Part 49

In all the year that the stray copy of the old magazine was in my possession I felt it a duty to write up this remedy. I have done it lamely, but as well as I was able. Reader, where my duty ends yours begins. May you discharge it more worthily than I.

(There have been a number of cases reported in which Latrodectus mac. acted as Dr. Jones predicted; from them we select the following by Dr. E. H. Linnell, North American Journal of Homoeopathy, December, 1890):

S. L. G., a man fifty years old, of bilious temperament, a dentist by profession, had slight attacks of angina after severe exposure and overexertion during "the blizzard" in March, 1888. He did not consider them of sufficient importance to consult a physician about them, but some months later he had a suppurative prostatitis, which was followed by considerable prostration, and the attacks of angina became very severe. I never could get a satisfactory description of the character of the pain, and I never saw him during a paroxysm. The pain was brought on by exertion of any kind, and was especially frequent soon after dinner. The pain was sometimes felt in the left arm, but was usually confined to the cardiac region. I once or twice detected a slight aortic obstruction sound, but aside from this failed to find any evidence of organic disease. The usual remedies gave no relief, but Latrodectus [Latin: ezh]c was of great benefit. Under its use the attacks gradually became less frequent and less severe. He has taken no medicine now for at least six months, and he tells me that although he occasionally has a little reminder of his former trouble, the attacks are so slight that he pays no attention to them. I have given the remedy in another similar case, with even more gratifying success. The attacks were very promptly arrested and have not returned, although nearly a year has elapsed. I think we have in this remedy, to which Dr. S. A. Jones directed attention in one of the issues of the Homoeopathic Recorder, a very valuable remedy in this painful affection. It is probably, as Dr. Jones suggests, in angina pectoris vasomotoria that it will be found especially serviceable.

LEMNA MINOR.

NAT. ORD., Lemnaccae.

COMMON NAME, Duckweed.

PREPARATION. The fresh plant is pounded to a pulp and macerated in two parts by weight of alcohol.

(The following is by Dr. Robert C. Cooper, of London, and appeared in the Hahnemannian Monthly, 1894):

"The lowest form of phoenogamous vegetation. It consists," says Lindley, "of lenticular floating fronds, composed of stem and leaf together and bearing the flowers in slits in the edge." It forms the green scum found on stagnant ponds and dykes. It is found in two varieties, the Lemna minor and the Lemna gibba.

Before going any further I may as well at once make a bald as well as a bold statement, and say that the special province of Lemna minor is to pitch with vigor upon the nostrils; from the very moment I began prescribing it this was beyond question evident. I can think of no possible source of error except that this beneficial action may be due to the germs adhering to the fronds of the Lemna rather than to the pure plant-force.

To guard against this I have carefully filtered my tincture, but this has not made the slightest change in its beneficial influence.

CASE I. Woman aged seventy-four; admission date, September 24, 1892. Nose never clear; breath very unpleasant; for twelve hours nose bled continuously last Christmas; unable to smell properly; hearing for the past seven or eight weeks bad; watch not heard on contact. Prescribed Lemna minor [Greek: theta]A. October 1, 1892: Feeling of cold in nose is better; sense of obstruction nearly gone; can smell better; hears on contact on both sides; no medicine. October 22: Decided, though slight improvement in hearing; nose, throat and all parts around more comfortable. Last attendance.

In proceeding with the consideration of the action of this remedy, I must consider myself fortunate in having the following case to bring forward:

1. A boy of fourteen, whose nose was completely blocked up for the last two years, and whose nostrils were full of polypi, the nose itself being broadened, and in whom the nose had been cleared out by operation a year ago at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, was sent to me by my colleague, Dr. J. H. Clarke. The boy never remembers having smelt anything, and the polypi can easily be seen blocking up both nostrils.

From the 26th of November, 1892, to the 4th of March, 1893, four doses of Lemna m. [Greek: theta]A were given at regular intervals without much change, then Calcarea carbonica 200 was given, and two weeks after, as he had faceache, Mercurius 3d dec., and on the 8th of April following the faceache was better but the nose in no way improved.

Then Lemna was given again, and this time with the most pronounced relief; the nose became much clearer, and he went on taking it, and it alone with scarcely an exception, in fortnightly doses, till the 14th of March last, when his nose was quite clear, with none but a very small polypi visible; he could breathe freely and his sense of smell had completely returned.

The delay in the manifestation of remedial change from November to March arose from complete blockage of the nose, and until the space created by the subsidence in the size of the polypi sufficed for a passage of air the patient had no reason to acknowledge relief.

In the treatment, both of swollen tonsils and in that of nasal polypi, the prescriber will be led away at the onset who accepts the testimony of the patient alone; he should make careful inspection of the parts, and be guided by what is often but a slight local change, as well as by concomitant, and it may be remote, symptoms.

2. The next case I have to bring forward is one of ozoena in a girl of sixteen, who had been three years under the treatment of a colleague who kindly sent her on to me for treatment at the London Homoeopathic Hospital. The girl, whose occupation was a teacher, has had ozoena since three or four years old. The odor complained of was horrid, and the discharge excessive; a most unpleasant smell in the nose and nasty taste in the mouth; she takes cold easily if out in the night air or damp, and her nose, at times, gets stuffed up; bowels irregular; catamenia only twice--once three months ago and two months before that.

On December 30, 1893, I prescribed Lemna minor, and she returned to me from the country, where she was living, on the 31st of the following March, imploring me for another powder, as she had been almost well for two weeks after the last and then had relapsed to her old state; breathing is short and is low spirited.

21st of April, very much better; odor not nearly so bad, discharge much less; unmedicated pilules, three times a day.

19th of May, 1894, kept better for a month; took cold two weeks ago, and since then throat has felt thick and nose has discharged with a horrid odor. Catamenia regular. Breathing is better; crusts coming from both, worse on the left side. To have Lemna minor.

This patient came from a distance which prevented frequent attendance, but the above is quite sufficient evidence of the power possessed by Lemna m. in acting upon the nasal mucous membrane.

In both these cases relief was immediate after the administration of the dose, and in neither case could any reasonable doubt exist as to its being drug effect.

In some cases I have known a certain disturbance of the bowels to set in after a dose of Lemna, but this effect of the remedy is not sufficiently pronounced to be able to say much about it. Still it is interesting to narrate one or two experiences, especially as in the first of these, at all events, the concomitants were interesting.

3. In a married lady, aged about twenty-six, for whom I prescribed Lemna m. [Greek: theta]A on Saturday afternoon, November 12, 1892, and in whom there existed a good deal of catarrhal pharyngitis, due to high up post-nasal ulceration, and who suffered from a dry feeling at the top of the throat with flatulence, and some pain in the bowels toward the evening, described as "twisting" pain, and in whom the nose was blocked on the right side, but without any visible polypus, and in whom the heart was easily disturbed, causing dyspnoea, the bowels being slightly confined.

Two weeks subsequently she stated that after the dose of Lemna the nose felt less blocked, and she felt better in every respect; but that on the Tuesday following diarrhoea set in, which began with twisting pains in the bowels and went on to sickness; continual watery stools. The least chill or nervousness, I must say, upsets her in this way; and she was subject to the same the last two catamenial periods. She still wakes with her throat dry and tongue coated. Borax 2x was then (November 25) given without any noticeable effect, and on the 9th of December Lemna minor [Greek: theta]A was again prescribed for the following symptoms:

Mouth sore after talking or singing, and dry in the morning; tongue coated.