Hydrophyllum virginicum

Volume I — Special Symptomatology

{Water-leaf.)

Description. — A smooth plant, one to two feet high; leaves pinnately divided, large and petioled ; flowers in dense clusters, blue. Calyx fiveparted ; corolla bell-shaped. It grows in damp, rich woods, all over the

United States.

Officinal Preparations. — Tincture of the fresh leaves. Analogues. — Rhus (?), Cypripediam (?), Pulsatilla, Euphorbia. Symptoms.

• Inflammation of the eyes and eyelids. (Hoyt.)

(See Therapeutics, Vol. II.)

Volume I — Appendix

Description. — See page 361 of " Symptomatology."

Eyes.

Byes water and burn, with slight itching. Eyelids swollen, and the sclerotica much injected, presenting a fiery redness, and there was some sensitiveness to light. In the morning my eyelids were agglutinated, and, on opening my eyes, they were quite sensitive to the light. The burning and smarting was less, still, my eyes discharged water for two or three days.

• Catarrhal inflammation of the eyes. ° Erysipelas produced by Rhus. ° Snake-bites.

Volume II — Special Therapeutics

The meagre knowledge which we possess of the medicinal uses of this plant, was given to the profession by Dr. P. B. Iloyt, of Indianapolis, in a paper read by him before the Indiana State Society. He says :

My attention was first called to this plant in 1860, near Nashville, Tenn. While strolling on the banks of the Cumberland River, I discovered on a bluff near by a cluster of beautiful blue flowers, which I gathered.

Not more than ten or fifteen minutes after, my eyes began to water and burn, with slight itching. This continued to increase till when I arrived at my boarding-house I was suffering quite severely. 1 found that my eyelids were swollen and the sclerotica much injected, presenting a fiery redness, and there was some sensitiveness to light. These symptoms continued through the afternoon and evening, and kept me awake for some time. In the morning my eyelids were agglutinated, and on opening my eyes they were quite sensitive to the light. The burning and smarting was less, still, my eyes discharged water, more or less, for two or three days. The symptoms gradually subsided and in a week I was well again.

Dr. Hoyt states that twice afterwards be had the same eyesymptoms after gathering the plant. He says he tested it in one case of catarrhal inflammation of the eyes, which it cured “like magic.”

I cannot find any mention of this plant except in Rafinesque’s “ Medical Botany,” and he quotes Schoepf, as saying that the “ Hydrophyllum canadensis is used against the bites of snakes, and the poisonous erysipelas produced by Rhus.” It would seem by this that it has cured eruptions similar to that which it causes.

Gray says there are four species of Hydrophyllum (Waterleaf), all growing in the United States.

I should judge they resembled in their effects Euphrasia, Pulsatilla, and Rhus, but this is only conjecture.

The salts of Hypophosphorous acid, or those known as the alkaline hypophosphites, were introduced into the practice of medicine nearly twelve years ago, by Professor Churchill. He was very sanguine that he had discovered in them the specific remedies for phthisis and many tubercular diseases. He did not claim that they would cure advanced cases, nor such as were persistently hereditary. His theory was that phthisis and tuberculosis was due to a deficiency of phosphorus in the system ; that the hypophosphites were decomposed in the stomach, and the phosphorus was assimilated. He believed that this was the only way that free Phosphorus could be safely taken into the system.

The allopathic school treated these medicines as they do all new medicines — used them in excessive quantities and in all cases. They expected too much from them, and not having any characteristic indications for their use, they failed in nearly all cases, and finally rejected them almost altogether.

It remained for our school to take them up and use them in a scientific manner, selecting each one from special indications based on our provings of Phosphorus and the alkaline bases of which they are composed.

Take for example the Hypophosphite of lime(Calcis hypophosphis). If we wish to select this medicine in a case of pulmonary difficulty, we must note down, as Hahnemann recommended, all the symptoms of the case, and then examine the pathogenesis of Calcarea and Phosphorus, or Phosphoric acid, and if they cover the totality of the symptoms, the Calc. hypo, is the homoeopathic remedy. I am well aware that we cannot always predict that the union of an acid with an alkali will result in a medicine which shall comprise the qualities of both. New qualities may arise, as is the case with the bromides; but many years’ experience with the Hyphosphites enables me to assert that the action of Calc, hypo, is very similar to the action of Calc. phos. and Phos. ac.

We have no systematic provings, but fortunately Dr. Churchill has left us some valuable observations, which confirm my opinion ; e. g., he says of the