Ricinus communis

Volume I — Special Symptomatology

(Castor Oil.)

Pharmacology. — This oil is obtained from the castor oil bean, by expression. (For description of the plant, see Ricinus Communis.)

Officinal Preparations. — Trituration with fine sugar of milk. 3 i. to 11

Analogues.— (?).

(Fragmentary provings.)

• Diarrhoea of children or adults, yellow, semi-fluid, papescent,

of a peculiar foetid odor, with some griping (primary).

• Dysentery, in first stage, with frequent desire and ineffectual

urging or evacuations of hard, small balls, with a little mucus and blood. ° Summer complaints of children.

0 Diarrhoea from indigestion or teething, catching cold, etc. ° Chronic, obstinate diarrhoeas, which have resisted all other remedies.

(See Therapeutics, Vol. II.)

Volume I — Special Symptomatology

(Castor Oil Plant.)

Botanical Description. — Ricinus Communis, the Castor Oil bush, in the United States, is a herbaceous annual, with a white, frosted or glaucous hollow, smooth stem, of a purplish -red color upward. The leaves are large, alternate, deeply divided into seven or nine lanceolate segments, peltate, palmate, serrate, from four to twelve lines in diameter, and on long, tapering, purplish petioles. The flowers in long, green, and glaucous spikes, springing from the divisions of the branches; the males from the lower part of the spike, the females from the upper. The capsule is prickly, three celled, three seeded. The seeds are ovate, shining black, dotted with gray.

History. — Ricinus Communis, or Palma Christi. is an East Indian plant, in which country it attains the size of a tree. In the United States, where it has become naturalized, it seldom grows higher than eight or ten feet; flowers in July and August, and matures its seeds in August and September. The fixed oil of the seeds is the Castor Oil of the shops.

Officinal Preparations. — Tincture of the leaves; Fl. Extract of the . eaves.

Analogues. — Calc. carb (?) Coriander (?) Urtica (?) Pulsatilla (?) (No provings.)

The application of a poultice of the leaves of the plant to the breasts of women, even those who have never borne children, causes a secretion of milk.

0 /Scanty, or suppressed secretion of milk, in nursing women.

(See Therapeutics.)

Volume II — Special Therapeutics

This oil is extracted from the seeds of the Ricinus communis , or Castor bean. It has been in use as a laxative and purgative ever since its discovery.

I have collected and arranged in my “Materia Medica” the symptoms caused by the seeds when eaten and from the oil. It is evident that the whole seed, if eaten, is narcotic and poisonous, but the oil, purified as it is by the process adopted to fit it for commercial and medicinal uses, cannot cause the serious symptoms produced by the whole seed.

The most that large doses of the oil can do, when taken internally, is to irritate the coats of the bowels sufficiently to cause nausea, griping, with loose, feculent, or papescent stools. If its

use be continued, especially in children, it causes slimy and bloody stools, with tenesmus.

You are aware that the favorite treatment of dysentery, with many allopathic physicians, is to give small and repeated doses of Castor oil ; or one larger dose (a tablespoonful) in the beginning of the attack, “ guarded ” by some preparation of Opium. This plan is often quite successful, and it is doubtless due to the homoeopathicity of the oil to enteric irritation.

Several physicians of our school inform me that they rely upon Castor oil in doses of ten or fifteen drops, repeated every few hours, in mild cases of dysentery or acute mucous enteritis.

For several years I have used a preparation of Oleum ricini — the lx trit. — made by triturating one drachm with nine of Sugar of milk.

In the diarrhoeas of children, when the evacuations are feculent, papescent, or slimy and bloody, or all these varieties combined, without fever, thirst, or much pain, — only a little griping and tenesmus, — this preparation of the Oil, about ten grains every two hours, often acts very satisfactorily.

For therapeutical observations on the leaves and seeds of this plant, see “ Ricinus communis.”

Volume II — Special Therapeutics

The Castor oil plant is a native of Asia, where it attains the size of a tree ; but in temperate climates generally, and in the United States, it is an annual plant, rarely over six feet high.

In treating of this plant and its medicinal action, I shall mention three portions, namely :

(1.) The oil. (2.) The seed. (3.) The leaves.

(1.) Castor oil is a very viscid, white, or pale-yellow liquid, which, when fresh and pure, is nearly or quite inodorous. It has a mild taste at first, but which becomes afterward nauseous and acrimonious. Its odor is unpleasant to most persons.

