Family Name: Cupressaceae

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Notes from the Eclectic Physicians

Notes from the Eclectic Physicians

1854; King J; (Materia Medica) – THUJA OCCIDENTALIS
Uses – A decoction of the leaves has been a popular remedy in intermittent fever, rheumatism, cough, scurvy, etc. made into an ointment with lard or other animal fat, the fresh leaves are useful as a local application in rheumatic and neuralgic affections; a poultice of the cones and powdered Podophyllum in milk, will, it is asserted, remove the worst rheumatic pains. The oil has been successfully employed as a vermifuge. The expressed juice or tincture of the leaves is highly recommended as an application to condylomata, removing these growths in from three to four weeks. The tincture to be made by bruising an ounce of the fresh leaves, and macerating it for several days in half a pint of alcohol. The condylomata should be kept constantly moistened with the tincture by means of the lint dipped in it. By some it is said to act as a powerful excitant, others again deny this.

In these there was nervous irritation an dusually sexual neurasthenia. In those cases in which the mind is seriously depressed by the physical condition, it is of especial service, as it stimulates the nerve forces and delays the discharge until, by general improvement of the entire nervous system, the condition is restored. The influence of the agent will be enhanced by a combination with avena sativa, saw palmetto, or staphysagria, in cases of this character, when Thuja should be given in doses of from two to ten drops, four or five times daily.

As an external application Thuja produces at first a sensation of smarting or tingling when applied to open sores or wounds and it is ually best to dilute it with one, two or four parts of water, or to combine the non-alcoholic extract with an ointment base in the above proportion. This constitutes an excellent mildly antiseptic and actively stimulating dressing to indolent, phagedenic or gangrenous ulcers. It is of much service in bed sores and in other open ulcers dependent upon local or general nerve exhaustion.

In chronic skin diseases of either a non-specific or specific character, it is a useful remedy. Vegetations of all kinds, especially those upon mucous surfaces, will yield to it readily. It is a useful agent in the treatment of post-nasal catarrh, and nasal polypi. A small dose internally four or five times daily, with the application of fluid hydrastis in a spray, will quickly retard or remove such abnormal growths. It is also applicable to sloughing wounds, and to phagedena of the venereal organs. It is a positive remedy in the treatment of senile gangrene. It causes gangrenous surfaces to dry without hemorrhage or other discharge, destroys offensive odors and influences granulation.

Recent reports have been made concerning the very beneficial action of thuja on papilloma of the larynx and affections of that character in the post nasal region. J. Moreau Brown has reported a number of cases satisfactorily treated with this remedy. The agent is applied locally and small doses are given internally. One cases of multiple papilloma was quickly cured.

The same writer uses this agent in the treatment of growths in the posterior nares. He reports the cure of several small tumors polypi and papillomatous growths. He treats chronic enlargement of the tonsils with this remedy and has succeeded in reducing many severe cases to the normal size. He has treated some cases of disease of the turbinated bones with the same remedy. He believes that in all cases of normal hypertrophy, where there is no diathesis, underlying the difficulty, in the post nasal region, this remedy is of inestimable value.

The treatment of adenoids is greatly simplified by making an application first of Monsell’s solution to the diseased structures, and then applying thuja. The use of thuja persistently in these cases is as effectual as it is when used in the same manner for syphilitic ulcerations. It may also be given internally.

Professor A. J. Howe cured hydrocele almost exclusively with this agent. The following is the course he adopted as described in his own words: “In an ounce of warm sterilized water pour a dram of Lloyd’s Thuja. Mix thoroughly by drawing a quantity into the syringe, and forcing it back repeatedly for a few times, then draw up about two drams of the dilute mixture in the barrel of the syringe to be ready for use. Introduce a large exploring needle into the sac of the tunica vaginalis testis and allow the fluid to escape. Before withdrawing the needle, place the nozzle of the loaded syringe into the needle’s open mouth and with a plunge of the piston force the diluted Thuja into the cavity recently distended with serum. Then in order to cause the liquid to enter every crevice of the sac of the hydrocele, pinch and knead the scrotum with the fingers quite vigorously. The needle is then withdrawn. The pain induced is quite considerable for at least half an hour, then the patient goes about his business and usually no additional treatment is required.” The above method, with some unimportant variations, has been in general use among our physicians since suggested by Professor Howe, and the result as reported by very many has been satisfactory.

