Part 58

CASE I.--Mertie B., aged sixteen. Called to see her May 20, 1888. Found her suffering great pain in right ear. Parotid gland very much enlarged and painful. The right side of the head and face much swollen. Pulse about 100; tongue coated.

Treatment.--Mullein oil in the ear, and used as a liniment twice daily on the swollen parts. For the fever, Aconite. Great improvement during the first twenty-four hours, and on the 23d found the case convalescent.

CASE II.--Carrie H., aged twenty-two. Her second child four weeks old. Called November 15, 1888. Right breast inflamed and sore. Two weeks previous it had been lanced by another physician, a little above the nipple, but now a place a little below and to the left of the nipple gives evidence of forming pus. I told her that in my judgment it had gone too far to check it then.

Treatment.--Mullein oil, one-half ounce in four ounces of water. Wet cloths and apply. The inflammation and soreness disappeared in one week, and by the use of the same remedy occasionally has entirely recovered without breaking. Her husband, when he paid me, said: "Well you have done better than any of the rest of the doctors."

CASE III.--Linford S., aged sixty-four. Called to see him September 20, 1888. Has just recovered from typhoid fever, but is able to be around. Taken with inflammation of the right testicle. Swollen to the size of a goose egg, and much pain. Red and shining appearance of the skin. Cause unknown, unless it was in connection with chronic enlargement of prostate gland.

Treatment.--Mullein oil applied twice daily as a liniment. Mercurius sol. internally. In three days the soreness and pain had entirely disappeared, but the enlargement continued several days. He walked around with ease three or four days before swelling had diminished any.

CASE IV.--F. C., aged thirty. Called November 16, 1888. Found inflammation of left kidney and of left testicle. Had been under treatment by another doctor and had recovered partially, but relapsed. Suffering much with pain in testicle, which ran up the spermatic cord and through to the left kidney.

Treatment.--Cantharis and Aconite, as there was some fever. Mullein oil applied to the testicle. Rapid improvement during the first twenty-four hours, and made a quick recovery.

I have also cured a case of chronic inflammation of the eyes, and a case of chilblains from which the patient had suffered, during the winter, for about six years. * * *

Every drug has its exact range. This one being new to the profession, we are just learning what it will do. In all these cases the Mullein oil has had an outward application twice daily.

A short time ago I was in Dodge city and was talking with a friend about the use of various remedies in veterinary practice, and amongst them I mentioned an almost instant cure of earache in a boy and also the same in a cat by the use of Mullein oil. He said: "Why do you homoeopaths use that? I used to have the well sweep full of bottles of mullein blossoms when I was a boy. We used the oil as a dressing for burns, and it was the best thing we could get." He also related to me the following case, which is of interest and may prove of great value: An old neighbor, a Mr. Kemmis, had spent a large amount of money treating with various physicians for what they pronounced a rose cancer and without any relief. An Indian squaw told him to use Mullein oil. He distilled it (as it is now prepared, by sun exposure), and for a short time bathed the cancer with the oil. The growth of the cancer was permanently checked, but was not healed. Mr. K. lived, perhaps, forty years after the treatment was used, and the cancer never again bothered him.

MUCUNA URENS.

NAT. ORD., Leguminosae.

COMMON NAME, Horse-eye.

PREPARATION.--The pulverized bean is macerated in five times its weight of alcohol.

(Delgado Palacios, of Venezuela, in 1897, wrote Messrs. Boericke & Tafel concerning this remedy):

Reading the list of remedies of your "Physicians' Price Current," I was very much astonished to meet with the name Dolichos pruriens, which the greater and modern authorities in botanical matters consider an identical plant with Mucuna urens.

You will meet the botanical description of Mucuna urens and altissima (two varieties) in the Flora of West Indian Islands, by A. H. R. Grisebach, p. 198 (Grisebach regards Mucuna and Dolichos as two different genus).

If one consider that there is a discussion upon this subject, and on the other hand that the mother tincture you possess is that which is made with the hair on the epidermis of the pod (North American Journal of Homoeopathy, vol. 1, p. 209. Allgemeine Homoeopathische Zeitung, vol. 53, p. 135. Oehme, Hale's Amerikanische Heilmittel, p. 242), while the tincture which we employ is made with the pulverized bean (1:5 alcohol) enclosed in the pod of a special plant which grows in the calid regions of Venezuela I believe you must try the same tincture we use and the success will be that which we obtain.

I have used my tincture of Mucuna urens extensively in a great number of haemorrhoids and with the most satisfactory results. It seems that the characteristic symptom or key-note is a sensation of burning. The haemorrhoids may be or not in a great stage of development, there may be more or less blood, etc.

One can consider the Mucuna urens as a specific against the haemorrhoidal diathesis. The diseases of other organs, depending upon that cause, liver, uterus (haemorrhage) and intestinal affections, yield admirably to its use.

I have been treating recently a remarkable case of chronic ingurgitation of a testicle, small and frequent haematurias, and other intestinal troubles with a prominent symptom, the haemorrhoidal state, which led me to use Mucuna, and in a few months I have obtained a perfect success.

The experiences have taught me, and I have the conviction that this tincture is a more perfect remedy for the cure of haemorrhoids than any other remedy known. I rely upon it more faithfully than I do upon Hamamelis, AEsculus, etc.

Its pathogenetics are not known.

I frequently use the mother tincture in the haemorrhoids, one drop daily. I seldom use the lower dilutions. Mucuna may be used also, and with success, as an ointment.

The beans are very difficult to obtain; the plant has a single yearly crop.

NAPHTHALIN.

ORIGIN--A chemical compound procured from coal, alcohol, ether vapor, etc.