The oil is obtained from the seeds by decoction, by expression, or by Alcohol. The first method is pursued in the East and West Indies, and affords an acrid and irritating product. The second, which is pursued in this country, gives a bland and colorless oil. The third gives a very pure oil, which soon becomes rancid.

The oil thickens on exposure to the air. It is soluble in Alcohol and Ether. It is lighter than water.

For homoeopathic uses, i. e., in the attenuations, the best oil would be that prepared by decoction, if obtainable, for reasons I shall give hereafter.

Allopathic authorities assert that the Castor oil is harmless. Yet they nearly all believe that the properties of the oil are due to the presence of a minute quantity of the acrid principle of the seeds. It cannot be harmless then, for in sensitive patients, especially young infants, even a minute quantity may cause injurious effects. All allopathic writers on “ Materia Medica ” agree that “ in overdoses it causes violent purging and vomiting.” It is probable that a minute quantity of the active principle of the drug is absorbed into the blood, and exerts its specific effect, while the oily principle passes off with the evacuations, or is absorbed as fat. No one who has watched the effects of Castor oil in large doses can doubt that it causes irritation of the bowels. If a drop of Castor oil is placed in the eye, it will cause irritation, redness, congestion, and pain ; when rubbed on the skin it causes redness and vesication. It certainly causes the same irritation in the bowels. But Wood says : “On account of the mildness of its action, and an especial property which it appears to have of soothing an irritated bowel,” etc. In another place he recommends it in “ inflammatory and irritative affections of the alimentary canal,” because it not only removes foreign materials, undigested food, etc., but “ causes a depletion of congested vessels,” and exerts “ an almost specific power ” over the morbid state.

Canvane states that by only rubbing the navel and hypochondria with this oil,

in children whom he could not get to take any medicine inwardly; he often procured one or two loose stools. The odor alone is said sometimes to produce a purgative effect upon weak and delicate children. By repeated friction with the oil the skin is reddened, and ultimately vesicated. In the dose of one or two ounces it occasions an uneasy feeling in the stomach, and not unfrequently vomiting. But when taken in divided doses, as half an ounce, at intervals of four hours, it seldom occasions vomiting, but more generally nausea, and the bowels are apt to be moved before the second dose. The second, or even the third, may sometimes be required for this purpose. It seldom produces much griping, unless the bowels are in a morbidly sensitive condition. The action of the pulse is lowered meanwhile, a sense of peculiar discomfort is felt in the abdomen ; there is also an inclination to sleep, and general debility. The evacuations which it produces are, after the first one, generaly liquid, but they contain more or less of the oil in the form of globules, and unchanged ; or, as Dr. Bird has pointed out, converted into caseous flakes, or a soaplike scum, floating in the more fluid parts of the dejection. More generally it is found mixed up with the faeces as a kind of emulsion, and in some few instances it has been discharged under the form of solid tallowlike masses. Long-continued use of the oil disorders the digestion and occasions habitual nausea, with a furred tongue, etc., particularly if the oil is acrid from having been kept, or from imperfect preparation. Cullen states that when taken habitually as an aperient the dose may be gradually diminished. This statement is confirmed by Borne, who says that it acts quickly, does not produce a subsequent costiveness, and the longer it is given the less is the dose of it required. If taken daily the quantity may be gradually reduced to half a teaspoonful (Dr. Thompson says to a few drops), and yet the full effect be maintained. — Stille.

This does not look as if it was so very harmless. If the odor of the oil will cause purging, why may it not act in the attenuations as a homeopathic remedy ? *

Wood almost hits the truth when he intimates that it has an almost specific action in irritation and inflammation of the bowels.

The fact is that Castor oil is nothing more than an attenuation (probably nearly the 3*) of the poisonous principle of the seeds of the Ricinus. Oil is the vehicle. It is as if the root of the Veratrum album contained an oil which, on being expressed, contained a minute quantity of Ver atria. The two poisonous principles are very analogous.

