Asafoetida

This gum-resin is obtained from a shrub which grows in Afgha- nistan and the Punjaub (asafoetida ferula). Stem two or three yards high, six or seven inches in circumference at the base. It is obtained by making incisions into the upper part of the root ; the collected juice is exposed tc* the sun to become harder, and is conveyed home in baskets. Asafoetida occurs in irregular pieces of variable size; externally, they are yellowish or of a pinkish-brown color. It is

ASAFOETIDA. 517

fusible and inflammable, burning in the air with a white flame and the evolution of much smoke. Its taste is acrid and bitter, and its odor strong and alliaceous ; hence the Germans term asafoetida "Teufels-dreck" or devil's dung. However, this dislike to asafoetida is not universal, some of the Asiatics being exceedingly fond of it, taking it with their food as a condiment, or using it to flavor their sauces, or even eating it alone. Hence among some of the older writers, we find it denominated "food of the gods."

From this resin we obtain a tincture having a saturated brown-red color, and the peculiar nauseous and fetid odor of the gum-resin.

Asafoetida is the most powerful of the fetid gum-resins. It is devoid of those acrid and irritating properties possessed by gamboge, euphorbium, scammony, and many other resinous and gummy-resi- nous substances. In the mouth and stomach it causes a sensation of heat, and it causes eructations from the stomach. Professor Joerg and his pupils experimented upon themselves in doses of one grain to one scruple.

Messrs. Trousseau and Pidoux have likewise experimented with asafoetida ; they took half an ounce at a time, with no other effect than that of altering the odor of their secretions. These apparently contradictory results might lead us to infer that asafoetida acts differently upon different individuals, but to the careful observer they reveal another important part ; it is this : that the business of proving drugs is a science which implies the knowl- edge and consideration of several important circumstances.

A Frenchman who keeps up the use of his strong coffee, his claret, his spices, and his cigar, while he is proving a drug, cannpt expect to develop those finer shades of drug-action by which phy- sicians of our school obtain a knowledge of the homoeopathicity of a drug to certain diseases.

We have some very excellent provings of asafoetida. These prov- ings reveal the fact that diseases to which asafoetida is homoeopathic, are characterized by more or less inflammatory and febrile action. It seems to be particularly adapted to scrofulous and nervous indi- viduals, with a venous and hgemorrhoidal constitution and a phleg- matic temperament.

Professor Joerg's provings have furnished the following highly interesting and instructive results : Guentz swallowed at various intervals one, two, three, four, five, six and ten grains of the drug. One, two, three and four grains had no other effect than to cause frequent eructations having a garlic odor. Five grains caused a painful pressure in the pit of the stomach, as from excessive repletion and distention of the stomach ; this pressure was accompanied by a smaller pulse, and followed in a few

518 ASAFCETIDA.

hours by diarrhoeic stool. Ten and fifteen grains caused eructations, nausea and aversion to food.

Otto swallowed two grains which induced a pain in the head as if the whole brain were compressed with a handkerchief tied over it ; this pain was accompanied by a spasmodic tightness of the chest ; the symptoms lasted an hour and a half.

Three grains caused the same symptoms, except that the eructations were accom- panied with a copious flow of saliva, and a drawing in the glans penis during an emission of urine.

Four grains caused eructations with flow of saliva, rumbling in the bowels, and a slight pressing and drawing pain in the region of the cardia whence the pain first extended to the spleen and afterward to the region of the liver ; it was made worse by an inspiration in consequence of the depression of the diaphragm ; the chest-symp- toms were the same ; the alvine discharges seemed to be less tinged with bile, but were without the odor of the drug.

Five grains induced the same symptoms, but the painful pressure in the cardia rose higher up in the oesophagus. In the afternoon the abdomen was distended, and there was an occasional emission of flatulence which had the odor of asafcetida. On the following morning he had a hard stool which had a dark-brown appearance and had somewhat the odor of the drug. The pain in the chest only amounted to a slight drawing, the respiration was only slightly accelerated, the pulse was smaller, more hurried and contracted ; in the afternoon the head, began to feel dull, and a pain was experienced in the brain as if a string were drawn around it ; the drawing in the glans was likewise felt, but the dark-brown urine was passed without any difficulty ; it deposited no sediment, but had a pungent odor.

