I HAVE chosen this drug to commence a course of lectures on materia medica, as well because it has been very thoroughly proved and verified by clinical experience, as also because it is one of our chief polychrests. Polychrest is a term applied to a number of the remedies that are the most frequently used in practice, and that have an extensive range of application. It would be an error, however, to suppose that a polychrest, which is called for every day, is any more useful in any given case than a drug that we are required to give only once a year will be in the case which requires it. It must never be forgotten that every case requires just the identi- cal remedy which is most homoeopathic to it, even if it be a rare and seldom used remedy ; and that no other remedy, however popularly or however constantly in use, can be as good as, or can take the place of, this homoeopathically indicated remedy. But just as some diseases are very common, being met with every day, such as dyspepsias, 58 PULSATILLA, bronchial catarrh, diarrhoea, ephemeral fever, etc., so there are certain remedies which produce, when proved upon the healthy, series of symptoms simi- lar to those of these frequently recurring diseases. It is obvious that these remedies will be frequently indicated in practice, will be often used and in many cases. These remedies are our polychrests. We must know them well ; although it is of great importance that, in bending ourselves to the study of them, we neglect none of the other remedies of out materia medica. In studying Pulsatilla and all other remedies, we shall follow Hahnemann's anatomical order, stating the symptoms of each region in succession; and calling attention to the conditions of aggrava- tion and amelioration, and to the simultaneous manifestation of groups of symptoms in different regions. We shall then take a general view of the remedy, endeavoring to appreciate its charac- teristics and its special spheres of action. Finally, we shall consider its more obvious applications to diseased conditions frequently met with, its resem- blance to other remedies, and the differences between them. We begin with the Sensorium. Pulsatilla produces vertigo or dizzi- ness, which occurs while sitting, but is relieved while walking or sitting in the open air; dizziness when directing the eyes upward, and especially when stooping, when it seems as though the head were too heavy ; a drunken dizziness, the head PULSATILLA, 59 feeling hot inwardly, and the face pale. The ver- tigo occurs or is worse in the evening or after eating. We here meet conditions which we shall find to pervade the Pulsatilla proving, and to be characteristic of the drug, viz. : occurrence or aggravation of the symptoms in the evening, after eating, during repose, and amelioration from motion and from being in the open air ; also paleness of the face, even with sensation of internal heat.