American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy

very useful.
It has been claimed that incipient gastric cancer has been cured with
geranium, and there is no doubt that it takes precedence over many other
remedies, when a diagnosis between severe gastric ulcer and incipient
cancer cannot be made without exploratory operation. Its range seems
much wider than that of a simple astringent, as it controls pain and
rapidly improves the general condition. Half of a dram may be given every
three hours, but smaller doses may do as well.
It has an influence over passive hemorrhage unlike that of other agents,
but in violent cases of recent origin it is not the best remedy. The author
treated a case of haematuria for nearly two years with absolutely no
permanent impression upon the condition. Tubercular bacilli were found
in abundance in the blood, which was usually arterial in character and
steady in quantity. All of the usual remedies were used. Finally fifteen
drops of geranium were given every two hours, and in two weeks the blood
was absent and had not returned at the end of three years, except mildly
when the patient persistently overworked. The patient improved slowly in
general health and so continued after several years.
Others of our writers refer to its use in phthisis pulmonalis. They claim
that all the symptoms are retarded by its use, and that it improves the
general tone and overcomes night sweats. It may have a subtle influence
upon tubercular bacilli or the conditions induced by them, not
understood, which would account for its phenomenal action in the
conditions referred to.
One physician gives geranium in chronic dysentery by enema. He uses a
dram in sufficient warm water, repeating it as often as necessary. If it
induces colic, he adds a little colocynth to the enema. It does not check
gastric secretions, nor suspend peristalsis. It is a positive tonic to the
mucous linings of the entire intestinal tract, especially in colliquative
diarrhea.
I used geranium in a case of cirrhosis of the liver with ulceration of the
duodenum, with fine results. The disease was held in check for many
months.
Dr. Davy treated a case of habitual menorrhagia with geranium associated
with trillium. Of all concentrations, he would add one-half to one grain to
each dose rubbed up with a little sugar, three or four times a day during
Ellingwood’s American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy - Page 237