules falcate-lanceolate. Flowers yellow. Calyx cap-shaped, obtusely fine-toothed, surrounded by an involucel of three united and cordate leaves, deeply and incisely toothed. Petals five, deciduous, with a purple spot near the base. Style simple, marked with three or five furrows toward the apex. Stigmas three or five, involved in cotton, somewhat plano-convex, and reniform. The parts used in medicine are the inner bark of the root, and the seeds.

Officinal Preparations. — Tincture of the root; infusion.

Analogues. — Asarum, Apis, Cimicifuga, Bryonia, Pulsatilla, Sepia, Lilium, Secale, Sabina, Ustilago.

Head.

Stinging pain in the head, going from the forehead to the vertex.

° Fain, first burning, then stinging, extending from both temporal bones to the middle of the frontal bones. 0 Drawing pain over the eyes, with stinging pain in the pupils. 0 Giddiness of the head.

Nose.

Both nostrils swollen and inflamed, the left one most so.

Mouth and Throat. Tonsils much swollen, the right one most.

Gastric.

Nausea, with accumulation of saliva in the mouth.

• Nausea, with inclination to vomit before breakfast in the

morning. ( Williamson.) Taste of bad eggs, better after breakfast.

Rotating sensation in the pit of the stomach, with uneasiness, anxiety, and sighing.

Stitching in the right hypochondrium, lasting for a few minutes, and then drawing pain from both hypochondriac regions to the pit of the stomach.

° Anorexia, with uneasy, depressed feeling at the scrobiculis cordis, at the time of the menses.

Genital Organs.

Stinging pain in both ovarian regions, and at the same time drawing toward the uterus, lasting about ten minutes at a time.

Menses too watery and nineteen days too late.

Soreness between the thighs and vulva, with a watery secretion.

Soft tumor between left thigh and vulva, first the size of a pea, and increasing to the size of a pigeon's egg, secreting a watery fluid, with sticking pain as if caused by a needle, worse at night.

Swelling of the outer part of the left labium, accompanied with intolerable itching; some swelling in the right labium.

The outer skin of both labia studded with innumerable pale, somewhat reddish granules.

Is said to cause miscarriage at any period of pregnancy, but sufficient proof of this is wanting.

° Amenorrhea / dysmenorrhea; menorrhagia. ( Williamson.)

• Morning sickness, 0 during the early months of pregnancy, with the following symptoms: sensitiveness over the hypogastric region; prostration of the nervous system almost to syncope; and in the morning nausea from the least motion soon after waking, with distress in the pit of the stomach; and, immediately on raising the head, retching and violent efforts to vomit; at first very little comes up, except wind, with a loud noise; soon after, saliva and some thick fluid is discharged, and, occasionally, after much retching, a little bilious matter, but rarely any ingesta; wind is often discharged from the bowels during the efforts to vomit. {lb.)

0 Morning vomiting, followed by faintness; she was unable to rise from the bed. (Ib.)

pain.)

• Sterility, from uterine torpor.

• The menstrual flow lasts about twenty -four hours, and then

becomes very sparse and painful. ° Retained placenta.

° Scanty and painful or painless menses. 0 Amenorrhea, with anaemia, dyspeptic symptoms, etc. Extremities.

Tearing pains in the right arm and hand, and jumping pain

from one finger to another. Pale, red, papular eruption on the back of both hands, with

intense itching and a watery exudation. Crawling sensation in all the fingers, as if from worms. Heavy feeling in both hands, better when hanging them down,

and worse in the warmth of the bed. Stinging, drawing, tearing, and burning pain in the lower

extremities.

Trembling, twitching, and weary sensation in the legs. Small, round, dark red spots, with pale red spots, around the

patellae, on the shins and ankles, itching intensely. Generalities. Itching of the skin over the whole body. General lassitude, with pains as if beaten. General external chilliness, with internal heat.

Characteristics. The pains are wandering, come and go (like Pulsatilla). The pains are generally from above downward, aggravated by

motion, relieved by rest. The itching changes to burning after scratching. The symptoms observe alternate periods of aggravation and

amelioration (like Bell, and Secale). Sympathetic symptoms of the stomach, heart, bowels, and

nervous system, arising from disturbance of the uterine

functions, connected with menstruation or pregnancy.

[All the above pathogenetic symptoms, and many of the curative, as well as the characteristic indications, are taken from a report by the late Dr. Williamson, of Philadelphia. But one proving was made; others are needed to verify it. — Hale.]

Volume II — Special Therapeutics

This medicine is prepared from the root of the Cotton-plant. The first mention of it was in allopathic journals, where the statement was made that an infusion was commonly resorted to by the blacks of the South, then slaves, for the purpose of causing abortion.

It was asserted that its use was generally attended by the desired result. Soon after the country was flooded with preparations of the drug — fluid extracts, solid extracts, Gossypin, etc., all recommended in cunning words for the criminal purpose above named. Thereupon, every unscrupulous woman used, and unprincipled physician prescribed the drug, until an enormous quantity was sold yearly. Although no authenticated cases of miscarriage from its use ever came to my knowledge, and although reputable physicians of both schools in the South denied that they ever observed any such effects, I have no doubt hundreds of barrels of the fluid extract were sold yearly.

It was the fashion and the rage of the hour, and the money spent for the drug would have endowed a foundling asylum in every State of the Union.

It still retains its reputation, although in a less degree. That it does cause miscarriage in weakly women may be true, but that it uniformly does I cannot believe.

In the hands of the homoeopathic school it has proven a beneficent remedy, and is capable of further development. The late Dr. Williamson, whose zeal for the improvement of our Materia Medica was never exceeded, made several provings, and used it in many diseases. He considered it analogous in action to Apis, Bryonia, Sepia, Secale, and Sabina. It also resembles Cimicifuga, Ustilago, and Pulsatilla.

Its pathogenesis proves that its sphere of action includes the internal and external genitals, and the reflex nerves connected therewith.

It causes, and has also cured, anorexia and nausea at the time of the menses ; morning vomiting in the early months of pregnancy, with violent retching, tendency to fainting, soreness of the uterine region ; the nausea appears on waking , and the vomiting on first

raising the head; only a thick fluid and a little bilious matter is ejected, with passage of wind both ways.

Dr. Williamson reports cases of amenorrhoea , dysmenorrhoea, and menorrhagia cured by Gossypium.

I have prescribed it successfully in scanty menses , painful or painless.

In amenorrhoea, with anaemia, gastric derangements, and debility, it has seemed to act well.

It has been recommended for sterility from uterine torpor ; for lingering labor from the same cause, where it is said to cause painless expulsive efforts (?).

Many of its symptoms remind me of Ustilago, especially the skin symptoms. It has some relations with Secale.

It causes itching, with small tubercles of the labia and contiguous .tissues.

It may be that you will find it useful in many other uterine disorders, but it needs further provings and clinical experience to confirm its value.

The tincture and lowest dilutions have been found most useful.