Senecio aureus

Volume I — Special Symptomatology

away over the edges. Was cured in three weeks Dy a cerate of the Sempervivum.

Generative Organs. Women: — Appearance of the menses, lasting five days, having

passed the climacteric. Appearance of the menses in a nursing woman.

Skin.

° Erysipelatous affections, hums, stings, and other inflammatory conditions. (?)

° Said to be a perfect cure for warts and corns, (the leaf was used.)

° Ringworm and shingles have been cured, by it, (the juice applied locally.)

SENECIO AUREUS— (et Gracilis?)

(Life-Root.)

Botanical Description. — This plant is known by several other names, as Ragwort, False Valerian, Golden Senecio, Squaw-weed, and Female Regulator. It was known to the Indians as " Uncum," the meaning of which I have been unable to ascertain.

It has an erect, smooth ish, striate stem, one or two feet high, flocosewoolly when young, simple or branched above, terminating in a kind of umbellate, simple or compound corymb. The radical leaves are simple and rounded, the larger mostly cordate, crenate-serrate, and long-petioled; the lower cauline leaves, lyre-shaped ; the upper ones, few, slender, cutpinnatifid, dentate, sessile or partly clasping; the terminal segments, lanceolate; peduncles sub-umbellate, and thick upwards ; corymbs, umbellike. Mays from eight to twelve, four or five lines long, spreading. Flowers golden yellow. Scales linear, acute, and purplish at the apex.

The S. gracilis is merely a taller, slenderer variety.

Officinal Preparations. — Tincture of the whole plant; dilutions. Sene-cin; triturations.

Analogues. — Asarum, Cannabis sativa, Caulophyllum, Gopaiva, Calcarea carbonica, Cypripedium, Eriyeron, Eupatorium purpureum, Helonias, Pulsatilla, Sanyumaria, Sepia, Trillum.

Mental Sphere.

Inability to fix the mind on any one object for any length of time.

Depression of spirits alternating with very cheerful moods. Sad, desponding, meditative mood, in the evening. A feeling like homesickness.

Head.

Giddiness and pressing forward in the head. Dizziness, feeling like a wave from occiput to the sinciput. Shooting and cutting pains in frontal region, from within outward.

Sharp, lancinating pain in the left temple and over the eye. Dull, stupefying headache, with fullness of the head. ° Catarrhal headache, or from suppressed secretions.

Eyes.

Sharp, lancinating pain in the left eye, shooting from within outward.

Sharp, sticking pains in both eyes and forehead, from within outwards.

Sharp, lancinating pains in the left temple, upper part of left

eye and inside of the left half of the lower jaw. 0 Catarrhal ophthalmia from suppressed secretions.

Nose.

Sneezing, and sense of burning and fullness in the nostrils,

relieved by a copious flow of mucus. Dryness of the nostrils, with inclination to sneeze. 0 Coryza, with bleeding from the nose.

Face.

Darting pain in the left side of the face.

Sharp, cutting pain inside of the left angle of the lower jaw.

Sharp, sticking pain in the face in common with other parts

of the body. Pale face, with depressed appearance.

Mouth.

Lips and gums pale.

Dryness of the mouth, fauces and throat.

Teeth very tender and sensitive.

Digging or beating pain in a carious molar tooth.

Gastric Symptoms. Nausea on rising in the morning. Eructations of sour gas and sour ingesta. 0 Nausea from renal derangements. ° Morning nausea of pregnant women.

Abdomen. Stitches in both hypochondriac regions.

Sharp pain in the epigastrium.

Colic and diarrhoea, with fever, in the afternoon.

Pain seems to have a centre about the umbilicus, and spreads

out in all directions; relieved by a stool. Griping, colic-like pains, relieved by bending forward. Griping, pinching pain in the abdomen. Rumbling of wind in the abdomen.

Stool.

Thin, watery stool, containing hard lumps.

Dark-colored stool, with much straining.

Faeces in hard lumps, mixed with mucus of a yellow color.

Copious diarrhoea in the morning, attended with great debility and prostration.

0 Catarrhal diarrhoea and dysentery.

Thin, dark-colored, or bloody stools, with tenesmus.

Urinary Organs.

Clear, limpid urine, frequent and profuse.

Urine scanty and high-colored, and tinged with blood.

Mucous sediment in the urine.

