New, Old and Forgotten Remedies. (continued 4)

(The foregoing gives the gist of the first trials. The third and last now follows. It was made with repeated doses of the 30th potency.)

12 meridian. Sensation as if a cold, freezing wind were blowing upon me from the bend of my knees. Head feeling as if the scalp were being drawn tight over my skull, and my facial muscles were being drawn very tight over the bones. A giddiness and a cold pressure from within the skull. A cold, running chill from superior maxillary down to the chin. Trembling of limbs. Coldness extending from the knee into the calf of the leg. Pain and pressure within the skull from crown to occiput, and from back forward over the left eye. A very drowsy feeling. I could sleep if I gave way to the feeling. * * * *

January 4, 1893, 7:45 a.m. Took another dose of six globules. Pulse, 72. Temperature, 97 3·5. A flush of heat in my face. A feeling as if I were walking on sponge or as if my feet were swollen. Dull headache. The arctic cold feeling is more in my right arm, elbow joint, and right thigh and left foot. A great trembling of my arm. It is hard work to steady my hand, which holds my book, enough to continue reading or writing.

The feeling of swelling in my feet of walking on sponges sensation continues; a springiness, with a sense of looseness in stepping out, which requires some caution, as if I were not sure of my steps. The trembling of my hands is on the increase; feeling of soreness in my heart, more under left nipple; pain in my back, lumbar region. Some little scalding of urine; flow not so free and full, intermitting slightly, as if I had some calculus in the bladder which interfered with continuous flow. Stool more free and full.

Earwax, which had been very dry, now flows from both ears, but is more free on the left side. Left nostril sore; ulcerated. Throat sore and tender to outside touch. * * *

9 p.m. Very weak feeling, with pain in my heart; same place, under left nipple. Head aches and arctic rays in various parts of my body. * * *

January 5, 12 noon. Took twelve more globules. Numb feeling in my head. A feeling as if I would fall on my right side. A good drive this morning in the snowstorm; and felt a desire to bear to the right side and could not walk straight because of this, and had repeatedly to stop or step to the left to get a straight course on the causeway. A good deal of the same feeling, but very weak and sleepy; was compelled to lie down, but did not sleep, although feeling very drowsy; laid very quiet, as if I was in a stupor; the old feeling in various parts of my body, only more acute; a feeling in various parts as if a needle were being thrust into my flesh.

4:45 p.m. Took thirteen globules. A very stiff neck the most prominent feeling. All the previously recorded feelings, only more intensely. I have a painful boring feeling in the middle third of left thigh. * * *

8:30. Flushed, hot feeling in my head and face, but no increase in color; but then I have just come out of the storm.

9:30. Took twelve globules more and retired to rest; very tired; slept very profoundly until 1 a.m., then could not sleep. My back, in the lumbar muscles, ached so and my left leg that I could not sleep for hours, and my brain felt as if scalded; an intense burning feeling in the meninges, for this did not affect my power to think. This hot feeling commenced and spread down my back. An intense pain over left eyebrow, through my left eye to base of brain and down my back. The pain in the back of my head caused me to bore my head deep into my pillow, and reminded me of cases I have seen of cerebro-spinal meningitis. An intense weakness, as if I had no power to move, and no wish to do so, and yet I was afraid I could not attend to my business. Yet, strange to say, I was not alarmed, but passively indifferent. I could not open my eyes without great effort; it was hard work to keep them open and the easiest thing for them to close, as if there were a great weight upon them, keeping them down. I begged to be allowed to remain in bed until some one wanted me professionally, and yet I could not thus give way to my feelings, and so got up.

7 a.m. Feeling very weak and giddy. Staggering about my bedroom trying to dress. It was all that I could do to lift a hod of coal to the stove. The pains in my head and lumbar muscles, back of my head near atlas and middle third of left thigh and right elbow are the most noticeable from the great pains; and arctic coldness in my feet and hands and arms; have had a transient feeling of pain in the little finger and little toe of right side. Very feverish or parched in the night, and my breathing was hard and sounded as if I was drawing my breath through iron pipes. I feel that I must not take any more medicine at present. When I remember what a long time I was in getting to the end of the previous proving, I feel that I dare not go any further.

The dose I have been taking, a No. 35 globule, is as large as ten such as is ordinarily used for the 30th or for high dilutions, so that I have taken as good as sixty high dilution globules as a dose, and lately as high as one hundred and twenty-four and sometimes oftener daily.

I was surprised at these hot flushes and burnings in my head and along my spine. And these strongly reminded me of some feeling a proving of Gelsemium caused, only that has sweat, whilst this has no moisture, everything being dried up. Saliva, tears, nostrils, and earwax; the great weakness and pain in the body reminds me of cerebro-spinal meningitis.

My pulse rate is 68. 8:15. Temperature, 97 only.

1 p.m. What fearful aching in my body! Arctic feeling throughout my body, except my head and face, and oh! so tired. A feeling as if it were almost impossible to keep my eyes open. While out on my professional rounds a feeling came over me as if it would be far easier to lie down in the snowy streets than to keep trying to get along. The trembling is very persistent.

9 p.m. Oh! this bad feeling in my head, the aching, aching in my bones, in every part of my body, head to feet; no part entirely free from pain, my body so cold; a feeling as if I had holes in my garments, and cold, frosty winds were blowing through and freezing my flesh; cold penis and testicles, no feeling but coldness. A slight gluey discharge; a fluent discharge from nose, with great sneezing. * * *

January 9th, 8 a.m. Pulse rate 68; is not so full or jerky, but it is some. Temperature under the tip of the tongue, 96; deeper in, 97. This morning awoke at 3 a.m. and got up to urinate, but I could not stand without I had hold of something. Oh, such a weak, giddy feeling! I never fainted but once, from loss of blood, and these sensations are similar. Plenty of strength to hold me up, but unable to balance myself, and when I put forth an effort I staggered about like a man trying to walk with paralysis or locomotor ataxy. This idea was the most prominent in my mind, but I have a patient recovering from paralysis who has to swing his body as he walks, to get his feet forward, and is very weak and shaky about his knees, and these sensations very strongly reminded me of his efforts. His weakness is in his knees, but mine was from the base of my skull—cerebrum—where the pains have been so persistent near the atlas extending downward. When I arose, at 7 a.m., it was very hard work for me to balance myself enough to complete dressing myself, and very hard work to carry my head. If I bent forward, then it required great effort to keep from falling on my face or backward. This lack of balancing power was accompanied by a sensation of nausea, as if I were going to vomit. I persisted in my efforts to work, in hopes of shaking off these very alarming sensations, and by effort got through my morning work. Whilst shaving a severe jerk of my right arm caused me to gash my face; very strange, but I ought not to have tried to do this. I have now some numbness in my right hand and arm, and a good deal of trembling. Arctic feeling in my feet and in various parts of my body. This feeling of want of balancing power does not entirely leave me; a full, pressing feeling in all parts of my head. And when I walk I notice I lift my feet higher than usual, or than is necessary, and I put my heel down hard, as if I was not sure of holding on to the ground. I notice some twitching, as if my feet would spring up, making me walk as if I had the cock's gait, as it is described. * * *

7 a.m., January 10, 1893. Thank God I began this day with more comfort and more control of myself; my limbs are easier to manage; a little giddiness and staggering, and stiff, bruised sensation in my back and lower limbs. My cervical vertebra is less sore and have little pain; and altogether feel very much better. My pulse rate is 80 this a.m.; full and round; no jerks perceptible. Temperature 98 under the tongue, by the root. Mercury very slow in rising; had to keep the thermometer in a long time. I have a flushed, hot feeling in my face and head; no trembling, less staggering, and can manage my limbs fairly well. I feel as I dared not trifle with myself any further, for I am very weak. A very little exertion would make me feel very ill. I am feeling like a man who had just come from under a deadly risk; am very weak and prostrated, with every nerve on the jump. Oh, so very weak! A sinking feeling. A parched thirstiness in my throat and mouth. My tongue is clean; bowels regular; a good deal of flatus, very fetid; pale yellow, greenish urine (specific gravity 1008), smelling very fetid; same smell as the flatus; more like the smell of rotting sweet fruit or vegetables. * * *

January 14, 1893. Could not get out of bed at my usual time; very severe pain in head and back of neck, going down my back and right leg; twitches, with cold, stinging, ice-needle pricks. My right hand is feeling as if it were frozen. Pulse rate 64; full, round, but appears to have a pendulum motion or twitch. Temperature 96 3-5. Mind clear, but very weak in my body, and I can not get warm over a hot register or with hot fluids. This constant arctic cold is very hard to bear and makes me this morning feel as if I had a cake of ice on my back. My hands are blue with cold and my feet feel like lumps of ice. Headache and giddiness; could not keep from trembling while some patients were in my consulting room, and had a good deal of difficulty in steadying and controlling my voice; when excited could not get hold of the right words I wanted and dropped some when speaking, from a want of flexibility or a catch in my tongue. Pains in various parts of my body; the same locations and character. Quite a rush of business to-day and very ill-fitted to attend to it. My hands and feet blue and aching with cold, even while I was sitting over a hot register that scorched my boot leather, yet no feeling of warmth in hands or feet. A good deal of throbbing and aching in the upper part of my kidneys, the right one the sorest. Sharp pains in my bowels, near the cæcum; some trembling (when asleep it awoke me) in my right arm and left leg, with a sharp pain near the ankle joint. * * *

January 20. Awoke this morning in a shivering fit. Trembling, giddiness and headache, but not very severe. Cold arctic feeling. Pulse 68. Temperature 97 1-5. My feet, 8 a.m., cold. Severe pain in left testicle, extending through to the back to anus. Bleed very much from old piles. An aching at end of penis, and no sexual desire. A feeling as if the testicles were swollen and painful, as in orchitis; this is only a transient pain, and comes and goes at infrequent periods, or remittent in their character. I notice my urine is taking on the greenish-yellow again, and my right arm is chilly from the arctic rays. My feet are cold, and the coldness creeps up higher in my legs. A great deal of arctic feeling in and around my heart. My breath is cold. Headache, but mind clear. Cold chills run over me in various parts of my body. My hands tremble very much at times, so that I can not write. Pain in testicles and coldness, as if they were frozen. Pass a large quantity of urine. * *

January 21. 8 a.m. Did not get up before, owing to the pressure in my skull, as if it were too full; dropsy or some swelling of my brain; giddiness, and a numbness down my left leg, and a jerking upward in both of them. Some trembling and coldness around my heart, and in my lungs and down my arms. My feet were very hot in the night until 5 a.m., when they became cold, numb and jerky, upwards. My pulse rate is very slow this morning, only 56 beats. Temperature is slowly forced up to 98. I have a sensation as if my left cheek were swollen, but it is not so. Trembling very much in my hands.

