Sanguinaria Canadensis

Mrs.

H., a very fleshy lady of fifty years, nearly passed the climacteric, complained of a distressing sick-headache hanging about her for years.

In some degree the symptoms were almost always present.

A typical headache would commence in the forenoon, gathering violence with the hours, until sunset, when it would quietly sub- side, or else would confine her to the bed for a day or two.

The pains originated low in the occiput, drawing upward in rays, locating over the right, sometimes the left, eye, attended with vomiting — often vomiting of bilious matter.

She was subject to sudden flushes of heat, burning of the soles of the feet, and that singular symptom noted in Hale's, third edition, a quickly-diffused transient thrill felt at the remotest extremity.

At times she had sensible throbbing of every pulse in tl.e body.

The urine was generally scanty before and during the severe headache, but quantities of clear urine would pass away when getting better.

Prescribed sanguinaria200, six pel- lets night and morning for a week.

Eight months afterward, the patient reported relief from the first dose, during the week complete relief, and from that time until now, not a vestige of the old complaint has shown itself, neither the flushes, burning of the soles, electric thrill or headache.

(Dr.

J.

P.

Mills in Am.

Homaopathist, Sep- tember, 1877.)

We find : Painful dryness of the eye ; stitches in the upper lid ; profuse lachrymation of the right eye, which is especially painful to the touch, followed by fluent coryza, with flow of clear water from the right nostril.

Soreness of the eyeball, which is painful to touch.

Dilatation of the pupil.

Dimness of sight.

Appearance of a cloud before the sight.

Pains in the ears with headache.

Fluent coryza with frequent sneezing.

Dull heavy pain at the root of the nose, with a dizzy sensation.

The mouth is clammy and feverish; there is a fatty, slimy, feverish taste in the mouth.

Fetid breath.

The tongue is coated yellowish white; dryness, rawness on the tongue.

Eawness and dryness in the throat.

Feeling of swelling in the throat on swallow- ing, especially on the right side; painful deglutition.

Sensitiveness

of the mouth as if it had been scalded.

Burning in the pharynx.

The appetite is poor ; longing' for spiced food.

Flatulent eructa- tions.

Nausea with salivation and constant spitting.

Qualmish and long-continued nausea.

Sensation of emptiness in the stomach with a feverish feeling.

Pressure and burning sensation in the stomach.

Severe griping and twisting pain in the bowels.

Parox- ysmal colic.

Ineffectual desire for stool with emission of flatus.

DYSPEPSIA

Sanguinaria has been recommended in dyspepsia with deficient gastric secretion, loss of appetite and periodical nau- sea ; fetor oris ; sticky feeling in the mouth ; flatulence ; feeling of heat in the mouth and stomach ; fondness for sour things ; tickling in the trachea with coughing.

Headaches.

Here we find : Dry cough, with considerable tickling in the pit of the throat ; a crawling sensation, extending downward, beneath the sternum ; the cough became very severe, causing considerable pain beneath the upper part of the sternum, with no expectoration.

Dry, hacking cough.

Slight cough, caused by a tickling sensation in the larynx, with expectoration of a thick, tenacious mucus.

Severe dyspnoea.

Sighing respiration.

Constant pressure and heaviness in the whole of the upper part of the chest, with difficulty of breathing.

Severe burning between the breasts, most severe on the right side.

Sharp, piercing pain, midway between the sternum and right nipple, myalgic in character and the surface feels tender on pressure.

Stitches in the lower portion of the left chest.

A sensation of constriction across both breasts with inclination to take deep inspirations which very much increases the constriction and causes a tearing pain through the chest, particularly the right.

Mrs.

C, aged fifty-nine years, had been complaining for some days.

I found an inflammation of the cervical glands of the right side, involving the parotid gland to a limited extent, and accompanied by extensive inflammation of the.subjacent cellular tissue.

The parts were hot, tender, swollen and red, there was redness of the fauces- with slight pain on deglutition.

Prescribed belladonna 6x. * * * * On the

morning of April 19th, two days later, I received an urgent call to the patient, who had hardly been able to breathe all night.

I found her sitting up in bed, with a characteristic sawing and rasping sound issuing from the larynx.

The tonsils and pharynx were swollen, but auscultation showed that the sawing and rasping sound issued from the larynx.

The cough was dry and harsh, relieved by sitting up in bed, aggravated by eating and lying down, and it was accompanied by difficult expectora- tion of tough and glairy mucus.

The voice was low and suppressed, and it was with difficulty that I could make out the hurried, whispered sentences.

The pulse was feeble and fluttering, and the lips were pale; but on both sides of the cheeks there was a circumscribed redness.

The pathognomonic symptom which made the patho- logical state quite clear to me, was the fact that expiration was performed more readily than inspiration.

M.

Thuillier's test was decisive as to the diagnosis, for *' when the forefinger was passed into the larynx, there is a perception of a cushion "formed by the tumefaction of the sides of the glottis, a soft, pulpy body, quite distinct from the ordinary hard feel of the parts." * * * Prescribed sanguinaria, ix trituration, one dose every half hour.

At 1 P.

M., I found that improvement had commenced almost as soon as the medicine was given.

The sawing and rasping sound was now much diminished, the respiration was comparatively easy, inspiration and expiration were performed with the same facility ; the cough was less frequent and less severe ; the voice was quite audible, and the patient had slept much of the time since morning.

The tonsils and pharynx were still red and swollen, but the glottis was clear of the tense and rounded swellings present in the morning.

The sanguinaria was continued, and by the next morning the acute oedematous laryngitis was cured.

(Dr.

Thomas Nichol in Am.

Observer, June, 1874.)

with blue nails ; great lassitude, especially iu the evening ; hectic spots on the cheeks ; flushed face." (Dr.

Carleton, Horn.

Timesf Aug., 1879.)

M. has coughed more or less for years, but more so during the summer.

A year ago he had pneumonia, after which his cough sounded suspiciously.

He cannot lie down, but sits up; his countenance is bloated, his pupils somewhat enlarged, his pulse small and quick.

Night-sweat, diarrhoea, pain in the legs.

Pain in the chest, every attempt to breathe is accompanied with a murmur (Rauschen) in the chest, followed by cough.

Otherwise the cough comes in paroxysms of very copious expec- toration of fetid pus.

The breath also is very fetid and is disagreeable even to the patient.

Choking with the cough.

Before and after coughing, spasmodic hiccough.

With the cough a beating, and a feeling of tightness in the head.

After the cough heat continues for some time ; after the heat yawning and stretching.

Prescribed sanguinaria3, one dose every two days.

After this, constant improvement ; the fetor of breath and of expectoration disappeared altogether, lessening of the expectoration, which, a few days ago, was streaked with blood.

He can lie horizontally once more and walk about during the day.

(Bute in JV.

Arch., ii, 2, 148.)

Sanguinaria exerts no very marked effect upon the sexual organs.

It causes a rather copious menstrual flow and is said to have caused abortion.

It has been recommended for various menstrual disorders, especially amenorrhea, and for leucorrhcea and ulcerations of the uterus.

Dr.

H. 0.

Spalding (iV.

E.

Med.

Gazette, March, 1873) reports a case of uterine polypus cured by vaginal injections of blood-root.

Great anxiety.

Very irritable and morose, impatient at the least trifle, with severe dyspnoea.

Inability to fix the mind on any sub- ject.

Very sleepy, dreams of matters of business.

Sanguinaria causes also : Chilliness in the evening, in bed, and shivering in the back, as if he had goose-flesh.

Light chills at 2 p. m., followed by hot flashes ; pulse 95, for fifteen or twenty minutes, when burning fever set in, with exacerbation of all the symptoms.

Fever between 2 and 3 p. m.

Burning heat, suddenly alternating with chilliness and shivering, at short intervals.

Ulcer about the nail.

Pain in the right shoulder.

Kedness and burning of the hand.

Great weakness of the legs ; severe rheumatic pain in the legs, especially in right ankle, so severe that it causes lameness in walking.

Bruised pain in the hip.

Swelling of the leg and foot, with inward burning and external coldness.

Sharp and*severe pains in the ankles and left foot.

Great weakness.

Weariness.

Lassi-

tude.

Pain in the superficial bony parts of the body ; on touching them the pain disappeared and suddenly appeared in other places.

Most of the symptoms seem aggravated evenings and mornings.

Yesterday I was called to see E.

