Rhus Glabra

Specific Indications and Uses: Relaxation of mucous tissues, with unhealthy discharges; mercurial ulcerations; aphthous stomatitis; spongy gums; ulcerative sore throat, with fetid discharges; flabbiness and ulceration of tissues.

Therapy. Rhus is a medicine for nervous irritation, nervous tension, and the typhoid state. Its range of application is wide but distinct. Acting primarily and most pronouncedly upon the nervous system, it proves secondarily an ideal sedative to control excited circulation.

Action and Therapy. External. All parts of the smooth sumach are astringent and antiseptic and of much value in flabbiness of tissue, with tendency to ulceration and unhealthy secretion. An infusion of the fruit provides an excellent gargle for fetid sore throat and a wash for aphthous ulcerations. It is a useful drug in decoction of the bark, infusion of the berries, or in fluidextract wherever a mild and deodorant astringent is required; especially is it serviceable in the spongy bleeding gums of scorbutic patients and that of hemophiliacs.

Therapy. It is used in aphthous stomatitis , both internally and externally, in gangrenous stomatitis in conjunction with more active agents, and in stomatitis materni it is a good remedy. It will serve a good purpose in atonic ulcerations of the stomach and intestinal canal, in some cases of prolonged diarrhea and dysentery with greatly debilitated mucous surfaces. Its field is well covered, however, with more active remedies.

Therapy. The indications for this remedy are present in acute erysipelas to a marked degree, especially in erysipelas of the head and face, or that involving loose cellular tissue. If it be given in the first stages of this disease the symptoms abate rapidly.