Part 76

Recently a man consulted me for a constant pain in his heart; he described it as sharp and like a pang--often causing a sense of immediate dissolution, and fear of death was on him all the time; pulse irregular in rhythm, now rapid, next slower, occasionally a beat missing; sounds very normal, but accentuated and sharp. Passiflora incarnata was a specific in this case; no doubt the center and probably the local ganglia were irritated from some cause, and, whatever it was, the medicament removed both.

By the way, I must not forget to say you will find it a valuable medicament in sleeplessness and tossing restlessness in your fever patients. I use the tincture in teaspoonful doses every four hours. It appears the remedy has a soothing effect on the whole nervous system, without any appreciable narcotic properties.

(From the Transactions of the Twenty-fifth Annual Meeting of the Maine Homoeopathic Medical Society we take the following from a paper by Dr. A. I. Harvey on Passiflora:)

It does no good where the inability to sleep is due to pain or distress of any kind; but in cases where we find that the nervous erethism is not controlled by the action of Coffea, Opium, Sulphur, or other apparently indicated remedy. Passiflora is in its place as a succedaneum for Morphia or other sedatives. The dose varies from ten drops to one dram of the tincture, according to the age of the patient. I do not hesitate, in the case of an adult, to give dram doses of the tincture every hour until the patient sleeps, and have seen it act in the happiest manner in restoring the rhythm of the heart's action, when that organ has been deranged in its movements by the combined effects of exhaustion and loss of sleep.

Passiflora has also given me much aid in a case of morphine habit of six years' standing, which I cured wholly and entirely by the use of this remedy. It is recommended in the above mentioned doses for delirium tremens, trismus, tetanus and kindred diseases of the nervous system, repeated every hour or half-hour until relief is obtained. The remedy leaves no after effects, is incapable of creating an appetite, and, so far as my observation extends, it is perfectly harmless even in large doses, often repeated.

(Dr. Scudder claimed that the one great indication for Passiflora in all cases is a clean tongue; when the tongue is foul the remedy will do no good.)

PENTHORUM SEDOIDES.

NAT. ORD., Crassulaceae.

COMMON NAME, Ditch Stone Crop.

PREPARATION.--The whole fresh plant with the root is macerated in two parts by weight of alcohol.

(The Medical Advance for June, 1887, contains a paper by Dr. D. B. Morrow, from which the following is taken.)

The object of this paper is to call attention to the fact that the only proving of Penthorum was made on scientific principles, as these verifications demonstrate. If the pathogenesy is carefully studied, it will be seen to meet all the conditions of "common colds," or acute catarrhs, so prevalent in all sections of North America, from the symptoms of chill, malaise, headache, soreness, cough, coryza, dry and flowing, with their secondary consequences of disturbed digestion, constipation, debility, etc. and it will probably cure any or all of these conditions when indicated by correspondence to the pathogenesy.

A medicine having such a catarrhal range is probably a remedy for female troubles equal to Pulsatilla or Calcarea, and is worthy of a careful proving by women. It cures where antipsoric medicines have failed, and possibly may possess antipsoric qualities.

Authorities.--1, Dr. D. B. Morrow, U. S. Med. Inves., N. S., 3, p. 565 (Eclectic Med. Jour., 1875); effects of tincture, doses of 10 drops, and after one hour 20 drops; on second day, 40 drops; third day, 60 drops at 9 P.M., and 50 drops at 1 P.M.; 1 A.M. same, effects of 100 drops. 2, Dr. Scudder took 20 drops ("a young man took same dose and had similar effects").

MIND.--During both provings the mind was dull and exceedingly depressed and desponding; everything wrong but dinner; reading interfered with because of mental dullness (second day), 1.--Mind became so dull I gave up reading and lay upon the lounge (third day).

