Free Materia Medica booksMateria Medica by John Henry Clarke
Materia Medica
Chelone.
Chelone glabra. Balmony. Snake-head or Turtle-head. N. O. Scrofulariaceae.
Clinical.-Debility. Dumb-ague. Jaundice. Liver, diseases of. Quinine cachexia. Worms.
Characteristics.-Chelone has been used by old-school practitioners and eclectics as a cholagogue and vermifuge. Burnett has used it as an organ-remedy in liver affections. His indication is "pain or soreness of the left lobe of the liver and extending downwards." This I can confirm. Chelone acts in a line between the hilus of the liver and the fundus of the uterus. According to some observers it antidotes the Quinine cachexia; and is a remedy for "dumb-ague," i.e., ill-defined paroxysms of aching and fever following severe malarial fevers. "Soreness of external parts, as if the skin were off, especially about elbow," has been confirmed as an indication. "Debility from loss of tone of digestive organs, or liver, or from exhausting diseases" (Hale). One to five-drop doses of the tincture have been given.
Relations.-Compare: Chi., Chenop., Cina, Helon., Hydrast., and (according to Burnett), especially Carduus mar. (left lobe of liver). Compare also other Scrofularias, Grat., Dig., Tabac., Scrof. nod.
