The root of this plant which is fond of mountain-plains covered with trees of ordinary foliage, when exposed to the air loses very soon a considerable portion of its smell and its medicinal virtues ; these, however, it loses most by boiling. The recently prepared powder, having been dried in vessels that had been heated in warm water may be kept for several years in well-corked bottles, without losing almost any of its power. The theories J definitions, distinctions, and sophistic specu- lations of the old school have not been able, in the centuries of the past, to discover the specific curative power of this plant, or to perceive its remedial influence against the pernicious consequences which often attend falls, contusions, blows, thrusts, straining, twisting or tearing the solid parts of our organism. 1 The common man had to discover the virtues of this drug ; after having used an innumerable quantity of other substances, he, at last, discovered in this remedy a protective agent against the consequences of falls, etc., and, therefore, called it " Fallkraut," (plant against falls.) Two hundred years ago, a physician (Fehr,) communicated this discovery of domestic practice to the profession, (who then named this herb Panacea lapsorum.) 1 Note : Even in the most dangerous wounds by balls or blunt instru- ments, Arnica is very efficacious ; it is also eminently useful against the pain attending the pulling out of teeth, or other surgical operations, in which sensitive parts had been violently strained — such operations as re- ductions of joints, fractures, etc. 6 2 ARNICA MONTANA. All the symptoms attending violent contusions and tearing of the fibre, are analogically produced by Arnica, in healthy organisms, as the following series of symptoms shows. & In great contusions the cure may be promoted by giving a small dose of Arnica internally, if necessary, every three days, and then mixing half a pound of water with an equal quan- tity of brandy or wine, and dropping into this liquid five or ten drops of the one hundreth potence of the solution of Arnica, imparting to the whole mixture about ten good shakes. Arnica may be advantageously employed against many forms of disease ; it is a polychrest. Its effect does not last beyond six days ; but, nevertheless, I have found it to be an indispensable intermediate remedy in the most inveterate chronic diseases. It ought never to be used in purely inflammatory, acute diseases, characterized by external general heat ; nor ought it to be used in diarrhoea. In those affections Arnica will always prove hurtful ; the reason of this may be found in the follow- ing series of symptoms. It will be found extremely useful in some kinds of spurious pleurisy. If this remedy be indicated, its thirtieth potency acts more speedily and safely than any other below it. To prepare the thirtieth potence you may either take two drops of the extract of the recent plant, (using the whole of it, when it approaches the period of flowering,) or, if the recent plant cannot be had, you may take ten grains of the finely powdered root, extract- ing its medicinal virtues by means of one thousand drops of alcohol within the space of a week, shaking the whole once a day ; of this extract you then take one drop, dynamizing it up to the decillionth degree, according to the well known rule. Two or three globules moistened with a dilution of this degree, are sufficient at a dose. Camphor is an antidote ; wine increases the effects of Arnica. This drug has been tried by myself and Drs. Franz, Gross, Hahnemann, Hornburg, Kummer, Langhammer, Wislicenus. Noack and Trinks offer the following remarks on Arnica. Arnica is suitable when the nervous system, the animal as well as the vegetative, is in a state of torpidity. It is suit- able for those stages of inflammation where the vital powers begin to become extinct, where torpid fever or neurophlogosis sets in ; under these circumstances it is the contrary of Aconite, which corresponds to the purely inflammatory, especially the synochal character. Arnica is especially ARNICA MONTANA. 63 useful in the so-called status gastricus nervosus putridus : it appears to be suitable to the nervous venous constitutions, to plethoric young people, with a red face, or to persons of a lymphatic temperament, to exhausted individuals that have been weakened by disease, with a pale-yellow, livid face. As a remedy against the effects of blows, contusions, etc. Arnica rivals Rhus Toxic, Conium, Acidum sulph. Symphytum officinale, Calendula officinalis, Ruta, Ledum and Ferrum muriat. Rhus, however, corresponds more to the consequen- ces attending an extension of membranous tissues, especially the ligaments of the joints ; Conium is more suitable for contusions which produce a condensation of the cellular tissue and induration of glandular structures, accompanied by a sensation of numbness. Symphytum answers more the pressure and contusion of bones ; Calendula is suitable for supinations, bloody and serous infiltrations of the cellular tissue in open wounds and ulcers ; Ruta we know to be a specific in cases of mechanical injury of the tarsal and car- pal joint, and in rheumatic paralysis of these parts; Ferrum, muriaticum is especially useful in a similar affection of the shoulder-joint, and Ledum, when the hip-joint is the seat of those symptoms. — Concussions of the brain and the spinal marrow. — Soporous, apoplectic and paralytic fits, convul- sions and tremor of the limbs, when consequent upon concus- sions and contusions. — Traumatic convulsions. — Epilepsy, after