D., a young lady of rheumatic tendency, who suffered from muscular rheumatism.

Her right arm hung at her side or lay on her lap, as helpless as though there had been a fracture of the humerus.

She could not raise it an inch without assistance from the other hand.

Prescribed sanguinaria, ten drops in half a tumblerful of water, to take a teaspoonful every three hours.

I called to see her this afternoon and found her braiding her hair before a glass, using both hands, the pain and soreness and inability to move the arm having gradually abated from the first dose until entirely removed.

(Dr.

McClatchey in Hahn.

Monthly, Feb- ruary, 1875.)

This is the root of a woody vine, belonging to the smilax officin- alis and other species of smilax found in South America and Mexico.

There are several varieties ; the one used in this country is the Honduras sarsaparilla.

The latter variety of sarsaparilla is imported in bundles about two feet long, composed of the long, thin roots folded upon themselves.

There are occasional attempts made at adulteration by adding radix asparagi and other roots of similar appearance.

Sarsaparilla has shown itself of great value in the treatment of many diseases of the urinary apparatus and of the sexual organs.

The following symptoms define its usefulness in urinary affections: Pain and cramps in the bladder, with urging and burning ; urine pale and copious.

Frequent urging to urinate, with scanty but painless discharge; urine clear and red.

Severe strangury, with discharge of white, acrid, turbid matter, with mucus.

Painful retention of urine.

Urine voided frequently; does not become turbid, but deposits a cloud.

Frequent and copious discharge of pale urine, which becomes turbid on standing, like clay-water.

Urine either too frequent, copious and pale, or scanty, slimy, flaky, clayey or sandy.

Iridescent pellicle on the urine.

Little boy, aged six years, has for over a year been troubled with frequent desire to urinate.

There is no pain on passing urine, but has to void it often, day and night, it presses him so.

Very little passed at any time.

Tried many remedies with- out relief.

Finally gave sarsaparilla200, which cured.

(Dr.

E.

B.

Nash, Am.

Eo?no>- cpathist, November, 1878.)

Widow, middle-aged, dark complexion, hair and eyes.

Had suffered a long time with painful urination.

The greatest pain is experienced at the close and after urina- tion.

The parts have become so sore, that she can hardly walk. * * * Cantharides accomplished nothing; sarsaparilla200 cured promptly and permanently. {Ibid.)

Mr.

A.

H. commenced to complain, many years ago, of a kidney complaint which never left him.

About one year ago his physician sent him to me for consultation.

He had one constant symptom, viz. : After each urination there came a pain at a point in the vicinity of the neck of the bladder.

He was compelled to urinate often and had distress more or less all through the pelvis.

His symptoms were covered by sarsaparilla.

I gave him six powders of the 200th dilution, with directions to dissolve a powder in six tablespoonfuls of water and to take one spoonful night and

morning, to discontinue the remedy if he commenced to feel better.

This one pre- scription cured him after nearly twenty years of suffering.

The following symptom also disappeared with the urinary difficulty ; after every urination he had chills com- mencing at the region of the neck of the bladder and spreading in an upward direc- tion, until he felt them in the whole upper part of the body.

(Dr.

C.

W.

Boyce in Am.

Hotuceopathist, September, 1878.)

.The use of sarsaparilla in skin diseases is defined by the pathoge- netic record of the remedy, from which I extract the following: Tetters on all parts of the body.

Pale-red, slightly elevated rough spots on the forehead, of the size of a pea, without itching.

Itching eruption under the nose, as if caused by an acrid discharge.

Nettle- rash eruption like urticaria, itching intolerably, and stinging on the neck, chest, eyelids, hands, and the whole body, with violent burning after rubbing.

Herpes on the prepuce.

Itching pimples on the cheek, inflamed far around, with violent burning, resulting in a thick, large scab, and causing a tearing-burning pain in the open air.

Boils and pimples on the face and chin.

Unbearable itching on the scrotum and perineum ; after scratching, little pim- ples rise and keep the part sore.

The right index-finger is inflamed around the nail, like a run- around; later, the same on the left.

Large clear vesicles on the inner side of the right wrist, behind the little finger, first itching, then burning ; after opening the blister, discharge of watery fluid, increased burning, inflammation, and a scab, itching particularly in the night.

Pustules which have been scratched open leave ulcers suppurating for a long time.

Pricking on the skin, with heat, or as if caused by needles ; burning itching

over the whole body with rigors.

Itching scarcely relieved, and even aggravated by scratching ; sometimes it leaves at once when scratched, but goes to another place.

Itching with burning after scratching.

Within a limited district of northern Germany a peculiar disease of the skin made its appearance, consisting of little red or brown spots, commonly on the legs, which soon changed into a small, deep- eating ulcer, with raised borders.

These cicatrized in due time, but new ulcers broke out in the same manner and went through the same changes.

Gradually these cicatrices formed a perfect raised chain.

In the latter stages of the disease the throat and nose be- came invaded.

Ulceration of the velum pendulum and of the sep- tum of the nose were frequent.

The bones became exostosed and the sexual organs were attacked.

On the latter, the same type of ulcer formed, as described, but there were at no time genuine chancres or condylomata.

In due season the disease, which was not contagious, disappeared very gradually.

Mercury did no service at all in the treatment of this peculiar and violent complaint.

Eadix sarsaparillse seemed the only remedy capable of exerting any curative influence.

I was called to see a gentleman suffering with neuralgia.

The pains had been very severe all day, and as evening approached they became so violent that they caused the patient to jerk his head to one side and scream at every paroxysm.

The pains were confined to the right side principally, were pulsative and stitching in character, and extended from the occiput upward and forward over the ear, around to the temples and across the forehead ; occasionally a sharp pain would dart up the side of the face, in front of the ear, as high as the temples and then run across the forehead.

I gave him a single dose of sarsaparilla200, and in less than an hour he was in a quiet sleep, from which he did not awake until morning, to feel perfectly well.

(Dr.

Wm.

C.

Griggs in Am. your.

Horn.

Mat.

Med., August, 1872.)

This agent was first noticed by Lonicerus, in a book published in 1582 in Frankfort.

It was employed by women for labor pains long before it was known to the profession.

Camerarius mentions it in 1683 ;

Desgranges speaks of it in his Essays, published in 1777.

In the United States, Stearns introduced it to the attention of obstet- ricians in 1807.

Surgeon Patze swallowed one drachm of the pulverized secale on the 25th of Feb- ruary, 1844 ; he had to chew it a long time, and to drink about the fourth of a quart of water, in order to wash down the powder which was adhering to his teeth and palate.

It tasted somewhat like fresh bread, but left a slightly empyreumatic after- taste.

In a quarter of an hour he experienced a peculiar sensation in his mouth as if

We read in the Boston Jotcmal, vol. x., No. 19, a description of several highly- interesting experiments with the oil of secale, instituted by Dr.

Moore.

The oil was obtained by macerating ergot in sulphuric ether, and afterward evaporating the latter, A student, eighteen years old, who was not easily attacked by narcotics, swallowed two drachms of the oil in the course of an afternoon.

At first he swallowed half a drachm immediately after a full repast ; his pulse eighty-two, the number of inspira- tions nineteen.

In seven minutes he experienced a somewhat pleasant sensation in the head, followed by a disagreeable feeling of confusion and heaviness, especially in the occiput.

Half an hour after taking the drug, he complained of a feeling like sea-sickness.

He felt very faint, with a continual desire to spit.

In forty-five minutes the disagreeable sensations became very violent; he saw flashes of lightning.

At three o'clock, he swallowed sixty grains ; this dose, like the former, excited a pleasant sensation in the head, and a slight general exhileration.

Soon, however, he experienced a painful rigidity in the muscles, and an extraordinary feeling of weariness in the lower extremities.

The skin all over had a bluish tint ; the pupils were dilated, his face had a strange, melancholy and stupid expression.

Forty minutes after the last dose, his pulse was sixty-five, and the number of inspirations fourteen.

At four o'clock he swallowed another dose of sixty grains.

The same feeling of lightness in the head, followed by the same disagreeable sensation in the head and stomach.

At five o'clock, the pulse was down to thirty-six, small and feeble, the number of inspirations eight, imperceptible and feeble.

The skin was pale ; after pressure with the finger the color returned very slowly.

Since the second dose the urinary secretions had become very profuse.

The sleep was perfectly tran- quil during the ensuing night.

Hooker experimented on two young men with a simple infusion of ergot.

