Hemorrhage into the Conjunctivae

I have recently had another experience with echinacea. This was suggested to me by the influence of the remedy upon tissues that had been engorged with blood, such as bruises, echymoses and threatened gangrene. It is so positive in these cases that I tried it in the following case:

A patient, from exposure to extreme cold, had a rupture of a blood vessel in the conjunctiva of the left eye. The amount of the hemorrhage was so great that the entire membrane was separated and the large blood clot distended the membrane and hung from the lower portion of the eyeball, like a distended sac. I had never seen so complete a separation.

I tried the usual measures without results. I consulted a specialist who gave me excellent advice, but said I could not expect a speedy cure. Such cases were left to the natural, slow process of absorption and usually took some time.

I prepared a solution of twenty drops of ergot and forty drops of echinacea in one ounce of water. Ten drops of this was to be dropped into the eye every two hours. In twenty-four hours the quantity of extra vasated blood and serum was reduced to nearly one-half, and within a week's time there were two tiny clots only and a yellowish appearance of the conjunctiva. These rapidly disappeared. I do not think we have any remedy that would have stimulated the absorption so rapidly and so satisfactorily as this.

Ellingwood's Therapeutist, Vol. 2, 1908, was edited by Finley Ellingwood M.D.