(Foxglove.)
(From vol. iv, 2nd edit., 1825.)
(The fresh expressed juice of the leaves of Digitalis purpurea mixed with equal parts of alcohol.)
From the following symptoms, which are by no means complete as to their number, it is undeniably evident that the morbid conditions of a chronic character, physicians have sometimes hitherto cured with foxglove, were all, without exception, cured homoeopathically, although they were unaware of the fact. But the much more numerous instances of unsuccessful treatment with this extremely powerful plant, belong to those employments of foxglove which were, as is usually the case, directed against mere pathological names (not the totality of the symptoms), and were affected with a medicine (foxglove), which was estimated, in hap-hazard fashion, only in accordance with conjectures respecting its general mode of action deduced from hypothesis (not known from is pure effects, i.e. from the morbid states it developed in the healthy body). As long as this theoretical blindness is persisted in, much more harm than good will be done with this great gift of God. The true physician, who selects his remedy homoeopathically in accordance with its pure pathogenetic effects for very similar cases of disease, will never give foxglove except where it can, will, and must do good, and will never fail to prescribe it in such suitable cases. Such treatment is immensely superior to the deplorable treatment of the ordinary practitioner. The homoeopathic practitioner, besides, will find in the following few symptoms the means of affording homoeopathic relief for many more morbid states than have hitherto been cured by it.
A very small portion of a drop of the quintillion-fold or, still better, the decillion-fold dilution of the juice, will often be found to be a too powerful dose for homoeopathic treatment.
The action of such a small dose lasts several days, that of an excessively large dose several weeks.
[HAHNEMANN was assisted in this proving by BECHER, FRANZ, GROSS, HORNBURG, LANGHAMMER, J. G. LEHMANN, MEYER, E. F. RUCKERT, STAPF, TEUTHORN.
Symptoms are borrowed from the following old-school authorities:
BAIDON, in Edinb, Medorrhinum and Surg. Journal, vol. iii, pt. 11, No 4.
BAKER, In Medorrhinum Essays of the London Collinsonia of Phys., pt iii.
BAYLIES, Practical Essays of the London Collinsonia of Phys., pt. iii.
BEDDOES, in Medorrhinum Facts and Obs., v. London, 1794.
BOERHAVE, Hortus Lugd. Batav. – Rar. Morb. Historioe., Jenae, 1771.
BRANDIS, in Schiemann, Diss. de Digit. Purp. Gott., 1786.
DRAKE, in Phys. Medorrhinum Journ., 1802., Feb.Edinburgh Medorrhinum Comment., vol. x.
HALLER, VON, in Vicat’s Mat. Medorrhinum, i.
HENRY, W., in Med. and Chir. Journ. Edinb., 1811.
HORN, Neues Archiv, v.
KINGLAKE, rOB., in Beddoes’ Medorrhinum Facts and Obs., vol. v. London, 1794.
LENTIN, Beobachtungen einiger Krankheiten, 1774.
LETTSOM, Mem. of the Medorrhinum Soc. Of London, vol. ii.
MACLEAN, in Phys. Medorrhinum Journ., 1800, Aug., 1802, Feb.
MANGOLD, in Horn’s Archiv f. pr. Med., iii.
MEYER, in Richter’s Chir,. Bibl., v.
MONRO, DON, in Samml. f. pr. Aerzte, xiii.
MOSSMANN, G., in Phys. Medorrhinum Journ., 1801, July. – Essay to Elicidate the Scrophula. London, 1800.
PENKIVIL, J., in Phys. Medorrhinum Journal, 1801.
QUARIN, Animadvers. Pract.
REMER, Annalen der Klin. Anstalt, i.
SACKREUTER, in Annalen der Heilkunder, 1811, March.
SCHIEMANN, in Diss. de Digit, purp. Gott., 1786.
WARREN, in Samml. br. Abh. f. pr. Aerzte, vol. xi.
WITHERING, Abhan. Uber den Fingerhut. Lpz., 1786.
The 1st edit. Gives 418; 10 additional symptoms appear in the 2nd edit.; in the Chr. Kr. the symptoms are increased to 702.]
DIGITALIS
Vertigo. [QUARIN, Animadvers. Pract., pp. 118 – 120(Effects of digitalis when given for scorfula.) – MACLEAN, in the Phys. and Medorrhinum, Journ., Lpz., 1800, Aug., p. 585. (Effects on patients) – WITHERING, Abh, ub. Den Fingerhut, Lpz., 1786.( (Effects on patients) – J. PENKIVIL, in Phys. and Medorrhinum Journ., 1801., Aug. Effects of digitalis when given for phthisis.) – LETISOM, Mem. of the med. Soc. Of London, vol. ii.(Effects of digitalis when given for phthisis. This symptom occurred after each dose.)]
Vertigo so that she fell when going upstairs. [OENKIVIL, l. c.]
Vertigo and trembling. [DRAKE, in Phys. And Medorrhinum Journ., 1802, Febr. (Effects o digitalis when given to dropsical patients.) ]
Confusion of the whole head and sensation as if the brain beat like water on both sides of the skull and would burst it, in a pulsating manner. [Trn.]
Hahnemann's three major publications chart the development of homeopathy. In the Organon of Medicine, we see the fundamentals laid out. Materia Medica Pura records the exact symptoms of the remedy provings. In his book, The Chronic Diseases, Their Peculiar Nature and Their Homoeopathic Cure, he showed us how natural diseases become chronic in nature when suppressed by improper treatment.