82 Botanic Drugs 



acute pleurisy, and as an adjuvant in the treatment 

 of acute rheumatic fever, are leading indications. 

 Here I wish to quote a most sensible expression 

 from "The Pharmacopeia and the Physician" 

 (1910), which said: 



"Since the antipyretic benzene derivatives have 

 come into general use the employment of aconite 

 in fever has correspondingly declined, but we have 

 seen that the synthetic antipyretics are far from 

 being the harmless substances that some of the 

 manufacturers would have us believe, and aconite 

 'deserves to be used more frequently in suitable 

 cases of fever." 



Small doses (tr. 1 to 2 drops; fl. 1-10 to 1-5 drop, 

 frequently repeated) of aconite are most useful in 

 "colds," the exanthems, many of the diseases of 

 infancy, and inflammatory diseases generally. Even 

 smaller doses are used by Homeopathic physicians 

 in all cases of fevers with suppressed secretions, 

 chilliness upon slight exposure, and a pulse that is 

 quick and sharp, as well as in "restlessness" and 

 other minor disturbances caused by deranged cir- 

 culation. Aconite cooperates well with many other 

 drugs, as, for instance, with Dover's powder in the 

 early stages of a "cold" and with the expectorants. 



ACONITINE (U. S. P.) is used in doses of 1-640 

 to 1-400 grain well diluted or in granules, and for 

 external use in ointments up to 2%. There are a 

 number of forms of this alkaloid, the so-called 

 "mild" in amorphous form, the crystalline alka- 

 loid, etc. There is no real occasion for using this 

 expensive and frightfully toxic alkaloid externally, 

 and, I believe, very little for its internal use. I 

 have used the minimum-dose granules in many 