2:30 p.m. Have not been warm yet to-day; very intense arctic sensation in my body and heart and lungs. Slight cough. Numbness in my right arm. Much trembling, and a sensation of inward trembling in all parts of my body. Generative organs frozen cold, and this coldness extends up my back. My feet so cold that I have burned my boots, and yet cannot get them warm. Coldness extends up to my knees. Stiffness and pain in left thigh. Cold arctic band round my head, with fulness in skull. Pulse 60. Temperature 97 4-5. Good appetite. Mentally clear, although very weak; very tired and discouraged that these feelings last so long. They seem to be all beginning over again; worse now than they were a week ago. I feel more like giving up and going to bed sick, but I cannot afford to do so, so I brace up and resist this temptation to try and find an antidote for these recurring series of feelings. * * *

January 23. Slept well until 5 a.m.; then awoke with pains in head and burning in my feet, with some trembling and stiff feeling in my lungs and heart, as if they were tied or unable to move. As I lay awake I could hear my heart pounding away, but, oh! so slow. Felt very weak and wanted to stay in bed, but after some hard thinking I got up. 7 a.m. Very weak; staggered about while dressing. Pains in the base of the brain. Pulse 64 and irregular in its beats, some of them failing altogether to declare themselves only by their absence to respond. Temperature, after being held under my tongue ten minutes, 97 2-5. Very cold in my back and over my shoulders; hands and feet are blue with cold. Itching all over my body, and as if I was bitten with fleas or bugs were crawling over me. Skin of my hands very rough and cracks are in them. My ears have a feeling as if wax were running out of them. * * *

January 26, 10 p.m. It has required a mighty effort to keep up this day. My pulse 56, slow and irregular; temperature 98. Headache, yet mind clear; backache. Weakness in all my body; my limbs so weak in walking that it was difficult to keep going, and felt as if I could lay down or drop down anywhere. What heart failure symptoms are I do not know, but fear I came very near it and yet I have resisted this feeling, and kept awake and about. Have felt very ill all the day, and am so now on retiring, 11 p.m. * * *

January 29. 9 a.m. Just after breakfast, pulse 68, temperature 99; slept very heavy, but dreamed of treating many cases of black diphtheria. Awoke, slept, dreamed the same dream again, and again the same dream, three separate times. How very singular! During these provings, I have done this three separate times. Three dreams in one night—the same dream, the same disease, the same families in my dream. This singularity caused me to lay awake wondering what this can mean. I have not any patients suffering from this disease, and I do not know of any in the town, and nothing that I know of to bring this disease to my mind. Awoke feeling very stiff and sore. * * *

January 30. Head pains again, the same old character. Sensation of swelling in my face and pain in nerves of teeth, molars. Hot feeling. Pulse, 68. Temperature, 99. Very weak, but my mind clear. Much trembling and the oppression round my heart and chest producing a suffocating feeling that makes me afraid, and I must now seek some means to arrest this difficulty and give me some relief. I know it looks cowardly to give up, but my family compels me to do something to enable me to keep about. I cannot do any more; this heart oppression makes me think of heart failure. Pulse, 56, and temperature 96. Very weak. I hope it will wear away and this trembling improve. They have been caused by this drug, one of the most powerful. I gave up and went to bed very ill. I had to keep it from my family, but I was afraid my heart would stop beating and had a very restless night. I took acetic acid, as vinegar I had in some pickles I thought changed or relieved the first class or effort of provings and caused me to stop and begin again. I think it did help me. Next day very prostrated but did not take any note of my pulse or temperature, because I had began to try to find an antidote, and this vinegar and lemon juice has relieved many of them. I fear sometimes that the trembling in my hands may never fully leave me now.

February 12, 1893. Copying my notes has brought so vividly to my memory that I can almost feel the old arctic rays through my body, and the giddiness and staggering gait of the Heloderma hor. days. I hope that you may have many others more courageous than I have been, whose provings will compare or improve upon this poor effort of mine.

Clinical.

The case of paralysis that I spoke of, whose staggering gait was called to my mind by my feelings, is now taking Heloderma.

In the following case, Mrs. Ford, eighty-one years of age, has been my patient several times during the last four years. She suffered from erysipelas and dropsy in the legs. In September I was again called in for the same old trouble; the usual remedies were effectual. In October she caught cold, and had also a bad fall; her symptoms were those of pneumonia, fever, delirium and cough, pain in chest and hard work to breathe, blueness of lips, tongue and cheeks, cold extremities and was very low in appetite, and appeared to be sinking. Pulse, fifty; temperature, ninety, and to all human appearance was rapidly dying; all said so, and I fully believed so, but left Heloderma horridus, one powder in water, and ordered her tongue to be moistened with a feather dipped in this every half hour. I did not call the next day until evening. I was waiting to be notified of her death, but no such notice coming called to see, and, to my surprise, found everything changed. I then gave Helo. hor. 200, every four hours, with placebos. All the bad symptoms gradually disappeared, breathing became natural, heart gained strength, pulse increased to seventy, temperature to ninety-eight and appetite became better, asking frequently for food. This continued so long as she was taking this medicine. She was so well that I ceased to attend, she having no aches or pains, was eating and sleeping well, bowels moved regularly and night watching was given up. All who saw the recovery were pleasingly surprised, and so was I, and have frequently asked myself could anything else have done this. Lachesis has changed a slate colored tongue, and has aroused those who appeared to be dying for a short time, but to extend the life of one as good as dead for thirty days is a triumph for the Helo. hor.

(To the foregoing we may add that some have thought that the proving was too sensational, but other evidence that has not appeared in print leads to the conclusion that it is essentially true, and that the proving was made by one peculiarly susceptible to the remedy. We know of one gentleman who laughed at it and in bravado took a number of doses during an afternoon. He felt no immediate effects, but during the night awoke with some very peculiar feelings that he could attribute to nothing but the Heloderma, and they were of such a character that he refused to take any more. It would be well to use the remedy with caution until the practitioner has gauged its powers.)

(Dr. Charles E. Johnson wrote as follows to Dr. Boocock concerning the remedy):

"I have had under treatment a case that has been pronounced incurable by many physicians. She has had most of the symptoms developed in your proving, that awful coldness being most pronounced. She has had two doses of the 200th. I learn through a neighbor that she is delighted with the result of the last medicine. The coldness has nearly disappeared, leaving a comfortable glow upon the body. She tells her neighbors this without having been informed by me what results I expected from the medicine."

(Dr. Erastus E. Case contributed the following detailed clinical case to the Medical Advance, July, 1897):

An auburn haired woman, 55 years of age, had numbness in the feet two years ago. It has gradually extended upward until it now includes the lower part of the abdomen.

Tingling, creeping sensation on the legs as if from insects.

Worse when lying in bed at night.

Worse from exposure to cold air.

Worse from touch; she cannot endure to place her bare feet together.

Legs insensible to an electric battery.

Legs wasting away, skin very dry and inelastic.

Ankles turn easily when trying to walk.

Numbness of the arms from the hands to the elbows.

Forgetfulness.

Melancholy with weeping.

Worse in stormy weather.

Worse when thinking of her ailments, cheered by company.

Pain in the forehead in the morning, aggravated by turning the eyes.

Tongue dry and cracked in the morning.

Swallowing difficult.

Empty eructations, especially before breakfast.

Empty, gone sensation in the stomach.

Dislikes sweet things and worse from taking them.

Sensation of constriction about the whole abdomen.

Constipation from torpor of the rectum.

Hemorrhoids and itching of the anus.

Burning in the urethra during and after micturition.

Burning and dryness of the vagina.

Palpitation and dyspnœa from slight exertion.

Drawing sensation in all the extremities.

Yellow skin.

April 11, 1895. Heloderma horridus four powders, one every four hours.

April 23, 1895. Decidedly more cheerful and memory is better.

Bowels more active.

Legs more reliable, with the numbness and tingling.

No medicine.

April 26, 1895. Alarmed because the palms and soles are swollen and itching.

No medicine.

May 22, 1895. She gained rapidly in both flesh and strength, until a week ago.

Heloderma horridus one powder.

Soon after this an itching eruption came all over her, which subsided without any further medication. She was restored to a fair degree of health so that she has taken care of her house and family up to the present time.

(The following arrangement of Dr. Boocock's proving was made by Dr. Lilienthal):

Mind.—No inclination for exertion in any way.

Difficulty in remembering the spelling of simple words.

Depressed, feels blue.

Head.—Sensation of heat in head; heat on vertex.

Headache over right eyebrow.

Pressure in head and scalp; pressure in skull as if too full.

Soreness and stiffness in occiput, extending down neck; sore spot in various parts of head.

