My own limited experience would throw no particular light on the subject. It has, however, served to impress me with confidence in the remedy and its future. The gist of trustworthy clinical findings may be stated in two words, antiseptic and alterative.
(From an article by Dr. H. W. Feller, in the Eclectic Medical Journal, we quote the following generalities concerning this remedy):
If any single statement were to be made concerning the virtues of Echinacea it would read something like this: "A corrector of the deprivation of the body fluids;" and even this does not sufficiently cover the ground. Its extraordinary powers—combining essentially that formerly included under the terms antiseptic, antifermentative, and antizymotic—are well shown in its power over changes produced in the fluids of the body, whether from internal causes or from external introductions. The changes may be manifested in a disturbed balance of the fluids resulting in such tissue alterations as are exhibited in boils, carbuncles, abscesses, or cellular glandular inflammations. They may be from the introduction of serpent or insect venom, or they may be due to such fearful poisons as give rise to malignant diphtheria, cerebro-spinal meningitis, or puerperal and other forms of septicæmia. Such changes, whether they be septic or of devitalized morbid accumulations, or alterations in the fluids themselves, appear to have met their Richmond in Echinacea. "Bad blood" so called, asthenia and adynamia, and particularly a tendency to malignancy in acute and sub-acute disorders, seem to be special indicators for the use of Echinacea.
(The North American Journal of Homœopathy, December, 1896, contains a paper on the drug by Dr. Charles F. Otis, from which we quote the following):
I doubt if there are many physicians here assembled, who are general practitioners, who have not, at some period of their professional lives, come in contact with one or both of these diseases either in an epidemic form or isolated cases, and in instances, have met more than their match; have seen their patients with tongue so swollen that it protruded from the mouth; with membrane gradually extending from the throat into the posterior nares, possibly protruding from the nostrils, with the awful odor so characteristic; with a respiratory sound that told you too plainly that membrane was extending into the air passages and that the misery of your patient would soon cease, not because of your ability to afford relief, but because death would close the scene.
I need not complete the picture by mentioning the enormously high temperature, the thread-like pulse, the cessation of the action of the kidneys, the awful agonizing expression of the face, and, perhaps, in your efforts, intubation had been practiced without good results. It is in just this class of cases that Echinacea is king. So reliable has been its action in my hands that I am inclined to give a favorable prognosis, and if I am so fortunate as to be called early the application of the drug in question does not permit of the symptoms just enumerated. The whole case will usually be changed to one of a mild form followed by a quick recovery.
(This from a paper by Dr. W. H. Ramey in Medical Gleaner):
It is a specific, I think, for the condition of the system which sets up the boil habit. I never have found a case so bad, and I've had some very severe ones, that an ounce and a half of Echinacea, taken in ten-drop doses four times a day, would not cure. Try it in your cases of stomatitis with depraved conditions of the system, both internally and locally. It has done me valuable service in cases of old ulcers and unhealthy sores, both as local and internal treatment. Then in your typhoid cases, with the characteristic indication, it is simply a wonderful remedy. I have seen it step in and restore normal conditions when it seemed impossible for remedies to act quick enough to prevent a fatal termination.
(Dr. S. J. Hogan in Chicago Medical Times):
One other thing I would like to tell about it: I had a case I was treating. Among other things, the patient had on the scalp and at the margin of the hair on the back of the head a number of wen-like tumors; since taking Echinacea they have been entirely absorbed.