Stramonium Datura Stramonium

( Thorn-Apple )

HAHNEMANN says : This narcotic plant shows in its primary action (with the exception of disagreeable sensations, which the prover cannot call " pain "), no actual pains.

Sensations which can strictly be called pain occur only in the secondary action, i.e. the subsequent reaction of the organism. This restores not only normal sensation as opposed to the sensation — destroying action of the drug, but when given in large doses, causes morbidly exalted sensation, or pain.

Again : in its primary action it produces great mobility of voluntary muscles and suppression of all secretions and excretions ; the reverse of which occurs in the secondary action — to wit, paralysis of muscles, and excessive secretions and excretions.

Therefore, in suitable doses it curatively allays spasmodic muscular movements and restores suppressed excretions in several cases in which absence of pain is a prominent symptom.

It can only cure homoeopathically the morbid states produced by its primary characteristic action.

The symptoms of the secondary action (which, as with all narcotic drugs, are much more numerous, better expressed, and more distinct than with non-narcotic drugs), teach the observant physician to refrain from its employment in cases where the patient is already suffering from ailments resembling those of its secondary action. He would never administer Stram . in complete paralysis, or inveterate diarrhoeas, or where violent pains constitute the chief feature of the disease.

He speaks " from experience " of the incomparable curative action of Stram . " in similar natural mental maladies ", and of its usefulness in convulsive ailments similar to those it causes. .

Its efficacy also in some epidemic fevers, with the symptoms it can excite in mind and body : — in varieties of hydrophobia, from the bite of rabid animals, which cannot all be cured with one remedy, but some of which require Belladonna , some Hyoscyamus , and yet others Stramonium , according as their morbid symptoms are more similar to one or other of these three plants. . . .

HUGHES ( Pharmacodynamics ) : " Stramoniumn is, as Hahnemann points out, exquisitely homoeopathic to hydrophobia, even more so than Belladonna . He says that in China , the different species of Datura , among them the D. Stramonium , are in popular use as prophylactics against hydrophobia.

It is said that enough of the plant should be taken to provoke an attack of ` rage ', the patient is then safe."

He says there are few neuroses in which Stram . is not more or less useful. It is our chief remedy in acute mania, to which it is more homoeopathic than the more inflammatory Belladonna . It is hardly less valuable in delirium tremens, in the active form — the mania-a-potu of the older writers. The constant association of hallucinations with its delirium, make it very appropriate here.

In nymphomania and puerperal mania it stands highest among remedies, owing to its special action on the sexual functions. . . Epilepsy, brought on by a fright . . . In chorea, one of the best vegetable medicines. . . .

He quotes Guernsey , in regard to the following indication : " Parturient women show such signs of fear as to cause them to look frightened and to shrink back from the first objects they see after opening their eyes. If they have had no spasms, they soon will have, after betraying such symptoms, unless Stramonium be immediately administered. . . . His other indications are : Great loquacity, expressing wild and absurd fancies ; desire for light and society ; an imploring, beseeching mood."

ALLEN'S Encyclopedia gives six and a quarter pages of references for the 243 different poisonings and provings, whose symptoms are more or less set forth in the 1,680 given. The majority are poisonings by the drug, but there are provings, even in high potency.

Glancing down the black letter symptoms only, apart from the important symptoms in italics, one sees hydrophobia, mania, violent delirium and delirium tremens, epilepsy, chorea, with a high degree of hallucination, and FEAR . It is not the vague fear of Aconite , but something more concrete — fear of objects seen in imagination : seen more at the side than in front, curiously.

Stramonium has much that is in common with its cousins, Belladonna, and Hyoscyamus : and comes up for consideration for many of the maladies that both mirror forth. But Stramonium seems to lack the inflammatory intensity of Belladonna .

HALE WHITE, who supplies the teaching in Materia Medica for medical students, describes in twenty-one short lines the ACTION and THERAPEUTICS of Stramonium.

He says its action is almost the same as Belladonna , and that there is no reason why Stramonium should not be applied for the same purposes as Belladonna . And the only use he has for this powerful and valuable drug, is that of a palliative to relax the muscular coat of the bronchial tubes — more powerfully than Belladonna .

He describes a powder, which, burnt, gives off dense fumes, and affords great relief in asthma ; and he adds that " Himrod's , Bliss's and other ' cures ' for asthma, are of similar composition ".

He wisely puts cures in inverted commas, because palliatives do not cure : they relieve pro tem. ; and as we know, such powders may have to be burnt again and again in one night. And yet Stramonium should cure some cases of asthma, because it has caused difficult breathing : especially in connection with spasm of diaphragm.

CULPEPPER ( Herbal , 1653) mentions Stramonium for epileptic disorders, convulsions and madness : — its ancient reputation, as we see, amply confirmed from the homoeopathic standpoint by poisonings, provings and practice.

To get an all-round knowledge of the uses of any drug, one has to get the impressions of many prescribers and their experience in regard to its usefulness.

BOGER ( Synoptic Key ) stresses : " A REMEDY OF TERRORS, BUT LACKING IN PAIN . . . . Disorderly, graceful, or rhythmic movements. . . . DREADS DARKNESS , and has a horror of glistening objects. . . . Great thirst, but dreads water. . . . Putrid, dark, painless, involuntary diarrhea. . . . Awakes in fear, or screaming."

GUERNSEY ( Keynotes ), who has a talent for going straight at the main features of a drug, says, of Stramonium :

" The principal range of this remedy is found in the mental affections. In young people, sometimes hysterical, praying, singing devoutly, beseeching, entreating, etc. (Young women with suppressed menses may be thus affected.)

In fevers where the patient cannot bear solitude or darkness ; if they are left alone in a dark room, the mental affections are very much aggravated. Also in unconscious delirium when the patient will now and then jerk the head up from the pillow, and then let it fall — this being kept up without intermission for a long time. Women in puerperal fever may have absurd notions — that they are double, that someone is in bed with them, and other strange unmeaning fancies. Affections of the intellect ; madness. . . .

" Face red and bloated. Cannot walk, or keep on the feet in a darkened room, falls. . . .

NASH sums up Stramonium thus :

" Wildly delirious with red face and great LOQUACITY .

" Pupils widely dilated ; wants light and company ; fears to be alone.

Wants hand held. ( Zinc .)

" One side paralysed, the other convulsed.

" Wakes with a shrinking look : frightened afraid of the first object seen.

