Iris versicolor

Volume I — Special Symptomatology

{Blue Flag.)

Description. — An indigenous plant, with a fleshy, horizontal, fibrous root, or rhizoma. It is common throughout the United States, growing in moist places, and presenting blue or purple flowers from May to July. The root resembles that of Acorus calamus (sweet-flag). It has a peculiar odor, augmented by rubbing or pulverizing, and a disagreeable taste, with persistent acridity.

The active principle is an oleo-resin, named Iridin (or Irisin).

Sphere of Action. — The gastro-intestinal mucous membrane, and, by reflex action, the head and liver.

Officinal Preparations. — Tincture of the fresh root; Iridin (Irisin) and triturations.

Analogues. — Antimonium crudum, Arsenicum, Colchicum, Eupatorium perfoliatum, Euphorbia corollata, Ipecacuanha, Juglans cinerea, Leptandra, Mercurius, Pulsatilla, Podophyllum, Phytolacca, Robinia, Sanguinaria, Ver atrum album.

Sensorium.

• Despondency; low spirits; easily vexed. Confusion of mind, with great mental depression.

Head.

• Dull, heavy headache in the forehead, with nausea.

• Shooting pains in the temples, generally the right, with' constrictive feeling in the scalp.

• Severe pain in the occiput, more on the right side.

• Yioient, stunning headache, with facial neuralgia, followed

by copious limpid urine and vomiting. c Sick headache of a gastric or hepatic origin.

° Neuralgia, facial or cephalic, with nausea and vomiting.

"Habitual headache; a violent throbbing on either side of frontal protuberance, worse in the evening or after exertion. ( Wesselhoeft.)

0 Sick headache every Sunday regularly. (Hale.)

The headache is aggravated by rest, but relieved by continued motions. (Rhus.)

° Pustular eruptions on the scalp in children.

Eyes.

Redness of the conjunctiva, as if from a cold.

Eyes feel dull, with pain over left superciliary ridge.

Severe burning pain in internal canthus, with effusion of tears.

Eyes sunken, with blueness around the eyes.

0 Chronic inflammation of the eyelids. (JZitchen.)

Ears.

Singing and buzzing in the ears.

Face.

• Facial neuralgia, involving the supra and infra-orbital and

the superior maxillary and inferior dental nerves; begins after breakfast every morning with stupid headache and lasts several hours. (Holcombe.)

• Pustular eruptions on the face, around nose, lips and cheeks,

secreting a sanious, irritating matter. 0 Tinea capitis; crustea lactea; porrigo; eczema of the face.

Mouth, Fauces, etc. Greasy feeling over tongue and gums on rising in the morning. Feeling of rawness in the mouth.

• Back part of the mouth and fauces feels on fire.

• Constant discharge of saliva, not foetid.

• Ulcers on the mucous membrane of the cheeks.

° Stomatitis, with painful burning in the mouth and fauces.

Teeth feel sore and elongated, with dull aching.

° Salivation following diphtheria, with swelling of the parotids.

Gastric Symptoms. *Loss of appetite, with nausea and empty eructations.

• Constant nausea and vomiting of watery and sour fluids. Aching in the stomach before breakfast and after drinking

cold water.

Great burning distress in the epigastric region (pancreas?).

• Colic-like pains every few minutes in epigastric region. Vomiting, with pain in the stomach, with diarrhoea.

° Bilious vomiting, with great heat of the head and perspiration.

• Severe shocks of pain in umbilical region, passing upwards to

epigastric region, with nausea, straining and belching of wind.

° Vomiting of ingesta; of acid matters; of bile; of soured milk in children.

° Increase of (primary) or deficiency {secondary) of pancreatic juice; it caused, in a cat, intense congestion and rupture of the minute vessels of the pancreas. {Burt.)

c Chronic indigestion of milk; it sours and is vomited. (Hale.)

Liver.

• Pain in the right hypochondria, worse on motion.

Pain above the crest of the ilium, on both sides, first on right. Crampy pains in the right lumbar region. Cutting pains in the region of the liver. ° Acute and chronic disorders of the liver. 'Increase of bile (primary), then deficiency of (secondary), with jaundice.

Abdomen, Stool, etc.

• Rumbling and cutting pain in lower part of the abdomen,

relieved by flatus.

• Colic, obliging him to bend forward for relief.