After six grains the painful pressure ascended still higher in the oesophagus, with a sensation as if a foreign body was rising in it. The abdomen and chest were affected as before ; the drawing in the glans was much more severe, coming and going in paroxysms. Toward evening, when the action of the drug seemed to have ceased, the prover was attacked with a feeling of malaise, vertigo and vanishing of sight ; soon after, a cold sweat broke out on the forehead and extremities, and a violent cut- tin0- distress in the bowels, obliging him to lie down, after which the pains gradually subsided. He spent a restless night, and in the morning had a hard, dark-brown discharge from the bowels having the odor of asafcetida.

Eight grains induced an insipid taste in the mouth, soon changing to that of the drug ; this lasted all day. The pulse and the beats of the heart were small, quick and irregular. The accompanying oppression on the chest was very moderate and the respiration not much accelerated. These symptoms occurred in the forenoon.

In the afternoon there was considerable rumbling in the bowels. At this time the spasmodic oppression of the chest became very severe, and was accompanied by a titillation in the trachea and a dry, irritating cough ; after the cough had lasted half an hour, the prover experienced a slight shivering from the last to the second lumbar vertebra; this was accompanied by the above-mentioned painful pressure in the cardia and a small and hurried pulse. After the symptoms of the chest and abdomen had lasted three hours, the prover experienced a general malaise, the oppression of the chest increased by a feeling of anxiety, and the embarrassed respiration induced rest- lessness and obliged him to shift from place to place; the head felt confused, and thinking was very much interfered with ; from time to time a shudder was experienced over the whole body, without any subsequent heat.

A walk in the open air gave him relief. Toward evening he experienced in a marked degree the sensation of a

ASAFCETIDA. 519

foreign body ascending from the stomach along the oesophagus to the pharynx, which was always relieved by swallowing. The urine was clear, but had a pungent odor. The symptoms continued more or less on the following day, especially the painful pressure in the stomach and the distention of the bowels.

Nine grains induced a similar group of symptoms, with the exception of the nervous and congestive symptoms in the chest and head, which were more marked in some respects; the breathing was interrupted by occasional turns of coughing and groaning ; the pulse was small and contracted, there were congestions to the head, with hot face and headache ; sensation of the eyes as of grains of sand between the lids and the eyeball, and as if cold air were blowing upon the eyeballs ; the pupils were somewhat dilated, and in the articulations of the jaw a peculiar drawing was experienced more or less the whole day, and sometimes increasing until it became painful.

Ten grains induced most of the former symptoms, but in a more marked degree ; rumbling in the bowels, followed by painful pressure in the region of the stomach, which afterward changed to a drawing pain that was aggravated by external pressure. The stricture across the chest and the accelerated breathing were accompanied by a large, full and strong pulse; a few shooting stitches were occasionally experienced in the head, and the sensation of a foreign body ascending in the oesophagus became so violent that it was no longer possible to suppress it by swallowing ; it was finally com- plicated with a feeling of loathing and a scraping sensation in the pharynx.

Shortly after the appearance of this symptom the congestion about the head and the trouble in the eyes set in. Then came the feeling of general malaise, the shuddering, yawning, restlessness, distention of the bowels, and, in the afternoon, a hard stool having a dark brown color and a pungent smell, and causing a pain in the rectum while passing through this organ. In the afternoon the symptoms gradually abated, but returned again at eight o'clock in the evening. The drawing in the articulations of the jaws now invaded the musles of the neck.

Next morning there was a blackish- brown, soft, fetid discharge from the bowels.

After an interval of five days the same experiment was repeated with nearly the same results, except that the prover was troubled with frequent inclination to stool, the sensation in the oesophagus and pharynx, and the eructations were accompanied with a sensation in the mouth as if the prover had deranged his stomach by eating fat food ; the above-mentioned drawing pain in the neck now extended from the occiput through the back of the neck as far as the upper arms, resembling drawing and tear- ing rheumatic pains.

Pienitz took half a grain, one, two, three and six grains; the drug induced watery stools with violent pressing towards the rectum and followed by rumbling and dis- tention of the bowels ; the pulse was small, feeble and somewhat accelerated. From four grains he experienced eructations accompanied with trembling of the whole body, coldness of the skin and a small, feeble pulse, loss of appetite, two stitches darting from the forehead to the occiput, watery stools. Six grains induced, among other spmptoms, an increased desire for sexual intercourse.

