Free Materia Medica books

Materia Medica by Benoît Mure

Materia Medica by
Benoît Mure
Materia Medica by Benoît Mure
The Materia Medica by Benoît Mure was written in 1854. You can read the full book here.
IndexABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ123

OCIMUM CANUM (D. C.)

OCIM. OCIMUM INCANESCENS (MART.) OCIMUM FLUMINENSE (WELLS.) PORTUG.: ALFAVACA

THIs is an herbaceous plant having an aromatic odor, with an erect and ramose stem, about 16 or 20 inches high; it is pubescent, quadrangular and grooved towards the upper branches. Leaves opposite, oval, finely indented, on petioles of the same length, as the limbs of the leaves. Flowers whorled, forming terminal spikes; each whorl is provided with two foliaceous bracts. Calix with five divisions, the upper being oval, large and entire; the other four are sharp and inferior. Corol tubulous, inverted, with a bilabiate limb; the upper lip divided into four lobes; the lower lip composed of a single lobe, which is longer. Stamens four, with free and outward-bent filaments, and two other stamens, which are shorter and somewhat geniculate at their base; style filiform and bifid. Root vertical, fibrous, rather ramose. We use the leaves. The ocimum canum is destined to become one of the most important remedial agents in Brazil, where it is used as a specific for the diseases of the kidneys, bladder and urethra. Those who wish to devote themselves to our art, had better set about proving this drug.

1. Turbid urine, depositing a white and albuminous sediment. Burning during micturition. Urine of a saffron color. Diarrhoea, several attacks a day. 5. Crampy pain in the kidneys. Renal colic, with violent vomiting every 15 minutes; one wrings one's hands, and moans and cries all the time. Red urine with brick-dust sediment after the attack. Itching at the breasts. Engorgement of the mammary glands. 10. The tips of the breasts are very painful; the least contact extorts a cry. Compressive pain in the breast, as is the case with wet-nurses. Dreams about being poisoned. Dreams about her parents, friends, children. Lancinations in the labia majora. Swelling of the whole vulva. 15. Falling of the vagina, so as to issue even from the vulva. Thick, purulent urine, with an intolerable smell of musk. Swelling of the inguinal glands. Heat, swelling and excessive sensibility of the left testicle. Numbness of the right thigh, for two days.