• Diarrhoea with slight pain, with rumbling and cutting in the

lower part of the abdomen. Constipation, succeeded by thin, watery diarrhoea.

• Copious watery stool, with or without tenesmus.

Stool tinged with green, copious, watery, mixed with undigested food.

• Stool of blood and mucus, with great tenderness, and a sensation as if the anus was on fire. Swelling of the stomach and abdomen. Great smarting and burning of anus after every stool.

• Autumnal bilious diarrhoea and cholera morbus.

Severe intermittent colic in umbilical region, with soft, mushy, sour stools.

0 A grumbling bellyache, with stools twice a day, scanty; with mucus, fluid faeces, offensive, putrid odors, and discharge of very foetid wind of a coppery odor. (Kitchen.)

° Periodical night-diarrhoeas, with pain and green discharges. {Ib.) ^

0 Cholera infantum, with profuse sour discharges from stomach

and bowels, and pain in head. 0 Asiatic cholera, with rice-water discharges, cramps, etc. {Dr.

Lade, of England?)

Urinary Organs. Sharp, cutting pain in the urethra on urinating. Urine copious; strong, disagreeable smell of the urine. Dark-red urine, with burning in the urethra.

• Nocturnal emissions, with amorous dreams.

° Gonorrhoea; syphilis, mercurial syphilis. {Eclectic?) ° Spermatorrhoea. (?)

Genital Organs.

° Morning sickness during pregnancy. 0 Uterine leucorrhoea; metrorrhagia.

Larynx and Chest. Short, dry cough, excited by a tickling in the larynx. Pain in the left side, as though the ribs were pressing against

the lungs, and unable to take a long breath. Hoarseness, with ringing in the ears. Soreness and rawness of the fauces.

Back.

Constant pain in the lumbar and sacral region, aggravated by motion.

Upper Extremities.

• Sharp, tensive pain in the right shoulder, worse on motion,

especially on raising the arm, mostly in the evening.

• Severe pains shooting about in the phalangeal and metacarpal-phalangeal articulations. Rheumatism of the shoulders, wrists and hands.

Lower Extremities. Pain in right knee joint, worse on motion.

Violent tearing pain in right hip and knee joints, extending

to right foot, worse on motion. Trembling and weakness of the knees.

Calves of the legs painful when walking, especially the right. Pain in lower extremities and cramps in calves of legs, with nausea and retchings.

Nervous System. Nervous, irritable, with prostration of the whole system.

Skin.

• Pustular eruption on the scalp, face, and other parts of the

body.

° Psoriasis/ irregular patches on knees, elbows, and all over the body, covered with shining scales, edges slightly raised and irregular; (cured in fifteen days with Iris ix.) (Dr. Alabone, of England?)

° Psoriasis in relievo, skin fissured and irritable. (Ib.)

° Lepra vulgaris — obstinate, on the arms. (Ib.)

Sleep.

Sleepiness, with chills.

Restless every night, with bad dreams.

Amorous dreams during sleep.

Fever.

• Sweat over the whole body, particularly in the groin.

• Heat followed by chill, with cold hands and feet. Dry, hot skin; hands hot and dry.

° Typhoid fever, with symptoms similar to Baptisia ° Bilious fever, after Bryonia or Aconite.

Volume II — Special Therapeutics

The Blue flag was introduced into our Materia Medica by Dr- Kitchen, of Philadelphia. It was proven by Drs. Rowland, Holcombe, Burt and Sanford.

It is one of the best-proven remedies in use, and possesses valuable and peculiar powers. It had a great reputation among the aborigines of this country, who transmitted an account of its virtues to the early pioneers, thence to the “ botanic ” doctors, then the eclectics, and finally it assumed a dignified position in the hands of homoeopathists.

I think we had no provings of Iris at the time of Dr. Kitchen’s first use of it. He gave it for its well-known violent effects in large doses, of which the most prominent is vomiting. I shall give, in its proper place, an extract from Dr. Kitchen’s original paper.

The sphere of action of Iris includes the g astro -intestinal mucous membrane , and its glandular apparatus. It alters the secretory functions of these glands, changing the secretions to a peculiar acid condition. In this it resembles Pulsatilla, Robinia, Chamomilla, and Calcarea. It was supposed that it had a specific action on the liver , but I doubt it. Its irritating action on the duodenum may account for its hepatic symptoms. I do not assert that it has no power over the secretory function of the liver, for it acts powerfully on the salivary and gastro-intestinal glands, and it is supposed to act specifically on the pancreas.