Mrs. Ch. experimented with one grain, a grain and a half, two and three grains. The gastric symptoms were the same as those experienced by other provers: horrid eructations, warm risings from the stomach, in addition to which she complained of dryness in the oesophagus and an oppressive pain in the forehead. Two grains and a half caused eructations, a burning in the oesophagus and stomach, oppressive headache, especially in the right half of the head, and a violent, labor-like distress in

520 ASAFOETIDA.

the region of the uterus which lasted five minutes and returned again in one hour. The burning continued until the morning of the third day, when it terminated in a feeling of dryness without thirst. Three grains caused immediately a violent, increas- ing burning in the stomach and oesophagus, with sensation as if these organs were excoriated ; oppressive headache, especially in the forehead, with a remarkably small pulse, which had increased by ten beats; in the afternoon she was attacked by the same labor-like pressing and cutting pains in the region of the uterus ; the attack lasted several minutes and occurred several times in succession. During the whole period of the proving the experimenter complained of a feeling of weariness and languor, the bowels remained costive for three days in spite of a continual urging to stool ; the menses appeared ten days before the regular time, very scantily at first, but afterward in the normal quantity.

These experiments show conclusively that asafoetida has a marked action upon the abdominal ganglia, and from these centres extends its disturbing agency to the brain where it induces marked symptoms of congestion. This tendency to produce congestion of the larger vessels and capillaries may even involve the eyes, lungs and heart. It is shown that the sexual system is likewise influenced by our drug.

HYSTEEIA The symptoms of asafoetida, if viewed in their totality, represent a pathological condition which may be aptly termed hysteria or hypochondria. The symptoms seem to arise from an irritation of the abdominal ganglia which are in supervisory relation with the hepatic system. The sexual system is likewise very much involved.

Hence we feel justified in recommending this drug for either of these affections, if the existing symptoms can be traced to torpor or irritation of the biliary secretions, and such symptoms as asafoetida is capable of exciting, constitute characteristic symptoms of the case ; we may have tightness of the head, irritation of the eyeballs as if grains of sand were lodged between the lids and the eyeballs, sensation as if a cold wind were blowing upon the eyeballs ; dryness and burning in the oesophagus, cutting and crampy pains in the umbilical region, globus hystericus, watery discharges from the bowels, or constipation with continual urging; dark colored urine having a pungent odor ; oppression and constriction of the chest, with tickling in the larynx, inclination to cough, expectoration of mucus; creeping chills, mingled with flashes of heat, hurried and small or also strong and excited pulse ; the sexual functions may be abnormally excited and this abnormal excitement may arise from continued and unnatural abstemiousness.

The spirits are depressed or fitful. As detached members of this series we may be called upon to prescribe for

ASAFCETIDA. 521

HYSTERIC HEMICRANIA with flushed face, heat in the head, dryness of the eyes and consensual gastric derangements such as rancid taste in the mouth, distention of the bowels, rumbling, diarrhoea or constipation :

GLOBUS HYSTERICUS, as if the peristaltic motions of the in- testinal canal were carried on in the reverse order ;

DIARRHOEA or constipation with watery discharges, or soft papescent and fetid stools or costiveness with continual urging, and scanty discharge of hard, dark-colored and badly-smelling feces ; the urine is likewise darker than usual, and has a strong, ammmoniacal odor. This condition of the bowels is accompanied by distention of the abdomen, rumbling of the bowels, cutting or crampy pains either preceding or succeeding the alvine discharges ;

CARDIALGIA or gastrodynia when the attack is characterized by cutting pains in the umbilical region, crampy pains in the stomach, burning and soreness in the stomach and epigastrium, in- creased by pressure being made upon the part, nausea and inclina- tion to vomit, without any vomiting taking place.

A man, about fifty years of age, in the habit of using beer and wine, has suffered for fifteen years from recurring attacks of gastralgia, which often continue for several months. Allceopathic treatment has been unsuccessful. Great bloating and sensi- tiveness of the epigastric region to deep pressure. Pressing, tensive, stitching burning and cutting pains, especially when the stomach is empty, relieved from eating, but returning in a short time.

Thick, slimy, yellow coating of the tongue posteriorly; empty eructations, accompanied with foul taste ; painful choking and belching up of rancid, acrid fluid, mixed with food ; disordered appetite, with craving for spices and for alcoholic drinks ; constipation ; sleep interrupted by pains in the stomach. Nux3 and arsenicum6 failed to relieve. The pains appear in irregular paroxysms, which come on both night and day ; during a small portion of the day the patient is quite free from them.

