by E. A. Farrington — A Clinical Materia Medica
Gratiola is useful in diarrhoea. It produces and cures a profuse yellowish, gushing, watery diarrhoea, as though it were rushing from the hydrant. This diarrhoea is very common in summer, and seems to have as its exciting cause excessive drinking of water, whether it be cold or not. You see that it is concordant with Croton tiglium, Elaterium, Podophyllum and a few other drugs.
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Gratiola officinalis appears in 10 of the 21 classic books on Similia. Each was written to do a different job — here is what each adds on this remedy, with the opening of its entry.
“Gratiola officinalis, Linn. Natural order , Scrophulariaceæ. Common names (Germ.), Gnaden-kraut; (English) Hedge hyssop. Preparation , Tincture of the whole plant. Authorities.”
“Hedge Hyssop (GRATIOLA) Acts especially on gastro-intestinal tract. Chronic catarrhal conditions, leucorrhœa and gonorrhœa. Obstinate ulcers. Useful in mental troubles from overweening pride. Especially useful in females. Nux symptoms in females often met by Gratiola. Sick headache. Rush of blood with vanishing of…”
“FOAMY, frothy GUSHINGS (Comp. Swashing) 1 P.M.”
“Gastro - intestinal tract. Mind. Sexual organs. Eating. Drinking too much water. Summer. Motion. Coffee. Dinner. Atony. Paralytic pains. Coldness. .................... Weak will. Hypochondriasis. Emptiness after eating. As of cold water or a loose, heavy load in stomach. Profuse, gushing, watery or frothy, yellow …”
“officinalis. Hedge Hyssop. "The Herb of Grace." N. O. Scrophulariaceæ (grows in moist places). Tincture of fresh plant before flowering. Cholera / Coccygodynia / Constipation / Cramps / Diarrhœa / Dropsy / Eyes, affections of / Gastralgia / Gout / Hæmorrhoids / Headache / Hydrocephalus / Hypochondriasis / Hysteria /…”
“Hedge Hyssop. Scrophulariaceæ. A plant growing in moist places in Central and Southern Europe. The tincture is prepared from the fresh plant before flowering. Extensively proved by German provers ; also by Nicol and Spearman. See Allen's Encyclopædia., vol. 4, p. 491 . CLINICAL AUTHORITIES. Throbbing in temples …”
“GRATIOLA . Gratíola officinalis, L. Hedge hyssop. Nat. Ord., Scrophulariacea. I. Provings.-1. TRINKS. (No information.) Great ill-humour and desire for solitude (1st d.); fretful mood (do.); no desire to talk or move; earnest reflective mood; irresolution, no persistency in work; dizzy in head, he stands long looking…”
“It is a great remedy for nervous prostration; marked lassitude, with mental and bodily weakness. It is closely related to Coffea and Nux vomica and especially useful for the weakness of the will and neuralgic pains in coffee drinkers. In hypochondria and in the female it has melancholia and nymphomania. Convulsive…”
“Serious, taciturn, absorbed in reverie. Irresolute, want of perseverance. Ill-humor, tired of life, apprehensive of the future. Vertigo, while reading; on rising from a seat. Intoxicated feeling during and after a meal. Pressure in the forehead, with vertigo. Sensation of heaviness in the forehead, as if the brain…”
Kent's Repertory lists Gratiola officinalis in 1,040 rubrics. These are the ones where it carries the highest grade — the symptoms Kent treated as most characteristic. Most of them sit in HEAD (144), EXTREMITIES (133), STOMACH (114), ABDOMEN (110), MIND (62).