This agent has been used successfully in the treatment of trachoma. The non-alcoholic preparation is combined with vaseline or other unctuous substance and applied once or twice daily.

Dr. Barber uses thuja in conjunctivitis. However severe the case, he had no case especially where there was severe granulation of the lids that was so stubborn but that he could benefit it with a mild solution of thuja. He occasionally used Long’s thuja with vaseline with equally good results. The use of thuja in pterygium is spoken of by a number of our writers. It is applied directly to the growth as often as possible without inducing inflammation. Cures have been effected in many cases.

Dr. Walker for many years has injected small tumors with thuja full strength, twenty drops for the first injection, increasing the subsequent injection every day or two until in some cases he has used as high as half an ounce. An abscess forms and the tumor slowly disappears.

The agent is especially advised in the treatment of urinary disorders of the aged and young. It gives satisfaction in the treatment of nocturnal eneuresis when the difficulty is of functional origin. It is also valuable when there is dribbling of urine, loss of control from paralysis of the sphincter, perhaps, in the aged, where urinary incontinence is present, with severe coughs, lack of control when coughing or sneezing. Sometimes in severe cases of nocturnal eneuresis, it is accompanied with belladonna, or rhus aromatica with good results. In old men with chronic prostatitis, with constant dribbling of the urine, this agent is valuable. It relieves the weakness of the neck of the bladder. It tones the muscular structure of the bladder and exercises a desirable influence over the mucous structures of the entire urinary apparatus. It also stimulates secretion within the tubules of the kidneys by its direct influence upon the epithelial cells.

Where there is irritability of the bladder from the presence of uric acid, or other precipitates in the urine, or where there is chronic rheumatism or gout, the agent is serviceable. It is not advised where there is acute inflammation.

The agent is useful in urethral caruncle, and as a remedy for gleet, when granular urethritis is present. the remedy is valuable in the treatment of disorders of the mucous lining of the bronchial tubes. It is beneficial in ulcerative forms of sore throat, where the secretions are fetid in character. It may be inhaled in chronic bronchitis, bronchorrhea; bronchitis, with offensive discharge; chronic nasal catarrh. Hemorrhage from these organs is benefically influenced by its use. A number of cases of spermatorrhea have been cured since our previous report on this remedy.

The balanitis from cystitis with frequent urination, indicates this remedy. It is beneficial when the urine seems to burn or scald in the passing, when there is local soreness in the urethra or neck of the bladder, when the bladder tolerates but little urine at a time, and the patient must rise frequently during the night.

Homeopathists give thuja where the rectum is diseased; where there is a slimy discharge streaked with blood with dark blotches on the adjoining tissues; where there is itching and constant inclination without power to expel feces; sharp sticking pains in the rectum. It will act with collinsonia or hamamelis in this.

In cases of verucca on the genitalia or rectum, this agent is advantageously used, especially if preceded by a mild escharotic. In prolapsus of the rectum, especially in cases depending upon paralysis, this agent may be diluted an dinjected. It has simulating properties, which restore the vitality of the part. It is good for fissure of the rectum with piles.

The injection of thuja into nevi that are of a non-pulsating character, or those not too venous in structure, has been recently practiced.

In bulging nevus the remedy has been used advantageously. One case was cured in three weeks, where the nevus looked like a ring worm, and was of a fiery red color. One physician cured a case of ulcerated stomach with thuja in four-drop doses, alternated with sub-nitrate of bismuth every two hours. This patient had pain extending throught he stomach to the back. No physician gave his case. Anything warm produced great distress. The case was cured in a few weeks.

Another physician advised the agent in pruritus, whether of the anus or vulva, especially when accompanied by fissures. He uses it in warts, tumors an dexcrescences. He uses it for chapped and rough hands, so troublesome in the spring and fall.

Another physician reports a case of extreme prolapsus of thebowel in a child which he cured with a five per cent solution of thuja. A wet dressing was applied and a small quantity of the remedy was injected into the bowel. A greatly enlarged and relaxed uterus in a woman of fifty with severe metrorrhagia was treated with enjunctions of thuja. the remedy should be diluted in these cases.