Three doses of asafcetida6 cured him permanently in thirty-six hours. (Villers in HirscheVs Zeitschriften, Vol. i, p. 15.)

INDIGESTION comes within the curative range of this drug, when there is much cutting, stitching pain in the stomach, dis- ordered appetite, with craving for liquors or wine ; rancid eructa- tions, great flatulency and belching of flatus, diarrhoea or constipation, palpitation of the heart, nervousness, restlessness, sensitiveness. Enormous meteorism of the stomach is a most prominent and reliable symptom.

Mrs. E. W., aged thirty-seven years, American, complains of almost constant passage of flatus upward, without relief; spasm of glottis, and sensation of a bone lying crosswise inithe throat; gone feeling in the epigastrium at 1 1 A. M. ; loss of sensation in the hands ; both hands and feet very cold ; a continued dread of death ; will not go upon the streets alone ; is often filled with the desire to do something dreadful ; even thinks of murdering her children.

Has no family troubles and is not obliged to work very hard. Has good food, but always feels worse after eating. Is nursing a baby of ten months, and is in the habit of drinking eight to ten cups of tea daily. I lim'ted the amount of tea to three cups each day;

522 ASAFCETIDA.

ordered light lunch between meals and selected asafcetida200 as the remedy. A few doses of asafcetida per week were given for a period of two months, with excellent results, all noted symptoms disappearing except the continual dread of death. This was removed later by a few doses of aconite200 At the end of three months the patient was discharged cured. (Dr. May Howells, Cincinnati Med. Advance, April, 1879.)

PREMATURE MENSTRUATION We have seen that asa-

foetida, in the case of our woman prover, induced premature menstruation. We may therefore commend it when there is severe bearing-down and cutting pains in the uterine region, febrile irrita- tion, congestion of blood to the head. These symptoms may likewise characterize dysmenorrhea, where it may prove useful.

The action of asafoetida upon the sexual organs of both the male and female is remarkably illustrated. The following important facts are stated by Dr. Boas, (Caspar's Journal, 51) : In consequence of the application of asafoetida-plasters to the abdomen, I have seen the testes swell considerably, and the pudendum likewise become in- flamed and swollen ; some time ago this inflammation became so violent in one case that I had to resort to antiphlogistic treatment. Although the patient was a lady of fifty, and had ceased to menstruate long since, yet the mammce became turgid and secreted a milky fluid, as during the ninth month of pregnancy.

Kallenbach, who is an homoeopathic practitioner, guided by this experience, has employed asafcetida in several cases for the purpose of restoring the milky secretion. These cases were reported in the Horn. Gazette, 1844, and are likewise quoted by Frank.

A woman of thirty-four years, remarkably healthy, and of an athletic frame, who has had six children without being able to nurse one of them, on account of loss of milk which took place soon after each confinement,. again gave birth to a child in the month of April, 1 843. On the fourth day after her confinement, the milk began to decrease so that in a fortnight thereafter only a few drops could be squeezed out of the nipple. Kallenbach mixed a drop of the tincture of asafcetida in one drachm of alcohol, and gave her three doses of this mixture of five drops each, every day.

The second day after using this mixture, the milk again flowed abundantly, and on the third, the passages of the infant smelled very strongly of asafcetida. The preparation was continued for eight days. The milk flowed regularly for three weeks and a half, when it again began to flag. The patient, who complained of the bad taste of the drug, now was put on the third Hahnemannian attenuation, which still revealed the taste and odor of the drug.

The milk again began to be secreted for eight and thirteen weeks, at which periods it stopped, but was each time restored by the third attenuation of the drug. In the eighteenth week the woman had a violent fit of anger, in consequence of which the milk remained suppressed permanently, in spite of all treatment.

HYSTERIC ASTHMA— Our provings have shown that asa- foetida causes a spasmodic constriction and oppression of the chest, with occasional stitches in the chest and a burning sensation under tiie sternum in the middle region ; these symptoms are accompanied

ASAFCETIDA. 523

bv slight alteration in the pulse which is rather more accelerated and smaller than usual. This condition of the pulse would seem to show that the character of these symptoms is that of spasm and con- gestion. An attack of this kind may occur more or less paroxysm- allv as a form of hysteria. The symptoms may represent a case of hysteric asthma or hysteric pulmonary congestion which may terminate in loose cough with expectoration of mucus.

