Brassica nigra. Black Mustard. *N. O. Cruciferae. Trituration and tincture of seeds.
Clinical
Amenorrhoea. Apoplexy. Asthma, pituitous. Catarrh. Chlorosis. Chordee. Chorea. Constipation. Coryza. Cough. Diarrhoea. Haemorrhoids. Hay-fever. Headache, dull, heavy. Heartburn. Hiccough. Intermittents. Menses, premature. Mucous fever. Post- nasal catarrh. Priapism. Scurvy. Variola.
Characteristics
*”Sin. *nig. yields the greater part of the condiment so generally used in this country. The plant is indigenous, but is nevertheless largely cultivated in Yorkshire and Durham. The seeds are of a reddish-brown colour. Mixed with those of *Sin. *a. they are crushed between rollers, and subsequently powdered and sifted twice or oftener. From the residue left on the sieve a fixed oil is obtained by pressure. The powdered mustard is usually mixed with a considerable quantity of wheaten flour and a small quantity of turmeric powder. The term ‘flour of mustard’ is not quite accurate, as the mustard seeds themselves contain little or no starchy material. The chemical ingredients are somewhat complex. Among them are a peculiar acid called *Myronic acid, noticeable as containing a large proportion of *Sulphur, and which, when mixed with water and a peculiar substance called *Myrosine (analogous to albumen), also found in mustard seeds, yields a volatile Oil of Mustard, which has no separate existence in the seeds, but is formed artificially in the manner just stated. This oil is very acrid, and has been used as a rubefacient. The fixed oil before mentioned as existing in the seed itself has little or no acridity, and has been used as a purgative and vermifuge” (Treas. of Bot.). *Thiosinamine, which is extracted from Oil of Mustard, belongs to the same group as Urea. It has been used in cheloid, and for removing scar tissue, and so in tinnitus aurium (Spencer, H. M., Jan., 1899). As the chemical constituents of the two mustards (see *Sin. *alb.) are not identical, and as they have been proved independently, I have kept them separate. The yellow colour of mustard suggests *Sulphur, a large amount of which is contained in the seeds. Like many other Crucifers *Sin. *n. has antiscorbutic properties, and it has cured cases of ague, mucous fever, catarrh of bladder, of stomach, and of air passages. It is in the treatment of hay-fever that it has been most used. The special indications are: Mucous membrane dry and hot, no discharge, worse afternoon and evening, either nostril may be affected alone, or they may be affected alternately. Hansen adds these: “Acute coryza with thin, watery, excoriating discharge, lachrymation, sneezing. Hacking cough, better lying down. Acute pharyngitis, throat feels scalded, hot, inflamed. Loud coughing spells with barking expiration, heard at a great distance. Cooper (H. W., xxxvi. 16) suggests the use of *Sin. *n. as an aperient. He considers that the chief agent in effecting dislodgement of faeces in constipated states is flatus. His method of producing this is as follows: A tumblerful of hot water is to be taken in sips in the early morning, the same at breakfast time with some plain brown bread or with no solid food at all, and at 11 A.M. one or two capsules of pure mustard (*Sin *n.), each containing about five grains of the powder, to be taken, followed by half a tumbler of hot water. “This last is most important, as the water drives on the capsule and prevents its lodgement about the cardiac orifice of the stomach and consequent distress to the patient, and it also causes contraction of the walls of the stomach and consequent expulsion of flatus into the duodenum.” *Peculiar Sensations of *Sin. *n. are: Vertex as if empty. As if she had taken cold. As if scalp was adherent to bones. As of pins sticking in eyeballs. Eyeballs as if pressed on from above. As if nostrils stopped up. As if movements impeded all round the chest. As if something heavy oppressed her on all sides from neck to diaphragm. As if cheeks were bulged out by a bubble of air below malar bone. Skin of lips as if stiff. As if blisters on tip of tongue. As if a load on stomach. Pain as if heart were on right side. As of hot water in blood-vessels. “Sweat on upper lip and forehead” is a symptom worth noting, also these: mucus hawked or coughed from posterior nares felt *cold. The symptoms are worse by touch and pressure. Better lying down at night. Worse leaning forward, stooping motion worse. Damp weather worse. Better sitting erect. Worse in warm room. Worse thinking of symptoms, better by study or mental diversion. Better shutting eyes. Better hearty meal. Laughing causes cough. Worse evening, 4-6 P.M. and 7 to 9 P.M. Worse July and August.
