616 MALE FERN EXTRACT 



acid bodies, of which aspidin is the chief, and these may 

 be the important therapeutic and toxic agents. The root is 

 preserved in stoppered bottles, and the supply renewed 

 annually. Deterioration from keeping, and the substitution 

 of the roots of inactive ferns, in great part explain the 

 depreciatory accounts sometimes given of its efficacy. The 

 green parts are most active, and should alone be used. 



ACTIONS AND USES. Male fern is irritant, vermicide, 

 laxative, and in large doses causes haemorrhagic gastro- 

 enteritis, together with nervous symptoms, drowsiness, and 

 sometimes convulsions, coma, and collapse. In some cases 

 blindness, temporary or permanent, has been caused by 

 large doses. It is one of the most effectual remedies for 

 tape- worm, especially in dogs, and Kuchenmeister considered 

 it quite as poisonous to the genus Bothriocephalus. Doses 

 quite sufficient for this purpose have, as a rule, no other 

 effect, being too small to cause irritation. Harley believed 

 that, like ergot, it stimulates the involuntary muscular 

 fibres of any hollow viscus in which it is placed, and thus 

 explained the vomiting and intestinal peristalsis which full 

 doses produce when swallowed, and the contractions 

 induced when it is injected into the urinary bladder. 

 Frohner made various experiments with the ethereal 

 extract. He poisoned a small dog with TT\xxx., a dog of 

 40 Ibs. with f3v., a sheep of 88 Ibs. with f3 v i-> a cow of 

 660 Ibs. with about f giij. 



DOSES, etc. The powdered male fern rhizome is given 

 to horses and cattle in doses of iv. to vi. ; sheep, j. 

 to iv. ; pigs, 3iij. to j. ; dogs, 3ij. to 3jv. ; and cats, 

 grs. xxx. to 3J- But the powder is inconveniently bulky, 

 and less certain than the B.P. ethereal or liquid extract. 

 The dose of the extract for horses and cattle is 

 to f 3vi. ; for sheep and pigs, f 3i. to f 3 n j- ; f r dogs, 

 to Tf^lx. ; and cats, H\iv. to H\x. It is given sometimes with 

 half a dose of turpentine or calomel, in a little oil, milk, 

 or gruel, flavoured with ginger or peppermint, when the 

 bowels have been emptied by a laxative and several hours' 

 fasting. A dose of the extract, with half a dose of areca- 

 nut, constitutes the most effectual remedy for tape-worm 

 in dogs. If the parasite is not expelled, the medicine 