A doctor reports the cure of a urinary fistula by giving two drops of thuja internally every four hours.

The use of the oil of thuja in confluent small-pxo given internally and applied externally was advised by Dr. Busbee who had an extensive and successful experience with it in these cases.

Thuja applied to the tonsils and crowded into the crypts is an excellent remedy. I am using it in syphilitic throat ulcerations an dif I precede it once or twice with an application of Monsel’s solution it has provded invariably satisfactory so far.

Thuja will prove an excellent remedy for all forms of sore mouth, especially if combined with echinacea and a mild antiseptic astringent.

Dr. Gibbs reports a case where a number of varicose enlargements about the ankle of an old washer woman broke down. He made a 50 per cent solution of thuma and applied it freely with bandages, covering the whole with roller bandages, and produced a cure.

1874: Scudder
Prepare a tincture from the fresh leaves, 35viij. to alcohol 76% Oj. Dose from gtt.j.to gtts.xx

The leaves of the arbor vitae has been a popular remedy in the treatment of intermittent and remittent fever, rheumatism, etc. It would be well for some of our practitioners to prepare a tincture and test it.

Therapeutic Action – Our Homoeopathic neighbors think highly of this remedy, and in their provings it has 3370 symptoms, being a remedy for nearly all ills to which flesh is heir. We would restrict it, however, to cases where there were caco-plastic deposits in the superficial fascia and skin, or under the periosteum, or in which there is a tendency to warty growths.

It has been employed with advantage in the treatment of old ulcers, chronic skin disease with ulceration, and in some phases of secondary and tertiary syphilis.

Prof. Howe uses this tincture as an injection in the cure of sydroccle, and thinks it much better than tincture of iodine.

1883: Scudder (alterative)
(The leaves of Thuja Occidentalis)

Preparation – Tincture of Thuja.

Dose – From the fraction of a drop to five drops.

1892 -Neiderkorn
Syphilitic or other diseases of fad blood with warty excresences or ulceration shoiwng prominence of papillae, caco-plastic deposits in fascia and skin, tendency to warty growth.

1895: Watkins
atony of bladder, dribbling urine, worse at night, prostatic enlargement. Enuresis: dribbling of urine, in the aged, enlarged prostate, vesical atony, bedwetting of children.

1898: Felter and Lloyd – THUJA – ARBOR VITAE
Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage – Thuja was occasionally employed by doctors in the earlier years, but few new uses for it were developed. Like nearly all the drugs, which are not so dangerously active as to force themselves on the practitioner’s notice, it only needed some conspicuous authority to announce the virtues of the remedy. The late Prof. Howe believed the drug valuable. It would seem that he was especially partial to the conifers. He reintroduced Pinus canadensis and thuja. Its present extensive use is largely due to his advocacy of the drug. It is true that Prof. King described thuja in the earlier editions of the American Dispensatory, and stated that a decoction of the leaves had been used in remittent and intermittent fevers, coughs, rheumatic and scorbutic affections, and gave the usual notice respecting its power to remove warts. With the exception of the latter use, this gave nothing further than Schoepf’s statement.

Prof. How was desirous of seeing the remedy fully tested, so he began with the drug to determine its true value. In the Eclectic Medical Journal for 1880, p.331, he gives a brief compilation of Eclectic uses of the drug, and concludes with his knowledge of it, and a notice of his intended lines of investigation. He says: “A tincture of fresh leaves of thuja will, locally applied, according to my experience, remove warts from the face and hands, condylomata about the nates, but will not destroy swiftly growing venereal warts. It will deaden fungous granulations, and utterly destroy them in some instances. But the best action of the drug is in overcoming the growing and spreading progress of epithelioma. I have seen it repress and overcome fungoid an dulcerous epitheliomata in an astonishingly happy manner.” He further intimates that he shall try it in croupous and diphtheritic cases, and states that he shall inject some of the tincture into the tunica vaginalis testis for the cure of hydrocele, and may try it on the granulations of trachoma. Finally, he would see what could be done to a bulging naevus with it. Having carried out the last intention, he records his success (Ec. Med. Jour., 1880, p.391): “In the treatment of naevi, I feel that a specific has been brought out. I do not expect that it will take out the scarlet color of those vaxcular patches, called mother’s mark, but that the agent will cause to shrink to insignificance those puffy naevi, which once called for the ligation of arteries. The thuja treatment is so safe and simple that a surgical operation is uncalled for, the operating surgeon losing by the discovery.” Later, in the Eclectic Annual, he stated that, externally applied, it would lessen the size of a naevus or mother’s mark. Many failures have been recorded in its use for the latter purpose. Thuja comes highly recommended as a dressing for sloughing wounds, ulcers, bedsores, senile and other forms of gangrene, serving a useful purpose in overcoming the horrible stench arising therefrom. It may likewise be used in carcinomatous ulcerations. Some even claim that it has power to check the latter disorder, but in all probability, this is claiming too much for the drug. It is frequently valuable to restrain hemorrhages occasioned by malignant growths.

