Part 17

BACK: Acute pains in the muscles of the neck and shoulder-blade. 120. Pricklings from the shoulder-blade along the right side of the neck. Sensation as if a string were pulled from the shoulder to the ear. Crampy pain in right side of the neck, extending to the arm. Darting from the ear to the shoulder. Pain from the shoulder round the neck, like a band, with a stitch in the pit of the stomach and nape of the neck. 125. Crampy pain behind the neck. Pain in the side of the neck, worse when turning the head to the right side. Throbbing in the back. Passing heat in the back, followed by shuddering all over. Darting in the spine of the shoulder-blade, shifting to the other shoulder. 130. Pains from the shoulder to the back, with lancinations hindering breathing. Sticking pain at the shoulder-blade. Shock across the back. Pain in the back as from a nail.

UPPER EXTREMITIES: Stitching pain in the left axilla. 135. Formication above the left shoulder. Pain under the left axilla, as if cut with a penknife. Quick throbbing on the right shoulder. Violent pain in left arm, worse when covered; she cannot stretch it. Pain as from a blow at the right arm, with numbness. 140. Numbness of the left arm, with pain in the shoulder as if beaten by hammers. Darting from the elbow to the shoulder-blade. Pain in left arm, she can scarcely raise it. Laming pain at left arm, when holding it still. Crampy pain in left hand. 145. Itching on the back of the hands. Crampy pain in the right hand, followed by shuddering all over. Lancinating pains in the muscles of the right hand and shoulder-blades. Rheumatic pain and stiffness of left index-finger. Crampy pain at the right ring-finger. 150. Pain in the bone of the left thumb, with trembling when attempting to use it. Prickling at the tip of the middle-finger, which draws it up.

LOWER EXTREMITIES: Contusive pain at the right hip. Pulling along the left sartorius muscle. Pain in left gluteus maximus as if contracted. 155. Contraction of the leg, with stiffness of the bend of the knee. Acute pain at inner side of right tibia. Pain from the left hip to the knee, with weakness of the leg. Pain in the bend of the knee as if a tendon were slowly drawn inwards. Pain as if scratched at the feet, followed by heat. 160. Sense as of a blow at the left big toe.

SLEEP, &c.: Desire to gape. No sleep after midnight, with pains all over when stirring. Comatose condition, but no sleep. Heavy sleep, with numbness and sense as if bruised on waking. 165. Drowsy, and shuddering in the legs. Restless at night, followed by prickings all over. Heavy and drowsy. Restless night. Suffocative fit at night. 170. She dreams that she is talking with dead persons. Sad dreams with fear on waking. Dreams about dead bodies. Internal heat with restlessness; she has to rise. Heat after the cold, especially in the renal region. 175. Shuddering and cold sweat in the air. Violent pain in the muscles of the neck, thigh and left leg. The limbs feel bruised.

PANACEA.

We regret to say that we lost the drawings and the notes which we had collected about the tree called by the Brazilians “panacea” on account of the many ailments for which they use it. It is called in Brazil, azougue dos pobres (mercury of the poor), cabedula, and erva carneira. This tree is exceedingly common in Brazil; knowing its name, foreign homœopathists will find it perhaps easier to procure the plant.

First day.—1. Heaviness in the forehead, worse when drowsy, at 10 in the evening. Heat followed by considerable cold, at half past 10.