He digested two ounces of the powder in a pint of tepid water.

One of them drank fourteen ounces, the other eight ounces in doses of two ounces in the course of two hours, commencing at three in the afternoon.

The effect was almost the same in both.

Both experienced a slight, passing feeling of loathing after every dose.

The pupils became slightly dilated, but there was no headache, no retardation of the inspirations ; the pulse and the capillaries remained unaffected.

The main effect was a considerable exhilaration and wakefulness.

The most remarkable series of effects which secale cornutum manifests upon the nervous system is the frightful disorder which is usually described under the name ergotism.

Various epidemics have ravaged European countries, more particularly Germany and France, from the years 1587 to the present period.

The character- istic signs of the disease have always been the same in their main features.

Wibmer sums up the statements of the best authors on the subject in the following comprehensive resume :

become blind or sec double.

Their mental faculties are disturbed ; melancholy, madness, intoxication set in, the vertigo increases ; the pains now cease, but sensibility is likewise extinguished.

The hands and feet are sometimes covered with spots resembling flea-bites, they dry up, as it were ; the skin turns black, wrinkles, whole extremities sometimes become gangrened and fall off; in this way the patients sometimes escape death, dragging their mutilated bodies about for months and even years afterward.

Many, however, die within nine or twelve weeks.

A number had relapses after the lapse of a year, most frequently in the months of January or February.

The action of ergot upon man is similar, but, generally speaking, less intense.

In the latter, the action of the drug upon the non- striated muscular fibre is of particular interest.

It causes a powerful contraction of this structure, the abundance of which in the coating of the arteries and of most veins causes the administration of ergot, by the mouth or by subcutaneous injection, to be followed by pow- erful contraction of the blood vessels, particularly marked in the smaller vessels.

The observations of Holmes upon frogs, and the experiments of Wernich, Vogt, and others, confirm this.

Boldt claims to have seen wave-like contractions in the capillaries in sub-

jects under the influence of ergot, and P.

Nichol and J.

Mossop, ■with the aid of the ophthalmoscope, have seen contraction of the vessels of the retina after the administration of ergot.

This pecu- liar property of the drug furnishes the key to its use, in the hands of the physiological schools, in the treatment of aneurism, of haemorrhages from various organs and, also, to its employment as a preventative of the secretion of milk after delivery.

Secale causes, among others : Vertigo ; intoxication.

Heaviness, stupefaction, dullness of the head ; headache with tightness and con- fusion in the head.

Wild, staring look of the eyes, with dilatation of the pupils.

Roaring in the ears with deafness.

Sunken, pale,

distorted face.

Gnashing of the teeth.

The tongue is heavy, tremulous, white, difficult to protrude between the teeth, so that speech is unintelligible.

Crawling and prickling in the tongue.

Profuse salivation.

Stammering, difficult speech.

Violent pain in the small of the back.

Trembling of the limbs ; numbness, insensi- bility, coldness of the limbs.

Formication in the extremities.

In- cessant spasmodic pains in the hands and feet.

Violent tearing pains in the shoulder and arm ; violent contractions of the fingers ; rigidity, soreness and insensibility of the muscles of the thigh; weariness of the legs ; pain, weakness and paralysis of the legs.

Secale has caused : Dilatation of the pupil ; wild, staring look ; spasmodic distortion of the eyes ; retina and disks of both eyes decidedly pale, especially in the right eye.

Rolling of the eyes about the orbits.

Squinting.

Weakness of vision ; sparks appear to flash before the eyes.

Mist and sparks before the eyes ; blindness.

See also ergotism.

the eyes moved spasmodically and he lost control over them.

He held the head to one side, evidently depending upon the right eye as his guide; consequently he walked in a diagonal line, stepping very high and moving with extreme caution.

Some of the most remarkable symptoms were the extreme dryness of the eye and the sensitiveness of the eye to color, while it refused to take cognizance of size and shape.

The boy knew the yellow color of a cane and the black color of the handle of a knife; but to recognize the cane, the eye had to follow the slick from the middle to both ends and he knew the knife only, after the blades had been opened.

He received at first belladonna, with improvement of certain symptoms.

He made a full recovery under the use of the lower attenuations of secale.

(Dr.

Ksesemann, Horn.

Vierteljahrschrift, 1855, ^rs' number.)

Secale does not affect the male sexual organs very decidedly.

It caused a spasmodic dragging in the spermatic cord, so that the testicles seemed drawn up to the inguinal ring.

Hence we may find it indicated in

The action of secale upon the female sexual apparatus is varied and interesting.

We have already spoken of its effects upon the uterine muscular fiber and of the violent contractions of the uterus -when under the influence of ergot.

The following are worthy of note : uterus and ovary much congested and very sensitive to the touch ; great relaxation of the vagina and of the sphincter vaginas.

Os uteri wide open, thick and soft.

Incessant metrorrhagia.

Gan- grene of the whole vaginal mucous membrane ; on holding apart the labia, this membrane was found of a dark slate color, emitting the characteristic odor.

Fluid, black, fetid discharges from the vagina.

Irregular, stormy contractions of the uterus.

Pain, tenderness and throbbing heat in the vulva.

Too profuse menstruation ; congestion of blood to the uterus ; metrorrhagia ; excessive uterine contrac- tions, so that the uterus seemed ready to burst ; all the symptoms are worse previous to the menses ; suppression of menses.

To arrive at a satisfactory understanding of the value of the symptoms just given, we must connect them with drug effects upon other parts of the body.

Beside the symptoms given under cerebro- spinal group, the following are of importance: Twitchings, spasms, convulsions; unsteadiness of the whole body.

Painful stretching, jerking and twisting.

Great muscular inertia ; loss of voluntary motion.

Great restlessness ; extreme debility ; depression of strength and temperature of the body.

Great soreness all over the body ; could not lie with ease in any position, and could not be moved

without taking hold of her hands.

Drawing, burning, twitching pains in various parts of the body.

Heat aggravates these pains ; the pains are worse on the appearance of the menses.

Loss of appe- tite.

Pale, earthy, sallow countenance.

Mental depression.

Shiv- ering and coldness of the skin.

A corpulent lady, forty-five years of age, had already menstruated irregularly for three years, the period being sometimes absent for two or three months and then returning.

In 1854, the patient was suddenly attacked by violent haemorrhage, in consequence of a fright.

The blood was dark and liquid, and gushed forth with such violence, that sheets could not be placed under her fast enough to absorb it.

Secale1, and cold fomentations, were used for an hour without effect.

When the signs of anaemia became more threatening, ergotin was administered as above, every half hour, and, after ten doses the bleeding had ceased.

A hyperemia of the cervix uteri, common at the climacteric period, probably existed in this case.

A girl of thirty, of blooming appearance, had for two years had a return of her menses every fourteen or eighteen days.

All previous treatment had proved ineffect- ual.

The blood is dark, without coagula, and is discharged without pain.

It flows slowly and irregularly, and sometimes ceases entirely for a day.

Walking, riding and mental disturbance cause an increased discharge.

Secale had already been given without benefit, in large doses.

Ergotin was prescribed three times a day.

After continuing it for three days, the flow ceased on its eighth day.

During the interim, the remedy was continued morning and evening.

Tho: next period only lasted six days.

The remedy being again continued during the interim, the next period had a normal duration of five days.

(Dr.

Kafka, N.

A. your.

Horn., August, 1859, from Allg.

Horn.

Zeitg., November, 1857.

Translated by Dr.

Hoffendahl.)

MISCARRIAGE

Secale may prove a most useful agent in pre- venting miscarriage ; we may resort to it if the patient complains of violent bearing-down pains, and a sanguineous discharge begins to show itself.

In

In the Medical Times, of Philadelphia, Dr.

Henry Brubacher reports two cases in which this mode of treatment was successful.

The first had long suffered from menorrhagia, and on careful examination was found to have a fibroid of the size of a fcetal head, atttched to the fundus and left side of the uterine walls, and submucous in character.

Repeated five-grain doses of ergotine hypodermically caused decided uterine contractions, which resulted in sloughing and extrusion of the tumor, the growth being discharged piecemeal.

The last portion was ligated by means of a Gooch's double canula.

The second case resembled the first, so far as relates to the nature of the growth, but the fluid extract of ergot was given by the mouth in one-ounce doses daily.

About four weeks of treatment sufficed to cause the mass to be squeezed into the vagina, where it was readily ligated and removed.

