Scutellaria laterifolia

Volume I — Special Symptomatology

(Scull-Cap.)

Botanical Description— Scutellaria lateriflora has a small fibrous perennial root, with an erect, very branching, diffuse, quadrangular, nearly glabrous stem, from one to three feet in height; the branches are opposite. The leaves are on petioles about an inch long, opposite, thin, entire, nearly membranous, subcordate on the stem, ovate on the branches, acuminate or acute, coarsely serrate and slightly rugose. The flowers are small, of a pale

blue color, and are disposed in long, lateral, axillary racemes, with ovate, acute, entire, subsessile, distichous bracts, each flower axillary to a bract, and pedunculated. The calyx has an entire margin, which, after the corolla has fallen, is closed with a helmet-shaped lid. The tube of the corolla is about a quarter of an inch long, the upper lip concave and entire, the lower three-lobed. Seeds, four in the closed calyx, oval, verrucose.

Scull-cap is an indigenous herb, growing in damp places, meadows, ditches, and by the side of ponds, flowering in July and August. It is known by the names of Blue scull-cap, Side-flowering scull-cap, Mad-dog weed and Woodwort. The whole plant is officinal ; it should be gathered while in flower, dried in the shade, and kept in well-closed tin vessels. It is inodorous, but has a bitterish taste; alcohol or boiling water extracts its properties. Scull-cap is said to contain an essential oil ; a fixed oil, yellowish-green, and soluble in ether, a bitter principle soluble in water, alcohol, or ether ; chlorophyll, a peculiar volatile matter, albumen, a sweet mucous substance; a peculiar astringent principle; lignin, Chloride of Soda, and other salts.

Scutellarin, the concentrated preparation, is of a light, greenish-brown color, with a faint tea-like odor, and a peculiar, herbaceous, somewhat gritty, resinous, tea-like taste, is insoluble in water, partially soluble in alcohol, and more so in ether.

Officinal Preparations. — Tincture of the plant; dilutions. [Scutellarin and its triturations are preferable.]

Analogues. — Ambergris, Coffea, Chamomilla , Cypripedium, Coca, Eupatorium aromaticum, Ignatia, Paullinia, "Valerian, Thea, Zincum, Senecio.

Mental Sphere. Great inability to confine the mind to study. Exhilaration, with copious flow of ideas.

Happy, contented, and quiet mind, with a feeling of calmness

and strength. ° Causeless depression of spirits. ° Delirium tremens, of a mild character. {Hale.)

Head.

Great fullness and oppression of the head; sensation as if the entire contents were confined within a place too small.

• Hemicrania, worse over the right eye, relieved by moving about in the open air.

Vertigo, with a sensation of lightness of the head.

° Nervous headache; brought on by grief, joy, or any emotional excitement. {Hale.)

Eyes.

Eyes feel as if protruding from the orbits. Photophobia, in nervous, irritable subjects. Pupils dilated slightly. (?)

Chest.

A dull pain extending vertically beneath the sternum. Oppression of the chest, with a sticking pain in the region of the heart.

Sensation of throbbing about the heart, with flushed face.

° Nervous disorder of the heart, such as irregular action, palpitation, tremor, and strange sensations, from emotional excitements (even in organic diseases is palliative). (Hale^\

Pulse slow and intermitting.

Urinary Organs.

Difficulty in urinating and sharp pains in region of left kidney

• Scanty urine, before the headache; profuse clear urine after.

Sleep.

• Sudden waking up from disagreeable dreams.

• Nightly restlessness; wakefulness from frightful dreams.

• Sleeplessness from pleasant thoughts crowding on the mind.

Nervous System.

• Tremulousness and twitching of the muscles in various parts

of the body. 0 Chorea, of a purely nervous origin.

• Nervous jactitations and tremors (in typhoid fever). (Hale.) ° Pseudo-hydrophobia. (Drs. Vandemar and Rafinesque claim

that real hydrophobia has been cured or prevented by the free use of an infusion of Scull-cap. (lb.)

° Hysteria and hysterical spasmodic affections. (Ib.)

0 Spasms and nervous irritation in teething children, or when the nervous system is irritated from disordered bowels.

° Reflex nervous irritation from uterine ovarian disease.

0 Chronic symptoms arising from sunstroke. (?) (Coe.)

General uneasiness, with twitching of the muscles, and sticking pains in various parts of the body, occasionally extending up along each side of the forehead.