Second day.—Bitter mouth, in the morning after rising, at 5. Pain at the shoulder-blade by turning the head to the left side. 5. Nausea. Spasmodic yawning arrested suddenly. Cramp from the index-finger to the elbow. Violent headache, worse when inclining to the left side, at 6. Pain at the forehead and temples. 10. Pain at the loins as if bruised, at 6. Globus hystericus at the pit of the stomach, she cannot lace herself. Hunger, with loathing of food. Fainting turn. Pain from the right wrist to the elbow. 15. Vertigo with increase of the headache, at 6. Heaviness of the head. Drowsy. Tearing, from the chest to the throat, at 7. Pain like a blow with a hammer, at the left shoulder. 20. Dizziness, she inclines backwards as if she would fall, at half past 7 in the evening. Pain at the navel as if cut by a penknife, all around the abdomen and terminating in the loins. Heat at the tongue, with sensation as if little drops of ice-water were upon it, at 9 in the morning. Pain at the temples as if in a vice. Very drowsy at noon, with heaviness of the eyes. 25. Cramps from the feet to the bends of the knees. Empty feeling in the stomach, with desire to eat. Hunger causing a burning at the stomach. The knees give way, at 4 in the evening. Desires to be alone. 30. Shuddering in the open air, at 7 in the evening. She cannot kneel for any length of time. Pain in the chest, rising upwards, with pulling. Pain above the orbits as if a rusty saw were rapidly moved across the part. Sensation as if the toe-nail were torn off. 35. Weariness as after a long journey, at 8 in the evening.

Third day.—Numbness of the left hand, it cannot be stirred, at 6 in the morning. Pain as if stabbed with a knife, in the sides and navel. Pain in a decayed tooth, as if a penknife were thrust in, at 7 in the morning. Aching pain at the vertex, with dizziness; this pain shifts to the left eye, followed by sensation as if a rocket were rushing out of it, at half past 7. 40. Sense of choking at 9 in the morning. Trembling of the right hand. Dissatisfied with herself, every thing is unpleasant to her. Headache which increases her dissatisfaction. Shuddering all over.

HAHNEMANN’S ARRANGEMENT.

HEAD, &c.: Vertigo. Dissatisfied with herself, more so when she has the headache. Pain at the temples as if in a vice. Aching pain at the vertex with dizziness, shifting to the left eye, with sensation as if a rocket were rushing out of it. Heaviness in the forehead. Headache worse when inclining the head to the left side. Sawing pain above the orbits. Pain in a decayed tooth, as if a penknife were thrust in. Heat at the tongue, with sensation as if little drops of ice-water were upon it. Sense of choking.

GASTRIC, &c.: Hunger with burning at the stomach. Nausea. Hunger, with loathing of food. Bitter mouth, after rising from bed. Globus hystericus at the pit of the stomach. Empty feeling in the stomach. Pain in the sides and navel as if stabbed with a knife. Cutting pain; from the navel all around the abdomen. Pulling pain in the chest. Tearing from the chest to the throat. Pain at the loins as if bruised.

EXTREMITIES: Pain at the shoulder-blade when turning the head to the left side. Pain in the right forearm. Trembling of the right hand. Numbness of the left hand. Cramp from the index-finger to the elbow. Cramps in the legs. Sensation as if the toe-nails were torn off. Pain at left shoulder as from a blow. Spasmodic yawning. Shuddering all over. Shuddering in the open air. Heat followed by cold. Weariness. Fainting turn.

SOLANUM TUBEROSUM ÆGROTANS.

SOL. T. ÆG.—DISEASED POTATO.

A description of the potato in a work destined for European pharmaceutists and physicians, would be entirely useless; so well and so universally known is this plant in Europe. However, since our work will get into the hands of persons who are less familiar with the productions of the European continent, we deem it advisable to subjoin a drawing and a short description of this plant. The potato is a native of Chili; it is an herbaceous plant, with a branchy stem about one or two feet high. Its leaves are pinnatifid, with leaflets that are oval, entire, slightly hairy on their lower surface and almost opposite. Smaller folioles sometimes arise between the larger ones. The flowers constitute corymbs either erect or inclined; calice in five parts; corol of a white violet with five equal divisions; five stamens attached to the basis of the corol; one style and stigma, fleshy berry with two chambers. The roots develop tubercles of different sizes and called potatoes. The potato-rot first reveals itself by brown spots irregularly distributed through the interior of the tubercles; gradually these spots are transformed into white points of a cottonny appearance which may be compared to the cryptogamia termed byssus, and found on damp wood. From this point a general process of decomposition sets in, and the potato exhales an insupportable nauseous odor. In our provings we have made use of a potato in an entire state of decomposition, without, however, being completely rotten; there were brown portions intermingled with those byssus-shaped parts described above.

