Collinsonia

Collinsonia Canadensis, L.

Natural order , Labiatæ.

Common names , Horsebalm, Richweed, Stoneroot.

Preparation , Tincture of root "and plant" (Hale).

Authority.

Burt, proving with half an ounce of 3d dec. (twice), and afterwards with 20 drops of tincture, Hale's New Remedies, 2d ed.

HEAD

• Dull frontal headache, with frequent rheumatic pains in the arms, hands, and legs (after three hours).
• Dull frontal headache, with frequent flying pains in the legs (second day).
• Dull frontal headache, with tearing pains in both knees, passing down the inside of the legs of the feet, while sitting (after one hour).
• Dull pain over the eyes, with pressing pain in the right temple (after half an hour).

NOSE

• Dryness of the nostrils, with frequent sharp pains in the right temple, and dull aching distress in the stomach and bowels (after four hours).

FACE

• Face quite yellow around the eyes (second morning).
• Neuralgic pains in the superior maxillary bone when in the open air (after one hour).

MOUTH

• Tongue coated yellow along the centre and base, with a rough, bitter taste in the mouth (second morning).

STOMACH

• Nausea while sitting, with cutting pains every few minutes in the whole hypogastrium (second day). [10.]
• Slight nausea, with distress in the stomach and bowels (second day).
• Severe nausea, with hard cutting pains in hypogastrium, and frequent emissions of flatus from the anus; lasted one hour, when I went to sleep (after four hours).
• Sharp cutting pains in the stomach for five minutes, while sitting down (after five hours).

ABDOMEN

• Hypochondria.
• Dull distress in the right hypochondrium (second day).
• Umbilical.
• Distress in the umbilicus, with eructations of air (after half an hour).
• Dull pains in the umbilicus for five minutes, at 10 P.M. (third day).
• Hypogastrium.
• Great pain in the hypogastrium and desire for stool (second morning).
• *Cutting pains in the hypogastric region every ten or fifteen minutes; the pains were so hard that I was compelled to sit down each time, and became very faint (second morning).
• All the afternoon and evening had cutting pains in the hypogastrium every half hour to one hour, that would last from two to five minutes at a time (second day).
• Cutting pains in the hypogastrium, with stool of bilious matter, mucus streaked with blood, and tenesmus, at 2 P.M. (second day). [20.]
• Awoke twice in the night with sharp cutting pains in the hypogastrium, and again at 4 A.M. with same pains and great desire for stool (first night).

STOOL

• Diarrhœa.
• Mushy stool at 8 A.M. (fourth day).
• Papescent stool at 7 P.M., preceded by dull pains in the small intestines (third day).
• Stool of bile, mucus, and yellow matter, accompanied by severe tenesmus, and followed by hard, cutting pains in the bowels (second morning).
• Stool of yellow fecal matter, mucus, and about one teaspoonful of blood, with tenesmus, and followed by sharp, cutting pains in the hypogastrium for fifteen minutes, in the morning; 10 A.M., small stool of mucus and blood, with tenesmus, preceded and followed by sharp cutting pains in the hypogastrium; 12 M., stool of bilious matter, mucus, and blood, with the same symptoms as the last stool.
• Stool first part hard and lumpy, last part ran from bowels thin as milk, with severe pains in the hypogastrium, accompanied with straining, severe nausea, and fainting. The pains continued fifteen minutes, when there followed another copious watery stool, with the same symptoms as the first (second morning).
• Constipation.
• Constipation for two days, with a feeling of great languor.
• *Light-colored, lumpy stool, with hard straining, followed by dull pains in the anus and hypogastrium for half an hour (after two hour).
• No stools (second and third days).
• Not stools for three days (after fourth day).

URINARY ORGANS. [30.]

• Urine high-colored and scanty (second day).

GENERAL SYMPTOMS

• Great lassitude, with desire to sleep all day (second and third days).
• Feeling weak (second day).
• Feeling very weak and faint (second morning).

CONDITIONS

• Aggravation.
• ( Afternoon and evening ), Pains in hypogastrium.
• ( In open air ), Pains in maxillary bone.
• ( While sitting ), Nausea, etc.; pains in stomach.

SUPPLEMENT: COLLINSONIA. Authority.

2 , M. M. Dowle, M.D., U. S. Med. Invest., N. S., 3, 1876, p. 386; took a teaspoonful and half of the powder.

After about half an hour, while partaking of warm mashed potatoes and hot sweetened milk, at supper, I first experienced a warmth in my lips, and simultaneously a tensive, pressive headache at the point of emergence of the supraorbital nerve of the left side. Pressed with thumb over the spot to relieve the aching. Presently, say perhaps ten minutes later, headache was no longer noticed, only an increasing warmth spreading along the internal mucous surfaces of the upper and lower lips; the sense of warmth was deepening rapidly into a feeling of largeness of the parts, attended with a sensation as if the parts were occupied with innumerable needles, which were darting back and forth.