HYSTERIC COUGH.— We have seen that this drug may cause a tickling in the windpipe and great inclination to cough, with ex- pectoration of mucus. This group of symptoms may occur as a form of hysteria and might be described as hysteric cough, to which women of a florid complexion and nervous temperament are some- times subject and which asafcetida may either arrest entirely, or at least palliate.

SUPPRESSED EXPECTORATION in women who are habitu- ally subject to hawking up mucus in the morning or after eating, and who are of an hysteric habit of body and temperament, asafcetida may sometimes counteract the unpleasant consequences of such a suppression, more particularly if it is owing to violent and unpleasant excitement or exposure, and gives rise to fluttering of the heart, oppression and constriction of the chest, burning and dryness in the air-passages, creeping chills.

WHOOPING-COUGH.— This agent has been exhibited in some dangerous forms of whooping-cough, not as a remedy for the cough, but for the purpose of palliating the dangerous complications and more especially the suffocating spasm which seem to threaten the life of the little patient.

NEURALGIC RHEUMATISM— We have seen that asafcetida produces rheumatic pains which seem to be of a nervous character. Hence in neuralgic rheumatism, or rather in nervous pains of a rheumatic character without any apparent signs of congestion, asa- foetida may prove useful. The pains are drawing and tearing and affect the articulations of the jaws, and may invade the posterior cervical muscles as far as the arms, or thev niav be felt in both the upper aud lower extremities.

Asafcetida has been used by allceopathic physicians in the treat- ment of scrofulous caries, rachitis, and likewise for mercurial and scrofulous ulcers; I am not prepared to affirm that it is of much use in these affections.

You will recollect that our pro vers generally found relief from

524 AS ARUM EUROPIUM.

their pains by a walk in the open air; in determining the homoe- opathieity of our drug to a given pathological group, this fact may be of importance.

ASARUM EITKOPJEUM.

[ASARABACCA, FOAL'S FOOT, HAZLEWORT. NATURAL ORDER, ARISTO-

LOCHIACE.E.]

A perennial plant, with a short simple stem from which come two kidney-shaped leaves of a glossy green color.* From the axils of the leaves springs a solitary drooping flower of a greenish color, and a purplish brown within. It is found in most countries of Europe, in mountainous woods.

We prepare a tincture from the leaves and root, of a dark-brown color and a slightly acrid taste.

A porter swallowed forty-eight grains of this drug which caused violent pains in the abdomen, severe vomiting and purging. We may give it for gastric derangements characterized by such symptoms, also with secretion of a burning saliva, more particularly if the paroxysm is attended with a good deal of chilliness.

This drug is not very important ; nevertheless Hahneman has furnished a few provings of it, which reveal its irritating properties and show its homoeopathicity to gastric irritations of an inflammatory character.

CEPHALIC GROUP.

The action of this drug upon the brain is sufficiently characteristic to deserve our attention. It seems to depress the vigor of the mental faculties ; it causes an inability to think, a mental dullness attended with giddiness and a feeling of intoxication. The headache it causes is of a rheumatic nature, a drawing and tearing, and likewise a throbbing pain in the forehead, sides of the head ; the drawing and .tearing pain, in some cases, reaches downward to the root of the nose, or to the nape of the neck. The headache is unaccompanied by nausea, and abates after vomiting.

A young lady of good constitution has suffered for several years from headaches.

Keen pain over the left eye, with lachrymation of the left eye ; she can- not use the eye to read : a bright light aggravates the symptoms ; the temples are painful externally; she cannot comb her hair; if the attack is violent, both eyes become painful and she has nausea; her bowels are constipated; menstruation is normal ; the paroxysms are apt to come on before and after menstruation. Asarum europ. 1-200, during the apyrexia, cured her. (Gross in Neues Archiv, Vol. ii., I, 49.)

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ORBITAL GROUP.

The action of asarum upon the senses of vision and hearing like- wise points to a rheumatic origin. It causes burning and dryness of the eyes, mistiness and obscuration of sight, and a sensation as if the drum of the ear were closed up by some intervening substance.

DENTAL GROUP.

The salivary glands seem to secrete more saliva than usual, a feel- ing of warmth is experienced in the face. Franz reports an interest- ing symptom : A contracting or astringent pain on the left side of the face, in the third molar tooth, accompanied by gentle shocks as if inflicted with sharp points.