HOMŒOPATHIC TREATMENT OF THE POTATO-ROT.

Human pathology is not the only field of the homœopathist. He should take an interest in every species of suffering, and endeavor to restore the harmony of the organic kingdom wherever it has been disturbed by some accidental cause. Homœopathy is a vast, unitary science. The healing art is one; there is no such thing as one healing art for man and another for the animal, though it is on man that we should prove our drugs because he is the complex of the various kingdoms of nature.

The question now occurs, how is the potato-rot to be treated? It is evident that the great point is to prevent the disease, and, for this purpose, we must endeavor to remove the cause. Principiis obsta, has ever been the fundamental rule of medical treatment.

In order to attain this end, we have deemed it necessary first to ascertain the effects which the diseased potato would produce on a healthy person and afterwards to find out what drugs produce similar effects. We might have instituted our provings on the potato itself, and, among a number of drugs, might have discovered the one that would produce a disease similar to the rot. But this mode of investigation would have been too long and uncertain, whereas the proving on the human body is simple and direct, and is, we think, the true mode which Providence has designed we should pursue even in regard to the potato-rot.

It is true, man cannot be assimilated to the myriads of organized beings that surround us; man constitutes the highest link in the chain of beings; he is the complex of the animal life on our globe, and the most perfect type to which all inferior existences can be referred; he is a microcosm containing all the wonders of the universe; he is the responsible administrator of this earth. Man alone is able to produce a true pathogenesis by revealing the most evanescent as well as the most characteristic and most permanent symptoms, or lesions of sensation. On plants and animals we can only perceive disordered functions, disorganizations of tissues, or acute pains as manifested by gestures or cries; but the truly dynamic action can only be properly perceived and described by man.

The veterinary homœopathist does very well in selecting his remedy by the human pathogenesis. Why should not the same mode be applicable to vegetables? We have invited our fellow-beings to try it; we have not only invited them to teach, and to cure, and to make themselves sick, in order to discover the true means of healing; but we have encouraged them to suffer themselves to be persecuted, and even imprisoned, as a reward for their labors of love, we have said to them; whilst the world is hesitating whether it should accept or reject the blessing offered by Hahnemann, let us lose no time; there are other regions where the evil is still triumphant, and where truth is not even known by name; let us expel error from its last hiding-places. And we have never failed in meeting corresponding souls that would hear us and follow us. And thus it is that homœopathy, this physical reflex of the Christian redemption, combats evil by itself, pursuing it from region to region until it shall have been exterminated from the world.

Now let us describe the practical part of our proving.

From the first, frontal headaches, with pressure above the orbits, have been observed with much regularity not only by the three provers whose symptoms are published, but also by other provers who continued the proving only for a few days.

Until the 20th day, these headaches were often accompanied by fever, with chill, heat, sweat, shudderings followed by sore throat, cough and greenish mucous expectoration.

The palpitation of the heart which occurs during the whole period of the proving, and with particular violence at the end of the third proving, appears to be represented in the case of the second prover by violent muscular pulsations occurring in the same chronological order. The hard, large-sized, fragmentary stools, and their painful expulsion which sometimes caused a falling of the rectum; the frequent emission of flatulence preceded or accompanied by colic, with sensitiveness of the abdominal integuments in the case of the first prover, are very constant symptoms of this drug; they were observed from the first and increased until the last days of the proving.

We will likewise point to the general or partial weakness, which, in the case of the third prover, were followed by violent pains in the loins.

The white coating of the tongue which was observed on the first day, gradually limited itself to a yellow line along the middle. Among the less general symptoms which were observed during the whole time of the proving, we may note the want of appetite, the bitter taste of food, the cutaneous eruptions, the swelling of the mucous membrane of the palate, the thick urine, and lastly the pain in the groin or the right ileo-femoral articulation.