VITAL POWER, a. Sensorium. Depressing; signs of anaemia; vertigo on rising, with debility and general trembling. b. Special senses. A partial action only ; vision failing as from paralysis of the optic nerve. c. Muscular system. Acts in such a way as to produce paralysis, or a paralyzed sensation in the tongue and in the back and extremities. These phenomena, however, succeed, except in case of the tongue and the eyelid, paroxysms of sticking and tearing pains, which are indicative of a rheu- matic affection of the muscles. Hence the tendency to a rheumatic diathesis may be assumed to be the leading affection of the muscular system as a result of Dulcamara. At the same time there are no indications of a rheumatic dyscrasia, except offensive sweat and urine. These affections corre- spond rather to the effects of simple exposure to cold and wet. Action upon the organic substance. The most marked effect is shown by the action of Dul- camara upon the mucous membrane, especially of the alimentary canal and of the urinary bladder producing more or less copious discharges of mucus, altered from a normal condition, but not displaying any evidence of decomposition; and upon the lymphatic system, producing glandular enlargements (their specific nature unknown) both in the cervical and submaxillary, and in the inguinal regions. Clinical records, which are rich in cases of glandular enlargements cured by Dulcamara, teach that the conditions most easily cured by Dulcamara are haemorrhages from the nose, which occur without evidence of decomposition of the blood. A specific dyscrasia, however, is produced, as is shown by the eruptions and by the offensive sweat which allies it to rheumatic affections. General affections. As might be inferred from the affections of the lymphatic and mucous systems, a disposition to anasarca is shown by the symp- toms of Dulcamara, e. g., general swelling of the limbs and pufiiness of the face. Vegetative system. Dulcamara works such an alteration as to produce copious, soapy saliva, with loose and spongy gums. Flat, soapy taste, with loss of appetite, discharge of stringy, tenacious mucus from the stomach, and yellow and green mucous diarrhoea, with griping and cutting in the abdomen before the stool. Burning in the bladder and deposit of mucus in the urine evacuated. (Vesical catarrh.) Sphere of action. The sphere of Dulcamara is not very extensive. Its action is apparently con- DULCAMARA. 289 fined to the muscular, mucous and fibrous or sero- fibrous tissues; and of these tissues the parts most affected are, in the muscular tissue, the voluntary- muscles, especially those of the face and extremities and of the thorax; in the mucous tissue, that of the alimentary canal and urinary bladder, the air passages being scarcely affected. The cough is rather excited by stitches in the intercostal muscles and in the fibrous tissue, the substance of the meatus auditorius possibly the pericranium and the tissues about the articulations of the extremities. In addition to these tissues, the lymphatic gland- ular system and the special sense of vision are especial seats of the action of Dulcamara.