0 Tenesmus of the bladder, with heat and urging.

0 Ascites and oedema of the lower extremities in a young woman. (Dr. Small.)

° Intense pain over the right kidney, severe pain during urination, the urine is red, hot and acrid; bowels costive. (Ib.)

0 Irritation of the bladder in children, preceded by heat in head and headache. (Hale.)

0 Renal colic, with or without nausea. (Ib.)

0 Chronic inflammation of the neck of the bladder, with bloody urine, and tenesmus of the bladder (three cases). (Ib.)

° Chronic inflammation of the kidneys. (Hale.)

° Will palliate, if not cure, Bright's disease. (Ib.)

Generative Organs.

Female: — [No proving on women, but a large amount of clinical experience.]

0 Amenorrhoea in young girls, with dropsical conditions.

0 Suppression of the menses, from a cold.

• Dysmenorrhoea, with urinary sufferings, and scanty or profuse flow. (Hale.)

0 Premature and profuse menses, (it rivals Calcarea carb.)

° Retarded and scanty (or profuse) menses, (rivaling Sepia.)

° Irregular menses, at times too soon, at times retarded.

0 Leucorrhoea, instead of the menses, or with urinary troubles.

° Chlorosis, in scrofulous girls, with dropsy.

° Some of the ailments at the critical age. When given to a lady of 48, for great sleeplessness, it brought on the menses and restored sleep.

" Senecio gracilis is useful in anaemic dysmenorrhea, especially when the strumous habit is present. Senecio symptoms, like those of Sulphur and Mercury, are aggravated during the night. {Massy.)

Male: — Dull, heavy pain in left spermatic cord, moving along the cord to the testicle.

• Prostate gland enlarged and feels hard to the touch.

• Lascivious dreams, with pollutions.

° Gonorrhoea and gleet. 0 Chronic prostatitis.

Respiratory Organs.

Increased secretion from bronchial mucous membrane.

Labored respiration, with loose cough and mucous rales.

° Mucous, catarrhal cough (especially when attended with suppressed menses).

0 Chronic haemorrhage from the lung, with dry, hacking cough, hectic fever, emaciation and sleeplessness. {Dr. Irish.)

' Cough (after a cold), first dry, then loose, with copious expectoration of a yellow, thick, sweet mucus, often streaked with blood, with rawness and soreness in the chest, with debility; flashes of heat, red cheeks in p. m., night sweats, and irregular menses. Cured in two weeks by Senecio, 1-10 dil., gtts. 10, every three hours. {Hale.)

" Palliated the cough and bloody sputa in a woman far gone with consumption, and brought back her menses absent four months. {Hale.)

Back and Extremities.

Pain in back and loins; in small of back, with soreness and rheumatic pains in the joints.

Generalities.

Stitches and sharp pains in various parts of the body.

• Nervousness, sleeplessness, and hysterical moods.

Sensation as of a ball in the stomach, rising up into the throat ° Affections of mucous membranes (catarrhal). 0 Hemorrhage from the uterus, kidneys, bowels, lungs, etc * Great sleeplessness, with vivid, unpleasant dreams. Feverish heat and thirst, especially in the afternoon.

Volume II — Special Therapeutics

I am strongly impressed with the idea that this remedy acts upon the mucous tissues similarly to Pulsatilla. It causes increased secretion from the bronchial, intestinal, and vaginal mucous membranes, and has been found curative in abnormal conditions characterized by mucous discharges. It seems to me to be indicated when a catarrhal affection has appeared in one organ, and caused, or is consequent upon, the suppression of natural discharge in another; thus, profuse leucorrhoea, or a bronchial and even a nasal catarrh will set in upon the suppression of the menses, or appear in place of the menses. A catarrhal diarrhoea often appears at such times. It is in these conditions that Pulsatilla and Senecio prove so successful as curative agents by curing the catarrhal discharge and permitting the natural functions to appear. The Senecio has also proved useful in haemorrhages from mucous surfaces, appearing upon the suppression of habitual discharges.

A catarrh was cured by the proving of the drug. It has the following symptoms :

Sense of fulness in the nostrils, with excessive secretion of white transparent mucus in the nostrils and bronchi ; sneezing ; hoarse, but the trachea and bronchi seem to be clear ; sense of fulness in the nostrils, but no mucus ; sneezing and sense of fulness in the nostrils, relieved after awhile by a copious flow of mucus ; frequent hawking of tough, white, transparent mucus ; secretion of mucus in the nose and trachea ; sense of burning and fulness in the nostrils, with a little mucus ; coryza.

