Scilla.

Related entry: Scilla under emetics

The bulb of Scilla maritima.

Dose.—As a diuretic, squills are generally administered in powder, this being the most efficient form in which they can be given; dose, grs. j. to gr. iij., repeated two, three, or four times a day, until nausea is excited, or its action on the kidneys evinced. Its preparations will be described under the class Expectorants.

Therapeutic Action.— Squill is diuretic, expectorant, emetic and acro-narcotic. In small doses it excites the secretory and excretory organs. It promotes the bronchial and intestinal mucous secretions, and increases the secretion of urine in a remarkable manner, thereby promoting the absorption of effused fluids, an indirect effect arising doubtless from the increased diuresis. It acts as an irritative stimulant upon all the surfaces and parts with which it comes in contact, and thus disturbs the process of digestion and assimilation.

As a remedial agent it is principally used as a diuretic and expectorant, and sometimes as an emetic. As a diuretic it is a popular remedy in dropsies requiring the use of stimulating remedies of this class; torpid and leucophlegmatic states of the system are the ones in which it is most frequently used.

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