Sleep. – Sleepy on going into a warm room from open air; sleepy while in warm room; awake about 2 a.m., very restless for some time, then go to sleep again, and sleep until about 5 a.m., then awake again, and would be very restless until morning; restless after sleeping, between the pains.
Fever. – Burning, hot feeling over the body; after midnight, temperature decreased; perspiration over whole body; short paroxysms of hot, suffocating sensation, with perspiration over body.
Aggravations. – Sitting up straight or leaning back, laughing or coughing, every other day.
Amelioration. – In open air, by exercise, standing, lying down, leaning forward while sitting, eating.
A study of the therapeutic powers of Convallaria can now be made, based on its provings and clinical experience. I propose to take up the various disorders in which the remedy can be used, in the relative order of their importance.
I. – DISEASES OF THE HEART.
We may confidently assert that it is primarily homoeopathic in many conditions of the heart marked by excess of blood-pressure, from some irritation of the cardiac accelerators, or of some organ in sympathy with the heart. Convallaria is the direct antagonist of Aconite, Veratrum viride and Veratrum album. The latter by their primary toxic action depress the motor-force power of the heart, until it dies in systole. The former, like Digitalis, Iberis, Adonis and Strychnia, primarily stimulate the power of the heart until it dies in diastole. But to prescribe Convallaria strictly in accordance with the law of similia it must, when prescribed for symptoms simulating its primary effects, be given in the attenuations above the 3d. Among these primary conditions I will name endocarditis. In this disease we have an inflammation of the lining membrane of the heart and its valves. At first there is increased force in the heart’s contractions, due to the excitation of its ganglia by the inflammatory irritation. We cannot push Aconite or Veratrum too far, or we shall weaken the heart. We cannot yet give Convallaria or Digitalis in material doses, without injury. The following case will illustrate: A woman had rheumatic fever. In the second week the heart’s action became hard and quick. Auscultation revealed roughness of the valves and some irregularity of action. the pulse was hard, but irregular. Convallaria 3d, 10 drops every hour, was given, and in twenty-four hours the heart was greatly improved, and in forty-eight hours its action was nearly normal. This was my first use of the remedy in endocarditis acuta, and I was delighted with the results.
Nervous palpitation from exciting causes located in the central nervous system or in some organ, such as the uterus, ovaries or stomach, or in some mental shock. In these cases the heart beats with abnormal force. Here the attenuations of Convallaria act excellently, and it is only rivaled by Coffea ad Cactus.
In addition to its specific action on the heart, Convallaria is a nerve stimulant, acting somewhat similar to Valerian and Asafoetida, and I predict that it will attain a wide popularity in the neuroses of women and in neuralgias of a functional character. I have lately treated successfully two cases of extreme nervous erethism in women due to alcoholic indulgence, with the 2d of the fluid extract of the flowers. In a previous portion of this paper mention is made of its value in hysteria, epileptiform convulsions, etc., by the Russian peasantry, who use an infusion of the flowers.
Like Digitalis and its congeners, Convallaria exhausts the irritability of the heart, and its central nervous supply, and, as a consequence, its secondary effects are cardiac paresis. It is, therefore, indicated in all affections of the heart, from whatever cause, when the cardiac muscle or its ganglia are so diseased that the heart’s action is feeble, irregular or intermittent. It is useful in the results of endocarditis rheumatica, in diseases of the valves, attended with deficient power and unattained compensation. In stenosis or insufficiency, when the ventricles fail in strength, or when thinning of the walls has obtained, then Convallaria in appreciable doses will not disappoint us. By appreciable doses I mean all quantities from one drop of the 1st dilution to 10 or 15 drops of the mother tincture, for, according to the law of dose which I have taught and practiced for a quarter of a century, the nearer the secondary effects of a drug simulate the secondary effects of a disease, the larger should be the dose, provided we do not cause with it primary drug aggravations.
We cannot expect to remove, with this drug, actual structural diseases, but I claim that we can give great comfort to the patient, and prolong life indefinitely, if we use it with caution and discrimination.
In dropsy due to cardiac disease, the experiences of American physicians are at variance with the French and Russian. The latter claim that when the heart’s tonicity is increased, the kidneys act freely, and the oedema disappears. In this country such effects are not generally observed, nor have I been as successful with it in such cases as with Digitalis. Dr. E.M. McAffee, of Clinton, Iowa, informs me that he has observed marked diuretic effects from it in a case of mitral insufficiency, with thinning of the left ventricle.