When allopathists get curative effects from Castor oil they get its homoeopathic action. Look at the facts : (a.) It is admitted that it may cause irritation, pain, and diarrhoea. (6.) They use it with good effects in diarrhoea, dysentery, and enteritis. A Dr. Thompson, quoted by Stille, recommends it very highly for infantile diarrhoea, and for symptoms which have a marked resemblance to its pathogenetic effects and the effects of the seeds. He says :

It is most beneficial in the aphthous diarrhoea which occurs during the first year of life, especially among children who are improperly fed. It commences with sickness, frequent and griping evacuations, varying in color from greenish-yellow to dark grass-green, then becoming more liquid, and more or less mixed with slimy or gelatinous mucus mixed with blood, each evacuation accompanied with pain and tenesmus, the mouth dry and aphthous, the anus inflamed, the belly tumid and painful, the child becoming more and more feverish, emaciated, and somnolent.

I must acknowledge that before I used the Castor oil as a homoeopathic remedy, I have been discomfited many times by seeing such diarrhoea cured by small doses (half a teaspoonful), repeated three or four times a day, by old nurses or impatient mothers.

For several years I have treated the diarrhoea of infants, similar in character to the above, with very small doses of the oil, and often with marked success. I give it in doses of five, ten, or fifteen drops in Glycerin or mucilage, or five to ten grains of the l1 trit. of the oil with Sugar of milk, repeating the dose every few hours, as you would in giving Pulsatilla or Ipecac.

In chronic diarrhoea, or chronic dysentery, I have known of some positively brilliant cures with small doses of Castor oil. They were cases which had resisted the skill of both schools of medicine. The popular method of administration is to mix with a teaspoonful of the oil one to five drops of Laudanum for adults, or Paregoric for children. I knew of one case of dysentery which had been of three years’ duration cured in a week. It was not the Laudanum which cured, for that had been tried, alone or mixed with other drugs, again and again without effect.

I have myself cured several cases of chronic diarrhoea (probably chronic mucous enteritis), even with occasional bloody stools, with fifteen drops of the oil, given three times a day.

In the treatment of acute dysentery allopathic physicians often give it at the onset, with excellent results. You must know that in those cases of dysentery which commence without a preliminary diarrhoea, often during obstinate constipation, that the bowels are often loaded with faeces, sometimes impacted and hardened. These do not pass off, but remain and act as foreign, irritating substances. They aggravate the local inflammation, and not only prolong the disease, but actually prevent a cure. One of the fundamental principles of the healing art is to remove any foreign

irritating substance from a diseased tissue. It is just as important to remove hardened feces from the bowels as a splinter from a wound. A neglect of this rule has often brought our practice into dishonor. In acute dysentery, when constipation has existed, or when the bowels have not been emptied, you should evacuate the bowels by enema, or some laxative oil. Glycerin, Olive oil, or the Italian Castor oil (which is almost entirely free from the poison) may be used. You can then prescribe Mercurius, Ipecac., or Podophyllum, with prompt success. But you will get excellent results from Castor oil, if you will give it. A tablespoonful to an adult, a teaspoonful to a child, will not only remove the irritating feces, but will act homceopathically against the disease itself.

If the dysentery has followed a diarrhoea, give the oil in drop doses, or the lx dilution or trituration. Even in the peritonitis of childbed, with or without enteritis, I have seen excellent effects from small doses of the oil frequently repeated. I)r. Hering says that since the interdiction of the oil, after childbirth, by homoeopathic physicians, the “ puerperal fever has been much less frequent in Philadelphia, where it was previously very frequent.” If you will note symptoms caused by the seeds, you will observe that they resemble closely severe and dangerous cases of enteritis and peritonitis. Hence the danger of the oil.

In cholera infantum , the attenuations of the oil may be of value. I would advise you to give it a trial. It would be indicated by about the same symptoms as Veratrum album. It could be given singly, or alternated with Iris, Cuprum, or Arsenicum. In very young infants the oil might suffice, but if the patients were adults, or children a few years old, I should prefer the attenuations of some preparation of the seeds.

(2.) The seeds of the Castor bean are undoubtedly poisonous. If we examine the relationship of this plant, we shall not be surprised at the fact. The Euphorbias are in the same family with the Ricinus.

The seeds of the Jatropha and Curcas, two genera belonging to the same family, also abound in an acrid and purgative oil.

The oil from the seeds of Jatropha glauca is often sold as Croton oil, as its purgative powers are nearly as intense.