The face, as the cheeks, the forehead, and also all the hairy parts of the under chin, from ear to ear, and thence reflected down almost to breastbone, seemed to feel the same numbness or needlelike darting to-and-fro sensation. Strangely enough, the tongue did not share the same sensations. (There was a caustic sensation in the fauces, which induced some coughing and spitting when the powder was first swallowed, but there was no universal burning in the throat-pit or gullet at any time afterwards.) While the inner surface of the lips, as well as the whole buccal mucous cavity were experiencing an intensity of excitement, the face seemed to grow broader and broader, making the prover feel, in humorous phrase, as if he had a touch of the "big-head." The mind partook of the sense of pleasurable exhilaration.

Next, the entire right forearm, from the elbow to the tips of all the fingers, felt the sense of numbness, a weary heaviness; then the left arm and its fingers. The balls of the two thumbs were very numb; they were worse than the fingers. Rested my head at supper-table on my left hand. Felt a sense of nausea, and thought I must vomit. No better in the open air. Lips seemed growing larger all the while, and mouth seemed to stand open like a huge catfish's; lips dry; no flow of saliva at any time during the proving.

Lay down on bed with coat and boots off, with a blanket as covering; lay there from five to ten minutes; mouth tingling and burning; lips "enlarging;" face flushing and pricking, and whole head seeming to take on "growing" dimensions; both arms, from elbows to finger-tips, "fast asleep" and hands feeling as broad and heavy again as they naturally were. Wanted to lie with head high, to get more air; suddenly, low down in left lung, felt a gurgling, followed by an immediate desire to cough which I restrained, because just three weeks from this date the prover had a slight attack of hæmoptysis coming from that side, which was checked with

Trillin . Uneasy; got up in stocking-feet and shirt-sleeves, and sat near stove. Was, if possible, growing worse. Head seemed to grow bigger while straining to get boots on; went to front door, and staggered against the large elm tree near the step. While closing shutters felt sick and faint, and re-entered house. At no time did there seem to be any striking departure from a natural breathing; the breathing and pulse did vary, however, while lying down; the pulse under the finger would withdraw like a thread, and then return with more volume. This condition of my pulse was noticed while lying on my left side, recently affected as stated, and I got up to avoid, if possible, a return of that trouble. Hot things taken into the mouth and swallowed, seemed at all times to intensify the effects of the medicine. Had I taken the medicine by mistake in the dark, I would have compared the sensations experienced to those of

Aconite ; it seems the analogue of Arum triphyllum also. To antidote the Collinsonia action I employed

Chloride of sodium ; the spirits of Camphor containing Laudanum was used by olfaction, but the mucous membrane of the nostrils, as far within as this volatile stimulant penetrated, seemed only to resent its presence by inducing an unwelcome aggravation of the existing local troubles.

Nux vom. was the antidote . The face returned to a feeling of naturalness with each dose; the

Collinsonia effects seemed to pass away like a vapor or aura from above downwards; it was felt to move; the sensations of relief being first felt in the forehead; then the cheeks lost their grotesque unbecomingness, or largeness; next the lips parted with their pungent glow, while the two arms, down to their finger-tips, were next severally alike bettered. However, the balls of the thumbs persisted in their numbness, the right feeling somewhat unnatural even the next day. To restore the thumbs and fingers to their right feeling, I slapped my outspread hands at the time across and around my sides, as the wood-chopper does when his hands are numb with cold.

These toxic sensations lasted full three hours, say from 6 to 9 P.M. Feeling "well" at this latter hour, I visited a lady patient, a block from my dwelling. In the cool, open air, walking, my feet and limbs felt strangely light, like a deer's, and as though I could run very fast if chased. I seemed to lose the sense of physical or personal identity, as far as the lower extremities were concerned. Returning home, after an absence of perhaps ten minutes, I now felt for the first time a strong glow in the bowels, from the umbilicus clear down to the toes. A sense of increasing largeness and numbness was felt from hip to hip; while the right thigh was thus affected, the left was skipped; the calves of both legs seemed elephantine, and "fast asleep." I sat still and sipped

Nux vom . The dynamic antidotal effect which this agent has over the Collinsonia poison in the system was decided, and it was felt to be like removing a swaddling-cloth that embarrassed nervous action by its tightness and weight. I took a teaspoonful of a solution of twenty drops of the 1st attenuation of

Nux vom . in twenty teaspoonfuls of water, every few minutes. Urinated several times, and had a stool during proving, the latter being in the form of balls, or lumpy agglomeration, 2.