It has a decided action on the shin. It produces vesicles, which dry up, leaving a purulent scab; and pustules, which are sore and painful. Dr. Alabone, of England, reports cures of cases of psoriasis in irregular patches. In this respect it resembles Phytolacca, Rhus, Sulphur, and Sepia.

It has been found very useful in pustular eruptions on the head and face (tinea, prurigo, crusta lactea, eczema, etc.), especially in children. I have used it successfully, and find that a characteristic indication for its use is the acid diathesis, or an acidity of the secretions. When a child has sour breath, vomits sour ingesta, and has a watery or green sour diarrhoea, and has at the same time a pustular, or even vesicular eruption on the head, face, or body, give Iris 3*, and, if you wish to hasten the cure, use an Iris' cerate.

I do not think the Iris is properly a fever remedy. If it causes febrile symptoms, as it appears to do in the provers, it is from gastro-intestinal irritation. Dr. Kitchen used it in fever, but a perusal of his cases show them to be of a gastric or hepatic origin. You will find it a valuable auxiliary in the treatment of bilious, gastric, and enteric fever , when its symptoms accurately correspond, i. e., when vomiting and diarrhoea of acid, bitter, bilious matters, with severe pain in the head, are present.

Its greatest reputation has probably been that of a sick headache remedy. It is equally useful in the bilious headache, also in certain nervous headaches. A majority of the headaches of Iris are reflex, proceed from acid stomach, or irritation of that organ from acrid secretions. It seems, however, to be capable of causing an idiopathic nervous headache or neuralgia.

The Iris headache generally occupies the forehead and right side of the head ; aggravated by rest, and on first moving the head, but relieved by continued motion; accompanied by lowness of spirits, nausea, and acid vomiting. Dr. Kitchen, who published the first clinical experience with this remedy, says of its use in “sick headache:”

It is the most prompt and effectual remedy I have ever given in this truly annoying malady. The first dose will arrest the trouble in some patients. I have experienced this effect in several cases. I have made comparative trials with it and other remedies, telling my patients to observe and let me know which number would relieve them the most speedily. They have invariably sent for the number attached to Iris on the attack ; this I consider conclusive respecting this complaint, so that I need not comment on it further than to recommend it very highly so far as my experience goes.

The Iris has been tested by many homoeopathic physicians in sick headache, and the testimony is generally in its favor. From our knowledge of the sphere of action of this medicine, it would seem most likely to be indicated in those “sick headaches” of a gastric or hepatic origin. In the purely “nervous sick headache,” or that variety arising from congestion , other remedies may prove more useful. This matter, however, can only be decided by careful observation.

a In neuralgia of the head, eyes, etc., Dr. Kitchen recommends the Iris :

A lady afflicted at intervals with this most distressing complaint, who had swallowed the whole allopathic and homoeopathic Materia Medica, with only partial benefit, has been more relieved by the Iris than by any remedy I have yet administered to her. It is usually in the head, temples, eyes, etc., and attended with most distressing vomitings of a sweetish mucus ; and occasionally, when there is much straining, with a trace of bile. It is the only medicine which has much control over the stomach, arresting the vomiting in the few trials I have made with it very soon, and allaying, in some degree, the violent pain in the head, so that I have been asked by her whether I had not given her Morphine. I have been asked the same question by patients in bowel affections, they frequently going to sleep after its administration ; this is easily accounted for by the cessation of pain, which is almost invariably followed by sleep.

Dr. Holcombe found by proving Iris that it caused a peculiar facial neuralgia, which he describes as follows :

A neuralgia involving the supraorbital, infraorbital, the superior maxillary,

and inferior dental nerves ; it begins after breakfast, every morning, with stupid headache, and lasts many (20) hours.

He reports that he has verified these symptoms in practice. Writing of its sphere of action he says :

The inference I draw from this fragmentary proving is that Iris, in small doses, often repeated, acts on the male system, sanguineo-nervous constitution — especially in the morning, especially on the right side — from the right to the left, from above downwards, from the animal system to the organic system ; indicated in the former by facial neuralgia and copious limpid urine ; in the latter by flatulent colic and burning tenesmus.

