MEADOW ANEMONE-WIND FLOWER-PASQUE FLOWER.
Introduction
(Pulsatilla-pulsar, to beat or strike)
Pulsatilla nigra, is the European Pulsatilla and is not to be confounded with the American variety (Pulsatilla Nuttalliana, named after Thomas Nuttall, an American scientist), as the action of the latter differs in certain respects from the one we are going to speak of. It is called Wind Flower because it was supposed not to open its flowers until blown upon by the wind, and pasque flower because it flowers about Easter (the French word for Easter being Pasques).
Pulsatilla was first proved by Hahnemann, who advises its use in the 30th. It was dismissed from the last (1905) U.S. Pharmacopoeia. We will never dismiss it from our materia Medica, for we now of its great value; its field if usefulness covers a wide range and with its many pronounced characteristics, we have a remedy not only of frequent use, but one most readily forgotten.
Symptoms
Its most extensive action is on mucous membranes, the eyes, ears, nose and entire respiratory tract, the whole digestive tract and the genito-urinary apparatus of both sexes.
There is a general aggravation towards evening, from rich greasy food (5) and from warmth (8); there is amelioration from cold and great longing or and relief while in the open air (9). There is also an absence of thirst (189), an aggravation from laying on the 1.side (8) and in general, relief from lying on the painful side (8).
The characteristic Pulsatilla patient has light hair and blue eyes (88) and is of a timid or submissive and clinging temperament. She, for it is remedy especially useful for girls and women, is easily influenced b her surrounding and the people she happens to be with at the time; there is nothing positive or assertive about her, and the last person who sees, or advises with her, is the one whose opinion she accepts. Farrington speaks of the plant’s name, Wind flower, as being in keeping with the Pulsatilla character, as it is as changeable as the wind.
laughter and tears are both very near the surface with our patient, and are apt to succeed each other as do sunshine and shadow on a typical April day. She is very tender-hearted and her feeling are very easily hurt, but she is never sullen and never mopes.
She is inclined to be fretful and too full of care, and if she has no trouble of her own, she is ready to condole and weep with any of her friends who may be afflicted, but she craves and needs sympathy in her troubles to someone, even when she knows that the recital of her real or fancied wrongs, and the receipt of the sympathy that she longs for, will make her cry. When she is blue she will tell you that she feels as if a good cry would make her feel better; and it will. Oliver Wendell Holmes unconsciously described the Pulsatilla temperament when he spoke of a woman who was “subject to lachrymose cataclysms.”
As this disposition, modified more or less, is an almost constant accompaniment, of any disease calling for this remedy, it is seldom safe, in these days of family medical books, to tell your patient that you have given her Pulsatilla.
Pulsatilla hold a prominent position as a catarrhal remedy, Any portion of the mucous membrane may be affected and the discharges are, as a general rule, profuse, thick, yellow and purulent, as well as bland or non-excoriating.
In the eyes it will be found of frequent use for catarrhal conjunctivitis, whether due to cold (73) or after measles; the lids will be found agglutinated in the morning, but without any especially redness or other evidence that the discharges has caused irritation. It is of value for pustular conjunctivitis (76) and for inflammation and fistula (125) of the lachrymal duct. In ophthalmia neonatorum it follows well after Argentum nit with thick, bland discharge that tends to collect over the cornea and may be removed by wiping. the general inflammatory conditions in the eyes would have relief from cold applications or when in the open air. There is a general tendency to stays, especially affecting the lower lid, and many physicians use Pulsatilla as a prophylactic against their recurrence (183)., (I have had much better success with Staphisagria as a preventive.)
In the ears it is of value for catarrhal and other inflammations from cold, with pains darting, tearing and shifting, involving even the face and teeth. the pains are worse evening and night and relieved by cold applications. the discharges from the ears are thick, purulent or bloody, not especially offensive and seldom excoriating (63), associated with deafness and feeling as if the ears were stopped, and involvement of the Eustachian tube (63)., It is frequently indicated in deafness due to cold or following measles or scarlet fever (63).
Pulsatilla ‘is one of our most frequent remedies for an ordinary cold in the nose” (allen) when it reaches the catarrhal stage. The nose may be sore and swollen and the discharge is profuse and thick; it is easily removed on blowing the nose and does not excoriate. The discharge may alternate from one side to the other, with stoppage of the opposite side and the discharge is more profuse and the stoppage (40) more pronounced in evening and when in a warm room. In these conditions there is usually loss of smell (170), rarely of taste, and aggravation late in the afternoon and evening. The mucus from the nose is more or less offensive and is likened in odor to that of an old catarrhal 9143). it is useful on ozaena (148) with offensive mucus, and in catarrh of the antrum of Highmore (117), with orange-colored discharge of a urinous odor, especially from the r. nostril.
(The cough and other catarrhal conditions will be spoken of in their proper order.) vertigo, as if intoxicated (297), I a frequent accompaniment of other pulsatilla symptoms and is usually associated with nausea and gastric disturbances or with suppressed menses. there is vertigo on rising from bed (297) forcing one to lie down, and when stooping (207) so that she could hardly rise again, but it is especially noticed on looking upward (297), and worse while sitting or lying.
Pulsatilla is of value for headaches involving the forepart of the head, usually associated with the thought of having eaten too much (97), or with regret at having taken dessert, and accompanied by qualmishness and disgust at even hering the name or any fat food or pastry (6). The headaches and facial neuralgias calling for the remedy are frequently due to disorders of digestion (97) or to some irregularity of the menstrual function (95) and in general are worse towards evening and during the night, worse in a close room (95) or from the warmth of the bed, better from pressure (92), from cold applications (92) and when in the open air (92); there is also relief when walking slowly (93.
Allen, in the Handbook, speaks of “supraorbital neuralgia of the r. side” (76) and “infraorbital neuralgia of the left side, with profuse secretion from the left nostril,” but as a usual thing Pulsatilla has no decided preference for either side.
It is useful for headache associated with nausea and vomiting, and relieved in the open air, headache preceding or during menstruation (95) or due to suppression of the menses
Pulsatilla is often indicated in neuralgic toothache and for the toothache of pregnancy (188), always worse in the evening until midnight and in a warm room (187), relieved when walking about (187) and will holding cold water in the mouth (187) and casing entirely in the open air (187).
I well recall a case of neuralgic toothache, with these symptoms of amelioration, that I thought called for Coffea. Not having the 30th with me, I gave Pulsatilla 1st as the next best, intending to bring he Coffea the following day. had no need for it, a Pulsatilla had cured before my return.
In orders of digestion and especially that form which according to early foreign literature, a nd Americans suffer from, dyspepsia from eating pie, Pulsatilla is a valuable remedy. Whether we call it dyspepsia, atonic dyspepsia (178) or plain indigestion there is, in general, an aggravation from and a disgust for, rich, fat (6) or greasy foods, fried food, buckwheat cakes, pastry of all kinds, and ice-cream, if the richness of the cream is the cause of the trouble.
There are eructations tasting of the food, waterbrash (179), nausea, aversion even to the thought of meat or any rich food, no thirst, a more or less greasy, m bilious taste in the mouth (186), and a heavily furred tongue. there is distention of he abdomen (13), rumbling and gurgling of flatus (11) and may be colic, especially when associated with menstrual troubles (138), but a hot-water bag over this region would be distasteful and afford no relief.
Frequently there is a feeling of distress in the lower apart of the oesophagus, as if some of the food had lodged there is instead of descending in to the stomach, a condition often referred to as a sensation of a lump or load in the stomach (179).