Thuja is antiseptic and stimulant. Its general action is very much like that of the terebinthinates, and is said to resemble savin more than any other drug of this class. For this reason, it has been employed, as before stated, in amenorrhoea, with pelvic atony, and also in catarrhal diseases of the female generative organs. We have used it with good results as a topical application to thick, spongy, or tender os uteri, with leucorrhoeal discharge. It is asserted that thuja has brough on abortion, acting not so much as a direct abortivant, but as a gastro-intestinal irritant, producing violent intestinal disturbances, giving rise, indirectly, to miscarriage. Thuja is a remedy for blood changes and glandular disorders. Tissue degenerations in the epithelial structures appear to be influenced by it. Good results have come from using an inhalation of thuja in bronchial diseases and catarrhal affections of a chronic type. We would suggest its inhalation in fetid bronchitis and bronchorrhoea. The preparation should be dropped on hot water and inhaled. It is first stimulant, afterward subastringent. It has successfully combatted hemoptysis. Its inhalation is serviceable in diphtheria an dmembranous croup. Rectal troubles, such as fissured anus and hemorrhoids, have been frequently cured with thuja. When it is thought necessary to inject a pile tumor, thuja may be used in preference to carbolic acid. It cures by inducing atrophy. In fissured anus, it is said that the drug at first aggravates the trouble, but, if persisted in, soon effects a permanent cure. Locally, or by hypodermatic injection, it has given good, but only temporary, results in vascular rectum, where, from a paralytic condition, the lower segment of the rectum bulges and sags, amounting almost to a prolapsus. Thuja is well known as Prof. Howe’s specific for the cure of hydrocele. His method was to add to 1 ounce of warm, sterilized water 1 drachm of Lloyd’s thuja. After tapping the sac, 2 drachms of this solution were then sent, hypodermatically, into the tunica vaginalis testis. The fluid was then squeezed into every part of the sac. At first some pain and considerable swelling results, but in a few days, if the work has been properly done, a permanent cure is accomplished. Alarming swelling has been reported in some instances operated upon in this manner, as well as some failures recorded. As before stated, Prof. Howe intimated that thuja might be applied to trachomic lids. Later, Dr. D. Thomas Long, of Topcka , Kan. , employed a preparation of it in unctuous condition, now known as Long’s thuja, with great success in the treatment of this disorder. The patient may be given a small box of the unguent and taught how to use it. Each application causes considerable smarting for a short time, accompanied by lachrymation, which, however, very quickly subsides, leaving no unpleasant after-effects. We have had excellent results in chronic trachoma from this treatment. Constitutional or tonic treatment may also be required. Perhaps, one of the best known properties ascribed to this drug, is its power to remove warts, whether of the hands, face, or genitals. Nearly every writer who has mentioned this drug, has reported success in this direction. Our experience from the local application of thuja to warts has been negative. Subcutaneous injection of it around the base of the growth has been recommended, and might be more effective than the preceding. Fearn (Ec. Med. Gleaner, 1894, from Calif. Med. Jour.) advises it where excrescences are sensitive and moist, with a foul-smelling sc=ecretion. Prof. Lyman Watkins, M. D., reports success with it in urethral caruncle. Seveal physicians have called attention tot he fact that specific thuja proves an efficient remedy for nocturnal enuresis. Dr. Price (Ec. Med. Jour., 1892) records interesting cases cured with this drug. Thuja was used first in 5-drop doses at bedtime, afterward reduced to 3 drops. Old men, with enlarged and greatly irritated prostate inducing a constant dribbling of urine, consequently staining the clothing and entailing much unpleasantness, are benefited by 5-drop doses of thuja. Another interesting report is that of Dr. George Herring (Homoeopathic World), who employed it for irritability of the bladder, in gouty and eczematous patients. One case in particular mentioned by him, was that of an old man of 87 years, who was nearly exhausted from weakness consequent upon broken rest and frequent rising at night to empty his bladder. Thuja (first dilution), in 2-drop doses, brought complete relief. Prof. Howe (Ec. Annual) states that thuja, in 5 or 6-drop doses, will generally cure enuresis of children, and will alleviate senile dribbling of urine, if no paralysis exists. It has been successfully employed in gleet, when the continuance of the discharge was dependent on granular urethritis. A favorite injection for gonorrhoea, particularly in the latter stages, and for gleet, is composed of aqueous thuja, 1 part; Lloyd’s colorless hydrastis, 1 part; water, 4 parts. The proportions may be varied as desired. It gives tone to the bladder walls, and is particularly of value in dribbling or expulsion of urine in plethoric women, with relaxed bladder tissues, where even a cough or slight muscular exertion causes an expulsion of urine. Thuja is a topical remedy of unsurpassed value in syphilitic chaneroid. For this purpose the aqueous thuja is to be preferred. If applied early it relieves the pain, checks discharges, and promotes rapid healing. It acts best where softness and moisture are present. The parts should be cleansed with a borax wash before each application. Upon hard chancres it has little or no effect. This form of thuja is also valuable as an application to past-nasal catarrh, and to shrink nasal polypi and other growths in the nose and nasopharynx. Locally and internally, it gives excellent results in chronic tonsillar affections, and in the milder forms of faucial an dpharyngeal diphtheria. It is also of value in some chronic skin affections, showing a tendency to vegetations. Dr. Foltz (Dynam. Therap.) states that specific thuja (1/5 to 1/3 drop doses) acts upon the deep ocular tissues, and has been used in scleritis, episcleritis, sclerochoroiditis, and syphilitic iritis, with gummata on the iris; also externally and internally for the removal of tarsal tumors. Dose of specific thuja, from 1 to 20 drops; of aqueous thuja, 1 to 30 drops. Externally, Long’s thuja, specific thuja, an daqueous thuja may be applied full strength, or diluted as required.

