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The Online Reefer Madness Teaching Museum
The
ECLECTRIC MEDICAL JOURNAL - OCT 1916 (pg. 554) CANNABIS. Opium,
or its alkaloid, morphine, is the king of pain relievers.
There are times, however, when we wish to avoid the disagreeable effects
of morphine, and yet need a potent pain reliever.
Of course, no agent will completely supplant the opiates, but there are
several which, under proper conditions, will alleviate distress and pain to such
a degree that the use of the above-named agents may be avoided. One of these is
cannabis. This
valuable remedy fulfills two important indications. First in order of efficiency, it is a remedy for depression
of the nervous system. Secondly, it
allays irritation of the urino-genital tract, notably relieving pain.
For the first purpose it is valuable in more or less painful conditions,
in which opium, or its alkaloids, on account of their tendency to restrain
normal secretions, would be inadmissible. There are several agents that can be
(pg. 555) depended upon for this purpose, but cannabis exerts far less
restraining power over the secretions than does most similar anodynes; it also
favors good appetite and digestion, and exhilarates the spirits.
Therefore, it is of great value in such disorders as are attended by
gloom and foreboding. Here
depression of the nervous system is marked. Perhaps in genitourinary disorders
of an irritative or inflammatory nature its usefulness is most strongly evident. With the properly selected sedative it meets the wants of a
pain reliever and nerve soother in urethritis, whether idiopathic or specific.
Gelsemium, aconite and cannabis are, perhaps, more frequently indicated than
other internal agents in acute gonorrhea. It
is of supreme importance in surgical fever due to the passing of the catheter or
bougie, or from operations upon the urethral tract.
Think of it in chronic cystitis, chronic irritation of the bladder,
dysuria, painful micturition and strangury.
In various forms of neuralgia, in gastralgia, gastric ulcer, neuralgia of
the pelvic viscera, and in whooping cough and the cough of phthisis its effects
are gratifying. Note briefly the
specific indications: Marked nervous depression; irritation of the genito-urinary
tract; burning, frequent micturition, with tenesmus scalding urine; ardor urinae;
wakefulness in fevers insomnia, with brief periods of sleep, disturbed by
unpleasant dreams; spasmodic and painful conditions, with depression; mental
illusions; hallucinations; cerebral anemia from spasm of cerebral vessels;
palpitation of the heart, with sharp, stitching pain; and menstrual headache,
with great nervous depression. Cannabis indica is usually employed, but there is
every reason to believe that the American cannabis (Cannabis sativa), as
introduced some years ago into Eclectic practice, is equally efficient.
For some unaccountable reason the foreign product crowded the American
drug out of use. Now there is a
growing tendency to return to the American drug. --
-- --
-- -- --
-- The
ECLECTRIC MEDICAL JOURNAL - MAR. 1936 (pg. 110) CANNABIS
(AMERICAN HEMP)—Cannabis is
considered anodyne, hypnotic, anti-spasmodic, producing sleep even when opium
and morphine fail. Efficient in
delirium tremens, wakefulness in fevers, neuralgia, gout, rheumatism infantile
convulsions, low mental conditions, insanity, and in inflammatory conditions,
etc. It is often preferable to
opium where opium disagrees. Indications
Great nervous depression; irritation of the genito-urinary tract; painful
micturition, with tenesmus; ardor urinae, scalding, burning, frequent
micturition; low mental conditions wakefulness, with unpleasant dreams during
momentary sleep; spasmodic anti painful conditions, with nervous depressions;
mental illusions; menstrual headache; palpitation of the heart, with sharp,
stitching pains in the heart hallucinations; cerebral anemia from spasm of
cerebral vessels.—Am. Disp. Dose:
R. Sp. Med. Cannabis. 3ss to 3j. water 5iv. Sig. : A teaspoonful of the
dilution every hour. Shake the bottle before giving each dose.
Poisonous in overdoses. Poison—Antidote:
Stomach pump or emetic of mustard, zinc sulphate, or apomorphine.
