Symphytum. (Symphytum Officinale.)
By Constantine Hering — The Guiding Symptoms of our Materia Medica
Comfrey ; Healing Herb. Borraginaceæ.
A native of Europe, where it grows on banks of streams and in meadows ; also found in United States.
The tincture is prepared from the fresh root.
Introduced by Jeanes.
Fragmentary proving by Macfarlan.
CLINICAL AUTHORITIES.
- Injury to eye , Gross, Rück. Kl. Erf., vol. 1, p. 317 ; Inflammation of inferior maxillary bone , Cate, B. J. H., vol. 34, p. 378 ; Pain in knee , Funk, Rück. Kl. Erf., vol. 5, p. 928 ; Fracture of bones , Gilchrist, Med. Inv., vol. 9, p. 79 ; Non-union of fracture , Hendrichs, A. H. Z., vol. 107, p. 71.
INNER HEAD [3]
Headache in occiput, in top of head, in forehead, changing places.
SIGHT AND EYES [5]
Pain in eyes after a knock or contusion of an obtuse body.
After being struck upon eye with a cane by a child, no visible injury, but a sensation on closing eye as if upper lid passed over an elevation on bulb of eye ; on waking eye could not be easily opened, seemed spasmodically closed.
HEARING AND EARS [6]
Cannot hear well ; feels as if ears were stopped up.
Inflamed ears.
LOWER FACE [9]
Inflammation of inferior maxillary bone ; hard, red swelling.
SCROBICULUM AND STOMACH [17]
Pains across epigastrium from one side to other, < opposite spleen, in walking ; when sitting < about navel ; griping pain.
FEMALE SEXUAL ORGANS [23]
Menses stopped ; headache, weight in forehead when she stoops ; has it almost all time ; a good deal of fever every other hour ; cold all day, cramp and diarrhœa ; nose sore inside alæ, wants to pick it ; wants to rub her eyes ; inflamed ears ; feels as if something were in them, stopped up, cannot hear well.
NECK AND BACK [31]
Psoas abscess.
LOWER LIMBS [33]
More than a year ago fell and struck knee upon a stone ; wound healed and left scarcely any trace, but there remained an acute stitching pain in place, felt when clothing touched part, or when knee was bent.
Man suffering with a spontaneous luxation of thigh since childhood, fell and received a fracture of affected thigh ; after two months fragments were quite movable, and as union was despaired of, an apparatus was made which allowed him to sit on a chair during day ; Symphytum 4, four globules every six hours, brought about complete union in twenty days.
REST. POSITION. MOTION [35]
Sitting : pain about navel.
Stooping : weight in forehead.
Walking : pain opposite spleen.
ATTACKS, PERIODICITY [41]
Every other hour : fever.
All day : cold.
SENSATIONS [43]
As if upper lid passed over an elevation on closing eye ; as if ears were stopped up.
Peculiar pain : in periosteum, after wounds have healed.
Pain : in eyes after a knock or contusion ; across epigastrium.
Stitching pain : in healed wound on knee.
Griping pain : about navel.
Weight : in forehead when stooping.
TISSUES [44]
Bruises, sprains ; sore breasts.
Inflammation of bones ; diseased spinous processes.
Psoas abscess.
Facilitates union of fractured bones and lessens peculiar pricking pain ; favors production of callous.
TOUCH. PASSIVE MOTION. INJURIES [45]
Touch of clothing : acute pain in injured knee, after wound healed.
Wants to rest eyes.
Mechanical injuries, bad effects from blows, bruises, thrusts on eye.
Non-union of fracture, particularly when trouble is of nervous origin.
Injury to bones ; for example, when a blow on eyes injures orbital plates of frontal bone.
Irritable stump after amputation.
Peculiar pain in periosteum after wounds have healed.
Irritability of bone at point of fracture.
Gunshot wounds.
STAGE OF LIFE, CONSTITUTION [47]
Girl, æt. 7, psoas abscess.
Miss P., æt. 48 ; inflammation of inferior maxillary bone.
RELATIONS [48]
Compare : Arnic . in blows ; Fluor. ac., Hepar, Calc. phos . and Silica in injuries to bones.