Part 52 (1/2)

COMMON NAME, Lizard's Tail.

PREPARATION.--The entire plant including the root is macerated in twice its weight of alcohol.

(The following short notice of this almost unknown remedy appeared in the _h.o.m.oeopathic Recorder_, 1895:)

Readers who are interested in the remedies of nature rather than those produced in the laboratory and sold under trademarks will remember that it was Dr. D. L. Phares, of Mississippi, who, over half a century ago, pointed out the wonderful virtues of _Pa.s.siflora incarnata_, so much used to-day. What Dr. Phares said of the remedy laid dormant until Hale, in his ever perennial _New Remedies_, rescued it from the dusty pages of old medical journals, in which so much of value is buried awaiting resurrection. Among such buried remedies is _Saururus cernuus_ or, as it is more commonly known, ”lizard's tail.” Dr. Phares, who seems to have been an unusually keen observer, used _Saururus cer._ in his practice, as he did _Pa.s.siflora_, for many years before he communicated his observations to the medical journals, and the _Saururus_ seems to be quite as important and useful a remedy in its sphere as is _Pa.s.siflora_, and one quite as worthy of a thorough proving. In absence of proving it may be said that Dr. Phares used it for years with marked success in all irritation and inflammation of the kidneys, bladder, prostate and urinary pa.s.sages. He considered it peculiarly adapted to all such cases if they were attended by strangury, or painful and difficult urination.

Dr. Phares used the remedy both externally and internally and he found that the stomach was very tolerant of the rather heroic doses he prescribed.

The plant is an indigenous perennial found in swampy localities, in some parts of the United States, and has been, and is still, used in domestic practice for those conditions for which Dr. Phares commends it.

SCOLOPENDRA MORSITANS.

PREPARATION.--The insect is triturated with sugar of milk in the usual way.

(In the case of a man bitten in the arm by a centipede, reported in _Nashville Journal of Medicine_, 1870, among the striking symptoms was no perspiration in the arm for three months. Dr. Sherman, of California (_Med.

Advance_), reports the following symptoms as prominent in a woman bitten by a centipede:)

_Head._--Vertigo, with blindness, worse in the morning.

_Stomach._--Nausea and vomiting; unable to retain either food or liquid.

_Back._--Terrible pains in back and loins, spasmodic and irregular, at times extending down the limbs. Pains returned every few days for three weeks, commencing in the head and going out at the toes. ”Resembled labor pains as nearly as anything I ever saw.”

SCUTELLARIA LATERIFOLIA.

NAT. ORD., l.a.b.i.atae.

COMMON NAME, Mad-dog skullcap.

PREPARATION.--The whole fresh plant is macerated in twice its weight of alcohol.

(The following proving of _Scutellaria lat._, from _University Bulletin_, 1897, was made, under the auspices of Dr. Geo. Royal, by nine provers:)

No symptom has been recorded unless experienced by two provers. When experienced by two provers, and not often repeated, the symptom is recorded in common type. When often repeated in two provings is found in italics. When often repeated in three provings, or found in four or more, the symptoms appear in black type.

MIND.--=Inability to study or fix the attention on one's work.= _Confusion of mind._ _Apathy._ Irritability.

HEAD.--=A full or throbbing sensation in head.= =A dull heavy headache mostly in the forehead and temples.= Sharp shooting pain in the head.

Pain in the occiput. Headache relieved in the open air. Headache relieved by eating. Headache aggravated by motion.

EYES.--_Aching in the eyeb.a.l.l.s._ Eyeb.a.l.l.s painful to touch. Eyeb.a.l.l.s feel too large.

FACE.--Flushed.

MOUTH.--_Bad taste_; _sour_; _bitter_.

THROAT.--Sensation of lump in throat which could not be swallowed.

STOMACH.--=Nausea.= =Sour eructions.= _Poor appet.i.te._ Vomiting of sour ingesta, hiccoughs, pain and distress in stomach.