My own experience leads me to believe that the Iris, like Pulsatilla and Nux, has a twofold action on the nerves of the face and head, namely, a reflex and direct; the former from deranged stomach, the latter from its direct action through the blood as an irritant. Not only does it cause neuralgic pain in the head and face, but in other parts of the body. In Rowland’s proving, the pains were called by him rheumatic, and they may have been. Every physician knows how prone are those patients who have gastric derangements to have neuralgia and rheumatic pains all over the body, and how quickly they disappear when the condition of the stomach is corrected.

Rheumatalgia of the right shoulder, wrist, hand, and in the right hip, knee-joint, and foot, is cured by Iris.

In commenting on the eclectic use of Iris, in the second edition of “ New Remedies,” I used the following language, which is equally applicable now:

The eclectics class this plant among the “ sialagogues.” Hr. Burt, who proved the fresh root in large doses, does not doubt that it would produce sloughing and deep ulceration if continued for a long time. There is a rather curious and remarkable similarity between the action of the Iris and that of Mercury ; this is all the more singular when we consider that the former is a vegetable remedy. Not only does the Iris affect the mouth in a similar manner to Mercury, but this similarity of action extends throughout the whole glandular and mucous systems, and perhaps all the tissues except the osseous. I have taken patients from off the hands of eclectic physicians, who were so completely salivated by the Iris, that were it not for the absence of the peculiar fetor , I should have taken it for a mercurial salivation. Even the sympathetic fever, which the Iris causes, has considerable resemblance to that of Mercury.

Eclectic authors thus speak of the Irisin :

Irisin is justly esteemed as one of our most valuable alteratives. It is eminently resolvent, and exercises a marked influence over the entire glandular system. It increases the salivary flow, and has the reputation of producing ptyalism. But a careful distinction must be made between the effects produced by vegetable agencies upon the mucous and salivary glands, and mercurial salivation ; the former are nothing more nor less than manifestations of a quickened physiological activity — evidence of a special therapeutic stimulus constituting oftentimes a critical conservative effort — no loosening of the teeth ; no sponginess of the gums ; no putrefactive odor ; no sloughing of the soft parts ; increased but not disordered secretion. On the other hand Mercury induces a pathological condition of the vital constituents of the blood and fluids, and favors the formation of vitiated products ; altering from good to bad, and from bad to worse ; giving rise to congestions, lesions, putrefactive conversions, and disorganizations of the organic structures. In the former case we have the evidence of a direct therapeutic stimulus, operating upon the vital impressibility of the secretive apparatus, promoting increased activity of the functions for the purpose of eliminating legitimate products. In the latter instance we have an augmented flow of morbid material, resulting from the destructive conversion of the vital constituents by the remedy itself, and which are not the legitimate products of organic metamorphoses. In the former case, the remedy itself is the mother stimulus, while in the latter instance the mercurial corruptions constitute the stimuli of excitement.

To the superficial student of medicine, the above reads very well, but to the physiologist it becomes simply absurd. Only one conclusion can be drawn, namely, that the writer is ignorant or dishonest. Nothing but the gravest ignoranceofthe elementary facts of physiology and pathology could lead to such special pleading. He must be aware that any departure from a normal physiological state constitutes a pathological condition. Given to a person in perfect health, the Iris causes abnormal activity of the glandular and mucous systems ; Mercury does as much. The main difference between the actions of the two medicines is in degree. The poisonous effects of Mercury are all-pervading and more malignant than the pathogenetic effects of the Iris. Both cause actual pathological conditions, having their peculiarities and characteristic symptoms. When given in disease, if homoeopathically indicated,

and administered in proper doses, they restore the tissues, for which they have an affinity, to a healthy condition.

If this author was dishonest in his statements, with the intention to prejudice the reader against Mercury, his conduct degenerates into downright meanness. Mercury, when administered according to the law of similia, is a beneficent and valuable curative agent. When given in this manner, it never causes any pathogenetic symptoms, gives rise to no morbid products, and disorganizes no tissue or secretions. On the contrary, it tends to prevent the very calamities which eclectics so much dread, and which he could cause to a certain degree by the abuse and prolonged use of even the Iris. 1 would here make an observation relative to the action of Iris, namely, it is not owing to the acridity of the fresh root acting topically, that the pseudo-mercurial symptoms are due, but to a specific dynamic action of the drug on the constitution. It is true that the Iris does contain an acrid principle, but the fact that the dried root, and even the alkaloid, causes the above-named condition when taken into the stomach, is proof that those effects belong to the whole drug. If this was not sufficient proof, we could refer the physician to the fact, that this peculiar action may be caused by the dilutions of the remedy up to the third, and perhaps higher.

