Arnica after Confinement

I have used the tincture of arnica internally, after protracted or difficult labor where the patient suffers from muscular soreness, or muscular tenderness, or lameness, from the severe muscular strain. I add a few drops of the tincture of arnica to a little water and give this in small doses frequently, but I also dilute the tincture and apply it externally in the same cases.

During many years of my practice I have used macrotys and pulsatilla, to prepare my patients for labor. I have not previously had my attention called to mitchella. I shall have no hesitancy in using it in my next case, and I believe from what I have read that I will find it as good, if not better, than those I have named.

J. C. ANDREWS.

COMMENT:—In the above statement, I take it that the doctor depends more upon the external action of arnica, than he does upon its internal influence. In the condition he describes he has given us the precise, specific indications for the internal use of arnica. Ten drops of the tincture, in four ounces of water, given every half hour or hour, will be found to exercise a specific influence upon the condition named. The remedy is also demanded for much the same condition induced by injury, or resulting from a severe surgical operation. The extreme soreness as the sequel of an operation, or in the wound, and the muscular aching accompanying it, are all beneficially relieved by this remedy. The external use of arnica is demanded in the same class of cases, but its influence is local, while internally it has a stimulating influence upon the central nervous system.

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