HEAD.--On closing my eyes felt like I was floating; vertigo (third day), 1.--Headache continued, could not read; went to hear Boutwell, followed his argument with difficulty, was much annoyed by the little noises made by the audience (second day), 1.--Headache came on again (third day), 1.--When commencing the proving, had a dull, heavy headache, with heat and soreness in the sacrum; this was cured (third day), 1.--An unpleasant heavy pain in the forehead, about the edge of the hair (after four hours), 2.--Catarrhal aching in the forehead, 1a.-- The fullness in the sinciput became an ache, as though a weight were pressed down upon it (second day), 1.--Itching of the hairy scalp (second day), 1.

EYE AND EAR.--The inner superior tarsal border of both palpebra itched and burned (third day), 1.--A full sensation in supra-orbital region (a hearty supper), (first day), 1.--Ringing and singing in both ears, 1a.

NOSE.--Discharges from nares thick, pus-like, streaked with blood, and an odor as from an open sore (third day), 1.--A peculiar wet feeling in my nares as though a violent coryza would set in, which did not; the secretion from the nose became thickened and pus-like, but not increased. Wet feeling in trachea and bronchia, passing from above downward, as if a coryza would set in, followed by a slight feeling of constriction, which passed from above downward through the chest (first day), 1.

Catarrhal feeling repeated itself (third day), 1.--Nose felt stuffed, as if swollen (second day), 1.--Sense of fullness of the nose and ears (after four hours), 2.-- A secondary symptom, a drawing or contractile feeling of the muscles of the side of the nose affected with catarrh, 1a.--Itching in the nares, 1a.

MOUTH.--Prickling burning sensation on the tongue, as if scalded (first day), 1.--Increased flow of saliva (first day), 1.--The bloody sputa continues, 1a.

THROAT.--The posterior nares feel raw, as if denuded of epithelium, 1a.

STOMACH.--Appetite increased (third day), 1.--Eructations and dejections of little collections of odorless flatus expelled with force (second day), 1.--An unpleasant sensation of disgust and nausea, lasting for three hours, but not interfering with the following meal, which was eaten with greater relish, 2.--Soreness in epigastrium; this symptom appeared at first, not recorded because thought idiopathic, 1a.

ABDOMEN .--Borborygmus (second day), 1.--Parietes of abdomen felt thickened (second night), 1.--A clawing, uneasy sensation about the umbilicus, which gradually passed to lower bowel (second day), 1.--Twitching of the muscles in the abdomen (second day), 1.

RECTUM AND ANUS.--A crawling sensation in lower rectum, as though a worm tried to escape (second day), 1.--Burning in rectum at stool, continuing through afternoon, 1a.--Itching of anus; hemorrhoids with aching in sacrum and in sacro-iliac symphysis (some weeks after proving), 1a.

STOOL.--Semi-fluid evacuation of the bowels next morning, having been somewhat constipated, 2.--Some weeks after proving suffered from constipation, an atonic condition of bowels and rectum, 1a.--Was costive when commencing proving; had two natural stools from yesterday's medicine (third day), 1.

URINARY ORGANS .--A dull aching in kidneys (third day), 1.--The bladder becomes sore to pressure (third day), 1.--Urine still increased in flow, with burning along the urethra when micturating (third day), 1.--Urine clear, passed more frequently (second day), 1.--Urine actively acid, as shown by litmus; no cloud on boiling; threw down a sediment with Sulphuric acid, Ammonia, and Argentum nitrum and Nitric acid, when boiled; the next day after the dose it was alkaline, as shown by litmus, and only precipitated with Argentum nitricum; slightly cloudy, with caloric; unloaded, but increased in quantity, 1a.

SEXUAL ORGANS.--Sexual orgasm (second night), 1.--Erythismus of the sexual system, almost a satyriasis; a slight variocele of long standing was apparently cured (some weeks after proving); this condition was succeeded by a corresponding depression of sexual function, approaching impotency, after months of time returning to the normal condition, 1a.

RESPIRATORY ORGANS.--In the morning a cough seemed to come from deep in the chest, with soreness throughout the chest (third day), 1.