It is a strange comment on the practice of the eclectic school that they should recommend the Iris highly in mercurial cachexia, syphilis, etc. ! No drug is more thoroughly homoeopathic to diseases of the mouth similar to those caused by Mercury, and in the few cases in which I have used it it has acted well. Even in Mercurial salivation it has been found useful, but it cannot be relied on with as much confidence as its chemical antidote, the Chlorate of potash.

In stomatitis, with or without ulceration (canker), when there is painful burning in the mouth and fauces, Iris is strongly indicated. In these cases I would advise the tincture of the green root, administered in the third or sixth attenuations.

W. H. Burt, M.D., gives the following case of ptyalism, following diphtheria, cured by Iris versicolor when all other remedies had failed:

In a very severe case of salivation in a young lady after she had been attacked with malignant diphtheria, where the parotid glands were much swollen, and

the saliva discharged in immense quantities — apparently three quarts a day would be secreted and spit from the mouth — I gave Mercurius, Aconite, Belladonna, Kali bichromatum, Iodine, and Nitric acid. Not one of them had the least effect. I then gave Iris, and in two hours there commenced to be a change for the better. In two days the profuse secretion of saliva had entirely ceased, with a great diminution of the glands. The fourth day she was discharged cured.

Iris has probably an irritant action upon the gastric mucous membrane, as seen by its specific action upon the fauces, stomach, and oesophagus. By referring to Dr. Burt’s heroic provings, this action will be seen portrayed in strong colors. I know of no one of the new remedies which promises to be more useful in gastric disorders than the Iris versicolor. Even now we have some valuable clinical observations.

Dr. Kitchen, in his paper on Iris, says it is useful in vomiting :

Effectual in almost all kinds — simple, sour, bilious, of food, with or without pain. In every case of vomiting or sick stomach in which I have yet given it, it has been successful, and in severe cases on the administration of a few teaspoonfuls. Such has been my experience, thus far, but I would not be understood as saying that this will always be the case in future. No doubt it, like all other remedies, has its appropriate sphere, which it will take time and opportunity to make out and define correctly. I merely state what I have discovered up to the present, with the limited opportunities I have had of testing it in different forms of the disorder. I have for some years attended a little girl, now about nine years of age, who has periodical vomiting spells, coming on once every month or six weeks, sometimes not for four months, but certainly three or four times in the course of a year. I have tried in various attacks all the different remedies usually successful in such cases, but not with much benefit ; the attack would last two or three days, and would seem to wear itself out. A single teaspoonful of the Iris arrests it at once. It comes on with vomiting of the ingesta, then sour fluid, and at last bile, yellow and green, with great heat of the head, some general fever, and great prostration. The perspiration is warm, caused by the efforts of straining and vomiting.

The Iris is eminently homoeopathic to some varieties of gastritis (mucous), oesophagitis, duodenitis, and many of those disorders of digestion which go under the general name of dyspepsia. In many points it resembles Pulsatilla, especially the tendency to “acidity of the stomach” and “rising of ingesta;” also the sympathetic disturbances having a gastric origin. The peculiar and severe symptoms elicited by Dr. Burt, and referred by him to the pancreas (see provings), and which, in all probability, were really

in the gland, point to its applicability to inflammation and other disorders of that important organ. In that disease known as “ pancreatic salivation ” it ought to prove specific. A thorough knowledge of the physiology of the pancreas will lead us to define pretty clearly the derangements likely to be caused by the Iris. The pancreas is usually regarded as belonging to the group of salivary glands. “ The pancreatic juice is analogous to saliva. It acts upon starch even more energetically than saliva, transmuting it into sugar and lactic acid ; and upon fats by forming them into an emulsion, so that they are readily absorbed.” — Draper.

