Asarum Europoeum

Chilliness, and slight and repeated chills, without any thirst. — 235. Uninterrupted chilliness, goose-skin ; hands and face are cold, blueness of the face. The hands are icy-cold, the arms and the rest of the body are warm, still they are covered with goose-skin, and he has violent chills. Shaking chills in the evening, with extreme faintishness, especially in the knees and the small of the back, without any thirst ; the hands are cold, the rest of the body is naturally warm, the forehead hot.

Chills, with heat in the face. Chilliness the whole day ; when sitting or lying still, and keeping himself covered, he feels nothing except a soreness of the eyes, a pres- sure in the forehead, and on the pit of the stomach, and some- times external heat ; but when taking ever so little exercise in the room, or when exposing himself to the open air without taking any exercise, he experiences an excessive chilliness, without almost any thirst ; when walking fast in the open, or entering a warm room after coming out of the open air, or when becoming heated by violent talking in the room, or after dinner, or when lying in a warm bed, he feels healthy, natu- rally warm, feels even a little hot, and has a desire for beer. — 240.

Chilliness when drinking. Cold feeling over the body, as if a cold wind blew upon him ; at the same time he was cold to the touch, with goose-skin, the warmth returning in a few hours, and being somewhat increased (in the afternoon,) with a slimy mouth, dryness in the throat and thirst ; after- wards another attack of coldness as before, and in the evening, an hour previous to going to sleep, an increase of warmth, con- tinuing while in bed ; he is obliged to uncover his hands, with great dryness of the palate.

Fever the whole day ; chilliness in the afternoon, abating neither during exercise in the open air, nor by external warmth ; hot feeling externally with internal chills and thirst, after dinner. Chilliness, when not being well covered, or when moving ; heat as soon as he covers himself, sometimes accompanied with chills. Chilli- ness after the hot feeling, the heat of the head and face re- maining, he feels chilly at the slightest motion. — 245. Heat of the forehead and the hairy scalp, the rest of the body being na- turally warm, with slight chills and chilliness, no thirst, the pulse being strong and quick.

Hot feeling and actual heat after the chills, especially in the face and the palm of the hand, the symptoms in the ear appearing again. Warm feeling, as if sweat would break out. (a. 4 h.) Unusual warmth of the body, the whole day. (a. 24 h.) Slight sweat only on the upper part of the body, and on the upper limbs. — 250.

Profuse

BELLADONNA 95

night-sweat. Warm sweat, even when sitting still. He sweats easily ; even from a slight cause.

Moral Symptoms : Weeping, sadness, and anxious feel- ing. Great cheerfulness, (a. 6, 12, h.) sometimes interrupted for a few moments by a melancholy and gloomy mood.

BELLADONNA.— (Atropa Belladonna.)

(When the plant begins to flower, squeeze out the juice and mix it with equal parts of alcohol.)

This plant may be grown in gardens, upon rather dry soil ; declivities should also be preferred. The medicinal vir- tues of Belladonna, thus obtained, are not inferior to those of the wild plant, although several physicians have, from mere conjecture, maintained the contrary.

The following very complete list of the symptoms of Bel- ladonna, shows that it is typical of a number of frequently occurring affections, and that its curative powers are various and extensive, and require frequent application. It may there- fore be considered a polychrest. 1

There are practitioners who, from mere ignorance and pusillanimity, decry the great powers of Belladonna as poisonous, and advise that milder remedies should be substi- tuted in its stead. They know not that no remedy can be used in the place of another, and their patients die victims to such folly.

How often do not the more acute cases of quinsy, especially when there is external swelling of the neck, become fatal in the hands of those practitioners, through repeated venesection, leeches, blisters, gargles, poultices, refrigerants, diaphoretics, purgatives, and various other modes of torturing the organ- ism, whereas health might have been restored in a few hours by means of one single dose of Belladonna !

Every medicine, even the best, becomes dangerous, injuri- ous, and even pernicious, in the hands of the ignorant and the quack. Every powerful remedy becomes a destructive agent

' Note op the Translator. — Hahnemann designates by the term (: polychrests" those remedial agents that correspond to a great number of morbid symptoms, and will therefore prove curative in a vast number of cases.