" Painlessness with most complaints ( Opium ).

Jerks the head suddenly from pillow in spasms."

He calls it one of the trio of pre-eminently high-grade delirium remedies, differing from the other two chiefly in the degree of intensity. He says :

" The raving is something awful.

Singing, laughing, grinning, whistling, screaming, praying piteously or swearing hideously, and above all remedies loquacious."

Again the patient throws himself into all shapes corresponding to his changeable delirium, crosswise, lengthwise, rolled up like a ball, or stiffened out by turns. . . . Things look crooked or oblique to him.

Mouth as if raw : tongue stiff as if paralysed.

Stools loose, blackish, smelling like carrion, or no stool or urine.

Later, loss of sight, .hearing, speech with dilated, immovable pupils and drenching sweat that brings no relief.

Death must soon close the scene, unless Stram. helps them out.

He contrasts the three :

Stram . is the most loquacious .

Hyos . is the most insensibly stupid .

Bell . stands half-way between.

Stram . throws himself about, jerks head.

Hyos . twitches, picks and reaches, otherwise lies pretty still.

Bell . starts or jumps, falling or awaking from sleep.

All have times of wanting to escape. . . .

Now for some of KENT'S special points : — When considering Stramonium , the idea of violence comes into mind, . . . one wonders seeing a patient poisoned by, or needing Stramonium , at the tremendous turmoil, the great upheaval taking place.

Excitement, rage, everything tumultuous, violent : face wild, anxious, fearful ; eyes fixed on a certain object : face flushed : hot, raging fever with hot head and cold extremities.

Turns from the light : wants it dark : aggravated especially by bright light.

High fever with violent delirium : heat so intense it may be mistaken for Belladonna : but usually a continuous fever, while the intense fever of Bell . is remittent always.

Like an earthquake in violence.

Mind in an uproar, cursing, tearing the clothes, violent speech, frenzy, erotomania, exposing the person. (Useful in violent typhoids.)

Mania that has existed for some time. A single attack would look like Bell . But Bell . might be a palliative in the first attack, and in the second would do nothing.

When the delirium is not on, patient has the appearance of great suffering : forehead wrinkled.: face pallid, sickly, haggard. Anxious look, indicative of intense suffering from meningeal involvement.

Delirium, bland, murmuring, incoherent chattering with open eyes ; vivid ; merry, with spasmodic laughter : furious, raving, wild : attempts to stab and bite ; with queerest notions . . . fear as if a dog were attacking him. Strange ideas about the body, that it is ill-shapen, elongated, deformed.

Sees animals, ghosts, angels, departed spirits, devils : knows they are not real, but later is confident they are. .

Sings amorous songs and utters obscene speech. . . . Screams till hoarse and loses voice.

Screeches and screams day and night with fever, or mania.

Hyos . has wild maniacal delirium, but very little fever. In Stram . there is considerable fever. In Bell . the fever is afternoon and evening (3 p.m. to 3 a.m and then a remission.

Puerperal convulsions and insanity. It has the septic nature. " Has sinned away her day of grace," yet has lived an upright life. . . .

Cerebral congestions ; profound intoxication : stupor : stertorous breathing : lower jaw dropped. . . . Typhoid, with oozing blood from mouth, tongue dry, swollen, fills mouth, pointed, red, like a piece of meat. . . .

Basilar meningitis from suppressed ear discharge. Forehead wrinkled, eyes glassy . . . awful pain through base of skull with a history of necrosis about the ear.

Violent headache from walking in the sun : worse lying down. Worse motion and jar. . . . Pain in occiput.

High grade inflammation — pus forms, abscesses with excruciating pain, . . . vicious septic states. Chronic abscesses :the left hip-joint is a special locality.

Stram . stands alone among the deep-acting remedies, in its violence of mental sufferings. . . .

Suppuration of lungs where cough is worse from looking into the light.

Delusions in regard to personal identity. . . . Great anxiety when a train is going through a tunnel.

Black Letter Symptoms

Maniacal delirium : symptoms resembling HYDROPHOBIA .

Delirium of fear, as though a dog were attacking him.

Impression of danger : clings to person who had him in her lap.

Noisy DELIRIUM with HALLUCINATIONS .

Appearance of patient suggested mania.

" There are those bugs, help me catch them."

" There, a long trail of bedbugs, and after them a procession of beetles, and here come crawling over me a host of cockroaches."

He shrank back in alarm : then suddenly, " I believe I know they are not really bugs : but except once in a while, they seem real to me."

( Biting a man's hand ) , sometimes crying out that she saw cats ,dogs and rabbits, at the top, sides and middle of the room.

( Speaking ) the sound resembled a squeak more than the natural tone of the voice.

Manifested great aversion to fluids of every kind.

When a cup of water was put to her lips, she would start from it, and sometimes relapse into her paroxysm : such great aversion to it, that it was with the utmost difficulty that any liquid could be forced down her throat.

Hydrophobia : Aversion — even rage, when it was attempted to administer any liquid.

Had even spasmodic irritation of pharyngeal muscles, and anything taken choked him and, was regurgitated.

Asked her mother not to leave her, " something was going to hurt her ".

Constant staring about, then a fixed gaze, with sudden starlings of arms and lower limbs, with low mutterings, then sudden and furious screaming, scratching, tearing with the hands, and kicking.

He makes all motions hastily.

From the expression of face and movements, he seems at times to be chasing, or fleeing from imaginary objects.

Terrified by fanciful delusions : they appear to grow out of the ground at his side — large dogs, cats and horrible beasts, from which he springs away with signs of terror, but cannot get away from them.

Continually strange objects intrude on his fancy, frightening him.

He sees more horrifying images at his side than in front of him.

The boy seemed to see black objects.

( An executioner standing before him ) seemed to him a reality.

All ideas seemed to consist of mere reproductions : there was nothing original, no new combinations.

Occupied with hallucinations : gaze fixed ; seemed trying to reach towards something she saw.

Solely occupied with objects of his fancy.

The sight of a light, a mirror, or water, excited horrible convulsions.

Quite irrational picked the bedclothes, saw bugs, etc.

Shuddering and seeming much frightened.

Starts up in affright.

FEAR of being in the dark, and ( less ) of being alone in the evening after sunset.

Conduct and countenance like that of a child severely frightened, and apprehending some terrible calamity.