Intense pain over left eyebrow, through eye to base of brain and down back.

Aching at base of brain.

Sharp, digging pains.

Benumbed feeling all over head.

Burning feeling in brain.

Throbbing on top of head; head sore and bruised.

Sensation of band around head.

Cold band around head.

Sensation as if scalp was drawn tight over skull.

Bores head in pillow.

Vertigo and weakness when moving quickly.

Dizziness, with inclination to fall backward.

Eyes.—Itching of eyelids, lachrymation.

Weight of eyelids, difficult to keep them open.

Ears.—Pressure behind left ear; pressure in ear from within outward.

Copious flow of wax.

Ears dry and scurfy.

Nose.—Left nostril sore; ulcerated.

Dry, itching scurfs in nostrils.

Severe attack of sneezing. Fluent discharge.

Face.—Sensation of heat. Flushes of heat.

Cold, crawling feeling from temple down right cheek.

Sensation as if pricked with points of ice.

Sensation as if facial muscles were drawn tight over bones.

Stiffness of jaw.

Mouth.—Dryness of lips.

Soreness.

Very thirsty.

Tongue tender and dry.

Throat.—Dryness; parched sensation.

Tingling.

Soreness, tenderness to touch.

Stinging, sore feeling in right tonsil.

Stomach.—Acid burning in stomach.

Hypochondria.—Gurgling in region of spleen.

Abdomen.—Sharp shooting pain in bowels, more on left side.

Pain across pubic bones, extending down into left testicle.

Stitching pains in bowels.

Throbbing in bowels.

Rumbling in bowels.

Stool.—Loose, copious stool, lumpy, preceded by stitches in abdomen.

Stool loose, mushy with considerable flatus.

Stool soft, dark, difficult to expel.

Hæmorrhoids swollen, itch and bleed.

Urinary Organs.—Bladder irritable, frequent urging to pass urine.

Tenderness in urethra, with sensation of discharge.

Urine not as free as usual, muddy.

Intermittent flow.

Urine, specific gravity, 1010; greenish-yellow, fetid (decaying fruit).

Sexual Organs.—Erections.

Cold penis and testicle, with gluey discharge.

Pain and enlargement of left testicle.

Female.—

Respiratory Organs.—Slight, hacking cough, with pain in left scapulæ.

Fulness in chest, requiring an effort to inflate the lungs.

Oppressed for breath from least exertion.

Chest.—Sharp stitch through right nipple to inside of right arm.

Cold feeling in right lung.

Heart.—Pressure at heart.

Tingling around heart.

Trembling and coldness around heart.

Oppression around heart.

Sticking pains, shooting from left to right.

Stitches in heart.

Soreness in heart, more under left nipple.

Pulse, 56-72; full and jerky.

Back.—Stiff neck; aching in bones of neck.

Painfulness of upper neck.

Coldness across scapulæ.

Chill in back from base of brain downwards.

Pain in back; pain in lumbar muscles awakening him.

Aching in right kidney; stitch pain in right kidney.

Upper Extremities.—Numbness of right arm and hand with trembling.

Tingling in arms and hands.

Tingling in palm of left hand and along fingers.

Drawing in left hand, followed by tingling and prickling.

Pains in hands, if holding anything for some time.

Trembling of hands.

Hands blue, cracked and rough.

Lower Extremities.—Numb feeling around and down left thigh.

Pain in left thigh and calf as if bruised.

Numb feeling down right leg.

Coldness extending from knee to calf.

Coldness of legs and feet.

Boring sharp pain on tibia of right leg.

Sensation of tight hand around left ankle.

Trembling of limbs. Jerking of limbs.

Tingling and burning of feet as if recovering from being frozen.

Burning in feet, preventing sleep, had to put them out of bed.

Sensation as if walking on sponge and as if swollen.

Staggering gait.

Tendency to turn to right when walking.

When walking lift feet higher than usual and put down heel hard.

Skin.—Itching of skin as from insects.

Sleep.—Drowsiness, but inability to sleep.

Restless sleep; awakens at 3 a.m.

Awakened from sleep by jerking in head; trembling of limbs; pain in lumbar muscles.

Fever.—Internal coldness.

Severe chill ran down back.

Cold rings around body.

Cold waves ascend from feet, or downward from base of brain.

Nerves.—Startled easily. Trembling.

Tired feeling; very weak and nervous.

Intense aching in bones and all parts of body.

Trembling of left side; hands shaky.

Trembling can be controlled by effort of will.

Generalities.—Stretching relieves pains in muscles and limbs.

Stitch pains going from left to right.

Weak, giddy, making it difficult to stand.

Unable to balance myself.

Movement does not increase the pain.

Throbbing all over body.

Bone pains.

JACARANDA GUALANDAI.

Nat. Ord., Bignoniaceæ. Common Name, Carroba. Preparation.—The dried leaves are crushed and macerated in five parts by weight of alcohol.

(Of this South American remedy the Dispensatory says it is used in Brazil and other South American countries for syphilis; sometimes under the name Carroba. Its value was also asserted in British Medical Journal, 1885. The following letter from Dr. J. F. Convers, of Bogota, to Messrs. Boericke & Tafel, throws some further light on its use; the letter is dated November 24, 1888):

Dear Gentlemen: Please to accept the leaves of a tree of the Bignoniacea family, called Jacaranda gualandai, that I send you with this, because it is very much used by our natives to cure illness of a syphilitic character. I have used the mother tincture (5 drops pro dosi), and the 3d dilution of it, in the treatment of blennorrhagia and chancroids with the greatest success. In my experience I have found that this medicine is a complementary and antidote to Merc. v.

Mr. José M. Reyes, who proved the θ and the 2x dilution during more than one month three times a day, found the following results:

Head.—Vertigo on rising after stooping, with momentary loss of sight, and sensation of heaviness in the forehead. Weakness of memory and inability to study.

Eyes.—Pains and inflammation of the eyes, with redness more marked in the left eye. Sensation of sand in both eyes. Ophthalmia, which begins in the left eye, with lachrymation and night agglutination of the eyelids. Weakness of sight. Syphilitic-like ophthalmia.

Stool.—Diarrhœa with dark mulberry-colored stools without pain or tenesmus, but with mucus.

Urinary and Sexual Organs.—Increased secretion of the urine. Pain in the penis. Blennorrhagia with a discharge which stains the linen a dirty yellow color. Chancroids.

Throat.—Pain and burning of the larynx, when laughing or reading aloud, and small vesicles in the pharynx.

Back.—Weakness of the lumbar region.

These are not doubtful symptoms.

N. B.—This remedy acts on the head at first, afterwards on the intestines, and on the eyes last.

Please try it, and make it known to our colleagues. Should it prove to be there as good as here, I assure you it will be a valued remedy.

(Dr. J. S. Whittinghill contributed the following, Eclectic Medical Journal, concerning Jacaranda):

Let me give the results of my experience with Jacaranda. I believe it to be a true specific for certain kinds of rheumatism. Its first trial was given a patient suffering as follows: She had had rheumatism for about ten years—never became serious. Sometimes she was nearly relieved from it; again lost much rest and sleep from it. Her wrist would become painful and very weak from ordinary labor. She always suffered very much in the morning upon any motion, and complained of being stiff. Had to have assistance in dressing. Upon sudden motion, sensation in the muscles as of tearing and being bruised—even painful upon pressure.

I gave her different remedies as they seemed to be indicated, with no results towards removing the trouble. I thought there could be nothing lost by trying Jacaranda. It met with decided success. She was entirely relieved of muscular pains in a few days. Had the recurrence of some symptoms in about six weeks after; tried Jacaranda again with the same decided success. Some eight weeks have elapsed since, with no recurrence of muscular pains. I have tried it on three other patients with the same peculiar morning stiffness and soreness of muscles. All were relieved in a few days. They have no more muscular trouble. So I put morning soreness and stiffness of muscles as the guide in prescribing Jacaranda.

LAC CANINUM.

Preparation.—The fresh milk from a bitch is triturated in the usual way.

(The late Dr. Sam. Swan had a proving of this remedy, dog milk, in the Materia Medica he attempted to publish, but of which only one volume appeared. The work is now very rare. The following clinical cases were contributed by Dr. Philip Rice to the Medical Century, Vol. IX, No. 24):

Lac caninum is a remedy of undoubted value, though not very thoroughly understood and consequently not very extensively used in this dread disease. And since a proving has never been made, and since we have to depend entirely upon clinical reports I feel it my duty to report a few cases in which a clear demonstration of the value of this remedy was made.

Case I.—Bruce McG., æt. 15, dark hair, gray eyes, spare habit, rigid fibre, nervous, quick, active, called at my office in the evening complaining of sore throat, worse on right side, and on swallowing. Headache dull and heavy, slight fever. Inspection revealed tonsils and fauces congested and angry looking. On right tonsil a patch of membrane the size of a split pea was seen.

Lycopodium 30x was given. The next morning the entire trouble seemed to have gone to the left side; with it had come, also, stiff neck and tongue; profuse flow of saliva; temperature 101 F. Membrane somewhat larger. Mercurius ruber 30x was given. In the evening the trouble was worse again on right side, the membrane now entirely covering both tonsils, temperature 102 F. Limbs ached, back ached, and patient was restless. Remembering the symptom, "membrane alternates between right and left sides," and this having been so characteristic, I gave Lac caninum in the 30th potency. Improvement began immediately and at the end of the third day the membrane was entirely gone and case discharged as far as medicine was concerned.

