MENTHA PIPERITA.
By Timothy F. Allen — The Encyclopedia of Pure Materia Medica
Mentha piperita, Huds.
Natural order , Labiatæ.
Common name , Peppermint.
Preparation Tincture of whole plant.
Authority.
Dr. Demeures, Journ. de la Soc. Gall., first series, IV, p. 115, symptoms observed from one drops of the tincture.
MIND
- Eager for work, and dispatches it quickly (soon).
- All my life, after rising earlier than usual in the morning, my head has felt heavy and my ideas have ben confused for some time, so that I could scarcely study. Since this proving, I have been able to rise as early as I wished without misgiving, always finding that I had slept enough, even after going to bed late, and my mind clear and ready for work.
HEAD
- Confusion of the head (soon).
- Headache, beginning in the morning; tension towards both ears, especially the right (second day).
- No headache while in bed, but on rising to see what time it was, headache from one ear to the other; on returning to bed the pain ceased, but came back when I got up, at 7 o'clock (third day).
- Acute lancinations from ear to ear, on stooping or turning the head (third day).
- Frontal headache from one temple to the other, on waking at night (third day).
- Very sharp pain in the left temple when writing; it soon ceases (third day).
- The hair, which previously was falling out very fast, now stays in (twenty-second day).
EYE. [10.]
- Flashes before the eyes when writing, although I had written but little (twenty-first day).
EAR
- All day when walking, shooting from one ear to the other, as if abscesses were forming in them, especially in the left ear (second day).
- When writing, sharp lancinations in the left ear, which extend to all the teeth on that side (third day).
NOSE
- Tip of nose sore to touch (eleventh day); swollen, but not painful (twenty-first day).
MOUTH
- Very severe toothache in the lower molars, when chewing a bit sugar; it soon passed off (third day).
THROAT
- Throat dry and painful when swallowing, as if a pin were sticking crosswise in the pharynx (second day).
- Momentary lancinations in the parotid glands; the pains cease during breakfast and dinner (second day).
- When fingering the neck, it is painfully sensitive to touch (second day).
STOMACH
- In the evening, two hours after dinner, feeling of weight in the stomach, which seems to extend to the ears (second day).
RESPIRATORY ORGANS
- The entire trachea, from the larynx to the pit of the throat, is painful to touch (second day). [20.]
- Husky voice from reading aloud (after five hours).
- Given to a singer a few hours before he is to sing, this remedy will certainly enable him to hold out to the end without straining his voice.
- Frequent cough (third day). Dry cough, excited by merely speaking; expectoration every morning of thick mucus like the core of a boil (fourth to eighth day).
*Dry cough continues; it is not caused by titillation, nor by mucous accumulations in the bronchi, but merely by the passage of air into the larynx (ninth day). The least feeling of cold excites a cough (eleventh to twenty-first days). Cough still troublesome; excited by reading aloud, exposure to cold, tobacco-smoke, and smoke of all kinds (twenty-eighth to forty-sixth days). Cough still continues (third month). [I cured with this remedy every case of influenza which came under my care during the winter of 1847-8. It is to dry cough, however caused, what
Arnica is to injuries and Aconite to inflammatory complaints. It relieves even the cough of consumptives. A single dose (one globule of the 30th) was always sufficient whenever there was dry cough; however long it might have lasted, I could safety promise a cure in twenty-four hours, provided the affection corresponded with that caused by this agent.]
NECK
- All the muscles around the neck are painful to touch (third day).
INFERIOR EXTREMITIES
- Sensation under the right foot, at the extremity of the metatarsus, as if the shoe-sole was too thick at that place, and made walking painful (twenty-eighth to forty-sixth days).
SKIN
- Liability of the skin to inflammation; every scratch becomes a sore (eleventh to twenty-first days).
- Pimple, with much itching, near left ear, with heat of the part; in the evening (ninth day).
- Formication in the arm and hand when writing (twenty-first day).
- Frequent itching behind the lobe of the right ear, compelling to scratch (eleventh to twenty-first days).
SLEEP
- Good sleep (after five hours). [30.]
- Sleep good, refreshing, and quiet.
- Wakes very early in the morning (third day).
CONDITIONS
- Aggravation.
- ( Cold air ), Cough.
- ( Rising from bed ), Headache.
- ( Smoke ), Cough.
- ( Stooping ), Pain from ear to ear.
- ( Turning head ), Pain from ear to ear.
- ( Writing ), Pain in temple; flashes before eyes; pain in ear.
- Amelioration.
- ( During a meal ), Pain in parotid glands.
SUPPLEMENT: MENTHA PIPERITA. Authority.
2 , P. C. Remondino, M.D., Med. and Surg. Reporter, vol. xiv, 1866, p. 278, a boy, aged six years, took between 1 and 2 ounces of the essence, and died in two hours.
- Insensible (after five minutes). Motionless; limbs relaxed; slow, full pulse; stertorous breathing; cold skin; livid lips; immovable pupils; eyes fixed (in twenty minutes), 2.