New, Old, and Forgotten Remedies Part 20

2 Cold feet.

2 Pain back of left knee.

2 Sharp shooting pain in legs.

1 Extremities cold.

3 Left hip and knee pains.

2 Pain in right thigh.

2 Pain in right leg.

LIMBS IN GENERAL.

7 General weakness of limbs.

1 Pain between shoulders, which extend to axilla and down the arms.

POSITION.

Pains and sickness of stomach better by lying down.

NERVES.

7 Exhausted, tired feeling.

5 Muscular weakness.

2 Felt as if I had been sick for a long time.

6 General aching all over, with exhaustion.

SLEEP.

2 General languor, sleepy.

3 Sleep disturbed, wakes often.

5 Sleep full of dreams.

1 Dreams about exciting things all night.

2 Dreams of dead relations.

TIME.

Worse after eating.

Worse in evenings.

Worse after physical or mental labor.

Better at rest.

CHILLS.

1 Chills up the back.

1 Cold flashes all over the back.

2 General chilliness with nausea.

SKIN.

3 Intense itching and burning of skin on neck.

1 Little papules on skin, with redness, feeling like nettles; this occurred on the fifth day of the proving.

1 Skin dry.

2 Small red pimples on neck and face.

BLOOD.

2 After proving found a diminution of red corpuscles.

EPIGEA REPENS.

NAT. ORD., Ericaceae.

COMMON NAMES, Trailing Arbutus. Ground Laurel. Gravel Root.

PREPARATION.--The fresh leaves are pounded to a pulp and macerated in two parts by weight of alcohol.

(In the subjoined paper by Dr. E. M. Hale, _North American Journal of h.o.m.oeopathy_, 1869, the old doctrine of signatures seems to crop out again.)

The _Gravel Root_ has long had some reputation in urinary difficulties, and even in calculous affections. The common appellation of "Gravel root" shows that the popular belief points in the direction of its use.

I have never tested its virtues but in one instance, and its effects seemed to be so decided and curative that I deem the case worthy of publication.

A young man, aged twenty-three, applied for treatment of a long array of symptoms, some of which seemed to indicate _enlargement of the prostate_, and others a _vesical catarrh_.

The _quant.i.ty_ of urine was nearly normal.

The _quality_ was decidedly abnormal. It contained a large amount of mucus, the phosphates, some blood, and a little pus. It was dark red, colored blue litmus paper red (showing its acid condition).

The pain was similar to a vesical tenesmus, a pain in the region of the neck of the bladder and prostate gland. Pressure in the perineum was painful.

He had been under the most atrocious allopathic treatment; had been drugged with copaiva, spts. nitric.-dulc., turpentine, tincture muriate of iron, and other diuretics in enormous doses.

I commenced the treatment with _Sulphur_ 30th, three doses a day for a week.

By this time he had eliminated the drug-poisons from his system, and the real symptoms of the malady began to appear uncomplicated. The blood and pus disappeared from the urine, there was less mucus, and the urine was of a lighter color.

A red, sandy sediment, however, remained. This sediment was not "gritty"

under the finger, at least no such sensation was perceptible.

Second prescription: _Lycopodium_ 30th and 6th, the former in the morning, the latter in evening, for a week. No improvement except a slight diminution of the sediment.

No medicine was given for four days, at which time there appeared dysuria, pain in the region of the prostate, mucous sediment, and itching at the orifice of the urethra.

While undecided as to the next prescription, I happened to take up a vial of tincture _Epigea repens_, which I had prepared from the fresh plant, while on a visit to Mackinaw six months before. Knowing the high estimate placed on this plant, by the people, in the treatment of gravel I resolved to test its virtues. Ten drops of the mother tincture were prescribed, to be taken every four hours.

Two days afterwards my patient brought me several small brownish particles, having the appearance of fine sand. When crushed and pressed between the fingers they had a decidedly gritty feel. Under the microscope they had the appearance of rough coa.r.s.e sand. The discharge of calculi kept up for nearly a week, under the use of the _Epigea_, and then ceased, and with it all the symptoms of irritation of the bladder.

It is just possible that the discharge of gravel may have been a coincidence. It is equally possible that the _Lycopodium_ acted curatively; but I am inclined to believe their disintegration and expulsion was caused or aided by the use of the last medicine.

Further observations are needed to place the curative powers of this plant on a certain basis.