Artemisia Vulgaris

[MUGWORT, ST. JOHN'S WORT. NATURAL ORDER, CORYMBIFER^.]

This plant grows wild in all parts of Europe. Of the root we make a yellow-brown tincture.

The artemisia vulgaris was in high repute among the ancients, and was particularly prescribed for hysteric and other nervous diseases. According to Plinius, the name is derived from Queen

ARTEMISIA VULGARIS. 509

Artemisia, wife of Mausolus, to whose memory she built the Mauso- leum. Huf eland deems it more correct to derive it from Artemis, one of the surnames of Diana ; for the plant was likewise named Parthenis, id est., virginialis, in honor of the Virgin Goddess Diana, because it had the reputation of being able to cure the secret diseases of women, uterine affections.

Artemisia has been used as a domestic remedy in Europe for many years past. Country people digest it in brandy, and use this liquor for epilepsy, especially in the case of children.

Generally, however, the drug is exhibited in the form of a powder. The powder is produced by pulverizing the fine fibres of the root. This is gathered in the fall, cleansed and dried in the open air. A dessert-spoonful of the powder is swallowed shortly after the paroxysm in a little warm beer.

After this, the patient goes to bed, where, after the lapse of an hour, he generally breaks out in a profuse per- spiration which is permitted to run its full course, after which the patient puts on a clean shirt which is previously warmed by the fire. On the third and fifth day the remedy is repeated in the same man- ner, the powder being takeu in the evening. If another paroxysm sets in after this treatment, the same course of proceeding is enacted over again.

Some of the patients whose cases have been collated by Frank, were all attacked in consequence of a fright ; others in consequence of a violent fit of anger. In one case the attack set in in consequence of menstrual suppression, caused by a rheumatic fever. In another case the convulsions had been caused by the application of the for- ceps ; the patient was a boy of six years, who had the attacks from the moment he was born, but had been perfectly free from them for the last seventeen months, during which period he had taken three dessert-spoonfuls of the pulverized root every day. For the last two months the child had not taken any medicine ; yet the attacks had not returned.

Among Frank's cases we find several which were managed by the celebrated Hufeland, at the time when he was physician-in-chief to the Charite. Others are related by Burdach.

A somewhat idiotic man of thirty-six years had had two, and even more frequent, attacks of epilepsy every week since his childhood. After taking three doses of artemisia he had only one attack a month, and this was henceforth staved off by means of a powder of the root which he took every month.

A man of twenty-nine years fell into the water in a drunken fit, after which he had periodical attacks of epilepsy, which had already continued for four years. Two doses of artemisia caused perspiration, after which he remained permanently cured.

510 ARTEMISIA VULGARIS.

A girl of seventeen years was attacked with epilepsy five years ago in consequence of fright and blows upon the head. All treatment had been unavailing. She had one paroxysm a day. One moderate dose of artemisia produced some perspiration, after which the girl remained free from her attacks, as can be proven by judicial evidence.

A girl of sixteen years, who had an attack every forty-eight hours, and had first been taken sick about the time when she commenced to menstruate, was radically cured by a single dose of the powder.

It will be observed that the powder excites perspiration, which is said to be indispensable to secure success. In order to promote perspiration the people in Germany are in the habit of taking the powder in a small tumblerful of warm beer, or in combination with some tea or other warm infusion which is known to facilitate the action of the skin.

Burdach states that the epilepsy of young men, which seems to be the result of a too sudden and overwhelmingly vigorous growth of the body, is made wrorse by too frequent and powerful doses of the drug. One or two doses may be given in all cases with safety and advantage. In the case of women, however, who are afflicted with epilepsy from similar causes, or in consequence of an abnormal excitability of the sexual system, no such unfavorable effects have been observed. As a general rule the proportion of women to men cured is as three to two.

This form of epilepsy is described by Bur- dach as epilepsia nocturna ; the paroxysms set in at irregular inter- vals every five, ten or fifteen days, most generally in the afternoon ; on the day preceding the paroxysm the patient is peculiarly irritable, out of humor, depressed ; sometimes the opposite mood is observed, quickness of intellect, etc.

In pulverizing the root, the woody portions even of the thinnest fibres become detached, and have to be removed before the cortical portion, in which alone the medicinal virtues of the plant reside, is pulverized.

The artemisia caerulescens is used in some provinces of Italy as a domestic remedy for fever and ague, and likewise for worms ; as sold in the shops, it is generally mixed with origanum or the wild marjoram. This powder has proved a remedy for the epileptic con- vulsions which can be traced to the irritating presence of worms.

