Gymnocladus canadensis

Volume I — Special Symptomatology

(American Coffee-tree.)

Botanical Description. — A pretty large tree, destitute of spines or prickles, with rough bark and few stout branches. Leaves unequally bipinnate. Flowers in axillary racemes. Petals white. Legume six to ten inches long and nearly two inches broad; a little curved, and of a brown color. Seeds more than half an inch in diameter. The Gymnocladus is one of the fairest trees in our Western woods, and is planted as an ornament in the gardens of Europe. A group of them stands near Paris, some of which are forty feet high. In their native air they reach even fifty and sixty feet in height, with a stem of twelve or fifteen inches in diameter; even when standing alone it does not branch out at a height of less than thirty feet; the top is formed by a few but very long branches, and is not wide, but beautifully regular. It flourishes only in the best soil, with black walnut, red elm, poplar, blue ash, honey locust, etc. ; has a useful, hard wood, and bears, in some years, an abundance of large pods, containing two, three or four seeds, of a size of a walnut.

Officinal Preparations. — Tincture of the seeds.

Analogues. — Agaricus, Aethusa, Belladonna, Cicuta, Hyosciamus, Lackesis, Lachnanthes, Solanum nigrum, Stramonium.

Mental Sphere.

Indifferent to what transpires. Constantly forgetting.

Head.

Fullness and pressure in and over the eyes. Intense frontal headache, feeling as if the eyes were pushed forward.

Pain in left temple shooting through to the right side.

Intense headache, with stitches in the bowels.

Desire to lean the head on something; head feels as if bound up.

Face and Eyes. Sensation as of flies crawling over the right side of the face. Face hot, swelled as in erysipelas. Eyes feel as if pushed forward.

Burning in left orbit, and sensation as if it would be forced out. Frequent, violent sneezing.

• Erysipelas of the face.

Mouth and Throat. Slightest draught of cold air sets the teeth aching.

• Sore throat, a dark livid redness of fauces and tonsils. Tongue coated a bluish white.

Water in the mouth almost to vomiting.

Stomach.

Nausea, with pain and fullness in the stomach. Heat in the stomach, and sour, watery eructations. Gulping of wind, nausea, dizziness, and uneasiness of the bowels.

Abdomen.

Hot feeling in stomach and bowels after the cold chills. Stitches and pinching pains in the bowels, disappearing aftei

eructations. Soreness of the abdomen.

Stool.

Constipation.

Desire for stool, with inability.

Feeling in the abdomen as if diarrhoea would follow.

Urinary Organs. Frequent desire to urinate, with pressure and fullness. Urine brown, yellow, turbid.

Generative Organs.

Increased sexual desire.

Larynx.

Tickling in the throat producing a cough. Dry, racking cough in the evening (increases from morning till night).

Chest.

Pain in right breast; pressure in the chest. Stitches in the right breast, and on inspiration.

Superior Extremities. Violent pain in the left forearm, between the elbow and wrist. Dull pain in the fingers. Palms of the hands perspire.

Lower Extremities. Stinging pain in left knee joint. Pain in left leg, from knee to ankle. Peculiar feeling of numbness in the whole body. (Left side mostly affected.)

Fever.

• Epidemic fevers, with typhoid character. Cold chills and pain in the bowels. Pulse small and quick; desire for increased heat

Volume II — Special Therapeutics

This is a tree, the fruit of which gives it its name of Coffee tree? from its resemblance to the Coffee bean, for which it has been used as a substitute.

Belonging to the Leguminosoe, it is botanically a relative of Baptisia and Robinia. It has not been much used in practice. It seems to affect the head similarly to Cimicifuga. It has caused erysipelas of the face. An old physician, I think the one who assisted in proving it (Dr. Sellers), informed me that he always found it curative in a sore throat in which a dark livid redness was characteristic. I quote a portion of Dr. Sellers’s original letter to Dr. Hering :

Cincinnati, December 9th, 1844.

Dear Sir : I herewith send you a couple of pods of the Gymnocladus, commonly called the Kentucky coffee tree, or fly-poison, the beans of which are roasted and used for coffee in some parts of Kentucky, while the pulp that surrounds the bean in the pods is used for poisoning flies. I was induced to suppose it might be a valuable addition to our medicines from tasting the pulpy substance in the pods. About two weeks ago, while eating a small portion of it, I perceived a burning, drawing sensation in the roof of my mouth, extending to the uvula, which, however, soon passed away. I immediately commenced preparing a saturated tincture. On Sunday, December 1st, about 8 o’clock p.m., I moistened some sugar of milk with one drop of the tincture, and took about one-sixth of it. In half an hour, perceiving no effect, I took another dose of equal quantity. In less than half an hour I began to feel the same sensation that I had experienced when eating the pulp. By about 8 o’clock in the evening the symptoms were as follows : Headache, fulness and pressure in and over the eyes, in the forehead, and extending to the top of the head, with occasional shooting pains ; scraping burning in the roof of the mouth, extending to the uvula ; drawing pain in the uvula and tonsils, particularly the right side ; right tonsil very much inflamed and of a purple color ; sensation of fulness in the stomach, with slight nausea ; pain in the lower parts of the abdomen ; pain in the small of the back. By Monday morning, December 2d, these symptoms had all disappeared, leaving a tickling in the throat, producing a cough, which continued to increase all day, and in the evening was one of the worst hard, dry coughs I ever had. By Tuesday morning, December 3d, the cough had almost entirely left me (without having taken anything to arrest it), and by evening I was entirely well. I- intended prosecuting my experiment, and should have commenced again taking it yesterday but for sickness in my family. I do not know of this tree ever having been used medicinally in any practice. If you know anything about its properties I shall be pleased if you will inform me; or if you can give me any information as to the best mode of preparing or testing it you will confer a favor on,

Yours, most respectfully,

Chas. Sellers.

Dr. P. H. Hale and Dr. Delamater have used it in several eases of sore throat similar to the above described with excellent results. Dr. Delamater says he considers a bluish appearance of the throat characteristic.

The following remarks of Dr. Hering are here presented as the best indications which I can obtain :

We may give the Gymnocladus in cases of cough accompanied or followed by tonsillitis ; in erysipelas of the face where the malady is not reached by the betterknown drugs; even in scarlet fever, in so-called hives, and (where I expect the greatest utility from it) in typhoid fevers, remittent or intermittent epidemic fevers with a typhoid character, or, as I would prefer calling it, with the erysipelatous character. We have had such epidemics in America, and had great difliculty in finding the true specific for the whole epidemic, and have been obliged to tumble about between the narcotic Solanse, the Rhus and mineral acids, and the patients have lingered, notwitstanding the greatest care, for weeks. This ought not to be so, and I hope if such epidemics ever appear again the Gymnocladus will be found highly useful. If this should prove to be the case, all the labor and suffering of the provers will be insignificant in comparison with the relief of a single patient. If this happens next year, in ten or a hundred years, what is time ?

The curious are referred to Dr. Hering’s elaborate analysis of these provings, in the first volume of the “North American Journal of Homoeopathy,” 1851.