Give strong tea and coffee. Keep
patient in motion and awake. Liberal
doses of sweet spirits of nitre to encourage renal action.
Catheterize, and give stimulants, particularly small (loses of Specific
Medicine Belladonna, or atropine sulphate.—Felte. -- --
-- --
-- -- -- THE GLEARNER
- A publication of the Lloyd Laboratory, Cincinnati, Ohio, May, 1918 - PREPARATIONS OF CANNABIS. (pg. 341) Question:
In your Dose
Book, what is meant by “cannabis?” suppose Cannabis indica is meant, but as
there are several hemps used in medicine, all valuable, the word “Cannabis”
is confusing. Reply:
We
make two preparations of Cannabis, one from the drug grown in India, the other
from hemp grown in America. Both of
these drugs, as stated in the American Dispensatory, are from the variety known
as Cannabis sativa. We distinguish
between these two preparations by giving to the one made from the drug first
employed therapeutically (commonly known as Cannabis indica), the name
“Cannabis,” and to that made from the American-grown product, the name
“American Hemp.” We
would refer our readers, in this connection, to Gleaner 3, page 90, in which,
tinder the title, “Nomenclature of Plant Remedies,” the subject of names in
connection with different varieties of the same drug, employed in medicine, is
discussed at some length.
L. SUBSTITUTES FOR CANNABIS INDICA. Question:
Please advise us what agent will take the place of Cannabis indica, in
the treatment of conditions. calling for that remedy. Reply:
This
question comes probably on the supposition that the European war may cut off the
importation of the Indian Cannabis. This
has not as yet been the case, but should there come a drug famine in this
direction, it is to be remembered that the American cannabis is almost, if not
quite, identical with the Asiatic variety. With this introduction we will say that while we have a few
remedies that will, in a measure, fill the office of cannabis, there is no
single remedy that exactly parallels it. Eryngium
will relieve some of the conditions calling for cannabis, pulsatilla others;
stramonium some, and bromide of potassium others.
Perhaps the one that most nearly takes its place is gelsemium, but
gelsemium will not fill every niche. S. --
-- --
-- -- --
-- The
ECLECTRIC MEDICAL JOURNAL - Sept. 1920 (pg. 461) CANNABIS. Note:
- A reprint of an article first published in April of 1911. --
-- --
-- -- --
-- The
ECLECTRIC MEDICAL JOURNAL - Dec. 1922 (pg. 291) CANNABIS
INDICA. The
dried flowering tops of pistillate plants of Cannabis Sativa, Linne, growing in
East Indies, gathered while fruits are undeveloped and carrying their full
amount of resin. This
remedy, so valuable in its true sphere, grows in Persia and northern India, and
is cultivated in many other countries, as in North America and Europe.
The hemp of this country, and which is known by the name of cannabis
sativa, according to King is identical with the foreign or cannabis indica.
We account for the more powerful properties of the foreign hemp on the
ground of difference in climate, and perhaps also of cultivation.
It is known by the common names of Indian Hemp and Indian Cannabis.
The flowers and tops are used for making medicine.
We should be careful not to confound the home-grown with the foreign. PHYSIOLOGICAL
ACTION—In large doses, carelessly administered, cannabis indica gives rise to
very unpleasant disturbances.
In some individuals it may lead to acts of violence and even murder:
it may excite merriment in others. It
produces congestion of the brain, with hallucinations and vagaries of sight,
convulsive movements, sudden shocks, etc. but when the remedy is withdrawn these
phenomena soon pass away, as this writer knows by experience. SPECIFIC
INDICATIONS AND USES—Nervous depression; low mental conditions insomnia, and
what little sleep the patient gets is crowded With unpleasant dreams; cerebral
anemia; urinary irritation; and for the relief of pain.
(pg. 292) THERAPY—Let
us start out with King’s thought in mind; he says the great indication for
cannabis is marked nervous depression. With
this indication in mind, we shall see the way for the successful use of this
remedy. In small doses this remedy
first stimulates, relieving that depression that prevents good, healthful sleep,
and in this way it many times becomes our best remedy as an hypnotic. Hence we
think of it in insomnia after hard mental toil, or in the sleeplessness in low
stages of fever, typhoid or spinal meningitis; it gives the needed stimulus, the
patient sleeps. It is better than
the sleep produced by morphia, more refreshing, and it does not lock up the
secretions or destroy the appetite, but stimulates both.
