Eupatorium perfoliatum

Volume I — Special Symptomatology

(Boneset.)

Description. — The Thoroughwort is an indigenous perennial herb, with a horizontal, crooked root. The stems are round, stout, hairy, and from one to five feet high. The leaves are opposite, connate-perfoliate, each pair resembling a single leaf centrally perforated by the stem, and placed at right angles to it. Flowers numerous, white, in dense terminal corymbs. This well-known plant grows in low grounds, on the borders of swamps, wet prairies, flowering in August and September. It has a feeble, peculiar odor, and a herbaceous, very bitter taste.

Officinal Preparations.— Tincture of the flowers and leaves of the plant; dilutions with stong alcohol.

Analogues. — Arnica, Baptisia, Bryonia, Cimicifuga, Chamomilla, Gelseminum, Ipecacuanha, Mercurius, Nux vomica, Podophyllum, Triostmm.

Head.

• Headache, with a sensation of soreness internally, better in

the house, aggravated when first going into the open air;

relieved by conversation. Pain extending from the forehead to the occiput. Throbbing headache; beating pain in forehead and occiput,

better after rising. Darting pains through the temples, with sensation of blood

rushing across the head. Distress on the top and in the back part of the head. Shooting pains from left to right side of the head. 0 Headache, with nausea, every other morning when first

awaking, continuing all day; loss of appetite during that

day, but good appetite during the intervening day. " Pain in the occiput after lying, with sensation of great weight

in that part, requiring the hands to lift it. (See Chelid.) Eyes.

• Soreness of the eyeballs, with intolerance of light. Redness of the margin of the lids, with profuse secretion. Increased lachrymation.

Face.

Sickly, sallow countenance; flushed face; redness of the cheeks.

Mouth.

Increased appetite; causes hunger (primary). Loss of appetite, with disgust for food (secondary) Paleness of the mucous membrane of the mouth. Tongue coated yellow, or a white-coated tongue. Sores in the corners of the mouth.

Insipid taste in the mouth; want of appetite; distaste for food.

Nocturnal thirst for something cold.

0 The hunger which attends or precedes ague.

Stomach.

• Belching of tasteless wind, with a feeling of obstruction at

the pit of the stomach. Sensation of something in the stomach that ought to come up. General shuddering proceeding from the stomach. Beating in the epigastrium at night. Sensation of fullness at stomach. 0 Nausea, and vomiting of food.

• Vomiting of mucus and bile, with trembling and pain in the

stomach, and weakness even to fainting. Distressing disposition to, and attempts at, vomiting.

Liver.

• Soreness around the waist — tight clothing is oppressive.

• Soreness and fullness in the region of the liver.

Stool.

• Purging stools, with smarting and heat in the anus. Frequent watery stools, or bilious stools. Tenesmus, with small discharge of loose stool. Morning diarrhoea (primary)', constipation (secondary).

Urinary Organs. Urine scanty and high colored.

Dark brown, scanty urine, depositing whitish, clay-like sediment, voided only once in twenty-four hours. 0 Dark urine in bilious disorders. ° Watery urine during intermittents. ° Herpes on the scrotum and thighs, even to the anus.

Catarrhal Symptoms.

• Flowing coryza; sneezing; hoarseness.

• Hacking cough in the evening.

• Cough, with soreness and heat in the bronchia. ° Cough aggravated in the evening.

0 Hectic cough from suppressed intermittent fever. ° Violent cough, with soreness in the chest. ° Epidemic influenza.

c Cough, with flushed face and tearful eyes; he has to support the chest with his hands.

Chest.

Difficulty of breathing, with anxious countenance, perspiration

and sleeplessness. Painful irritation of the pulmonary organs, with heat in chest. Aching pain under the left breast, and inability to lie on the

left side.

Grating sensation in the chest at every deep inspiration. ° Asthma and bronchitis, when the dyspnoea is great, obliging the patient to lie with head and shoulders high.

Back.

Weakness in the small of the back.

Pain in the back as from a bruise.

Pain in the back and lower extremities.

Deep-seated pains in the loins, with soreness from motion.

Upper Extremities. Soreness and aching soreness in the arms and wrists. Stiffness of the fingers, with obtuseness of the sense of touch Heat in the palms of the hands.

Lower Extremities. Pain, with extreme sensitiveness in left gluteal muscles. ° Stiffness and general soreness of the lower extremities when

rising to walk. Calves of the legs feel as though they had been beaten. Pains in all the joints of the lower extremities. Lameness in the right hip and lower extremity. c Soreness and aching of the lower limbs when rising to walk. 0 Rheumatic pains on the inside of the left knee. 0 Dropsical swelling of feet and ankles. ° Gouty inflammation of left knee and right elbow.

Fever.

