Taraxacum officinale

Volume IV — Main text

TARAXACUM.

Taraxacum dems-leenu, Desf. Dandelion. Nat. Ord., Compositce.

1. Pnvings. — I. Hahnemann, Mat. Med. Pura^ vol. v of original, vol. ii of translation. Contains 264 symptoms from 5 provers.

2. A lady, believing herself to suffer from a liver complaint, took a dessert-spoonful of a fl. extr. twice a d. for more than a week, when she began to feel uncomfortable and restless in herself — a sort of fidgetiness, as she expressed it, and general uneasiness, for which she could not account, as she had often been much more indisposed without experiencing such miserable feelings ; she had, moreover, some nausea, and an uneasy sensation of sinking in the prsecordia ; her nights also were restless, and her bowels had become confined — rather an unusual

.occurrence with her. An aperient corrected this for the time, and relieved the other symptoms ; but they soon recurred, and the same thing happened again. All this time she continued the T. On awaking one m., however, she found upper part of body covered with a rash, to vot. IV. 19

which her attention was first drawn by intense tingling and itching Scratching relieved this, but increased the range of eruption and rcdncs of skin. \Vhen I saw her there was no eruption on face, but this wa slightly swollen, exhibiting patches of efflorescence or redness without thickening or elevation of cuticle. On forearms and hands eruption appeared to be of a mixed character — lichen and urticaria combinti I'hc lichenous or papulous eruption (papulae of pin's head size, and of purple or dark red colour) was dispersed all over arms, back and front, thickest about wrists and bend of elbows, in which places it was diutered in papulae on an inflamed base. The urticaria occupied prind* pally the front of the arms ; the wheals were not very numerous of prominent, save under friction, by which they could be produced to any extent; they came out and went several times in d., and were always very lar^e and abundant in m. ; chest and around waist wctc also said to be thickly covered, and the redness intense, but I was not permitted to inspect these parts. The pulse was considerably accd^ rated, full, but soft, and there was also much febrile action, with rather severe frontal headache. Tongue was thickly cuaced at back wiih yellowish-brown fur, and there was much complaint of dryness ot throat, in which there was a circumscribed ring of inflammation surrounding isthmus faucium ; bowels were much confined and urine highcoloured, and! considerably diminished in quantity.

On leaving off the T. and adopting a cooling regimen the eruption and other unpleasant symptoms speedily disappeared, and after j to6ii. nothing was left but a little desquamation at the affected parts. (G'- Smith, Lancet^ 1845-6, ii, 506.)