In the sleeplessness of the aged it is very useful.
For these purposes ten or twenty drops of Specific Medicine Cannabis can
be added to four ounces of water. Dose, one teaspoonful every one, two or three
hours. It
is also a good obtunder. Take
facial neuralgia, painful nervous affections anywhere, gastralgia, the pain
connected with ulcerations of the stomach, painful menstruation, pain in the
head, especially at the menstrual period; in fact, it is a great general pain
reliever. To relieve pain our doses
in starting out must be larger, say one or two drops at a dose and repeated as
needed; for this purpose it is well to give it in hot water.
For irritation anywhere in the genito-urinary organs it is very useful.
In strangury, in the acute stages of gonorrhea, it is a very useful
remedy and, given early, it will generally prevent chordee.
In diseases of women we often find an hyperesthetic condition of the
genital organs; at times great tenderness.
Here use Specific Medicine Cannabis in small, frequent doses.
In whooping cough and other spasmodic coughs it will relieve the spasms.
In diseases of the brain marked with mental depression, also in delirium
tremens, it is very good. DOSE.—The
solid extract of cannabis indica can be given in from one-quarter to one grain.
But here we must be very careful—the strength seems to vary so much.
In using Parke, Davis & Co.’s solid extract, years ago, it was so
reliable I found I could not give grain doses without getting poisonous effects.
The safest plan, with me, has been to confine myself to Specific Medicine
Cannabis which may be given from the fraction of a drop to six or eight drops.
Get the specific or a good fluid extract, and the dose will be small.
-- --
-- -- --
-- -- The
ECLECTRIC MEDICAL JOURNAL - April, 1911 (pg. 200) Cannabis
Indica. This
valuable remedy fulfills two important indications. First in order of efficiency, it is a remedy for depression
of the nervous system. Secondly, it
allays irritation of the urino-genital tract and relieves pain.
For the first purpose it is invaluable in more or less painful conditions
in which opium, on account of its tendency to restrain normal secretions, would
be inadmissible. Cannabis exerts far less restraining power over the
secretions than does most similar anodynes, it favors good appetite and
digestion, and exhilarates the spirits. Hence
its value in such disorders as are attended by gloom and foreboding.
It is perhaps in genito-urinary disorders of an inflammatory type that
its usefulness is most strongly displayed.
With the properly-selected sedatives it meets the wants of a pain
reliever and nerve soother in urethritis, whether idiopathic or specific.
Gelsemium, aconite and cannabis are perhaps more frequently indicated
than other internal agents in acute gonorrhea.
It is of supreme importance in surgical fever due to the passing of the
catheter or bougie, or from operations upon the urethral tract. Think of it in chronic cystitls, chronic irritation of the
bladder, dysuria, painful micturition and strangury. In various forms of neuralgia, in gastralgia, gastric ulcer.
neuralgia of the pelvic viscera, and in whooping-cough and the cough of
plithisis its effects are gratifying. Note
briefly the specific indications: Marked nervous depression; irritation of the
genitourinary tract; burning, frequent micturition; painful micturition, with
tenesmus; scalding urine; ardor urinae; wakefulness in fevers; insomnia, with
brief periods of sleep, disturbed by unpleasant dreams; spasmodic and painful
conditions, with depression; mental illusions; hallucinations; cerebral anemia
from spasm of cerebral vessels; palpitation of the heart, with sharp, stitching
pain and menstrual headache, with great nervous depression.—Medical Standard. --
-- --
-- -- --
-- KING’S AMERICAN
DISPENSATORY 1909 (pg423) CANNABIS
INDICA (U. S. P.)—INDIAN CANNABIS. “The flowering tops of the female plant of
Cannabis .sativa, Linne: grown in the East Indies”—(U. S. P.). Nat. Ord.—Urticaceae. COMMON
NAME: Indian hemp. ILLUSTRATION:
Bentley and Trimen, Med. Plants, 231. Botanical Source.—Cannabis
sativa is a herbaceous annual, growing from 4 to 9
feet high, covered with a very fine, rough pubescence, scarcely visible to
the naked eye. The stem is erect,
branched, bright-green, and angular. The
leaves are alternate or opposite, on long, lax petioles, digitate and scabrous,
with linearlanceolate, sharply serrated leaflets, tapering into a long, smooth,
entire point; the stipules subulate. The
flowers are borne in axillary clusters, with subulate bracts; the males are lax
and drooping, and branched and leafless at the base; the females are erect,
simple, and leafy at the base. The
calyx of the male is downy; of the female, covered with short, brownish glands.
