American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy

irritability of the ovaries, relieving dysmenorrhea when due to atonicity.
It may be given with confidence in wasting of the testes in the early
stages, and the author has retarded the development of varicocele and
has developed the growth and nutrition of the testes materially by its use.
To this agent is ascribed considerable power in reducing the size of
hypertrophied prostate in old men, and in quickly relieving cystic and
other disorders incident to this condition. In the writer's hands it has
produced no marvelous cures of this disorder, but it has been of
assistance to other measures and could not be well dispensed with. It
relieves irritation of the bladder to a satisfactory extent, correcting the
irritable character of the urine, increases the muscular power of the
patient to expel the urine and produces a sense of relief, that is in every
way gratifying and satisfactory.
In the treatment of impotence in young men who have been excessive in
their habits, or have masturbated, it can be relied upon with positiveness.
It will overcome the excitability from exhaustion and increase sexual
power in those newly married who, having been anxious concerning
their sexual strength or ability, have become suddenly almost entirely
impotent after marriage. If the patient is instructed to abstain, for from
four to six weeks, and to have confidence in his ultimate recovery, this
agent in doses of from twenty to thirty drops three or four times daily,
combined with a direct nerve tonic, such as avena sativa in doses of
fifteen drops, or the one one-hundredth of a grain of phosphorus, will
establish a cure. It will relieve any undue irritation, due to excess and
exhaustion, that may be present in any part of the genito-urinary
apparatus.
This agent is a remedy for sexual neurasthenia or sexual perversion with
nerve exhaustion, a condition often overlooked in diagnosis, but quite
common, one which follows onanism more often than any other habit. Its
use should be persisted in for weeks, in the treatment of this form of
nerve exhaustion, and if combined with avena sativa, the phosphates,
strychnia, or the tonic gold salts, and abstinence enforced, a cure will
result more readily than with all the rest without it.
An exceedingly important use for this remedy that I have not been able to
find in the books, is its use for sterility. In simple cases where there is no
organic lesion on the part of the patient, this agent has an excellent
reputation for restoring the ovarian action properly and assisting in
putting the patient into an excellent condition. One conscientious
Ellingwood’s American Materia Medica, Therapeutics and Pharmacognosy - Page 401