DELIRIUM : bland : murmuring : violent : foolish : joyful : loquacious : incoherent : chattering : with open eyes : vivid : merry : with spasmodic laughter : furious : raving : wild attempts to stab and bite : with queerest notions ; with sexual excitement : fear as if a dog were attacking him : conscious of her condition : calls for papa and mamma, who are present and trying to console child : with open eyes : noisy, with hallucinations ; shy, hides himself : tries to escape : full of fear : talks incessantly, absurdly, laughs, claps hands over head, wide-open eyes.

Mania for light and company : cannot bear to be alone.

DELIRIUM TREMENS.

Hallucinations which, especially at night, put patient into wildest restlessness. . . .

Laughing.

Intoxication.

Rush of blood to head.

Violent congestion of head.

EYES wide open, prominent : pupils exceedingly dilated, insensible, with injected conjunctiva, as if vessels filled with dirty liquid.

Complained that it was dark and called for light.

Hallucinations DARK . ( Bell., fiery, shining. )

Hot cheeks.

Blood rushing to FACE .

White circle round mouth.

Wild staring look : expression of great fear and terror. ( Acon. )

Glairy saliva dribbling from MOUTH .

Speech stammering, difficult and unintelligible.

Has to exert himself a long time before he can utter a word. ( Distorts face, makes great efforts to speak. )

Dryness of THROAT .

Constriction.

Spasmodic constriction of throat, a kind of paralysis, so that swallowing was very difficult — almost impossible.

Fauces dry : very red : with difficult swallowing.

Terrible spasm of throat on each attempt to swallow, like hydrophobia.

Dryness of throat not removed by frequent draughts of water.

The child had not only lost power of utterance, but that of voice.

Could only utter a hoarse croaking sound, alternating with sonorous croupy barking cough : unable to swallow for the violent spasms.

Thirst violent, for sour drinks.

Fear of water : and aversion to all fluids.

ABDOMEN distended, not hard.

Stool and urine suppressed.

VOICE hoarse and croaking.

High, squeaking, out of tune.

Usual modulation quite lost : higher and finer than usual.

Twitching of hands and feet ; of tendons ; of extremities : during chill ; through body like CHOREA .

Trembling of limbs.

Trembling of whole body, seemed as if in a great fright.

CONVULSIONS .

Frightful convulsions at sight of a lighted candle, a mirror, or of water.

Now rejected every liquid, and seemed to labour under hydrophobia, for the moment a cupful of drink touched lips, the spasms returned with great violence.

Child became restless : tossed about : called for water : could swallow with great difficulty.

Constant restless movements of all limbs and the whole body.

Convulsions, alternating with rage : opisthotonic, from bright, dazzling objects, a lighted candle, a mirror, or touch.

Child rigid as a board, when loudly spoken to or when touched.

Shrieks in hoarse voice.

Scarlatinous redness of SKIN .

Intensely red rash in skin, resembling scarlet fever, but having a more shiny appearance.

Scarlet efflorescence over the whole body.

HEAD very hot.

Skin hot, dry, burning : scarlet.

Child will not go to SLEEP in the dark, but soon falls asleep in a lighted room.

" Strange, Rare And Peculiar " Symptoms

Hands and arms in motion, as if spinning or weaving.

Grasps about in air, catching at imaginary objects.

Motionless, pulseless : then tossed about in great rage : made signs to those about him, not understood.

Condition resembles highest state of intoxication from alcohol.

Calls things by wrong names, his boots, logs of wood ; his bedroom, the stable.

No correct estimate of distance or size : reaches for things across the room : bumps into persons and things which appear to be distant.

Uses wrong words, cannot find right words.

Talks in different languages.

Sits silent, eyes on ground, picking at her clothes.

Mind wanders, with quick motions of eyes and hands.

Excessive dilatation of pupils, with slow pulse.

Aberrations of mind.

One carries home wood to manufacture brandy : another places two axes across each other to split wood : a third burrows in ground like a pig with his mouth : a fourth was " a wheelwright ", and began to bore. holes : a fifth ran into forge, to catch fish which he saw swimming there . . . a girl ran about the room and cried that all evil spirits were pursuing her.

Face expresses perturbation — stupidity — FEAR .

Converses with spirits : is under influence of spirits ; has communications from God ; delivers sermons : prophecies.

Animals jump out of the ground sideways : he moves quickly to other side, where others start up and pursue him.

Thinks he is tall : double : lying crosswise : that he was killed, roasted, and being eaten.

Sees more horrifying images at his side, than in front of him : they all occasion terror.

Seemed to see black objects : spoke of black people and black clouds : grasped at air.

Rush of blood to head with furious loquacious delirium.

" A dog is biting him and tearing flesh off his chest " ; complains of violent headache : confessing and praying : wants to be killed : to be kissed : accuses his wife of unfaithfulness : will not be touched ; takes people for dogs and barks at them.

Is a distinguished person.

Threatens to use knife on those about him: to break furniture : to throw himself out of the window.

Thinks he has snakes in him : lizards : worms in his clothes.

Religious mania : pious looks : praying : inspired talking : despair of her salvation.

Water, or a mirror, or anything bright excites convulsions.

Screams and howls.

Wants to kill people, or himself.

Changeable : anticipation of death, and rage ; then laughable gestures : then haughtiness and inconsolableness.

Obscene thoughts and actions.

Sought to bite, or to catch flies.

Sings and utters obscene things.

Laughing.

Makes faces : imitates motions, gestures and voices of different animals.

Suicidal : wants a razor to cut his throat.

Pangs of conscience : thinks he is not honest.

On being reprimanded, pupils dilate immediately.

Child very cross ; strikes or bites.

Going down stairs takes two steps for one, and falls.

Alae nasi white, face red.

Taste bitter : all food bitter ; all taste lost.

Tongue whitish with fine red dots !

In constant motion : swollen ; hangs out of mouth.

Averse to fluids : to water, even the sight of it causes spasms.

Violent desire to bite and tear things with his teeth.

Sight of a light, mirror, or water excites horrible convulsions.

Froths at mouth and constant spitting.

Violent thirst with desire for sour drinks.

Great desire for acids. Better for vinegar.

Very violent hiccough. Flow of very salt saliva.

Vomits water, bile, dark-green substance : green bile.

As if navel were to be torn out.

Wind in abdomen wakens her : screams, thinking herself full of creeping things.

As if urine could not be passed, for narrowness of urethra.

