Berberis Vulgaris

[BARBERRY. HAT URAL ORDER, BERBERIDE^E.]

This bush grows extensively all through the New England States, from three to six feet high ; a thorny bush, the thorns at the base of each leaf bud ; the little flowers of a bright-yellow color ; berries red, oblong, a little curved and very acid.

In medicine we use the delicate rootlets and the bark of the larger roots, from which we prepare a yellowish-brown tincture.

Berberis seems to depress the functional activity of the brain as the organ of mind ; the proven; experienced listlessness, apathy, indifference to life, melancholy, weakness of memory, absence of mind while attending to mental labor, and so forth ; the muscles and the osseous system were likewise invaded, as is seen from the follow- ing symptoms : heaviness and a feeling of prostration when walking or standing, breaking out of the perspiration after making the least exertion, a feeling of weariness and rheumatic lameness in the limbs, with frequent shaking and trembling of the knees. The sensations experienced in the muscles are : a pressure and tension, stitching, tearing, gurgling or bubbling as if something living were moving through them. Most of the pains and ailments are aggravated or excited by motion.

Blotch-shaped, itching eruptions incline to break out upon the

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skin, compelling the prover to scratch very hard ; at the same time lymphatic swellings arise on the articulations, especially on the tendo- Achillis ; this symptom is a characteristic indication for the use of berberis in typhoid fevers, even of the putrid type. Berberis is said to be more especially adapted for gastric arid bilious fevers ; likewise in angina faucium, if the patient complains of a sensation as if he had a lump in his throat; likewise in quinsy sore throat. It may likewise be of special use in various affections of the eyes, in rheumatic and arthritic complaints, no matter what part of the body is the seat of the trouble ; in rheumatic inflammations of the chest, hemorrhoidal and menstrual difficulties, varicose swellings, pains in the urethra, and all kinds of ailments which are excited or aggra- vated by motion.

We apprehend that these applications are far too generous. The true sphere of action for berberis are febrile conditions of a bilious and gastric character, arising from atmospheric influences of a mias- matic nature ; hence the rheumatic type of these bilious and gastric derangements, which are very generally attended with symptoms of cerebral irritation developed by a process of reflex action, but not by any means resulting from a primary invasion of the cerebral centres. Anatomically the mucous lining of the liver and its appendages, of the intestinal tract and of the uro-poietic organs constitutes the chief theatre for the action of berberis.

We know by actual experiments that berberis excites an inflam- matory irritation in the lining membrane of the abdominal viscera, liver, intestines, bladder and uterus, and that it must therefore be homoeopathic to inflammatory irritations of these organs. In the acute form of such irritations, berberis will probably disappoint us ; but in subacute irritation of the mucous lining, characterized by such symptoms as are appropriate to the affected organ, such as, burning soreness, lachrymation or suppuration, if the eyes are affected ; sore- ness, heat, dryness and difficulty of swallowing, in the throat ; ano- rexia, soreness, heat, foul taste, bilious complexion, chilly feverish- ness, diarrhoeic condition of the bowels with griping; watery or mucous discharges from the bowels, if the gastric functions are deranged ; sticking and burning or smarting pains in the region of the bladder and in the urethra, with pale yellow, or blood-red urine which speedily becomes turbid and deposits a sediment ; and finally, difficult menstruation, the blood being more like serum, the discharge setting in with chilliness, tearing pains in the whole body, nain in

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the kidneys, headache, feeling of exhaustion, or a feeling of excoria- tion in the vagina and pressing pains in the thighs ; or stitches in the chest, if the lining membrane of the chest is affected, as if flatu- lence had become incarcerated in the chest, here and there (patients will often resort to this mode of expressing their sufferings) ; in all such subacute irritations of the mucous surfaces, more particularly when accompanied by a sense of feverish chilliness, you may lind berberis a very valuable agent. The constitutional symptoms which accompany these irritations, are a feeling of weariness, the patients complain that they feel draggy, sore, rheumatic, low-spirited, and not disposed to do anything or to stir about.

JAUNDICE. — Berberis is recommended for jaundice when, according to Kaue, the following conditions are present: spells of icterus, with pale, tough alvine discharges, or profuse acrid, watery diarrhoea ; urine dark, turbid, with copious sediment ; morbid hunger, alternating with loathing of food ; or great thirst, alternating with aversion to all kinds of drink ; constant, troublesome bloating of the abdomen, with occasional forcible and noisy expulsion of flatus.

Remembering, that the totality of symptoms furnishes us the key to the selection of the right remedy to a given case, we can see that berberis may be found useful in headache, sore eyes, angina faucium, bilious dyspepsia, chronic gastro-enteritis, chronic diarrhoea, chronic constipation.

ENURESIS. — It is* also a useful remedy in irritable bladder and in enuresis, when the following symptoms are present : violent stitching pains in the bladder, extending from the kidneys into the urethra, with urging to urinate ; frequently recurring crampy pain in the bladder ; cutting, constrictive burning pain in the bladder. Urine pale yellow, with a slight transparent, gelatinous sediment, with no deposit, or a turbid, flocculent, clay-like, copious, mucous sediment, mixed with white or whitish-gray, and later a reddish mealy sediment.