Guarea trichiloides

Volume I — Special Symptomatology

(Ball Wood.)

Description. — This is a large tree growing in the Antilles. The following pathogenesis is from provings made by Dr. Petroz, of Spain.

Officinal Preparations. — Tincture of the bark Analogues.— (?)

Mental Sphere.

Moral anxiety, indifference, indecision, confusion of thought, fearful of losing the reason, agitation in the evening.

Head.

Vertigo on stooping.

Turning vertigo, and vertigo on seeing objects in confusion

Immobility of the head; heaviness.

Compression; constriction; contraction.

Buzzing; sensation as if the brain were falling forward.

Headache, depressing the eyes.

Symptoms relieved or diminished by motion.

A sensation as of a blow on the head, leaving a sort of stupefaction, with diminution of the power of thought for several days.

Eyes.

Sensation as if the eyeballs were being pushed out. Dilatation of the pupils.

Conjunctivitis; chemosis; swelling of the lachrymal glands.

Paralysis of the eyelids.

Objects have a greyish appearance.

0 Chemosis where the pad was so extended and so thick that nothing of the eye could be seen but the pupil, at the bottom of a veritable tunnel.

Ears.

Sensation as if stopped up, with pressure outwards. Eruption behind the ears.

Nose.

Coryza, with indurated excretion; heat, and ineffectual effort to sneeze.

Face.

Pain as if burnt; puffiness below the eyes; swellings which suppurate.

Yellowish spots on the temples; acne rosacea. ° Lupus of an ochre-red color.

Mouth and Throat.

Twi tchings of the mouth.

Pimples, scabs, chaps on the lips and at the commissures;

swelling of the upper lip. Compressive, corrosive pain of the teeth. ° Roughness, with caries of the palate bone. Tongue feels cold and dry.

Tearing pain in the tongue; lancinations; paralysis of the tongue.

Tongue is heavy, swelled, bleeding; greenish-yellow fur. Absence of thirst, with dryness of the mouth. Sensation of constriction and of burning heat in the throat. Swelling of the tonsils, rendering swallowing difficult. Throat is better on taking warm drinks, or on coughing.

Stomach.

° Sensation as if bruised; itching; constriction. Sensation of rupture at the praecordial region, worse after supper.

Bitter risings, with distension and pressure at the stomach. Vomiting of bitter, greenish matter.

Abdomen. Pressure in the region of the umbilicus. 0 Lancination in the groins and inguinal rings. 0 Pain, tensive as if contused in the abdomen walls.

Stool.

0 Ailments from flatulence. 0 Chronic constipation. Constipation during dentition. Constipation at the anus and rectum. 0 During stool, pain in the rectum. Dysentery.

Urinary Organs.

Inflammation of the bladder.

° Involuntary urination.

° Frequent desire to urinate in the evening.

Urine clay colored.

Generative Organs.

Female. — ° Itching. Menorrhagia.

3 Foetid leucorrhoea after the menses.

° Labor pains too feeble; suppression of labor pains.

Lochia scanty.

Chest.

• Cough; whooping cough, with bloody sputa; dry hacking cough; cough deep, suffocating, violent, with expectoration.

The cough is accompanied with sweat, pain, excoriation and constriction of the chest; it comes on after one has cried, at the moment of falling asleep, or after taking cold; it is preceded by an itching in the throat, by an irritation in the larynx.

• Asthma of Millar; attacks of suffocation; burning respiration; sobbing respiration; intermittent constriction of the chest; the symptoms of the respiration are more marked on putting the hand to the throat. ° Sense of anxiety ; emptiness ; distension of the chest ; heaviness.

c Lancinations in the right side of the chest, increased by deep inspirations.

Back.

Weakness of the muscles.

Constricted feeling in the back; burning in the loins.

Cutting pain in the sacrum.

Upper Extremities.

Violent shocks in the arms; cramps in the arms; burning heat in the arms; brown spots under the arms; boils on the arms; paralysis of the metacarpus; trembling of the hands; swelling of the hands.

Lower Extremities.

Cutting pains in the legs; jerking motions.

Contraction of the feet and toes.

Red spots on the legs.

Sleep.

Somnolence, with dreams.

Frequent waking; sad dreams full of graves.

Fever.

• Intermittent fever, principally before noon; cold followed by

heat, with sweat; shivering, with flushes of heat; horripilation in the affected parts.

° Sweat, principally when eating, or after having eaten.

c During the fever, anxiety, forgetfulness, pain in the eyes, coated tongue, desire to vomit, oppression of the chest, chest is painful.

Skin.

0 Itching eruptions; dry eruptions; eruptions of burning vesicles.

° Steatoma; hot swelling; swelling of the parts affected. General Symptoms.

0 Weakness; chronic weakness; sensation of distension.

Lancinating and boring pains, drawing and tearing; sensation of excoriation on being touched.

° Hysterical tetanus; convulsions of children; convulsions during vomiting; cramps when touched; cramps in children.

° Paralysis subsultus.

Heat of the upper part, and coolness of the lower part. Suppuration of the glands.

° Caries of the bones; nocturnal pain in the bones.

Cutting pain in the joints; burning heat.

Symptoms are more marked in the room, from the action of hot water, acids, after physical efforts; they are relieved on covering up warmly, and by leaving the bed.

Volume II — Special Therapeutics

This medicine is prepared from the bark of a tree growing in the Antilles, and called by the natives “ Ball-wood.” The pathogenesis published in the “Symptomatology of New Remedies” is made up from provings by Dr. Petroz.

Its sphere of action, as deduced from the symptoms, would ap- , pear to include the brain and spinal cord, upon which it acts as an irritant. It also acts upon the bones and the mucous surfaces of the respiratory organs. It has a direct affinity for the nerves of the larynx, and in this respect resembles Lachesis, Drosera, Corallium, Ipecac., and Belladonna. It somewhat resembles the remedy last treated, the Guaco, in its similarity to the symptoms of serpentpoisoning.

Among the diseases which it is said to cure are spasmodic cough, asthma of Millar, conjunctivitis, lupus, dysentery, fetid lochia, inefficient, labor-pains; menorrhagia, chronic constipation, intermittent fever, dry eruptions, hysterical tetanus, convulsions of children, paralysis, and caries of the bones.

I am not aware that American physicians have used the Guarsea to any extent, and I have had no personal experience with it.