Much of the following study is taken from a series of excellent papers on the drug, which have been appearing for over a year in "Le Journal Belge D"h.o.m.oeopathie," from the pen of Dr. Ch. DeMoor, of Alost, Belgium.
GENERAL ACTION.--From a very large collection of observations of cases of poisoning with _OEnanthe_, dating from 1556 to the present time and recorded in "Allen"s Encyclopaedia," the "Cyclopaedia of Drug Pathogenesy," and in the article of Dr. DeMoor, above mentioned, we find that _OEnanthe crocata_ produces, almost invariably, convulsions of an epileptiform character and which are marked by the following symptoms:
Swollen, livid face, sometimes pale.
Frothing at mouth.
Contraction of chest and oppressed breathing.
Dilated pupils or irregular. Eyeb.a.l.l.s turned upward.
Coldness of the extremities.
Pulse weak.
Convulsions are especially severe, at first tonic then clonic.
Locked jaws.
Trembling and twitching of muscles.
_OEnanthe_ also produces a delirium in which the patient becomes as if drunken, there is stupefaction, obscuration of vision and fainting.
The Greek name of the plant signifies "wine flower," and so-called on account of its producing a condition similar to wine drunkenness, and there is a difference, so I have heard, between wine and other beverages in this respect. Hiccoughs are also produced by the drug.
There is also great heat in the throat and stomach and a desire to vomit and to have stool, and a great deal of weakness of the limbs and cardialgia. Like other members of the same family, as _Conium_, it produces very much vertigo, this has always been present in the cases of poisoning with the plant. In a number of cases who had been poisoned by the drug the hair and nails fell out.
h.o.m.oEOPATHIC ACTION AND APPLICABILITY.--The uses of _OEnanthe_, h.o.m.oeopathically, have been taken from the reports above mentioned; the drug has never been proved, and it is doubtful if one could be found who would prove it to the convulsion-producing extremity. All the evidence in all the authorities shows clearly that the drug produces in man all the symptoms of epilepsy, and it is in that disease that clinical testimony is gradually acc.u.mulating. Accepting the theory that epilepsy is a disturbance or irritation in the cortex of the brain, it would seem that _OEnanthe crocata_, which produces congestion of the pia mater, would prove a close pathological simillimum to epilepsy. Its usefulness in this disease is unmistakable and only another proof of the truth of the h.o.m.oeopathic law.
Let us review briefly some of the evidence of its action: Dr. S. H.
Talcott, in the report of the Middletown Asylum, 1893, notes that _OEnanthe_ possesses a marked power in epilepsy, stating that it makes the attack less frequent, less violent and improves the mental state of the patient. He prescribes it in the tincture, 1 to 6 drops daily.
In the Materia Medica Society of New York its use has been verified several times. Dr. Paige greatly benefited a case with the 3x potency.
Dr. F. H. Fisk reports the cure of a case which had lasted two years, with the tincture. This case during the last month before the doctor took it was having from 6 to 10 attacks daily.
Dr. Garrison, of Easton, Pa., reports a case of reflex uterine or hystero-epilepsy in which the 2x acted promptly.
Allen in his Hand-Book mentions the cure of three cases with the remedy.
Dr. J. Ritchie Horner reports that the remedy greatly modified the attacks in a lady who had had the disease over 20 years, and who, for the two months previous, had had a convulsion daily. He used the 3x.
Dr. J. S. Cooper, of Chillicothe, Ohio, reports the cure of a case of 25 years" standing with the 4x.
Dr. Henderson reports the cure of a case of 9 years" standing, where the patient was almost idiotic; the convulsions were relieved and the mental condition was greatly relieved and improved. In two other cases equally satisfactory results were had.
Dr. D. A. Baldwin, of Englewood, N. J., entirely controlled the convulsions in a young man of 16 with _OEnanthe_.
Dr. Ord reports a case of pet.i.t mal cured with the 3x, and in a South American h.o.m.oeopathic journal a Dr. Rappaz reports the cure of a case of three years" standing with increasing seizures with the remedy in doses ranging from the 6 to the 12.
The late Dr. W. A. Dunn reported a genuine cure of a young girl of 16 who had been epileptic for 7 years, latterly having as many as 4 or 5 attacks during a night. The remedy caused these attacks to entirely disappear. The girl commenced menstruating at 12, so the establishment of the menses had nothing to do with the cure.
Dr. Charles A. Wilson, of San Antonio, Texas, reports a number of cases cured with _OEnanthe_ in the 3x dilution, and the same potency greatly lessened the number of seizures in others.
Dr. Purdon, of the University of Dublin, relates a case of epilepsy cured with this drug in 1 to 6 drop doses several times a day.
Dr. F. E. Howard, in a case which had 3 or 4 attacks a week, gave 5 drops of the tincture every two hours, which caused violent pains in the head, but complete recovery followed on reducing the dose.
Several cases of the cure of epilepsy with _OEnanthe_ in alternation with _Silicea_ or some other drug have been reported, but as the question, "which cured?" comes in they need not be given.
In my own practice I have had some marked results from its action and have seen it modify attacks when everything else failed. In two cases, one a boy of 13 who had had the disease 5 years and who had suffered much of many sphincter-stretching orificialists and "lots of other things," the remedy made a complete cure; the other case was in a man of 30 who had the grand mal, the pet.i.t mal and the epileptic vertigo.
_OEnanthe_ removed entirely the two former conditions leaving only the latter, and that in a very mild degree. It also greatly improved the mental condition of the patient.
I have several cases under treatment at the present time, and some of them are showing a marked effect from its use. The question of dose I believe to be an important one. I used generally the tincture in water, but latterly I have been using the third, and I believe with better effect than I ever obtained with the tincture, and I am now of the opinion that the lower dilutions, say from the 3 to the 12, will be found more efficacious than the tincture, and the higher potencies will suit certain cases. In order to prescribe the drug with accuracy provings will be necessary to develop its finer symptomatology.
PARAFFINE.
PREPARATION.--The purified Paraffin is triturated in the usual way.
(This proving was made by Dr. Wahle, of Germany, who was the chemist of Hahnemann. He never published it, but gave the ma.n.u.script to his son, who in his turn gave it to Dr. Held, now a practicing physician in Rome.
Dr. Held at the request of his colleagues translated it into Italian and it appeared in the medical journal, _L"Omiopatia in Italia_, from which this article is translated and slightly condensed. The remedy is used by the h.o.m.oeopaths of Rome and found to be valuable in uterine and other troubles, indicated by the proving. It is particularly serviceable in constipation.)
PROVING OF PARAFFINE.
HEAD.
Weight in the head.
Bruised feeling in the left side of the occiput.
Head heavy and dull; a feeling when leaning forward as if a weight fell toward the forehead.
Pulsation in the head.
Pressing pain in the head, extending from the vertex toward the forehead as if something would come out.
p.r.i.c.king, stinging in the head, extending to the left temporal bone.
Pain as of a contusion in occiput.
At 9 o"clock in the morning there comes a pain in the left side of the vertex as if a nail were being driven into the head, with extension of the pain to the left lower jaw.
Touching the left side of the head causes pain as if the part were crushed and a feeling as if the whole side of the head were soft and spongy.
Twisting and wrenching in the sinciput so that he must lie down; having lain down a quarter of an hour, and having placed the right hand under the head, there was experienced a feeling of painless shock so that the hand under the head was drawn away and the legs were thrown down from the sofa. Soon afterward occurred severe palpitation of the heart.
Twisting and wrenching in the whole head, as well as the face.