American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy

Ten minims of a fluid preparation, to the ounce, may be used, or a
solution of the hydrochlorate of hydrastine in nasal catarrh, in
inflammation of the eyes and in gonorrhea One grain of the
hydrochlorate in an ounce of rose water, with or without five grains of the
sulphate of zinc, is of superior value in purulent conjunctivitis. The same
preparation, diluted, is useful in gonorrhea Five drops of the solution in a
dram of warm water is the proper strength. The colorless hydrastis in a
solution with a small quantity of the potassium chlorate is sometimes
superior in nasal catarrh. It is most serviceable in this condition if dilute.
It is the best of washes in leucorrhea, whatever the cause, and it can be
used freely without danger and in various strengths—from one dram to
three, to the pint of hot water. It is of much service when the discharge is
thick, yellow, and the membranes relaxed and feeble. In simple cases half
a dram to the pint is beneficial.
It forms an excellent wash in eczema of the anus, with ulcers or fissures
within the rectum. Its use may be followed with the application of a zinc
ointment, with twenty-five per cent its weight of bismuth subnitrate. In
mild solutions of the hydrochlorate of the alkaloid one-fourth grain to the
ounce, it is serviceable in catarrh of the bladder, as an irrigating fluid.
We find in addition to the tonic influence of this remedy, that it has been
used in a number of cases of gall stone, with curative results. Professor
Farnum claims to have cured a number of cases with the powdered
hydrastis. The cases which he regards amenable to this treatment are,
first, ordinary cases of cholelithiasis, where the symptoms are transient
and not severe; second, acute inflammatory cases, usually attended with
fever, and catarrhal conditions of the gall ducts; third, cases ordinarily
called biliary colic. Those, of course, where organic change has not taken
place, or where the stones are not impacted, in the gall bladder or in the
ducts. He uses it as an efficient remedy in catarrhal jaundice where
there is no pain to indicate the presence of gall stones in the ducts. This
is in harmony with its influence on general catarrhal conditions of the
gastro-intestinal tract.
Goss claimed that it had direct catalytic power, and aided the digestion,
while it corrected the biliary function. It restores the mucous lining of
the gall duct, in the same manner that it influences other mucous
surfaces.
Ellingwood’s American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy - Page 257