Synonym. Robinia Acacia. Natural order. Leguminosae. Common name. Yellow Locust. Habitat. An indigenous tree, common in the Middle and Southern States. Preparation. Tincture from the fresh bark of the young twigs. General Analysis Through the pneumogastric nerve Robinia acts especially upon the stomach, arresting digestion, and causing excessive acidity, resulting in emesis, the vomited matter being so intensely sour that the teeth are set on edge. Burt. Characteristic Symptoms Mind Very low-spirited; irritable. Head Constant, dull, heavy, or throbbing frontal headache, aggravated by motion and reading. Stomach Constant eructations of a very sour fluid. Nausea, followed by profuse vomiting of an intensely sour fluid, setting the teeth on edge. Violent vomiting. Sour stomach. Sharp pain in stomach and epigastrium. Burning in stomach and region of gall-bladder. Dull, heavy, aching distress in the stomach. Great distension of stomach and bowels, with flatulence; severe colic and acid diarrhoea. Stool Desire for stool, but only flatulence passes off; finally constipated stool. Diarrhoea, stools yellow, green, burning. Sour stools of infants (Calcarea c., Podophyllum, Rheum.). Generalities The whole child smells sour (Rheum.). Compare Calcarea c., Iris, Mag. carb., Pulsatilla, Rheum.
THERAPEUTICS
Especially useful in gastric disturbances, indigestion and sick headache, characterized by excessively sour eructations and vomiting. Acid dyspepsia. Heartburn. Cholera infantum.
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).