As long as the nature of epilepsy is veiled in darkness, and the essential differences between the various forms of this disease are so unsatisfactorily accounted for, it cannot be expected that artemisia, whose relation to the nervous system is but imperfectly known, should be exhibited with uniform success in all cases. At best, it

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can only be used empirically, and hence it will effect a cure in one case, whereas in another case of an apparently similar nature it may, perhaps, produce an aggravation of all the symptoms.

These uncertainties must necessarily inhere in any kind of empir- ical treatment, and the most glaring contradictions must taint the records of a school where individual authority and observation con- stitute the rule of treatment. Hippocrates ait Galenus mgat.

CATALEPSY. — Artemisia has effected favorable changes in other spasmodic diseases of a similar nature to epilepsy. In catalepsy cures have been effected with artemisia.

A potter of forty-five years, of slender frame and an irritable temper, had a violent fright, in consequence of which he was attacked with catalepsy, six or more paroxysms in the course of a day, and increasing in intensity after a fit of anger. The disease yielded to the continued use of artemisia, and the patient has enjoyed perfect health for the last eight months.

A woman, twenty-eight years old, had cataleptic fits in consequence of a fright. When the attack set in, she remained in the same position in which she happened to be, staring in front of her, with her eyes perfectly immovable. The face showed muscular twitchings, and there was a profuse flow of tears ; the breathing was entirely arrested ; all at once she drew a long breath ; this ended the paroxysm, after which she felt exhausted and had to sit down. This patient took in all four ounces of the root, and has been perfectly well for the last five months.

SOMNAMBULISM. — Several cases of somnambulism were like- wise cured by artimisia.

A girl of sixteen years, who had not yet begun to menstruate, arose from her bed every night, went through all the motions of her daily avocations in the kitchen, cellar, garret, etc., and then went to bed again, without recollecting in the morning anything of what she had done. She was cured entirely in sixteen days, after having been afflicted for eighteen months.

A boy, aged ten years, came under treatment for supposed vermicular trouble. The symptoms seemed to point to cina, which relieved for a time. Other medicines followed, when, on one occasion, whiie in my office, he suddenly grew pale, com- menced a chewing motion with his mouth, walked around the room, picked up a book and threw it forcibly on the table, returned to his seat and became conscious again. He was then as well as usual with the exception of a slight languor.

On questioning him, he stated that it commenced with a creeping (aura), beginning in the pit of the stomach and spreading thence to the head, causing unconsciousness, during which his automatic motions took place. In school, he has been known to walk in the same unconscious state, slam his slate on the desk, look up at the clock, cry out the hour in a loud voice, and then return to consciousness without the slight- est recollection of what he had done. Artemisia vulgaris relieved these symptoms.

Unfortunately the family has left the city, and I am unable to say how permanent is the relief. But I am certain that each attack, following the medicine, was lighter. (Dr. E.

A. Farrington, Hahn. Monthly, April, 1871.)

CHOREA. — Several cases of chorea, one of which was so violent that the patient had to be kept on her chair by main force, yielded permanently to artemisia.

A girl of ten years, of delicate frame and scrofulous habit, was hardly able to talk or to swallow, so that the food, which she attempted to swallow, fell out of her mouth, which was continually filled with a frothy mucus; her speech was indistinct. Nothing that had been done proved of any avail. Artemisia cured her in a few weeks.

512 ARUM TRTPHYLLUM.

STRANGURY — Artemisia being endowed with diuretic prop- erties, its palliative action has been depended upon by old-school j>ractitioners for the removal of strangury; a case is reported by Frank, which proved rebellious to all treatment, and finally yielded to an infusion of artemisia.

HYDROCEPHALUS ACUTUS.— F. Mueller relates the follow- ing interesting case, {Allg. Horn. Zeitg., xlviii, p. 145) :

A weakly, scrofulous girl, eight years old, was taken sick with the symptoms of acute hydrocephalus and was treated by her parents, for three days, with oleum ricini. After the useless administration of aconite, bryonia, hellebore and cina she presented the following picture : the convulsions continued without interruption and with the utmost violence, with this difference only, that, at present, only the right side of the body was convulsed, while the left side with exception of the facial muscles, seemed almost paralyzed, without motion or twitching.

Coldness of the entire surface of the body. The mouth could only be opened with difficulty ; great sensitiveness (to touch?), sopor; seeming loss of vision and of hearing; did not respond to questions asked ; dilatation of the pupils ; paralytic condition of the iris ; great thirst and swallowing of water, without arousing from sopor. Pallor and aged expression of the countenance ; dryness of the lips and tongue. The eyes were partially opened, directed upward, looking dull, sunken and squinting.

The pulse was slow, feeble, irregular, compressible ; respiration was difficult, anxious and sigh- ing. Involuntary evacuations of thin, greenish stools. Prescribed artemisia3 every one to two hours. Improvement set in soon ; at midnight, she had some sleep and commenced to perspire; the convulsions ceased; there was only occasional twitching.

