Synonym. Kalmia Latifolia. Natural order. Ericaceae. Common name. Mountain Laurel. Habitat. An evergreen shrub growing on rocky hills and damp soil from Maine to Ohio and Kentucky. Preparation. Tincture from the fresh leaves.
GENERAL ANALYSIS.
Acts prominently upon the heart, diminishing the force and frequency of its action and causing a slow, weak pulse. It also acts upon the nervous and upon the muscular system; producing neuralgic and rheumatic pains, tingling, numbness and restlessness.
CHARACTERISTIC SYMPTOMS.
Head. Vertigo, with pains in the limbs. Tearing pains in head and neck (Cimic.), neuralgic pains extending from forehead into roots of right upper molars or into eye teeth or down the neck.
Eyes. Glimmering before the eyes. Vision imperfect. Pain in eyes worse on turning them (Bryonia). Sensation of stiffness around the eyes, and in the eyelids (Rhus tox.).
Face. Neuralgia of the face, mostly on the right side; rending, agonizing pains. Anxious expression of countenance in rheumatism of heart.
Stomach. Nausea; everything becomes black before the eyes, with pressure in. the throat; incarcerated flatulence; oppression in breathing, and rheumatic pains in. the limbs. Pressure in pit of stomach; worse when sitting bent over; better when sitting erect, with the sensation as if something would be pressed off below the pit of stomach. Crampy pain, with eructation of wind., palpitation, gastralgia, angina pectoris.
Urinary Organs. Albuminuria; also with pains in lower limbs. Frequent micturition of small quantities of urine which feels hot.
Respiratory Organs. Tickling in the trachea. Difficult and oppressed breathing. Stitches in the lower part of the chest. Shooting through chest above the heart into the shoulder blades (Kali carb), with pain in the left arm (Aconite, Rhus tox.). Dyspnoea and pain; angina pectoris.
Heart and Pulse. Palpitation of the heart, with anxiety and oppressed breathing (Aconite, Arsenicum,); with faint feeling. Fluttering of the heart;; on slowly ascending stairs. rheumatic pains in region of heart (Rhus tox., Spigelia) Pulse slow and feeble; irregular; quick but weak.
Hypertrophy and valvular insufficiency, or thickening after rheumatism. Shooting, stabbing pain from heart through to left scapula, causing violent beating of the heart, rheumatism of the heart.
Back. Pain in back at night in bed. constant pain in spine, sometimes worse in lumbar region, with get heat and burning. Sharp or drawing pain in loins, worse from motion; worse evening. Paralytic pain and lameness in loins in. evening in bed.
Limbs. Pain in left arm (Aconite, Rhus tox.). Pressure inlet arm. Joints hot, red, and swollen. Rheumatic pains in the limbs; from hip to feet. Neuralgic pain from neck down right ram to little or fourth finger.
Generalities. Bruised feeling all over the body. Restlessness and frequent turning. rheumatic pains all over the body; often changing their position. Pains worse from sitting bent, yet a feeling that he must do so; relieved by sitting or standing upright. Weakness the only general symptoms, with neuralgia. Pains worse during early part of night; or soon after going to bed. Pain occurring at regular times, continuing for no definite period, coming suddenly or gradually, and leaving as uncertainly. Neuralgic pains, sometimes attended with numbness, or rather succeeded by numbness of the parts affected.
Fever. Rapid alternations of chill and heat. Shivering, with or without coldness.
Compare. Aconite, Belladonna, Cimic., Digit., Hepar s., Kali. s, spig., Rhus tox. Kalmia follows Spigelia well in heart disease. Hering.
Antidotes. Aconite, Belladonna
THERAPEUTICS.
Kalmia has been found most useful in rheumatism and in organic diseases of the heart. Chronic, subacute articular rheumatism, pains shifting from one joint to another. Acute inflammatory rheumatism, shifting pains and numbness. Rheumatic endocarditis. Hypertrophy and valvular insufficiency, or thickening, after rheumatism. Always in cardiac disease violent shooting, stabbing pains, great dyspnoea and slow, weak pulse. Angina pectoris. Neuralgic pains, accompanied by great weakness, and attended with or succeeded by a sort of paralytic, and attended with or succeeded by a soft of paralytic numbness of the parts affected (Aconite). Facial neuralgic following herpes zoster (Mezer.). Gastralgia in sudden paroxysms. Retinitis. Albuminuria, during pregnancy. Sclero-choroiditis, especially in rheumatic subjects. Sclero-choroiditis, especially anterior. Muscular asthenopia. Bright’s disease, with heart symptoms. Albuminuria during pregnancy.
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).