Cistus canadensis

Volume I — Special Symptomatology

(Rock-Rose.)

Description. — Sometimes called Frost-plant, because the roots throw off small icicles, with all the colors of the rainbow, which can be seen on frosty mornings — even when other plants show little dew-drops. It is a'

perennial herb, with simple, ascending, downy stem, about a foot high, Flowers large and bright yellow, in terminal corymbs; they open in the sunshine, and cast their petals the next day. It grows on sandy plains and rocky places, preferring limestone ground.

Officinal Preparations. — Tincture of the whole plant in strong alcohol.

Analogues. — Ampelopsis, Belladonna, Calcarea, Corydalis, Graphites, Hepar sulphur, Kali bichromicum, Paris quadrifolia, Phytolacca, Stillingia, Laches is, Lobelia cerulea.

[All the following symptoms are marked by Hering as (°)curative.]

Mind.

All mental excitement greatly increases the sufferings.

Bad effects from vexation.

After supper, until bedtime, cheerfulness.

Mental agitation increases the cough.

Every mental excitement is followed by stitches in the throat, producing a cough.

Head.

Eead drawn to one side by swellings on the neck.

Eyes.

Scrofulous inflammation of the eyes of long standing.

Ears.

Discharge from the ears.

Tetters on and around the ears, extending into the external meatus.

Nose.

Evenings and mornings frequent and violent sneezing. Painful tip of nose, which at first grew worse and then was cured.

Face.

Flushes of heat in the face. Caries of the lower jaw.

Teeth.

Very scorbutic gums, swollen, separating from the teeth, bleeding easily, putrid, disgusting.

Tongue.

Dryness of the tongue and roof of the mouth.

Throat.

Impure breath from disease of the throat. Inhaling cold air causes pain in the throat.

Inhaling the slightest cold air causes a sore throat, which he

has not when inhaling in the warm room. A feeling of softness in the throat. Rawness, extending from the chest into the throat. A feeling as if sand were in the throat.

The patient is constantly obliged to swallow saliva to relieve an unbearable dryness, especially during the night.

Continuous feeling of dryness and heat in the throat.

Dryness of throat from 12 o'clock noon, until 1 to 3 a. m., at night, then better until the next noon.

A small dry spot in the gullet for one year, then general dryness of throat — better after eating, worse after sleeping — as if tearing asunder, the patient must get up and drink water.

The inside of the throat looks glassy; on the back of throat

there appear strips of tough mucus. Periodical itching in the throat. Tickling and soreness in the throat.

In the morning sore pain in the throat and dryness of the tongue.

Tearing pain in the throat when coughing.

Stitches in the throat, causing cough when mentally agitated.

Fauces inflamed and dry, without feeling dry; tough, gumlike, thick, tasteless phlegm brought up by hawking, mostly in the morning.

Hawking of mucus, constantly.

Expectoration of bitter mucus.

After discharging phlegm from the throat he feels generally much relieved.

0 Ought to be specific in catarrh of the larynx, trachasa, and posterior nares. {Hale.)

Stomach.

Drinking water relieves the dryness in the throat. After eating the dryness of the throat is relieved.

Abdomen and Stool. All night till daybreak thin hot stool squirting out, of a gray.

yellow color: three more before noon. 0 Chronic dysentery. {Dr. Comstock, of St. Louis.)

° Chronic diarrhoea — a very successful remedy in many cases The wind is not incarcerated as often as before.

Chest.

Feeling as if the windpipe had not space enough.

Pain in the windpipe; itching and scratching in the larynx.

Feeling as of rawness, extending from the upper part of the chest into the throat.

Cough from stitches in the throat.

Cough, with a very painful tearing in the throat.

Cough, and her neck thinly studded with tumors.

He bled at the lungs, and his scrofulous symptoms had returned.

In the evening, after lying down, and at night in bed, once a week or oftener, attacks of a kind of asthma; he draws his breath with such a loud wheezing that it wakens others sleeping in the same room.

He has the feeling as if the windpipe had not space enough.

Pressure on the chest.

Neck.

Scrofulous swelling and suppuration of the glands of the throat.

Mrs. C, of delicate constitution, when nineteen years of age, was afflicted with a cough, and her neck was thickly studded with tumors; using the Rock-rose she was restored, and has not been afflicted with any such symptoms since. {Dr. D. A. Tyler.)

Back.

Scrofulous ulcers on the back.

Lower Limbs.

A lad seven years old had the " white-swelling " of the hip for three years. The bone was dislocated upward and outward; there was a large opening on the hip, leading to the bone, into which I could thrust my finger. I counted three ulcers. He had been under several physicians who had given him up. After using a decoction of the Rockrose, in two days his night sweats ceased; thirty-nine days after he was entirely well. (Dr. J. IT. Thompson.)

Sleep.

In the night swallowing of saliva on account of dryness. Must get up in the night on account of dryness in the throat. The dryness in the throat worse after sleeping. On awaking pain under the hypochondria. Night sweats attending suppurations.

Skin.

Tetter on the ears and hands. Lupus on the face.

For scrofula a popular medicine in domestic practice.