Stapf reports: A feeling of coldness, like a cool breath, passes through the upper front teeth.

NERVOUS TOOTHACHE.— These symptoms show that asarum may be a valuable remedy in nervous toothache having a rheumatic

origin.

CHYLO-POIETIC GROUP.

It is in the different organs and tissues of the digestive apparatus that asarum manifests its chief effects. It causes an increased flow of a watery, and sometimes of a more tenacious saliva; white-coated tongue ; burning on the tongue, and afterward in the whole mouth ; sweetish-flat or foul taste, as from a deranged stomach ; tenacious phlegm in the throat for eight days ; he is scarcely able to hawk it up ; empty eructations ; nausea with shuddering ; nausea and retch- ing, with flow of water in the mouth ; an hour after the retching, five or six turns of vomiting of a greenish, somewhat sour fluid, with sensation as if the skull in the region of the ears would fly open ; vomiting, with great anxiety ; vomiting and diarrhoea ; pressure at the stomach and in the epigastrium, also a feeling of constriction in the region of the diaphragm ; excessive colic and vomiting ; qualmish- ness in the abdomen, attended with repeated paroxysms of headache along the coronal suture ; turns of painful pressure in the abdomen ; the alvine evacuations are preceded by cutting in the bowels and stitches in the rectum from above downward ; diarrhoea consisting of tenacious mucus, with which a few ascarides are mixed.

This series of symptoms gives a complete idea of the manner in which the mucous surfaces of the gastro-intestinal canal are acted upon by our drug. The character of these symptoms shows that the abdominal ganglia are deeply involved in the production of these

52 G AS ARUM EUROPJEUM.

effects, and that atmospheric miasmatic influences constitute most probably the chief determining cause of the irritation . We may regard this series of symptoms as an attack of

RHEUMATIC CHOLERA MORBUS, involving not only the stomach and bowels, but, by a process of reflex action, the brain. In such an attack the urinary organs may be involved.

RESPIRATORY GROUP.

Some of the symptoms which we find recorded in this range, are exceedingly striking. However, we would enjoin upou the young practitioner and student of homoeopathy the importance of not isolating the symptoms of this group from the integral series of the physiological effects of the drug. Among the symptoms of this group we distinguish such spmptoms as these : Sensation as if the breath and the saliva were hot ; yet the mouth does not feel dry ; several turns of cough on account of phlegm on the chest, which rises into the throat and causes difficult breathing and finally turns of cough, with expectoration ; the inspirations cause an irritation in the throat which excites cough ; dull deep stitch, as if in the left lung, interfering with the breathing, at each inspiration ; stitches in the lungs during an inspiration, for eight days; feeling of oppression over the chest ; sensation as if a wire were firmly tied round both lungs; burning pains in the chest, more on the outside than within.

If these chest-symptoms are more prominently developed, we might designate the affection as a case of

RHEUMATOSIS or rheumatalgia of the lungs, but in order to make sure of the correctness of our choice, the character of the gastro-intestinal symptoms must confrm it. We may again state that all the symptoms of this interesting series are like one unit, and that the different parts thereof must support and complete each other.

A glance at the symptoms which Hahnemann and his disciples have recorded in the region of the back and extremities, likewise reveals their true rheumatic character. We read : Burning and bruising pain in the back ; pain in the nape of the neck, on the left side, as if a bundle of muscular fibres had been displaced by a violent effort; the pain afterward spreads over the head and shoulders; sen- sation as if the muscles of the neck were pressed upon by a dull cutting edge ; tearing stitches in both shoulders when moving them; dislocation pain in the shoulder joint ; aching and stitching pains are likewise felt in the lower extremities ; the parts likewise feel

ASCLEPIAS SYRIACA. 527

•weary and lamed. Excessive irritability of the nerves, so that even the bare fear lest somebody should scrape with the finger-nail or the like, causes him to shudder.

FEVER GROUP.

The fever caused by asarum is chiefly characterized by chilliness. Some homoeopathic physicians have even proposed asarum as a remedy for fever and ague. The asarum fever is emphatically a nervous fever, the nervous centres, and more particularly their peri- pheral derivations are violently racked, as may be inferred from the intensity of the chill which seems to have been experienced by most pro vers; but there is very little heat and perspiration, and even if the surface warms up, the feeling of shuddering still continues within. These fever symptoms complete the group of rheum atosis of the lungs and bowels which require asarum as its specific homoe- opathic neutralizer.