Fraxinus Excelsior

NAT. ORD., Oleaceae.



COMMON NAME, European Ash.



PREPARATION.--The fresh leaves are pounded to a pulp and macerated with

two parts by weight of alcohol.



(In the Union Medicale, November, 1852, two French

physicians detailed several cases of gout and rheumatism

treated with Fraxinus excelsior, or ash leaves, one of

Rademacher's favorite remedies. f the two physicians,

one of them, Dr. Peyraud, was himself relieved of the

gout by this treatment.)



Ash-leaves were highly recommended by Rademacher, and have been quite

extensively used in Germany on his suggestion. In the Union Medicale

for Nov. 27, 1852, two French physicians, Drs. Pouget and Peyraud,

detailed several cases of gout and rheumatism cured by an infusion of

ash-leaves in boiling water. Dr. Peyraud himself was one of those

relieved.



"In 1842, Dr. Peyraud had his first attack of gout, which was severe,

and lasted for twenty-five days. During the three following years the

attacks increased in frequency and severity. Having derived little

benefit from the remedial means which he had resorted to, he listened to

the suggestion of one of his patients, an inhabitant of the department

of Dordogne, in France, who advised him to try an infusion of

ash-leaves, informing him, at the same time, that his forefathers had

been cured by this prescription, and that many of the country people got

rid of 'their pains' by employing it. Dr. Peyraud took the infusion of

ash-leaves and from 1845 to 1849 had no fit of gout. He then had an

attack, which yielded in five days to the infusion of ash-leaves, used

under the observation of Dr. Pouget. These circumstances recalled to the

recollection of Dr. Pouget a fact which he might otherwise never again

have considered. It was this: that when he was a physician at Soreze, in

1824, the peasants of that place had spoken to him of the great power

which an infusion of ash-leaves had in driving away pains. He afterwards

discovered that it had been used forty years ago as a gout-specific by

the peasants of Auvergne.



"A commercial traveller, who had been gouty for twenty years, and had

saturated himself with the syrup of Boubee and other vaunted specifics,

consulted Dr. Pouget. At this time he was an almost constant prisoner in

his room with successive attacks. After eleven days' use of the

infusion, he was able to walk two kilometres (one and a quarter English

miles); in fifteen days he resumed his journeys, and was able to travel

without suffering, by diligence, from Bordeaux to Quimper.



"Several other cases are detailed, some of them acute, and others

chronic. Articular rheumatism, in numerous instances, was also benefited

by the infusion of ash-leaves."