Specific Indications and Uses – Enlarged prostate, with dribbling of urine in the aged; urine easily expelled upon coughing or slight muscular exertion; vesical irritation and atony; enuresis of children; verrucous vegetations; trachoma; chancroid.

1898: Webster
Arbor vitae has long been a favourite remedy with the homeopathists as an agent fro the treatment of gonorrhoea. That it possesses rare virtues here I am inclined from my own experience, to doubt. Nut in some urinary difficulties, it promotes better results, and I think the late Professor Howe should be credited with having first called attention to this use of the remedy.

He recommended it in incontinence of urine, both in the adults and in children. The dribbling of urine common in old men, is doubtless the result of prostatic enlargement, and is an application of this remedy long ago recommended by Dr. Richard Huges, of London; but the use of the drug for the relieve of the incontinence of children is of Eclectic origin.

1901: Locke
It specifically influences the urinary apparatus and is useful in chronic diarrhoea and chronic troubles with the prostate gland. It is a good agent in the treatment of warty excrescences on the genital organs of male or female; inject into the tumour. if this does not cure use nitric acid. it may be used on warts on any part of the body.

Thuja is an excellent remedy for dribbling of urine in the aged, and urinary incontinence in the young. Give small doses of specific thuja. The non-alcoholic thuja is one of the best remedies for granular conjunctivitis. It should be applied with vaseline. Thuja is contra-indicated in inflammatory states of the urinary tract. Internally use doses of from one to five drops.

