Corydalis.

The root of Corydalis formosa.

Preparation.—Tincture of Corydalis.

Dose.—From two to twenty drops.

Therapeutic Action.—Corydalis is alterative, tonic, diuretic and diaphoretic; it is principally used as an alterative, it being one of the most efficient of the vegetable class.

We have employed it principally in the treatment of syphilis, in which it has exerted a good influence. We have used it in cases where the general system has become (if we may so speak) saturated with the disease, as manifested by a syphilitic eruption upon the surface, ulceration of the fauces, loss of hair, nodes, nocturnal pains, syphilitic iritis, etc., with entire success.

In scrofula and other cachectic diseases, it is employed with much advantage; in fact some report that this agent alone, given in decoction, has proved more serviceable in their practice than any of the many alterative syrups.

We have found it exceedingly valuable in certain derangements of the stomach, attended with profuse morbid secretion of mucus, there being always a coated tongue, with fetor, of the breath, loss of appetite and loss of digestive power.

It has also been employed with success in chronic inflammation of the kidneys, and in fact of all the urinary passages, and in chronic diarrhcea and dysentery.

The American Eclectic Materia Medica and Therapeutics, 1898, was written by John M. Scudder, M.D.