Aesculus.

The nuts of Aesculus glabra.—U.S.

Preparation.—A tincture is prepared from the recent roots (... nuts.) when fully matured.

Dose.—The dose will be from the fraction of a drop to five drops. Usually we add gtt. v. to gtt. x. to water ℥iv., and administer a teaspoonful every one or two hours.

Specific Indications.—Sensations of tightness in the chest and about the praecordia. Asthma, with continuous difficulty in breathing. Sense of tightness and constriction about the rectum, with uneasy sensations. Hemorrhoids.

Therapeutic Action.—The Aesculus is a sedative to the pneumogastric and respiratory nerves, slowing the circulation when frequency of pulse depends upon excitement here. It is not determined whether it exerts its influence upon the spinal or sympathetic nervous system, but probably on the first.

This remedy has a very important use in controlling the difficulty of breathing in a form of asthma not paroxysmal. In this case the difficult breathing is persistent, and though worse at times, it has no violent paroxysm. It will also be found a valuable remedy in some cases of phthisis, where difficult breathing and oppression are prominent symptoms.

It has been used for a long time as a remedy for hemorrhoids, and if the indications are followed, it proves a very good tone. There is a peculiar irritation of the small intestine, with contraction and colicky pains in the neighborhood of the umbilicus, which is relieved by this remedy. I have known this uneasiness and contraction, with intestinal dyspepsia, which had persisted for weeks and months, to be permanently cured by carrying a fresh buckeye in each trousers pocket. We get the same result from the administration of the small dose.

The American Eclectic Materia Medica and Therapeutics, 1898, was written by John M. Scudder, M.D.