Polytrichum. Polytrichum juniperum.

Synonym—Hair-cap moss.

CONSTITUENTS—

Not analyzed.

PREPARATIONS—

Specific Polytrichum. Dose, from five to sixty minims.

Specific Symptomatology—The agent is used in anasarca, ascites, urinary obstruction, suppression of urine in children, febrile and inflammatory diseases, uric and phosphatic acid gravel, acute gonorrhea with severe burning pain on passing urine, irritation of the bladder, difficult micturition of pregnancy, and often occurring during parturition.

Therapy—The agent is a hydragogue diuretic and causes a very large evacuation of urine when administered in dropsy, while it promotes the absorption of the fluid at the same time. It tends to relieve the pain of urinary calculi and to prevent their formation.

Though it is not always effective, probably on account of using a spurious article, the genuine has been known to remove forty pounds of urine from a dropsical patient in twenty-four hours.

The American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy, 1919, was written by Finley Ellingwood, M.D.
It was scanned by Michael Moore for the Southwest School of Botanical Medicine.