It is generally conceded that a normal pancreatic juice (as regards quality and quantity) is necessary to the digestion of fatty food. Many of the derangements of digestion are undoubtedly due to deficiency and unhealthy conditions of this juice. There can be no rational doubt of the action of Iris upon this gland. Even had we not Dr. Burt’s suggestive provings, we could judge of its effects upon that gland from analogy. A remedy which irritates and stimulates the salivary glands, must have a similar action on the pancreas — a similar tissue, possessing similar functions. (Pulsatilla, Mercurius, Iodine, Podophyllum.)

Dr. Burt succeeded in killing several cats with the tincture of Iris versicolor. One of the most noted morbid appearances observed on examination was a highly congested condition of the pancreas. A portion of one pancreas was subjected to a critical microscopical examination, which proved the presence of intense congestion of the minute vessels, and even a rupture, and also extravasation of blood into the tissues of the gland.

Dr. Kitchen says “ he cured a case of gastrodynia, characterized by violent pains in the epigastric region, coming on at intervals.” The Iris relieved him at once, and he had no return. He has also relieved and cured “ vomiting of food an hour after meals” with Iris. •

It has been for many years one of my favorite remedies for gastralgia. Instead of prescribing Nux or Pulsatilla for all stomach pains, in a careless, routine way, study your cases. You will find Iris equal to any medicine we have in this complaint.

The Iris may be called a violent cathartic — it acts on all portions of the intestinal canal, but especially the upper portion. It

causes diarrhoea, with colic and flatulence, evacuations of watery, mucous, green, and even bloody stools, with tenesmus.

My experience so closely accords with Dr. Kitchen’s, that I again quote from his original paper :

The colic of infants is benefited by it. There is a peculiar condition of the abdominal region of the adult also, which may come under this head, and which may be termed a grumbling bellyache. It is most prevalent at the changes of the seasons, spring and autumn, and appears to be owing to a vitiated secretion of the liver, and mucous membrane of the bowels, and consists in almost constant uneasiness and grinding in the bowels ; a kind of sub-colic ; a mushy passage once or twice a day, in some cases, but in the generality of cases, a very fetid discharge of wind, of a coppery smell, attended occasionally with an involuntary escape of fluid, soiling the shirt, and sometimes a passage of scybalous matter, together with fluid mucoid faeces of an offensive, putrid, and coppery odor. It was a case of this kind which first led me to a use of this remedy. I had tried several medicines without the least relief, for nearly a week, and administered the Iris at random, never having given it in any disease. To my surprise, the patient was shortly relieved, and had no return ; his bowels soon became healthy and regular, and he praised the good effects of the remedy very highly. The sphere of the Iris appears to be chiefly the stomach and abdominal contents.

Diarrhoea. — I have not been able to obtain with any degree of accuracy the symptoms of those cases in which it proves to be the most appropriate. I think, however, that burning in the rectum and anus, after a passage, is one state which it will arrest almost immediately. It also seems appropriate to cases in which there are pains, and green discharges, relieving the pains very frequently in a short time, and changing the green passages after some doses have been given. There is one very curious feature which I have frequently observed, which is, that when the diarrhoea is not arrested after a few doses, it seems, after the administration of it for twenty-four or forty-eight hours, to produce an aggravation ; there is an increase of pain and several free fetid passages, and then the diarrhoea ceases. This has generally taken place about two or three o’clock in the morning. Whether I have given it in too low dilutions, generally from second to sixth, I cannot tell, but such a feature I have frequently observed, and have administered it with perfect success in a few cases of periodical night diarrhoea, attended with pain, and two or three discharges before morning. I have also cured all my cases of cholera infantum with it this summer, and some of them within a few days. I look upon it as a very valuable addition to our remodial measures in this complaint.

In cholera morbus I have succeeded in every case in which I have administered it, even the most violent. A single teaspoonful of a few drops in half a tumbler of water, has in many severe cases put an immediate stop to the vomiting. I consider it a specific in this form of the disease, and I would earnestly request physicians to try it in the first cases of cholera Asiatica which may fall under their notice, and give the result to the profession. In cholera morbus it arrests the pain which is so violent in many cases at the pit of the stomach, or around the navel, or in some cases, still lower down in the abdominal region, at or before every fit of vomiting or purging. In fact it seems, as far as I have as yet been able to judge, the more appropriate the more violent the pain, and in some cases acting, as the patients and bystanders express themselves, “ like a charm.”

