Introduction
Datura Stramonium, L (including D. tatula and ferox.) Thorn – apple, Jamestown weed. Nat. Ord., Solanaceae.
Provings
I. HAHNEMANN, Mat. Medorrhinum Pura, vol. iii of original, vol. ii of translation. Contains 96 symptoms from self, 90 from two others, and 383 from authors.
2. a. Dr. BERRIDGE proved B. P. tinct of seeds, taking 8 dr. at 1:35, 20 dr. at 4, and 30 at 6 p. m. Since 5 p. m. frontal headache now (6:50) worse on walking in open air (better an hours later when at rest indoors); dryness of throat, especially felt on swallowing saliva (this lasted all e.); pain in muscles of outer side of hip – joint while walking for a few m. 7:55, feeling of mucus at back of throat, causing hawking and hoarseness. In evening, after sunset, unsteadiness in walking. 2nd day – 8:40 a. m., took 40 dr. 10:15, dryness of throat, worse on swallowing saliva. 10:25, 50 dr. Soon, feeling of mucus at back of throat, causing him to swallow and hawk, which relieved; slight transient tingling in back of left hand; feeling of general heat for some m. 12 m., lips dry and sticky, throat still dry. Has had frontal headache nearly all m. 1 p. m., unsteadiness in walking, tendency to turn in a circle to left; face and forehead flushed. 1:30, lips and throat still dry; when talking, hoarse voice, it almost fails now and then, causing him to hawk in order to set it right. 1:50, feeling in throat as before; took 60 dr. Almost directly, feeling of great heat. During afternoon, palpitation on every slight exertion, later giddiness and unsteadiness when walking, and faint feeling, so that he was obliged to go into a shop and sit down. 3 – 7 p. m., several diarrheic stools, brown and watery, sometimes brownish yellow and frothy, preceded by pain in abdomen; during their passage, scalding at anus; rectum feels filled, but, on straining, only liquid stools pass. 5:30, nausea and retching, ending in vomiting of a whitish fluid; attempts at vomiting caused pain in stomach. Looked pale and felt weak. Afterwards, 6 – 7 p. m., chilly. 3rd day-When speaking, put words in wrong place, and made mistakes in spelling when writing. From 5th to 7th bowels failed to act, but no inconvenience was felt.
2 b. On a subsequent occasion B. took 100 dr. at 9:15 a. m. Immediately feeling as of mucus in throat. 9:20, slight headache, lasting all day 10, lips and mouth dry, lips sticky; the dryness lasted all day 10:50, voice hoarse; when walking legs felt heavy. P. m., when reading print, letters seemed indistinct, felt languid. E., after dark, sleepy; eructations. Next m. headache still on waking. 8:30 a. m., luminous vibrations before left eye by daylight. (Monthly Hom. Rev., xv, 298; xvi, 34.)
3. a. Mr. THEOBALD proved same. Sept. 14th took 10 dr., and 15th, 20 dr., without effect. 16th. – Took 30 dr. at 1:30 a. m. and 20 dr. at 2 p. m. At 1 p. m. disagreeable dryness in mouth, throat and nostrils came on, lasting till dinner at 5, frequent sneezing from the dryness of nostrils. In evening, dull headache, not definitely localized. Sight troubled, could not focus letters of MS., they looked confused; distant objects not affected. Pupils rather contracted. 17th. – 20 dr. before breakfast and at 1:30 p. m. Same dullness of vision for small objects near the eye; the lines of written letters look double. 1:45, sudden sharp pain in right heel, which returned in a few m. and then ceased; severe gripings of short duration in centre of hypogastrium; constant dull pain in entire head, deep in brain. P. m., while walking, sudden shooting pain in outer part of right thigh. which felt numb on rubbing it with hand. 18th and 19th. – Took 20 – 30 dr. twice or thrice daily. On 18th, while playing piano in evening, two severe stitching pains simultaneously in both lumbar regions, midway between hypochondria and iliac crest. On 19th, great presbyopia; obliged to use the spectacles of an old person; without these, distant and large objects are seen as well as ever, but small and near ones are completely confused. Great dryness of mouth, throat, and nostrils; could not eat bread and butter for breakfast, but must take sopped bread and milk instead; the dryness prevented in salivation, and made swallowing difficult. When in the dark has several times seen bright flashes, suddenly coming and going, like faint and small sheet lightning. A dull general headache, deep in brain, is constantly present. Dryness in nose often causes sneezing, rather violent. 20th -. Took 30 dr. before breakfast and at noon. Presbyopia and dryness of mouth, &c., continue. 10 to 12, violent sneezing; nostrils stuffed but not much flow; rasping, loud, violent dry cough, pain between shoulders during the act, nothing seemed to affect it. In evening, frequent offensive bilious eructations. Several times in day dull griping in public region, – also during stool. Unusual straining required to empty bladder; stream stops before it is emptied, and then ejection has to be completed by several successive efforts, flow stopping as soon as effort is discontinued. While thus straining on bladder, a slightly relaxed stool occurred. Quantity of urine increased, also passed more frequently than usual. To-day and yesterday, two natural stools instead of one. Unsteady, half-staggering feeling while walking in evening, a slight swaying to either side or forwards. During forenoon, constant but slight bitterness in mouth. Took 30 dr. more at bedtime. 