Mr. 0., from a child was afflicted with the scrofula, and had also grandular swelling's on the neck; at the age of sixteen he was much worse, had eight abscesses on the neck, three ulcers on the shoulder and three on the hips; at forty years of age he had his head drawn on one side, and was unable to labor. After using the Rock-rose for four weeks, the ulcers broke, discharged and healed ; the tumor lessened in size, his head resumed its natural position, and he went regularly to work. Later his scrofulous symptoms returned again, and he also bled at the lungs, for which he used it again with the same beneficial results. {Professor Ives.)

Hard swelling around all her syphilitic mercurial ulcers on the lower limbs.

Furunculi, commencing with small blisters, (boils.)

Conditions.

From noon until midnight the dryness of throat is worse; all the symptoms are worse in the morning.

Belladonna, Carbo veg. and Phosphorus acted favorably, between repeated doses of Cistus.

Volume II — Special Therapeutics

The Rock-rose, or Ice-plant, has long been esteemed as a popular remedy in Scrofula. It was partially proven and incorporated into our Materia Medica by Dr. Hering, who had a high estimate of its properties. He suggests that as it grows by preference in a soil abounding in Magnesia (talc), it ought to follow Magnesia. Is Magnesia one of its inorganic constituents? If so, some Magnesia symptoms might be cured by it. A study of the pathogenesis cannot fail to impress you with its similarity to some

of the antipsorics, namely: Calcarea, Corydalis, Graphites, Hepar sulphur, Phytolacca, and Still ingia. It has some resemblance to Belladonna, Paris quad., Kali bich., and Lachesis, especially its throat symptoms. Like the above antipsorics it has made some brilliant cures of swelling and suppuration of the cervical and lymphatic glands.

It has cured scrofulous abscesses located on the neck, shoulders, hips, and other portions of the body. Scrofulous hip disease (called u white swelling of the hip ”), with fistulous openings leading to the bone, and ulcers on the surface, with nightsweats. This case was cured in thirty-nine days by a decoction of the plant. Eruptions : scrofulous; tetter; chronic erysipelas; boils beginning with a blister; and lupus of the face, all come under its curative power.

It has a decided affinity for mucous membranes, or rather for the glandular structures imbedded in them.

Beginning with the eyes, you will find it has cured scrofulous ophthalmia ; in the mouth, scorbutic gums, swollen , separating from the teeth, bleeding easily, putrid. In the throat and air-passages it gives us a vivid picture of chronic catarrh with strumous disease of the glands of those passages.

I am surprised that with the following striking symptoms, it has not been used to a greater extent by all physicians. It causes dryness of the tongue and roof of the mouth. Inhaling cold air caused soreness and pain in the throat, feeling of dryness, heat, and as if sand was in throat. Rawness extending from the chest into the throat. He is constantly obliged to swallow saliva to relieve an unbearable dryness, especially at night, or from 1 p.m. to 1 a.m.

A small dry spot in the gullet (?) for a year, then general dryness of throat, better after eating, worse after sleeping, as if tearing asunder; he must get up and drink water; the inside of the throat looks glassy ; on the back of the throat are strips of tough mucus (Lachesis, Kali bich.).

Periodical itching of the throat; tickling and soreness of the throat ; in morning sore pain and dryness of throat. (Hep.) Tearing pain in the throat when coughing ; stitching in the throat causing cough ; cough aggravated by every mental excitement (Phos.); expectoration of bitter mucus. Fauces inflamed and dry,

without feeling dry ; tough, gumlike, thick, tasteless phlegm, brought up by hawking.

I would advise you to use it in the catarrhal throat and bronchial affections so prevalent nowadays.

In domestic practice, I frequently hear it highly lauded for chronic diarrhoea and dysentery. Dr. Comstock, of St. Louis, reported several cures from the use of the infusion. In Hering's provings the following symptoms appear :

All night, till daybreak, thin stool, squirting out, grayishyellow in color, thin and hot.

The chronic dysentery which it cures is probably of the same nature as the chronic laryngitis and bronchitis.

C00A.

The leaves of the plant Erythroxylon Coca have, from the earliest authentic accounts, been used by the natives of Peru for the purpose of stimulating the nervous energies, much as the Chinese use tea, the Arabians coffee, the Asiatics Cannabis indica, and the American aborigines tobacco. Every nation has its peculiar nervous stimulant, which is at the same time, in different quantities, a calmative or nervine. Coca is an analogue of Paullinia, Scutellaria, Cypripedium, and Valeria, as well as the other nerve stimulants above named. The primary action of this whole class is to excite the energies of the nerve-centres. While the system is under their primary effects, the person is enabled to perform more arduous labors, severer exercise, and stronger mental exertions. The thoughts flow with unwonted freedom, and the scope of imagination and fancy is enlarged. Sleep is not as necessary to the organism; in other words the system can go longer without the repose of sleep. Unfortunately the secondary effects of all this class — if the drug or beverage is taken to excess — is a corresponding depression of the nervous energies, with a loss of the normal capacity for mental and physical labor.

During the primary effects the senses are all more alert, the perceptions keener, and they are not morbidly irritable ; while a sufferer from the secondary effects finds that he is irritable in body and mind, his nerves have lost their tone, and are shattered iu