Bromium

[BROMINE.]

Discovered by Ballard in 1826.

Bromine is obtained from bittern, the mother-liquor of sea-water, from which chloride of sodium has been separated by crystallization; from kelp, or from the mother-ley of the salt springs near Kreuz- nach in Germany.

Dr. Hoering prepared a solution of six drops of bromine to half an ounce of alcohol ; of this solution he swallowed six and eight drops, and experienced the following symptoms : nauseous taste of the liquid ; rough, disagreeable sensation in the pharynx and slight pinching in the bowels. There was an increased flow of saliva. After having taken seventy-two drops in all, the evacuations became papescent.

In the evening he was attacked with an oppressive anxiety, oppression about the heart, and some headache. The pulse remained unaltered.

After swallowing about one hundred and eighty drops in the course of a fortnight, the pulse became rather slow and hard.

Forty drops caused diarrhoea, acrid burning from the throat to the stomach, excess- ive nausea, with desire to vomit, ptyalism, difficult and painful inspirations. A few hours after swallowing this dose, he was attacked with headache, violent stitches in the lungs; when attempting to draw a long breath, he had to cough several times; his pulse was full, rather hard, at first a little slower than usual, but afterward rising to eighty or eighty-five beats in the minute. The urinary secretion seemed somewhat increased.

Five drops of bromine in half an ounce of distilled water, swallowed before break- fast, caused an immediate paroxysm of suffocative cough, the breathing was some- what embarassed, he had to gasp for air ; in the fauces he experienced a disagreeable, astringent sensation, followed by burning and soreness, ptyalism, increased secretion of mucus in the mouth and nose, frequent eructations, vomiturition, with rising of a quantity of phlegm in the oesophagus. Disagreeable sensation of warmth in the abdomen; pulse, 70 (ordinarily 64); a few minutes after, a slight attack of giddiness accompanied with loathing ; tongue remained moist.

Eight drops caused all these symptoms and a natural evacuation from the bowels, attended with some tenesmus.

Inhalations of the vapors of bromine have caused violent oppression on the chest,

BKOMIUM. 605

cough, troublesome burning in the eyes, with spasmodic contraction of the orbicularis palpebrarum muscle, increased flow of tears and dullness of the head. In twelve minutes, bleeding at the nose, which afforded relief; pulse somewhat accelerated. These effects are recorded by Heimerdinger.

Several weeks previous to the conclusion of these experiments, Hcering broke out with boils on various parts of his body, particularly in the left axilla and on the left arm. These boils were attributed by Hcering to the influence of the bromine, since he had never before been afflicted with them. If one of them healed, two others broke out in its place. He had no rest day or night, and had finally to cure himself by resorting to the springs at Wildbad.

Bromine has a range of action similar to that of Jodine, more particularly in affections of the respiratory organs. It may be employed in

BRONCHIAL CATARRH, with a sensation as if the air-passages were full of smoke, a rough and scraping feeling, with oppression of breathing.

TUBERCULAR DISEASES.— Bromine maybe of use in pul- monary affections, more particularly when partaking of the nature of tubercular diseases, with sudden paroxysms of suffocative cough, embarassed respiration, violent stitches through the lungs, headache, pulse somewhat accelerated, full and soft ; tendency to diarrhoea. In

EMPHYSEMA PULMONUM, after inflammation of the lungs, asthma, pressure in the stomach; patients of a scrofulous diathesis.

ASTHMA, with wheezing and rattling in the larynx ; spasms of the glottis; dry, tickling cough; the affections begin in the bronchi and ascend into the larynx ; going up-stairs and rapid walking invari- ably brings on an attack.

CROUP, with formation of pseudo-membrane in the larynx and trachea; spasm in the larynx, occasioning suffocation ; cough hoarse, wheezing, fatiguing, not permitting the patient to utter one word ; sneezing, with violent suffocative fits; respiration, accompanied by mucous rattling ; wheezing, alternately slow and suffocative and hurried and superficial ; breathing painful, oppressed, gasping for air ; heat in the face; increased secretion of urine; pulse rather hard, slow at first, afterward accelerated.

A weakly, scrofulous girl, five years old. Hoarse, crowing, croupy cough, with attacks of suffocation. Great dyspnoea ; whistling, sawing respiration. Countenance red, hot.

Great drops of perspiration on the forehead. For two days hepar and spongia were given in vain. Bromine30 every half hour. The child much worse on the third day.

