DIVISION SECOND.-Process for Obtaining the Tincture, Resinoid, and Alkaloid DIVISION THIRD.-Chemical Tests and Reagents for the detection of the Alka- loid, and its Comparison with Alkaloids obtained from other Species PHYSIOLOGICAL ACTION ON ANIMALS. DIVISION FIRST.-Experiments elucidating the Physiological Action of Vera- DIVISION SECOND.-Experiments elucidating the Physiological Action of the Resinoid Principle of Veratrum Viride on Animals DIVISION THIRD.-Experiments elucidating the Physiological Action of the Alkaloid Veratria obtained from Veratrum Viride and from other DIVISION SECOND.-Therapeutic Application of Veratrum Viride in Typhus and Typhoid Fevers. . Page 269 In Phthisis, also, as a Means of Diagnosis in Diseases of the Lungs and Heart 271 DIVISION THIRD.-Therapeutic Application of the Resinoid of Veratrum DIVISION FOURTH.-General Synopsis of the Alkaloid Veratria, from Veratrum Viride . 272 275 SECTION FIFTH. SUMMARY OF THE PHYSIOLOGICAL AND THERAPEUTIC ACTION OF VERATRUM VIRIDE ON MAN. DIVISION FIRST.-General Action DIVISION NINTH.-Recapitulation Fourth Degree of Operation DIVISION TENTH.-Veratrum Viride in large and poisonous doses DIVISION ELEVENTH.-Cumulative Action PRIZE ESSAY. PHYSIOLOGICAL AND MEDICINAL PROPERTIES OF THE VERATRUM VIRIDE. SECTION FIRST. BOTANY AND PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF VERATRUM VIRIDE. NAT. ORD.-Melantheceæ. LINN. SYST.-Polygamia Monacia. COMMON NAMES.-American hellebore. Swamp hellebore. Indian poke. Itch weed, &c. &c. Part used in Medicine-The root. THE Veratrum Viride has a perennial, thick, fleshy root, "the upper portion of which is truncated, the lower solid, and beset with numerous whitish fibres or radicals." "The stem is annual, round, solid, striated, pubescent, and from three to six feet high; being throughout the greater part of its length closely invested with the sheathing bases of the leaves. "The leaves are alternate, and gradually increase in size as they descend; the lower ones are from six to twelve inches long, oval, acuminate, pubescent, strongly ribbed, and plaited, the lower part of their edges meeting round the stem. The upper leaves are gradually narrower, the uppermost and the bracts, linear-lanceolate. "The flowers are numerous, yellowish-green, and arranged in compound racemes, axillary from the upper leaves, and terminal. Each flower is accompanied by a boat-shaped acuminate, downy bract, much longer than its pedicle. Peduncles roundish, downy. The perianth is divided into six oval, acute, nerved segments, of which the alternate ones are the longest, and all contracted at the base into a sort of claw, with a thickened cartilaginous edge. The stamens are six, with recurved filaments and roundish. Anthers two-lobed. Ovaries three, cohering with acute recurved styles as long as the stamens. "The fruit consists of three capsules united together, and separating at top, and dehiscing on the inner side. "Seeds flat, winged, imbricated." It is indigenous in almost every part of the United States, growing in wet meadows and upon the banks of rivers. "In this connection it may perhaps be asked, What are the botanical differences between Veratrum viride and Veratrum album? "To this inquiry, I must answer, that all which I have ever been able to discover consists in the fact that the edges of the segments of the perigone, in Veratrum viride, are slightly incrassated, and contracted below their middle, which is not the fact in Veratrum album; and that the general aspect of Veratrum viride is coarser and rougher, and it is of a darker green color. These are small characters, but they appear to be permanent, incapable of change by climate, soil, culture, &c. &c." The root is the part used in medicine, and it should be gathered in the autumn after the top has died. It might probably be equally active in its medicinal effects if gathered very early in the spring, but this can seldom be done, for it commences to grow before the snow and frost have fairly disappeared. When freshly gathered the root has a strong, pungent, acrimonious taste, and when bitten, leaves a prickling and bitter taste in the mouth; but it loses most of this acrimonious effect by drying. In order to preserve the root properly, it should be cut in fragments, well dried at a low temperature, and kept in a dry place, for if kept where it is damp it deteriorates very quickly. The leaves possess but little of the active properties of the root. History. It was known and used by the Indian before the occupation of this country by the European. The best description of its early history, since that time, is given in Bigelow's American Medical Botany, though neither Bigelow nor Ware understood its therapeutic powers in acute diseases, but, like the ancient Asclepiadæ, with their preparations of "white hellebore," used it only in chronic affections. 'Tully's Materia Medica, vol. i. p. 215. About the year 1830, Drs. Tully and Ives, of New Haven, investigated very fully the therapeutic properties of the plant. The attention of the medical profession was particularly called to its use in the treatment of acute diseases, by Dr. Charles Osgood, of Providence, RI., in an essay written for the American Journal of Medical Sciences, 1835. Dr. Osgood, in a very modest manner, gives his preceptor, Professor William Tully, the credit of first calling his attention to its proper therapeutic powers, but Dr. Osgood, like modest men in general, underrates his own merits, and has written a very truthful and praiseworthy essay, which has been studied by all who have followed in his footsteps, but has been excelled by none; it still stands unrivalled, the best monograph that has been written on the plant. The writer of this "Inquiry " first learned the knowledge of the physiological and therapeutic properties of the plant from Dr. Osgood, in 1849, and he has constantly used it since that time. By the majority of the profession, but little attention was paid to Dr. Osgood's essay, until the use of the plant was revived by Dr. Wm. C. Norwood, of Cokesbury, South Carolina. Dr. Norwood published a pamphlet on the therapeutic properties of Veratrum viride in 1851, and disseminated it very widely; it has gone through three editions. After this time the properties of the drug were discussed in many of the medical societies of this country, and many excellent articles have appeared from time to time, in the medical journals, especially in those of the South and West. In 1856, the Section of Materia Medica of the New York Academy of Medicine, appointed the author of this work to prepare a monograph upon the plant, and open a discussion upon its properties in the Academy. In the same year the Harveian Circle, of the city of New York, appointed Drs. Percy, Miller, and Belden to perform a similar duty for that Society. In 1858, the Massachusetts Medical Society appointed Drs. Cutter, Richard, and Ingalls, a committee to bring this remedial agent to the direct attention of the Society, a task which they performed in May, 1858, and again in 1861. In the meantime many able papers appeared upon the uses of the plant, in the medical journals, among the best of which may be mentioned those of Professor M'Gugin, of the Iowa University. |