Lappa

Lappa officinalis, Allioni.

Natural order , Compositæ.

Common name , Burdock.

Authority.

Jacob Jeanes, M.D., Hahn. Month., vol. iv, 1868, p. 151, I took, about 11 A.M., 2 or 3 drops of 2d cent. dil. in 1 ounce of water.

1.

Immediately . Tickling in the rima glottis, with loose-sounding cough, but no expectoration.

2.

Pain about the sixth and seventh ribs, on the left side.

3.

Chilliness. Pain in the lower extremities, as if fatigued.

4.

Severe tingling pain, with acute cutting pain, under the sternum, about on a line with the insertions of the fourth and fifth ribs, and extending across the breast.

5.

Oppression of breath, especially in the sternal region, with shortness of breath on exertion.

Wishing to take a drink of water before retiring to bed, I took the tumbler out of which I had taken my dose in the forenoon, and allowed a strong stream of water to flow into it, shaking the glass strongly during this flow and overflow, to aid in the process of rinsing. I then drew and drank one or two tumblers of water. I had not taken it a minute before I was affected in the following manner: 6.

The symptoms of pain across the breast, mentioned above, in 4 and 5, but to these is added aching of the throat and violent constrictive feeling; pain in the head; extremely rapid pulse, with frequent intermissions (about every second or third pulsation); pain in the head, in the region of veneration, and pain in the region of the heart, with a indescribable movement in the chest, under the sternum, on a line with the third ribs. At the same time pain in the anterior muscles of the right thigh.

7.

Pains in the back about eighth dorsal vertebræ.

8.

The pulse becomes fuller and slower, but seldom more than three pulsations without any intermission.

9.

Bowels opened two or three times as if purged, with some abatement in the violence of the symptoms.

10.

The mind much agitated from the distressing feelings more than from the fear of death, which, however, appears to be threatened.

11.

The symptoms continued violent and distressing through the greater part of the night.

• At the date of this occurrence I was about forty-five years of age, had never had an attack of this kind, and had never noticed any intermission of the pulsations of my heart. My pulse had been, for many years, and still continues to be, abnormally frequent, 84 in the minute. Within a few years I have had two or three attacks of febrile disorder, in which the pulse for some hours was exceedingly feeble, frequent, and irregular, but entirely different in character from the intermittent pulse I had after taking the Arctium lappa.