No symptoms of septicaemia occurred in either case. {New Remedies, May, 1878.)

GALACTORRHEA

Another use of this drug, upon strictly physiological principles, is its application in galactorrhoea, where it suppresses the excessive secretion of milk by its action upon the muscular fibre of the vessels.

Drs.

Poyet and Commarmond state, that wet-nurses fed upon "ergotized bread lost their milk." (Wood's Mat.

Med.)

Mrs.

T. was confined with her third child fourteen years after her last accouch- ment.

The labor was instrumental, and, although I was assisted by one of our best physicians, the child was still-born.

The soft parts of the mother were so unyield- ing, and the head so large and incompressible, that such result was inevitable.

After the delivery I was informed by the patient's mother, that after the birth of her last child, which occurred at the eighth month, and was still-born, the flow of milk was enormous, and diffuse mastitis set in, resulting in large abscesses of both breasts.

On examining the mammse I found them very largely developed, and I shared the fears of the patient's mother that there would be trouble unless the flow of milk was pre- vented.

Prescribed ergotine, two and one-half grains every four hours.

This treat- ment was commenced on the morning of the second day after her labor.

There did not occur the slightest secretion of milk, the breast remaining soft and natural, nor was there the least fever, local tenderness or swelling.

(Dr.

E.

M.

Hale in the JV.

E.

Med.

Gazette, July, 1879.)

Secale is characterized by : Eavenous appetite, which cannot be satisfied.

Uuquenchable thirst; desires acids.

Sour eructations.

Nausea and vomiting.

Excessive nausea and debility, with very little vomiting of brownish water, with occasional streaks of blood, vomiting of dark-green mucus ; vomiting of blood, bile, membrane and coffee-grounds matter.

Hsemorrhage from the stomach.

Dis- tress and oppression at the stomach ; violent pressure at the stomach.

Great irritability of the stomach.

Cardialgia.

Pain in the pit of the stomach.

Cramps in the stomach.

Sensation of burning in the internal organs.

Abdomen distended.

Burning in the abdomen, liemarkable coldness of the abdomen.

Severe paroxysms of ab- dominal pain, recurring every fifteen minutes.

Paralysis of the intestines.

Paralysis of the rectum.

The anus stood wide open.

Distressing itching in the anus ; ineffectual urging to stool.

Very

offensive, exhausting diarrhoea.

Frequent, brown and slimy dis- charges from the bowels ; the stools were of dark gray color, looked as though meal had been stirred through them, and had a peculiar, sickly, indescribable odor.

Thin, involuntary discharges from the bowels.

Thin, olive-green stools, followed by persistent burning extending high up in the rectum, itching in the anus, making him almost beside himself.

Discharges from the bowels of a great quantity of disorganized mucous membrane, resembling that thrown off in dysentery ; movement from the bowels of watery, feculent matter.

Haemorrhage from the bowels.

Secale is homoeopathic to the following conditions : EuEMATEMESIS with a small, weak pulse ; pale, sunken, dis- torted face ; the blood is fluid, does not coagulate easily and is of offensive odor.

Coldness of the abdomen.

Buruingcin the stomach.

Great exhaustion.

A woman of twenty years of age, of mild disposition and somewhat flabby build, was confined some weeks ago and was suddenly taken with violent vomiting of blood, without relief from alloeopathic treatment.

Symptoms : She vomits as often as seven times a day, amounting in all to three quarts.

The blood looks very dark.

She has no pain, and complains only of weakness.

Face, lips, tongue and hands are as pale as death.

She is covered with a cold perspiration.

Pulse quick, thread-like.

Breathing labored.

Abdomen soft, not tender to pressure.

No movement from the bowels.

Phosphorus relieved her for a short time ; but the vomiting returned again with extreme prostration.

Prescribed secale1, every two hours.

The vomiting stop- ped ; she had a slight relapse after twenty-four hours, but made a quick recovery.

(Gross, in Archiv., vol. xviii., p. 93.)

A girl of ten years of age has had hagmatemesis for four years.

Symptoms : The vomiting is usually preceded by pain in the epigastrium and nausea ; the pain in- clines toward the left upon pressure in the pit of the stomach.

There is quite a prominent, and at times painful, enlargement in the left hypochondrium.

The blood is usually red, and is never mixed with the contents of the stomach.

Collected in a vessel, the blood looks like bloody lymph rather than like pure blood ; it remains perfectly fluid and has an unpleasant odor.

The amount vomited is not very great.

At night she has often chilly spells, followed by profuse perspiration.

She has not lost much strength, has a good appetite and sleeps well.

Secale cured her in sixteen days.

(Drescher, in Allg.

Horn.

Zeitg., vol. ix., 10.)

CAEDIALGIA of a chronic type ; the pain is pressing, burning, especially in the epigastric region ; the pain extends to the back and at times spreads upward, into the pharynx.

The attacks terminate in vomiting of food, or bitter vomiting.

There may be eructations of an acrid, sour fluid.

Pressure in the stomach with hiccough.

Mental depression.

A nursing child of five months had had diarrhoea for twenty-four hours.

Symp- toms : An evacuation every hour, preceded by crying; mucus mixed with water and, very occasionally, streaked with blood ; has vomited twice ; abdomen not sensitive to pressure ; no appetite; much thirst; tongue coated white ; restlessness and sleep- lessness ; dry hot skin ; the temperature of the body is hot.

Mercurius did no service.

The diarrhoea increased.

Prescribed dulcamara.

The child cries constantly ; dry heat of the body ; thirst which cannot be quenched ; distorted countenance; collapse.

Prescribed veratrum.

No relief.

Blue rings around the eyes ; the countenance is strangely distorted ; the eyes are dull ; drawing together of the parts on the lower jaw and the upper throat; coldness of the ears; the abdomen is neither bloated nor sensitive.

Prescribed five drops of the tincture of secale dissolved in a hundred drops of alcohol ; every hour the child received one teaspoonful of a solution of three drops of this mixture in three ounces of water.

After a few hours the watery passages became yellow, bilious, became less frequent, and the patient was discharged cured on the third day.

(Griesselich in the Hygea, vol. iii., 89.)

CHOLERA, especially in the second stage.

There is little or no vomiting, but there are constant alvine discharges, with little color, preceded by rumbling in the bowels and followed by great prostra- tion.

Spasms; rapid collapse.

Secale is especially valuable when there exists a general torpor and when there is little tendency to reaction, and symptoms of paralysis and of retention of urine appear.

A man of fifty-five was taken with cholera on August 20th.

Constant evacuations from the bowels, first natural, than slimy, at last watery.

The tongue has a thin, white coating; pointed.

The taste is flat; much thirst; loss of appetite ; dull head- ache.

The body is cool ; no fever.

Prescribed venatrum10.

August 21

Inodorous, frequent rice-water discharges.

Prescribed veratrum10 and phosphorus10 in alterna- tion.

August 22

The patient is failing; thirst increased; tongue moist.

Pulse feeble, not feverish ; skin wrinkled, moist.

Prescribed acid, phosphor6.

August 23

General condition worse.

The tongue is more pointed, dry at the tip and in the middle.

Rhus*.

August 24

The evacuations as they were on the first day; tongue moist, not so pointed as it was yesterday.

Intense thirst.

Increasing pros- tration.

Pulse smaller than yesterday.

Great emaciation.

Fear of death.

Pre- scribed secale* in water; a spoonful after every evacuation.

The evacuations ceased after the first dose.

Immediate improvement, and cure in three days.

(Gerster in Allg.

Horn.

Zeitg., xlix., p. 27.)

I was called to see a railroad official.

On entering the room I found a very foul stench ; the patient excused himself, as it was impossible for him to retain any feces, which pass day and night unconsciously.

He suffered often during the Franco- German war from diarrhoea, and for the last two months from paralysis of the sphincter ani.

Prescribed secale cornutum.

Neither the second or third decimal dilution brought any improvement.

Prescribed ergotin2, one drop every three hours.

After three days' use of the remedy the sphincter had regained its normal function.

(Dr.

Kceck, Hahn.

Monthly, July, 1877, from Internat.

Horn.

Presse.)

by an entire absence of reaction.

The countenance looks pale ; ex- presses apathy ; there is loss of strength ; intense thirst ; fetor oris ; dryness of the tongue, which looks pointed ; diarrhoea, at times involuntary ; dilated pupils ; paralysis.

