American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy

Cuthberton gave hydrastis canadensis as a tonic to a pregnant woman
who had a goitre of recent appearance. The goitre was promptly cured. As
a result of this observation, he treated twenty-five other cases of goitre at
the time of puberty, or during the pregnant state. At times when
interference with the function of the reproductive organs seemed to
produce reflex irritation. He claims that every case was cured by this
remedy. He gave the agent from six weeks to three months, three times a
day after eating. One of the patients had become steadily worse under the
use of iodine, the iodides, and thyroid extract. This patient began to
improve as soon as hydrastis was given, and was promptly cured with this
remedy alone.
Webster calls attention to the influence of hydrastis upon the mammary
gland. It has been reported as a remedy for mammary cancer, but its more
satisfactory influence is upon painful fulness of the mammary gland,
during the menstrual period, or for the treatment of local enlargements
occurring more or less suddenly, of a benign character, either in maiden
ladies or at the menopause.
There is an abundance of authority for the use of hydrastis in
conjunction with conium maculatum, in the treatment of non-malignant
mammary tumors. The two agents combined seem to have an influence
that neither possesses alone. Two minims each of these two remedies, in
the specific form, was given by Webster before meals and at bed time, in
these cases, with satisfactory results. The doctor reports in detail quite a
number of cases which were relieved or cured by this treatment.
HYGROPHILIA. Hygrophilia spinosa.
The above named agent is a native of Ceylon where it is used as a remedy
for all dropsical conditions. It is but little known in America, but may be
received on the reliable authority of the native physicians of Ceylon, who
use an infusion of the plant, two ounces to the pint, the entire quantity to
be given within twenty-four hours. The remedy produces active diuresis,
but the reports are as yet so meager that we have no way of knowing in
what way the agent acts upon the organs to produce its desired effects.
It is a powerful diuretic and is a stimulant and tonic to the sexual
apparatus.
Ellingwood’s American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy - Page 258