It is a rule that the Gelsemium patient has no thirst (189), but occasionally exceptions to this are found.
In the stomach we are apt to have either a sensation of weakness or emptiness (179), with, probably, the idea that something must be eaten whether there is desire for food or not, or a sensation of oppression or weight on the stomach, or a feeling as of a heavy load in the stomach (179).
It is to be thought of in hiccough (116) and it has relieved some chronic cases, when there has been an evening aggravation.
It has proved useful in gastro-intestinal catarrh, will jaundice (122), persistent nausea, dizziness and diarrhoea, and it is of value in passive congestion of the liver, with vertigo and blurred vision. In many of these conditions Bryonia and Gelsemium have numerous similar symptoms and you will often be determined by the presence or absence of thirst.
Gelsemium is a valuable remedy in diarrhoea, both acute and chronic, resulting from depressing emotion, such as fright (57), grief (57) or any emotional excitement. The stools are generally painless and often and often involuntary. There is frequently found a paralysis of the sphincter ani (160) and in some cases a partial prolapsus of the rectum. (160).
There is an increase of urine in all nervous conditions (199) and Gelsemium is of great value in those cases of nervous excitement previous to the performance of a necessary but distasteful task, such as an examination, one’s maiden speech, or going to see her father at his office, with weakness of he knees (125), cold extremities (71) and frequent maturation of clear, watery urine. We also find a loss of power in the bladder (21), especially in old men (199) or following diphtheria, with difficulty in retaining the urine, as well as paralysis of he funds of the bladder, with the resulting retention and distention (22). In incomplete paralysis of the bladder the flow is intermittent 9199), with a feeling as if something remained behind after urinating (200).
In the male sexual organs the most noticeable feature of the remedy is the pronounced weakness and relaxation, so that while an erection is but a memory, emissions take place on the slightest provocation (167).
In the female, Gelsemium is of value in congestion (venous) and heaviness of he uterus, associated with melancholia, and in inflammation of the ovaries, with the characteristic headache. It is of value for suppression of the menses, with congestion of the head, or even convulsions.
In dysmenorrhoea and during labor the pains are shooting, going the back and down the thighs, associated with headache, faintness and vertigo. It is useful for “nervous chills in the first stage of labor” (Hering), or when the os feels thick and flabby, et will not relax, as well as for inefficient labor pains (153), when the pains shoot upward, instead of pressing downward. We must remember it in threatening puerperal convulsions (155), with stupidity, twitching of muscles, albuminuria, and sharp cutting pains from the neck or the uterus upward.
Gelsemium is to be thought of in “nervous aphonia, with dryness of the throat” (Hering), as well as in paralytic aphonia that is noticed only during menstruation.
It is of frequent use in catarrhal affections of the air- passages, with the general aching and the relaxed condition of the symptom useful in dyspnoea, with a sense of fulness in the chest, cold extremities, threatening suffocation and desire for fresh air (9); also in threatening paralysis of the lungs (30), especially in old people.
The heart’s action in Gelsemium is usually feeble, the pulse soft and weak, and a symptom frequently met with is a feeling as if the heart would stop beating (113) if she did not move about. there is nervous (111) and hysterical palpitation and a sensation of oppression about the heart (110) the effects of grief (111).
In a little book, “the Garden of a Commuter’s Wife,” there is a family talk us to whether expenditures are warranted or jot, and we find this sentence “Father” (a doctor) “jokingly adds that the cause of much physical and all mental disease is ‘biting off more than one can chew.”
We, as physicians, are constantly meeting with the results of this increase of responsibilities, and whether due to financial, social or church burdens, Gelsemium, is frequently the remedy. In addition to the symptoms already given, including mental heaviness, with am inability to reason out the problem, fear and apprehension as to the ultimate outcome, we have prominently, a stage of physical or nervous restless with inability top knee quiet even when the opportunity offers. Many of these cases will be unable to wholly eliminate the source of worry and Gelsemium will need o be taken regularly and for a long time as it will help to keep in time the unstrung nerves. As far as I have been enabled to see, no tolerant or bad effect follows the prolonged use of the remedy.
In the extremities there is coldness (71), with loss of power and of control.
In the lower extremities the gait its staggering and the limbs feel as heavy as lead, with inability to “direct their movements with precision” (Hering);it may prove useful in paraplegia and in locomotor ataxia, and it is to be thought of in rheumatism, with soreness of the flesh.
In the upper extremities we find it useful when the hands become very tired after play in on the piano and for writer’s cramp (209).
In general, in Gelsemium, we have trembling of all limbs (192) and weak knees (125)’ loss of muscular control; numbness (146) and lack of sensibility of the extremities.
Gelsemium is a very valuable remedy in eruptive fevers, especially measles, with catarrhal symptoms of the eyes, nose and throat, great prostration and perhaps stupor, livid eruption and no thirst. It is not only useful to develop the eruption (130) but also keep it out.
In malarial fevers, whether the so-called bilious- remittents, of the South, or as we find them in this section, the symptoms calling for Gelsemium are apt to be pronounced and unmistakable. There is periodicity to the attack, which generally comes on to ward evening; 4-5 p.m., I look upon as the most prominent time of aggravation for all febrile conditions calling for the remedy.
The chill may be slight beginning in the back (121), of it may be wanting, but there will be a prolonged type of fever (121). Throughout the paroxysm there will be great aching and prostration of the whole muscular system, and no thirst.
The fever is accompanied by headache, stupor, or possibly delirium, dizziness, blindness and faintness, and this is followed by perspiration, aching and soreness in body, “dumb ague” (Hering), and “where the remittent take on the intermittent type” (H. C. allen).
In typhoid fever it is frequently called for (193) in the early stage, with vertigo and dimness of vision, a tired feeling in all the limbs, great weakness and tremulousness of the extremities, soft, compressible pulse.
It is useful in nervous chills, the result of emotional excitement or depression, “in which, with shivering and chattering of teeth, there is no sensation of chilliness” (Hering).
I use Gelsemium in the tincture.