As if cylindrical body were being pushed through urethra : better after drinking vinegar.

Sexual irritation : hands constantly on genitals.

Nymphomania.

Metrorrhagia with excessive loquacity, singing, prayers, praise.

Shrinking look, when awaking.

Aphonia : aphasia : stammering.

Excessive sense of suffocation.

Hard pressure on cartilages of third and fourth ribs with difficult breathing : unable to inhale enough to breathe without anxiety.

When coughing while sitting, lower extremities are jerked up.

Something turns round in chest.

Diaphragmitis.

As soon as she falls into a doze, profuse sweat breaks out ( Conium ).

Arms thrown about : thrown upwards.

Beating with one arm, grasping with the other.

Falls over his own feet. Fingers and heels numb.

Falls with full consciousness, bent backward so that heels touch occiput ; suddenly snaps forward again.

Falls in the dark : can walk well in light.

Voluntary muscles do not obey will.

Continual cramp in hands and feet.

Great movability of limbs.

Strange involuntary motions f great agility.

Sensation in joints as if all parts of limbs were completely separated from each other.

Arms and legs separated from body : hands and feet loosened in joints. . . . (And so on : convulsions : chorea : hysteria : epilepsy : etc.)

Awakes : does not know where he is : with a solemn air of importance ; screaming, frightened, knows no one, shrinks away or jumps out of bed ; with staring eyes at one point : assumes a comically majestic appearance. . . .

As if cold water poured down back.

As if sparks of fire rushing from stomach to eyes.

It is important to recognize the exactly opposite conditions produced (and curable) by Stramonium . Cursing, and praying (as the boy who gets hauled to his feet in passages and odd corners, where he has fallen to his knees in prayer — one remembers such a case).

Desire for light , unable to walk, or to sleep in the dark (like the young man who has to have a night light, because he " screams the house down " if it goes out), and yet convulsions renewed by the sight of bright objects . Again, the violent convulsions, with horrible distortions of the face ; or only the (characteristic) " disorderly, graceful, rhythmical movements in delirium or chorea, utterly unlike the angular jerkings of Hyos." (All remembered cases.)

One recalls several striking instances of the rapid curative action of Stramonium . Two cases, scribbled into the margin of Allen's Encyclopedia , at the time, come up opportunely.

(I) A big, strong Scotchman, years ago, when influenza, after many years absence, came back to mightily stampede the doctors, and to claim a large number of victims including one of the princes, went down with a bad attack of the prevailing epidemic. He had a very high temperature, frightful pain, " right in the hair of my heed ", as he afterward expressed it ; with delirium, and vomiting of green matter.

But the " strange, rare and peculiar " symptom here was, that he said that the glass of water his wife brought him was black, and that her face was black . This black vision suggested Stram. and he was cured in a few hours by Stram. 30. (No. 2), long forgotten but scribbled in below, at the same time, reads : " Alice " (a housemaid). " Bad pain all day across head, but right inside it, cured by one dose of Stram . 30."

A third, a more recent Hospital case, already given, must be retold here, where it belongs. It was an amazing case. . . .

A woman of 33 was brought into L.H.H. on January 17th, 1930. The old school doctor who sent her in had been treating her for the last 14 days for pyelitis and frequent heart attacks, with a temperature of 104 : — and the previous year for " mitral incompetence and albuminuria ".

On admission there was much pus and blood in urine ; some lumbar pain, and difficulty in urination.

She appeared to be very ill ; but on admission there was nothing abnormal found in the lungs.

Next day, she was restless and delirious towards evening, with morbid fears, and a temperature of 104.8, respiration 24.

On the third day temperature 104-104.8, respiration now 44. She had developed a very rapid double pneumonia. Skin flushed, hot, dry. Delirium. Thirst. And at night restlessness with twitchings of face and hands. Temperature 104. Respiration 34-48 (in spite of Phos. 30, which she had been having at six-hourly intervals). And she had only passed II oz. of urine in twenty-four hours.

On the fourth day, pretty twitchings of face : hands twitched : — a peculiar " angelic " smile in delirium. She was conscious when roused. It was observed that the temperature was always at its highest at NOON (" as now 104.6 ").

The case was reconsidered, having regard to its unusual and characteristic symptoms.

For fever at noon , there is only one drug in italics-- Stram .

The graceful spasms and twitchings of face — " facial muscles constantly play in delirium " — again Stram .

Then, the character of the delirium, lacking the violence of Bell ., together with the fever, the dry hot skin, and the suppressed urine, again suggested Stram .

So at noon on the fourth day of admission — the second day of the pneumonia, she was given Stram. 1M ., three doses, four-hourly.

The result was dramatic ! viz. a quieter night ; no twitching ; no delirium. Quite sensible : Temperature coming down.

Next day it rose once more, but at 8 p.m., not noon, and only to 103.8 — a degree lower ; when she got three more doses of Stram . 10M. After which, with one more small rise, it dropped — to remain sub-normal for some days.

A day later, as she was weak and drowsy, and " looked toxic ", she was given three doses of Arnica 200 ; after which she needed no more medicine.

Stram. was given on the second day of the double pneumonia, and she was sub-normal three days later.

By February 18th she was walking about the ward ; and was discharged a fortnight later, " lungs normal, heart normal, urine normal. Quite well ."

The interest in this case was its great severity (the doctor who sent her in believed her to be dying of pyelitis and heart trouble before the double pneumonia supervened), and the unusual drug for pyelitis and double pneumonia . This case shows how the curative remedy was found on a very few, but characteristic symptoms, not of pneumonia, or pyelitis, but of that individual patient exhibiting those disease-conditions.

Here, Hahnemann's " totality of Characteristic Symptoms", suggested a remedy to which the patient undoubtedly owed her life.

And with this we may quit Stramonium . A marvellous drug, rightly applied — they all are ! — yet only worthy of twenty-one short lines in Hale White's Materia Medica, the text book for students of medicine.

Things are moving at last : and one wonders how long it will be before medical students are allowed to take their course of Materia Medica with us ! We have no desire to run a medical school : all the rest can be better taught elsewhere, with appliances and first-class teachers : but — Materia Medica Good Lord ! No wonder so many doctors have " lost their faith in medicine ".

NASH gives a case of acute mania, cured with Stramonium . " A lady about 30, overheated in the sun, on an excursion. A member of a Presbyterian church, but she imagined herself lost, and called me in six mornings in succession to see her die. Lost, lost, lost, eternally lost, was her theme, begging minister, doctor, everybody, to pray for and with her.

