Botanic Remedies 159 



stomach feels warmed and more or less irritated, 

 and I noted some depression. 



My findings lack confirmation from other sources; 

 and their confirmation by any other will require 

 care and patience, since conditions must be just 

 right to demonstrate the presence of these crystals. 

 Whether they really are of any importance I am not 

 prepared to say. 



PHARMACOLOGY. Competent pharmacologists de- 

 clare echinacea to be nearly inert. A possible hy- 

 pothesis is that it may have a secondary action, like 

 colchicum. 



Dr. V. von Unruh (Nat' 1. Eclectic M. A. Quar., 

 Sept., 1915) reported that the subdermal injection 

 of echinacea increases the phagocytic power of the 

 leucocytes, effecting a shift to the right and normal 

 in the neutrophiles ("Arneth count") where a shift 

 to the left had previously been obtained. He bases 

 this statement on the findings in ninety-eight cases 

 of tuberculosis. His article is interesting, but his 

 findings lack confirmation from other sources. 



His statement of the physiological action of 

 echinacea is as follows: "Echinacea produces a 

 feeling of intoxication, flashes of heat, headaches 

 of a dull character, dull muscular pains, subnormal 

 pulse, cold and numb extremities, and increase in 

 the specific gravity of the urine. All these symp- 

 toms pass off gradually by themselves within sev- 

 eral hours, showing that the drug has no continuing 

 toxic or detrimental effects." 



It may be remarked, in passing, that recent works 

 on pharmacology assign nearly parallel effects on 

 the injection of stearoptenes camphor, menthol, 



