Sempervivum tectorum

Volume I — Special Symptomatology

(Common House-Leek.) Botanical Description. — House-leek has a fibrous root, crowned with several rosaceous tufts of numerous, oblong, acute, keeled, fringed, extremely succulent leaves. The stem, from the centre of one of these

SEMPERVIVUM tectorum.

tufts, is about a foot high, erect, round, downy, clothed with several more narrow, sessile, alternate leaves, and terminating in a sort of many-flowered cyme, with spiked branches. Flowers large, pale rose-colored, without scent. Segments of the calyx, twelve or more, \ with a similar number of petals, stamens and pistils. Offsets spreading. — L.

Officinal Preparations. — Tinctures, triturations, and cerate.

Analogues. — Calendula, Symphytum, Pmonia(f).

Mouth.

° A sickly woman had, about the "change of life," a swelling on right margin of tongue, scirrhus, size of a small bean, with burning pain after shutting her mouth, occasionally bleeding, invariably at night; the swelling was not hard, but like a cyst; had two small knots, each size of a lentil. Over the swelling were three varicose veins. Two drops of the 2d, daily, reduced the tumor to one-third the size, in ten days: menstruation reappeared, continuing five days. Tumor diminished to the size of a small pea, and became gradually less sensitive.

0 Ulcer on the tongue, three-quarters to one-half inch deep, oval, sharp edges, hard foundation, of a bluish color, with four knots, size of lentils, two large veins, sensitive to touch and while eating. Local application reduced the size in a few days.

° A married woman, aged twenty-seven years, with a child of six months, had for ten days a pain under the tongue, impeding eating and talking. On the lower surface, near the root, was a bluish-white swelling, size of half a bean,, smooth, but hard, on either side a large vein. At one point a membranous exudation. Two doses of the 6x, one every other day, for four days; no pain. At the expiration of eight days, much smaller; producing menstruation in three weeks; remains only a somewhat; enlarged vein.

Shoulder.

0 After removal of a fatty tumor from the shoulder, the wound' did not heal. The ulcer was a perfect circle, shallow, as large as a silver half dollar; no pain, edges a little raised and rounded; pus greenish, scanty and thick. The whole sore was filled up with immense granulations, that hung.

Volume II — Special Therapeutics

The House-leek is a very old domestic remedy, used for nearly the same purposes as the Plantain (Plantago). It is applied to 'painful ulcers, boils, felons, and the like.

Several notable cases of ulcers in the mouth, suspiciously like cancer, have been reported cured by the local application and internal use ; also an ugly ulcer on the shoulder.

It is recommended for burns, erysipelas, warts, corns, and ringworms.

The thick, succulent leaves are full of a cool, mucilaginous juice, that would be grateful to an irritable, painful surface, and palliative if not curative.