Hardhack

Chronic, low-grade diarrhea in a pale, debilitated child with weak assimilation and a history of scrofulous complaints

Loose, relaxed stool in a person whose gut tone is atonic rather than acutely inflamed, calling for a gentle toning astringent rather than a harsh binder

Overview. Spiraea tomentosa is a small North American shrub of the rose family, common in wet meadows and low ground from New England southward, recognizable by its woolly gray undersides of leaf and dense pink-purple flower spikes. The root and leaf were used by nineteenth century American Physiomedicalist and Eclectic practitioners as a gentle astringent tonic for the digestive tract. It held a modest but steady place in the home and eclectic dispensary as a pleasant tasting remedy for chronic looseness of the bowel, valued for being well tolerated even by weak stomachs.

Clinical Notes. Physiomedical writers such as Cook placed steeplebush among the astringent tonics, agents that both firm relaxed tissue and support digestive function rather than simply checking flux by brute astringency.

Properties and Uses. The root is a tonic and astringent, of rather strong powers, of a pleasant odor and taste, and usually well received by the stomach. It is used in sub-acute and chronic diarrhea, especially that of a scrofulous character where the assimilative organs are at fault; and may be used in hemorrhages and other cases to which astringent tonics are suited.

Description. Natural Order, Rosaceae. Small shrubs, several species of which are much cultivated, and assorted into numerous varieties, as pretty ornamental plants. Stems numerous, two to three feet high, slender, purplish, and downy. Leaves opposite, ovate-lanceolate, minutely serrate, dark-green above, gray and very woolly beneath. Flowers in dense, terminal spicate racemes, calyx and corolla five-parted, corolla light-red. Pods woolly, remaining throughout the winter, and the seeds eaten by snow-birds. July. Very common in low grounds through New England, and extending southward.