The fruit is an ovate, 1-seeded achenium; the seeds are roundish-ovate,
slightly flattened, 1 or 2 lines long, without odor, of a sweetish, oleaginous,
unpleasant taste, and glossy, and grayish in color (L). (pg 423) History.—Hemp (Cannabis indica of
Lamarck), is indigenous to Persia and northern India, and is cultivated in many
other countries. It is naturalized
in North America, Brazil, and Europe. The
hemp of this country (the preparations of which are often referred to as
Cannabis sativa in contradistinction to Cannabis indica, an error which should
not be continued), is identical with the Eastern plant in its botanical
characters, but differs somewhat from it in its physical qualities, the India
plant being more powerful in its, effects on the system, and which is probably
owing to the influence of climate, cultivation, etc., or perhaps, from the
absence of some ethereal ingredient. In
the Eastern countries an infusion of hemp, prepared with cold water, is much
employed as an intoxicating drink. Several
native names are applied to different parts or products of this plant.
Thus the leaves and smaller stalks, dried and broken coarsely, and
intermixed with a few capsules, is known as bhang (Hindustan), siddhi (Bengal),
sabzi (Bombay), and hashish (Arabia). Our
modern term assassin is said to have arisen from this word, the name Hashshashin
(assassin), having been applied to a murderous Persian sect, which, in its
religious rites, used hemp (hashish) to intoxication.
Bhang is almost tasteless, and is of a dark-green color.
It is smoked with tobacco, or without the latter, but usually is
incorporated into a sweetmeat known as majun.
The flowering and fruiting tops, from which the resin has not been
removed, are known as ganja, ganjah, or gunjah in India, and as guaza in London
and other drug markets. These occur
as compressed, brittle, brown-green shoots, or as stiff, ligneous stems with
flowering and fruiting shoots attached, both varieties having a glutinous
aspect. Like bhang, it is without a
pronounced taste. The
concrete resinous exudation of the plant is known in India by the name of
churrus or charas. This is peculiar
in being the production of those plants, scarcely more than 3 feet high, growing
in elevated situations (6,000 to 8,000 feet, Jameson).
The natives, clothed in leather apparel, run among the hemp plants,
beating them, and thus gather the resin which adheres to their garments, from
which it is afterwards removed by scraping.
Or it may be obtained by rubbing the ripened fruit-tops between the
hands, from which it is afterward scraped and formed into balls.
This kind is most valued, and is known as momeea (waxen churrus).
A third and more dangerous method is that of stirring dried bhang and
collecting the dusty, resinous powder shaken therefrom.
Hemp has long been raised for its textile fibers and for its oily seeds.
The fibers are largely used in making cordage, and the seeds for feeding
birds, and for the expression of oil of hempseed, mostly prepared in Russia,
which is used in mixing paints, and manufacturing varnish and soap, and has been
used as an illuminating oil, though not well suited for this purpose.