If you will read the provings of Jatropha, or consult the brief pathogenesis, you will find that the symptoms closely correspond with the poisonous effects of the Castor bean, which I will narrate. These seeds when eaten have caused dangerous and painful symptoms, and even death. Three of the beans have been known to cause the death of a man. The symptoms do not usually come on until from two to five hours after the ingestion of the poison, when severe abdominal pain is felt, and is accompanied by violent vomiting and purging, which after a time may become bloody. This purging soon ushers in a state of collapse, with or without severe muscular cramps, with cold sweating skin, contracted features, thirst, restlessness, small, rapid pulse, and sometimes the general appearance of Asiatic cholera.

After death, intense redness and even abrasion of the small intestines are found.

As the oil probably derives its purgative action from the principle which renders the seeds themselves so harsh and even poisonous, it may be well to describe their effects more particularly. M. Mialhe proved that an emulsion made with the kernels of the seeds is violently emeto-cathartic in the dose of one hundred and fifty grains (from seven to ten seeds), and that even a tenth part of that quantity produces both vomiting and purging. He hence inferred that the active principle of the seeds is yielded but slightly to those varieties of the oil which are obtained by pressure alone, without heat. This is more fully proved by instances such as the following : Giacomini relates that when a child he experienced a violent attack of vomiting and protracted exhaustion from eating nine or ten of the seeds. Bergius records the case of a man in full health who ate a single seed of Ricinus, which, however, left an acrid taste in his mouth. Early the next morning he was seized with violent vomiting, which continued alternately with purging throughout the entire day. Lanzoni saw a young woman attacked with violent cholera morbus, and in excruciating pain in the bowels, from eating three of the fresh seeds. Dr. Taylor records a fatal case of poisoning from this cause. Three young women ate of the seeds, one about twenty of them, another four or five, and a third two of them. Upon the two latter persons the effects were those of a violent cathartic, but the first was seized with vomiting and purging, vol. n. — 44

and looked like one in an attack of malignant cholera ; the skin was cold, pale, and shrunken, there was pain in the abdomen, and the mind was in a drowsy, half-conscious state. The dejections consisted of bloody serum. No reaction took place, and death occurred within twenty-four hours. On examination, the gastrointestinal mucous membrane was found to be abraded and inflamed. A soldier in Algeria is said to have died from eating only three Castor oil seeds. The whole intestinal mucous membrane was found after death coated with blackish blood. The lining membrane of the stomach was somewhat reddened and softened.

A case is related by Bergius where only one seed produced symptoms of poisoning, namely, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhoea.

After twenty seeds, gastro-enteritis and death, preceded by convulsions and general collapse.

A young and strong man, after eating two grams of the residue of the seeds from which the oil had been expressed, was seized with such violent vomiting that his life was in danger.

Devergie states that two patients who had taken each an ounce of Castor oil died in three hours (!).

From these quotations it will be seen that the seeds of the Castor plant contain a poisonous principle analogous to Veratrum album, Jatropha, Iris versicolor, and perhaps Arsenicum and Cuprum.

The following case of poisoning by the seeds shows something worse than mere enteric inflammation, for they appeared to cause albuminous urine and jaundice :

Bean, a sergeant in the seventh company of engineers, enters the hospital at half-past five, July 10th, 1871. He ate the same day, in the morning, some Ricinus seeds as a pugative. The seeds were perfectly ripe, dry, and gathered in the fall of 1869. As he did not find the taste very disagreeable he ate seventeen of them. No accident happened immediately after eating them, and he took some beef-tea with appetite. Three or four hours afterwards he passed several loose stools, and suffered soon afterwards from pyrosis, cramps in the stomach, and nausea, followed by vomiting, which contained fragments of the seeds and drops of oil floating on it. The stools became at the same time more numerous and copious, were passed without tenesmus or colic, formed of serous liquid mixed with mucus.

About 4 P.M. the diarrhoea became incessant, with cramps and chilliness ; at

p.m. he entered the hospital.

Pathology. — Present state : Pale face, the forehead covered by cold sweat, and features drawn ; the eyes are convulsed and drawn upward in the orbita, the conjunctiva injected, and copious lachrymation ; the pupils only moderately dilated ; pulse normal in frequency, but so small that sometimes it can hardly be felt at the radial artery. Intelligence perfectly clear ; patient complains of headache, vertigo, buzzing in the ears, and a sensation as if a bar laid over his stomach, with profound anguish. Burning thirst ; pyrosis, nausea, vomiting ; the vomited matter is fluid, lightly colored by some bile, and holds some glairy filaments suspended ; epigastrium very sensitive, and the pains radiate toward the navel and hypochondria ; neither light nor strong pressure aggravates the pain, at the same time the patient feels a sensation of violent constriction in the intestines ; the diarrhoea becomes colliquative, and the stools look like those in cholera. Complete anuria since 10 a.m. ; voice very veiled ; profound adynamia ; it takes two persons to hold the patient.

