Croton tiglium

Lecture XXX — Coniferae — Abies nigra, Sabina, Terebinthina, Pix liquida and Thuja occidentalis; Euphorbiaceae — Croton tiglium, etc.

EUPHORBIACE^E.

The members of the Euphorbiaceae contain an acrid principle which in some cases is oily in character, in others resinous; in the latter case, the juice escapes from the plant as a milky fluid, which dries into a gum. These oils or gums have two properties. If applied to the skin they produce redness and vesication. The vesicles fill with yellowishwhite serum, and may even suppurate and form scabs of a honey color. They all act more or less intensely as purgatives, producing a watery diarrhoea, associated with colic, tenesmus, flatulence, burning, nausea and vomiting. The medicines which we derive from this order are Croton tiglium, Jatropha curcas, Yucca ftlame?itosa, Euphorbium officinarum, Euphorbia corollata, Mercurialis peremiis, Hippomane mancinella and Ricinus com?nunis.

Croton tiglium, Etc This remedy produces a diarrhoea with yellowish watery stool pouring out like water from a hydrant, often associated with nausea and vomiting. This nausea is of a very aggravating character, and is attended by faintness and loss of sight. Colic appears and is better from warm drinks. The stool returns with any effort to eat or drink. The nearest analogue to Croton tig. is Jatropha curcas, which produces a perfect picture of cholera Asiatica, with great prostration and simultaneous vomiting and purging. The vomited matters look like rice-water or the white of an egg. There are also cramps in the calves and coldness of the body.

The next similar drug is the Euphorbia corollata. This produces vomiting and purging, just like the previous remedy, with cold sweat all over the body. It has more markedly than the other members of this group a peculiar mental state—the patient wants to die. Cascarilla or Sweet-bark has abdominal symptoms relieved by warm drinks, but it seems to be useful in a different class of cases from the foregoing remedies. We use it when there are knotty stools covered with mucus, like Graphites, and associated with colic and burning just like the other remedies of the group. Cascarilla also has frequent pale red haemorrhages from the bowels. These haemorrhages do not consist of a simple oozing of blood, such as often follows a stool when haemorrhoids are present, nor is it a haemorrhage from the bowels from hepatic disease, but it comes from disease of the blood-vessels. Yucca jilamentosa has a predominance of the bilious symptoms over the gastric and intestinal. It has frontal or temporal headaches, frequent flushing of the face, yellow or sallow face, tongue coated yellow or yellowish-white, and taking the imprint of the teeth. There are also dull aching about the centre of the liver, poor appetite, distended abdomen which is sensitive to the touch, colic or colicky pains, tenesmus with frequent passage of flatus, and frequent watery or yellowishbrown stools.

Now let us study the action of these remedies on the skin. When Croton tiglium is applied to the skin it produces an erythema, soon followed by a group of vesicles which are almost confluent, and which burn and itch intolerably. If the action of the drug is allowed to continue, these vesicles form a yellowish scab much resembling that of milk-crust, in which disease it may be indicated, especially when the bowel symptoms suit.

Hippomane mancinella was first proved by Dr. Muir. Its power of producing vesicles has been utilized in scarlet fever. Its symptoms are these: delirium; sore throat, with inability to swallow on account of the constriction in the throat and oesophagus; burning of the eyes, made worse by closing the lids.

Yucca produces an erythematous redness of the skin. In two provers it produced a burning and swelling of the prepuce with redness of the meatus urinarius. An examination of allopathic text-books will show you that Yucca has been recommended for gonorrhoea.

Euphorbium officinarum differs somewhat from the others. Like them, it produces an erythematous and vesicular eruption. Its chief value, however, arises from its action on the bones. It is used in diseases of these structures with burning pains, especially after the abuse of mercury.

Ricinus communis, or Castor oil, has the effect of increasing the quantity of milk in nursing women. It is here similar to Urtica urens, which is an excellent remedy for absence of milk after confinement. Castor oil, when abused, is antidoted by two remedies, Bryonia and Nux vomica. Bryonia is useful on account of a specific relation to the symptoms of Ricinus, and Nux on account of its relation to drastic remedies in general.