What members of the Ranunculaceae family do we make use of in our Materia Medica?
Aconite, Actea racemosa, Actea spicata, Clematis, Helleborus, Hydrastis, Pulsatilla, Ranunculus bulbosus, Ranunculus sceleratus, Staphisagria, and Adonis vernalis.
ACONITUM NAPELLUS.
Where are the original pathogeneses of Aconite to be found?
In Hahnemann’s Materia Medica Pura. It was also proved by the Austrian Society of Provers. See also Millard’s Monograph, Reil’s Essay, and Hartmann’s Practical Observations. Allen’s Encyclopoedia. Hempel’s Materia Medica.
Where does Aconite grow, and what is its common name?
On the higher Alps of Central Europe, in damp, shady fields, along brooks and streams. Monkshood.
Name some other varieties of Aconite.
Aconitum Stoerkianum, Aconitum lycoctonum, Aconitum ferox, Aconitum variegatum.
What is the name of its Alkaloid, and what is the allopathic dose?
Aconitine or Aconitia; dose, one-hundredth to one sixtieth of a grain. (1/100 to 1/60.)
From what part of the plant do we make our mother tincture?
From the entire plant, except the root, gathered at the time of flowering.
How is the tincture prepared?
chop and pound the entire fresh plant to a fine pulp. Enclose in a piece of new linen and press out juice. Mix with equal quantities of alcohol. Pour in well stoppered bottle and stand for eight days in dark, cool place, agitating it daily and then filter. Drug power, 1/2. An imported tincture.
What, in brief, is the general physiological action of Aconite?
It affects the sensory nerves, causing tingling, followed by numbness. It accelerates the heart’s action causes a rise in temperature, with chills, fever and sweat; large doses producing paralysis of the heart and nerves, with collapse. Mental distress is an invariable concomitant condition.
why do we not give Aconite merely to diminish the frequency of the pulse and thereby lessen the temperature?
Because it is not Homoeopathy, but treating single symptoms; there is just as much reason for giving a remedy to move the bowels, another to improve the appetite, another for headache, and still another for the liver, instead of giving the drug for the totality of the symptoms which it produces.
How does Aconite differ from Veratrum viride in fevers?
Veratrum viride has more arterial but less nervous excitement than Aconite, and a characteristic of Veratrum viride is a bright red streak through the center of the tongue.
When should Aconite be given in neuralgias?
When the parts are violently congested, hot and swollen; when brought on by exposure to dry, cold winds; and when the pains are tingling, with numb sensations; driving the patient to despair. Pains worse at night.
What are the abdominal symptoms of Aconite?
Shooting pains all over abdomen, which is very tender to touch; beginning of inflammatory processes.
What are the stools of Aconite?
In dysentery; frequent scanty with tenesmus; especially in autumn, when days are warm and nights cold. Diarrhoea of inflammatory origin from cold drinks or checked perspiration; stools watery, slimy and bloody.
Differentiate aconite from Gelsemium in fevers.
Aconite-hard, quick, bounding pulse.
Gelsemium-soft, flowing, compressible pulse.
Aconite-restless, anxious, tossing about.
Gelsemium-drowsy, quiet, tendency to stupor, countenance suffused.
What is the thirst of Aconite?
Unquenchable thirst for cold water; large drinks at long intervals, or drinks little and often.
What are the heart symptoms of Aconite?
Pain in the heart extending down the left arm, with numbness, palpitation and lancinating stitches, full, hard and rapid pulse; uncomplicated hypertrophy of the heart.
In what class of patients and diseases is Aconite found to be most useful?
In the young and plethoric, who are attacked suddenly with illness of an acute character, such as sudden congestions, violent fevers, acute colds, desperate pains, benumbing tingling neuralgias, etc.
Why is Aconite more suitable for acute than for chronic diseases?
On account of the suddenness of its symptoms and the short duration of its action.
Give four characteristics of Aconite?
1. The terrible anguish and fear of death; the patient even predicts the day of his death; with extreme restlessness and tossing about.
2. Complaints brought on by exposure to dry, cold winds, or from a sudden checking of perspiration.
3. Hard, full, frequent pulse.
4. The symptoms are worse in the evening and at night; come on suddenly and violently.
Give in brief the indications for Aconite in fevers.
