Aconite—Gonorrhea.

Aconite

J. W. R. KIRK, M. D., SHUQUALAK, MISS.

I have prescribed specific aconite almost daily for the last twenty years and have yet to find any objection to it. No better preparation can be made, and when kept in its proper place it is "a power in the land for good." Here are some prescriptions that will make any doctor fall in love with specific aconite.

Mix. Sig. Give a teaspoonful every ten minutes. until relieved. This will relieve nine cases out of ten of asthma, or to make it better, every case associated with a small, rapid pulse, with some power.

Mix. Sig. Give a teaspoonful every ten minutes until relieved, then every hour and a-half. This, more than all the rest of materia medica for womb colic, irritation of the endometrium, threatened abortion and uterine hemorrhages, in which laborlike or short pains are a part of the wrong. Later it may be given every hour and a half, to relieve tenderness over the abdomen which follows all painful disturbances of the womb. It will regulate the false pains of the pregnant patient, will either cause them to cease, or if during labor, it will bring them on in full force. It is always the first remedy thought of for all wrongs, associated with the small hard, rapid pulse with power, not the weak, fluttering pulse.

But will the nux and macrotys not do the work without aconite? I answer, No, because it is the best, if not actually necessary to relieve the abnormal heart action, and while the aconite paves the way for the kindly action of the other remedies, they promptly do the work. From five to ten drops to the four ounces of water, is amply sufficient for all cases. What are we to think of the extract prescribed by some doctors in ten to fifteen-drop doses.

Some regular physicians recently called the writer to see a son of one of the doctors, who had pneumonia with full, strong pulse. They were giving. one to two drops of aconite every hour. If that had been Lloyd's specific, there would have been something doing.

COMMENT.—The above was written concerning aconite in reply to a statement I made in the April number, that I did not use specific aconite, as it was too strong. This writer appreciates the strength and danger of the remedy in this dose, but many, even those who are usually careful, could easily be led to give in extreme cases a larger dose even than a drop or two, and in many cases this would produce the death of a child. It is far safer to use a weaker preparation.

I am fully aware that there is no preparation that more perfectly represents the active medicinal properties of the plant than specific aconite, but it is the most concentrated and exact of all fluid preparations, and if used its activity must be constantly borne in mind. Five drops in four ounces water, given in teaspoonful doses every hour or two, is the maximum dosage in nearly all cases.

Gonorrhea

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In the treatment of gonorrhea, after many years' experience, I find the following plan will usually cure the disease quickly and permanently. When a man calls at my office to be treated I find there is but little to be gained by examination. I treat the indications for remedies and in all cases, in addition, I use a capsule balsam of copaiva and cubebs and specific gelsemium.

When a case presents a broad white tongue I prepare a powder of about three parts of Epsom salts, one part of soda, and a coloring of charcoal, and of this I give a teaspoonful every three hours until it acts freely, and after that, a dose once or twice a day: generally only a dose at bedtime. At the same time I give the above capsule, and five drops of gelsemium every three hours, while awake, until his urine is clear and flows in copious quantities without any pain in voiding it. After this from one to three doses a day, just enough to keep the urine clear and fine. If the tongue is red I give cream of tartar, instead of the salts, and supplement it with a pleasant sour drink, as a glass of muriatic acid, alternated with lemonade.

Some cases present a sharp, red-tipped tongue, and complain of burning pain in the urethra on passing the urine, I give these specific rhus toxicodendron, and small doses of specific aconite for several days, a teaspoonful of the solution every hour and one-half, after which I give the capsule and the gelsemium with any other indicated remedy.

A man called recently for treatment who stated that he had been treated by another physician over three months and was not well, though about $40 of his money had taken flight, and that he had had a grand scramble with the worst tasting medicine that was ever made, and blue stuff, until he felt blue. I didn't doubt his statement, especially the blues, besides he was then a professional in the use of the little glass syringe.

He now had a gleety discharge which had reminded him so persistently of the storm, that he was tired of life. Upon sounding the parts, I found no stricture, but a little tender spot in the prostatic urethra. His tongue and pulse were normal. I gave him a catheter like the one I had just used to which the nozzle of a fountain syringe was fitted, and some bichloride of mercury tablets, with instruction to fill his bladder with a 1 to 5000 solution, then withdraw the catheter and pass the solution in the natural way. The first irritated the urethra slightly, and was exchanged for a 1 to 6000 solution, which was only used once to complete the cure. I was particular to show him every detail as to the working of the syringe and catheter, and to observe perfect asepsis.

A young man called to know if the clap was ever cured. On being assured that I could make short work of it, he stated that he had been a sufferer for twelve months and that two "regular physicians" had tried their hand on him, but that he was no better, unless the taking of all sorts of bad medicine and being about minus of cash, was an improvement. I treated him according to the indications of his tongue, which was red. I gave him a pleasant sour drink of hydrochloric acid in a goblet three times a day before eating. An explanation as to reaching the disease through a catheter; unless the medicine corrected the condition of his blood and secretions and made a cure, it will suffice to say that the catheter was not needed, as the acid cured him completely. The writer was assured of the cure, because the man tried one of the severest of tests—a supper of sardines, pickles and pepper sauce, followed by enough mean whisky to make him thoroughly drunk, all without a return of the disease.

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