1905: Peterson
Of value in incontinence of urine in children and old people, the result of atony and taxed condition of the bladder and urinary apparatus.In anureses caused by enlarged prostate gland. In spermatorrhoea the result of masturbation or overindulgence.., especially if there is depression of the mind in these cases. May often be combined in these conditions with staphysagra, saw palmetto or avena sativa to great advantage. As it has a positive tonic effect on the muscular walls and mucous membranes of the bladder and urinary apparatus it is good remedy where women cannot hold their urine on coughing or sneezing.

Contra-indicated in inflammation of the urinary tract.

1905: Petersen – THUJA OCCIDENTALIS
Syn – White Cedar; Arbor Vitae

P. E. – Small twigs and leaves

N. O. – Coniferae

N. H. United States and Canada

Properties: Anodyne, antiseptic, alterative, astringent, tonic.

Use: Locally and internally it is of value in gangrenous ulcers, acute venous gangrene, senile gangrene, nasal polypus and scaly skin diseases, in which cases a 25 to 50% solution of the tincture may be used locally. As a hypodermic injection in hydrocele a 25 to 50% solution may be injected after the fluid has been drawn off. Then manipulate the scrotum so as to bring all the internal surface in touch with drug. In hernia and hemorrhoids a 25 to 50% solution may be injected. Having a special influence on epithelial cells, it is of some value in warts, epithelioma, condylomata and goitre, both locally and internally. Of value in incontinence of urine in children and old people, the result of atony and relaxed condtion of the bladder and urinary apparatus. In enuresis caused by enlarged prostate gland. In spermatorrhoea the result of masturbation or over-indulgence, especially if there is depression of the mind in these cases. May often be combined in these conditions with staphisagria, saw palmetto or avena sativa to great advantage. Bed sores or other sores which fail to heal on account of local nerve exhaustion are much benefited by the application of thuja: in these cases use a 25 to 50% solution of the tincture. Dose, internally from 3 to 10 drops of the tincture 2 to 4 times a day. As it has a positive tonic effect on the muscular walls and mucous membranes of the bladder and urinary apparatus it is a good remedy where women cannot hold their urine on coughing or sneezing.

1906: Ellingwood
The agent is especially advised in the treatment of urinary disorders of the aged and young. It gives satisfaction in the treatment of nocturnal enuresis when the difficulty is of functional origin. It is also valuable when there is dribbling of urine, loss of control from paralysis of the sphincter, perhaps in the ages, where urinary incontinence is present with severe coughs lack of control when coughing or sneezing. sometime in severe cases of nocturnal enuresis, it is accompanied with belladonna or thus aromatic with good results. in old men wit chronic prostatitis, with constant dribbling of urine, this agent is valuable. It relieves the weakness at the neck of the bladder. it tones the muscular structure of the bladder and exercises a desirable influence over the mucous structures of the entire urinary apparatus. It also stimulates secretion within the kidney tubules due to its direct influence on the epithelial cells.

1911: Fyfe
syphilitic and other diseases of bad blood, with warty excrescences or ulcerations; catarrhal diseases of the female generative organs; enuresis; seminal emissions, vesical irritation, especially in aged women; atonic conditions following dysentery; incontinence of urine in children; chronic diarrhoea and chronic troubles of the prostate gland; dribbling of urine in the aged, when not of a paretic nature; eczema, especially of the dry variety.

locally: senile and other forms of gangrene; haemorrhages caused by malignant growths fissured anus and haemorrhoids; warts, whether of the face, hands or genitals; syphilitic eruptions; bulging naevi; balanitis; or abrasions or excoriations on the head of the penis, or around the corona glandis; catarrhal ulceration of the uterine neck (by means of tampon of thuja and glycerin); urethral caruncles (diluted and applied on absorbent cotton or painted on with cames hair brush.

Thuja is a remedy of varied usefulness. Its best effects are obtained from doses from one to ten drops. Locally it is used extensively and with good success in many cases. In hydrocele, after thorough evacuation of the sac, two drachms solution consisting of one drachm of non alcoholic preparation and one ounce of warm sterilized water, is injected into the tunica vaginalis testis, and squeezed into every part of the sac. It cause some pain and inflammation, but effects a permanent cure. The drug has also been used for this purpose in full strength.