The symptoms of the digestive tract would seem to indicate that it will prove of value in catarrhal affections of the stomach and bowels, in catarrhal diarrhoea or dysentery , and the latter stages of mucous enteritis.

This medicine has long had an extensive reputation in domestic practice as a diuretic, and used as such in cases of dropsy, suppression of urine, and irritable bladder. Eclectic writers say :

As a diuretic it has been employed with advantage in calculous affections, to subdue the irritation. — Scudder.

It is said to be diuretic and specific in strangury. — King.

In those anasarcous states which attend chlorosis, or attacks of women at the climacteric age, and seem to be caused remotely by some disorder of the generative organs, the Senecio gracilis may

prove a very efficient remedy; also in ovarian dropsy, or dropsy occurring after suppression of the menses.

To illustrate its action, I quote the following cases reported bv Dr. A. E. Small.

Case I. — A young woman applied for relief of dropsical symptoms, namely : abdomen much enlarged, very tense, with an evident large amount of water in the peritoneal cavity ; lower extremities very oedematous ; urine quite scanty and highcolored — not more than eight ounces a day ; considerable pain in the lumbar region, and in the ovaries. With the exception of constipation, no other abnormal symptom was manifest. Upon examination with the speculum, the cervix uteri was somewhat congested, and there was present albuminous leucorrhoea, but uterine pain was not much complained of, only a sense of weight, which may have been due to the peritoneal effusion.

Apis mellifica 2d was prescribed and taken for a week with no benefit, except to relieve the ovarian pain.

Apocynum cannabin T^th was also taken for a week, but, contrary to its usual effects, it did not seem to increase the amount of urine.

Senecio aureus was then prescribed, ten drops of the TJ?th in water every four hours. In two days the urinary secretion was up to its normal amount, and the oedema, ascites, and the lumbar pain diminished rapidly. The peritoneal effusion did not altogether disappear, nor did Arsenicum remove it completely.

Case II. — A woman about thirty years of age had the following symptoms, which had increased since their accession, six weeks before : Face bloated, abdomen enlarged, feet oedematous; urine alternately profuse and watery, or dark-colored and scanty ; frequent desire to urinate, day and night. No other abnormal symptoms of importance. In this case Senecio aureus was prescribed at once, without trying other remedies. Ten drops every three hours (mother tincture) for two days ; then three times a day for a week, effected a cure.

This remedy has also been useful in my hands in the dysuria of women and children, when the symptom was evidently of a catarrhal origin. In dysuria, associated with uterine displacement, it is often useful. The presence of a mucous sediment in the urine is an indication for its employment.

Case III. — Mrs. H., aged about thirty, of lymphatic temperament, had been suffering from chronic inflammation of the neck of the bladder for six years, from which she had received only temporary relief from treatment. At times she suffered greatly from tenesmus of the bladder and urging to urinate. She supposed herself to be afflicted with the gravel, as she sometimes passed bloody urine. Senecio aureus was prescribed, one drop of tincture, which she took at intervals of six hours for several days. She felt sensible relief from the difficulty after using the remedy two days. She continued its use for several days after, when she found herself entirely free from the suffering. She discontinued the medicine, and was agreeably surprised at the non-return of the difficulty, as it had before done after temporary relief. She had no indications of return for several months, when some exposure occasioned its reappearance. The remedy was again resorted to, and prompt relief was obtained. She has remained entirely well of the disease since — a period of eighteen months.

Case IV. — A gentleman of nervo-sanguine temperament, aged about fifty, had been subject to renal inflammation, affecting particularly the right kidney, causing intense pain, and general febrile disturbance and great prostration. On one occasion his suffering was intense, and the bladder seemed to be implicated. Every time he passed urine he experienced great pain, which caused him to cry out in agony ; his bowels were constipated ; the urine was of a reddish color, very hot, and acrid; he complained of dull headache, dryness of the mouth and throat, disposition to chilliness, fever, and perspiration. Twenty drops of the tincture were put in half a tumbler of water, and a dessertspoonful was taken. A mitigation of suffering was the result. The dose was repeated every hour, until it entirely subsided.

More than a year has elapsed since, and he has had no return of the malady. This gentleman having some acquaintances whom he knew to be victims of a similar disease, was prompted to furnish them with this remedy, and in some instances with like curative results.