Case II.—Louisa McG., æt. 13, in temperament exactly like her brother, the preceding case. Was irritable and listless for two days, but owing to the fact that the fair began in a few days, to which she was determined to go, she did not complain. The third day, however, her mother noticed that she was truly sick and, there being a number of cases of diphtheria in town, looked into her throat. She found both tonsils covered with a membrane. I was called and as no other symptoms could be elicited I gave Sulphur 30x and told them I would call again in the evening, which I did and found symptoms rapidly developing. Aching in all the limbs; headache; pain in the throat on swallowing; worse on the right side; neck and tongue stiff; membrane just the same. Temperature 101.5; same remedy continued.

Next morning the membrane was the same, pain now in left side, throat internally and externally œdematous, fauces and uvula glossy or varnished in appearance. Temperature 102, urine scanty, no thirst. Apis 30x was now given. In the evening pain back in right side again. Temperature 102.5. Membrane spreading; stiffness of neck and tongue more marked and saliva profuse. Not having seen the case till the membrane had quite generally formed, but the patient being in temperament like her brother and the pain shifting from side to side, as in his case, I decided to give her Lac caninum. Improvement began immediately and at the end of four days the membrane was entirely gone.

Case III.—The servant girl in the family where cases one and two had been, Anna B., æt. 17. In temperament the very opposite to the other cases, being fat, fair and flabby. Complained of pain in right side of throat on swallowing, neck stiff, tonsil slightly congested. Felt as if she had a bad cold. Advised her to come to the office and get some medicine. She had, however, some "dope" on hand and said she guessed she would take that first. Next evening I was called and found her with throat much worse. Membrane covering left tonsil entirely, also a narrow strip of membrane on posterior wall of pharynx, pain in left tonsil on swallowing, neck and tongue stiff, saliva quite profuse. Temperature only slightly above normal. Lac caninum 30x was given. Patient never went to bed and at the end of the second day no trace of membrane could be seen.

Now, the symptoms common to all three cases and the only ones characteristic in each case were, first, both pain and membrane shifting from side to side; second, stiffness of neck and tongue; third, profuse saliva; fourth, aching in limbs marked; fifth, entire absence of prostration; sixth, character of pain was "as if throat was burned raw." Now, the question will arise in the bacteria man's mind, was this real diphtheria; were the German's bacteria present? I will answer candidly, I don't know; I never looked for them.

LAPIS ALBUS.

Synonym. Silico-Fluoride of Calcium. Preparation.—The residue obtained by evaporation, from the waters of the mineral springs of Gastein, Germany, is triturated in the usual way.

(It was Von Grauvogl who first called attention to this drug, the product of certain mineral springs in Germany, that have reputation for curing ulcers, cancers, tumors, etc. In the Transactions of the American Institute of Homœopathy, 1896, will be found the following by Dr. W. A. Dewey):

My experience with this remedy, and I have been somewhat interested in it, dates from about 1876. At that time a member of my own family had an enlargement of one of the cervical glands. It was nearly as large as a hen's egg, and had a soft, doughy feel. Under Lapis albus 6, prescribed, I believe, by Dr. G. E. E. Sparhawk, now of Burlington, Vt., the swelling speedily and completely disappeared. A peculiar and unusual symptom noticed by this patient while taking the medicine was a marked increase in the appetite; it became ravenous.

Since that time I have used the remedy in many cases of scrofulous enlargement of the cervical glands, and find that it is almost specific where the glands have a certain amount of elasticity and pliability about them, rather than a stony hardness, such as might call for Calcarea fluorica, Cistus or Carbo animalis.

One case in particular which I recall was a young lady, about twenty years of age, a natural blonde, skin fair, bluish white, showing prominent veins, who had a glandular enlargement in the right supra-clavicular region, nearly the size of a goose egg, and one somewhat smaller a little farther back in the interval between the sterno-cleido mastoid and trapezius muscles. These had a certain amount of hardness, but they were movable. Others of the cervical chain were also enlarged, the right side being the only one affected. As the young lady was engaged to be married, these unsightly lumps were very distressing. Lapis albus 6, a powder four times a day, in a week caused a marked diminution of the size of the glands, and in three weeks they were not noticeable, and eventually entirely disappeared. This patient also had a ravenous appetite while taking the remedy, an unusual thing for her. Her anæmic color and complexion were also greatly improved.

The most remarkable effect of the use of the remedy I have had was in the case of goitre in a lady of about thirty-five, blonde, who had for over a year noticed a gradual increase in the size of the thyroid gland, until it was as large as a good-sized fist, when she came to me. Both halves of the gland seemed to be equally involved. It did not appear to be of the encapsulated variety. This patient had received previous homœopathic treatment, having had Spongia, Iodine, Thuja, as well as some other remedies. Lapis albus 6 was prescribed, a dose every three hours. The swelling began to disappear at once, and continued to diminish in size until it completely disappeared, and at the present time over five years have passed with no return of the trouble.

LATRODECTUS MACTANS.

Preparation.—The spiders are triturated in the usual way.

(The following paper by Dr. Samuel A. Jones appeared in the Homœopathic Recorder, July, 1889, under the title, "Latrodectus Mactans: a Suggested Remedy in Angina Pectoris"):

"The great result of the grim doctor's labor, so far as known to the public, was a certain preparation or extract of cobwebs, which, out of a great abundance of material, he was able to produce in any desirable quantity, and by the administration of which he professed to cure diseases of the inflammatory class, and to work very wonderful effects upon the human system."—Dr. Grimshawe's Secret.

I do not know that the doctor who is the direct occasion of this paper was grim, nor do I imagine he ever dreamed of such an application of his paper as I purpose to make. I never met him; though he wore the gray and I the blue during a struggle wherein fate might easily have thrown us together. It was not until the autumn of '76 that I became aware of his existence, and then by a contribution of his to a medical magazine—the special copy of which was found amongst the multifarious waifs of a bookstall. I could not "decline the article," although I was then entering upon a field of labor that would leave little time for such quiet research as the old doctor's paper so powerfully suggested, so I bought the odd number, and fourteen years later I am making such use of it as my sense of its significance enforces.

It is due Mr. A. J. Tafel to state that but for his most efficient services this paper of mine would never have been written. To his endeavors, stretching through some years, I owe the identification of the remedy, without which I should not have put pen to paper; and having secured this, from unimpeachable authority, too, he never rested from his labors until he had put in my possession dilutions of the poison itself. If, then, this magis venenum shall prove itself magis remedium, most assuredly the pars magna of its introduction is his.

From the days of Dioscorides and Pliny to the present a venomous quality has been ascribed to "the fluid emitted from the orifice in the fangs of the arancidæ." That this quality was even lethal has been both believed and questioned. Insect Life, Vol. I., No. 7, pp. 204-211, Washington, 1889, contains "A Contribution to the Literature of Fatal Spider Bites," in which the credulity of mere medical observers and the emphatic incredulity of professed "entomologists and arachnologists" are dwelt upon, and concerning which its author cautiously concludes as follows:

"It will possibly appear to the reader that after collecting this testimony we are as far from the solution of the question—'Do spider bites ever produce fatal results?'—as we were before; but it seems to us, after analyzing the evidence, that it must at least be admitted that certain spiders of the genus Latrodectus have the power to inflict poisonous bites which may (probably exceptionally and depending upon exceptional conditions) bring about the death of a human being. Admitting in its fullest force the argument that in reported cases the spider has seldom if ever been seen by a reliable observer to inflict the wound, we consider that the fact that species of the Latrodectus, occurring in such widely distant localities as South Europe, the Southern United States, and New Zealand, are uniformly set aside by the natives as poisonous species, when there is nothing especially dangerous in their appearance, is the strongest argument for believing that these statements have some verification in fact. It is no wonder that a popular fear should follow the ferocious-looking spiders of the family Theraphosoidæ; but considering the comparatively small size and modest coloring of the species of Latrodectus so wide-spread a prejudice, occurring in so many distinct localities, must be well founded." P. 211.

Is it indeed an argument that "in reported cases the spider has seldom if ever been seen by a reliable observer to inflict the wound?" How an Orfila, a Christison, and a Caspar would smile when asked if the evidence of a poisonous quality depended upon the administration of the poison being "seen by a reliable observer." Toxicology detects a poison by the physiological test as well as the chemical. Strychnia in quantity too small for the coarse chemical test is revealed by the tetanized muscles of a frog whether that "arch martyr to science" be in "South Europe, the Southern United States, or New Zealand," and that infinitesimal fractions of Strychnia will display its characteristics whether or not its administration is "seen" by a Christison, or a college janitor. Of course, a Christison would recognize Strychnia from and in the phenomena, while a college janitor (and here and there an over-scientific entomologist) might not.

It is neither the aim nor the purpose of this paper to establish the lethal property of spider poison; though I must acknowledge that, until I read the paper in Insect Life, I had no thought that its possession of such a property would be called in question. I shall content myself with calling attention to the pathogenetic quality of the poison of Latrodectus mactans, leaving my reader to discern the resemblance of its tout ensemble to an attack of angina pectoris, and therefore to infer its homœopathic applicability in that dread disorder. I shall not enter upon the pathology—various and much confused—of that cardiac seizure, because, as I get older, I find the "like" more and more of a "pillar of cloud by day and pillar of fire by night," whilst in my short life I have found "pathology" as changeable as a dying dolphin—and every one knows that a dead fish "stinks and shines, and shines and stinks."

Cases of Spider Bite.

BY G. WILLIAM SEMPLE, M. D., HAMPTON, VA.[J]

"Spider bites are of rare occurrence in this vicinity, but are generally productive of grave symptoms. [Isn't it bad taste for doctors to use the words grave symptoms?] I will report all that have occurred to me in a practice of forty years:

"Case I. September 4, 1853. I was called to see Mr. D., at Old Point, who had been bitten by a small, black spider on the prepuce, whilst on the privy seat, at 12:30 o'clock. The bite at first caused only itching of the prepuce, with a little redness of the part, but in less than half an hour nausea, followed by severe abdominal pains, ensued. A messenger was dispatched in haste for me to Hampton, three miles off. Before I reached the patient, at 2:30 o'clock, violent præcordial pains extending to the axilla, and down the [left] arm and forearm to the fingers, with numbness of the extremity, had succeeded, attended by apnæa.