Relations
*Antidoted *by: Smelling bread (immediate effects of taking excess of condiment): Nux-v., Rhus-t, when blistering has been produced by a mustard poultice, soap is the remedy. *Compare: Sin-a., Thios., Armor. Scalded sensation on tongue, Sanguinaria Cough worse laughing, Arg-n., Pho. Cough better lying down, Ferrum, Mang. Worse from 4 to 6 p.m., Lycopodium Amenorrhoea, Sul., Pul. As if hot water in blood-vessels (Rhus as if blood running cold).
Causation
Damp weather. Summer season.
SYMPTOMS.
Mind
Irritable, difficult to think and study.-Unreasonably cross.- Mind worked rapidly.
Head
Vertigo: of old people, violent attacks, with hard hearing after eating heavy food, especially fat.- Head dull, heavy, better when mind occupied by study, better shutting eyes, better in open air, worse in warm room, worse when thinking of it.- Dull feeling in vertex as if empty.- Frontal headache, most over bridge of nose and round edge of orbits, better when eating, worse after eating, better by rest.- Headache over right eye worse stooping.-Heavy, drawing feeling in right temple towards night.- Sensation as if scalp were adherent to bones.- Forehead hot and dry.
Eyes
Eyes feel weak, pressure causes pricking in them.- Pressing feeling in eyes as from above, difficult to keep lids open, better shutting eyes, better by hearty meal.
Nose.
Symptoms of a severe cold.- Immediately on touching the tongue pungent odour went into nostrils causing sneezing.- Dryness in both nostrils, worse left, tender to pressure, discharged some mucus.- Left nostril stopped up: in afternoon and evening, all day, scanty discharges, acrid, making skin smart.- Scurvy with copious and frequent nose-bleed.
Face
Shrunken features.- Burning prickling in face.- Red round mouth with smarting of lips.- Sensation as if cheek were bulged outward by bubble of air, just below malar bone, in afternoon.- Lips dry and feel as if integuments were stiff.
Mouth
Teeth sensitive to warm drinks and cold air, especially stopped teeth.-Swollen bleeding gums.- Tongue: fissure in middle line, dirty white coat in middle, sore, raw, also gums, could not bear to eat anything hard, dry and sticky, burning scalding feeling, fore part feels blistered.- Black tongue.- Breath offensive, as after eating onions.- Mouth: dry, burning, extending to stomach.- Profuse saliva.- During proving, mustard (of which he was usually very fond) had a very unpleasant taste, and nearly caused nausea.- Taste: of garlic, causing nausea, of horseradish.
Throat
Dry sensation back of nose and throat better by swallowing or by efforts to cough, which brings up with difficulty a little white, tenacious mucus, in lumps.- Throat sore, left side, on swallowing saliva, less on swallowing food or drink, whole throat behind uvula injected light red.- Sore throat right side extending to left.
Stomach
Appetite good. – Aversion to sweets. – Eructations: of gas, constantly accompanying other symptoms, all food tasting of horseradish, later tasteless.- Hiccough.- Heartburn and belching.- Stomach: load in, burning in.- Ulceration of stomach and intestines.- Pain in region of stomach with sensation of faintness compelling to bend forward, which relieves.- Dull pain running directly across epigastric region worse leaning forward better sitting erect.- Pressure in epigastric region.
Abdomen
Dull pain in left hypochondriac region.- Heavy, dull pain as from weight below umbilical region.- Severe twisting in umbilical region.- Pain from left of umbilical region to left iliac region, later to right side, ascending colon.- Accumulation of flatus with twinges of pain about umbilicus.- Rumbling.- Left inguinal gland swollen and painful.- Sharp pain in right inguinal gland. – Dull pain in right inguinal region better by pressure.
Stool and Anus
Smarting, cutting pain low down in anus, after a stool.- Desire for a stool without passage.- Diarrhoea.- Stools offensive.- First stool normal, second loose.- Before stool uneasy feeling in rectum, after stool, smarting cutting low down in rectum and anus. – Constipated, stools hard, like balls. – (Constipation and piles cured in the proving).
Urinary Organs
Pain in bladder, in morning, before urinating. Desire frequent, flow increased- Urine, pale, straw colored, without sediment.
Male Sexual Organs
Violent erections during day and night, obstinate, painful, and continued.- Awakening him at night, with lascivious thoughts, lascivious dreams and emissions at night.