During the paroxysms of coughing the child threw her head far back. Short, spasmodic, sawing respiration. It sounded as if a foreign body were moving up and down in the windpipe. At times, vomiting of tough phlegm, with momentary relief.

Excessive anxiety. Bromine1 (i to 9), six drops in two ounces of water, one spoonful every two hours. Improvement next morning and early recovery. (Theuer- kauf in Allg.

Horn. Zeilg., liii., 164.)

606 BROMIUM.

DIPHTHERIA, with soreness and smarting in the throat ; hoarse- ness; rough, dry cough ; sensation of contraction in the windpipe; fluent coryza; nasal obstruction; epistaxis; earache; alternate chills and heat ; violent inflammation of the mucous membranes of the fauces, oesophagus, also of the larynx and trachea ; these parts are coated with coagulable lymph, which obstructs almost entirely the air-passage. A dingy-brownish, granular, firmly adhering exudation over the mucous membrane of the oesophagus.

Dr. Teste, in a paper read before the International Congress (Paris, 1878,) recommends the use of distilled water, containing a little more than one-hundredth of its weight of pure bromine. The solution should be kept in the dark. He administers from one to three drops of the solution in a little sweeetened water, every hour. He keeps in the chamber of the patient a saucer of bromine water, which is renewed at least twice in twenty-four hours.

Dr. Teste makes use of the same preparation in the treatment of croup. In

DIARRHCEA, depending upon a scrofulous element, watery or slimy, with irritation of the mesenteric ganglia, this agent may prove of great use.

HYPERTROHPY OF THE HEART.— It has been recom- mended for hypertrophy of the heart. Bromine causes a few marked symptoms in the region of the heart such as oppression and anxiety ; but clinical experience has not as yet, so far as we know, proved the homceopathicity of the drug to this disease. Raue mentions it for

CANCER OF THE BREAST, if, after the extirpation of a hard tumor in the left breast, there appears a hard, uneven tumor in the right breast, which is grown tight to its surroundings ; periodically lancinating pains, especially at night, worse from external pressure ; grayish, earthy complexion of the face ; suppression of menses; emaciation and great depression of spirits.

A girl, twenty-nine years old, whose mother had died in her thirty-eighth year from cancer in the breast, noticed, some four years ago, scirrhous indurations in the left breast, which increased in spite of treatment and were finally removed with the knife. A year later, the right breast became similarly affected. The greater portion of the right breast is as hard as marble, the surface uneven, knotted, and a rope-like indura- tion extends into the axilla. The induration adheres firmly.

Periodic, lancinating pains, especially at night ; she cannot bear external pressure. Grayish, dingy color of the countenance, great mental depression and hopelessness. Menstruation ceased several years ago. She used to have constant itching and irritation of the skin.

Sulphur200 was followed by slight general improvement ; phosphorus200 relieved the pain somewhat. Bromine30, two doses each day. Remarkable improvement after four doses, followed by a complete cure after taking eighteen doses. (Gauwerky, Allg.

Horn. Zeitg., xliii., 241.)

BRYONIA.. 007

DYSMENORRHEA— We may find bromine of great value in dysmenorrhea, with violent contractive spasms some hours after the commencement of the menstrual now, with subsequent soreness in the abdomen; loud emissions of flatulence from the vagina; hard swelling in the ovarian region, blue-eyed persons. (Raue.)

NEURALGIC RHEUMATISM.— Bromine may possibly be of use to us in the treatment of neuralgic rheumatism ; the symptoms experienced by one" of Andral's patients seems to point to this affec- tion : colicky pains and rumbling in the bowels, a feeling of con- striction in the lower arms, tingling in the fingers succeeded by lan- cinating pains in the fingers and around the head.

An alcoholic solution of bromine has a beautiful, deep-red color, an acrid taste and a strong, unpleasant odor. AVatery dilutions are preferred. Bromine and its dilutions should be kept in the dark, carefully corked.

ANTIDOTAL TREATMENT.— The stomach must be emptied at once. We then use tepid demulcents, starch, flour, arrow-root, etc. The bromine combines with the amylaceous principles and is thus rendered innoxious. Magnesia, milk, eggs in warm water, etc., may also prove serviceable. Inhalations of the vapors of ammonia neu- tralize the effects of bromine inhalations.

BEY OH"I A.

[WHITE BRYONY. NATURAL ORDER, CUCURBITACEjE.]

