Part 77

CHEST.--Slight feeling of constriction, which passed from above down through the chest, followed the wet feeling in trachea and bronchia (first day), 1.

PULSE .--Pulse regular at 58 (first day), 1.

NECK AND BACK.--Aching through basilar region, from back to front, 1a.--The aching in sacral region reappeared, but subsided as the medicine was eliminated, 1a.--Aching in sacrum and in sacro-iliac symphysis, with the itching of anus, hemorrhoids, 1a.--(When commencing the proving, had heat and soreness in the sacrum, with a dull, heavy headache; this was cured), (third day), 1.

EXTREMITIES.--Arm went to sleep (numb), 1.--Hand felt swollen (second night), 1.--A trembling feeling of legs for several days, with soreness of knees, 1.--While on the lounge the muscles of the leg were suddenly contracted, jerking up the foot as in stepping; in a moment the right one performed the same manoeuvre (third day), 1.

SKIN.--A long-cured impetiginous eczema reappeared on both legs, 1a.-- A few hot prickings in the skin (second and third days), 1.--Itching of the face and forehead, 1a.--The itchings repeated themselves (third day), 1.

SLEEP AND FEVER.--Fantastic dreams (second night), 1.--Voluptuous dreams and increased sexual desire, sympathetic with urinary excitement, 1a.--A few cold chills rushed up the spinal column (first day), 1.

(In addition to the foregoing we quote the following from same authority):

Prover cured a severe acute flowing coryza, headache, vertigo and cough, with sticking pains throughout the chest, heaviness and trembling of the lower limbs; pulse, 110. Penthorum 3x quickly cured.

Miss P----, a blonde of 17, had a severe cough of several weeks duration; worse from talking or singing. Frothy greenish sputa. Pulsatilla and afterwards Phosphorus were given without benefit. Penthorum soon cured.

In the prover it produced a general malaise, headache, weakness of limbs and inability to attend to business, a feeling as though he must give up and be sick. I have promptly relieved several patients having these symptoms with Penthorum. It produces a soreness throughout the chest, with a severe dry cough, "as though I would cough my insides out," worse in the morning. Have speedily cured several such coughs with it.

PHASEOLUS NANA.

NAT. ORD., Leguminosae.

COMMON NAME, Dwarf Bean.

PREPARATION.--The crushed beans are macerated in five parts by weight of alcohol.

(In 1896 and 1897 Dr. A. M. Cushing wrote several articles on this new remedy, and among them the following, which appeared in the Homoeopathic Recorder, 1897.)

While making a proving of the above remedy I felt a sudden curious sensation in the region of the heart, and immediately felt of my pulse and found it very weak and fluttering. I have been asked what that sensation was, but I can't describe it, for, to tell the truth, I believe I was frightened and failed to remember it. Although it is unpleasant to be badly frightened, the nice results I have seen from the use of the remedy and the kind words I have received from the profession in regard to it has more than paid for the little fright. As so little is known of the remedy, I wish to report one case that was not at all indicated by the proving and two cases under the care of an old school doctor. My case was that of a lady aged about forty, who for two years was under the care of a homoeopathic doctor for some trouble, I don't know what; then two years under the care of another homoeopathic doctor for a fibroid of the uterus. She had twice consulted a specialist in Boston, who said it could not be removed. Then she came under my care with a fibroid as large as a fetus at full term. Suffice it to say, I gave remedies in a higher attenuation than I believed she had taken, and in a few months the tumor had greatly diminished and gave her no trouble. Still she was nervous and had neuralgic pains almost all over her. As remedies did not seem to relieve her for any length of time, I decided to give her Phaseolus 9x, as it probably would do as well as what I had given her. The next time I called she met me with "I want a whole bottle like what you gave me last." She does not have to take any medicine now.

I was called in consultation with an old school doctor to a case of confinement. Patient, 26; first child; had been in pain forty-eight hours, but not severe till the last twelve hours. Patient, fleshy; urine heavily loaded with albumen. I knew that trouble was ahead, as she became blind. I found the head jacked firmly in the superior straits, face presentation which I could not change. I decided to wait a little, help what I could and watch the results. In a little while she went to sleep, the first quiet sleep in forty-eight hours; but when she moved it was in a fearful convulsion. I expected the convulsions, but felt that if I applied the forceps, before they appeared some might say if he had let her alone she would not have had them. I immediately turned her upon her left side, well covered up, and adjusted my forceps and soon had the head through the bony parts; and as it is my custom to remove the forceps till the soft parts are dilated to prevent rupture I commenced to do so, when a fearful expulsive convulsion threw forceps and a thirteen-pound child into the bed with a complete rupture of the perineum--my first such case in forty-one years. While she was unconscious I took the necessary stitches, the doctor attending to the medical part. One hour later, when I was in the kitchen helping the nurse and a few damsels dress the baby, the doctor came to me and said her heart was failing in its action fast. I gave him a vial of No. 25 globules medicated with 9x Phaseolus, and told him to give her a dose about the size of a bean (being a bean remedy). Ten minutes later he said: "That is wonderful, her heart is all right." Three times during the night he had to repeat it with the same results. Afterwards she had no trouble.