Tendency to gangrenous disorganization in the throat.

PUERPERAL FEVER with the same low state of the organism ; utter prostration ; discharge of foul blood from the uterus ; foul- smelling diarrhoea, possibly involuntary; dry fever heat; great thirst; countenance looks pale, earthy, distorted.

Fear of death.

After arsenicum.

GANGRENE

Dry gangrene of the extremities, with coldness, hardness and insensibility of the parts, with fredom from fetor.

Large ecchymoses, blood-blisters on the extremities, becoming gan- grenous, black, suppurating blisters.

The limbs become pale, cold and shrivelled, or cold and lead-colored, losing all sensibility.

(Lilienthal.)

HEMORRHOIDAL TUMORS

Injections of ergotine are used.

The practice is not free from danger.

2.

It contains fifteen per cent less of the poisonous principle of ergot. 3.

It yields twenty per cent more of the efficacious principle.

ANTIDOTAL TREATMENT

Oases of poisoning by ergot are riot very common.

If a poisonous dose of ergot has to be counter- acted, we should first endeavor to remove the poison by an emetic, after which Phoebus recommends the employment of chlorine water, because the alkaloid ergotin is decomposed by chlorine.

If this preparation is not readily obtained, we may use nitro-chloric acid, properly diluted.

Any subsequent constitutional treatment must be conducted according to the necessities of the case.

The dried juice of the cuttle-fish, of which we make triturations and dilutions.

It is one of Hahnemann's anti-psorics.

We have a very extensive pathogenetic and clinical record of the remedy.

We find among other symptoms : Dull headache ; headache with photophobia and inability to open the eyes, on account of the pain.

Paralytic feeling in the forehead.

Boring, sticking pains, extorting cries.

Concussion of the brain when knocking the foot against any- thing.

Great heat in the head, with burning in the ears, difficulty of hearing and dimness of sight.

Violent beating in the temple and in the occiput Headache, with pressure in the brain.

Headache as if the eyes would fall out ; violent headache, as if the head would burst.

Sticking headache close over the left eye, worse during motion in a warm room.

Violent stitching headache through the eyes.

Soreness of the scalp when touched.

Falling oif of the hair.

Itching in the hairy scalp ; small red pimples on the forehead.

A young girl of nineteen years, sanguine-bilious temperament, somewhat rheu- matic, has suffered for several months with a semilateral headache, usually on the right side, which is brought on by taking even a slight cold and is tearing, boring in character, with occasional, painful stitches through the head.

If the artacks are unusually severe, the patient must remain perfectly quiet, close the eyes and press the hand firmly upon the painful spot.

Cool air brings on the pain ; it hardly ever comes on in the night, but may occur at any time of the day.

Cannot bear the sight of food ; mushy, soft evacuations from the bowels.

Menstruation usually a little early, continuing from five to six days.

Sepia30 cured.

(Hirsh in Allg.

Horn.

Zeitg.t vii., p. 132.)

A man, thirty years old, of dark-brown hair, had an ulcer on the leg, which was- cured by local treatment.

Since then he has suffered with hemicrania on the left side ; there is violent stabbing pain in the forehead, which returns with the utmost violence every five minutes day and night, forcing him to cry out with pain ; the pain extends into the left ear and eye, with discharge of tears from the latter ; even the scalp aches; he does not know where to put his head; every noise, even conversa- tion among others, increases the pain; the tongue is coated white ; bitter taste in the mouth.

Sepia6 lessened the violence of the pain in two hours, and cured it entirely in four days.

(S. in K., Allg.

Horn.

Zeitg., x., p. 202.)

Pain in the eyelids, when walking, as if too heavy, and as if he could not keep them open.

Pain and heat in the eyes.

Pressure, heat and twinkling in the eyes, as of a thousand suns.

The eyelids feel as if pressed down by a heavy weight, without agglutination.

Pressure as from a grain of sand in the eye, aggravated by rubbing, and felt most when pressing the eyelids together.

Itching of the eveball and of the eyelids.

Violent itching smarting in the inner canthus of the left eye, with lachrymation and reddening of the conjunctiva.

Burning of the eyes in the morning, with weakness in them.

Swelling of the eye, with headache at the same side.

Scabs in the eyebrows.

Red herpetic spot on the upper eyelid.

Glassy appearance of the eyes.

Lachrymation.

Agglutination in the morning.

Dimness of sight when writing and reading.

He only sees one-half of the things he looks at ; the other half is obscure.

Incipient amaurosis with contraction of the pupil.

Light is impeded by a fiery zig-zag before the eyes.

Black spots, luminous vibrations, sparks of fire (with great f aintness of body) before the eyes.

Twink-

ling before the eyes ; when looking in the light, he sees a zig-zag- shaped wreath of colors.

Green halo around the candle light.

The light of the candle incommodes the eyes by occasioning a contract- ive sensation when reading or writing.

T., unmarried, has suffered, since early in the spring, from a peculiar form of dis- turbed vision, which set in suddenly after the patient had unmistakably taken cold.

Since that time she sees black figures, as large as the palm of her hand, fluttering before her eyes, and having the form of spiders' webs or laces.

This is accompanied by a sensible pain of a pressing character in the circumference of the orbit.

External examination of the eyes affords nothing that could account for the subjective symp- toms.

The patient has observed a gradual diminution of visual power for several years, and has worn glasses for sewing since her fifty-second year; in other words, she is presbyopic, which, at the age of sixty- seven, is not remarkable.

She received belladonna, spirit sulphur, kali jodatum, without effect.

A careful examination by an oculist led to a diagnosis of cataracta dura incipiens, with the statement that nothing could be done in this case.

I gave the woman sepia, 3d trituration, as much as would lie on the end of a penknife, one dose every morning for a fortnight.

By this means I succeeded, at the end of four weeks, in reducing the spots from their original size to punctiform objects, a result whieh the patient accepted with extreme satisfaction. * * * The patient now declares that the disordered vision, which has been stationary since spring, has been reduced to almost nothing.

The web-like figures, which were as large as the palm of a hand, are now no larger than mere specks ; and, what is no less important, the constant pain in the region of the orbicu- laris palpebrarum has almost entirely disappeared.

That the remedy was responsible for the improvement is shown by the fact, that up to the time when sepia was admin- istered the trouble had remained unchanged; besides the improvement, which amounts almost to a cure, shows no tendency to relapse.

Furthermore, and we emphasize this particularly, the history of the case justifies the assumption that the patient was of a constitution particularly suited to sepia.

She had suffered, for many years, from that form of headache, which is characteristic of sepia ; she felt as if the headache came " from the stomach," and it was attended with vomiting.

Two years ago, while suffering from influenza, the headache was so violent that she feared an apopletic stroke; it lasted four days, with the sensation as if a hammer were inces- santly pounding. * * * In passing, it may be mentioned that the patient had been chlorotic in her youth. • (Dr.

H.

Goullon, jun., N.

E.

Med.

Gazette, March, 1875, from Intemat.

Horn.

Presse.)

Sepia causes : Dryness in the throat ; scraping in the throat and hawking up of mucus.

Slight creeping in the throat, with a feel- ing of hoarseness, inducing a frequent clearing of the throat.

Titillation in the throat, hoarseness, dry cough.

Violent, dry, fatiguing cough, which seems to come from the abdomen.

Painful tearing at a small spot of the brain, as if something had been torn loose, during a short fit of cough.

Eawness of the chest.

Expecto- ration of a salty taste.

Cough with blood-streaked expectoration.

Purulent expectoration with violent cough, great oppression of the chest and rattling.

Short breathing when walking.

Dyspnoea with tenacious mucus in the chest.

Oppression in the chest.

Stitches during a deep inspiration.

Pressure in the chest.

Pressure on the upper sternum, as from a weight.

Feeling of heaviness in the chest.

Stitches in the chest during coughing ; stitches in the right side during an inspiration.

Rawness in the chest, as of raw flesh.

Burning, gurgling, bubbling in the chest.

Palpitation of the heart.

Itching of, and brown spots on, the outer chest.

Mrs.

G.

C, aged thirty years; of scrofulous habit; for two weeks has tickling cough while in bed at night, particularly before midnight ; it is croup-like, coming in rapid concussions until breath is exhausted ; then expectoration of mucus, with temporary relief.

Prescribed sepia200; two doses resulted in immediate relief.

(Dr.

C.