Talked day and night about it. I had to shut her up in her room alone, for she would not sleep a wink or let anyone else.

" She imagined her head was as big as a bushel, and had me examine her legs, which she insisted were as large as a church. After treating her for several weeks with Glon., Lach., Nat. carb . and other remedies on the cause as the basis of the prescription, without the least amelioration of her condition, I gave her Stramonium , which covered her symptoms , and in twenty-four hours every vestige of that mania was gone.

She was to have been sent to the Utica Asylum." ( Nash gave her the sixth potency.)

SULPHUR

Sulphur is one of the greatest of " polycrests " (drugs of many uses), — is Hahnemann's Prince of " antipsorics " (remedies of non-venereal chronic diseases), — and is one of the constituents of protoplasm, thus not only occurring, but evoking and curing, symptoms in every tissue and organ of the body. Its great and wide range in homoeopathic prescribing, is evidenced by the fact that Allen's Encyclopedia gives no fewer than 1040-odd symptoms, each with reference that tells not only the authority but the dose responsible.

Hahnemann says of Sulphur : " The homoeopathic physician (who alone acts in conformity with natural laws) will meet many important morbid states for which he will discover and may expect much assistance in the symptoms of Sulphur and Hepar Sulphuris."

He points out the similarity of the eruptions produced by Sulphur with those of itch : — the characteristic itching eruption which Sulphur can excite, " in which is revealed an affection, similar (homoeopathic) to but not identical with the itch . . and tells us that Homoeopathy requires medicines that produce diseases only similar to those they should be administered for in order to cure them. . . . Homoeopathy has never pretended to produce an identical disease with medicines, but has always enjoined the selection of a medicine for the cure, that produces only a similar affection. . .

Canova's statue of the captive of St. Helena may be very like, but it is not NAPOLEON ! . . .

Do not our stupid opponents understand that ? Are they unable to comprehend the difference between identical (same) and similar ? or do they not wish to comprehend it ? " And he gives the difference between " true itch and the very-like pimples and vesicles of the itch of workers in wool."

In Materia Medica Pura he scorns the idea of employing diseases for the cure of disease : but later on, in his Chronic Diseases, and indeed in the Organon (possibly in its later editions) he discusses the fact that by preparation and potentization disease products become " so changed as to be no longer idem but simillimum " ; and it was Hahnemann himself who prepared and potentized the contents of the itch pustule, and proved it (the proving is to he found in Stapf's Archives ; and showed thereby its great similarity of symptoms to those of Sulphur — and its great differences : thus teaching us when to prescribe the one. and when the other.

But it is believed that Hahnemann later on partly proved and used some other disease products : though he did not give us a lead to their use, since they were not sufficiently proved to be capable of scientific employment. (See an interesting article on this subject, HOMEOPATHY , vol. I, p. 462.)

Any way Sulphur is one of our great skin medicines, but only in such skin conditions as it can produce, or in typical Sulphur-patients. It has BOILS ( Anthrac., Tarent. cub., Arn., Bellis and a host of others, each in its place) : crops of boils, which succeed one another. Itching, extreme ; " voluptuous " itching, relieved by scratching, then burning ; worse from heat of bed (Merc.). " Dry, rough, scaly or itching skin, disposed to break out or. fester and won't heal " ( Hep., Sil .): even pustular eruptions.

And Sulphur eruptions may alternate with other complaints, such as asthma ( Ars ., etc.).

When we were children a precious Riddle Book had it, " Sulphur comes from volcanoes and is good for eruptions," and Sulphur is associated in ideas with the Lake of Fire, and Everlasting Burnings ; and Sulphur indeed causes BURNINGS ; burning pain in eyes, lips, tongue ; in nostrils, face, throat ; in fauces and pharynx ; in stomach and abdomen ; in anus ; in hemorrhoids, etc. ; between scapulae ( Lyc., Phos .); in fingers, palms ( Phos .), knees, feet, especially at night ; in soles, in corns, in chilblains, in skin of whole body, in parts on which he lies.

The eruptions of Sulphur BURN . And with all its burning there may be burnings in parts — patchy or local burnings with coldness elsewhere, as feet cold with burning head or face ; in the same way that Nat. mur. may have irregular distribution of the fluids of the body, as diarrhoea with a dry mouth and tongue, or " dryness of mucous membranes with watery secretions elsewhere ".

" Sulphur reddens orifices in a way common to no other remedy " — lips ( Tub .), eyelids ( Graph .), nostrils, red, dirty, discharging ( Aurum ) Anus, with itching ; and excoriating stools, often ; and here it is a great remedy for hemorrhoids. One has seen low-potency Sulphur produce them in someone who never had them before or since. The old " low-potency " men had a trick of curing piles with Sulphur alternately with Nux (they are complementary remedies). In those days they would have held it a disgrace to have piles " operated " or injected.

Sulphur goes through the body from vertex to soles. In the former its pressure-symptoms remind one of LACH., BELL., GLON. and others, while it burns the soles so much that the feet must be thrust out of bed ( PULS., MED., CHAM .).

Sulphur is, of course, a great remedy of stomach and intestinal conditions. The Sulphur stomach feels empty and " sinking ",

especially about 11 a.m. (or noon, or an hour before the mid-day meal), but then a Sulphur patient will often tell you that she wants no breakfast, but starves at the later hour.

And the typical Sulphur diarrhoea (often chronic) torments its victim with hurried early morning stools or diarrhoea, leaving them safe for the rest of the day.

It would be impossible to give all the black letter symptoms of Sulphur — i.e. the symptoms again and again produced and again and again cured by that drug — they are far too numerous for the space at our command ; but we will delve a little into Kent , and glean from that great prescriber his experiences derived from a very large and successful practice and from years of teaching Materia Medica. The more one goes to Kent , the more one needs to go. He, more than anyone, probably, has imbibed the spirit of Hahnemann, and expounded and perpetuated his doctrines.

KENT says, " Sulphur is such a full remedy that it is difficult to tell where to begin. It seems to contain a likeness of all sickness, and a beginner reading over the provings of Sulphur might naturally think that there was no need of any other remedy, as the image of all sickness seems to be contained in it." Yet, he says, " it will not cure all the sicknesses of man, and must not be used indiscriminately. . . It seems that the less a physician knows of Materia Medica the oftener he gives Sulphur ; but it is very frequently given by good prescribers, so that the line between physicians' knowledge and ignorance cannot be drawn from the frequency of their use of Sulphur .

