A Good Place for Chionanthus.

JOHN FEARN, M. D., OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA

Chionanthus is a great remedy, but there is one use of the drug where I think I am somewhat of a pioneer—I refer to those cases where we have a sensible amount of sugar in the urine. Of course it is well known there may be traces of sugar in the urine and yet the individual may be in good health. We do not suggest that every case showing sugar in the urine is a case of diabetes. But when patients come under our care with no appetite, losing flesh, becoming anemic and listless and on examining the urine we find quite a little sugar, something must be done.

To these patients I give ten drops of specific chionanthus four or five times a day. If the tongue and mucous membrane are pale and the stomach acid, give each dose in a teaspoonful of Lloyds' glyconda and if your patient has any tendency to rebound at all he will soon be on the way to health. This I have been proving for years.

Over a year ago a man about sixty years old, was put under the care of my son. Examination showed him to be losing flesh, anemic, passing a great amount of water, between one and two gallons in twenty-four hours, and a high percentage of sugar in the urine. The right foot was almost destroyed by diabetic gangrene. My counsel was sought. I advised amputation of the right limb above the knee, putting him on good doses of chionanthus for a few days before the operation. My son amputated the limb under the influence of H-M-C. The wound healed nicely. The amount of sugar and urine rapidly decreased. The man recovered, and is still, by last report, doing well.

A second case but a younger man had much the same experience. He lost his limb, but it seems, to me chionanthus saved his life. I had never seen any reports on these lines, but Dr. Webster informs me that Dr. A. P. Hauss of New Albany, Indiana, reports the use of this remedy in these cases in the N. E. M. Transactions, volume 29. The dose is from five to fifteen drops four or five times a day. For years I have given it in the "syrup rhei et potass. co." but since glyconda has been introduced I prefer glyconda, it being in my judgment a far better remedy.

Ellingwood's Therapeutist, Vol. 2, 1908, was edited by Finley Ellingwood M.D.