One week later the same doctor came to me saying: "I want a bottle of that remedy." Yesterday I was called to see a lady who was unconscious, pulseless, breathing ten times a minute, beyond hope as I supposed. I gave her three doses of Phaseolus, and she is all right.

P. S.--If not too late, I would like to add a little to the paper I sent you not long ago. The same old school doctor to whom I referred in that paper tells me he has used Phaseolus in another case of heart disease with a success similar to the others reported.

A few weeks since a lady aged 50, nurse by profession, came to me saying, at times, she had fearful time with her heart palpitating and feeling as if she should die. Being in great haste, I made no examination, but gave her a vial of Phaseolus 15x to take a dose three or four times a day, as needed. Yesterday she called, saying she was going out of the city, but did not dare to go without some more of the medicine, for she never took anything in her life that did so much good as that.

(Dr. Cushing also read the following paper before the Massachusetts Homoeopathic Medical Society, which we take from the New England Medical Gazette. January, 1897:)

By request I appear before you to-day, and I presume you will be disappointed if my paper is not on some new remedy; and such it is,--a remedy, I think, worthy the careful investigation of every homoeopathic physician,--phaseolus nana, or the common white bean. It is unnecessary for me to say to you that Boston is called a bean-eating city, or refer to the many sudden deaths there or in its vicinity from brain or heart trouble, nor how in a certain way young men grow old. Can you tell me the cause? I shall not take the time to report the proving I made, nor why I began it, nor how I prepared it, nor its wonderful effects upon the nervous system, the genital organs, stomach, bowels, or kidneys, in the provings, referring only to three symptoms. A medical student has made a short but interesting proving of the remedy, confirming some of my symptoms. While my proving was going on nicely, I suddenly felt a curious sensation in the region of the heart. It was so sudden and strange I immediately felt of my pulse and found it very irregular and feeble, so much so I think I was frightened, at least I did not take any more of the medicine. Never before had I had any irregular action of the heart. Soon after, I read that foreign physicians were using a decoction of the growing bean and pod for dropsy.

About that time I was called to see a hopeless case of uterine cancer with severe general dropsy. I prescribed the best I knew and decided to try the bean remedy. Several days elapsed before I could get any, and then only the dry pods, as it was in December. I steeped them and gave it with apparent relief. I report this case more especially to speak of the final result. I called one day expecting to find her quite comfortable, but found her dead. She suddenly screamed, "Oh, my head!" grasped it with both hands and was dead.

Months later, after an experience with another patient which I will report later, it suddenly dawned upon me that possibly the bean decoction might have hastened her death.

I was called to see a man about forty-five, suffering from general dropsy with heart and other complications, who had been under the care of a homoeopathic physician some time. Although he had taken Digitalis, Strophanthus, Strychnia, Nitroglycerine, salts, etc., he had been unable to lie down for two weeks. I prescribed for him, but as soon as I could I prepared and gave him the bean-pod decoction. In about one week he was able to lie down in bed, and his legs, which at my first visit measured over twenty-one inches in circumference, measured fifteen inches. Then hay fever appeared, and by the advice of nineteen or twenty-five women an old-school expert from New York was called and I was left out.

The following cases, having symptoms similar to those developed in the proving, were given the same preparations as those used in the proving.

A man aged sixty-nine, a retired clergyman on account of a heart disease that had troubled him many years, yet no physician had been able to satisfactorily diagnose, came home from a trip where he had unwisely preached twice, greatly exhausted. The heart's action was weak and irregular, growing weaker each day for a few days, when he was entirely pulseless at both wrists, which continued four days in spite of my best efforts. I then gave him Phaseolus 9x, and in a few hours there was an improvement, and in thirty-six hours his pulse was regular and strong, about seventy per minute; and it remained so till my last visit, one-half hour before his death, two weeks after beginning the medicine. I was called to New York and returned too late to make a post-mortem examination. Among his children were a public school teacher and a college professor. I told them what I was giving, and they watched the case very closely and were surprised at its effects. Later they asked me if I would send some of the same medicine to a friend in Connecticut who had no money but a bad heart, said by the doctor there and an expert in Boston to be a weak heart. I sent the medicine and two weeks later they wrote: "His breath is not as short, his limbs were not as badly swollen, could walk and sleep better, but they did not know as he was any better." I sent more medicine and have not heard from that.

A lady living in the West, aged about fifty, had been ailing several years. Her greatest complaint was a weak, bad-aching heart. I treated her a few months with general improvement, but she complained of a weak, tired, bad-acting and bad-feeling heart. I sent her Phaseolus 9x, and later she wrote me that forty-eight hours after commencing the last medicine sent her heart wheeled into line all right and remains so.