Wesselhceft, Transact.

Am.

Inst.

Horn., 1870.)

Miss M.

J.

H., aged thirty-eight years; brunette, scrofulous habit, of consumptive family.

Had cough for six years, less severe since the appearance of facial eruption two years ago ; hard papulse on red base, without suppuration, on the nose, cheeks, forehead and chin, burning, itching and smarting intensely, especially in wet, cold weather.

Cough, dry and hard ; slight expectoration in the morning ; constant de- sire to clear her throat, which feels as if filled with phlegm, which it is impossible to

PHTHISIS

A deep, moist, or dry, croaking cough, relieved on lying down ; copious expectoration of saltish mucus or pus ; stitch- ing or dull pains in the middle of the right lung ; sensation of dry- ness in the chest and throat.

(Dr.

Carleton, Horn.

Times, August, 1879.)

A man of forty years, scrofulous, small and phthisicky, had been bedridden with advanced consumption for six months.

During December he received phosphorus with good results, then calcarea12, then lycopodium12, with improvement until the middle of April.

When we had come to a " stand-still," he received sepia30.

After this, there was a constant improvement in the lung until the end of May.

The patient could lie equally well on the back and on the sides, and was no more troubled with night cough.

Nor did he cough much during the day ; the expectoration had lost the appearance of pus and showed only white bronchial mucus.

There was such a wonderful improvement in his condition, that no one would have recognized in him the formerly hopeless case.

He resumed his occupation, as shepherd and bore much fatigue and overheating.

(Gross in Archiv., vii., 2, 30.)

Wo find recorded : Painful vesicles and ulcers in the mouth ; dryness of the throat and fauces, while the mouth is filled with a profuse flow of saliva of saltish taste.

Bad, bitter taste in the mouth, especially in the morning before breakfast.

Painful feeling of hunger.

Great weakness of digestion with frequent empty or sour, bitter eructations.

The eructations taste like spoiled egg.

Water- brash.

Nausea, with accumulation of watery saliva in the mouth.

Sinking at the pit of the stomach.

Pains in the stomach after eat- ing ; pressure at the stomach after a meal.

Heaviness and rumbling in the stomach.

Stitches in the hypochondria from the right to the left side, quick as lightning.

Dull, aching, sore pain in the region of the liver.

Violent cramping in the region of the liver, relieved by eructations and emission of flatulence.

(The pains in the hypo- chondria are relieved by lying on the painful side.) Distention of the abdomen with flatus.

Spasmodic, cutting, digging pains across the abdomen.

Coldness of the abdomen.

Constipation.

Contrac- tive pain in the rectum, and thence in the perineum and vagina.

Contractive pain in the anus, and, during stool, in the front part of the abdomen.

Burning at the anus during stool.

Itching and stinging in the rectum and anus.

Discharge of mucus from the rectum, with stinging and tearing.

Protrusion of the rectum; varices.

Painful and bleeding haemorrhoids.

Emptiness and weak- ness in the abdomen, after stool.

GASTRALGIA

Tho above justify our use of sepia in gastralgia of cachectic, scrofulous women ; chronic cases ; pressing, burning, tensive pains up to the oesophagus ; bloatedness and distention of the stomach and abdomen ; acidity ; slimy, fat taste ; eructations which taste like rotten eggs.

Desire for soul' things.

Loss of appe- tite; pale, sunken face; toothache; haemorrhoids; hemicrania; great debility ; it seems as if the system had not sufficient vitality to react.

The pain is aggravated by eating.

CONSTIPATION of the same class of patients, with symptoms which resemble those given under gastralgia; loss of tone of the in- testinal muscular fibre.

Difficult expulsion of stool, even of a soft stool; prolapsus ani during the stool; discharge of mucus while at stool.

Haemorrhoids and varices.

Constipation of pregnancy.

Avard, as if everything would come out of the vagina, accompanied with colic ; she has to cross one limb over the other to prevent a prolapsus vaginas ; however, there was no prolapsus, but a mere in- crease of jelly-like leucorrhoea.

Humid itching eruption on the inner labia, with swelling.

Soreness and redness of the labia.

Violent stitches in the pudendum.

Itching of the pudendum.

Dis- charge of blood from the vagina after an embrace.

Pain in the ab- domen as if the menses would appear.

Menses too early, too scanty^ The menses are preceded by colic, with faintishness.

Shuddering, all over the body, pressure in the abdomen, soreness in the perineum and swelling of the pudendum.

During the menses : exhaustion in the morning; tearing in the tibia.

Toothache and throbbing in the gums.

Violent pressure in the forehead.

Toothache.

Bleeding of the note ; melancholy ; colic with bearing down.

Tearing in the back, chilliness and heat.

Eeappearance of the menses which had been suppressed for four months.

Leucorrhoea with stitches in the uterus, with itching in the vagina and in the pudendum.

Yellowish, watery, mucus leucorrhoea.

Leucorrhoea, having the appearance of pus ; leucorrhoea like milk, only in the daytime, with burning pain, and producing soreness between the thighs.

Corrosive leucorrhoea.

LEUCORRHCEA with stinging pains in the ovarian region and in the uterus ; bearing-down through the pelvis toward the genitals, so that the patient crosses her legs to prevent the parts from falling out ; fetid urine, depositing a pink sediment in the vessel and color- ing the vessel red ; fetid perspiration, especially under the axillas and on the soles of the feet ; the discharge itself varies greatly, it may be bland, but more frequently it excoriates the parts ; prolapsus uteri.

Itching in the genital organs.

There is a peculiar weakness in the stomach and abdomen; hot flashes, followed by momentary sweat.

Sexual intercourse is painful and at times followed by a bloody discharge from the vagina.

The system seems exhausted, so it cannot rally.

Cough.

Constipation.

Despondency.

Leucorrhoea of young girls at the age of puberty ; leucorrhoea of pregnancy, and of the climacteric period.

Best adapted to feeble, sensitive women.

METRORRHAGIA with terrible bearing down, as if everything would issue from the vagina : pale, earthy face with sunken eyes and sallow complexion.

Indurations or prolapse of the uterus.

Of especial value in haemorrhages during pregnancy and during the climacteric period.

DYSMENORRHEA of women of somewhat advanced years and who have labored under chronic diseases with symptoms which come within the curative range of this remedy.

The existence of prolapse would be almost indispensible as an indication of sepia in painful menstruation.

Bearing down, obliging her to cross the limbs, etc.

girl of twenty-two years, formerly healthy, took a severe cold and ceased to menstru- ate.

She had always menstruated scantily, the periods returning too soon, and the intervals marked by a slight leucorrhoea.

Symptoms : Appearance pale, like wax ; peculiar expression of apathy in the countenance; she is chilly, without subsequent fever.

She has frequent stitching pain in the forehead, increased toward night.

Beating and roaring in the head, especially on the right side.

Well marked rushing sound in the right carotid, less in the left.

Violent palpitation and difficult breath- ing after the least exertion ; the sounds of the heart are normal.

For some time she has coughed and expectorated slightly during the night ; auscultation reveals nothing abnormal.

Loathing of meat and vegetables ; meat, especially fat meat, is rejected at once.

Stools hardly ever costive.

Prickling in the feet, as if they were " going to sleep," caused and aggravated by walking about.

She feels particularly bad in the evening; she is then exceedingly weary and sleepy.

She was under "regular" care for three months.

On December 27th she received three doses of sepia500 with direction to take one dose each day.

On January 2d she commenced to menstruate, but very scantily.

January 24th

She is better ; she has all the old symptoms, but they are milder.

Constant improvement, without menstruating, until February 5th.

Sepia200, three doses; one dose to be taken each day.

February 13th

Menstruates.

Constant improvement.

March 5th

Her troubles have all disappeared.

March nth

Unwell again.

Menstruation continues for three days.

Looks fresh and well, but there is still a slight " rushing " in the carotid.

The urinary symptoms of sepia are well defined.

There is fre- quent urination with considerable tenesmus and bearing down.

Increased urination at night; also involuntary micturition.

The urine deposits a pink sediment and stains the vessel red ; there may be also much fetor and a dirty, brownish deposit, with a scum on the top of the urine.

Sepia causes important skin symptoms.

We find : itching of the skin, and itching vesicles and papules on the face, hands and feet ; a vesiculo-pustular eruption in the hollow of the joints of the knee and elbow.

After the sepia eczema there is abundant desquamation.