Usually not more than two injections are required to cure hydrocele. Thuja occidentalis is anodyne, stimulant, antiseptic, alterative, tonic, and astringent. Its principal action is on the skin, mucous membranes, and generative organs. it is contra-indicated in inflammatory states of the urinary tract.

Thuja occidentalis is anodyne, stimulant, antiseptic, altertive, tonic, and astringent. Its principal action is on the skin, mucous membranes and generative organs. It is contraindicated in inflammatory states of the urinary tract.

1919: Ellingwood
Synonyms – Arbor vitae, white cedar.

Constituents – Colorless volatile oil, soluble in alcohol, with a sp. gr. 0.92, and a yellow, crystallizable, bitter principle called thujin, punitannic (Kowalier) and thujetic acid.

Preparations – Extract non-alcoholic, Fluid Extract Arbor Vitae, not miscible with water.

Dose, from one-fourth to one dram.

Specific Medicine Thuja. Dose, from one to ten drops.

Administration – In the treatment of local conditions involving blood changes, the beginning dosage should be small, and administered two or three times per day. If, however, the condition does not show improvement, especially where there is a cancerous cachexia, the dose may be increased, if necessary, to one dram every two or three hours. In non-malignant cases the dose may be much smaller. In warts and excrescences, two small doses per day will often remove them in a few days, especially if external use of the agent be made also. In conditions of a syphilitic character the cure in all cases will be more protracted.

Physiological Action – No extended systematic study of the physiological action or specific therapeutic application of this agent has been made. It exerciss a peculiar influence over abnormal growths and tissue degenerations, especially those of an epithelial character. It was originally advised as a remedy for epithelioma, to be administered both internally an dexternally. It has been widely used in the treatment of cacoplastic grwoths, and glandular indurations of a scrofulous character, also of warts, small tumors, and incipient cancers of different varieties, and goitre. It is a remedy for perverted glandular action and certain blood dyscrasias.

Therapy – It has been used extensively by all physicians in the treatment of cancer. It is claimed to exercise an abortive influence over incipient cancer, and to retard the progress of more advanced cases. In extreme cases it will remove the fetor, retard the growth, and materially prolong the life of the patient. It should be given internally and the dosage increased to the extreme limit. It should also be kept in contact with the parts externally or injected into the structures. Eipthelioma, condylomata, and all simple cancerous growths should be treated with it.

I had an interesting report from Dr. Caple who injected thuja into a giant-celled sarcoma of the hip joint. He used a teaspoonful in the structure at once, giving the remedy internally, in fifteen drop doses, with the same quantity of echinacea. The results were more than he had anticipated.

Dr. Jones injected from twenty to sixty drops of thuja into a rectal cancer every second day, and also where there was a cauliflower variety of cancer of the uterus. He believes in this remedy if enough is used. It must be used very freely.

Thuja is given internally for cancer, and for the pains of cancer it is applied externally, when possible, occasionally with good results.

Thuja certainly exercises a direct influence upon the glandular structures and function. In what manner this influence is exercised is unknown, but in any disease that involves the gland, this remedy must be considered, and if there are no contraindications it can be tried, and in many cases as with the ductless glands, it seems to act in a direct manner.

Thuja is directly indicated, first, as a peculiar alterative, in improving diathetic conditions of the blood. Again, it acts directly upon abnormal growths – perversions, such as peculiar conditions of the cell structure of the skin, and other external structures. It is thus indicated in all abnormalgrowths of the skin or mucous membranes. It exercises a specific influence upon catarrhal discharges, correcting the glandular faults that are to blame for such a condition wherever they may be. It is specific to urinary irritation in aged people especially; also in childhood. It strengthens the sphincter of the bladder.

Dr. Andrews uses thuja in chronic diarrhoeas, and in the treatment of ulceration of the bowels. In colonic ulceration, he uses it as a high anema once or twice a day.

In a bad case of polyuria with great sensation of debility and weakness of the entire sexual apparatus and some loss of sexual strength, a man of 65 was given five drops of thuja every two hours with complete success.

Thuja is an important remedy in the treatment of spermatorrhoea, especially if from exhaustion from over-indulgence, or from masturbation. The patient must avoid alcoholic stimulants. Dr H. C. Noble reported twenty-nine cures out of thirty consecutive.