Case V. — A merchant, forty-five years of age, nervous temperament, inclined to be bilious, was attacked severely with renal inflammation, attended by general feverishness, chilliness, and pain in the lumbar region, and particularly in the left kidney. In this case there did not appear to be any very preceptible implication of the bladder ; the quantity of urine passed was below the normal amount, and very red, and on standing awhile a brickdust sediment was precipitated. The arterial excitement was considerable ; the skin hot and dry ; motion very greatly aggravated the suffering of the patient, and caused him to cry out with pain ; bowels were constipated.

Aconite was first given and repeated at intervals of an hour until the skin became moist, and the arterial excitement was somewhat subdued. Pain still severe; urine hot and scanty. Gave Nux vom. No relief; patient complained of soreness and pain in the lumbar region. Gave Arnica, and moved the bowels with an enema of warm water. Partial relief followed for a time ; pain returned. Gave Senecio aureus. No relief for some hours from pain ; urination, and every effort to urinate, attended with pain ; urine tinged with blood. Gave Cantharis 3d dilution. No change. Gave Senecio two hours after in an increased dose, after which the pain gradually subsided and passed off entirely ; the urinary secretion became increased to the usual quantity in health, and recovery soon followed.

Case VI. — An attorney, aged thirty-four, of a leucophlegmatic temperament, after a prostrating attack of fever, exhibited a marked cachexia and tendency to general dropsy ; urine rather scanty, with a blackish sediment, which on examination proved to be broken-down corpuscles. Senecio, in drop doses of the tincture, was given at first, and afterwards in a more attenuated form, with no satisfactory result. (Terebinth, caused a disappearance of the sediment, and Erigeron, also, in another similar attack.)

In a letter from Dr. Gray, of New York, a confirmatory statement is made of the powers of the Senecio aureus : “ I have used it,” says the doctor, “ in renal disturbances, with satisfactory results.”

For children affected with irritation of the bladder, the second or third attenuation would in all probability effect a cure. Pain in the head almost always accompanies, or immediately precedes, the symptoms of irritation of the bladder. This

remedy will relieve the headache and every other symptom connected with it. It will relieve tenesmus of the bladder. It will cure nausea, attendant on renal derangement and renal colic. It will subdue the arterial excitement that occurs simultaneously with inflammation of the kidneys, and consequently dissipate many other painful sensations.

It causes, “dull, heavy pain in the left spermatic cord, moving along the cord to the testicle ; prostate gland enlarged, feels hard and swelled to the touch ; lascivious dreams, with pollution.”

I have found it useful in advanced stages of gonorrhoea and in prostatic disorders, in which it resembles Pulsatilla, Copaiva, Populus, and Thuja.

It is upon the generative organs of women that Senecio is reputed to exert its peculiar and specific curative influence.

In my third edition of “ New Remedies ” I said :

In accordance with the plan I proposed in the preface to this work, I shall proceed to give the suggestions, clinical experience, etc., of the eclectic and allopathic schools, and then that of our own school, together with my own. From the testimony thus adduced, the reader can come to some conclusion as to the value of the remedy.

It exerts no especial influence upon the female reproductive organs. In amenorrhoea, not connected with some structural lesion, it has proved very efficacious. In dysmenorrhoea it has also proved valuable. It is serviceable in amenorrhagia, administered both at the time of the discharge and during the interval. — King.

It appears to exert a specific influence upon the uterine organs, and may with propriety be termed a uterine tonic. We have employed it in many cases of amenorrhoea, both in retention and suppression, and almost invariably with the most gratifying results. Indeed, so certain is it to restore the uterine secretion when suppression does not depend upon organic disease, that we almost view it as a specific. Its action is peculiar ; it seems to possess the power of restoring the secretion when suppressed ; of promoting it when deficient ; of alleviating pain in dysmenorrhoea, and of controlling or lessening the secretion when redundant; hence one of its common names, “female regulator.” We have long employed it to check free and too long-continued lochial discharges, after other remedies have failed, and with the most gratifying results. It has proved a valuable remedy in leucorrhoea, and in displacements of the uterus, attended with dragging pains in the lower part of the abdomen and pelvic region, and with leucorrhoeal discharges, when combined with Trillium. — Scudder.