The time for antidotes had passed, and the only indication remained to combat the coldness, the muscular contractions, the stoppage in the circulation — in one word, to remove the pseudo-choleraic symptoms consecutive to the enormous loss of water the patient had sustained.

Frictions with Camphor were ordered, sinapisms to the thighs, and hot flaxseed tea given in large quantities. Antispasmodics could not yet be given on account of the constant vomiting.

Heat returns ; but the chief physician, Dr. Peray, orders, on account of the vomiting, iced drinks, an antispasmodic potion, emollient injections in order to empty out the last traces of the poison, poultices on the abdomen, and continued frictions. The vomiting lasts till 3 a.m.

July 11th. Some fever, tongue hot and dry, anorexia, pyrosis.

Vomiting again ; the epigastric and abdominal pains, as well as the diarrhoea, continue; more cramps; extreme lassitude; absolute anuria. At 10 A.M. he passes a small quantity of dark-colored, thick, and highly albuminous urine.

July 12th. Fever and diarrhoea continue, cramps in long intervals; severe headache ; urine still scanty, with large precipitates, by heat or Nitric acid. The same treatment.

July 13th. Pulse normal; face slightly congested ; tongue white; no appetite; pyrosis ; vomiting and abdominal pains ; moderate diarrhoea, without tenesmus or colic.

Icterus fully pronounced. Urine still very albuminous.

July 14th. Some diarrhoea, and great lassitude.

July 15th. Only two stools ; appetite returns ; urine ceases to be albuminous ; discharged.

An analysis of the seeds shows they contain an alkaloid, Ricinin, which is soluble in water and alcohol; three acids, Ricinic acid, Elaiodic acid, and Margaristic acid, all very acrid and soluble in alcohol ; also a volatile principle which passes off by heat, and while bruising or triturating the seeds.

The method of making the oil by decoction doubtless extracts the alkaloid, which is probably the most virulent quality which the seeds possess. It is probably this alkaloid which causes a large portion of the choleraic symptoms. The acids are expressed with the oil, and assist in evolving severe symptoms.

For homoeopathic preparations the oil obtained by decoction would be the best, or any oil highly colored and of acrid taste; this might be called “ Oleum ricinus .”

The preparation for homoeopathic use in cases presenting choleraic or enteritic inflammatory symptoms, corresponding with the poisonous symptoms, should be made from the whole seeds bruised, or, what would be better, from the residue after expressing the oil without heat or Alcohol, as is the plan adopted in this country. This should be called “ Tinetura ricini sem.” This tincture should be made with hot water and Alcohol, in proportion of one part of the former to three of the latter.

The therapeutics of the Tinct. ricinus seed has yet to be written. Dr. Emery, of Lyons, France, introduced the Ricinus into homoeopathic practice. He recommended it in diseases of the liver and intestines. I have not been able to find any of his clinical reports except one, in which he claims to have cured or relieved gallstone colic with Ricinus3; a rather dubious report, I imagine.

I am amazed that Hahnemann, or some of his contemporaries, did not institute provings of the seeds. They must have been aware of their poisonous action. Knowing its botanical relationship, and the almost universal use and abuse of the oil, it is surprising that Ricinus did not, in their hands, become a polychrest. It is certainly as capable of occupying such a place as Euphorbia, Jatropha, Croton tig., or Veratrum.

It ought to be useful in cholera Asiatica, cholera morbus and infantum. It will doubtless prove a specific in many cases of mucous enteritis , in the forms of diarrhoea and dysentery.

One of the cases just quoted proves it to be homoeopathic to choleraic attacks , with albuminuria , and probably uraemia , a dangerous form of disease, especially in infants; also in jaundice supervening upon cholera.