This plant derives its name from the Greek verb " bruo" to germinate, expressive of the vigorous and rapid growth of its annual stems from the perennial root. The leaves are cordate, five- lobed, dentate. Flowers : racemes and corymbae ; calyx and corolla of equal length. The plant bears black berries. It is distinguished by herbaceous climbers, with simple tendrils. Leaves stalked and alternate. The large root is perennial, of a bitter taste, containing a good deal of starch, branched and tuberculous.

There are many species of bryony, the white bryony being the only species which is used by homoeopathic physicians.

We make an alcoholic tincture of the root, of a deep-yellow color and very bitter.

Bryonia is an acrid poison. In one case of poisoning, the whole of the mucous lining of the rectum had come away. In another

608 BRYONIA.

case the patient was attacked by tormina and purging which could not be stopped, and finally caused death.

Orfila has made several experiments upon dogs. In one of them no symptoms of poisoning could be found. In another dog the stomach was found inflamed, and the lungs but slightly. Another dog was killed by swallowing three ounces of water that had been standing for two hours on four drachms of the root.

Bryonia, if injected into the pleural cavity, causes true pleurisy and effusion of fibrin.

Noack and Trinks define the physiological range of bryonia in the following concise statements : " Bryonia excites both the peripheral nerves and capillary vessels, thus giving rise to symptoms interme- diate between inflammation and nervous irritation. Bryonia has striking relations with the secretory organs of the bile and with the uterus, likewise with the serous membranes, and is especially suitable in hyperaemia of the latter. Bryonia is especially indicated in affec- tions where absorption is required, in typhoid infiltrations, serous infusions, and sanguineous exudations. It is especially efficacious in affections where the catarrhal, pituitous, or rheumatic character pre- vails, or where synochal symptoms pass into the nervous stage."

CEPHALIC GROUP.

HEMICRANIA. — Bryonia may be of advantage in hemicrania of a rheumatic, arthritic or nervous character. Our recorded provings show that the headaches to which bryonia is homoeopathic, are char- acterized by congestive symptoms. This may be inferred from such records as these : Rush of blood to the head, after which the head feels compressed from temple to temple ; violent headache, the head feeling very heavy, with pressure in the brain from within outward, and great desire to lie down ; headache, when stooping, as if the brain would press out at the forehead ; headache as if the skull would be pressed asunder ; congestion of blood to the head, with heat in the head.

According to our records, it seems characteristic of the bryonia headache to set in principally in the morning on waking, and to become aggravated by movement, particularly by opening and mov- ing the eyes.

The scalp likewise presents some characteristic symptoms ; it is painful to the touch as if sore ; burning pain at a spot on the top of the head ; the head is covered with a warm perspiration ; sensation as if the hair were pulled at.

BRYONIA. 600

Guided by these symptoms we may recommend bryonia for bilious and rheumatic congestive headaches, and for rheumatism of the scalp, where, however, bryonia seems to play an inferior part. It is princi- pally in congestive affections of the head with predominance of nervous symptoms that bryonia seems efficacious.

NERVOUS GROUP.

Bryonia is not much used in purely nervous affections. It has been employed in

TEAUMATIO TETANUS, apparently with some success, and is recommended by Noack and Trinks in

HYSTERIC TETANUS, more in accordance with a theory, as it seems to me, than with the actual effects of the drug upon the healthy organism. It may also be more or less adapted to

PARALYSIS OF THE EXTREMITIES, when of a rheumatic nature, or when caused by the retrocession of an acute rash for which bryonia should have been, prescribed.

INFLAMMATORY GROUP.

Bryonia seems to be particularly adapted to rheumatic inflamma- tions and to phlegmonous inflammations that have passed into the second stage, a stage characterized by phenomena denoting effusions into cavities or infiltrations into parenchymatous tissue. In pneu- monia, hepatitis, peritonitis, meningitis, pleuritis, enteritis, and in bronchitis, bryonia is indicated when exudations into the cerebral, pleural or peritoneal cavities, or into the parenchyma of the lungs or liver, threaten or have actually taken place.

Such exudations occur in the second stage of these diseases, and are always accompanied by a more marked development of the nervous symptoms. The pulse becomes more hurried, feebler, less resisting to the touch. Mutter- ing delirium may set in ; spasmodic twitchings and even convulsions may mark the beginning of the exudative process. The conscious- ness becomes disturbed ; the breathing is more oppressed and super- ficial, especially if the respiratory organs are the seat of the effusion.

If the exudation takes place into cavities, the region of the cavity is often distended externally. This may be the case in the region of the pleural and peritoneal cavities, and even the head may swell up under the pressure of the effused fluid. In

ENCEPHALITIS, this agent is recommended by Hartmann, when the inflammation threatens to pass into the exudative stage ; the patients grit their teeth, and symptoms of lockjaw appear.