Dr. Paine coincides with the opinion held by eclectics concerning the affinity of Senecio for the uterus and ovaries. “ It is,” he says, “ especially adapted to the defective uterine function arising from a vitiated state of the system. In scrofulous and phthisical patients I give the Senecin in doses of from one-half to one grain, combined with one or two grains of Carburet of iron, four or five times a

day. There is, perhaps, no emunctory of the body that exerts a more powerful influence over scrofulous and consumptive patients than the uterus.” In these diseases Paine considers the Senecin useful, because it corrects irregularity of the menses, as to either time or quantity. “ In cases of weak habit, when the catamenial period is protracted, and the blood appears to be poisoned or contaminated by the retention of zymotic catamenial poison,” he gives Senecin and Hypophosphite of iron in combination. The quantity of Iron he prescribes (two grains five times a day) is, however, dangerous. Dr. Churchill, of Paris, who introduced the medicine, says it will bring on pulmonary haemorrhage in such doses. The best allopathic authorities advise against the use of Iron in phthisis. Some homoeopathic physicians have cured incipient phthisis with Ferr. hypophospliis, 3d trituration. It should not be used any lower.

Senecin has proved eminently successful in the treatment of amenorrhoea. When the obstruction has arisen from cold, this remedy, in connection with warm alkaline pediluvia, is generally sufficient. When the affection is uncomplicated, we know of no remedy so generally reliable. It operates kindly and without excitement, and the catamenial flow is restored in a manner so natural that the patient is scarcely aware of being under the influence of medicine. “ We have derived equally happy effects from the employment of Senecin in the treatment of dysmenorrhea. The most beneficial results are obtained by exhibiting it during the intermenstrual period. It acts as a special tonic upon the uterine system, invigorating the menstrual function, and restoring equilibrium of action. If the menstrual secretion be profuse, use Trillin in combination. If scanty, Macrotin or Baptisin may be employed (alternated). We have been equally successful with the Senecin in the treatment of menorrhagia. It may seem somewhat paradoxical to the reader that we should prescribe the same remedy in what are generally conceived to be opposite states of the system. No matter in which direction the scale may be turned, if we can but restore and equalize the functional activity of the parts we shall effect a cure. For this purpose we employ the Senecin simply because it possesses the power of recalling or restoring lost or healthful action. This then explains the seeming paradox of giving the same remedy in dissimilar derangements of the same organ.” — Coe.

Chlorosis is another of those incidental female affections in which Senecin will be found an excellent remedy. It is particularly serviceable when chlorosis occurs in a strumous diathesis, and is associated with chronic catarrhal disorders.

Many old remedies have this regulating effect, especially Sepia. Pulsatilla also resembles Senecio. I think too frequent and profuse menses is a primary effect of Senecio ; while scanty irregular menses is its secondary.

The following case, treated with Senecio gracilis, has been reported to me by one of my colleagues :

A lady, aged forty-eight, presented the following symptoms : Inability to sleep, nervous irritability, loss of appetite, coated tongue, bowels constipated, constant

feeling of lassitude, disinclined to move about, wanderiug pains in the back and shoulders ; had been in this condition six months, during which time the catamenia. which, previous to this, had been regular in appearance, have not appeared ; has been treated allopathically for the last three months, with no permanent benefit. I gave Macrotin, Sepia, Secale cornutum, Zincum valerianas, Pulsatilla, Cypripedium, etc., with but little or no success. At last the Senecio was given in doses of 20 drops, three times a day ; this was followed by a marked improvement, and after the lapse of one week she reported herself able to sleep well all night. Under the continued use of the remedy all the symptoms disappeared in the space of two weeks longer. A relapse presenting the same phenomena, which occurred about six months later, was in like manner cured by the Senecio.

The following case is a type of many I have cured with Senecin:

A lady, the mother of one child, had had an abortion three years ago, and another, at the second month of pregnancy, four months since. Since the date of the last abortion she had suffered much from painful menstruation, which had not been the case previously. The menses came on too soon— every three weeks ; were very profuse, lasting eight or nine days, and were accompanied with a great deal of pain, of a cutting character, referred to the region of the sacrum, hypogastrium, and groins. She was pale, weak, and “nervous,” and had a slight cough, generally at night. Thinking this a good case in which to test the vaunted virtues of the Senecio aureus, I prescribed five doses of the mother tincture three times a day, and continued its use until the next menstrual period. To the patient’s gratification and my own, the menses appeared at their proper time (in twenty-nine days), and were normal in quantity, and unaccompanied with pain or suffering of any kind.

