American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy

value in stomach disorders of nervous origin. In a case of neurasthenia of
long standing, complicated with emphysema, the patient, an extremely
nervous woman, persistently regurgitated all the food she took. There
was no nausea, no vomiting; the food simply came back after it was
swallowed. Fifteen drops of the fluid extract of boneset every two hours
was given. The second day the patient was relieved, and there was no
return of the disorder after the fifth day, for several months, when it
recurred for a short time, but was promptly relieved by the same
medicine.
In a case of intractable hiccough in an old man, when every possible
remedy had failed and death seemed inevitable, boneset, fifteen drops in
an infusion of capsicum, every hour, produced a permanent cure.
It is a typical diaphoretic, although not powerful in its action. In
intermittent fever of the severest types, in remittent fever, in continued
fevers of any type, and in the exanthemata, given in hot infusion in the
early stages, it produces delightful results.
Dr. Locke says the remedy is specific in masked intermittent fever, in
which there is sluggishness of every function and irregular occurrence of
chill and fever, the fever followed with but little reaction, almost no
perspiration, but with severe aching in the bones. He uses the infusion,
made by steeping one ounce of the foliage of the plant in a quart of
boiling water. Of this a half teacupful is given every fifteen minutes until
the patient vomits thoroughly. He then puts the patient to bed and
continues the remedy in smaller doses at lengthened intervals until the
patient has perspired for two or three hours, when the medicine is
discontinued and tonics are then given.
In conditions due to malaria, where there is intermittent headache, or
severe irregular browache, where many of the symptoms of ague are
present, this remedy takes precedence over every other.
EUPATORIUM. Eupatorium purpureum.
Synonyms—Queen of the Meadows, Gravel Root.
CONSTITUENTS—
Eupatorin, resin, volatile salt, tannin.
PREPARATIONS—
Ellingwood’s American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy - Page 211