Boneset for Hiccough

I have recently had a marked proof of the claims I have made for several years, that boneset will cure severe cases of hiccough. A patient suffering from extreme, almost fatal exhaustion from intestinal hemorrhage, with most violent inflammation of the descending colon, involving the sigmoid, gradually settled into a condition closely resembling the later stage of fatal typhoid, but with less fever. Hiccough had lasted four days, the tongue and mouth were coated with a membranous substance that resembled diphtheritic membrane, except that the membranes were very dry, and on a dark red base. For the hiccough I first administered an infusion of capsicum, although the indications were not plain. This failing, I gave 15 drops of the fluid extract of boneset every hour or two, in hot water, which produced immediate relief. With the relief the remedy was stopped. At first the hiccough would return after two or three hours. Later, not until six or eight hours had passed, and finally only once or twice during the twenty-four hours, until it disappeared entirely.

As the membranes of the mouth were tender, under the exudates, I administered an infusion of oak bark, to which a little boric acid was added, and this cleaned the membrane nicely, and, with the boneset, restored a normal condition of the mouth and stomach. The influence of the medicines was very plain.

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