Synonym. Gratiola Officinalis. Natural order. Scrophulariaceae. Common name. Hedge Hyssop. Habitat. A plant growing in wet places in Central and Southern Europe, Preparation. Tincture from the entire fresh plant.
GENERAL ANALYSIS.
Affects especially the mucous lining of the digestive tract, acting as an emetic and cathartic, and causing inflammation, which also involves the pelvic viscera, especially the urinary organs.
CHARACTERISTIC SYMPTOMS.
Head. Determination of blood to the head, with heat and somnolence (Opium). Sense of coldness on vertex changing to heat. Pain in the occiput on early waking, relieved by rising or lying prone.
Face. Tensive feeling in face, as if swollen. Every morning swelling of the upper lip (Belladonna, Calcarea c.), disappearing after a few hours.
Mouth. Teeth ache from cold things or from cold air (Cocculus, Staphysagria).
Stomach. Aversion to food; eructations. Vomiting of bilious matter, (Iris, Nux v., Podophyllum); of yellow bitter, sour water, without exertion. Nausea with coldness in stomach and feeling as if full of water (Colchicum, Acid Sulphuricum). Pain in stomach, with nausea and general discomfort. Great distension of stomach after meals (Cinchona, Lycopodium). Pressure at pit of stomach, as from a stone; worse after eating (Arsenicum, Bryonia, Nux v., Pulsatilla, sulph.).
Abdomen. Much rumbling and gurgling in the abdomen (Aloe, Lycopodium). Uneasiness and griping pains in abdomen.
Stool and Anus. Constriction of and itching at anus. Diarrhoea consisting only of yellow-greenish water, followed by burning in the anus. Diarrhoea consisting of green frothy water, forcibly evacuated (Crot. tig., Natr. carb., Thuja.); without any pain; also yellow watery faeces; thin fluid, bright yellow faeces, followed by chilliness; thin, watery faeces, with soreness in anus. Great rectal and anal irritation, with passage of foetid mucus.
Urinary Or faeces. Burning in urethra during and after urination (Can. sat., Cantharis, Mercurius cor.). The urine is scanty and reddish, and becomes turbid on standing.
Compare. Crot. tig., Colchicum, Iris., Magn. c., Natr. carb., Sulphur, Acid Sulphuricum, Thuja., Veratrum alb.
THERAPEUTICS.
Has been used but little in homoeopathic therapeutics, mostly in the treatment of diarrhoea, such as its pathogenesis would indicate, especially with cold feeling in the abdomen.
ALLEN CORSON COWPERTHWAITE was born at Cape May, New Jersey, May 3, 1848, son of Joseph C. and Deborah (Godfrey) Cowperthwaite. He attended medical lectures at the University of Iowa in 1867-1868, and was graduated from the Hahnemann Medical College of Philadelphia in 1869. He practiced his profession first in Illinois, and then in Nebraska. In 1877 he became Dean and Professor of Materia Medica in the recently organized Homeopathic Department of the State University of Iowa, holding the position till 1892. In 1884 he accepted the chair of Materia Medica, Pharmacology, and Clinical Medicine in the Homeopathic Medical College of the University of Michigan. He removed to Chicago in 1892, and became Professor of Materia Medica and Therapeutics in the Chicago Homeopathic Medical College. From 1901 he also served as president of that College. He is the author of various works, notably "Insanity in its Medico-Legal Relations" (1876), "A Textbook of Materia Medica and Therapeutics" (1880), of "Gynecology" (1888), and of "The Practice of Medicine " (1901).