WILD OR YELLOW JESSAMINE.
Introduction
(Italian –Gelsomino, jessamine).
Although the name of this plant is variously spelled and frequently mispronounced, Gel-se-mium is correct.
Gelsemium, a beautiful climbing plant, with yellow flowers, indigenous to the southern United States, is perhaps the most valuable remedy that this country has as yet contributed to the Homoeopathic Materia Medica. Its medical history only goes back to the time when a Mississippi planter, sick with bilious fever, was cured with an infusion of the gelsemium root, which was administered in mistake for that of another plant.
The first provings were made by Dr. John H. Henry, of Philadelphia, in 1852. In 1862, Dr. E. M. Hale, of Chicago, published a monograph of the results of provings and experiments that he had made with the drug. “Such was the interest excited by this brochure, that the whole edition was disposed of in a very short time, and the remedy rose in the estimation of physicians, till it took a front rank along with Aconite and Belladonna in the armamentarium of homoeopathic practitioners” (Hale).
With increased knowledge of the value of the remedy have come added demands for it, until at the present time there are few, and perhaps no other one remedy, that you will have more frequent use for than the one that we are considering.
Symptoms
Gelsemium produces prostration, spinal convulsions and paralysis, lowering the force and rate of the heart and finally paralyzing respiration. Consciousness is preserved to the last stage of life.
“It affects principally the nerves of motion; causing muscular prostration through the nerves” (Hering) and we find in general, great prostration and loss of muscular power, with disinclination to make any effort, and, says Hale, “dimness of vision, slight or complete, is nearly always present, together with dropping of the eyelids, with much difficulty in opening them.”
It is a remedy to be thought of in paralysis of various groups of muscles, eyes, throat, sphincters, extremities, etc., and in various forms of hysteria and hysterical convulsions, a
kind of hystero-epilepsy (120).
It is to be thought of prominently in catarrhal affections of various mucous membranes, with a relaxed and debilitated condition of the system, noticed particularly in women, and especially when caused by damp, muggy weather. Another sphere of usefulness is in neuralgias of various sorts, with loss of control of the part, pain in the muscles of the back, hips and lower extremities, the pains being mostly deep-seated. It is also
of frequent use in conditions of passive or venous congestion (207).
It is an important fever remedy and it is one of the prominent thirstless drugs (189).
Mentally the Gelsemium patient is listless and indolent; his ideas flow on in a disconnected fashion and the attempt to think connectedly causes a painful feeling in the head (93), with dizziness, heat of face and cold feet (71). In low types of fever the mental faculties are either dull, with more or less stupor and desire to be let alone, or there is great depression of spirits, with fear of death.
It is a remedy frequently indicated in bodily ailments, especially diarrhoea (57), uterine symptoms, etc., resulting from emotional excitement, such as the anticipation of any unusual ordeal, appearing in public, etc., or from sudden bad news, grief or fear (57).
Vertigo is common in conditions calling for Gelsemium; it is associated with blurring of vision, or loss of sight, and lack of muscular steadiness, especially weakness of the knees (125) so that he staggers when walking. The vertigo is worse when walking or from any sudden movement of the head (207).
Headache is the usual accompaniment of cases requiring this remedy, the condition being frequently one of venous congestion, with fulness and heaviness of head, soreness of scalp and brain and with a feeling as if the head were constricted by a band (105).
Another prominent symptom is where the pain is seated in the posterior part of the head (100) and associated with dizziness and muscular soreness. The pains extend to the shoulders and spine, or from the occiput the pain passes through the head to the eyes, which become sore to the touch. The headaches are worse from heat (95) or hot applications.
It is to be thought of where the head feels confused and large, as if full of stagnant blood, and in general nervous headache, with soreness of the head, face and teeth, and associated with attacks of blindness (98) and dizziness. It is one of the few remedies where the headache is generally relieved after the discharge of profuse, watery urine (93).
It is useful in menstrual headache (95), with blurred vision and nausea and vomiting, which latter relieves the headache, also in headache at the climacteric (96), with drowsiness, vertigo and blurred vision, the pain in the head, in both conditions, being relieved by profuse menstruation.
In cerebro-spinal meningitis (133) Gelsemium is to be thought of when we have, amongst other symptoms, extreme tenderness of the occipital region and intolerance of the slightest touch.
In the eyes, besides the blurring or dimness of vision so constantly found under the remedy, it is of frequent use in serous inflammations, including serous iritis, with a dull aching pain within the eyeball and more or less indifference to external irritants, such as light (76).
It is of value in paralysis of the upper lid, with drooping of the lid, ptosis (78), and in paralysis of the muscles of the
eye, causing at times, double vision (77). This double vision is noticed on inclining the head to either side, there being single vision when holding the head erect; also double vision that can be controlled by an effort of the will. It is also to be thought of in asthenopia due to muscular weakness (72).
In the ears, we must think of this remedy in deafness due to the use of quinine, as well as in deafness the result of catarrh of the middle ear and Eustachian tube (63).
There is in Gelsemium a disposition to take cold (5), either from the slightest change in the weather to cold, or when during warm and foggy days, the patient, after exercising, sits down in the line of a draft or in a cool room.
It is a prominent remedy in an acute nasal catarrh, the plain cold in the head, where the patients says the she knows that she has taken a heavy cold because of the great muscular soreness and bruised feeling that she experiences. This is a condition that is especially prevalent in summer, from the influence of a cool, damp atmosphere, or in winter or summer, form a sudden change in the weather from dry to damp (9). As physical accompaniments we find, inflammation of the throat, pain in the throat extending to the ear when swallowing (191), deafness, headache, physical weakness and muscular soreness (166).
Gelsemium is to be remembered in hay-fever (88), with all of the above and especially with the head symptoms prominent, while it grip it is the the most frequently called for remedy in our materia medica in the beginning of the disease. Here, as well in fresh cold, the following group of symptoms are apt to present themselves in cases calling for this remedy: Chilliness in back, with desire to cover up warmly or to hug the fire; fever, without thirst (189), restlessness or anxiety, but with a dull, heavy, torpid condition in which they want to be left alone and not bothered with question concerning their symptoms; headache, the head feels heavy and congested as if filled with stagnant blood, with no desire to hold the head, as the trouble seems to be that it is already bound up; dizziness, suffused eyes, sneezing and more or less watery mucus from the nose. Along with this, and equally prominent, we find as aching all over the body, especially noticeable in the shoulders and lower extremities, and an afternoon aggravation.
Gelsemium is to be thought of in neuralgia of the face, pains sharp, face congested and dusky, associated with headache, vertigo and dimness of vision.
It may be useful during dentition (187), when the child has fever, vertigo, drowsiness, sometimes dilated pupils and dim vision, although it is one of the minor remedies in reference to this symptom of Hering’s, “child frantic at times, especially when gums are examined.”
Gelsemium is useful in paralysis of the tongue (192), with indistinct speech, the tongue feeling thick and numb, and it is frequently called for in various forms of sore throat, a prominent symptom being, when on swallowing the pain shoots from thee throat up to the ears (191). In follicular tonsillitis, especially in the beginning, in addition to the pain running to the ears on swallowing, we would find the aching in the shoulders and the muscular weakness so characteristic of the remedy.
We also find it is of value in difficulty in swallowing due to paralysis of the pharyngeal muscles, as well as for paralysis of the throat following diphtheria (62), with, perhaps, a feeling of a lump in the throat which cannot be swallowed. We may find this same feeling of a lump in the throat as calling for the remedy in hysteria (119).
