1. Headaches: generally semi-lateral, so-called nervous; accompanied by great exaltation of the special senses (compare Silicea, Conium); aggravated by motion, noise, light and thought; involving generally the left eye and orbit without congestion of the head. In such affections (if attended, as frequently, by nausea and vomiting, they resemble “sick headaches”) Spigelia compares with Silicea, Belladonna. Apis, Ignatia, Thuja, Sanguinaria.
2. In Sclerotitis. Also in nasal catarrh when the discharge is chiefly from the posterior nares into the pharynx, and attended by neuralgic affections of the pharynx and region of the ear and lower jaw, provided always the general symptoms correspond.
3. Above all, in acute or sub-acute affections of the heart which present symptoms similar to those of Spigelia above quoted, it is an invaluable remedy; as for example, in acute pericarditis, with anxiety and weight in the praecordia, stitches through the heart arresting respiration, oppressed and accelerated palpitation so forcible as to be audible and visible, and excited or aggravated by change of position or by the slightest motion. In such cases, Spigelia compares with Aconite, Bryonia, Kalmia, Lachesis, Naja. And with the new remedy Cactus grandiflorus.
Dr. Dunham graduated from Columbia University with Honours in 1847. In 1850 he received M.D. degree at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York. While in Dublin, he received a dissecting wound that nearly killed him, but with the aid of homoeopathy he cured himself with Lachesis. He visited various homoeopathic hospitals in Europe and then went to Munster where he stayed with Dr. Boenninghausen and studied the methods of that great master. His works include 'Lectures on Materia Medica' and 'Homoeopathy - Science of Therapeutics'.