Since reporting the above case I have treated several cases of a similar nature, and with success. In one case the first decimal dilution was used; in another, the first of Senecin; and in still another the second decimal. I have used it in many cases of amenorrhoea, where Pulsatilla failed to restore the discharge, but Senecin 2d generally had the desired effect.

It affects the respiratory organs in a manner somewhat similar to Asclepias tuberosa, Copaiva, and Pulsatilla.

In coughs, colds, and other complaints of the chest, Senecio is one of the most valuable remedies we possess. It is especially serviceable in mucous coughs.

It has acquired considerable reputation in chronic coughs, catarrhal affections, haemoptysis, incipient phthisis attended with troublesome cough, the result of obstructed menstruation , with unequivocal advantage. I have used it in a few cases of cough

occurring in females, according to the indication given above. It seemed to act admirably. These suggestions may seem bare and valueless, unless backed up by more pathogenetic symptoms. But it must be recollected that many of our best remedies started from just such small beginnings.

The following case, reported by Dr. Thomas Irish, seems to prove that it ranks high as a remedy in pulmonary affections :

In the year 1822, in the State of New York, I was taken suddenly with profuse haemorrhage from the left lung. Physicians were sent for ; consultation took place ; they manifested much wisdom in endeavoring to stay the red current of life by tapping my arm. The blood refused to flow in that direction, but the lung continued to perform its office in opposition to these endeavors to change its current by cutting the cephalic vein. All to no purpose ; the life-current continued to flow until it would hardly stain a white cloth. They gave me up as lost, without hope, and then gave rules and ordered medicine taken. I refused to take medicine. I became a living skeleton ; the dry hacking cough, the hectic flush and sleepless nights were my companions for day and night for about five months, and still living in opposition to the wisdom of the prophets I was in the daily habit of wandering about the fields on my father’s farm, and pulling and testing of roots and herbs. The Senecio was before me, near a small stream. I tasted and was impressed to try its virtues. I had it gathered, roots and tops, and prepared a decoction, of which I took half a tablespoonful four times a day. Improvement set in soon after commencing the use of the Senecio. In six weeks the cure seemed complete. This was in the fall. I continued well through the winter ; in the spring went to work ; in a month was prostrated by haemorrhage from the lung again; continued to work until fall. Again the 11 life-root” was taken, chewing the root and drinking a tea of the same. Again, contrary to the expectation of all, health was mine. In the spring of 1824 I came to Michigan ; worked hard all summer ; in fall was taken sick ; continued feeble until spring. At every attack of the disease the lungs would sympathize, so as to have it terminate in a lung fever, with bloody expectoration. I employed no physician, but always used the “ Cure-all,” as I often called it. In the too free use of the green root it proved a laxative, which was not favorable to the healing process. At every attack, for eleven years or more, of lung fever, which were many, I always used the same remedy with the same success. I have never known it used in such attacks without some benefit, and the number would be hundreds.

I saw the blood spirt the size of a common straw from a cut in the leg. The Senecio, roots and tops bruised and applied immediately, stopped the blood ; it was the only dressing. The person was not kept from his work an hour in all. It was a bad cut, and healed in a few days. It is the best dressing for cuts, bruises, and sores known to me. It has more power over diseases of the uterine organs than any other medicinal plant, in my opinion. In erysipelas it has with me proved a useful remedy, internally and externally.

It would seem by the last paragraph to have, a general curative

influence over haemorrhage, making it analogous upon some points with Erigeron, Trillium, and Lycopus.

An interesting case lately came under my treatment, which illustrates very well the action of this remedy upon the pulmonary tissues :

A lady, aged forty, passing through the climacteric period, applied to me for a remedy to relieve a troublesome cough. She was cured promptly by Senecio lx- Her symptoms were : Considerable debility ; no appetite ; flashes of heat at times during the day ; redness of the cheeks in the afternoon ; occasional nightsweats ; menses have been very irregular for a year. It is now two months since they have appeared. Six weeks ago she caught cold, got a cough, at first dry, then loose, with copious expectoration of a yellowish, thick, sweet mucus, often streaked with blood, attended with a sensation of rawness and soreness in the chest The paroxysms of coughing were quite severe and exhausting.