"In consequence of the violence of the symptoms, Dr. Stineca, surgeon of the post, had been sent for, who had given two doses of Laudanum of ʒj each, and two of rectified whiskey of ǯij each, and, being in ill health and unable to remain, had ordered his steward to apply four dry cups over the præcordia. This had just been done when I arrived. I saw the blood, thin and florid, fill the cups like water oozing through the muslin. When the cups were removed, the blood, emptied into a basin, did not coagulate; and blood continued to ooze slightly from the surfaces to which the cups had been applied until the next morning, though a solution of Tannin was applied.

"I found the patient suffering extremely from the most violent præcordial pains and from apnæa, and also violent pain in the left arm, which was almost paralyzed. His pulse was 130 and very feeble, his skin cold as marble, and his countenance expressive of the deep anxiety he felt and expressed in words. The laudanum and whiskey seemed to have produced no effect—the nausea and abdominal pains having subsided before they were administered. There was no pain, inflammation, or swelling where the bite was received. Even the itching of the part had subsided. I gave the patient every half hour for several hours ʒj of aromatic spirits of ammonia, and as much whiskey and water as he could be induced to take, and afterwards gave them every hour; also pediluvia of hot mustard and water, frequently repeated, until the next night.

"September 5th, 8 a.m.—The symptoms continued unabated; indeed, the patient grew worse until 2:30 o'clock, twenty-six hours after he was bitten, for his pulse had then become so frequent that it could not be counted, and so feeble that it could scarcely be felt. He then vomited black vomit copiously—a quart or more. Soon afterwards reaction set in, his pulse gradually gained force, and became less frequent, the pain subsided and the respiration improved. At 8 p.m., the pulse had gained considerable force, and the patient slept until some minutes after 12; his pulse was pretty full at 1:10; his surface warm and perspirable, and he felt almost free of pain. After a short interval he again fell asleep, and slept quietly until morning, when he awoke—his respiration healthy, pulse 80, regular and with sufficient force, and entirely relieved of pain. He soon afterwards had two pretty copious evacuations from the bowels, similar to the black vomit he had vomited. After this he said he felt quite well, and took a light breakfast and dinner, and returned that evening to his residence in Portsmouth, and in a few days went to work at his trade.

"In thirty-six hours from the time he was bitten, he took three and a half quart bottles of the best rectified whiskey—about three quarts without showing the least symptom of intoxication."

I have cited this case at full length in order to present the evolution of the symptoms, on which alone depends the resemblance of the action of the poison to the chief symptoms of an attack of angina pectoris—a closer resemblance than half a lifetime of somewhat wide reading has enabled me to find in the effect of any other noxious agent. In fact, after much searching, I find this case to be unique. In other cases of spider bite I can find evidence that assures me of its genuineness, but, to my knowledge, its order of symptom evolution is as solitary as it is singular and significant. This feature of uniqueness will cause many to regard it with suspicion. I think they will do wrong; for some experience in proving work has taught me that one positive result from a drug out-weighs any number of negative.

In the case of Latrodectus mactans we shall find, from other poisonings, that, as a rule, it displays an affinity for the præcordial region as the locus of its chief attack; and having assurance of that fact, we shall not find it difficult to accept a clue from even a solitary instance.

Of the remaining cases in Dr. Semple's paper I shall cite only the symptoms, and be it observed that in all the cases as here given the italics are my own.

Case 2. A man "was bitten in the groin, and complained of only a slight prickling and itching at the spot where he was bitten, but was complaining [when Dr. S. saw him] of severe abdominal pain, with nausea, and a sinking sensation at the epigastrium; and his pulse, in a few minutes after the bite, had already become quick and thready; and the skin very cold." The man soon recovered under ammonia and whiskey—two quarts of the latter produced no symptoms of intoxication.

Case III. A lad of eighteen years of age. "There was no pain, but only itching and redness at the part bitten at first; but violent pain soon commenced there [on the back of the left hand] and extended in a short time up the forearm and arm to the shoulder and thence to the præcordial region."

Case IV. "A tawny woman [daughter of a quadroon mulatto woman] about twenty-two years old, the mother of two children." "Found her apparently moribund; her skin as cold as marble; violent pain extending from the bite on the right wrist up the forearm and arm to the shoulder, and thence up the neck to the back of the head on the right side; more violent pain in the præcordia, extending thence to the shoulder and axilla on the left, and down the arm and forearm to the ends of the fingers, and this extremity partially paralysed; added to this, apnæa was extreme; the respiration only occasional—gasping; the pulse could not be felt in the left radial, and I was not sure that I felt it in the right."

In about fifteen minutes after the intra-venous injection of 13 minims of undiluted Aqua Ammoniæ, the doctor "was astonished at the calm and painless expression of her countenance, so lately expressive of anxiety and pain."

Case V. A healthy young girl of 13. She felt a stinging sensation on the [right] wrist, accompanied by itching and redness at the spot [bitten]. For several minutes there was but little pain, but in half an hour a painful sensation began to be felt at the spot, which quickly extended up the arm to the shoulder, and, in the course of an hour, along the neck to the back of the head. * * * Pain in the præcordial region, with apnæa coming on, I was sent for. When I arrived she was screaming fearfully with pain, and frequently exclaiming she would lose her breath and die. The pulse had become thready and the surface cold.

From these data the poison of Latrodectus mactans is suggested for trial in angina pectoris, in that its physiological action presents the closest similimum yet found.

FOOTNOTES:

II.

It may be well to offer a critical examination of the foregoing cases. If they are genuine effects of the poison of Latrodectus mactans, they must afford a recurrence of corresponding symptoms. They may differ in degree, because the quality of the venom may vary; first, from the season in which the bite occurred (and judging from cases I, IV and V, the poison of Latrodectus mactans is most virulent in the month of September), and, secondly, from the more thorough elaboration of the venom. It is known that the poison of Crotalus horridus differs in intensity according to the frequency with which the snake has bitten in a given period of time; of four successive "strikes" in four different organisms, and at brief intervals, the intensity of the action will vary, so that while the first wound is lethal the last is not—on which fact depends the vaunted reputation of many an antidote to the bite of the rattlesnake. That this may be also true of the spider poison is the only explanation I can offer for the fact that many naturalists have allowed themselves to be bitten by spiders of reputed poisonous species, and with impunity.

Recurrence of Corresponding Symptoms.

(Arabic numerals refer to the Cases.)

I. Nausea 1 2

II. Abdominal pain1 2

III. Countenance anxious1 4

IV. Pain up arm to shoulder,

thence to back of neck 45

V. Præcordial pain extending to

left axilla, and down arm to

finger ends1 4

VI. Left arm almost paralyzed1 4

VII. Pain up arm to shoulder,

thence to præcordia 3 45

VIII. Apnæa 1 45

IX. Præcordial pain1 3 45

X. Pulse feeble, thready1 2 45

XI. Skin cold1 2 45

XII. Sense of impending dissolution1 45

While Dr. Semple's reports do not precisely state it, I think we may safely infer a sense of impending dissolution in cases I, IV and V. The girl exclaimed she "would lose her breath and die;" the man in case I "expressed in words" "the deep anxiety he felt;" the woman in case IV was found "apparently moribund" with "gasping respiration," and therefore incapable of speech, but who can doubt that she had a sense of impending dissolution?

Isolated Symptoms.

Numbness of the arm, 1.

Black vomit, 1.

Alvine evacuations similar to the black vomit, 1.

Sinking sensation at epigastrium, 2.

Respiration only occasional—gasping, 4.

It must be admitted that many of our accepted provings cannot as well bear a similar test.

III.

There is another feature that the believer in the law of similars should find no insuperable difficulty in accepting as a criterion of the validity of a proving, namely: the similarity of the drug symptoms to certain disease symptoms. I am not ready to believe that drug symptoms are only the result of a "fortuitous concourse of atoms," nor can I for one moment imagine that they are the product of blind and aimless chance. I plainly discern in them the result of law, and I am wholly unable to conceive of existing law without the absolutely necessary pre-existing law maker. The consequent must have its antecedent. Therefore, in a drug symptom I see a purpose, and by the light of the law of similars I find the purpose of a drug symptom in an analogous disease symptom—they answer to each other as face unto face in the refiner's silver—and behind and beyond them both is another purpose, of wisdom inscrutable, of love unfathomable. In a word, my reader, the problem of the visible universe forces upon me the alternative that weighed upon Marcus Aurelius—"either gods, or atoms." With atoms only I cannot account for law; with God and in God both atoms and law find a meaning and a purpose.

If I were submitting these convictions, or, if you will, this "working hypothesis," to a Sir Thomas Browne, or a William Harvey, or a Thomas Sydenham I should feel no momentary hesitation; as it is, I can only hope that the spirit that filled these worthies is not extinct in days when the "spiritual colic" that disordered an imaginary Robert Elsmere is thought to disturb the eternal Verities. I much doubt if they who mistake an eclipse for an annihilation will get any good from this poor pen of mine.

The resemblance between the symptoms of angina pectoris and the effects of the poison of Latrodectus mactans are so striking as to justify the presentation of a comparison; and it is hoped that physicians of wide reading will pardon what may seem to them a piece of supererogation for the sake of many a humbler practitioner whose opportunities have not been so happy. At the same time, the widest reader must admit that he has not found any one authority who has given a complete picture of angina pectoris. Nor is it essential that such an all-including "composite" shall now be presented; on the contrary, we shall offer only salient points substantiated by observers of the highest order.