" The Sulphur patient is lean, lank, hungry, dyspeptic with stoop-shoulders ; yet many times it must be given to fat, rotund, well-fed people."

" The Sulphur state may be brought on by being housed up in meditation — philosophical inquiry, taking no exercise : must eat only the simplest foods and not enough to nourish , hem, and end up by going into a philosophical mania. . . . Another class, dirty-looking, shrivelled, red-faced. If a child, may be often washed, but looks as if perfunctorily washed. . . .

The Sulphur scholar — inventor — works day and night in threadbare clothes and battered hat ; has uncut hair and a dirty face ; his study is uncleanly — untidy, books piled indiscriminately, no order. Sulphur seems to produce this state of disorder, uncleanliness, don't care how things go,' and a state of selfishness. He becomes a false philosopher — disappointed because the world does not consider him the greatest man on earth.

He has on a shirt that he has worn many weeks : if he had not a wife, he would wear his shirt till it fell off him." (One has seen with triumph how a dose or two of Sulphur , in such a patient, has produced a clean shirt ! ) " Cleanliness is not a great idea with a Sulphur patient," says Kent . "

Sulphur is seldom indicated in cleanly people, but it is commonly indicated in those who are not disturbed by uncleanliness . . . . The Sulphur child is subject to catarrhal discharges from nose and eyes, etc., and mothers will tell you that the child will eat the discharges from the nose. . . . That is peculiar, because the Sulphur patient is oversensitive to filthy odours ; but the filthy substances themselves he will eat and swallow. Has filthy odours, and they nauseate him.

Imagines he smells things. . . . Discharges not only offensive but excoriating. Stools, nasal discharge, excoriating, burn and make raw the parts. Boils — suppurations — abscesses, eruptions, but always with burning .

Burning runs through Sulphur . Burning soles : palms : vertex. Worse warm in bed. Nightly complaints are a feature." And so on for many pages.

Sulphur has some weird sensations, perhaps not often met with, but helpful where they occur. A band tightly bound round forehead ; as if bed too small to hold him : as if swinging, or standing on wavering ground. Pressure vertex, as if brain beating against skull : as if head would burst. As if scalp were loose ; as if eyes had been punctured ; as if sounds came not through ears but forehead ; as of a lump or hair in throat ; intestines in knots ; as if bowels too weak to retain their contents ; as if a lump of ice in chest ; as if chest would fly to pieces when coughing or breathing deeply ; as of a mouse running up arms and back.

(See Calc .) And many others. As of a rivet through upper third left lung to scapula . . . .

Sulphur has also some weird mentalities. As GUERNSEY puts it, " fantastic illusions of the intellect, especially if one turns everything into beauty, as an old rag or stick looks to be a beautiful piece of workmanship — everything looks pretty which the patient takes a fancy to. Wishing to touch something " . . . one has had this symptom in children, and failed to find it !

Sulphur is one of the remedies that has periodicity . Pains in head, for instance, every seven days, every fourteen days ; " an intermittent, periodic neuralgia with aggravation every 24 hours, generally at mid-day or mid-night." Diarrhoea at 5 a.m.

The Sulphur patient hates, or is the worse for a bath : and though a " warm patient " is worse for wet, or cold wet-weather.

Sulphur has a big reputation for clearing up acute conditions that hang fire : pneumonias — exudations into serous sacs, following inflammations (as pleural effusions — we have seen this). Complaints that are continually relapsing ( Tub .). But, in a " Sulphur patient ".

By the way, Sulphur has, in poisoning, produced convulsions, and it is one of the first things one thinks of for epilepsy — in a Sulphur patient, or when the patient has had a Sulphur -like eruption.

When first one started " working out " one's cases, it seemed as if Sulphur must always come through, such a constant appearance does it present in the various rubrics, but that is by no means the case. Its symptoms are very definite and very striking : it has its own place and does its own work ; and often comes in, as we said, to clear up difficult conditions, and those that hang fire — in a Sulphur patient.

To do rapid and at all creditable out-patient work, where the patients crowd in as they do with us, and where they have to be considered as individuals, and not as this or that disease, and treated accordingly, one must have the various drug-pictures of Sulphur — Sepia — Lycopodium and a dozen other common remedies of common complaints at one's finger-tips. And when you get one or two of the little Sulphur drug-pictures by heart, and prescribe Sulphur correctly, it is surprising how long it will hold your patient — i.e. a chronic patient.

Many of these return only after many months to ask for " the medicine you give me, which always puts me right ". Sepia is another of these medicines of very definite symptoms, easy to recognize ; and when one turns to the patient's page, and sees Sepia inscribed thereon, one nearly always knows that the patient will say, " Much better ! " and that the call for repetition will be long-delayed.

One must be pardoned for dragging in " out-patients " so often ; but continuous heavy out-patient work for at least thirty years has impressed some things on one's consciousness.

A few years ago we gave a Paper to the British Homoeopathic Society on " DRUG-PICTURES " which still persists in pamphlet form. That little paper was so much appreciated, and one was urged so often to go on with such pictures, that it has led to the present efforts in the same direction. And the little Sulphur -pictures in that paper — they only ran to a page — are so concise and to the point that we are minded to reproduce them here.

Sulphur has been called the " ragged philosopher ".

An argumentative, stoop-shouldered person, who is always on the look-out for a chair to drop into.

Untidy — unkempt.

Coarse, lustreless hair, which takes its own rebellious way, like its owner ; not amenable to conventions.

Famished before meals : famished at 11 a.m.

Eats anything.

Craves fat. ( Sulphur is the only WARM drug that craves fat.)

Intolerant of clothing — of flannel on the skin.

Morning diarrhea ; but, after that, safe for the rest of the day.

One curious aspect of the Sulphur mentality is the admiration for what is not admirable.

Rags may seem beautiful.

Ecstacies over things in which normal persons can see nothing to admire.

Sulphur exists in every tissue of the body : there is nothing that Sulphur cannot help, IN A SULPHUR PATIENT.

It is the greatest of polycrests.

Again, elderly women with flushes.

Throw off the bedclothes.

Starving at 11 a.m.

Put their burning soles out at night to cool. ( CHAM., MED., PULS ., and one or two others do this also.)