English homoeopath ists have found Iris very useful in cholera morbus, and even in true cholera. Dr. George Lade gives his extended experience with it in autumnal diarrhoea and cholera. He says :

Forty-three patients to whom I gave the Iris complained of simple diarrhoea only. The evacuations were in some instances papescent, but thin watery stools were now frequently observed ; the majority of them were of a dirty yellow hue ; some were brown, others green, and a few were apparently nothing but water. In all the cases there were more or less griping pains, principally in the umbilical region, which, with loud rumbling in the bowels, generally preceded the discharge. Heat in the rectum and anus was noticed in a considerable number, though not in all of the cases. For the most part the appetite was unimpaired, and in no case was there any feverish symptoms. Seldom more than three or four doses (of Iris 3d or Irisin 1st) were necessary to check the disease, and in no case had the medicine to be continued more than twenty-four hours.

Twelve patients had vomiting as well as purging, and recovered under the same remedy. Three patients had decided cholera symptoms. In these the Irisin had prompt and decided curative effects.

Dysentery. — Some mild cases I have cured with Iris, but it is not the remedy in this disease. The cases which seemed to be benefited were of the nature of dysenteric diarrhoea, attended with green discharges, or slimy mucus, without blood, or much straining. (Dr. Burt’s proving elicited these very symptoms, however, and quite severely.) In one case it evidently acted favorably on the secretion of the liver, producing a free flow of healthy bile, and an immediate abatement of the unhealthy passages. In those cases in which there was bloody flux, I did not rely on it, not knowing sufficient of its curative powers.

The pathogenesis of Iris versicolor points directly to its sphere of usefulness in some varieties of dysentery, probably in bilious dysentery ; yet there can be no doubt of the power of Iris to cause acute mucous enteritis, but the inflammation may be located higher in the intestinal canal than in ordinary cases of dysentery. (Here it appears the opposite of Aloes and Podophyllum, which affect the lower portion of the colon, rectum, etc.) It will be seen by the provings, however, that it has many symptoms analogous to Podophyllum, — “the prolapsus of the rectal mucous membrane,” “ pricking in the anus,” etc. Dr. Kitchen’s successful use

of Iris in abdominal typhus proves its applicability in some quite severe forms of intestinal inflammation, and perhaps in organic lesions of that canal. I would also simply add, by way of testimony, that many homoeopathists, with myself, have found the Iris a valuable remedy in nearly every disease of the bowels for which Dr. Kitchen recommends it. I would also suggest its use in haemorrhoids, bilious colic, fissure of the anus, fistula in ano, etc.

We have no proof beyond the bold assertion of the eclectics that Iris is of any value in syphilis. It may palliate some syphilitic symptoms, but that it has any specific relation to that disease I do not believe.

In gonorrhoea the same opinion may be expressed, although some of the symptoms indicate its power to irritate the male genitals.

It is said to cure nocturnal emissions with amorous dreams. I have never been able to cure spermatorrhoea with it. You will find in practice that nocturnal emissions are sometimes caused by acid states of the stomach and irritations of the bowels. In such cases Iris may be curative by reaching the cause.

When consulted in a case of spermatorrhoea, the first question to be asked is, “Do you have amorous dreams, with emissions?” If the answer is in the affirmative, I consider the case one ot‘ irritation, and would treat it with Phosphorus, Cantharis, Cannabis, Pulsatilla, and Iris vers. If a negative answer is received, the case is classed with one of those arising from want of tone and lack of vitality, and which calls for such remedies as Kali bromidum, Conium, Phosphoric acid, Agnus castus, and Caladium. This method of ascertaining the pathology of this affection was first laid down by the astute Lallemand, whose researches in this direction have been so valuable.

Ko proving of this valuable medicine upon the female organism has yet been made. Judging from its effects upon the male organs, we can safely consider it capable of deranging the female organs of generation. Eclectic physicians claim to find it useful in the treatment of “ leucorrhoea, congestion of the cervix, ulceration, and other disorders of the uterine system.” Coe thinks it “particularly indicated in uterine leucorrhoea, in which affection

it seems to be of almost specific value.” As this variety of leucorrhoea is the result of a hypersecretion of the glandular follicles of the cervix, it is quite probable the Iris may act curatively, as its primary effect is to cause a similar condition in all glandular tissues.

I ought to add that Iris is recommended in dropsy. If it is a curative agent in that condition, it will probably be found that the disease causing the dropsy has its origin in the liver.