The Poles and Russians, it is said, eat the roasted seeds with bread as a
condiment (Amer. Ency.,Hemp). Description.—CANNABI5
INDICA. “Branching, compressed, brittle, about 5 Cm. (2 inches) or more long,
with a few digitate leaves, having linear-lanceolate leaflets, and numerous
sheathing, pointed bracts, each containing 2 small, pistillate flowers,
sometimes with the nearly ripe fruit, the whole more or less agglutinated with a
resinous exudation. It has a
brownish-green color, a peculiar, narcotic odor, and a slightly acrid
taste”—(U. S. P.). FRUCTTUS
CANNABIS, Hempseed.—Hempseed is about 1/8 to 1/6 of an inch
in length, subglobular, somewhat compressed, and possessing a marginal keel,
whitish in color. The testa is
brownish or olive-gray, smooth, shining, brittle, and marked with veins.
The inclosed greenish seed is oily, with a sweetish, oleaginous taste,
and but a faint odor. Chemical
Composition.—The leaves of cannabis contain chlorophyll,
coloring matter, extractive, a volatile oil, a green, resinous body, gummy
extractive, a. bitter body, albumen, lignin, sugar, and salts, as potassium
nitrate, silica, phosphates, and other salts.
The chemistry of the active constituents is not yet well determined. Not
since T. & H. Smith (1846), declared that the soporific, calmative, (pg.
424) and other properties, resided in the resin cannabin, have any very material
advances been made. Personne (1857) thought the activity of the drug depended
upon its volatile oil, the vapor of which is stupefying.
He succeeded in separating it into two parts—cannabene
(C18,H20), a fluid, and
cannabene hydride (C18,H22), a
crystallizable solid. The oil
rectified (over sodium), is miscible with alcohol, boils at 256° to
258°
C. (492.8°
to 496.4°
F.), and has a density at 0°
C. (32°
F.), of 0.9292.
Bromine energetically attacks it (Valente, 1881). The
cannabin of T. & H. Smith is the alcoholic or resinous extract employed in
medicine; it is prepared from the dried flowers and incipient fruit, with the
smaller branches of the plant (gunjah). This
extract is prepared according to the directions of Messrs. Smith, as follows:
“Digest bruised gunjah in successive quantities of warm water till the
expressed water comes away colorless; and again for two days, at a moderate heat
in a solution of carbonate of sodium, in the proportion of 1. part of the salt
to 2 of gunjah. Coloring matter,
chlorophyll, and inert concrete oil being thus removed, express and wash the
residuum, dry it, and exhaust it by percolation with rectified spirit.
Agitate with the tincture milk of lime containing an ounce of lime for
every pound of gunjah, and after filtration, throw down the excess of lime by a
little sulphuric acid. Agitate with
the filtered liquor a little animal charcoal, which is afterward to be removed
by filtration. Distill off most of
the spirit, add to the residual tincture twice its weight of water in a
porcelain basin, and let the remaining spirit evaporate gradually.
Lastly, wash the resin with fresh water till it comes away neither acid
nor bitter, and dry the resin in thin layers.”
This resinous extract contains the taste and odor of gunjah, and its
activity is not impaired when exposed in air for 8 hours to a temperature of
82.2°
C. (180°
F.) . One hundred pounds of dry gunjah yield about 6 or 7 pounds of this extract
(P). It has a dark, dull-green
color, a peculiar narcotic, somewhat fragrant odor; and a hot, somewhat bitter,
and acrid taste. It is mostly soluble in alcohol, chloroform, ether, oil of
turpentine, olive oil, and partially in benzol; its terebinthine solution
deposits minute scaly crystals on standing.
It burns without leaving a residue.
When water is added to its solution in alcohol, a white precipitate
falls. It may be distinguished from
the extract of common hemp by the following tests: Resinous extract of Indian
hemp only partially dissolves in liquor potassae, while that of common hemp
dissolves readily; nitric acid, sp. gr. 1.38, converts the former, with red
fumes and rapid reaction, into an orange-red resinoid substance, amounting to
nearly the same quantity as the resin under treatment, while the extract of
common hemp gives but a small amount of resinoid (Prof. W. Procter). In
the year 1876, Preobraschensky obtained a volatile alkaloid which he believed to
be nicotine, but Dragendorff suggests the possible admixture of tobacco as the
latter and hemp are frequently smoked together at least others have not
succeeded in isolating nicotine from hemp.