• Chilliness through the night and in the morning, with nausea from the least motion; aching pain and soreness, as if from having been beaten in the calves of the legs, small of the back, and in the arms, above and below the elbows; nausea as the chills go off; aching in the bones of the extremities, with soreness of the flesh; chilliness, with excessive trembling and nausea; chilliness in the morning, heat through the rest of the day, but no perspiration; the patient feels worse in the morning of one day, and in the afternoon of the next day.

0 Ague and fever, with nocturnal sweat with chilliness from motion or removal of the covering.

c Belching and vomiting of bile, and trembling in the back during fever.

0 Thirst several hours before the chill.

0 The shiverings were severer than' the cold would warrant. c Intermittent fever, when the paroxysm commences in the

morning, with thirst several hours before the chill, which thirst continues during the chill and heat, and vomiting at the conclusion of the chill; fever attended with great painfulness, weakness and soreness all over; little or no perspiration after the heat. ( Williamson, Neidhard, Gray and Hale.)

° Cerebrospinal meningitis, with intense soreness and aching all over, vomiting, pain in back of head and neck, etc. (Pratt, Small, etc.)

0 Remittent fever, bilious and malarial, with severe gastric and intestinal irritation.

Generalities.

Great soreness and painfulness of the whole body and extremities, as if he had been bruised or beaten.

Volume II — Special Therapeutics

This plant, common to all parts of this country, grows in wet, marshy places, and seems to bear out the supposition of some medical writers, that certain plants are specially adapted to the treatment of the maladies which are prevalent in the localities inhabited by them. The Boneset — so called by the common people on account of its virtues in fevers characterized by severe aching pains, apparently in the bones — has been extensively used in this country, from its earliest settlement.

Its sphere of action appears to include the g astro-hepatic system, the muscular or fibrous tissues, and the bronchial mucous membranes. Its congeners are Arnica, Baptisia, Bryonia, Ipecac., Mercurius, Podophyllum, Phytolacca, and perhaps Chelidonium and Cimicifuga.

Introduced into homoeopathy by such veterans as Jeanes, Neidhard, and Williamson, it has been used for nearly the same diseases for which it was recommended by Rafinesque fifty years ago, namely, intermittent and remittent fevers, petechial or spotted fevers, rheumatism, influenza, and diseases of the liver.

In intermittent and remittent fevers it has always been a favorite remedy, and its characteristic indications are well marked, and may be briefly stated as follows :

The chill is nearly always in the morning, and is preceded for several hours by thirst, soreness, and aching in the bones (apparently). The thirst continues during the chill and heat. The chill is attended by nausea, vomiting of bile, intense aching, and soreness in the flesh of the extremities, and often all over the body. These symptoms continue during the heat, especially the vomiting, which was often painful and incessant, so that nothing can be retained in the stomach.

The heat is apt to be prolonged until evening or into the night, and may be followed or not by sioeat (with chilliness). If no sweating occurs the apyrexia is short and attended by chilliness, nausea, thirst, and debility, showing that the febrile action never altogether subsides, giving us a true type of

Remittent fever — a fever in which the Boneset is often our best remedy, especially if occurring in the summer and autumn, and is attended by very severe bilious symptoms. This fever goes by the various names of “ bilious remittent,” “ gastric remittent,” and even “ bilious rheumatic” fever.

It matters not much what the epidemic is called, if you find the characteristics of the remedy — the “ aching in the bones,” the soreness of the muscles, the bilious vomiting, etc. — you will be successful in its use if you prescribe the lowest dilutions, or even the infusion of the plant, to be taken through the apyrexia and paroxysm.

Cerebrospinal fever is said to have been cured by this remedy, but I doubt its value in cases when the cord or meninges are the seat of inflammation. You will meet with many cases of malarial fever, sometimes occurring epidemically, where the symptoms closely resemble true cerebro-spinal meningitis ; but a close study of such cases will convince you that the similarity is only apparent. The vomiting, instead of being due to cerebral irritation, is of hepatic origin; the intense pain and soreness in the head, back, and all over the body is due to the action of malarial poison and not to spinal congestion. I do not deny, however,

that the poison of marsh-malaria may not cause actual cerebrospinal irritation and congestion ; but what I want to impress upon your memory is this, that the cause of such symptoms must be taken into account. Although Eupatorium perf. causes symptoms very similar to cerebro-spinal fever, it will not cure them unless caused by marsh miasma. True epidemic “spotted fever” is a disease rarely sporadic, generally epidemic, and occurs usually in the winter or early spring, and requires such remedies as Secale, Cannabis indica, Calabar, Solanum, and Veratrum viride.

Cerebro-spinal symptoms due to malaria occur at a time when agues abound, in the summer and autumn, and are best treated by Eupatorium perf., Eucalyptus, China (Quinia), and a few other medicines.

