BAPTISIA TINCTORIA.
If I am not mistaken this remedy was first used by the eclectics and was introduced into the homoeopathic materia medica round 1857 by Dr. Thompson. Search as we will through the materia medicas of Finlay Dun, Wallis Hoare, Winslow, Milks, etc., the drug is most conspicuous by its absence.
Baptisia has a much less wide range of action than many others but it really is a gem of a remedy in small animal practice, when indicated. It might well be listed among the polychrests.
Hale has to say of this remedy: “It seems to affect principally the blood, impairing its integrity; the nervous system, which it deprives of its normal tonicity; the mucous surface, which under its influence ulcerates and takes on an inflammatory action, with a decided tendency to unhealthy, foetid discharge.”.
Its leading indications may be listed as follows:.
1. A heavy, drowsy state in febrile conditions.
2. Soreness of parts lain on.
3. Restlessness, necessitating movement, though movement is painful.
4. Great foetor of all secretions and excretions.
5. A marked mental confusion, followed by unconsciousness.
6. Typhoidal fevers, specific or septic fevers, low continued fevers.
7. Chilliness in the daytime; heat, restlessness and sleeplessness at night.
8. Difficult respiration and craving for fresh air.
I must confess that a veterinarian reading over the remedy casually, for the first time, might not be struck very forcibly as to its application to veterinary practice, and, indeed, until I took up radio-active remedy selection I did not use this remedy half as often as I now find it to be indicated.
In the dog we have a multitude of enteric conditions in which this remedy, when indicated, works like a charm and brings that sense of satisfaction to the prescriber which is nice to feel.
We get many skin conditions of various kinds, eruptive, mange, eczema, etc., in which this remedy is the “king pin”.
In nearly every instance, I might say in every case, we have to contend with an outward manifestation of an inward ill, and the sooner the allopathic veterinarians come to realize this stern fact, the better for the poor animals and the pocketbook of their unfortunate owners, who are generally paying for an indefinite time for the suppression of these conditions and their continual recurrences.
I venture to say that at least ninety per cent. of my files show that these skin conditions are due to a disturbances in the alimentary canal. Sometimes it is a chronic enteritis, sometimes of a specific nature due to a streptococcic infection.
Very often, should the polarity of the patient prove to be bi- polar, Baptisia will come through as the remedy and it will clean up the condition promptly. It often surprises me even yet how rapidly the entire condition will clear up under this remedy, eczema and all.
In all cases where dogs are fed exclusively upon the various canned meat rations one may look for a condition of this kind, and veterinarians will do well to keep this remedy in mind in such cases, for in many cases it will prove, upon careful investigation, to be the indicated remedy. Since the advent of these canned foods these conditions classed as eczematous have more than doubled, and in any event a continual diet of canned food is not beneficial either to dogs or to man.
NORTH HOLLYWOOD, CAL.
Hahnemann was a representative thinker of the school of vitalism, and up to the announcement of his revolutionary doctrines, occupied high rank among the eminent medical men of his time, and was a highly esteemed contributor to the medical periodicals of the day. A.R. MORGAN, M.D., 1892.