VOL. I. — 3

'610 BRYONIA.

CEREBROSPINAL MENINGITIS.— Dr. Hoyne recommends bryonia in cerebro-spinal meningitis when there are sharp, lancinat- ing pains in the head, worse from motion, better from lying down ; sensation, when stooping, as if the contents of the head would issue from the forehead ; face red and bloated, and redness of the con- junctiva ; neck stiff ; pains in the joints and limbs, very much worse from motion. (U. S. Med. Investigator, Nov. 15> 1876.) In

DIAPHRAGMITIS, with inability to expand the chest, violent burning and shooting pains in the region of the diaphragm, bryonia may prove useful, after aconite. In

HEPATITIS, more particularly when of a chronic form, with stinging, tensive and burning pains in the region of the liver, which is, moreover, hard, swollen and sore, bryonia may be of service, more especially if the inflammation is of a rheumatic character, or if the peritoneal covering seems principally affected. In

PERITONITIS, particularly when of a rheumatic type, with stinging and burning pains, sensitiveness of the abdomen to the touch, constipation, or even the opposite condition, tendency to diarrhceic discharges, consisting of mucus and blood, with tenesmus and griping or shooting pains, bryonia will materially aid the process of recovery.

It is particularly in inflammatory affections of the respiratory organs, the lungs and their enveloping membrane, that bryonia has been found eminently useful ; not however in the first invasion of the disease, but after the synochal form has been subdued by aconite. We shall find bryonia particularly useful in

PNEUMONITIS, characterized by stitching pains, burning dis- tress in the lungs, tearing cough, expectoration of a tenacious, bloody, greenish, yellowish matter, sallow and even jaundiced com- plexion. It is a favorite remedy in

TYPHOID PNEUMONIA, with bloated countenance, dryness of the tongue, difficult speech, rather hard, full pulse, oppression of the chest, with tolerably easy respiration ; dryness of the tongue ; fever mixed with chills at the onset of the attack ; tendency to brain- trouble, with sopor and delirium.

PLEURITIS with stitching pains all through the chest and in the diaphragm, worse from the slightest motion, causing hurried, superficial breathing ; better in cold air and from drinking water.

BRONCHITIS, acute and chronic, with stinging and burning in the air-passages ; paroxysms of tearing and fatiguing cough, with ex-

BRYONIA. 611

pectoration of a frothy mucus which may be streaked with blood and later assume a yellow color and pruriform character. Tickling in the throat ; short, oppressed breathing. In

RHEUMATIC INFLAMMATIONS, acute or chronic, bryonia is a remedy of prime importance. It affects especially the fibrous, serous and muscular tissue. The pains are tearing, creeping, burning, stitching, and always aggravated by motion. If the inflammation has attacked the joints, this remedy will be found particularly valuable ; if the swelling is pale, hot, tense, if there is rigidity and soreness of the parts and if exudation into the cavity of the joint threatens.

If the inflammation has assumed the erysipelatous form, bryonia may still be indicated.

ORBITAL GROUP.

Bryonia causes a burning, smarting and itching of the eyes ; it also causes redness and inflammation of the lids, with swellino-, pressure, heat and nightly agglutination.

OPHTHALMIA.— These symptoms indicate the use of bryonia in rheumatic and arthritic ophthalmia, where, however, it enjoys a second-rate reputation as a curative agent ; and in

BLEPHAROPHTHALMIA, especially in the case of scrofulous and arthritic individuals. It may likewise be adapted to the dis- persion of

INFLAMMATORY TUMORS, little boils which may sometimes develop themselves upon the lids.

AURICULAR GROUP.

Bryonia causes a buzzing, burning and stinging pain in the ears ; tumors in front and behind the ear, ulceration of the concha, hard- ness of hearing. Hence we may use it in

OTITIS, of a scrofulous character, chronic rather than acute, and in

DYSECOIA, hardness of hearing ; exposure to damp weather, a current of air, etc, may occasion this difficulty.

DENTAL GROUP.

Bryonia causes a tearing pain in the teeth, which is aggravated by heat ; the tooth feels elongated ; contact causes the pain to shift from one tooth to another. A fine flashing pain through the teeth is characteristic of bryonia. In

RHEUMATIC ODONTALGIA of this nature, especially when accompanied with otalgia, we may find bryonia useful.

612 BRYONIA.

CHYLO-POIETIC GROUP.

