355 



exhausted, and with a pulse not exceeding 60 per minute. The cold 

 water was discontinued, the decoction given less freely; no return 

 of the disease took place, and in a week or ten days the young man 

 was again engaged in his labour. How much of the prompt and 

 decisive effect was produced by the cold water, and how much by 

 the Cimicifuga, the reader can judge for himself. We have no doubt 

 but the influence of both was important, the first temporary, the latter 

 permanent. 



But it was in pulmonary affections, particularly in the early 

 stages of phthisis that this remedy first attracted the notice of 

 the profession. So early as 1823, Dr. J. S. Garden, of Char- 

 lotte, Va., published a paper in the Medical Recorder, in which he 

 details its influence in his own case, as well as in several of his 

 patients. In reference to his own case he says: "Shortly after 

 commencing the use of this remedy, the hectic paroxysms, which had 

 attended me some time previously, were entirely checked, the noc- 

 turnal evacuations from the surface of the body began to diminish, 

 the expectoration of a fluid from the vessels of the lungs and bron- 

 chia, resembling pus in appearance, was speedily arrested ; the 

 cough became much less troublesome and less frequent. My pulse, 

 which for some time before, was never lower than from 100 to 120 

 pulsations to the minute, was reduced to the medium standard; the 

 pain in my right breast and side left me, my strength and appetite 

 began to improve, and I speedily abandoned the use of all medicines 

 or other means, except attention to regimen and exercise. A period 

 of twelve months or more had elapsed, from my primitive ill health to 

 the time of using this medicine, during which time I had been bled 

 freely and copiously, kept up a constant discharge from the surface 

 of my breast by the use of blisters, setons, &c., and adhered strictly 

 to a vegetable regimen, but without any relief." And in regard to 

 the modus operandi of the medicine, he says: "It certainly possesses 

 the power in an eminent degree of lessening arterial action, and at 

 the same time imparting tone and energy to the general system." 

 In vol. v., new series, of the American Journal of Medical Sciences, 

 1843, the same writer again recurs to the use of this remedy, the 

 utility of which only seems to have been confirmed by his subse- 

 rvient experience of twenty years. In vol. iv. of the same journal 

 we have an article from Dr. Charles C. Hildreth, of Zanesville, Ohio, 

 on the use of the Cimicifuga in phthisis pulmonalis, in which he de- 

 tails three cases of this disease successfully treated by this remedy 

 in conjunction with iodine. He agrees fully with Dr. Garden, whose 



