Synonym – Xanthoxylum Fraxineum. Natural order – Rutaceae. Common names – Prickly Ash. Yellow Wood. Habitat – An indigenous shrub found growing in most portions of the United States. Preparation – Tincture from the fresh bark.
GENERAL ANALYSIS
Acts upon the nervous system, producing irritation and stimulation of the nervous sensation, and to a less extent of the nerves of motion. Secondarily, paralysis or torpor of both sets of nerves is established, and as a result a marked depression of the vital forces is produced, affecting both the sensorial and bodily functions. The mucous membranes and the muscular and glandular tissues are especially influenced by its irritant action. The most important practical feature is its action upon the female generative organs, where it gives rise to early and profuse menstruation, accompanied by severe neuralgic pains, constituting neuralgic dysmenorrhoea.
CHARACTERISTIC SYMPTOMS
Mind. Nervous, frightened feeling. Mental depression and weakness.
Head Head feels full and heavy. Bewildered feeling pain in back of head. Throbbing headache over right eye, with nausea. Pain over eyes, with throbbing above root of nose. Aching and flashes of throb-like pain, as if top of head would come off. Tightness of the scalp.
Nose. Right nostril seem filled up. Discharge of mucus; of dry and bloody scales.
Face Pain in lower jaw, left side.
Mouth. Peppery taste in mouth, fauces and throat.
Throat Soreness, with expectoration of tough mucus. Feeling of a bunch in left side of throat when swallowing, shifting to right.
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Stomach Loss of appetite; eructations; nausea. Sense of oppression, with frequent chills. Feeling of fullness or pressure; fluttering.
Urine Profuse, light-colored urine, in nervous women.
Female Organs. Ovarian pains, extending down the genito crural nerves. Dreadful distress and pain; headache; menses too early and too profuse; pains down the anterior of thighs; very nervous, easily startled and hysterical; neuralgic dysmenorrhoea. After-pains when of the above character, with profuse lochia.
Respiratory Organs. Hoarse, husky feeling in throat. Desire to take a long breath; tight feeling about the chest; inclined to gape.
Limbs Severe neuralgic pains in course of genito-crural nerves. Excessive weakness of lower limbs. Pains in limbs, neuralgic, shooting; numbness and weakness.
Generalities. Pricking sensations; gentle shocks, as form electricity. Mucous membranes smart, as from pepper; catarrh.
Fever. Chills; pain in limbs; flushes of heat; sense of heat in veins.
Compare Belladonna, Cimic., Gels
THERAPEUTICS.
Especially useful in neuralgic dysmenorrhoea, particularly in women of a spare habit, and of a delicate nervous temperament; with profuse menses, and with symptoms above described. Amenorrhoea, from getting the feet wet; hysterical depression and weakness, nausea, etc. After-pains. Neuralgia, especially sciatica; worse in hot weather; neuralgia of anterior crural nerves. ovarian neuralgia, worse on left side, extending down the thighs. Facial neuralgia. Paralysis. Chlorosis.
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).