By using the methods for extracting nicotine, Siebold and Bradbury
(1881), extracted a very minute quantity of cannabinine, a varnish-like mass.
In 1883, Matthew Hay arrived at the conclusion that several alkaloids are
contained in the plant—one of which, in crystalline form and possessing
tetanic properties, he succeeded in isolating in minute quantity and named
tetano-cannabiiie. Jahns (1889), however, claims this body to be identical with
choline. In 1891, H. T. Smith
extracted a varnish-like alkaloid possessing the odor of coniine; of this he
formed a sulphate which crystallized from alcohol.
More recently (1895), F. Marino-Zuco, and G. Vignolo (Gazetta Chimica
Italiana, 1895, part I, pp. 262-8), have attempted to determine definitely the
constituents of the drug. They
succeeded in obtaining from the drug by means of water acidulated with sulphuric
acid, an alkaloidal base, the hydrochloride of which formed a deliquescent,
crystalline mass, which to the heart is a powerful depressant.
As vegetable acids destroy or render practically inert the action of
Cannabis indica (Polli), it is not readily accepted that a stronger acid should
be expected to extract the active principle or principles (Pharm. Jour., 1895).
The Pharmaceutical Journal, 1895, remarks: “The chemistry of this
remarkable and powerful drug still remains to be elucidated, therefore, and the
active principles to which its complex action is due yet await isolation.
It may, perhaps, serve as a hint to investigators, to recall a statement
which appears in Schlimrner’s (Persian) Pharmacopceia (p. 102), from which it
appears that the dervishes make an extremely somniferous preparation by boiling
the tops of Indian hemp in fresh butter or oil of almonds.
‘Of this a sufficiently minute quantity introduced into an ordinary
culinary preparation will cause an entire family to sleep for 24 or 72 hours,
without the taste of cannabis being detected.’
Assuming the intoxicant action and the odor of Indian hemp to be due to a
volatile constituent likely to be driven off by the boiling process, the use of
the oil as a solvent might serve to separate the most important active
principle, and another might be separated by distillation.
Hitherto most of the processes adopted appear to have yielded products
incapable of causing the characteristic action of the drug.”
Gastinel’s hashiscin is an alcoholic extract of gunjah, from which the
water-soluble principles are excluded. Bombelan’s pure cannabin, Merck’s
cannabin tannate, or Kobert’s cannabindine, are not thought to be the active
principle prioper (Pharm. Jour., 1895). Action, Medical Uses, and Dosage.—Administered
to healthy persons in large doses, cannabis creates more or less disturbance in
the digestive tract, affects the nervous system with convulsive movements and
sudden shocks, causes congestion of the brain, confused ideas, exalted
imagination with frequently changing pictures, torpor, and sleep; the cerebral
symptoms being more constant, while the others vary to a great extent, sometimes
nothing occurring but a few confused ideas followed by sleep.
The long-continued use of this article induces injected eyes and bloating
of the face, prostration, dropsy, sudden attacks of dangerous mania, and
occasionally catalepsy and imbecility, followed by a marasmic state, ending in
death. Death has not been known to
result directly from the effects of cannabis, except when continually used until
marasmus is induced, when death may occur from the latter condition.
The symptoms of acute poisoning vary greatly, probably owing to the
uncertain character of the drug employed. Collapse, unconsciousness, stupor,
catalepsy, extreme debility, irresponsive pupils, cold, clammy skin, spasms and
convulsions are among its toxic effects. A
marked feature is the anaesthesia produced, and it is asserted that the Chinese
formerly performed surgical operations under its use.
The effects from large doses are best combatted by vegetable acids,
especially lemon juice, coffee, emetics, cold applications and leeches to the
temples. Probably strychnine and
faradization of the respiratory muscles are the most effective means.
By some coffee is said to increase its effects. Indian hemp is considered
anodyne, hypnotic, antispasmodic, and phrenic, producing sleep even where
morphine has failed, and without impairing the appetite, repressing the
secretions, or causing constipation like opium and its preparations.