TASTE AND APPETITE.— Bryonia causes a flat, sweetish, sickly, nauseous taste ; also a foul taste ; the food tastes bitter or is entirely tasteless. Before breakfast or even after a meal, the taste in the mouth is bitter. Loss of apjDetite, violent thirst, desire for many things which cannot be eaten.

The changes of taste should be considered as symptomatic of some more general gastric derangement ; the fitful or strange desire for articles which are not eatable may exist in hysteria or during pregnancy.

ERUCTATIONS, NAUSEA AND VOMITING.— Sour and bit- ter eructations; nausea with ptyalism; empty retching, with spitting up of water and mucus, coldness of the body; vomiting of the ingesta ; bitter vomiting of bile and water; bloody vomiting. These symptoms are characteristic of gastric derangements generally, and may likewise occur in gastric and bilious fevers.

ABNORMAL SENSATIONS.— Pressure in the stomach after eating; contractive pain in the stomach after eating; cutting as with knives in the pit of the stomach; the least pressure on the pit of the stomach is unpleasant; sensation of swelling in the pit of the stomach; pressure in the stomach when walking, after supper, with pressure on the bladder and perineum; the pressure disappears when sitting down; darting stitch in the pit of the stomach when stepping, particularly when making a false step. These symptoms indicate the use of bryonia in

DYSPEPSIA, with oppression of the stomach after eating, im- paired appetite, bad taste or absence of taste in the mouth, nausea, retching, vomiting of mucus, and spitting up of the food.

OARDIALGIA, with contractive pain in the stomach, flashes of heat, vomiting of the ingesta, swelling and soreness of the epigastric region.

Hahnemann relates a case of gastrodynia which was characterized by the last-mentioned symptom, "darting stitch in the pit of the stomach when making a wrong step." The patient was a washer- woman, and had become utterly incapacitated from work in conse- quence of the pain. She had been suffering for several weeks when she applied to Hahnemann for relief. One drop of the " strong tincture of bryonia cured her at once and permanently.

PAINS. — Bryonia causes tearing, lancinating and spasmodic pains in the bowels. These pains are sometimes followed by an evacua-

BRYONIA. G13

tion. We may find bryonia indicated in some cases of colic, of a spasmodic or inflammatory nature. In the colic of pregnant women and in spasmodic hysteric colic, bryonia may prove serviceable.

Bryonia causes sickening pains in the bowels, and a feeling as if they had been operated on by a cathartic. It causes rumbling in the bowels. These pains may occur in a case of

ENTERODYNIA of a rheumatic character; the attack -may be accompanied by pressure upon the rectum, a sensation as if a lump were lying in the bowels, and it may terminate in a discharge from the bowels.

CONSTIPATION — Small doses of bryonia have a tendency to constipate the bowels, hence in constipation, if the stools are hard, of large size and deficient in intestinal mucus, bryonia, if administered in small doses, may be of great use to the patient. In a more general group of symptoms to which bryonia is homoeopathic, the existence of constipation may afford additional evidence regarding the curative adaptation of this agent to the case before us.

DIARRHCEA. — Let us not forget that a large dose of bryonia may act as a cathartic or drastic agent, and that the acrid principle of this drug may cause bloody and mucous discharges from the bowels, attended with cutting and burning pains and with more or less urging in the lower bowels. These symptoms may indicate bryonia in diarrhoea, preceded by burning pains in the rectum ; diar- rhoea which it is almost impossible to retain; bloody diarrhoea, watery, or diarrhoea preceded by hard stool, and accompanied by fermenta- tion in the bowels. In

DYSENTERIC DIARRHOEA, with sickening feeling in the bowels, lancinating and tearing pain in the larger bowels, discharge of mucus and blood, bryonia may afford relief.

CHOLERA INFANTUM.— These symptoms may likewise indi- cate the use of bryonia in cholera infantum, if the children vomit and gag a great deal, with burning and soreness at the anus.

URINARY GROUP.

Small doses of bryonia cause a sensation as if the urethra were too narrow; large doses cause a violent desire to urinate, with sensation, after urinating, as if the bladder had not been entirely emptied. This feeling of weakness may occur in

PARALYTIC RHEUMATIC AFFECTIONS of the bladder, especially in the case of old persons and hysteric women. It may

614 BRYONIA.

likewise be an accompanying symptom in rheumatic irritations of the bowels, with tendency to diarrhoea.

SEXUAL GROUP.

