Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage.—Diuretic, tonic, alterative, and astringent. The fresh leaves, when bruised and applied to the skin, act as vesicants and rubefacients. Its alterative properties are marked, the processes of waste and nutrition being powerfully influenced by it. It is especially useful in scrofula and chronic rheumatic and nephritic affections. Irritation of any part of the urinary tract is relieved by it, and the circulation and nutrition of the part improved. The cases of all diseases in which it is of most value are those of debility, and particularly when a scrofulous taint is present. Its particular field is in genito-urinary fluxes, due to debility or depending upon a scrofulous diathesis. The more pronounced the catarrhal character of the disorder, the more valuable is the drug. Catarrh of the bladder, with offensive urine, or urine loaded with mucus, muco-pus, or even blood, are cases for its exhibition. Chronic affections of the kidneys, with muco-purulent discharges, are also conditions indicating it. The infusion is the best preparation. Do not make a decoction, as boiling impairs its virtues. It is also a remedy for chronic prostatic irritation and chronic prostatitis. Used both locally and internally, it is a good remedy for scrofulous ulcerations. The infusion has cured ascites, and has been advantageous in strangury, chronic gonorrhœa, and other mucous profluvia; and as an antilithic it is said to diminish lithic acid in the urine. In dropsy it can not be depended upon without the use of other more active measures, and is better adapted to cases accompanied with weakness and loss of appetite. In urinary disorders, it may be used as a substitute for uva ursi and buchu, to which it is preferable on account of being less obnoxious to the stomach. In many cutaneous diseases it has proved very efficient.
The doses and syrup recipe that end the paragraph are not transcribed.