While speaking of the skin symptoms, we may mention that sepia produces on the lower lip a swelling with soreness, burning pain and a pricking as from a splinter of wood.

This symptom, together with the constitutional symptoms, has led to the use of sepia in the treatment of epithelial cancer of the lower lip, two cases of which, cured by sepia800, have come within our knowledge.

In

CUTANEOUS AFFECTIONS sepia may often prove useful.

Dr.

Neidhard recommends it more particularly for small, red pimples, producing a roughness and cracking of the skin, from which a watery humor sometimes oozes ; at other times they are dry ; they principally affect the inside of the joints of the arms and

SCABIES

In mismanaged scabies, or in scabies which appear again after suppression by sulphur-ointment, sepia may prove effica- cious.

In

Of all the medicines used for circular herpes or tetter, commonly called ring-worm, sepia bears off the palm as being by far the most frequently used.

Unless symptoms contra-indicate this remedy, I administer a solitary dose, 30, 200, or 55,000 ; and patiently await its effect, which nearly always results in a cure in the course of four or six weeks.

(Dr.

H.

N".

Guernsey, Med.

Counselor, September, 1879.)

Sepia hag.: "Very profuse perspiration." Profuse sweat when walking, during motion, smelling almost like juniper blossoms.

The slightest exercise excites sweat.

She feels either too cold, or else she is attacked with heat, resulting in sweat.

A young country woman, twenty years of age, complained of the following troubles : For fifteen months, during which she resided in Lyons, pain in the kidneys, slight leucorrhcea, deficient menses, little appetite, difficult digestion, profuse perspiration of hands and feet, chilliness of the lower extremities.

I ordered sepia300, for ten days, three times a day, after the lapse of which she was free from her perspiration, warmth had returned to the lower extremities, leucorrhcea and pain in the kidneys had diminished, menstruation, appetite and digestion were improved.

(Dr.

Galla- sardin, N.

A.

Jour.

Horn., August, 1866.)

A washerwoman, twenty -three years old.

She suffered from frequent and severe migraine.

Nux vom.30 produced a slight amelioration.

At her second visit she complained of suffering from profuse perspiration on her hands, so that all needles rusted and soiled her work.

I gave her sepia300, three times a day, for ten days, curing her migraine and her perspiration.

She had suffered her whole life from this abnormal diaphoresis.

During the time she took sepia her appetite increased two- fold, so that she frequendy felt the sensation of hunger, and was obliged to eat some- thing during the night or early in the morning.

A few weeks afterward, the same phenomena appeared after another such dose, of sepia, clearly proving that this curi- ous increase of her appetite was no mere accident. [Ibid.)

The action of silicea upon the glandular structure and upon the skin is of much practical interest.

It cures : acne ; herpetic erup- tion on the genitals, with intense itching and burning; eruptions on the lips and in the whiskers, with crawling or shooting pains ; rose-colored blotches with itching and burning.

It is used for

A girl, eight years old, received a blow below the left knee, causing a swelling of the size of a fist, which broke and formed an ulcer.

Symptoms : A large ulcer, two inches in diameter, on the upper third of the tibia, exposing the bone, whose structure however, is sound.

The base of the ulcer is of a dirty purple.

Copious secretion of a thin, bloody, odorless fluid ; stabbing pains in the ulcer, especially in the night ; the edge and the surrounding soft tissues itch and burn constantly.

She received one grain of silicea3 on May 23d; the ulcer had healed on June 18th.

(Knorr in Allg.

Horn.

Zeitg., v., 326.)

H., aged twenty-nine years, after the use of large doses of mercury was taken with violent stitching pain in the left side of the chest in the region of the sixth true rib, where an abscess formed, which was treated with iodine for two years, without heal- ing.

On Febuary iSth he presented the following symptoms: General exhaustion; uneasy sleep with dreams, usually lying on the left side ; countenance icteric ; exhaustion from the least exertion; great nervous excitement.

Constant gnawing pain within the abscess ; on the outside : a fungus growth of the size of a walnut, giving passage to a fistula, which followed the course of the rib for an inch and a half; the entrance to the fistula was surrounded by a ring of scarlet-red ; there was a copious discharge of ichorous, fetid pus.

Prescribed silicea900.

On the 25th the pain was much easier.

March nth the fungus growth had disappeared; the fistula is covered with a scab, general health is good ; after an exhausting journey this scab fell off and another fungus growth appeared, having the appearance of small peas.

Prescribed silicea2000.

The growth disappeared ; perfect union took place and a per- fect cure was made.

(Nunez in your. d.

I.

Med.

Horn., vol. ii.)

A man, sixty years old, who had formerly suffered with glandular enlargement, had a hard tumor on the face, which extended from the left corner of the mouth, covering a goodly portion of the cheek ; it is very hard.

Prescribed belladonna.

No relief.

He then took, every second day, a dose of silicea30.

A perfect cure resulted.

(Kretzschmann, Allg.

Horn.

Zeitg., ii., p. 61.)

An officer cut himself with a razor in the upper lip ; scirrhus developed and extir- pation of a part of the lip was performed.

The result was a hardening of the tissues, with a deep fissure through the left upper lip, covered with a horny crust.

After the use of silicea11 the hardness yielded in nine days ; he then took silicea30 and the whole trouble disappeared. {Ibid.)

Tr. has suffered for some time with a malignant sore on the forehead, which had been variously treated without relief.

The frontal bone and the nasal bones had become implicated.

The destructive ulceration spread every day, discharging an exceedingly fetid, bad-looking pus and accompanied, day and night, by violent pains in the bones.

He received four doses of silicea30 from February 17th to March 15th.

There was a decrease of pain and the destructive process spread less rapidly.

By the end of September the whole condition was greatly improved and the patient was finally cured.

A few doses of sulphur and other remedies were given to complete the cure.

(Gross in Arch., vii., 2, 98.)

Woman, acred forty, weakly constitution.

Since she has had frequent catarrhal affections, ' somewhat asthmatic.

For some time observed a lump in her right mamma.

In the summer of 1862 I found near the nipple, toward the right, a scirrhus as hard as a cartilage, of uneven surface, movable and of the size of a hazel- nut.

Prescribed silicea24, four times daily.

Eight weeks after, the scirrhus entirely gone. {Am.

Jour.

Horn.

Mat.

Med., vol. hi., p. 95.)

A girl, eighteen years old, had the itch soon after her birth ; suppressed by external treatment.

When she was sixteen years old she had caries of the left foot.

Amputa- tion.

After three months the same disease attacked the elbow-joint.

After nine months she presented the following symptoms : The elbow and wrist of the right arm are very much swollen, red and hot.

A large number of fistulse gave exit to a fetid, sanious pus and run into the joints, where the bones are necrosed, the probe conveying a decided roughness.

She states that she is in pain day and night.

The pains are stitching, drawing and tearing ; she moans and sobs continually from the severity of the pain ; every pressure, touch or motion increases the pain.

Great thirst ; poor appetite ; hectic fever and profuse sweats.

One dose of silicea30 pro- duced an almost miraculous effect.

The pains disappeared entirely and never returned.

For three years she took one dose of silicea30 every forty days.

The destroyed bone was reproduced ; the joints, of course, remained unmovable, but in the course of time she got limited motion.

She remained well.

(Gauwerky in Allg.

Horn.

Zeitg., xxxix., p. 68.)

A scrofulous girl of thirteen years has had, for the last eight years, inflammation and destruction of several bones.

She is built delicately, has a fine skin, clear com- plexion, pale countenance.

Symptoms : Occipital headache and dull pressure over the eyes at night.

Pustules on the upper lip.

Appetite, digestion and stools are normal.

Tearing pains in the limbs, especially in the upper leg.

The right arm is stiff; shows a shining, deep cicatrix in the bone.

There is a thick, crust-like erup- tion on the posterior surface of the knee-joint which destroys the adjoining tissues and secretes a viscious pus.

The left big toe is anchylosed, and shows a number of cicatrices.

There are several small fistulous openings on the upper surface of the toe and of the corresponding tarsal bone ; the probe shows destruction of the periosteum.

These fistulaj discharge a large amount of thin, watery matter.

These parts were considerably swollen.

Fetid perspiration in the axilla.

Sleep is usually quiet ; at times it is disturbed by frightful dreams.

She is a somnambulist ; she gets out of bed, usually during the early morning hours, walks about the house with closed eyes and undressed, and answers questions correctly.