(3.) The Leaves. — The medical history of the leaves of the Ricinus

is very interesting. The first mention of their use was by Dr. J. 0. McWilliam, in 1850. While in the Cape de Verde Islands, in 1846, he learned that in cases of emergency this remedy could be successfully applied to increase the flow of milk in nursing women, when it was scanty or tardy in appearing ; also, that in cases of emergency it would produce milk in the breasts of women who are not childbearing, or who even have not given birth to or suckled a child for many years.

In cases of childbirth, when the appearance of milk is delayed, a decoction is made by boiling a handful of the leaves of the plant (“ Bofareira,” as it is there called) in six or eight pints of water. The breasts are bathed with this decoction for fifteen or twenty minutes. Part of the boiled leaves are thinly spread over the breasts, and allowed to remain until all moisture has been removed from them by evaporation, and probably in some measure by absorption. This operation of fomenting with the decoction, and applying the leaves, is repeated at short intervals until the milk flows upon suction of the child, which it usually does in the course of a few hours.

In cases where milk is required to be produced in the breasts of women who have never given birth to a child, or not suckled one for years, the mode of application is more thorough. Two or three handfuls of the leaves are taken and treated as before. The decoction is poured, while yet boiling, into a large vessel, over which the woman sits so as to receive the vapor over her thighs and generative organs, cloths being carefully tucked round her so as to prevent the escape of the steam. In this position she remains for ten or twelve minutes, or until, the decoction cooling a little, she is enabled to bathe the parts with it, which she does for twenty minutes more. The breasts are then similarly bathed and gently rubbed with the hands, and the leaves are afterwards applied to them in the manner before described.

These operations are repeated three or four times a day for ten days, when a child is put to the nipple, and in the majority of instances it finds an abundant supply of milk.

Women with well-developed breasts are most easily affected by the plant. When the breasts are small and shrivelled, it is said to act more upon the uterine system, bringing on the menses if

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their period be distant, or causing immoderate flow if their advent be near.

Dr. Tyler Smith experimented with the leaves, and was successful in causing the flow of milk in many cases.

Dr. Rauth pronounced a favorable judgment upon the value of this medicine as a galactagogue. He was the first to administer it internally in the form of decoction, and afterwards in the tincture and extract. Subsequently, Dr. Gilfillan produced equally striking effects by teaspoonful doses of a fluid extract of the leaves. Lately, Dr. Woodbury, of Boston, and many other physicians (of our school) have used the fluid extract or tincture with good results in scanty milk-flow, suppression of milk, and when the milk was of poor quality.

I have been informed by nurses that Castor oil rubbed on the breasts, warm, will hasten or increase the flow of milk. It is supposed that the oil administered internally, in small doses, on the fourth day after confinement, favors a free flow of milk.

I have used the leaves as above recommended, and prescribed the extract internally in suppressed milk in many cases, but they were nearly all cases of suppression from childbed fever, convulsions (puerperal), or when the milk had long ceased to flow. I have not succeeded well in but one case. I suspect, however, that my directions were not followed as thoroughly as necessary. You must not expect uniform success with the so-called galactagogues. Coriander will increase and enrich milk in some women, and not in others. Electricity will prove successful in some cases, and fail utterly in as many. Assafoetida is often efficient.

Amenorrhoea has been successfully treated by the same plan as before narrated. It is not known if its internal administration will restore the menses. Scanty menstruation has also been removed in the same manner.

In Dr. Tyler Smith’s cases its external application caused swelling of the breasts, throbbing and other pains in the breasts, swelling of the axillary glands, with pains running down the arms. Pains in the back, like after-pains, were caused in every case. Leucorrhoea was increased. Serous discharges from the breasts became milky, and the menses came on too soon.

I have somewhere read that a decoction when administered caused similar symptoms.

The dose of the fluid extract is 10 or 20 drops every two or four hours, the tincture a little more, and a decoction in wineglassfuls.

Dr. Hering writes me that East India physicians allege that the leaves cause ulcers in the mouth and throat, painful pustules and abscesses on the skin, and are used in swelling of the testicles and ankles, also for pain in the hip-joint with stiffness.

The seeds and leaves need careful and thorough provings on the healthy, in order to develop characteristic symptoms, so that the indications can be distinguished from those of its near allies, namely, Jatropha, Croton tig., Iris ver., Veratrum album, Arsenicum, Euphorbia, etc. Meanwhile I urge you to test Ricinus sem. in practice, and report the results to our various periodicals.