Large doses of bryonia cause profuse and premature menstruation, even metrorrhagia, with discharge of dark blood, pain in the small of the back and headache. Hence we employ bryonia in affections where this condition of the uterine secretions prevails. In

METRORRHAGIA, whether symptomatic or idiopathic, and in

MENORRHAGIA, bryonia may afford much relief, if the discharges consist of dark blood, and the patient complains of pressing and cutting pains in the bowels and pain in the small of the back. This condition may characterize a case of hysteria, or it may precede a state of anaemia, with oedema of the extremities and bowels, preliminary to ascites or anasarca.

We find that bryonia has caused a swelling of the labia majora, with a black, hard pimple on the swollen part. This may arise from an excessive determination of blood to the pudendum, and may more particularly occur in

AMENORRHCEA, when induced by rheumatic exposure. In this form of amenorrhoea the patient may complain of pinching and uneasi- ness in the bowels, with more or less swelling of the hypogastric region. Or the patient may complain of cutting, burning and crampy pains in the bowels, sickness at the stomach, and determina- tion of blood to the head. In

MASTITIS, when the breasts are gorged with milk, bryonia may do much good ; the secretion of milk is arrested, and the mammae become hard and nodous.

INDURATED NIPPLES.— Our provings state that, under the action of bryonia, an indurated nipple became soft as formerly; stitches similar to the sensation created by electric sparks were experi- enced in the nipple after the drug began to act. Hence in indura- tion of the nipple, this agent may be of service.

CATARRHAL GROUP.

INFLUENZA. — Bryonia maybe useful in influenza (with pleuritic or pleuro-pneumonic symptoms), swelling of the nose, nose-bleed. It causes, and may therefore cure, cough with hoarseness, soreness and aching pains, tickling in the larynx; dry cough, also, with vomiting of food; spasmodic cough, also with suffocation, oppression, expectoration of blood and mucus. In the

BRYONIA. 015

COUGH OF OLD PEOPLE I have found bryonia a most useful remedy. The cough is usually dry, though I have found it to give great relief, even if there was present a free expectoration of frothy mucus, accompanied by tickling in the throat, or by shifting pains iu the chest, or general soreness in the lungs. Dr. Frost thinks that in such cases bryonia "has very intimate relations with stannum, the different states of the same patient requiring now the one and now the other of these two medicines.',

EXANTHEMATOUS GROUP.

EASH. — Bryonia causes and may therefore cure a rash like the rash with which lying-in women and nursing infants are sometimes afflicted. It also causes a species of herpes furfuraceus, with burning and itching ; likewise an eruption resembling measles, which is brought out by rubbing and scratching the part.

MEASLES. — In a case of measles, bryonia may help to bring out the eruption upon the chest, if it should seem to have settled upon the lungs, causing an inflammatory irritation of this organ which may speedily lead to effusion and paralysis.

ERYSIPELAS OF THE JOINTS.— Bryonia causes, and may therefore cure, erysipelas of the joints, even when attended with vesicular eruptions.

JAUNDICE. — Bryonia causes a yellow color of the skin. Guided by this symptom, we may administer it in jaundice, where it will be found useful if the attack was caused by a fit of angry passion, dis- appointment, or if the attack seems to arise from liver complaint, partial induration, chronic hepatitis, with soreness, heat, stinging- pains and swelling in the region of the liver. The gastric symptoms should likewise correspond with the physiological action of this drug.

FEVER GROUP.

Upon examining the symptoms which characterize the action of bryonia as a fever-exciting agent, we shall discover an absence of those signs, which characterize the action of aconite. There is no violent chill, only some chilly creepings, coldness of the skin, followed by irregular flashes of heat; the heat is either felt internally or externally, or both at the same time; it is generally a burning- fever of the gastric, bilious, mucous or rheumatic type, with charac- teristic indications, already given. In

TYPHOID FEVER, with dizziness, shooting tearing pains in the head, throat, chest, abdomen, etc., worse upon the slightest motion,

616 CACTUS GRANDIFLORUS.

vomiting, heat, thirst, haemorrhages, nocturnal restlessness, tremors of the hands, unsteady, wild look, indistinct speech, violent delirium, desire to escape; foul, sore tongue, diarrhoea, tympanitic distention of the abdomen, miliaria.

PUEKPEEAL FEVER— Some of these symptoms are found in the typhus versatilis and also in puerpepal fever in the earlier stages, with soreness, shooting and stitching pains in the region of the peritoneum ; the face is suffused with redness, glowing ; slight chills followed by, or alternating with violent flashes of heat through the body; sensitiveness to pressure in the ovarian region; characteristic gastric disturbances.