21st. – Woke several times in n. with excessively disagreeable dryness of mouth and throat, had to sip water. 8 a. m., 30 dr. Occasional staggering in walking; constant dull frontal headache, not severe; inclined to be forgetful. Stool this m. rather relaxed, of a darker brown than usual. 22nd. – Took 40 dr. early in m. During breakfast, besides dryness of mouth and presbyopia, a clouded state of mental faculties, a horrible obfuscation. Took 3j of vinegar as an antidote, which immediately produced violent vomiting of food. He lay down; got up afterwards to see a patient, who was alarmed to find how bewildered and incapable he was. He upset everything he touched; patient seemed to be talking out of a cloud, or as if he was a figure in a vision, and when he ceased talking prover subsided into a sort of bewilderment, from which he could with difficulty rouse himself to attend to the case. His writing was an almost unintelligible scrawl. He lay down again all day till evening, dizzy and incapable, with dull headache on vertex, but not much pain; could not realize anything, his wife sitting by his beside seemed like a phantom, and he put out his hand occasionally to assure himself of her real existence. There was dull pain in lower colon, and one or two dark, chocolate – brown, relaxed stools. Urine as before. (Before this extreme bewilderment came on, he was excessively forgetful; his speech was thick, as if his tongue were too large for his mouth. Several times when walking along the street he experienced a sort of aura running swiftly through body from right heel straight up to occiput. Occasionally he would feel suddenly arrested as by a thrust in the popliteal space, causing knees to give way under him.) On 25th (nothing is said of intervening days) was kept in bed till 4 or 5 p. m. by a severe pressure in vertex, which seemed affected by nothing, but made him unwilling to get up. After 25th he lost the severe disabling symptoms, but had headache twice every day, towards evening and (waking him) about 4 a. m. Headache was a rather severe heavy pressure on vertex. When he woke with it, he always found himself lying with arms (especially r.) stretched above head, and so strongly as to make muscles feel strained and rather bruised. This occurred for 10 day, and on last occasion he detected himself gently raising right arm in act of waking. Presbyopia ceased 2 day after medicine was left off.
3 b. Same prover, Oct. 13th, chewed 6 – 8 seeds p. m. Next n. smart attack of diarrhea, lasting following day; stools were exactly, like those in former proving – pappy, feculent, dark brown, with dull griping across hypogastrium before stool, some straining during it. Straining in bladder at same time, and only thus would urine pass; when bearing down was intermitted, as to take breath, the flow stopped.
3 c. Same took 10 dr. of 3rd dil., Oct 22nd, 23rd, and 24th. On last day, evening, after mental work painful throbbing in forehead. 25th. – At midday, while reading in open air and walking, sudden dizziness, with staggering as if he would fall forward and to l. P. m., painful and difficult stool, requiring much straining; last part could not be thus evacuated, but came easily after straining ceased. Took 5 dr. before bedtime. Midnight in bed, quivering in right upper eyelid. (Ibid., xvi.)
4. a. Mr. – proved homeopathic tinct. (from whole plant). On Ist day took 5 dr. without effect. On 2nd day same dose; shooting in lower abdomen from before backwards for 1/2 hour, 20 m. after dinner. 3rd day-10 dr. Depression of spirits, indisposition to converse. 4th d – Spirits buoyant. 5th day-15 dr. In 2 hours violent purging, with it and for 2 hours afterwards pain in rectum, shooting downwards. 7th day-5 dr. 3 times. Shooting inwards in scrob. cordis and right abdomen. 8th day-Same doses. Sharp pain in chest about junction of middle and lower third, first on left side, then on right, worse on walking, going off entirely while in a warm place. 9th day-5 dr. General dull headache, worse over eyes; head feels heavy. Uncomfortable sensation in middle line of chest, with feeling of nausea. 10th day – Headache as yesterday.
Hughes was a great writer and a scholar. He actively cooperated with Dr. T.F. Allen to compile his 'Encyclopedia' and rendered immeasurable aid to Dr. Dudgeon in translating Hahnemann's 'Materia Medica Pura' into English. In 1889 he was appointed an Editor of the 'British Homoeopathic Journal' and continued in that capacity until his demise. In 1876, Dr. Hughes was appointed as the Permanent Secretary of the Organization of the International Congress of Homoeopathy Physicians in Philadelphia. He also presided over the International Congress in London.