Again, — Warm, hungry babies.

Kick off the bedclothes — impossible to keep them covered at night.

Very obstreperous hair — (?) sandy — harsh and lustreless — grows every way.

Dirty-nosed children : sore discharging nostrils. ( Aur .)

Orifices brilliant red ; anus, nostrils, eyelids, lips.

Itching at anus.

NASH says, " Every true 'homoeopath knows the value of these and many more symptoms of this remedy.

No one else appreciates them.

Again, none but those who use potentized Sulphur can ever know what it is capable of curing."

Black Letter Symptoms

Foolish happiness and pride, thinks himself in possession of beautiful things ; even rags seem beautiful.

Indisposed to everything, work, pleasure, talking or motion ; indolence of mind and body.

Melancholy mood ; dwelling on religious or philosophic speculations ; anxiety about soul's salvation ; indifference about lot of others.

Too lazy to rouse himself up, and too unhappy to live.

Hypochondriasis after suppression of eruption.

Dread of being washed ( in children ) .

Heat on crown of HEAD ; cold feet ; frequent flushing.

Brain affections in children who do not like to be washed, have pimples, boils and other eruptions on head, face and everywhere, Pick at nose, have red lips, crave sour things, feel faint in forenoon, may have diarrhea early in morning ; sleep restless, start when falling asleep, cry out during sleep, or murmur, whine, moan or snore ; feet cold in morning, hot in evening ; they run about but do not like to stand, sit hunched and walk stooping.

Severe itching on forehead and scalp.

Itching pimples on forehead ; inflamed, painful to touch.

Inflamed and suppurating pimples on hairy scalp.

Humid, offensive eruption on top of head, filled with pus, drying up into honey-like scabs.

Dry, offensive, easily bleeding, burning eruption, begins on back of head and behind ears ; pains and cracks ; > from scratching.

Humid, offensive eruption, with thick pus, yellow crusts, bleeding and burning.

Dimness of vision ; as of a veil or gauze before EYES ; as from a fog ; with headache, as if cornea had lost its transparency ; sudden paroxysms of nyctalopia ; while reading ; objects seem more distant ; for near and distant objects ; with weakness of eyes, blindness, cataract, glaucoma ; with innumerable, confused, dark spots floating before eyes.

Keratitis parenchymatosa in a scrofulous subject, cornea like ground glass, photophobia, lids swollen and bleed easily.

Burning heat in eyes, painful smarting.

Lachrymation ; in morning, followed by dryness ; and burning in morning ; profuse and burning from acrid, excoriating tears, in open air, dry in room ; itching and biting in eyes.

DEAFNESS ; preceded by oversensitiveness of hearing ; especially for human voice ; from disposition to catarrhs ; < after eating, or blowing nose.

Otitis ; in psoric patients with tendency to skin eruptions, coryzas, and cerebral congestion ; from a furuncle in meatus ; in children who suddenly cry out in pain, while they appear listless and unobservant, and where it seems doubtful whether irritation is in brain or in intestinal canal ; in complication with meningitis or eruptive fevers ; lancinating, stinging, tearing in ear, extending to head and throat, < by disturbance, musical sounds, and all noises, and human voice is heard imperfectly, chronic with a purulent discharge.

Smell before nose as of an old catarrh ; as of old offensive mucus. Frequent sneezing.

Swelling and inflammation in nose ; red nose.

Painful eruptions about chin.

Bright redness of lips, particularly with children, complexion sallow.

Lips dry, rough and cracked.

TOOTHACHE : coming on in open air ; from least draught, at night in bed ; from washing with cold water ; with congestion to head, or stitches in ear.

Stomacace ; aphthae.

Dryness of THROAT ; exciting cough ; at night ; constant desire to swallow saliva in order to moisten affected parts.

Stitches in throat on swallowing ; painful contraction.

Swelling of palate and tonsils, elongation of palate.

APPETITE : excessive, canine ; ravenous, obliged to eat frequently, if he does not he has a headache and great lassitude, and has to lie down ; feeling of faintness with strong craving for food at 11 a.m. ; voracious children put everything they see into mouth, swallow everything, watch everyone eating.

Drinks much, but eats little.

Desire for sweets ; diseases from eating sweet things, candy, etc.

Desire to imbibe alcholic drinks, from morning until night.

Drinks much, eats but little.

Weak, empty, gone or faint feeling in stomach about 11 a.m.

Heaviness in stomach ; feeling of weight.

Inflation of ABDOMEN with wind ; rumbling and gurgling in bowels.

Emission of flatus ; especially in evening and night ; having odour of bad eggs, or sulphuretted hydrogen ; inodorous.

Rumbling and gurgling in bowels ; painless diarrhea, driving patient out of bed at 5 a.m.

Big belly and emaciated limbs ; children disliked to be washed.

Portal stasis ; hemorrhoidal congestions ; with indigestion, constipation, etc.

Sudden call to STOOL on waking in morning.

Desire to stool, with colic, awakes him about 5 a.m.

Thin stool every morning, with cutting in lower abdomen.

Diarrhea after midnight ; painless, driving out of bed early in morning ; as if bowels were too weak to retain their contents.

Dysentery ; child was faint regularly at ii a.m. ; early morning aggravation.

Cholera sciatica ; as a prophylactic, a pinch of the powdered milk of sulphur worn in stockings in contact with soles of feet ; diarrhoea commences between midnight and morning, with or without pain, with or without vomiting, ineffectual desire to evacuate ; diarrhoea and vomiting at same time ; numbness of limbs ; cramps in soles of feet and calves ; blueness under eyes ; coldness of skin ; indifference of mind ; during convalescence, red spots, furuncles, etc. ; susceptibility to temperature, warm things feel hot ; nerve symptoms.

Burning and pressure in rectum.

Itching in rectum.

Increased congestion of hemorrhoidal vessels.

Hemorrhoids, moist, blind, or flowing dark blood, with violent hearing-down pains from small of back toward anus.

Suppressed hemorrhoids, with colic, palpitation, congestion to lungs, back feels stiff as if bruised.

Large hemorrhoids, violent burning and sticking in anus ; pressing in rectum during and after stool ; it feels full.

Burning in anus ; after sitting a while ; after soft stools in evening.

Constant bearing down towards anus ; forcing down after sitting.

Itching in anus.

Bleeding from anus.

Excoriation about anus.

Burning in URETHRA .

Itching in urethra.

