American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy

there may be painful digestion resulting from gastric debility, where
there is also anemia with a general sallowness of the skin.
In the first case in which Dr. Holmes used the remedy, there was pain
and tenderness over the right hypochondriac region. The skin was
yellow, urine scanty, dark colored, almost coffee-ground color, the pain
extended into the epigastric region. The tongue was heavily coated in the
center, the tip and edges red, the pulse was between ninety and a
hundred, and temperature 100. The patient dull, sleepy, indisposed to
exercise, and the pain resembled that of gall stone. Pain, nausea and
vomiting were present.
Chionanthus, chelidonium, iris, podophyllum, leptandra, euonymus, were all
used and failed. The symptoms increased till the patient had a pulse of
one hundred and thirty and a temperature of one hundred and five, and
was reduced to a skeleton. At the suggestion of a man from. Chile, S. A.,
he gave this remedy in sixty-drop doses of the fluid extract, every four
hours. The effect of the remedy was immediate, and the cure perfect.
The doctor reports four or five other cases where these symptoms were
present with some variation, all cured by this remedy promptly, after our
usual specifies had failed. The agent certainly demands careful
investigation.
PHYSOSTIGMA. Physostigma venenosum
Synonyms—Calabar bean, Ordeal bean, Chop nut.
CONSTITUENTS—
Physostigmine or Eserine, Calabarine, Eseridine, Phytosterin.
PREPARATIONS—
Extractum Physostigmatis, Extract of Physostigma. Dose, from onetwentieth
to one-eighth of a grain.
Tinctura Physostigmatis, Tincture of Physostigma. Dose, from three
to ten minims.
Specific Medicine Physostigma. Dose, from one-fourth of a drop to
five drops. Prescribed, from eight drops to two and one-half drams, in four
ounces of water. A teaspoonful every two to four hours,
Physostigmine or Eserine—A crystalline solid, white or pinkish colored,
Ellingwood’s American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy - Page 329