That was when I was a youngster. When I studied medicine, or when I was practicing, I wanted to know if it was h.o.m.oeopathic, and made a proving, and developed the symptoms of almost constant but slight involuntary urination, keeping my pants wet.
I did not make any this past season, and have divided till I have but a little, half-and-half alcohol, left. I could spare a little of that, and next season, if I live, will try and make a quant.i.ty.
(The next item is from a letter of Dr. H. C. Houghton"s, of New York, addressed to Boericke & Tafel.)
I have been much interested in the clinical study of this remedy--new, yet not new--but I have not succeeded in demonstrating what the symptom--deafness means in this case. Dr. Cushing does not claim to be an expert in this department, so time must help us out, and I am anxious to learn all I can of its effects on the ear.
In an old note-book of Dr. Hering"s, _Hearing and Ears_, copied for me with the author"s permission by my friend Dr. C. R. Norton, I noticed the following: "In Germany, flowers of Verbasc.u.m thapsus put in a dark-colored bottle, hung up in the sunlight, give in two or three weeks an oily fluid which has cured many old people and children." This method is impracticable, the amount produced being so small. Verbasc.u.m prepared in olive oil or fluid petroleum has the same effect as any oil; excellent in chronic disease of the integument; negative in middle ear disease. When your house brought out _Mullein oil_ under Dr. Cushing"s direction, I took it up again, and have prescribed it in a large number of cases. In chronic dermat.i.tis of the external meatus and drum-head, or exfoliation after furuncle, it is excellent; in chronic catarrhal inflammation of the tympanum I have not been able to see any effect, but in chronic suppurative disease of the tympanum, or in acc.u.mulations of detritus in cases of perforation, scarred drum-heads, etc., it acts to dislodge acc.u.mulations, free the ossicula from pressure, and thereby improves the hearing; this process goes on for months till the tympanum has thrown out an amount of _debris_ that is surprising. In a few cases it has caused soreness and increased muco-purulent discharge, due, I think, to excessive use.
My experience with it in chronic catarrh of the tympanum coincides with that of my friend, H. P. Bellows, M. D., of Boston, as published by him, but I purpose to continue the study of the drug, and hope for better results. In sub-acute or chronic disease after suppuration its effect is very gratifying; it aids exfoliation and checks irritation from exfoliated material.
I am able to confirm the symptoms noted of its effects in nocturnal enuresis in many instances. There is one effect I have not seen noticed by any observers: relief of night cough. More than ten years ago, Dr. H.
A. Tucker, Brooklyn, N. Y., told me of a _Glycerole of Mullein_ made by macerating the plant in Jamaica rum for two or three weeks, expressing it and adding to this product an equal quant.i.ty of glycerine. This led me to the use of the fluid extract of the plant, glycerine and water, equal parts, as a mollifier in cases where patients would resort to some popular remedy containing opium or similar opiate. The same effect can be produced by drop doses of _Mullein oil_, the teasing cough which comes on lying down, preventing the sleep usually yielding to a few doses.
(Dr. J. C. Wentz contributed the following bit of folk-lore):
The application of _Mullein oil_ is of more general application than anything I have found in print. I report to you some cases:
CASE I.--Mertie B., aged sixteen. Called to see her May 20, 1888. Found her suffering great pain in right ear. Parotid gland very much enlarged and painful. The right side of the head and face much swollen. Pulse about 100; tongue coated.
_Treatment._--_Mullein oil_ in the ear, and used as a liniment twice daily on the swollen parts. For the fever, _Aconite_. Great improvement during the first twenty-four hours, and on the 23d found the case convalescent.
CASE II.--Carrie H., aged twenty-two. Her second child four weeks old.
Called November 15, 1888. Right breast inflamed and sore. Two weeks previous it had been lanced by another physician, a little above the nipple, but now a place a little below and to the left of the nipple gives evidence of forming pus. I told her that in my judgment it had gone too far to check it then.
_Treatment._--_Mullein oil_, one-half ounce in four ounces of water. Wet cloths and apply. The inflammation and soreness disappeared in one week, and by the use of the same remedy occasionally has entirely recovered without breaking. Her husband, when he paid me, said: "Well you have done better than any of the rest of the doctors."
CASE III.--Linford S., aged sixty-four. Called to see him September 20, 1888. Has just recovered from typhoid fever, but is able to be around.
Taken with inflammation of the right t.e.s.t.i.c.l.e. Swollen to the size of a goose egg, and much pain. Red and shining appearance of the skin. Cause unknown, unless it was in connection with chronic enlargement of prostate gland.
_Treatment._--_Mullein oil_ applied twice daily as a liniment.
_Mercurius sol._ internally. In three days the soreness and pain had entirely disappeared, but the enlargement continued several days. He walked around with ease three or four days before swelling had diminished any.
CASE IV.--F. C., aged thirty. Called November 16, 1888. Found inflammation of left kidney and of left t.e.s.t.i.c.l.e. Had been under treatment by another doctor and had recovered partially, but relapsed.
Suffering much with pain in t.e.s.t.i.c.l.e, which ran up the spermatic cord and through to the left kidney.
_Treatment._--_Cantharis_ and _Aconite_, as there was some fever.
_Mullein oil_ applied to the t.e.s.t.i.c.l.e. Rapid improvement during the first twenty-four hours, and made a quick recovery.