Volume II — Special Therapeutics

This plant is, in the domestic practice of this country, what Valerian is in the domestic practice of Europe. Its calming or sedative effects on the nervous system have been known ever since the settlement of New England. In the original botanic school it held a very high place as a remedial agent. Dr. Beach has published many cases cured by its use. Rafinesque quotes Barton and many eminent physicians of his day, who extolled it highly in all diseases of the nervous system. Dr. King says :

Scullcap is said to be tonic, nervine, and antispasmodic. This is one of those valuable agents which a certain class of physicians consider inert; yet it has proved especially useful in chorea, convulsions, tremors, intermittent fever, neuralgia, and all nervous affections. In delirium tremens, an infusion drank freely will soon produce a calm sleep. Where teething has impaired the health of children, an infusion may be given with advantage. The Scutellaria is one of our most valuable nervines and tonics, and is especially useful in cases of depression of the nervous and vital powers after long sickness, overexercise, excessive study, or from long-continued and exhausting labors. One grain will frequently produce its quiet and soothing effect, controlling nervous agitation, and inducing a sensation of calmness and strength.

Dr. Scudder has a high estimate of its powers. He writes :

It has been found remarkably efficacious in chorea, or St. Vitus’s dance. Dr. Beach states that he has cured a great number of cases with it. We have used it

in several instances with apparent benefit. In cases of great nervous excitement, with severe tremors, also in attacks of delirium tremens, it has in several cases afforded prompt relief.

It has been extolled in many of the nervous and spasmodic affections so very common among women. It has attracted much attention in hydrophobia, and at one time it enjoyed a high reputation in the treatment of that formidable disease, although the same reliance is not placed on it that was some years ago ; still, it is resorted to, both as a prophylactic and curative agent, in cases of canine madness. Testimony is not wanting to establish the fact that many persons have been bitten by rabid animals, and avoided the development of the disease by the free use of Scutellaria ; while others, bitten at the same time, by the same animal, became hydrophobic. So many circumstances may concur to prevent the inception of the canine virus at the time of the bite — as the interference of clothes, or the speedy removal of it from the parts bitten, and thus preventing it from being absorbed — that we must view many of the cases said to have been cured by the exhibition of this article as highly equivocal. “A physician bitten by a mad dog, has assured me,” says Rafinesque, “that himself, alone, had avoided the disease by using it, while others bitten by the same dog died.”

Dr. Vandesveer, who is said to have introduced it to the notice of the profession in 1772, or, rather, to have discovered its prophylactic powers against hydrophobia, is said to have prevented four hundred persons and one thousand cattle from becoming hydrophobic ; and his son is said to have relieved or cured forty persons who had been bitten, by the use of the same agent. These favorable reports of its efficacy are strongly questioned, and even denied by eminent physicians, while many of the botanic school report very favorably of its efficacy in that disease. It would seem that there ought to be some grains of truth among so much testimony. My observations have not fallen upon any such cases ; but in one patient to whom I gave the Scutellaria, the first decimal, for a nervous affection, its administration was always followed by the symptom, “ spasmodic or constrictive closing of the jaws, and a tightness of the muscles of the face.” A proving might elicit symptoms which would account for its efficacy in hydrophobic conditions. I have used it successfully in several cases of tremors, and fwitchings of the limbs in typhoid fever ; also in mild form of hysteric spasms, and nervous irritation in pregnant females, etc.

For my estimate of the general therapeutic and pathogenetic effects of this plant I would refer the reader to my notice of the Cypripedium pubescens; not that I consider these two remedies as possessing identical properties, but they are such close analogues, and affect the system in such a similar manner generally, that many of my remarks applied to Cypripedium will be applicable to Scutellaria. I have used the latter in diseases of children, and affections of the nervous system, similar to those in which I recommended the former, and with like good results. That a careful proving would elicit different symptoms I do not doubt.

If I were to attempt a differential estimate of the two remedies I should say that the Scutellaria affected the spinal cord more, and the brain less, than the Cypripedium. I believe this statement will be verified by experience and observation.

Professor Paine remarks of Scutellaria as follows :

It appears to manifest itself more particularly upon the gray nerve-tissue, and hence it is adapted to, and exerts a wonderful power in, most of the difficulties which originate in a pathological condition of this structure. All forms of chorea are promptly relieved by the proper use of this drug ; in fact, it may be correctly pronounced a specific for these affections. I have tested it in every form of this affection, and if used persistently and judiciously in combination with such adjunct remedies as the constitution may indicate, it manifests a most wonderful power. It is of great virtue in fevers, and other affections where the gray nervetissue has undergone partial degeneration and disintegration, or where the nerveforce is impaired by this peculiar pathological change. Thus in suhsultus tendinum, following fevers, in delirium tremens, and other spasmodic affections, as epilepsy, catalepsy, hysteria, etc., this remedy, combined with Iron, is of vast importance. It is of great value as a tonic to the nervous system, where there is a general nervous debility, either from uterine disease or other constant irritations of the nervous system. I have used this remedy extensively in all female diseases, hepatic difficulties, and other chronic affections that influence the nervous system, and by uniting it with Iron have found it to afford most prompt relief. My method of administering it in the low forms of fevers is to compound one or two grains with one grain of Hypophosphite of soda, and give a powder four or five times a day. In hysteria, epilepsy, catalepsy, and other spasmodic affections of that class, I give it in stronger doses. I have cured some most obstinate cases of epilepsy by giving four or five grains, with equal parts of Carbonate of iron, every two or three hours during the day, followed by occasional purges. Some most remarkable cases of hysteria have promptly yielded to two grains of Scutellaria, administered three or four times a day in combination with chalybeates. In chorea, one grain combined with one or two of the Carbonate of iron, every two or three hours, baths, friction, and well-regulated diet, most promptly relieves, and where it is judiciously administered results in a permanent cure. This remedy has also been used to allay general nervous irritability; and I have frequently prescribed, where there is a want of sleep or restlessness manifested on the part of the patient, one or two grains of Scutellarin at bedtime, with one or two grains of the Prussiate of iron, and have found it to manifest quite as soothing an influence as Opium or Morphia.