It frequently allays pain, and has been found of great benefit in
hysteria, chorea, and other nervous affections. Its effects upon the system vary
under different conditions, thus: It lessens pain, checks spasmodic action,
improves the appetite, causes sleep, exhilaration of spirits, and, in increased
doses, inebriation, with phantasms, catalepsy, illusory delirium, and strong
aphrodisia. Its continued use,
however, lessens the venereal appetite and power. It occasions dilatation of the pupils and prevents normal
perception more strongly than any other agent.
A peculiarity observed in those who take cannabis is the strong and
voracious appetite induced. Medicinally,
in small doses, its effects are less intense than those of opium, and the
excretions are not so much suppressed by it; it does not disturb digestion,
rather increases the appetite, seldom induces sickness of the stomach, never
causes congestion, and disturbs the expectoration far less than opium, also
effects the nervous system much less, and produces a more natural sleep without
interfering with the actions of the internal organs.
Cannabis is one of the most important of our remedies, but, like our best
agents, it must not be used indiscriminately, but its cases should he
specifically selected. The great
indication for cannabis (the keynote) is marked nervous depression.
With this indication present it will fulfil a multitude of uses.
Specifically selected it has been efficient in delirium tremens,
wakefulness in fevers, neuralgia, gout, rheumatism, infantile convulsions, low
mental conditions, insanity, etc., and in inflammatory conditions in cases where
opium disagrees, and is often preferable to opium.
Acute mania and dementia, epilepsy, hysterical catalepsy, cerebral
softening (with potassium bromide), anemia of the cerebral cortex, paralysis
agitans and senile tremors, traumatic or idiopathic tetanus, and irritable
reflexes, are among the nervous disorders in which it exerts a positively
beneficial and soothing action, when depression is the guide (pg. 426) to its
selection. In mental disturbances
the guides to its use are mental oppression, a dull, drowsy, or stupid
countenance (a dreamy condition), with dizziness and violent throbbings in the
head, and a morbid fear of becoming insane.
The patient sometimes has an “exaggerated
idea of time and space” (Webster).
The drug is a useful hypnotic for the insane.
As a remedy for pain, it ranks among the first; the more spasmodic the
pain the better it acts. The
neuralgic pains of depression are those most quickly relieved.
It should be administered in painful states of the stomach, as gastric
neuralgia, nervous gastralgia, in gastric ulcers, where opium is inadmissible,
and in pain due to indigestion. The
pains attending lientery, after-pains, the passage of renal and hepatic calculi,
gout, neuralgia of the uterus, cancer, locomotor ataxia, are all met by it, and,
added to purgatives, it mitigates their griping effects.
It relieves the itching of cutaneous disorders, particularly that of
senile pruritus and eczematous affections.
Migraine, nervous headache, facial, and other neuralgias, whether due to
catamenial wrongs or attending the menopause, as well as those depending upon
fatigue, are releived when nervous depression is the most marked symptom.
Head-pains, due to tumors, have been asserted to yield to cannabis.
The pains of chronic rheumatism, sciatica, spinal meningitis,
dysmenorrhoea, endometritis, subinvolution, and the vague pains of amenorrhcea,
with depression, call for cannabis. Owing
to a special action upon the reproductive apparatus, it is accredited with
averting threatened abortion. It is
a prominent remedy for certain spasmodic conditions and especially in the
choreic states of weak women and children.
It mitigates whooping-cough and other convulsive coughs; alleviates
palpitation of the heart, with stitching pain in the part; quiets hysterical
manifestations, and allays the distressing symptoms of spasmodic asthma, and
periodic hyperaesthetic rhinitis. It
is a valuable remedy in senile catarrh, with harrassing cough and profuse mucous
expectoration, and, both internally and by inhalation, it has afforded relief in
the painful cough of consumptives. Cannabis
is said in many cases to increase the strength of the uterine contractions
during parturition, in atonic conditions, without the unpleasant consequences of
ergot, and for which purpose it should be used in the form of tincture (see
below), 30 drops, or specific cannabis, 10 drops, in sweetened water or
mucilage, as often as required. In
menorrhagia, the tincture in doses of 5 or 10 drops, 3 or 4 times a day, has
checked the discharge in 24 or 48 hours. The
greatest reputation of cannabis has been acquired from its prompt results in
certain disorders of the genito-urinary tract.
