Aloes.

Other tomes: King's

The use of Aloes in medicine should be quite limited, but still it has a place. I believe that in small quantity and in combination with other agents that act upon the upper intestinal canal, it proves a good cathartic, as in the following: Rx Podophyllin, grs. x.; Leptandrin, grs. xxx.; Aloes, grs. xx.; Extract of Hyoscyamus, ʒss. Make thirty pills. One of them at night will prove an excellent laxative, and those who employ cathartics freely will like the formula.

But it is not for this purpose that I would recommend Aloes, but for one that may seem very singular. In small doses it exerts a direct influence upon the waste and nutrition of the nervous system. In cases of feeble innervation, especially in persons of gross habit, it will be one of our best agents. I have usually prescribed it with Tincture of Nux Vomica or with Tincture of Belladonna. The dose of a strong tincture being from two to ten drops.

In some cases it will prove serviceable when associated with the bitter tonics, as in this: Rx Extract of Nux Vomica, grs. vj.; Aloes, grs. xv.; Hydrastine, ʒss. Make thirty pills. One may be given three or four times a day.

Specific Medication and Specific Medicines, 1870, was written by John M. Scudder, M.D.