Penthorum sedoides

Volume I — Appendix

Description. — A perennial herb found in wet places in Canada and the United States. The flower is symmetrical, having 5 sepals, 10 stamens, 5 pistils, uniting below into a 5-angled, 5-horned, 5-celled pod, the quinary order of the flower probably giving the plant its name.

Preparation.— Tincture of the plant.

Mind.

Mind dull, exceeding discouraged and desponding, everything went wrong but dinner. Reading interfered, because of mental dulness.

Head.

Vertigo. On closing the eyes, felt like floating, could not read. Much annoyed by little noises. Dull, heavy headache with heat and soreness in the sacrum. Catarrhal aching in forehead.

Ringing and singing in both ears.

Nose.

• Discharges from nares, thick, pus-like, streaked with blood, and

an odor as if from an open sore.

• A peculiar wet feeling in nares as though a violent coryza would

set in, which did not. Wet feeling in trachea and bronchi, passing from above downward, as if coryza would set in, followed by a slight feeling of constriction, which passed from above down through the chest.

• Catarrhal feeling repeated itself. Nose felt stuffed, as if swollen. Sense of fulness of the nose and ears. A secondary symptom, a drawing, or contractile feeling of the muscles of the side of the nose affected with catarrh. Itching in the nares.

Mouth.

Prickling, burning sensation on the tongue, as if scalded. Increased flow of saliva. Bloody sputa.

Throat.

Posterior nares feel raw as if denuded of epithelium.

Stomach.

An unpleasant sensation of disgust and nausea, which lasted three hours, but did not interfere with the next meal, which was eaten with greater relish.

Rectum.

A crawling sensation in lower rectum. Burning in the rectum at stool, continued during the afternoon. Itching of the anus. Haemorrhoids with aching in the sacrum.

Semi-fluid evacuation of the bowels, after having been constipated.

Urinary Organs. Dull aching in kidneys. Bladder sore on pressure. Burning in the urethra when micturating, continued for a week. Urine clear, passed more frequently, actively acid. Sediment thrown down when boiled with sulph. acid, ammonia, nitrate of silver, and nitric acid. Next day the urine was alkaline, slightly cloudy and caloric. Increased in quantity.

Sexual Organs. Sexual orgasm. Erethismus of the sexual system, almost a satyriasis; a slight varicocele of long standing was apparently cured. This condition was succeeded by a corresponding depression of sexual function approaching impotence, returning to the normal condition only after months.

Respiratory Organs. In the morning a cough, seemed to come from deep in the chest, with soreness in chest.

Neck and Back. Aching through basilar region. Aching in the sacrum, with itching of anus, haemorrhoids.

Extremities.

Arm went to sleep. Hand felt swollen. A trembling of legs for several days, with soreness of knees. While on the lounge the muscles of the leg were suddenly contracted, jerking up the foot as in stepping.

Skin.

A long-cured impetiginous eczema reappeared on both legs. A few hot prickings in the skin. Itching of face and forehead.

Sleep.

Fantastic dreams. Voluptuous dreams and increased sexual desire, sympathetic and urinary excitement. A few cold chills rush in succession up the spinal column.

Volume II — Special Therapeutics

( Virginia Stone Crop.)

This is an herbaceous, perennial plant, found growing in wet grounds throughout the United States and Canada.

It is said to have a curative action in catarrh and in diarrhoea. In large doses it causes an unpleasant fulness of the head and much dreaming in sleep, post-nasal catarrh, and much irritation of the fauces. (See proving in Allen’s Encyclopedia of 3Iateria Medica.)