INTRODUCTION
(Wild Ind.).
COMPARE WITH:
– Carbonate of Ammonia, Bryonia, Rhus-tox, Chlorate
of Potassa Arsenicum, Gelseminum, Mercurius-iodatus, and the other mercurial preparations.
INFORMATION
We prepare a tincture of this plant.
This drug has acquired considerable reputation among homoeopathic physicians for its specific virtues as a remedy for fevers, of a low, typhoid type. The provings instituted by Drs. Burt, Douglas and others, have established the fact, that this agent is possessed of a remarkable power of deteriorating the animal fluids, and hence must be capable, in accordance with the homoeopathic law of cure, of exercising a certain influence over pathological conditions characterised by symptoms of decomposition of the vital fluids and the organic tissues.
In his Manual of Pharmaco-dynamics, Dr. Richard Hughes, of England, expresses himself as follows, with reference to the curative sphere of the Wild Ind.:
“In a former number of the British Journal of Homoeopathy, (that for July, 1863) I have endeavored to indicate the special form of fever to which the pathology of Baptisia, aided by clinical experience, points as its sphere of influence. It is the first stage of the ordinary endemic fever of this country, known popularly as gastric, and medically as typhoid enteric fever. In the first stage of this disease the patient has a hot dry skin and a quick full pulse; the tongue is thickly covered with a whitish-brown fur; the headaches, and there is at least nocturnal delirium; the appetite is absent and thirst great; the urine is high-colored, and the bowels generally constipated. Unless the disease is checked in this stage, the true typhoid symptoms supervene, which I need not here describe.
“Now there is nothing improbable in the supposition that, if we could find a remedy perfectly homoeopathic to the first stage of this malady, we might cure it there and then before the typhoid symptoms supervened. None of our ordinary remedies seem applicable. Aconite is powerless against such fevers; it never reduces the pulse one best, or relieves the skin by a drop of moisture. Arsenic is suitable only to the later stage of the disorder. Bryonia is the remedy generally administered; but, better than nothing it is difficult to see any thing curative in its action. On the other hand, the pathogenesis of Baptisia, brief as it is, exhibits it as properly homoeopathic to the condition I have described. And the result of my own experience in its use has been, that in the great majority of cases it cuts short the fever in this its first stage, freeing the patient from all the dangers of the second. I have never yet been disappointed in it; and its curative action is often exceedingly rapid.”
Our literature is replete with reports of cases of typhoid fever that have been cured with Baptisia. Eclectics depend upon it as one of their chief agents in combating the low fevers of a continued typhoid type which so frequently prevail as epidemics in many districts of our country. It is well known to our readers that Dr. Hoyt was the first who brought this remedy to the notice of our profession as a remedy for typhoid fever. In the sixth volume of the NORTH AMERICAN JOURNAL OF HOMOEOPATHY, he reports several highly interesting cases of typhoid fever, all of which rapidly yielded to Baptisia, after other homoeopathic remedies had been tried in vain. One of the patients, a lady, after having been under allopathic treatment for thirty-one days, and evidently near death, was given small quantities of a decoction of Baptisia, prepared by steeping a piece of the root about three inches long and three-eighths of an inch thick, in half a pint of water. The dose was gradually increased from five drops to nearly a teaspoonful. The report reads as follows: “In about one hour and a half, the surface of the patient presented an appearance as though she had been literally scalded, so red was the skin, accompanied with a most intense superficial heat; at the same time noticing large drops of sweat standing on her forehead, the medicine was discontinued In a few minutes a profuse perspiration appeared all over her body, which continued for nearly twelve hours, or till she was bathed freely with brandy and water. From this time she began to improve, and with the occasional administration of a dose or two of the remedy, got well, without any febrile symptoms. It is worthy of remark, that immediately upon the administration of the remedy she became quiet and fell asleep; she had been restless and delirious for three weeks previous.”
A profuse perspiration very commonly characterises the favorable reaction superinduced by this agent in continued fever.
The symptoms which commonly yield to Baptisia are: sopor, delirium, dry skin, flushed face, pulse accelerated and thin or filiform, tongue thickly furred, urine scanty and high-colored, constipation or diarrhoea, the discharges being of a papescent nature and having a foul smell; sometimes the stools are passed involuntarily; great prostration, trembling of the hands. Dr. J.B. Bell, of Augusta, Maine, mentions a characteristic symptom indicating Baptisia in typhoid fever: “She cannot go to sleep because she cannot get herself together. Her head feels as though scattered about, and she tosses about the bed to get the pieces together.”
Baptisia is not only indicated in low continued fevers, but likewise in other conditions of the system, characterised by signs of decomposition of the fluids. We have employed it with excellent success in stomatitis of various kinds, such as: nursing sore mouth, mercurial sore mouth, aphthous stomatitis, are bleeding and loose, the inside of the cheeks, the roof of the mouth, the edges of the tongue, are studded with diphtheritic ulcerations.
Our provings lead us to expect good effects from Baptisia in bilious diarrhoea and dysentery. Some of our physicians report cures of dysentery where the discharges were preceded by severe tormina and accompanied by tenesmus.
