American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy

The best results have been obtained from rather large doses, and it is a
good rule where relief does not follow the prescribed dose to increase it.
Dr. Edison of Indiana was quite enthusiastic on the action of coto. He
claimed that there was not only an astringent but a positive nerve
sedative influence from its action; that it controlled intestinal pain and
soothed the nervous system, and in one case he thought that its
influence amounted to a temporary paresis. The agent deserves further
study.
CRATAEGUS. Crataegus oxyacantha.
Synonyms—Hawthorn, Haw, English Hawthorn.
PREPARATIONS—
Specific Medicine Oxyacantha; dose, from five to twenty minims.
Fluid Extract Oxyacantha; dose, from ten to fifteen minims.
Normal Extract; dose, from four to eight minims. It is given in water
and may be repeated every hour or every two or three hours. In extreme
cases it may be given hypodermically.
Therapy—This agent has not yet received much attention from the
profession. Dr. Jennings, of Chicago, in October, 1896, published in the
New York Medical Journal a letter containing the following statement:
“To this date I have successfully treated with crataegus one hundred and
eighteen patients who were suffering with various forms of heart disease,
not including fatty degeneration and tachycardia, and of the two latter
forms of the disease. I have fourteen still under treatment.
“Of one hundred and fifty-seven reports from other physicians using the
drug in their practice, all but nine are commendatory and favorable, and
of the nine, eight of them discontinued its use because the medicine
made them sick at the stomach, and the ninth, a physician, said it gave
him a fullness in the head. If these latter had reduced the dose to five or
six drops it would have had full therapeutic effect, and would have
obviated the nausea, and they, too, could then have reported favorably.
“From these results my deductions are that Crataegus Oxyacantha is
superior to any other of the well known and tried remedies at present in
use in the treatment of heart disease, because it seems to cure while the
Ellingwood’s American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy - Page 159