In fact, its second great keynote or indication is irritation, of the
genito-urinary tract, and the indication is even of more value when associated
with general nervous depression. It
is, therefore, useful in gonorrhoea, chronic irritation of the bladder, in
chronic cystitis, with painful micturition, and in painful urinary affections
generally. It makes no difference
whether a urethritis be specific or not, or whether it is acute or chronic the
irritation is a sufficient guide to the selection of cannabis.
Use it in gonorrhoea to relieve the ardor urine, and to prevent urethral
spasm and avert chordee, and in gleet, to relieve the irritation and discharge;
employ it also in spasm of the vesical sphincter, in dysuria and in strangury,
when spasmodic. Burning and
scalding in passing urine, with frequent desire to micturate, are always
relieved by cannabis. The following
is said to be. a certain cure for gonorrhora: Take,
while in blossom, equal parts of the tops of the male and female hemp (Cannabis
sativa), bruise them in a mortar, and express the juice; to this add an equal
portion of alcohol. Dose, from 1 to
3 drops every 2 or 3 hours. It
should be remembered that the American hemp has the same properties as the
Indian hemp, but is a much feebler product—the difference, therefore, not
being, as some have indicated, in action, but merely in degree. Cannabis has been recommended in diabetes and hematuria, and
in Bright’s disease, with painful voiding of bloody urine, it is strongly
endorsed. By its control over the
mental functions, it controls lascivious thoughts, dreams and desires, and is,
therefore, of some value in nocturnal seminal emissions.
Probably its control over urethral irritation contributes to its value
here. In this manner impotence is
said to have been cured by it. Cannabis
has some, reputation as a remedy for chronic alcoholism, and for the cure of the
opium habit. Externally,
the resin may be applied endermically or in embrocation with oils, ointments,
chloroform, etc., in inflammatory and neuralgic affections. It may (pg. 427)
also be used in injections. The
green plant collected in the spring, and 2 or 3 twigs placed in or between beds,
will, it is asserted, certainly and effectually cause bedbugs to remove from the
room in which they are used. Hemp
seed, in infusion, has been found very useful in after-pains, and in the
bearing-down sensation accompanying prolapsus uteri. A combination of cannabis, collodion, and salicylic acid has
been used to destroy corns, the extract of the hemp acting as an anodyne. A
tincture may be made by dissolving 24 grains of the resinous extract in a fluid
ounce of rectified spirit; for ordinary purposes, its dose is from 10 to 30
drops. The extract varies in
strength, which will require a variation in the doses. When well prepared, the dose is from 1/2 grain to 1 grain; but
this may vary from 1 grain to 20 grains, depending entirely on the quality of
the article. The English extract is
a good preparation, and of all extracts, the smaller dose should first he
employed. The tannate of cannabine,
in doses of 5 to 15 grains, is said to be an efficient hypnotic, though many
declare it inefficient for this purpose. The
best preparation is the specific cannabis, which may be given in doses of a
fraction of a drop to 10 drops. The
ordinary prescription for its specific effects is: R Specific cannabis, gtt. v
to xxx; aqua, fl 3iv. Mix. Dose, a
teaspoonful every 1/2 to 2 or 3 hours. Specific
Indications and Uses.—Great nervous depression; irritation of the
genito-urinary tract; painful micturition, with tenesmus; ardor urinae,
scalding, burning, frequent micturition; low mental conditions; wakefulness;
insomnia, with unpleasant dreams during momentary sleep; spasmodic and painful
conditions, with nervous depression; mental illusions; menstrual headache;
palpitation of the heart, with sharp stitching pains in the heart;
hallucinations; cerebral anemia, from spasm of cerebral vessels.
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