Both flow of urine and discharge of faces are painful to parts over which they pass.

Involuntary discharge of semen, with burning in urethra.

Testicles relaxed, hanging down ; soreness and moisture of scrotum, or offensive sweat of genitals.

Itching on glans penis.

Discharge of prostatic fluid after micturition and stool.

Soreness and moisture of scrotum ; soreness between thighs when walking.

Fetid perspiration cm genital organs, with soreness and excoriation destroying most of hair, painful in walking, with thickening and induration of scrotum.

Hot flushes at climacteric period, with hot head, hands and feet, and a great goneness in stomach.

Burning in vagina, scarcely able to keep still.

Troublesome itching of vulva, with pimples.

Feels hungry and FAINT about 11 a.m. ; cannot wait for dinner.

Shortness of breath ; and oppression on bending arms backward ; from talking too much ; when walking in open air ; in evening in bed.

Feels suffocated ; wants doors and windows wide open ; particularly in night.

Oppression, heaviness and pressure in CHEST .

Burning in chest, rising to face.

Shooting in left side of chest through to back.

Stitches through chest, extending in to left scapula ; < lying on back and during least motion.

Congestion of blood to chest.

Pleurisy : ( after Acon. ) acute, plastic form.

Rush of blood to HEART .

Palpitation : anxious ; in evening in bed ; and fluttering of heart ; without anxiety, at any time of day ; during stool ; violent at night, on turning in bed ; violent and rapid on falling asleep ; when going upstairs or when climbing a hill ; visible.

Sensation as if heart were enlarged.

Sharp stitches in precordial region.

Sharp pain at heart going through chest, to between shoulders ; especially with dyspeptic symptoms.

Great orgasm of blood, with violent burning in hands.

Pain in small of BACK ; could not walk erect, was obliged to walk beta over ; violent only on stooping, tensive as if everything were too short ; on rising from a seat ; gnawing ; after heavy lifting and taking cold at same time ; violent, as if bruised, also in coccyx ; tiresome feeling as if bruised ; stitches.

Curvature of spine, vertebra softened.

Rheumatic pains in SHOULDER , especially in left.

Perspiration in armpits, smelling like garlic ; offensive to patient.

Tremulous sensation in HANDS when writing ; cold trembling hands.

Burning of hands.

Rhagades on hands, especially between fingers, on finger joints and in palms.

Stiffness in KNEES and cracking.

Cramps in calves and soles, particularly at night ; looseness of bowels.

Stiffness of ankle joints.

Burning in feet, wants to find a cool place for them ; puts them out of bed to cool them off.

Burning in soles ; on stepping after sitting a long time ; and itching, especially on walking ; wishes to find a cool place for them, puts them out of bed ; wants them uncovered.

Weak, fainting spells frequently during day ; feels very faint and weak, with a strong craving for food, from 11 to 12 every morning.

Excessively sensitive to open air and will not be washed ; very much inclined to take cold.

Chorea ; in chronic diseases, particularly after suppressed eruptions frequent spasmodic jerking of whole body ; tremor of hands ; unsteady walk, peevish, irritable, obstinate, faint and hungry spells at 10 a.m. ; soles of feet burn.

Irresistible drowsiness in day time, wakefulness at night.

Wakes up at 3, 4 or 5 a.m., and cannot SLEEP again.

Heavy, unrefreshing sleep.

Finds himself at night lying on his back.

Nightmare.

Dreams : vivid, anxious, as if pursued by wild beasts ; vivid

comic, with loud laughter, continued for some time after waking ; vivid, believing she sits on chamber causes her to wet bed ; horrible, with great palpitation, that he has been bitten by a dog ; that he is falling.

Wants doors and windows open.

Orgasm of blood ; frequent flushes of HEAT .

Flushing heat in face, with febrile shivering over whole body.

Heat in head ; prevents falling asleep ; in morning ; in evening with cold feet.

Hot flushes, with spells of faintness, or passing of with a little moisture, faintness or debility.

Complaints continually relapsing.

Alternate : pale and red cheeks ; diarrhoea and constipation ; asthma, or gout, and skin eruptions.

Offensive odour of body despite frequent washing ; averse to washing.

Does not walk erect ; stoops or bends over forward in walking or sitting ; standing is most disagreeable position.

Scrofulous chronic diseases that result from SUPPRESSED ERUPTIONS.

DISCHARGES in every outlet of body acrid, excoriating skin wherever they come in contact.

CONGESTION to single parts ; eyes, nose, chest, abdomen, arms, legs, etc.

Complaints are continually RELAPSING ; seems to get almost well when disease returns.

ITCHING : all over body ; spots painful after scratching ; itching spots bleed and bite after scratching ; in various parts, disappearing after scratching ; at times followed by sticking or burning ,. over whole body, ,recurring every night in bed ; and biting on mates ; violent on thighs and legs, at night ; about knees ; on toes ; of toes that had been frozen ; at night, in heat of bed, now in one place, now in another, especially on nape of neck ; in palms of hands, sometimes sticking, burning ; is obliged to rub them, after which they burn ; on backs of hands ; in eyebrows ; on abdomen, at night ; in scrotum ; on inside of thighs ; in axillas and hollows of knees ; as if she were alive beneath skin ; as if vermin were running about ; < at night, and in morning, in bed, after waking ; above left eyebrow in ears externally ; of nose externally ; about chin ; on neck ; on chest ; of old tetter, is obliged to scratch until it bleeds.

BURNING in skin of whole body.

FORMICATION of skin over whole body.

Voluptuous itching ; scratching relieves after it ; burning ; sometimes little vesicles.

After violent scratching aching, numbness of skin, swelling of skin, even ulceration.

Nettlerash ; with fever ; on face, arms, neck, and lower extremities ; on back of hand.

Itching hives over whole body, hands and feet.

Boils.

Skin rough, scaly, scabby.

Soreness in folds of skin.

Comedones ; black pores of skin, particularly in face.

Lean, stoop-shouldered persons who walk and sit stooped standing is the most uncomfortable position.

Persons of nervous temperament, quick-motioned, quick-tempered, plethoric, skin excessively sensitive to atmospheric changes.

Dirty, filthy people, prone to skin affections.

Children : cannot bear to be washed or bathed ; emaciated, big-bellied ; restless, hot, kick of clothes at night ; have worms.

Adapted to persons of scrofulous diathesis, subject to venous congestions, especially of portal system.