The natural warmth of the body returned ; the stools became voluntary and consciousness returned by morning. She was discharged cured in six days.

AETJM TRIPHYLLTTM.

[jACK-IN-THE-PULPIT. NATURAL ORDER, ARACE^).]

Apparently stemless ; leaves trifoliate, mostly in pairs, leaflets oval, acuminate ; spadix clavate, obtuse ; spathe ovate, acuminate, flat and inflected above. A curious and well-known inhabitant of wet woodlands, from Canada to Georgia, west to the Missouri. The stem is a rugous, fleshy, subterraneous corm, giving off radicles in a circle from the edge. Scape eight to twelve inches high, erect, round, embraced at the base by the long sheaths of the petioles.

Leaflets, two to seven inches long, half as wide. Spathe green with- out, usually variegated within, with stripes of dark purple alternating with pale green. Spadix much shorter than the spathe, verging from green to dark purple. Fruit a bunch of bright scarlet berries.

The corm loses its fiercely acrid principle by drying, and is then valued as a carminative. Flowers from April to June. (Wood).

The root of this plant has an extremely acrid taste, and causes, when eaten, a burning and smarting in the mouth, which continues for a long time. Heat destroys this property, and the Indians use

ARUM TRIPHYLLUM. 513

the roasted root as an article of food; hence its common English name, "Indian turnip." This acrid principle is very volatile and difficult of preservation. Dr. Lee advises to bury the root in dry sand to preserve this acrid principle.

The pysiological schools give it in asthma, pertussis, chronic catarrh, chronic rheumatism, and affections connected with a cachec- tic state of the system. (Wood).

The following are the more noteworthy symptoms, elicited from provings made with the drug :

Low spirits, lassitude, irritability.

Heavy; smarting pain. Quivering of the eyelids.

Rumbling in the bowels. Frequent urging to stool.

Watery, brown diarrhoea, with eructations of food.

Frequent discharges of pale urine.

Cutting pain in the left ovary; occasional tearing pain in the right testicle.

Soreness, burning pain in the lungs.

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514 AEUM TRIPHYLLUM.

From the provings made with this drug, we see that it has a marked effect upon the mucous membrane, causing a severe state of inflammation, which is characterized by a marked tendency to exco- riation, and accompanied by much soreness. The mouth, lips and nostrils, the alae nasi more particularly, are especially apt to suffer from such a condition while the system is under the influence of the drug; and clinical experience has amply demonstrated the fact, that such appearance of the structure and parts mentioned is a key-note to the remedy.

BRONCHIAL CATARRH, characterized by an increased flow of saliva, by a dry cough, alternating with loose cough and copious expectoration ; and by acrid, excoriating discharges from the nose.

COUGHS, as such, are often promptly cured by arum, when there exists excoriation in the throat and larynx ; catarrhal inflam- mation of the vocal organs ; hoarseness ; accumulation of mucus in the throat.

HAY-ASTHMA has been successfully treated with this remedy. The indications for its use are found in the symptoms already given.

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STOMATITIS of a malignant form, we have repeatedly succeeded in controlling the violence of the disease with arum, when other remedies failed us. The buccal cavity, in these cases, presents one excoriated, raw surface ; the tongue is red, with elevated papillae and partakes of the excessive soreness ; the lips are dry and cracked ; the saliva runs from the mouth in a constant stream, excoriating the skin wherever it touches ; in some of these aggravated cases we find high fever, accompanied by great thirst and a very offensive odor from the mouth.

516 ASAF03TIDA.

least portion of fluid, because opening the mouth is excessively painful, and the fluid touching the sore surfaces of the mouth and tongue causes great pain ; with the increasing soreness the tongue becomes more red and the papillae stand up highly inflamed and erect ; the submaxillary glands also begin to swell, and the patient shows great signs of distress. Before the curative effects of arum triph. were known, such cases almost always terminated fatally. * * * The most certain and unfailing sign that arum has not only begun to develop its curative effects, but will surely continue to improve the condition, is the frequent and profuse discharge of pale urine."

TYPHOID FEVEE— It is no rare thing to find a very similar state in typhoid fever ; and should such a condition exist, the remedy must be carefully studied, with a view of prescribing it. The com- missures of the lips and the lips themselves are fissured ; the patient picks constantly on his lips till they bleed ; the nostrils are full of crusts and the patient has constantly the finger in his nose ; the mouth and throat are so painful that the patient refuses food and drink on account of the suffering felt in masticating ; fetid breath, great restlessness, delirium, insomnia, suppression of urine. (Dr. Charge.)