It will be well to start from an authority whose scholarship has never been excelled—Copland. Of all our medical writers he may be called the Great Definer—his readers will know what that means.

"Acute constricting pain at the lower part of the sternum, inclining to the left side, and extending to the arm, accompanied with great anxiety, difficulty of breathing, tendency to syncope, and feeling of approaching dissolution."

Copland presents a group of constants, and, for a terse definition, has well covered the principal phenomena. As variants he has omitted the pulse and the surface temperature. He errs on the side of dogmatism in defining the character of the pain as "constricting;" "aching, burning, or indescribable," and "generally attended with a sense of constriction" is more in accordance with the actual condition. Of Copland's seven constants, Case 4 presents an analogue for each in symptoms IX., V., III., VIII., XII., and the "tendency to syncope," which is not included in our table because Dr. Semple did not put the fact in express words. If to this group we add the thready pulse and cold skin, we shall have "covered" nine of the most prominent symptoms of angina pectoris; a pathological "composite" with a most striking pathogenetic similimum.

But all the elements of Copland's group are not of equal importance; two of them, at least, are pathognomonic. "The two constituent elements of the paroxysm," says Latham, are "the sense of dissolution and the pain." "Pain with one awful accompaniment may be everything." "This mixture of the sharpest pain with a feeling of instant death." According to Fothergill "the two prominent subjective phenomena are pain in the chest and a sense of impending death." Eulenburg and Guttmann include another element: "We regard the substernal pain, the feeling of anxiety, and the disturbance of the heart's action, as the essential symptoms of angina pectoris." Romberg notes the companionship of these two elements: "The patient attacked with angina pectoris is suddenly seized with a pain under the sternum in the neighborhood of the heart, accompanied by a sense of anxiety so intense as to induce a belief in the approach of death."

We have laid the emphasis of these various citations on the "essential symptoms" in order to assert, with equal emphasis, that their analogues occur in not only one case of Latrodectus mactans poisoning. The præcordial pain is noted in Cases 1, 3, 4 and 5, and the sense of impending dissolution in Cases 1, 4 and 5. And that disturbance of the heart's action which Eulenburg and Guttmann consider an essential element is found in Cases 1, 2, 4 and 5; so that the tout ensemble presented by Case 4 is corroborated.

Another important element, though it is one subject to variations, is the direction of the extension of the pain. It most generally extends to the left axilla, and down the arm to the fingers; as variations it sometimes affects the right axilla and the back of the head. In Cases 1 and 4 the spider poison followed the direction of the disease, and in Cases 4 and 5 it also affected the back of the head. In Case 1 it produced the numbness of the arm and hand that is sometimes observed in the diseases.

Copland includes "difficulty of breathing" amongst the elements of angina pectoris. Trousseau does not regard this difficulty as real. "Although patients think they are going to be suffocated during a paroxysm, the chest is normally resonant on percussion, and if it be auscultated as they draw in breath again vesicular breathing is heard everywhere." Watson says, "the patient is not necessarily out of breath. It is not dyspnœa that oppresses him; for he can, and generally does, breathe freely and easily." Stokes is decided: "Respiration is secondarily affected; there may be slight dyspnœa or orthopnœa, with lividity of the face, yet by an effort of the will (if the patient dares to encounter the pang this commonly produces) the chest may be pretty freely expanded, and the breathing relieved for a brief space; dyspnœa is not a primary symptom of angina." Eulenburg and Guttmann say, "Our own experience leads us to adopt Parry's conclusion, that the changes in the respiration are principally, perhaps even solely, due to the pain." Bristowe speaks of the sufferer as "fearing to breathe." We can readily see that the "apnæa" observed by Dr. Semple in Cases 1 and 5 had physical origin, but in Case 4 he says "apnæa was extreme; the respiration only occasional—gasping." This shows to what an extreme extent the action of the spider poison had gone—even to implicating the diaphragm; and it is noteworthy that Anstie records a case of angina pectoris (Neuralgia and its Counterfeits, p. 67, London, 1871), in which "there was so marked a catching of the breath as to make it almost certain that there was a diaphragmatic spasm."

Of the changes in respiration accompanying angina pectoris we have, then, both the general, and the rarest, form, produced pathogenetically by the poison of Latrodectus mactans.

IV.

In its physiological action the poison of Latrodectus mactans resembles angina pectoris vasomotoria—a purely functional derangement. The similitude of the physiological action to pure angina pectoris corroborates the accepted pathology of the latter condition, because the phenomena of Latrodectus poisoning were educed from previously healthy organisms, and in pure angina pectoris there is no pre-existent organic change occasioning the attack. According to the accepted pathology, we have in angina pectoris vasomotoria, sudden spasms of the arterioles; from this an increase of the arterial tension; to overcome this is more forcible and rapid action of the heart; as the arteriole spasm persists and doubtless deepens in intensity, distension of the left ventricle follows, and from overdistension the agonizing breast-pang, and even death from stoppage of the heart's diastole. But we must include another element—spasm of the coronary vessels. "When there is a sudden rise in the blood-pressure in the arteries, due to vasomotor spasm of the peripheral systemic arterioles, and the heart-walls are strong and well nourished, palpitation is evoked; when the coronary branches are involved in the vasomotor spasm then angina is produced, and the heart-walls, acutely distended with blood, can scarcely contract in the face of the opposition presented to their contraction by the high arterial tension. When this sudden systemic arteriole spasm extends to the coronary vessels in a heart whose walls are diseased, a fatal attack of angina with the heart full of blood may be induced. The danger increases with the extent of the structural degeneration of the heart-walls. Sudden rises of blood-pressure in the arteries will tax hearts in their textural integrity, and lead to painful distension; such sudden demands on decayed hearts lead to agonizing angina pectoris, and the sense of impending dissolution is frequently followed by sudden death."

Spasm of the arterioles and coronary vessels, rise of blood-pressure in the arteries, embarrassed action of the heart, and painful distension are just so many consecutive links in the phenomena produced by the poison of Latrodectus mactans, as Cases I and IV amply testify.

The spider poisons are akin to the serpent poisons in their property of producing a disorganization of the blood. In Case I, thin and florid non-coagulable blood continued to ooze from the cut surface despite the application of tannin. It may be a question whether this condition of the blood is directly toxicological, or a pathological result of stasis in the peripheral vessels. I incline to regard it as due to the latter condition, and I believe this explanation also holds good in the case of serpent poisoning.

The hæmorrhage recorded in Case I was of gastric origin; splenic congestion existed, and the vasa brevia—branches of the splenic artery—gave way under the pressure. I once met a similar hæmorrhage in a case of intermittent fever in a child, and I recorded the fact as a possible hint for the applicability of Latrodectus mactans in a similar condition.

In all the year that the stray copy of the old magazine was in my possession I felt it a duty to write up this remedy. I have done it lamely, but as well as I was able. Reader, where my duty ends yours begins. May you discharge it more worthily than I.

(There have been a number of cases reported in which Latrodectus mac. acted as Dr. Jones predicted; from them we select the following by Dr. E. H. Linnell, North American Journal of Homœopathy, December, 1890):

S. L. G., a man fifty years old, of bilious temperament, a dentist by profession, had slight attacks of angina after severe exposure and overexertion during "the blizzard" in March, 1888. He did not consider them of sufficient importance to consult a physician about them, but some months later he had a suppurative prostatitis, which was followed by considerable prostration, and the attacks of angina became very severe. I never could get a satisfactory description of the character of the pain, and I never saw him during a paroxysm. The pain was brought on by exertion of any kind, and was especially frequent soon after dinner. The pain was sometimes felt in the left arm, but was usually confined to the cardiac region. I once or twice detected a slight aortic obstruction sound, but aside from this failed to find any evidence of organic disease. The usual remedies gave no relief, but Latrodectus ʒc was of great benefit. Under its use the attacks gradually became less frequent and less severe. He has taken no medicine now for at least six months, and he tells me that although he occasionally has a little reminder of his former trouble, the attacks are so slight that he pays no attention to them. I have given the remedy in another similar case, with even more gratifying success. The attacks were very promptly arrested and have not returned, although nearly a year has elapsed. I think we have in this remedy, to which Dr. S. A. Jones directed attention in one of the issues of the Homœopathic Recorder, a very valuable remedy in this painful affection. It is probably, as Dr. Jones suggests, in angina pectoris vasomotoria that it will be found especially serviceable.

LEMNA MINOR.

Nat. Ord., Lemnaccæ. Common Name, Duckweed. Preparation. The fresh plant is pounded to a pulp and macerated in two parts by weight of alcohol.

(The following is by Dr. Robert C. Cooper, of London, and appeared in the Hahnemannian Monthly, 1894):

"The lowest form of phœnogamous vegetation. It consists," says Lindley, "of lenticular floating fronds, composed of stem and leaf together and bearing the flowers in slits in the edge." It forms the green scum found on stagnant ponds and dykes. It is found in two varieties, the Lemna minor and the Lemna gibba.

Before going any further I may as well at once make a bald as well as a bold statement, and say that the special province of Lemna minor is to pitch with vigor upon the nostrils; from the very moment I began prescribing it this was beyond question evident. I can think of no possible source of error except that this beneficial action may be due to the germs adhering to the fronds of the Lemna rather than to the pure plant-force.

To guard against this I have carefully filtered my tincture, but this has not made the slightest change in its beneficial influence.

