Viscum album

Volume I — Special Symptomatology

(Mistletoe.)

Botanical Description. — This is the Viscum Flacceus of Mistel and the Viscum Verticillatum of Nuttall. This parasitic shrub is found growing on various trees, but that which is found growing on the oak is preferable. The bark and leaves have an unpleasant odor and a mawkish, bitterish taste. The proper time for collecting is in November, when it should be gradually dried, pulverized, and kept in a well stopped bottle. It should never be kept more than a year, as age impairs its active qualities.

Officinal Preparations. — Tincture with strong alcohol, from the green plant, gathered in November; triturations from the dried and powdered plant.

Analogues. — Agaricus, Cicuta, Stramonium, (Enanthe, Aethusa, etc.

[The following symptoms were taken from clinical cases published in the British Journal of Homoeopathy, vol. 22, pp 637, translated from Dr. Huber's article in the Zeitschrift.]

Head.

° Constant vertigo, even when in bed.

° Epilepsy. (Many cases cured by large and small doses. Old

authorities and recent writers.) ° Dull headache, with stitches in the temples. ° Sensation in the vertex as if the scalp was numb. ° Frequent flow of blood to the head, with heat and redness of

the face.

° Great vertigo and shooting headache.

° Shooting, tearing, frequently recurring pains in the temples. 0 Head confused, tearing pains in the left temporal region.

extending over the forehead and hairy scalp. ° Feeling as if the whole vault of the skull would be raised up.

evening and at night.

Eyes.

Redness of the conjunctiva.

° Blue rings around the deep lying eyes.

° Double vision.

Ears.

° Catarrhal deafness.

° Drawing, tearing sensation in the left ear.

c Lond buzzing and stopped up feeling in the ear.

0 Deafness, from a cold.

Mouth.

Ulceration of the corners of the mouth.

Great soreness of the tongue, but clean; taste natural.

0 Difficulty of protruding the tongue.

° Sore throat.

Face.

0 Muscles of face in constant agitation.

0 Distressed look of the face; an almost idiotic expression of the face.

° Tearing, drawing pain in the left lower maxilla and teeth. ° Pale face, with blue rings around the sunken eyes. ° Heat and redness of the face, with metrorrhagia. ° Red, bloated face.

Stomach.

° Constipation (with retention of placenta). ° Weight, fullness and contractive pain in the hypogastric region.

0 Contractive, sometimes burning pains in the abdomen. 0 Spleen larger than normal.

° Shooting pains through the spleen, sometimes extending to the heart.

Thorax.

° Hydro thorax.

° Rigor with shooting in the left false ribs, with dry cough.

0 Expectoration of a greenish mucus.

0 Dyspnoea increased by lying on right side.

° Dyspnoea and aggravation of pain when coughing.

° Feeling of suffocation when lying on left side. 0 Sensation as of a frightful stab with a lancet through the entire right thoracic cavity.

Generative Organs.

0 Metrorrhagia.

° Haemorrhage accompanied by pain, the blood partly bright red, partly in dark clots.

° Haemorrhage, with violent contractive labor-like pains.

° Haemorrhage continually, at one time in a stream, at another in clots, of a blackish color.

° Pains, periodic, proceeding from the sacrum into the pelvis, worse in bed, accompanied with tearing, shooting pains from above downwards, in both thighs, as well as in the upper extremities, with sleeplessness and general prostration.

Extremities.

° Sciatica, (many severe cases.)

0 Metastasis of pain from nape of the neck to the buttock and outside of the thigh.

° Fearful, tearing, shooting, throbbing pains in left side of sacrum, extending to the thigh.

° Extremely violent pain in left sacro-ischiatic region, on the slightest motion of the thigh, the pain extending along the outside of the thigh in a strip about four fingers broad, to the knee joint, and is often throbbing as if suppuration would take place.

0 Tearing, burning pain in right thigh, also when extending the whole length of the limb to the ankle joint.

° Sensation as if the flesh of the thigh was frequently torn away with hot pincers.

0 Great sensitiveness of the thigh, the slightest touch causing pain.

° Painful tearing in the muscles of the calf and in the ankle, then going into the patella and knee joint.

° The right knee swelled around the patella, with a doughy feeling and sensitiveness to pressure.

' Tension in the patella, as if the tendons around it were contracted.

0 Pains alternating in the knee and ankle, with the shoulder and elbow.

0 The right tibia very much swelled in the middle of the bone, where it is but slightly covered with skin.

° Digging, gnawing, distressing pain in the tibia and a metatarsal bone on the dorsum of the foot, especially aggravated at night.

0 Swelling of a metatarsal bone on dorsum of foot.

Generalities.

0 Chorea from a fright, with perfect inability to remain still for the space of three minutes, and inability to walk without assistance.

0 Choreic movements continuing during sleep.

° Sleep unquiet on account of general weakness and profuse sweats.

0 Great debility from metrorrhagia. 0 Weakness nearly amounting to faintness. Usually the bowels and urinary organs are in a normal condition when this remedy is indicated.

[In Culpepper's English Physician, published in 1810, I find the follow, ing remarks by Matthiolus: "The mistletoe of the oak (that being the best), made into powder, and given in drink to those who have the falling sickness" (epilepsy) "doth assuredly heal them, provided it be taken forty days together."

Culpepper himself reports a case as follows: "A young lady, having been long troubled with the falling sickness, for which she had taken every, thing prescribed for her, by the most famous doctors, without effect, but growing rather worse, having eight or ten dreadful fits in a day, was cured only by the powder of the true mistletoe, given as much as would lie on a sixpence, early in the morning, for some days, near the full moon."

Volume II — Special Therapeutics

This mistletoe grows in England and on the Continent, and the parasite indigenous to the Southern United States is supposed to be identical.

In the “British Journal of Homoeopathy,” vol. xxii, and some later journals, I find this remedy highly recommended for epilepsy, chorea, cephalalgia, vertigo, periodical neuralgia, hydrothorax, cardiac disorders (choreic ?), menorrhagia, uterine spasms, sciatica (many severe cases cured), and many other nervous disorders. The author of the paper claims to have cured all the above disorders with the mother tincture and attenuations.

From earliest times it had a popular reputation in epilepsy. In a recent journal I find a report of its successful use in several cases of chorea from fright. The chorea is probably spinal, for it is said that the movements continued during sleep.

It seems specially indicated in violent neuralgic pains in the lower extremities, simulating sciatica, rheumatic neuralgia, and even peritonitis.

It seems to be a medicine having an important range of action, but I am not aware that it has been used in this country. I have never prescribed it. In my “ Symptomatology” you will find all the characteristic symptoms now known of this powerful medicine.