American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy

I think this sedative influence is largely exercised through its power to
destroy the germs of the infection, thus removing the cause.
Therapy—Echinacea, is par excellence a corrector of any deprivation of
the body fluids. It influences those. conditions included under the terms
septic, fermentative and zymotic. Those which manifest themselves in a
disturbed balance of the fluids, resulting in alterations of the tissues
such as are exhibited in boils, carbuncles. abscesses and cellular and
glandular inflammations. These same conditions result from the
introduction of the venom of serpents and poisonous insects of every
character, also from the introduction of disease germs from pus and other
putrid and infectious sources.
As an intestinal antiseptic the agent is bound to take first rank with all
physicians when once known. Experiments with it to determine its
immediate influence upon the fevers caused by continued absorption of
septic material, such as typhoid fever, puerperal fever, and the fever of
the afterstages of diphtheria, show that its influence upon the pernicious
germs begins at once.
In several cases reported, where special sedatives were not given, the
temperature has declined from, one-half to two degrees within a few
hours after its use was begun, and has not increased until the agent was
discontinued.
It has then slowly increased toward the previous high point until the
remedy was again taken, when a decline was soon apparent.
It does not produce abrupt drops in the temperature, as often follows the
curetting of a septic womb, or as the removal of a quantity of septic
material often causes, but it effects an almost immediate stop in germ
development, and a steady restoration from its pernicious influence. In
the treatment of typhoid fever in the Cook County Hospital, Chicago, it
was used in the Eclectic wards for about two years or more, and twentyone
days was the extreme extent of the fever, and the mortality was the
lowest known. In many cases taken early, the fever was limited to
fourteen days without delirium.
In private practice the reports of many physicians are much more
enthusiastic, claiming that when given in the initial stage the fever has
disappeared in seven days, and that fourteen days is the extreme limit.
Ellingwood’s American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy - Page 184