Case I. Woman aged seventy-four; admission date, September 24, 1892. Nose never clear; breath very unpleasant; for twelve hours nose bled continuously last Christmas; unable to smell properly; hearing for the past seven or eight weeks bad; watch not heard on contact. Prescribed Lemna minor θA. October 1, 1892: Feeling of cold in nose is better; sense of obstruction nearly gone; can smell better; hears on contact on both sides; no medicine. October 22: Decided, though slight improvement in hearing; nose, throat and all parts around more comfortable. Last attendance.

In proceeding with the consideration of the action of this remedy, I must consider myself fortunate in having the following case to bring forward:

1. A boy of fourteen, whose nose was completely blocked up for the last two years, and whose nostrils were full of polypi, the nose itself being broadened, and in whom the nose had been cleared out by operation a year ago at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, was sent to me by my colleague, Dr. J. H. Clarke. The boy never remembers having smelt anything, and the polypi can easily be seen blocking up both nostrils.

From the 26th of November, 1892, to the 4th of March, 1893, four doses of Lemna m. θA were given at regular intervals without much change, then Calcarea carbonica 200 was given, and two weeks after, as he had faceache, Mercurius 3d dec., and on the 8th of April following the faceache was better but the nose in no way improved.

Then Lemna was given again, and this time with the most pronounced relief; the nose became much clearer, and he went on taking it, and it alone with scarcely an exception, in fortnightly doses, till the 14th of March last, when his nose was quite clear, with none but a very small polypi visible; he could breathe freely and his sense of smell had completely returned.

The delay in the manifestation of remedial change from November to March arose from complete blockage of the nose, and until the space created by the subsidence in the size of the polypi sufficed for a passage of air the patient had no reason to acknowledge relief.

In the treatment, both of swollen tonsils and in that of nasal polypi, the prescriber will be led away at the onset who accepts the testimony of the patient alone; he should make careful inspection of the parts, and be guided by what is often but a slight local change, as well as by concomitant, and it may be remote, symptoms.

2. The next case I have to bring forward is one of ozœna in a girl of sixteen, who had been three years under the treatment of a colleague who kindly sent her on to me for treatment at the London Homœopathic Hospital. The girl, whose occupation was a teacher, has had ozœna since three or four years old. The odor complained of was horrid, and the discharge excessive; a most unpleasant smell in the nose and nasty taste in the mouth; she takes cold easily if out in the night air or damp, and her nose, at times, gets stuffed up; bowels irregular; catamenia only twice—once three months ago and two months before that.

On December 30, 1893, I prescribed Lemna minor, and she returned to me from the country, where she was living, on the 31st of the following March, imploring me for another powder, as she had been almost well for two weeks after the last and then had relapsed to her old state; breathing is short and is low spirited.

21st of April, very much better; odor not nearly so bad, discharge much less; unmedicated pilules, three times a day.

19th of May, 1894, kept better for a month; took cold two weeks ago, and since then throat has felt thick and nose has discharged with a horrid odor. Catamenia regular. Breathing is better; crusts coming from both, worse on the left side. To have Lemna minor.

This patient came from a distance which prevented frequent attendance, but the above is quite sufficient evidence of the power possessed by Lemna m. in acting upon the nasal mucous membrane.

In both these cases relief was immediate after the administration of the dose, and in neither case could any reasonable doubt exist as to its being drug effect.

In some cases I have known a certain disturbance of the bowels to set in after a dose of Lemna, but this effect of the remedy is not sufficiently pronounced to be able to say much about it. Still it is interesting to narrate one or two experiences, especially as in the first of these, at all events, the concomitants were interesting.

3. In a married lady, aged about twenty-six, for whom I prescribed Lemna m. θA on Saturday afternoon, November 12, 1892, and in whom there existed a good deal of catarrhal pharyngitis, due to high up post-nasal ulceration, and who suffered from a dry feeling at the top of the throat with flatulence, and some pain in the bowels toward the evening, described as "twisting" pain, and in whom the nose was blocked on the right side, but without any visible polypus, and in whom the heart was easily disturbed, causing dyspnœa, the bowels being slightly confined.

Two weeks subsequently she stated that after the dose of Lemna the nose felt less blocked, and she felt better in every respect; but that on the Tuesday following diarrhœa set in, which began with twisting pains in the bowels and went on to sickness; continual watery stools. The least chill or nervousness, I must say, upsets her in this way; and she was subject to the same the last two catamenial periods. She still wakes with her throat dry and tongue coated. Borax 2x was then (November 25) given without any noticeable effect, and on the 9th of December Lemna minor θA was again prescribed for the following symptoms:

Mouth sore after talking or singing, and dry in the morning; tongue coated.

On the 23d of December, reported herself much better; tongue not so coated; heart less disturbed; no indigestion or diarrhœa.

Nose not perfectly clear, but no unpleasant smell or taste as she used to have, and throat no longer dry or uncomfortable. Instead of waking up with a dirty mouth, it feels clean and her taste pure.

4. A man, aged forty-seven, who suffered from old-standing vascular deafness and who specially complained of snoring a great deal, was given Lemna minor, and next day a rumbling and disturbance in the bowels set in and he felt as if he had taken medicine of a searching character. This lasted for three days, bowels acting during this time freely with much heat in the passage (anus); but was not bilious, nor were the motions diarrhœic; the snoring went away, and he ceased to dream unpleasantly when asleep. Hearing, too, seemed somewhat improved.

5. In another case, after a similar dose, diarrhœa came on next day, with pains across the bowels as from flatus; worse after eating, and a very putrid taste with an improvement at the same time in a stuffiness of the nose from which he was suffering.

6. Crusts form in the right nostril and pain like a string extends from the right nostril to the ear of the same side and right ear is deaf. (In a woman, aged twenty-six, great relief.)

It is with great pleasure that I have now to bring forward, not my own observations, but those of two valued colleagues. Dr. J. H. Clarke sends me the following:

Lemna minor, Case I. A lady, aged forty-seven, two years previously met with an accident; a sign board fell on her head when out walking in the street. Seven days after that was taken with sneezing attacks, suffered from nasal catarrh with little intermission until March, 1893, when she came under my care. Psorinum 30 soon put a different complexion on the case, and she became so far relieved of her trouble (which has made her life almost unbearable, as she never dared make an appointment for fear of an attack coming on) that she discontinued treatment. Last Christmas a sharp attack of influenza brought back the catarrh, and this time it proved less amenable to treatment.

Fears of polypus distressed the patient, though I could not discover any.

However, she again made progress, but scarcely as rapid as I could have wished, when I thought of giving her Lemna on indications given by Dr. Cooper.

On February 15, 1894, I gave it in the 3x, one tablet four times a day.

February 22, very much better; has felt freer in the head than at any time during the last ten years; has felt very much better generally; spirits braced up.

She steadily progressed to cure, and by March 15th could endure the smell of strong scented flowers, which before was impossible.

Case II. Captain B., aged forty-four, consulted me on February 29, 1894, for violent neuralgia on the right side of the neck, the part being exquisitely sensitive to touch. He had cough and cold for a month. On getting up in the morning he filled two pocket handkerchiefs with yellow deflusion before he got his nose clear. I gave him Bell. 12 to take till the neuralgia was better, and then told him to take Lemna 3x gtt. j. three times a day.

On March 9th he reported that the Bell. speedily took away the neuralgia, and that then the Lemna cleared off the catarrh in a most astonishing fashion. He never had a medicine to act so magically before.

30 Clarges street, Piccadilly, W., April 21, 1894.

The next communication that I have to bring forward is one from Dr. J. C. Burnett:

Dr. Cooper told me that he had relieved a case of nasal polypus with Lemna minor, and having several cases of the kind that had long been under my observation I thought it my duty to give them the benefit of Lemna.

Case I. A gentleman of sixty years of age, with nasal polypus only moderately developed, yet of many years' duration, was much troubled by the chronic nasal obstruction which was markedly worse in wet weather.

I gave him Lemna 3x, five drops in water, night and morning. Returning in a month, he exclaimed: "That is the best tonic I have ever taken; I have never taken any medicine in my life that has done me so much good. I feel quite comfortable in my nose and can breathe through it quite well."

Case II. A lady, about forty-five years of age, mother of a large family and whom I had formerly cured of an uterine tumor, was so troubled with nasal polypi that her life was very distressful; moreover, the polypi had swelled so much that they hung out of the nostrils and compelled the patient to remain within doors. This was notably the case in wet weather. Why not have them removed chirurgically?

"Oh, I have had them operated on over and over again, but it's no good; they only come again worse than ever."

I have tried many things to cure these polypi, but in vain; they would get temporarily better, but the first rainy weather brought them back worse than ever; hence Dr. Cooper's recommendation of Lemna is very welcome to me.

I ordered, as in the last case, with the result that the polypi very greatly diminished in size, and the patient could again take her place in society.

I have used Lemna in many other similar cases, and with the like result. In no case is the polypus really cured, but greatly diminished in size, and the patient rendered relatively comfortable. Clearly the Lemna does not either kill, cure or otherwise get rid of the polypi, but it rids them of much of their succulence and thus reduces their volume, and also diminishes the influence of wet weather to which such patients are so prone. And this is no small boon; is itself in every way superior to any operative interference. The tincture I made use of was made by Dr. Alfred Heath. The first prescription only being of Dr. Cooper's own make. Both acted alike well.

86 Wimpole street, June 4, 1894.

From these remarks of Dr. J. H. Clarke and Dr. J. Compton Burnett, as well as from my own, I think there can be no doubt, whatever, that the Lemna exercises a powerful influence upon the Schneiderian mucous membrane. How far it is capable by its specific action of removing large groups of polypi remains, as yet, an open question.

My own experience of the treatment of nasal polypi is that we have very few remedies that can at all be depended upon for giving even temporary relief. Even from Calcarea carbonica and Teucrium marum verum I have not had the effects that some practitioners testify to their possessing.

