Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XI.djvu/563

 MILK LEG MILKWEED 545 article MILK. By the homoeopathists sugar of milk is regarded as the substance most inert upon the system, and for this reason as well as on account of its great hardness, which causes it to reduce to extreme fineness the substances with which it is ground, they esteem it as the best medium for their medicines, and are by far the largest consumers of it. MILK LEG, or Phlegmasia Dolens, an obstruc- tion of the veins and lymphatics, causing a painful, non-cedematous swelling in one or both lower extremities. It is most common in women after parturition, but it sometimes oc- curs in unmarried women, and sometimes in males. In the case of lying-in women it usual- ly commences about a week or ten days after delivery, but may take place immediately after labor, or at any time during the next five or six weeks. Any great drain upon the system is liable to be followed by rapid absorption, by which morbific matter contained in the uterus may be taken into the contiguous veins. The pathology consists in inflammation and ob- struction of the iliac and femoral veins. The symptoms attending the condition are fever, headache, thirst, nausea, and pain, especially in the lower abdominal and pelvic regions, at- tended by extreme prostration. The attack may commence with a chill, and within 24 or 36 hours the foot or lower part of the leg may begin to swell, the process extending upward. The acute stage lasts about two or three weeks, and after recovery many deep veins remain obliterated, while the more superficial ones be- come enlarged and tortuous. The limbs usually remain useless for many months, and often never recover their former condition. As the disease is attended with feebleness, the appli- cation of leeches and other forms of blood- letting are generally inadmissible. The most rational treatment is the administration of tonics and diffusive stimulants, combined with alkaline medicines, a bland and nourishing diet (wine and eggs, beef tea, &c.), with the external application of liniments and emol- lient and alkaline applications, such as soap liniment, bran poultice, and solution of bicar- bonate of soda or ammonia. MILK TREE. See Cow TREE. MILKWEED, the popular name for plants of the genus Asclepias (named in honor of vEscu- lapius), which includes about 40 species, half of which are North American and the remain- der natives of Central and South America. They are all herbaceous plants, with thick deep roots, and mostly with a copious milky juice, bearing their flowers in simple umbels. Few plants present flowers in which the ordinary floral structure is so obscure, and it is not easy to explain them without numerous elaborate diagrams ; in general terms it may be said that the parts of the flower are in fives ; the five- parted calyx is persistent ; the deeply five- parted corolla is reflexed ; immediately within the corolla is a curious structure called the crown, made up of appendages to the stamens, which are themselves united into a tube by their filaments ; behind each anther is borne a curious erect hood-like appendage, from which projects a small horn; these appendages are petal-like, and together form a conspicuous portion of the flower ; the anthers closely sur- round and partially adhere to the broad stig- ma; each anther cell contains a pear-shaped, waxy mass of pollen, and two adjacent masses from two contiguous anthers are suspended by a stalk from a blackish adhesive gland which is borne on the margin of the broad stigma ; these pollen masses, by means of the adhesive glands, stick to insects which visit the flow- ers for honey, and are thus dislodged and borne to other flowers; bees are frequently quite disabled by these pollen masses, which adhere to their legs in such numbers as to prevent them from climbing upon their combs, and they fall down and perish. The ovaries are two, ripening into two large follicles, which open and expose the flattened seeds im- bricated over a large placenta, each furnished with a tuft of long, beautiful silky hairs, by the aid of which it may be wafted to a distance by the wind ; on account of these silky hairs the plant is frequently called silkweed. The flowers in most species are showy and fragrant, and some are cultivated as ornamental plants ; the young shoots of our common species are valued by many as a substitute for asparagus ; the bark of their stems is very tenacious, and various partially successful attempts have been made to obtain from them a textile fibre and a paper stock; the plants are not abundant enough in the wild state to afford any consid- erable supply, and no experiments have been made to ascertain- whether their cultivation as a fibre-producing plant would be profitable. The beauty of the silky down of the seeds early Common Milkweed (Asclepias Cornuti). 1. Flower. 2. Pollen Masses. 8. Pod. 4. Seeds imbricated on the placenta. attracted attention, and many attempts have been made to utilize it ; but the hairs are very weak and brittle, and without the roughness or angularity which makes it possible to spin oth- er fibres ; when mixed with cotton it has been spun and woven into fabrics which have a silky