mechanical injuries. — Tetanus. — Trismus. — Precursory symptoms of apoplexy, even the apoplexia nervosa, sanguinea, serosa, when fully developed. — Atonic hemorrhages. — Nerv- ous, gastric and putrid fevers. Status nervosus stupidus, fever accompanied by violent pleuritic stitches at every inspi- ration, small, quick, slipping pulse, tongue exhibiting brown streaks in the middle, great thirst, trembling of the lower lip, gathering of flocks in the air, involuntary stool, etc. — Intermit- tent fevers, especially after the type had been suppressed by Quinine. — Puerperal fevers, especially with a gastrico-bilious character. — Milk-fever. — Wound-fever. — Rheumatism and gout, especially podagra, with inflammatory erysipelatous swelling of the affected parts. — Frozen limbs. — Consequences of fright. — Bad effects from the abuse of Cinchona. — Poi- soning by lead. — Atrophy of children (?) Measles with danger- ous swelling of the parotid glands. — Excoriations. — Furuncles. — Ulcers with putrid character. — Decubitus. — Stings of insects. — Melancholia consequent upon injury of the head, fright, onanism, suppression of the usual evacuations and obsti- nate constipation. — Frenzy of parturient women, accompanied 64 ARNICA MONTANA. by nymphomania. — Different kinds of cerebral affections, especially of children ; hydrocephalus acutus, when the secretions proceed from the membranes of the brain, especially after scarlatina miliaris. — Encephalomalacia (?) Vertigo with constipation. — Pain as from bruises in the head and body, remaining after the influenza. — Traumatic inflammation of the eyes, both recent and more advanced when exsudations had set in. — Cicatrices of the cornea ; incipient amaurosis, espe- cially when consequent upon external injuries of the eyes and the brain. — Bleeding at the nose, especially when pro- duced by a fall or a contusion. — Swelling of one cheek. — Hemorrhages from the mouth. Toothache, with swelling of the cheeks.' — Oesophagitis. — Hacmatemesis. — Consequences of blows upon the pit of the stomach : continued pressing and cutting pains in the pit of the stomach and the epigastri- um ; constant nausea ; frequent empty retching, especially at night ; vomiting, even when eating ever so little ; slow fever ; great emaciation ; sad, peevish mood and despondency. — Gas- tric and bilious conditions. — Cardialgia consequent upon chronic gastritis or loss of humors. — Splenetic stitches. — Serous and mucous enteritis ; proctitis ; dysentery, espe- cially with a typhoid character, when characterized by copious, and frequently involuntary, decomposed stools, mixed with black blood, and having a cadaverous smell, slight tenesmus, meteorism, little pain in the abdomen, dry tongue, teeth covered with mucus, pale, disfigured countenance, accelerated, weak, small pulse, viscous, cold sweat and ecchymosis upon the skin. — Paralytic diarrhoea. — Lienteria (?) — Retention of urine, with a feeling of fullness of the bladder, and inability to emit the urine ; ischuria haemorrhoidalis ; ischuria traumatica. Hematuria consequent upon external injuries. — Inflammatory swelling of the testes. — Hcematocele consequent upon external injuries. — Inflammation of the genital organs after a difficult labor. — After-pains in a long, difficult, artificial delivery, when occasioned by the fetus pressing mechanically upon the parts. According to several observers, Arnica is not of much use against after-pains ; according to Gross and Lobethal, Secale and Pulsatilla ought to be used ; Griesselich says that Arnica has helped in some cases. According to Emmerich, Arnica is useful against the after-pains of parturient women and those frequently-occurring tearing and paralytic pains which com- mence in the small of the back and the groin, and extend down along the internal side of the thigh as far as the toe • these pains are accompanied by nervous uneasiness in the extremi- ties ; the patient knows not how to rest them ; there is often a ARNICA MONTANA. 65 feeling as if the flesh were being severed from the bone ; some- times one, sometimes both extremities are affected ; the pains come on three days after the delivery. — Metrorrhagia and pro- fuse menstruation. — Deficiency of milk attending the loss of humors, diarrhoea, voluptuous excitement. — Bloody milk in women affected with scurvy. — Erysipelatous inflammation of the breast, and soreness of the nipples of nursing women. — Whooping-cough, third stage. — Influenza. — Hsemoptoe, con- sequent upon external injuries ; in nursing women, in plethoric persons, or when caused by a cold or exertion ; in young people with tubercles in the lungs, with a consumptive habit, or when pulmonary consumption has already set in, in which case slight efforts of the body or arms, in stooping or lifting, violently grasping or holding, etc., excite the cough. — Spurious pleu- ritis. — Pleurodynia. — Pleuritis, produced by mechanical causes, with plastic or serous effusion. — Hydrothorax. — Pneu- monia, produced by mechanical causes ; nervous inflamma- tions of the lungs, when the bloody expectoration is unmixed. — Voluntary limping, in the incipient stage. — Phlegmasia alba dolens. — Arthromeningitis traumatica, rheumatica. — Pain in the toes after cutting a corn. Analogous Remedies : Amm. Ars. Cann. Caps. Chin. Ipec. Merc. Phosp. Puis. Rhus. Sabin. Samb. Seneg. Stap. Verat. — 2. Aeon. Bell. Bry. Calc. Cham. Cic. Cin. Con. Coloc Cycl. Euphr. Ferr. Hep. s. Hyosc. Ign. Natr. Natr. mur. Nux. v. Op. Rut. Sec. Sulp. ac. Zinc. — 3. Lach. Nitr. Nitr. ac.