Filix Mas

Aspidium Filix mas, Swartz. (Nephrodium Filix mas, Rich.; Polypodium Filix mas, Linn.)

Natural order , Filices. Common names , Male Fern; (Germ.), Farnwurzel; (Fr.), Fougère mâle.

Preparation , Tincture of the inner part of the root.

Authority. Dr. Berridge, provings, Med. Invest., N. S., 3, p. 282: 1 , Mr. --- took 1 drop of 102d dil.; 2 , Mrs. --- took 10 drops of 101st dil.; 3 , Miss --- took 101st dil. at 6.30 and 11 P.M.

Painless hiccough, starts ten minutes after meal, lasting from fifteen to thirty minutes (first day), [1] .

Tightness in left hypochondrium, extending forward to middle line, causing difficulty of breathing, in a warm room, in the evening after sunset; better when walking in the open air; it kept her awake in bed till 1 A.M.; on awaking the next morning, the same; better after a Turkish bath (second and third days), [3] .

Numbness of back of right wrist, extending up radial side of arm to just above elbow; felt as if the use of the limb would go (after half an hour); then the same feeling in left wrist, but transient and slighter; afterwards the same (transient) in a small spot on right vertex, rather anteriorly; afterward the same (transient) in anterior portion of right shoulder; the numbness seemed to be in the bone in every case; that in the right arm lasted till she took coffee, which removed it, [2] .

SUPPLEMENT: FILIX MAS.

Authority. 4 , Dr. E. P. Scales, Pub.

Mass. Hom. Med. Soc., vol. iv, p. 601.

A woman about thirty-five years of age complained of bloated abdomen, with more or less pain; she insisted upon it that she had a tapeworm. I gave the tincture of Filix mas, 15 to 20 drops at a time, at first two or three times a day, on an empty stomach, and then early every morning. The bloating of the abdomen diminished, but there was developed, as I think, on consequence of the Filix mas , a severe prolapsus of the vagina, and pain and tenesmus of the bladder, with copious and frequent emission of urine, with intense pain, which continued until after I abandoned the use of the Filix and gave Chimaphila , and those painful symptoms of vagina and bladder did not return, except in consequence of great fatigue, as long walks, much standing, etc. [4] .