Therapeutic facts.

Echinacea in Infection from Vaccination.

The first case in which I realized the great value of echinacea was in 1899. I assisted in the compulsory vaccination of Barnesville, Ga., and in a few days after we were through, a negro entered my office, claiming that I vaccinated him, which I could not deny as it was literally true that "all coons look alike to me." The arm was greatly swollen, and there was a sore the size of a dollar on the forearm, besides one twice as large as a quarter, on the face.

I covered all the sores on the arm with pledgets of cotton, wet in full strength echinacea, and wrapping it in gauze, pinned the coat sleeve which had been cut to the shoulder about it. Wetting pledgets in full strength for his face, I directed him to renew them as often as they dried and came off. I gave him two ounces of the medicine, telling him to take five drops in water every three hours, and to put a teaspoonful in one-half pint of water to wet cotton for face; also to keep the gauze on the arm damp, and covered with a thick towel at night. He returned in two days, nearly well. I renewed the dressings, and dismissed him. At the same time, one of the doctors, J. B. Dark, died of blood poisoning after vaccination. I believe echinacea would have saved him.

LENA R. WHITFORD, M. D.

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