Natural order. Compositae. Common names. Queen of the Meadow. Grand Weed. Trumpet Weed. Purple Boneset. Habitat. A herbaceous, perennial plant growing on low grounds from Virginia northward. Preparation. Tincture from the fresh root gathered in autumn.
GENERAL ANALYSIS.
Acts especially upon the urinary organs and muscular system; in the former acting as a powerful diuretic, greatly increasing the urinary secretion, and also causing excessive vesical irritation. This has led to its frequent use in gravel, renal dropsy and irritable bladder. In the muscular system it produces rheumatoid affections.
CHARACTERISTICS SYMPTOMS.
Head. Sensation as if falling to the left side (Arum., Belladonna, Stramonium, Sulphur Zincum met.), with dizziness.
Throat. Choking fullness of the throat. Smarting and burning in back part of throat (Cantharis).
Urinary Organs. Deep, dull pain in kidneys; also cutting pain (Berberis, Cantharis). Intense smarting and burning in bladder and urethra on urinating (Can. sat., Cantharis, Caps.). Greatly increased quantity of urine (Phosphorus ac.). Incontinence of urine, especially with children. Constant desire to urinate; even after frequent passages bladder still feels full. Soreness and pain in bladder; deep aching; uneasiness; catarrh.
Female Organs. Quick, jerking pain in left ovary. Heavy pressure above left ovary. Abundant leucorrhoea, with urinary complications.
Generalities. General tendency to rheumatism; pains pass from below upward; with loose bilious stools. Great restlessness, tossing, moaning, tired and faint, in rheumatism and bilious fevers. Sleepiness.
Fevers. Chill at different times of day, every other day; begins at small of back (Caps., Lachesis), and spreads over body; violent shaking with comparatively little coldness; bone pains; lips and nails blue; thirst during chill and heat. Chilly when changing position during sweat.
Compare. Apis., Apocynum c., Can. sat., Eup. perf., Senec.
THERAPEUTICS.
Has been used chiefly in urinary troubles; Diabetes insipidus; chronic or acute cystitis; dysuria; incontinence of urine; vesical calculi. Intermittent fever, with characteristics above given, and especially when dysuria is a prominent symptoms, deep dull pains in kidneys, aching and soreness in bladder. Bright’s disease, scanty urine, oedematous swelling, etc. Has also been used in impotence, atony of sexual organs. Also in sciatica, especially of left side, and in rheumatism, especially of old people, with aching bones, pains passing from below upward, and great restlessness.
ALLEN CORSON COWPERTHWAITE was born at Cape May, New Jersey, May 3, 1848, son of Joseph C. and Deborah (Godfrey) Cowperthwaite. He attended medical lectures at the University of Iowa in 1867-1868, and was graduated from the Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia in 1869. He practiced his profession first in Illinois, and then in Nebraska. In 1877 he became Dean and Professor of Materia Medica in the recently organized Homeopathic Department of the State University of Iowa, holding the position till 1892. In 1884 he accepted the chair of Materia Medica, Pharmacology, and Clinical Medicine in the Homeopathic Medical College of the University of Michigan. He removed to Chicago in 1892, and became Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics in the Chicago Homeopathic Medical College. From 1901 he also served as president of that College. He is the author of various works, notably "Insanity in its Medico-Legal Relations" (1876), "A Textbook of Materia Medica and Therapeutics" (1880), of "Gynecology" (1888), and of "The Practice of Medicine " (1901).