Among the diseases which Convallaria has benefited may be mentioned aortic regurgitation or insufficiency, sometimes called Corrigan’s disease, from the fact that he was first one to give a reliable description of the condition, and to point out the special diagnostic importance of the pulse in this affection.
The left ventricle undergoes dilatation and hypertrophy in order to compensate for the insufficient valves, hence the systole is more forcible than normal, and the blood bounds into the arteries, giving a feeling of peculiar largeness and fulness to the pulse, which almost immediately collapses under the finger as, during the diastole, part of the blood re-enters the left ventricle.
This collapsing of the pulse conveys the impression of a ball of blood passing under the finger, and, taken in connection with visible pulsation (as noted by Corrigan) in the arteries of the head and upper extremities, is almost pathognomonic of aortic regurgitation.
Dr. E.P. Hurd reports the case of a patient suffering from Corrigan’s disease – partly compensated – who was incapacitated for any but very moderate exercise and had attacks of syncope, dyspnoea and angina. After taking Convallaria only three days he was entirely free from his usual faint and giddy turns, had no angina, and was able to do his work with increased comfort.
No remedy I have ever used has given me such gratifying results in cardiac asthma, or that peculiar dyspnoea which is such a distressing accompaniment of diseases of the heart. It will relieve this symptom, even when it does not seem to modify the other conditions upon which it depends. This leads me to consider its powers in
II. – DISEASES OF THE RESPIRATORY ORGANS.
In many cases of acute diseases of the heart, the lungs become congested from the powerful afflux of blood thrown by the overacting heart. This results in dyspnoea, cough and haemorrhage. If Aconite or Veratrum viride fails to remove this condition, Convallaria, in minute doses, comes in and removes the distressing condition. But it is still more useful in the opposite conditions, when, owing to cardiac debility, there occurs a blood-stasis in the lungs, or they become anaemic. Here the dyspnoea becomes excruciating, and the patient seems on the verge of dissolution. Convallaria, in other hands, as well as in my own, has, in such cases, brought about the most brilliant results. Even in cases of emphysema, when there was no apparent cardiac debility, Convallaria has brought great relief.
We can come to no other conclusion than, aside from its stimulating power upon the heart, it is a powerful respiratory stimulant, equaling, if not exceeding, that of Coca or Atropia.
If Convallaria acts on the heart through the spinal centres, it may resemble Strychnia in its action on the respiratory muscles, ad cause increased power, even to the point of tetanic contractions. Strychnia is considered a respiratory stimulant of great power. But the secondary effects of Convallaria, like those of Strychnia, would be to cause respiratory paralysis. Both are, therefore, homoeopathic to that condition. The two following cases, reported by Dr. Fordyce Barker, of New York, to which I have added one of my own, illustrate its great remedial power over dyspnoea, even when the heart is normal:
Case I. – Five weeks ago he was called to see a gentleman who was in a very feeble condition, but the only evidence of disease which the doctor was able to detect was a general failure of nerve power and loss of appetite and strength. Any exercise caused shortness of breath, and at times he suffered from a sense of suffocation, with palpitation, and a feeling of terror. When an exacerbation came on, the patient was ashy white, very restless, anxious and alarmed, and there was coldness of the extremities. Careful examination, made not only by himself, but by several eminent physicians in cities through which the patient had been traveling, failed to discover either cardiac, pulmonary or renal disease. The patient had profound mental depression, on account of family affliction. It was noticeable, however, that during the period of his greatest distress there was no marked feebleness of the pulse. Six drops of Convallaria were prescribed to be taken every three hours. On the evening of the same day, six or eight hours having elapsed, the patient expressed himself as feeling very much better, and on the following day as being in the most comfortable condition he had been in for two months.
Hale wrote Lectures On Diseases Of The Heart, Materia medica and special therapeutics of the new remedies Volume 1, Materia Medica And Special Therapeutics Of The New Remedies Volume 2, Saw Palmetto: (Sabal Serrulata. Serenoa Serrulata), The Medical, Surgical, and Hygienic Treatment of Diseases of Women, New Remedies: Their Pathogenetic Effects and Therapeutic Application, Ilex Cassine : the aboriginal North American tea, Repertory to the New Remedies with Charles Porter Hart, The Characteristics of the New Remedies, Materia Medica and Special Therapeutics of the New Remedies, The Practice of Medicine, Homoeopathic Materia Medica of the New Remedies: Their Botanical Description etc.