I have also cured a case of chronic inflammation of the eyes, and a case of chilblains from which the patient had suffered, during the winter, for about six years. * * *
Every drug has its exact range. This one being new to the profession, we are just learning what it will do. In all these cases the _Mullein oil_ has had an outward application twice daily.
A short time ago I was in Dodge city and was talking with a friend about the use of various remedies in veterinary practice, and amongst them I mentioned an almost instant cure of earache in a boy and also the same in a cat by the use of _Mullein oil_. He said: "Why do you h.o.m.oeopaths use that? I used to have the well sweep full of bottles of mullein blossoms when I was a boy. We used the oil as a dressing for burns, and it was the best thing we could get." He also related to me the following case, which is of interest and may prove of great value: An old neighbor, a Mr. Kemmis, had spent a large amount of money treating with various physicians for what they p.r.o.nounced a rose cancer and without any relief. An Indian squaw told him to use _Mullein oil_. He distilled it (as it is now prepared, by sun exposure), and for a short time bathed the cancer with the oil. The growth of the cancer was permanently checked, but was not healed. Mr. K. lived, perhaps, forty years after the treatment was used, and the cancer never again bothered him.
MUCUNA URENS.
NAT. ORD., Leguminosae.
COMMON NAME, Horse-eye.
PREPARATION.--The pulverized bean is macerated in five times its weight of alcohol.
(Delgado Palacios, of Venezuela, in 1897, wrote Messrs.
Boericke & Tafel concerning this remedy):
Reading the list of remedies of your "Physicians" Price Current," I was very much astonished to meet with the name _Dolichos pruriens_, which the greater and modern authorities in botanical matters consider an identical plant with _Mucuna urens_.
You will meet the botanical description of _Mucuna urens_ and _altissima_ (two varieties) in the Flora of West Indian Islands, by A.
H. R. Grisebach, p. 198 (Grisebach regards _Mucuna_ and _Dolichos_ as two different genus).
If one consider that there is a discussion upon this subject, and on the other hand that the mother tincture you possess is that which is made with the hair on the epidermis of the pod (_North American Journal of h.o.m.oeopathy, vol. 1, p. 209._ _Allgemeine h.o.m.oeopathische Zeitung, vol. 53, p. 135._ _Oehme, Hale"s Amerikanische Heilmittel, p. 242_), while the tincture which we employ is made with the pulverized bean (1:5 alcohol) enclosed in the pod of a special plant which grows in the calid regions of Venezuela I believe you must try the same tincture we use and the success will be that which we obtain.
I have used my tincture of _Mucuna urens_ extensively in a great number of haemorrhoids and with the most satisfactory results. It seems that the characteristic symptom or key-note is a sensation of burning. The haemorrhoids may be or not in a great stage of development, there may be more or less blood, etc.
One can consider the _Mucuna urens_ as a specific against the haemorrhoidal diathesis. The diseases of other organs, depending upon that cause, liver, uterus (haemorrhage) and intestinal affections, yield admirably to its use.
I have been treating recently a remarkable case of chronic ingurgitation of a t.e.s.t.i.c.l.e, small and frequent haematurias, and other intestinal troubles with a prominent symptom, the haemorrhoidal state, which led me to use _Mucuna_, and in a few months I have obtained a perfect success.
The experiences have taught me, and I have the conviction that this tincture is a more perfect remedy for the cure of haemorrhoids than any other remedy known. I rely upon it more faithfully than I do upon _Hamamelis, aesculus_, etc.
Its pathogenetics are not known.
I frequently use the mother tincture in the haemorrhoids, one drop daily.
I seldom use the lower dilutions. _Mucuna_ may be used also, and with success, as an ointment.
The beans are very difficult to obtain; the plant has a single yearly crop.
NAPHTHALIN.
ORIGIN--A chemical compound procured from coal, alcohol, ether vapor, etc.
PREPARATION.--Trituration of the pure naphthalin.
(Two clinical cases ill.u.s.trating the use of _Naphthalin_.
The first is by Dr. W. L. Hartman, in Transaction of the h.o.m.oeopathic Medical Society of New York, 1896.)
In treating children we are often disappointed in our results; in making prescriptions we think we have just the right thing in the right place, but when we come to see our case again we are confronted with the same condition that we had before. We may say the same in adults, but not so often. In whooping cough in the very young who are unable to tell us how they feel we must rely on what the mother may tell us; but how often do we find mothers who cannot tell their own symptoms, let alone those of their children? Now, what do we do? Sit and look wise and guess at our prescriptions while we hear the little fellow coughing, in fact trying to cough his head off and at the same time lose his breath.
Well, now while you are thinking and looking wise in this case, just think of _Naphthalin_ and give a tablet triturate of the 1x every two hours, and when you are consulted the next time you will not be annoyed with the dreadful choking spell. Now in prescribing this remedy it is not necessary to wait until the child chokes to death with the cough, but give it from the first and you will be surprised how it will cut the disease short. I do not know as I have ever given this remedy without receiving benefit, and in many cases it was unnecessary to give any other remedy to cure the case; if it is, _Drosera_ will follow best.
The grand characteristic of this remedy is long and continued paroxysms of coughing, unable to get a respiration, sometimes so violent as to cause perspiration.
This remedy is not only good in whooping cough, but in any condition where you get the above symptoms _Naphthalin_ will cure your case just the same. Now my experience with this remedy where I have prescribed above the 1x has been very unsatisfactory, so, of late, I only use the one potency.
(The other by Dr. W. A. Weaver in _Hahnemannian Monthly_, 1898.)