Piper Nigrum. (Black Pepper.)

We make a tincture of Black Pepper in the proportion of ℥viij. to Alcohol 76° Oj. The Pepper should be finely ground and packed in the percolator, moistened with Alcohol and allowed to stand twenty-four hours, then run the remainder of the Alcohol through it. Dose, gtts. ij. to ʒj.

Black Pepper is a remedy I value very highly. As a gastric stimulant it certainly has no superior, and for this purpose we use it in congestive chills, in cholera morbus, and other cases of a similar character. In atonic dyspepsia it may be associated with Hydrastis or other stomachic bitter, or sometimes with Nux Vomica or Strychnia. I have used it associated with Tincture of Macrotys in atonic amenorrhoea with advantage, and sometimes the same combination will be found beneficial in dysmenorrhoea.

It may be used with excellent results in the treatment of intermittents, preparing the way for Quinia and associated with it. In these cases it is used in full doses.

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