“ Koch's bacillus, too, sometimes remarkably mild in its effects, and seeming to meet with no reaction in the system, evolves aside as in the verrucous tuberculosis; while at other times nothing is able to arrest the action of this terrible microbe, and the world still waits in vain for the man who shall find the means of combatting it. The toxins of tuberculosis are far from reproducing clinical tuberculosis; yet even here we find a curious aspect sometimes assumed by certain poisons drawn from the pure cultivation of microbes. ”

“ There is, perhaps, no well proven remedy in the Materia Medica, of equal value to that of which I present a brief study, that has been so wholly overlooked by the homœopathic profession. There certainly is none which possesses a more marked individuality, and which more fully fills a place by itself. It is safe to say that not one in ten of those who practice the healing art has ever used it or is familiar with its pathogenesis. ”

“ These remedies are waiting to be proved by those of us who have sufficient enthusiasm and who are willing to take the trouble and make what sacrifice is necessary to accomplish so desirable a result. I know it has been said that we have too many remedies which have not been properly proven. While this is doubtless true, it is equally true that many of the new remedies which have been introduced within the memory of some of us are absolutely indispensable in the treatment of certain forms of disease. ”

“ Feeling as of knife stabs under the right temporal bone extending into the right eye and becoming worse on bending over. On the outside of the forehead a pressing pain which seems to thrust inward, passing, in half an hour, into the inside of the head. ”

“ The resemblance between the symptoms of angina pectoris and the effects of the poison of Latrodectus mactans are so striking as to justify the presentation of a comparison; and it is hoped that physicians of wide reading will pardon what may seem to them a piece of supererogation for the sake of many a humbler practitioner whose opportunities have not been so happy. At the same time, the widest reader must admit that he has not found any one authority who has given a complete picture of angina pectoris. ”

“ Oliver found that "by the use of this remedy a patient laboring under organic disease of the heart and hydrothorax obtained great relief and refreshing sleep, who had not before slept for three nights. Another, under similar affection, experienced uncommon relief from the same prescription. To one suffering much pain from cancer it afforded ease and comfortable sleep. A patient in phthisis pulmonalis being affected with distressing agitation of mind and nervous irritation, it answered like a charm, and soon induced great sleep like a moderate dose of opium." ”

“ In treating children we are often disappointed in our results; in making prescriptions we think we have just the right thing in the right place, but when we come to see our case again we are confronted with the same condition that we had before. We may say the same in adults, but not so often. In whooping cough in the very young who are unable to tell us how they feel we must rely on what the mother may tell us; but how often do we find mothers who cannot tell their own symptoms, let alone those of their children? ”

“ Around the heart there are dull pains with oppression and occasional sharp pains passing through the heart. Pressure with the hand increases the oppression. The pulse is increased but is extremely variable. There is reason to believe that Cactus grandiflora, or Spigelia are often given in affections of the heart, where Fagopyrum, if given, would accomplish better results.
On the muscular system the action of the remedy stands out in bold relief. There is stiffness and soreness of all the muscles of the neck, with pain, and a feeling as if the neck would hardly support the head. ”

“ It is unnecessary for me to say to you that Boston is called a bean-eating city, or refer to the many sudden deaths there or in its vicinity from brain or heart trouble, nor how in a certain way young men grow old. Can you tell me the cause? I shall not take the time to report the proving I made, nor why I began it, nor how I prepared it, nor its wonderful effects upon the nervous system, the genital organs, stomach, bowels, or kidneys, in the provings, referring only to three symptoms. ”

“ In dealing with authors who have gone to their reward, it has always seemed to me a duty to give their own words as far as possible. It brings them face to face with the reader, and is as if one brushed the moss from their gravestones, or perhaps, like Old Mortality, carved afresh a half-obliterated name. ”

“ Proll experienced a sensation as if a large spider were crawling over his hands; a glow rising from feet to head, and he seemed to be on fire, though his face was pale, this repeatedly; also violent aching pain in right foot recurring frequently. Proving with the tincture in increasing doses up to 40 drops.
Two women took the drug to produce abortion; every muscle of the body was paralyzed, including bowels, save those of the eye, and both died on the 8th and 9th day, starved to death. ”

“ In one of the most violent hysteric cases I ever met with, says a correspondent, where the usual anti-spasmodics, and even musk had failed, two teaspoonfuls of the powdered root procured immediate relief; and on repeating the trials with the same patient, it afforded more lasting benefit than any other medicine. In those spasmodic affections of the abdominal muscles during parturition, or after delivery, this root has proved an effectual remedy. In chronic rheumatism, and erratic pains of a spasmodic nature, it often performs a cure, or affords essential relief. ”

“ There is persistent morning nausea which should lead us to study this remedy in the vomiting of pregnancy. Contrary to Lycopodium and Nux moschata the appetite is improved by eating. The empty or "all-gone" feeling at the stomach is like that of Sepia.
In the abdomen there is fulness and pain but no rumbling. Discharges of flatus are frequent and annoying. The region of the liver is painful, tender and there is aggravation from pressure, compelling the patient to lie on the left side. The stools are pappy, or watery, profuse, offensive and followed by tenesmus. ”

“ Let the patient take three drops thrice daily in a glass of water, and after a week the insatiable burning thirst will be quenched, and these doses must be continued till the quantity of sugar in the urine is reduced, when the drug might be taken twice a day and continued for a long time. A diabetic patient needs fresh pure air if he wishes to get well; confinement in a room or in the office prevents the action of any treatment, for it needs ozone to reduce the sugar of the blood into carbonic acid and water. ”

