Part 65

Several cases of the cure of epilepsy with OEnanthe in alternation with Silicea or some other drug have been reported, but as the question, "which cured?" comes in they need not be given.

In my own practice I have had some marked results from its action and have seen it modify attacks when everything else failed. In two cases, one a boy of 13 who had had the disease 5 years and who had suffered much of many sphincter-stretching orificialists and "lots of other things," the remedy made a complete cure; the other case was in a man of 30 who had the grand mal, the petit mal and the epileptic vertigo. OEnanthe removed entirely the two former conditions leaving only the latter, and that in a very mild degree. It also greatly improved the mental condition of the patient.

I have several cases under treatment at the present time, and some of them are showing a marked effect from its use. The question of dose I believe to be an important one. I used generally the tincture in water, but latterly I have been using the third, and I believe with better effect than I ever obtained with the tincture, and I am now of the opinion that the lower dilutions, say from the 3 to the 12, will be found more efficacious than the tincture, and the higher potencies will suit certain cases. In order to prescribe the drug with accuracy provings will be necessary to develop its finer symptomatology.

PARAFFINE.

PREPARATION.--The purified Paraffin is triturated in the usual way.

(This proving was made by Dr. Wahle, of Germany, who was the chemist of Hahnemann. He never published it, but gave the manuscript to his son, who in his turn gave it to Dr. Held, now a practicing physician in Rome. Dr. Held at the request of his colleagues translated it into Italian and it appeared in the medical journal, L'Omiopatia in Italia, from which this article is translated and slightly condensed. The remedy is used by the homoeopaths of Rome and found to be valuable in uterine and other troubles, indicated by the proving. It is particularly serviceable in constipation.)

PROVING OF PARAFFINE.

HEAD.

Weight in the head.

Bruised feeling in the left side of the occiput.

Head heavy and dull; a feeling when leaning forward as if a weight fell toward the forehead.

Pulsation in the head.

Pressing pain in the head, extending from the vertex toward the forehead as if something would come out.

Pricking, stinging in the head, extending to the left temporal bone.

Pain as of a contusion in occiput.

At 9 o'clock in the morning there comes a pain in the left side of the vertex as if a nail were being driven into the head, with extension of the pain to the left lower jaw.

Touching the left side of the head causes pain as if the part were crushed and a feeling as if the whole side of the head were soft and spongy.

Twisting and wrenching in the sinciput so that he must lie down; having lain down a quarter of an hour, and having placed the right hand under the head, there was experienced a feeling of painless shock so that the hand under the head was drawn away and the legs were thrown down from the sofa. Soon afterward occurred severe palpitation of the heart.

Twisting and wrenching in the whole head, as well as the face.

Feeling as of knife stabs under the right temporal bone extending into the right eye and becoming worse on bending over. On the outside of the forehead a pressing pain which seems to thrust inward, passing, in half an hour, into the inside of the head.

Painful pulsation in the forehead, which gradually disappears when lying down, but becomes worse when bending over.

The left side of the head and face suffer most; pains stinging and twisting, often going and returning at the same time.

Twisting in the left side of the head and face; the teeth of the same side ache as if they would fall out.

On touching the vertex the skin pains as if it were suppurating, in the afternoon.

Sticking in the forehead extending into the nose.

The skin of the head feels soft on being touched or as if suppuration was going on underneath it.

Falling out of the hair.

EYES.