This has already been treated of among the alteratives. (See vol. II. p. 437.) With its influence on the secretions generally, guaiac was believed, by the late Dr. Dewees, to combine a peculiar influence over the uterus, which rendered it very useful both in amenorrhoea and dys-menorrhcea. He employed it in the form of a tincture, prepared according to a special formula, which will be found in his Treatise on the Diseases of Females (a.d. 1826, p. 81), and in the U. S. Dispensatory (12th ed., p. 1391). The officinal tincture, however, would probably be equally effectual. The dose is a fluidrachm, three times a day, gradually increased if required, and persevered in for a long time. I have used it in some cases, both of amenorrhoea and dysmenorrhea, and with encouraging success.

Besides the above, several other medicines have had more or less credit as emmenagogues. Rosemary (i. 340) and Pennyroyal, including, under the latter name, both the Pulegium of Europe and our own Hedeoma (i. 344), have enjoyed some reputation; but they are probably simply stimulant, and act by this property alone, aided by the hot water with which they are usually given in infusion. No doubt, administered in this form, at the period of the expected return of the menses, they will sometimes enable nature to accomplish what would not have been accomplished without some assistance of the kind. Assafetida and the other fetid gum-resins, and garlic have enjoyed a similar reputation, with perhaps the same degree of merit. Madder, or the root of Rubia tinctorum, had at one time much credit as an emmenagogue, which, however, it has entirely lost; being now almost universally considered as quite useless in amenorrhoea.

Polygonum punctatum of Elliott (Polygonum hydropiperoides of Michaux), the common water-pepper or smart-weed of this country, is so highly praised by Dr. Eberle, in his work on Materia Medica and Therapeutics (4th ed., i. 443), as an emmenagogue, that it cannot be justly passed over without notice. Dr. Eberle says that he has employed it in about twenty cases of amenorrhoea, and declares that "with no other remedy or mode of treatment" had he been so successful as with this. He found it to produce warmth and a peculiar tingling through the system, " slight aching pains in the hips and loins, and a sense of weight and tension within the pelvis," without ever purging or vomiting. He seldom found it necessary to continue the medicine longer than six or seven days. The form used by him was a saturated tincture, of which he gave a fluidrachm three times a day. This is strong commendation; and, if Dr. Eberle's experience should be confirmed by that of others, he will deserve the credit of having introduced a valuable emmenagogue into the Materia Medica.

Apiol, a liquid principle extracted from the seeds of Apium Petroseli-num, or common parsley, and already sufficiently described (page 611), has been found, by several practitioners, to have a decided influence over the generative organs in women, and has been used with much supposed benefit in amenorrhoea and dysmenorrhoea. M. Joret, who has paid peculiar attention to the subject, recommends it especially in cases in which "the ovarian sensibility is considerably augmented, and the irritation determines an excitement altogether abnormal of the genito-uterine apparatus, to the point of causing cutting pains so violent as to force cries from the patient." {Journ. de Pharm. et de Chim., 3e sér., xxxix. p. 456.) According to M. Joret, the proper time for giving the medicine is that at which the menses ought to appear, which is generally indicated by pains in the loins, a feeling of weight in the pelvic region, and nervous irregularities, which are experienced at that period, and disappear in a few days. He gives four grains, morning and evening, during the continuance of the menses in dysmenorrhoea, and during the regular time for their appearance in amenorrhoea. On account of its unpleasant taste, it is most conveniently administered in a capsule of gelatin. Dr. Baillot confirms by his experience the reports of M. Joret in favour of the remedy. (ibid., p. 457.)