“ July 26th.—At 1:30 p.m. commenced to feel chilly, with intense headache and aching all over the body. The chilliness rapidly increased until at 2 o'clock had a worse chill than ever, which lasted until 4 o'clock, when fever came on, temperature soon reaching 103°; sweating commenced almost simultaneously with the fever; headache was the most prominent symptom, which was terrific; intense, congestive headache; eyes extremely sensitive; bones of the face sensitive to touch; could not move the head a hair's breadth without intense agony; thought I should go mad from the intensity of the pain. ”

“ The prime property of the loco is to induce insanity in men or animals who partake of it. Animals—mules, horses, sheep and cattle—avoid it naturally, and under ordinary circumstances never touch it. But in the winter, when an inch or two of snow has covered the grass, these green bunches of loco standing clear and above the snow are tempting bits to animals which are going about half starved at the best. Even then it is not common for them to eat it. Still, some do and it at once creates an appetite in the victim similar in its intense force to the alcohol habit in mankind. ”

“ Thank God I began this day with more comfort and more control of myself; my limbs are easier to manage; a little giddiness and staggering, and stiff, bruised sensation in my back and lower limbs. My cervical vertebra is less sore and have little pain; and altogether feel very much better. My pulse rate is 80 this a.m.; full and round; no jerks perceptible. Temperature 98 under the tongue, by the root. Mercury very slow in rising; had to keep the thermometer in a long time. I have a flushed, hot feeling in my face and head; no trembling, less staggering, and can manage my limbs fairly well. ”

“ On the male genital organs there is profuse perspiration of an offensive odor. The urine is scalding, and pain extends from testicles to abdomen. In females the drug acts with force upon the right ovary, producing pain of a bruised or burning character, noted particularly when walking. There is pruritus with slight yellow leucorrhœa, the discharge being [Pg 136] more noticed when at rest than when exercising. So far as known this latter symptom does not occur under the action of any other remedy.
In the chest we find a heavy, pulsating pain extending to all its parts. ”

“ Avena sativa is pre-eminently an anti-neurotic, quieting the nervous system to a remarkable degree. Its special sphere of action seems to be upon the male sexual organs, regulating the functional irregularities of these parts perhaps as much as any drug can. It is a most useful remedy in all cases of nervous exhaustion, general debility, nervous palpitation of the heart, insomnia, inability to keep the mind fixed upon any one subject, etc., more especially when any or all of these troubles is apparently due to nocturnal emissions, masturbation, over sexual intercourse, and the like. ”

“ Professor Brouardel, that three-fourths of those who have died a violent death are possessed of tuberculous lesions, whose existence was not suspected while the subject was living, would be running absolutely counter to clinical experience. The time is probably at hand when the different kinds of tuberculosis will be distinguished and separated, as we distinguish and separate the varieties of serious pleurisy and purulent pleurisy, of broncho-pneumonia arising from the presence of pneumococci, of streptococci, or of staphylococci. ”

“ When Bacillinum acts on tuberculosis the sputum is less abundant, less purulent, less green, and more aērated. It is this which has always struck me most in the action of Bacillinum. It is rarely that a patient satisfied with the remedy fails to remark, "I expectorate less." In cases of dry cough at the beginning of tuberculosis I have noticed that the drug evidently arrests the tubercular process.
I would most severely criticise, as well for myself as for others, cases of so-called "cure of tuberculosis." There certainly are persons in whom the disease does not develop. ”

“ The eyes are heavy and dull; the eyes feel as though one had lost a great deal of sleep. The lids are heavy. The eyeballs have a dull, heavy pain with soreness. A sensation of the eyes being very wide open, with a desire to look at distinct objects, it being disagreeable to look at near objects. Distant objects look very large. Picric acid patients can only see clearly at very close range, often at only five inches from the eye; Natrum sulph. has impairment of vision for distant objects. With Onosmodium the ocular muscles feel tense, tired, and drawn. ”

“ My feet are cold, and the coldness creeps up higher in my legs. A great deal of arctic feeling in and around my heart. My breath is cold. Headache, but mind clear. Cold chills run over me in various parts of my body. My hands tremble very much at times, so that I can not write. Pain in testicles and coldness, as if they were frozen. Pass a large quantity of urine. * *
January 21. 8 a.m. Did not get up before, owing to the pressure in my skull, as if it were too full; dropsy or some swelling of my brain; giddiness, and a numbness down my left leg, and a jerking upward in both of them. ”

“ Admitting in its fullest force the argument that in reported cases the spider has seldom if ever been seen by a reliable observer to inflict the wound, we consider that the fact that species of the Latrodectus, occurring in such widely distant localities as South Europe, the Southern United States, and New Zealand, are uniformly set aside by the natives as poisonous species, when there is nothing especially dangerous in their appearance, is the strongest argument for believing that these statements have some verification in fact. ”

“ The least exertion produces a tremulousness. The muscles feel treacherous and unsteady as though one did not dare to trust them. A desire to change position without any definite cause or reason, and without any change for the better or worse. Later in the proving there was a desire to lie down and be quiet, with a drowsy, sleepy feeling. A sensation as if a chill would come on; a tired, aching, stretching, gaping, disagreeable feeling. All sensations are worse in the left side.
In my own experience I have used the remedy from the mother tincture up. ”