Rhus Aromatica

• ▸Hale quotes J.
• ▸T.
• ▸McClanahan's account of Rhus arom.
• ▸: "It is a shrub, growing

from two to six feet high, on high, rocky soil; stems straight, branching near the top; flowers

yellow, fruit clustered, red, seedy, and acid. When the bush is fractured it emits a strong odour.

The bark of the root is the proper medicinal part." McClanahan's grandfather, Dr. John Gray,

• ▸used Rh.
• ▸a.
• ▸as aremedy in diabetes, and his father, Dr.
• ▸F.
• ▸McClanahan, in other genito-urinary

• ▸diseases.
• ▸J.
• ▸T.
• ▸McClanahan records these cases: (/) Mr.
• ▸A.
• ▸, 27, cadaverous, emaciated, haggard,

• ▸had diabetes insipidus.
• ▸Rh.
• ▸a.
• ▸, teaspoonful doses of the powdered root bark in sweet milk, three

• ▸times a day, completely cured in four months.
• ▸(2) Mrs.
• ▸B.
• ▸, 37, had diabetes mellitus.
• ▸First

noticed increase of urine ten months before; became so weak she had to abandon house-work.

Pain in back; thirst; appetite, now ravenous, now deficient. Skin sallow, doughy. Temperature

• ▸101.
• ▸5° F.
• ▸Cough and night-sweats occasionally.
• ▸Diarrhoea at times.
• ▸Specific gravity of urine,

• ▸1032.
• ▸Rh.
• ▸a.
• ▸, half-teaspoonful doses every four hours.
• ▸Quantity of urine diminished next day, and

as this diminution progressed the doses of Rh. a. were given at increasing intervals, and in three

months it was discontinued, proper diet having been observed in the meantime. Cod-liver oil and

• ▸hypophosphites were given after the Rh.
• ▸a.
• ▸was discontinued.
• ▸(3) Mr.
• ▸C.
• ▸had incontinence of

• ▸urine more than a year, constant dribbling.
• ▸Rh.
• ▸a.
• ▸© gtt.
• ▸x, three times a day, improved at once,

and cured completely in eight weeks. (4) Girl had enuresis during day and night for two years.

• ▸Rh.
• ▸a.
• ▸©, one part to glycerine three parts, a teaspoonful three times a day, cured.
• ▸(5) Boy, early

in summer had diarrhcea, stools pale and thin, running from him like water; no particular pain or

• ▸fever.
• ▸Pale, emaciated, limbs trembling, scarcely able to stand.
• ▸Abdomen flabby.
• ▸Rh.
• ▸a.
• ▸@ gtt.
• ▸111,

in water after each stool, cured rapidly. (6) A labourer had "chronic dysentery" two months. On

the average five stools a day, sometimes copious and painless, sometimes scanty and with pain.

Stools consisted largely of blood and mucus or clear blood. Patient thin, anxious, bowels

• ▸(abdomen) flabby.
• ▸Skin sallow.
• ▸Rh.
• ▸a.
• ▸© in ten-drop doses, with boiled milk diet, cured.

McClanahan also mentions hemorrhage from kidneys, bladder, and uterus; menorrhagia and

other excessive discharges accompanied by a relaxed condition, of the uterus as indicating the

remedy; also atonic conditions generally. These experiences have been confirmed by others. J.

• ▸A.
• ▸McKay (Hom.
• ▸News, quoted Am.
• ▸H.
• ▸, xxii.
• ▸394) relates the case of Mrs.
• ▸S.
• ▸, 45, who had

severe, profuse uterine hemorrhage for eight days, which three old-school doctors failed to

arrest. The condition was becoming desperate, large clots passing away, and the patient fainting

• ▸from the loss.
• ▸Rh.
• ▸a.
• ▸© gtt.
• ▸x, every six hours, was given.
• ▸The first dose checked the flow, which

ceased entirely after the second.

Vesicular erysipelatous rash with great oedema and swelling of glands in neck; vesicles

dried into a crust so dense that movements of mouth and face were painful.

Loss of appetite; nausea; vomiting.—Whole digestive system deranged for three

weeks.

• ▸Pale, albuminous.
• ▸Incontinence. Severe pain at beginning or before urination, causing great agony in children.
• ▸Constant dribbling.
• ▸Diabetes, large quantities of urine of low specific gravity (Phos ac; Acet ac).

Eruption very like chicken-pox.—After the erysipelatous condition of the skin

subsided extreme irritability (to flannel) remained, and hypersensitiveness to cold air.—Five

months after the poisoning there was a recurrence (without fresh exposure) shortly after taking a

bath rather too hot.—The day after he had been among the bushes heat and itching commenced

on scrotum and adjacent surfaces of thighs, < on hairy parts; next day papules on red cedematous

base appeared on forehead and neck, rapidly spreading in all directions, with heat, itching, and

burning, but very little pyrexia; itching > by cold; < by heat, warmth, rubbing, or scratching.

In afternoon chills and feverishness by turns, and general malaise.—Slight pyrexia.

• ▸Chicken-pox.
• ▸Eczema.
• ▸Erysipelas.
• ▸Skin, sensitive.

• ▸Characteristics—Murray Moore observed the effect of RA.
• ▸d.
• ▸on three persons: (/) Miss M.
• ▸, 25,

of brown hair and fair complexion, walked up a hill one warm morning, and whilst perspiring

gathered ferns which grew among the RA. d. trees, the leaves of which she must have touched,

though she did not pull any. The result was a very severe poisoning, which provided the majority

• ▸of the symptoms of the Schema.
• ▸(2) J.
• ▸W.
• ▸, light-haired, robust Englishman, 23, lay down whilst

• ▸sweating among the bushes and was smartly poisoned.
• ▸Ver.
• ▸v.
• ▸@ internally and a lotion of

Magnesia sulph. externally checked the spread of the disease. (3) Boy, 10, pure blond type with

thin, freckled skin, plucked some of the leaves, and in eighteen hours the poisoning symptoms

came on, facial esysipelas with extreme cedema, closing both eyes, itching and burning. The

symptoms became general. M. Moore relates also the case of a man who was poisoned in

California in September and returned to the Eastern States and there had an annual eruption for

Six successive years. During the seventh attack he was carried off with pneumonia, which Moore

• ▸thinks would not have been the case but for the Rhus complication.
• ▸(C.
• ▸D.
• ▸P.
• ▸)

• ▸Rh.
• ▸a.
• ▸is closely allied to Rh.
• ▸g.
• ▸They are both non-poisonous, and have terminal

flowers, instead of the axillary flowers of the poisonous varieties.

Rhus Diversiloba.

• ▸R.
• ▸diversiloba.
• ▸Californian Poison Oak.
• ▸N.
• ▸O.
• ▸Anacardiacez.
• ▸Tincture of fresh leaves.

Tincture, in rather material doses.

Stiffness of limbs; of all joints on first moving them.

24. Generalities—Extreme languor.—On rising from bed fainted; again later in day.