Part 61

The ameliorations are peculiar and marked. Better when quiet, when lying down on the back, when undressed, when in the open air, from sleep, from cold drinks, from eating.

In the generalities we find great MUSCULAR WEAKNESS OR PROSTRATION AND TIRED FEELING OVER THE ENTIRE BODY. A feeling as though one had just gotten up from a severe spell of sickness. Nervous trembling as if from hunger. The least exertion produces a tremulousness. The muscles feel treacherous and unsteady as though one did not dare to trust them. A desire to change position without any definite cause or reason, and without any change for the better or worse. Later in the proving there was a desire to lie down and be quiet, with a drowsy, sleepy feeling. A sensation as if a chill would come on; a tired, aching, stretching, gaping, disagreeable feeling. All sensations are worse in the left side.

In my own experience I have used the remedy from the mother tincture up. I got no results from the tincture. Hardly any from the 30th, but a marked, decided, and very rapid action from the CM. I use nothing lower than the CM, and prefer the higher.

ORIGANUM MAJORANA.

NAT. ORD., Labiatae.

COMMON NAME, Sweet Marjoram.

PREPARATION.--The whole plant without the root, gathered when in flower, is macerated in two times its weight of alcohol.

(A treatise on the "Sexual Passion," by the late Dr. Gallavardin, Lyons, France, contains this item on Origanum):

The person who discovered a remedy that in a certain sense may be considered as a specific against sexual passion was a clergyman of Mizza, the founder of an orphan asylum. This remedy is Origanum majorana (or common marjoram), which proves effective in masturbation and in excessively-aroused sexual impulses. The author uses it in the 4th dilution, as he has not found the higher potencies effective. He dissolves five or six globules of this dilution in four teaspoonfuls of fresh water, and the young masturbator takes of this every two days, a quarter of an hour before the meal, one teaspoonful. If the cure is not accomplished eight days after this solution is used up, the same dose is repeated in the same way. When desired, this remedy can be used, according to the author, without the knowledge of the patient, by pouring a teaspoonful into the soup, milk or chocolate.

The effect frequently appears very rapidly, but sometimes it does not appear.

OXYTROPIS LAMBERTI.

NAT. ORD., Leguminosae.

COMMON NAMES, "Loco" Weed. Rattle Weed.

PREPARATION.--The whole plant without the root is macerated in two times its weight of alcohol.

(The following proving of the "loco weed" was conducted by the late Dr. W. S. Gee, of Chicago, in 1887):

OXYTROPIS LAMBERTI, Pursh.--Commonly taller, as well as larger, than other varieties (the scapes often a foot or more high); silky,--and mostly silvery-pubescent, sometimes glabrate in age; leaflets from oblong-lanceolate to linear (4 to 16 inches long); spike, sometimes short-oblong and densely flowered, at least when young; often elongated and sparsely flowered; flowers mostly large (often an inch long, but sometimes much smaller), variously colored; pod, either narrowly or broadly oblong, sericeous pubescent, firm-coriaceous, half-inch or more long, imperfectly two-celled. Includes O. Campestris of Hook, Fl. Bor. Am., in part. Common along the Great Plains from Saskatchewan and Minnesota to New Mexico, Texas, etc., and in the foot-hills.--From Coulter's Manual of the Botany of the Rocky Mountain Region.

It is one of the poisonous members of that family. It is found in California and New Mexico.

It is a perennial plant, with herbaceous or slightly shrubby stems, the foliage remaining green during winter when grass is scarce, and so attracting animals that would otherwise probably instinctively shun it. The plants do not appear to be equally poisonous at all seasons or in all localities, and it has been doubted whether the active properties they possess are due to a normal constituent of the plant. No medical use has ever been made of these plants, although their poisonous character has often led to the suggestion that they might be found valuable. No physiological study has been made of the action of the poison, and no complete chemical analysis has as yet appeared.

The stockmen speak of it as causing intoxication in the animals which eat it, and a prominent symptom is the "loco" condition, in which the power of co-ordination is lost or greatly limited. They cannot readily readjust for changes in gait, etc. A horse travels on level ground, but finds great difficulty in changing to pass over an elevation or depression, or, when going up hill, he has great difficulty in starting down hill; it is difficult, when he is still, to impress him that he must go, and as difficult to stop him when desired. The same rule applies to eating and other necessaries. Such a horse is said to be "locoed." Professor Hawkes procured specimens from which Boericke & Tafel made a tincture. To further test the merits of the remedy, the students of the class at Hahnemann Medical College of Chicago kindly participated in a proving.

Professor Hawkes received some reports from his group, but has mislaid his papers, and he is unable to give in detail the symptoms produced. He stated, however, that the principal action corroborated that given above.

During 1886-'87 term I made another attempt, and a few reports were received. The remedy was given by number, that the prover should not know what he took, nor the strength of it. Some were given the [Greek: theta], others 1x^d, 2x^d, 3x^d, 12x powders, 30x powders, and some higher.

A few reported "no effect" from the [Greek: theta]. The following includes the report from five persons:

1. (Mr. S. P. F., 10 drops of [Greek: theta].) 2. (Mrs. W., 10 drops of 3x^d repeated.) 3. (Mr. G. H. A., 15 drops of 3x^d.) 4. (Mrs. P., powders of 12x repeated.) 5. (Mrs. L., powders of 30x.) 6. (Mrs. L., powders of 12x.)

SYMPTOMATOLOGY.

Mind.--Great mental depression,^1,^3. Cannot think or concentrate his thoughts,^1,^3. Very forgetful of familiar words and names,^3. No life,^1. Disinclination to talk or study,^3. Wants to be alone,^3. Is better satisfied to sit down and do nothing,^3. Feels perfectly despondent,^3. A feeling as if I would lose consciousness,^3. All symptoms worse when thinking of them,^1,^3.

Sensorium.--Strange sensation about the head,^4. A feeling as if I would lose consciousness, or as if I would fall when standing,^5. Sense of fulness of the head, and of instability, when standing or sitting,^6.

Head.--The head has a feeling of great pressure, especially on moving the eyeballs,^4. Head hot,^6. Was unable to move around on account of this strange, uncertain feeling of numbness, with prickling sensation in left arm and hand,^4. Full, uncomfortable feeling in the head,^5. Slight headache in vertex and occiput in forenoon, over the eyeballs about noon,^1. Pain in the helix of the ear for two or three minutes, then pain commenced between the eyes and went in a straight line up over the head and down to the base of the brain,^2. Pain across the base of the brain,^2 ("gone in a minute or two"). Dulness in frontal region, must lie down,^4. Pain in occipital region is constant since 1 P.M.; heavy ache, as if a weight were attached to the lower edge, pulling it back, but pain does not extend down the back,^2; all stop at 3 P.M.,^2. A pressing headache from 2 to 5 P.M.,^3 (on 2d day). Awoke with slight pressing pain in forehead, which increased gradually until about 2 P.M., and then gradually decreased,^3. Pain, dull and heavy, in the head, with sense of pressure,^4. Head very sensitive, < on the side on which I lie,^3. Pressure upon the head disappearing after sleep,^4. Dull, heavy feeling in the head, with uncertain gait and walk, so that she was obliged to lie down, when she fell into a deep sleep and woke up with the metallic taste.

Eyes.--Feel dull and heavy, blurred, pupils dilated,^3,^4. When reading, it seems as if a light were reflected from a bright copper plate seen at the left side, as if the light were at the end of the room,^6. Pain in the eyeball,^4. Pain over the right eye,^6.