This has existed only for a few years.

Prescribed on January 31st one dose of silicea30, to be repeated in ten days.

On March 10th there was marked improvement ; general symptoms have almost dis- appeared, sleep quiet, she feels happy, appearance of freshness, the size of the toe has lessened, the pain is easier, some of the fistulas have closed.

The crusts have fallen off.

Silicea repeated.

The patient was discharged cured on August 28th.

(Heichel- heim in flygea, iii., p. 374.)

Dr.

W.

F.

Laird {Hahn.

Monthly, April, 1880,) relates a case of enchondroma cured by silicea 71M. ; each dose of the remedy was followed by suppuration and discharge of part of the contents of the tumor.

J.

K., aged twenty years; two years ago he received a bruise just above the inner tibial tuberosity; has been under medical care for two years.

On January 10, 1876, his condition was as follows : The joint was enlarged to twice its natural size, with constant pain through the joint of a sharp, cutting nature; the patella is immovable and there is almost total immobility of the joint and considerable atrophy of the limbs.

Prescribed silicea30, one grain.

Within two hours after taking the first dose the pain increased until it became almost unbearable, when it began to subside.

January 24th, silicea200, one grain.

February 10th, pain all gone and perceptible de- crease in the size of the joint.

February 17th, some pain.

Silicea200, one-grain dose.

Simple, warm fomentations every evening.

March 1st, the pain absent; the patella can now be displaced a very little ; the joint is also becoming more flexible.

April 10th, has dispensed with the use of the cane, but there remains a slight limp in walk- ing, owing to a shortening of the flexor ligaments.

Calcarea carboni ?j 200, one dose.

July 1st

The case is improving constantly and discharged as needing no more treatment.

(C. in Chi.

Med.

Advance, July, 1878.)

"Fistula lachrymalis, of which several cures with silicea are on record.

Staphyloma cornese.

Corneal ulcers and opacities, the latter said to be brought on by suppressed perspiration of the feet.

Cataract.

Phlyctenular conjunctivitis.

Irido-cyclitis.

Silicea has cured several cases of irido-cyclitis, when the intensity of the inflam- mation appeared in the ciliary body.

This is the form of inflamma- tion ordinarily known as e sympathetic ophthalmia.' The remedy may be relied on whether the affection is primary or sympathetic.

In my practice it is simply invaluable." (Dr.

W.

H.

Woodyatt, pri- vate communication.)

the ulcers perforated.

The cornea now presented a deep, central, funnel-shaped excavation, its edges being quite steep, smooth and transparent ; there was no corneal infiltration surrounding the edges of the ulcer.

The aqueous humor was constantly trickling away, leaving the anterior chamber empty, and the iris being most of the time in apposition with the posterior layer of the cornea.

The pupil could with great difficulty be kept slightly dilated with a strong solution of atropia.

The tension of the eyeball was soft, as would be expected.

Prescribed silicea6 ; was given (vide: sloughing, penetrating ulcer of the cornea, centrally located and having no blood- vessels running toward itj and continued for two weeks, but without improvement. * * * The indications for silicea remaining as marked as ever, we gave four doses a day of silicea200.

Within the first twenty-four hours a very decided change was noticed.

The ulcer had begun to fill from the bottom and, with a glass, two minute vascular twigs could be discovered running from the margin to the center of the cornea, the best evidence that the reparative process had commenced.

The improvement was rapid and progressive ; within ten days the ulcer was entirely healed.

There was no recurrence of phlyctenules or any further ulceration and the symptoms of irritation, which had so long existed, disappeared under the continuance of this remedy.

(Dr.

F.

H.

Foster in A7?i.

Homccopathist, August, 1878.)

Silicea causes, and cures, profuse perspiration of the head, face, •sexual organs, hands and feet.

These sweats are exhausting, fetid and -sour.

Clinical experience has shown that this remedy affects especially the profuse and offensive perspiration of feet, with rawness ietween the toes.

July 10th

Waited upon Mrs.

W., who gave birth to a son.

Four days afterward, my attention was called to an enlargement of the left side of the scrotum.

Diagnosis: Hydrocele.

The child presented the appearance of one to whom silicea would be very applicable.

I gave a single dose of silicea 6M.

After three days a slight im- provement was perceptible;

August 13th, the child is perfectly well.

(Dr.

H.

N. ■Guernsey in Hahn.

Monthly, October, 1869.)

July 30th

Prescribed for a little boy, four years old, for true hydrocele.

An old- school physician had advised the use of a trocar.

The general appearance of the child unmistakably indicated silicea.

Prescribed silicea 6M., one dose.

September •8th : The father writes, " the child seems perfectly well in all respects. [Ibid.)

The effect of silicea upon the digestive apparatus is interesting.

It causes a fitful, craving appetite, which is satisfied, even to nausea, with a small amount of food.

Pain and pressure in the stomach, sour eructations, heartburn, hiccough and dizziness follow the meal.

There are also pinching and griping pains in the stomach and abdo- men, with gnawing at the stomach.

The bowels are distended, hard, with various tearing and shifting pains, especially in the umbilical region.

Offensive flatus.

Constipation, with desire for stool, but lack of force to expel them ; the feces recede into the rectum after they have been half expelled.

Offensive, smarting diarrhoea, with perspiration, chilliness, nausea and weakness.

Stitching and burn- ing pains in the rectum.

Haemorrhoids, protruding during stool and discharging a bloodv mucus.

CONSTIPATION

Silicea may prove of use in constipation in persons of the proper organization and habit.

It is an excellent remedy for the constipation of badly-nourished children, with pale, earthy face ; copious perspiration about the head ; large and hard abdomen; aversion to warm food.

In either case we have large stools; loss of expulsive force, so that even soft stool is expelled with much difficulty.

Mrs.

J., the mother of four children, and apparently healthy, has suffered for several months with constipation.

Close attention to proper diet had not relieved her.

There was frequent urging to stool, without ability to effect an evacuation ; the stools were very large and hard, and after being partially expelled, would recede back into the rectum.

Prescribed silicea30.

Two hours later she had a free evacuation and has remained free from the difficulty since then.

(Dr.

I.

D.

Johnson in U.

S.

Med.

Investigator, Feb. 15, 1879.)

Mrs.

H., aged twenty-six years and mother of three children, states, that she has suffered from constipation since the birth of her youngest child, three months ago.

She had taken the usual cathartic medicines.

The stools were hard and dry, were partially expelled with much straining and then receded back into the rectum.

Pre- scribed silicea30, one dose each night and morning.

Cured with four doses. {Ibid.}

PHTHISIS — Silicea is a valuable remedy in the treatment of phthisis.

We know that it exerts very marked effects upon the respiratory organs.

We may mention : Eoughness and dryness in the throat ; tickling and itching in the region of the supra-sternal fossa, followed by violent and long-continued paroxysms of shaking, hard cough.

This tickling is exceedingly trying and persistent, and feels as if a hair were suspended in the trachea, the touch of which excites the irresistible tickling and subsequent cough.

The whole chest is weak, tired, sore.

The expectoration consists of thick, yel- low or greenish mucus, occasionally streaked with blood, and sinks in water.

The cough is also excited by cold drinks and by the act of speaking; it is accompanied by keen, stitching pains in the chest.

When we add to these symptoms the aggravation in the evening, at night, from a cold, before a thunder-storm, the amelio- ration from warm air, the great lack of vitality and tendency to profuse perspiration about the head and chest, the picture is suffi- ciently correct to be easily recognized.

Miss G., aged twenty-two years, in narrow circumstances ; has to sew four or five hours daily; is anxious and careworn, depressed in mind; languid in body.

Bowels and menstruation regular.

Every Sunday morning has a headache, which grows worse as the day advances and passes off during the night ; a splitting headache from the neck up through the occiput and vertex, and sometimes a sharp pain ex- tending through the head, from the occiput to the right eye.

Much aggravated by noise, motion and light ; relieved by wrapping the head in a warm shawl ; but she cannot bear pressure on the head.

March, 17, 1867

Silicea2gg, to be dissolved and taken every night and morning for a fortnight.

While taking the medicine she escaped her usual Sunday headache.

Afterward she took a powder of silicea269, as above, for one week every month, until March, 1868.

During this time and since, up to October 15, 1868, she has had no return of the headache.

(Dr.

C.

Dunham in U.

S.

Med. and Surg, your., Jan., 1869.)