Eupatorium.

The root of Eupatorium purpureum.

Dose.—The Eupatorium Purpureum is mostly employed in the form of a strong decoction, ℥j. to Oiss. of water, boiled down to one pint, of which one to four ounces is a dose. The tincture can be used with advantage in ordinary practice, and will give good results in small doses.

Therapeutic Action.—Queen of the Meadow is diuretic, stimulant, astringent, tonic, and antilithic. There is no doubt tlhat this agent exerts a specific influence upon the kidneys, increasing the quantity of urine secreted, and to some degree the amount of solids excreted in it. From the combination of properties which it possesses, its utility in urinary affections will be readily inferred. It has been employed in atonic dropsies, chronic nephritis, catarrhous vesica; attended with ulceration, chronic irritation of the bladder with increased mucous secretion, etc. It has also been employed in hematuria, gleet, leucorrhoea, amenorrhoea, and other forms of female weakness, rheumatism and gout, with complete success.

It is a popular remedy in gravel, and indeed said by some to possess solvent powers; although we can not award it any positive powers of that kind, yet, as it increases the amount of water excreted, which is acknowledged to be the best solvent for stone, and allays irritation of the bladder, we must consider it as at least the equal of Uva Ursi and Chimaphila, and useful where those agents are usually thought to be available. It is associated with the root of the horse-radish, juniperberries, and other diuretics, in dropsy; and with the buchu, pipsiseewa, uva ursi, etc., in chronic affections of the kidneys, bladder, urethra, etc., when attendant with a redundant mucous discharge.

Eupurpurin, when carefully prepared, is one of the most reliable of our concentrated remedies, producing, so far as our esperience has extended, all the medicinal effects of the crude root. We frequently administer it in the pill form, one drachm of the article being rubbed up with prussiate of iron, until it has sufficient consistence to form pills, and divide it into thirty. These pills we have used as a diuretic in dropsy, with suitable cathartics, with the most satisfactory results, and this is especially the case when the patient is greatly debilitated. They are also among our most efficient curative agents in diseases of the kidneys, bladder, and urethra. In one case of marked albuminuria, where other agents had failed to produce any relief, the continued use of these pills, one three times per day for two weeks, entirely relieved the patient. In two cases of diabetes insipidus, their use was attended with the same results. We have also employed them in incontinence of urine, especially in children, with good effect. They are of the most importance, however, in allaying irritation of the bladder; in many cases of this kind, caused by displacement or chronic inflammation of the uterus, or arising during or after pregnancy, we have obtained more benefit from their use than from any other agents. From experience, then, we can recommend this preparation to the favorable notice of the practitioner.

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