Dr. Coe, another eclectic author, says :

We have found the Scutellarin a remedy of great value in the treatment of coup de soleil, or sunstroke, particularly when the case has become chronic. We have met with entire success in many of these cases by the use of Scutellarin and Podophyllin. In the treatment of epileptic convulsions, as soon as we have secured a remission of the attacks by means of Gelsemin, we employ the Scutellarin

with the Gelsemin as a radical remedy. We have used Scutellarin with benefit in threatened trismus, tetanic cramps, and other spasmodic disorders.

Since the appearance of the first edition of this work I have used this medicine quite extensively in diseases of children, when there was sympathetic or idiopathic irritation of the nerve-centres. In some instances it failed to manifest prompt curative effects ; in others it ameliorated symptoms which Coffea did not reach. In my second edition I wrote :

I am disappointed in not receiving any clinical testimony from the members of our profession relative to its use. This may be owing to the absence of a proving, and to the fact that our school are averse to using a medicine empirically. I believe it to be better to do so, however, than to use Chamomilla, Coffea, and Belladonna, in a careless, routine manner, for the nervous affections of children and adults.

When my third edition appeared, it had been very largely and successfully used.

It has now been fifteen years since I commenced using the Scutellarin, and every year increases my confidence in it as a remedy in many of the disorders of delicate, nervous subjects. Not only have I found it useful in sleeplessness, night-terrors, hysteria, delirium tremens, and nervous agitation from pain, or exciting emotions, but it is valuable in cerebral irritation in teething children, or from intestinal irritation.

I am glad to say that the homoeopathic school are now using the remedy very extensively and satisfactorily.

In a proving by Dr. Gordon many important symptoms were evolved.

That proving shows conclusively that the Scutellaria is by no means an inert or feeble plant. It evidently caused considerable derangement in the central nervous system. (See Symptomatology.)

We note several important symptoms evolved, which seem to substantiate its alleged value, and prove it to be homoeopathic to the symptoms for which it has been especially used.

(1.) The nightly restlessness; sudden wakefulness; frightful dreams.

(2.) The headache, one form of which, while it was apparently

congestive, was probably nervous derangement. It resembles very much the cephalalgia of Cimicifuga.

(3.) The irregular action of the heart is due probably to derangement of the cardiac plexus. In the cerebral diseases of infancy, this irregularity is often noticed. It may prove useful in angina pectoris.

(4.) The tremulousness and twitching of the muscles show it homoeopathic to chorea and nervous jactitations.

I have used Scutellarin lx in many cases of cardiac irritability , nervous palpitation, etc. It somewhat resembles Lycopus, but has not its depressing action, while it has greater power over the hypercesthesia.

SENECIO AUREUS (var. GRACILIS).

This indigenous remedy has become quite popular with a portion of our school. It is one of those plants which has gained its common name from its regulating power over certain uterine disorders. It is known to the common people by the .name of “female regulator.” It is even said that the Indian name “Uncum” means the same.

Its sphere of action is mainly upon the mucous system and the nervous system. Specially, it has an affinity for the generative organs of both sexes, the urinary organs, and the bronchial mucous membrane.

Although its influence on the nervous system is not mentioned by any writer, yet my observations have convinced me that it ranks with Coffea, Chamomilla, Valerian, and Ambergris, and it is in many respects a “ nervine.” It has been suggested by those familiar with its use, that it acts as a nervine by subduing the irritation of the uterine organs, and thus prevents the nervous irritation which might have been of a reflex character. This may be the true explanation of its action. It has a great reputation among the country people, who designated it “ Wild valerian.” They use it extensively for nervousness, hysteria, lowness of spirits, and sleeplessness, especially when these conditions occur in females. It has the following suggestive symptoms:

About the middle of the afternoon, sensation as if a ball was in the stomach, rising up into the throat, lasting for about an hour ; sensation of tightness in the throat, with a disposition to attempt to relieve it by swallowing.