An experimental inquiry into the botanical history, chemical properties, and medicinal virtues, of the Spiræa tomentosa of Linnæus / by Elijah Mead.

  • Mead, Elijah.
Date:
1821
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An experimental inquiry into the botanical history, chemical properties, and medicinal virtues, of the Spiræa tomentosa of Linnæus / by Elijah Mead. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    was considerable inflammation at the time I first saw him, accompanied with chordee ; after these symptoms were in a measure relieved, there still remained a very trouble- some gleet. I then prescribed the aqueous solution of ex- tract of Spiraea by injection; this was used four or five times in twenty-four hours, gradually increasing its strength. After the first day, the discharge was evidently diminished ; in four days he was relieved from every unpleasant symp- tom ; and in ten days he left the city, since which I have not heard from him. I gave some of the extract to a medical friend, who used it successfully in two similar cases. In cases of obstinate and debilitating discharges in puerperal women; and in cases of retained placentae, giving rise to alarming typhoid symp- toms ; attended withj'colliquative diarrhoea; and when the stomach has become too irritable to retain other me- dicines, the Spiraea has had the most happy effect, in com- posing the stomach, in restraining preternatural evacua- tions, and in giving healthy vigour to the lax state of the bowels. In these cases its operation is certainly more than astringent.—The two following] cases are interesting illustrations of its efficacy. For the first I am indebted to Dr. Ives of New-Haven, and to Dr. Wood of this city for the second. I was called in consultation in a case of a female about two months after parturition. The disease was not att end- ed with much fever, but loss of tone of the stomach and bowels. The evacuations were frequent. The common astringents, (astringents were evidently indicated,) such as Catechu, Kino, and other vegetable astringents, were used, but all of them excited vomiting after a few doses had been given. I recommended the extract of Spiraea in doses of four grains, to be repeated four times in the day. The diarrhoea was speedily checked, and the patient fast recovering. The attending physician omitted the Spiraea, and commenced the use of other astringents with no better