Individual Drugs. ABIES (Tsuga canadensis). - Southwest School of ...

active capillary movement; and in enfeeblement of the circulation,
functional in character and not due to structural degeneration or
sepsis, and manifested by a frequent small pulse, a hard and wiry
pulse, a frequent, open and easily compressed pulse, a rebounding
pulse, or an irregular pulse. It lessens determination of blood
(hyperaemia), quiets irritation, checks the rapid circulation in the
capillaries when it is too active, and increases the circulation when it
is sluggish. We account for this by believing that it gives the right
innervation to the vascular system. Scudder (Diseases of Children, 42)
says of it: “I have been in the habit of saying that aconite is a stimulant
to the heart, arteries, and capillaries, because whilst it lessens the
frequency, it increases the power of the apparatus engaged in the
circulation.” It should be stated that our term sedative differs in fact
from that accepted by other schools. An agent such as aconite, which
in full doses would depress but in minute doses will stimulate the
vascular system to normal activity and thereby reduce febrile states by
correcting or regulating innervation, is classed in Eclectic therapy as a
“special,” “vascular,” or “arterial sedative.”
Aconite is a remedy for irritation of the mucous membranes. It matters
little whether it be of the nares preceding an attack of coryza, of the
larynx, of the bronchi, or of the gastro-intestinal tube, liable to lead to
inflammation of those tracts, aconite may be used to control the morbid
process. In simple gastric irritation with or without vomiting, in the
irritative forms of diarrhoea—whether simple or of the more
complicated forms of enteric inflammation, of cholera infantum, or of
dysentery—it is equally important and usually specifically indicated.
In the diarrhoea of dentition it often controls the nervous symptoms
and the discharges. Of course one must take into consideration the
role played by food toxemia. In such cases modification or complete
change of food must be resorted to, and frequently a simple purge given
to cleanse the gastro-intestinal tract. Then if irritation persists, or there
is fever, aconite usually acts promptly. The form of cholera infantum
best treated by it is that showing increased bodily heat. If dentition is
accompanied by irritation and fever, it may be given alone or with
matricaria. In many of the stomach and bowel disorders, particularly
gastric irritation with diarrhoea, and gastro-enteritis, it acts well with
ipecac, or rhus. For aphthous ulcerations with fever, aconite and
phytolacca internally with infusion of coptis locally have not been
excelled. In simple dysentery, aconite, ipecac and magnesium
sulphate is a most effective combination, seldom failing to control the
Felter’s Materia Medica - (A) - Page 9