Lemna has so far given relief in my hands to cases of nasal polypi and to cases where the nostrils were plugged by swollen turbinates and other causes in a matter far surpassing the effect I have obtained from any other remedy.

In saying this I do not at all wish it to be understood that we have in it a specific for all such cases.

We must remember that the symptoms in all such obscure diseases must be our guide for the selection of our remedy, and that, therefore, the important point is to work out the specific indications for the drug as we learn them from clinical observation, in the hope that on some future occasion pathogenesis may render these still more certain.

The indications that I myself have noticed as belonging to Lemna are either a putrid smell in the nose or a loss of all sense of smell and a putrid taste in the mouth, especially on rising in the morning, with a general foulness of the mouth, due apparently to the dropping down of impure material from the post-nasal region. Along with this there sometimes seems to prevail a disposition to "noisy diarrhœa."

Dr. Burnett has noticed that Lemna patients have their nasal symptoms aggravated in damp and rainy weather, and I have to some extent confirmed this observation.

I hope on some future occasion to return to the subject of Lemna; it is in every way well worthy of being prosecuted further.

Thus, for example, a lady patient, æt. fifty-eight, suffering from pains flitting about her head and legs, with pains in her eyes during heavy rain, and in whom drowsiness by day and restless sleep at night existed, had all these symptoms removed by a single dose of Lemna, and the pallid, dullish, sickly look in her face changed to a complexion that was natural and healthy.

The truth would seem to be that Lemna's symptoms are specially aggravated in heavy rains; Calendula's, when heavy clouds are about; Rhododendron's, in thunder storms, and Dulcamara's, in damp surroundings and in foggy weather.

(In 1895 Dr. Thomas L. Shearer contributed the following concerning the remedy to the Homœopathic Eye, Ear and Throat Journal):

Lemna minor where the crusts and the muco-purulent discharge are very abundant with fetor (in rhinitis atrophics). Its action is wonderful, but it must not be administered in too low a dilution, as it then produces a sensation of intense dryness in the pharynx and the larynx. Possibly if it were exhibited in a much higher dilution it would be applicable to cases which have only a slight amount of discharge. It seems best to stop the remedy as soon as its action upon the secretions is marked, and then to wait a while before returning to its further employment. Dr. Cooper, of London, was, I believe, the first to investigate the action of Lemna minor upon the upper air passages, but I do not think that he had tried it in cases of atrophic rhinitis. There is a great future for this new addition to our therapeutic resources, and it certainly deserves further investigation. It modifies the secretions to such an extent that we can more readily improve the condition of the nasal chambers with the aid of local measures. Whether it has the power to prevent or even retard the actual process of atrophy remains to be seen.

LEVICO.

Preparation.—Dilutions made from the mineral water or triturations from the residue obtained by evaporation of the water.

(Dr. Burnett has called the attention of the profession to this water in his books. The following concerning its constituents is from The Therapist, a London journal):

Of all mineral waters those of Levico are distinguished, not only by their contents of these three elements, arsenic, iron and copper, but they are remarkable for the state of combination in which they occur. Situated in South Tyrol, on the confines of Italy, Levico has for many years been a favorite sanitorium of the Italian medical profession for their nervous and skin patients. Of late years Levico water has also been increasingly recognized by the German and Austrian faculty, among whom Bamberger, Billroth, Hebra, Nussbaum, and others testify to the extraordinary remedial activity of the waters, favoring assimilation, increasing nutrition, and in chronic and dyscratic skin diseases functioning as antiseptic or astringent.

Merely as an internal medication Levico water has, however, proved so satisfactory that it is a recognized member of the pharmacopœia in many German and Austrian hospitals and clinics. Thus Professor Nussbaum, of Munich, writes that 'Levico water is given in my orthopædic institute in doses of two or three ounces to scrofulous and anæmic children. The water is well tolerated, and in spite of the smallness of the dose the result is, in many cases, very evident.' Professor Eulenberg, of Berlin, finds Levico water especially satisfactory in chorea minor in children and at the age of puberty, as well as for hysterical neuralgia and spasms. A very copious testimony of like nature has been borne respecting Levico water.

LATHYRUS SATIVUS.

Nat. Ord., Leguminosæ. Common Names, Wild Vetch. Chick pea. Preparation.—Trituration of the dried pea.

(Dr. W. A. Dewey contributed the following paper concerning this remedy to the Medical Century, 1899):

History and Description of Effects,

The Lathyrus is a vetch, and a member of the leguminosæ family growing in India.

This remedy, which produces a perfect picture of certain spinal affections, has been known for over a century. In Christison's Toxicology it is stated that it causes paraplegia, dragging gait, turning-in of the toes, stiffness and semi-flexion of the knee-joints.

The attention of the homœopathic profession was directed to the drug as a possible remedy in paraplegia, in the British Journal of Homœopathy, Vol. III. Here is found an account of a wheat famine in India, where the peas of the plant were substituted for wheat and used as a food. Those who subsisted on it were taken, even during sleep, with sudden paralysis of the lower limbs; this occurred without warning, in young men more than in young women, and was never recovered from. Another observer records fifty cases who had eaten the Lathyrus bread and all stated that they became paralytic during the wet season of the country, that they went to bed quite well and awoke with stiff legs, unsteady gait, and aching, but no severe pain. The upper extremities were free.

Another who saw the disease in Algeria and described the symptoms found in ten cases observed that they came on suddenly, in damp weather, with some pains in the loins, trembling, motor paralysis and exaggerated reflexes. He attributed these phenomena to an acute transverse myelitis with degenerative changes in the cord.

A German writer states that the drug produces disturbances of nutrition of the muscles of the lower extremities, paresis, and that the muscles of the trunk and neck and face remain unaffected. Sensation remains normal. It seems to produce a sclerosis of the pyramidal tracts of the cord.

In animals the same condition is found; namely, paralysis of the hind legs. Pigs drag their hind legs and horses give out.

AGGRAVATED SYMPTOMATOLOGY.

From all the sources which I have been able to find, the following seem to be the symptoms caused by the drug:

Sudden loss of power in the lower extremities, from the waist down.

Tremulous, tottering gait.

Great exaggeration of the reflexes.

Stiffness and lameness of the ankles and knees.

Excessive rigidity of the legs; flexion difficult; spastic gait, the legs becoming interlocked, and walking is difficult or impossible.

Sudden onset of the trouble, and apparent aggravation in cold and damp weather.

Emaciation of the gluteal muscles also observed.

Those having taken it walked on the metatarso-phalangeal articulation, the heel not touching the ground.

Impossible to stand steady; swayed from side to side, but closing the eyes had no effect. This with the exaggerated reflexes would exclude its use in locomotor ataxia.

Debility and tremors of the legs.

Rigidity of the adductors of the thighs.

Staggering gait, with eyes fixed on the floor.

Could not extend or cross the legs when sitting.

Sensibility unimpaired.

CORRESPONDENCE TO SPINAL DISORDERS.

From these symptoms it will be seen that the effects of the drug correspond to many spinal symptoms, but more especially to what is known as spastic paraplegia. Indeed, Struempel asserts that it produces a perfect picture of this disease.

It is not so often that such a perfect picture of a disease can be had as in this instance. The disease itself is easily recognized by the stiff, spastic gait; the spasm of the adductors, causing the knees to strike each other, or to become locked, causing the patient to fall; the shuffling of the feet; the excessive muscular rigidity and the other well-known symptoms of paraplegia.

Therefore, reasoning from our law we would expect the drug to be of service in such cases, and although our pathogenesis of it is coarse we may be permitted to apply it to a disease whose symptomatology is of the coarse order; for it is often difficult to elicit any fine and characteristic symptoms in diseases like ataxic and spastic paraplegia.

It has been recognized as a remedy by but few of our writers on nervous diseases. O'Connor finds that marked benefit follows its use in old cases of myelitis with marked spastic symptoms. Bartlett, in Goodno's Practice, recommends it in excessive knee-jerk and rigidity. Hart speaks of it as a remedy in locomotor ataxia, but the absence of sensory symptoms and the presence of exaggerated reflexes would seem to contra-indicate it in this disease. He also speaks of it in spinal anemia, giving as symptoms: "Numbness, followed by pain in the lower extremities; sensation of a band around the body; unable to step or distinguish one limb from another"—symptoms which I am unable to find that the remedy produced. Elliott also speaks of it.

CLINICAL RÉSUMÉ.

The clinical record of Lathyrus, though very meagre, gives great hope that it may prove useful in numerous cases of bed-ridden paraplegiacs and in infantile spinal paralysis, as well as in certain forms of myelitis.

The following is a résumé of all that I can find published:

I. Case of spinal paraplegia, relieved.

II. A case of multiple sclerosis in a young man of twenty-eight who had been ill seven years and unable to walk for six years was greatly benefited by Lathyrus ʒx.

III. Case of paraplegia, could walk after taking the remedy for some time.

IV. Case of paraplegia, no improvement.

V. Rheumatic paralysis, with stiff knees, could walk after use of Lathyrus. (Clark Homœopathic World.)

VI. In a case of a clerk with loss of power of the lower limbs, reflexes exaggerated, knee-jerk violent, locomotion difficult and unsteady, probably a case of transverse myelitis, Lathyrus ʒx, night and morning, gave most satisfactory results. The patient could walk a mile without assistance. (Simpson, Homœopathic Review.)

VII. In a man aged fifty-two who had been unable to walk for six years, the paraplegia coming on after a "stroke" from exposure to wet, Lathyrus ʒx practically cured in eight months. He had been tied to a chair for six, and at the time he stopped treatment he was walking four miles daily. (Blake, Homœopathic Review.)