Asclepias incarnata

Volume I — Special Symptomatology

(Swamp Milkweed.)

Botanical Description. — This plant is known by various names, as Swamp Silkweed, Flesh-colored Asclepias, Hose-colored Silkweed, White Indian Hemp, etc. It has a smooth, erect stem, with two downy lines above and on the branches and peduncles, branching above, and about two or three feet high. The leaves are opposite, oblong, lance-shaped, acute or pointed, obtuse at the base, on short leaf stems, and slightly downy or woolly. The flowers are red or reddish-purple, sweet-scented, and disposed in numerous umbels, which are crowded, erect, mostly terminal, and often in opposite pairs. Hoods of the crown entire, horn standing out, and awlshaped. The leaves are four to seven inches long, and from one-half an inch to an inch and a half wide; umbels are from two to six, on a peduncle two inches long, and consists of from ten to twenty small flowers. There are several varieties of this plant: the A. pulchra, which is more hairy, with broader and shorter petioled leaves; the A. glabra, which is almost destitute of hairs, with two opposite longitudinal hairy lines on the stem, and leaves with rough margins, midrib glandular below; and the A. alba, which has white flowers. This plant grows in damp and wet soils throughout the United States, and bears red flowers from June to August. It emits a milky juice on being wounded.

The root is the officinal part; it varies in thickness from one to six lines, and is of a light yellowish or brownish color. It imparts its properties to water and alcohol.

Officinal Preparations. — Tincture by maceration, and triturations of the root.

Analogues. — Asclepias tuberosa and Asclepias syriaca, Pulsatilla, Senecio, Copaiva, Sabina.

° Catarrh of the bronchi. (?) ° Humid Asthma. (?) ° Mucous diarrhoea. (?)

° Gonorrhoea, with greenish discharge and chordee. ° Amenorrhoea, with cough and catarrh. ° Pleurisy. (?) ° Dropsy. ° Rheumatism. Nausea and vomiting, with papescent diarrhoea. Profuse discharge of urine, and profuse perspiration.

Volume II — Special Therapeutics

When this remedy was mentioned in the second edition of “ New Remedies/’ I supposed it would be used and proven, but no clinical experience has been reported. I have tried it several times in gonorrhoea , on the recommendation of Dr. Hauser, but without good results. Dr. Fowler recommended it in amenorrhoea, but no verifications have been reported. Only a systematic proving will show its real value as a medicine.