A severe form of fever , generally epidemic, has been known on several occasions in our Western States, characterized by 'profuse perspiration, without mitigation of the heat, pain in the bones, and other sufferings. This “sweating fever” has been cured by appreciable doses of the tincture or infusion of this plant.

Catarrhal fever, or epidemic influenza, when attended by the peculiar pains and other symptoms of Boneset, but having in addition intense bronchial irritation with severe cough, has been treated successfully with it.

In all these fevers, and even in the beginnings of typhoids, the Eupatorium is looked upon as a specific by the country people. They always give it in infusion, a small quantity of the leaves (5ij, or iv) in a quart of water. If there is no vomiting, it is given in a warm ‘infusion, which causes vomiting, which is not considered a bad symptom when caused by the remedy. If much vomiting and gastric irritation is present it is given cold, when it allays and arrests it.

When practicing in malarious districts, you will observe, as I often have, that the Boneset macerated in whiskey is generally recommended and used as a preventive of “ fever and ague.” I can testify from my own personal experience, that a few drops of the tincture, taken several times daily, is an excellent prophylactic to prevent the return of intermittents and bilious remittents.

The headaches of Eupatorium are in keeping with the general

character of the medicine. They are such headaches as are caused by hepatic derangement. Some persons are subject to attacks which they call bilious sick-headaches, in which vomiting of bile constitutes the principal symptom. The headaches usually come on in the morning, preceded by thirst and chilliness; the pain is in the top and back part of the head. We usually give Nux and Bryonia in such cases, but you will often find this remedy curative when the former fail. It has one kind of headache which is identical with that of Chelidonium, namely, “ Pain in the occiput after lying, with sensation of great weight in that part, requiring the hands to lift it.” Bilious subjects often wake with this sensation, and it is apt to be followed by a distressing headache all day. Either remedy will cure such headaches, but the Chelidonium has more marked symptoms of jaundice than Eupatorium.

Headache with pain and soreness in the eyeballs indicates this remedy.

Congestion of the liver, with an oppressive feeling of soreness, fulness and tightness in the hepatic region, yellow tongue, cough, vomiting and purging of bile, indicates this remedy. Small doses will cure, because the above are primary symptoms of the drug.

You may occasionally find it useful in ordinary bilious vomiting and diarrhoea of adults and children. In such cases, when closely indicated, the higher dilutions may act favorably.

The catarrhal symptoms of Eupatorium are quite notable. It has cured “ nocturnal loose cough,” “ hoarse, rough cough with scraping in the bronchia,” “ violent cough with soreness in the chest,” “cough with flushed face and tearful eyes — the patient supports the chest with his hands,” “coughs with soreness and heat in the bronchia,” etc. The cough resembles those of Phosphorus, Bryonia, and Sticta. I would suggest its usefulness in those coughs called “ liver-coughs,” which undoubtedly owe their origin to derangement of that organ. Generally, however, the coughs of Eupatorium are connected with other symptoms indicating that remedy.

It is said to have cured asthma and bronchitis with great dyspnoea, but I have never used it in such cases.

Although Dr. Williamson recommends it in rheumatic, gouty,

and even dropsical affections, I doubt its adaptability to such conditions.

Be careful to distinguish this medicine from another belonging to the same genus of plants, the Eupatorium purpureum, for the two are quite different in their action.

EUPATOEIUM PURPUREUM.

This species, commonly known under the name of “ Queen of the Meadow,” does not resemble the Eupatorium perfoliatum, except in its curative properties in intermittent fever. The symptoms indicating it in ague are: “ Paroxysms at various times of the day ; chills beginning in the small of the back , spreading up and down the trunk and extremities ; lips and nails blue ; violent shaking with comparatively little coldness; fever, with nausea and vomiting, followed by moisture not amounting to sweat, principally about the head and forehead; any attempt to change position ever so little, during the sweat, a chilliness would pass through the body.”

Many of these symptoms, you will observe, are similar to the Boneset. How the medicine happened to be used in ague I do not know. The symptoms are not found in the provings. It may have been by accident that its curative powers in ague were discovered.

Its proper analogues are Apocynum cannabinum, Asclepias syriaca, Cannabis, Senecio, etc.

Its sphere of action appears to include the urinary and genital organs, the muscular system, and the mind.

The symptoms of the urinary organs are very important. It causes primarily very profuse urination, very frequent, with deep, dull pain in the kidneys ; cutting pains in the kidneys ; constant urging to urinate all day, with cutting, aching pain in the bladder. The urine was clear, limpid, and of low specific gravity.

The secondary symptoms were scanty, but very frequent urination, with very intense smarting and burning in the bladder and urethra. The urine was higher colored and of greater specific gravity.

It has always had a great reputation among the people (who