Sthenic fever, with chilliness on the slightest movement; dry heat of skin, thirst, red cheeks, quickened respiration; scanty urine and constipation; full, bounding, rapid, tense pulse, with mental anxiety and aggravation towards evening. Every motion makes the patient chilly; he is at the same time very restless from the mental anxiety.
When does Aconite cease to be of use?
In the second stage of inflammation; when it has localized itself.
What other drugs have numbness and tingling of the left arm in heart disease?
Kalmia and Rhus tox.
In what affections about the chest is Aconite especially apt to be indicated?
Pulmonary congestions, with hard, dry, painful cough, anxiety and restlessness, and perhaps a little blood-streaked expectoration.
Differentiate Aconite and Belladonna in congestions.
The cardinal points of Aconite are increasing restlessness and great anxiety. Those of Belladonna are flushed face, delirium, throbbing carotids and bounding pulse.
What would indicate Aconite in suppression of the menses?
When it occurs in plethoric patients from fear or fright, or after exposure to cold.
HYDRASTIS CANADENSIS.
Where are the proving of this remedy to be found?
In Hale’s New Remedies, and in the North American Journal of Homoeopathy, 1858, and the British Journal of Homoeopathy, 1860. American Homoeopathic Observer, Vol. III.
Where does Hydrastis grow, what is its common name, and what is the name of its alkaloid?
It grows in the United States, from New York to Minnesota and southward, its common name is Golden Seal, and its alkaloids are called Hydrastine and Berberine, the latter being identical with that found in Berberis vulgaris.
From what part of the plant is our mother tincture prepared and when should it be gathered?
From the fresh root, gathered as the plant is budding to blossom or in the fall.
Describe the method of preparing the tincture.
Chop and pound the fresh root to a fine pulp and weigh. Add gradually two parts of alcohol by weight to each part of pulp. Stir thoroughly and pour into well-stoppered bottle and stand in dark, cool place for eight days, shaking it daily. Decant, strain and filter. Drug power, 1/6. The tincture is reddish orange in color, staining everything a deep yellow. It has a bitter burning taste, no odor, and a slightly acid reaction.
What is the general action of Hydrastis?
It has the property of contracting the blood vessels, especially of the pelvic organs, thus producing a relatively anaemic condition of the same, and it is, therefore, useful in many conditions of the female organs which are accompanied with hemorrhage, further:
It acts on mucous membranes, relaxing them, producing a thick, yellowish, ropy secretion. It also produces a condition of marasmus, and is particularly active in old, easily tired people, cachectic individuals, with great debility, emaciation, prostration and weak digestion.
Give the symptoms indicating Hydrastis in nasal catarrh.
Watery, excoriating coryza, with burning and rawness in the nose and a sensation as if a hair were in the nose, the discharge being more profuse out of doors; later, thick, yellow, tenacious discharge and a constant dropping from the posterior nares into the throat. Adenoid vegetations that are bathed constantly in a thick tenacious secretion.
How does this condition differ from that found under Kali bichromicum?
With Kali bichromicum there is a tendency to deep ulceration, and the mucus is even more tenacious and stringy than with Hydrastis.
Is there any ulcerations with Hydrastis?
There is, but it is a more superficial ulcerative process than that under Kali bichromicum.
What are the stomach symptoms of Hydrastis?
A sinking, gone feeling at the pit of the stomach; an empty, gone feeling, as if the patient had suffered from a diarrhoea for a long time; there are also putrid or sour eructations and some nausea. Atonic dyspepsia; tongue large, flabby, slimy.
In what diseases of the stomach will Hydrastis be found to be most often indicated?
In ulceration, cancer and chronic gastric catarrh. It will often remove the pain and improve the general health. It corresponds to the diathesis, the worn jaded look, the sallow complexion, the hide bound skin and the melancholy.
What are the indications for Hydrastis in constipation?
After the use of purgatives, when there is present the sinking, gone feeling at the epigastrium, with symptoms of gastro-duodenal catarrh, such as a torpidity of the liver, yellow skin and tenderness in the hepatic region and light colored stools.
What other remedy is useful for constipation resulting from abuse of purgative?
Professor of Materia Medica in the University of Michigan Homeopathic Medical College. Member of American Institute of Homeopathy. In addition to his editoral work he authored or collaborated on: Boericke and Dewey's Twelve Tissue Remedies, Essentials of Homeopathic Materia Medica, Essentials of Homeopathic Therapeutics and Practical Homeopathic Therapeutics.