Iberis amara

Volume I — Special Symptomatology

{Bitter Candy-tuft)

Description. — This plant has a herbaceous stem, about a foot in height; leaves lanceolate, acute, somewhat toothed; flowers white, in corymbs, becoming racemes. Silicles obcordate, narrowly emarginate; cells one seeded. A small annual, common to Europe, indigenous to England Cultivated in gardens in this country.

Officinal Preparations. — Tincture of the seeds; dilutions.

Analogues. — Amyydalis amara, Belladonna, Cactus grand., Digitalis, etc.

Mental Sphere.

Feels sad, down-hearted, oppressed, with desire to sigh.

A peculiar inability to fix the mind on an y one thing.

Very irritable, with dullness of mind and lack of memory;

forgets what is said in the lecture in a moment, unless

the mind is concentrated on it. Feels as if frightened; an indefinable dread, with trembling. An excited, frightened feeling, with cold sweat on the face.

Head.

Increased fullness (sensation of) in the neck and head, with

increased action of the heart. Heat, and fullness in neck and head, with flushed face, and

cold feet and hands. Pain in right side of the head. Frontal headache on rising in the morning. Severe frontal headache, with nausea and loss of appetite. Heaviness of the head, with roaring in the ears. Dull pain in the head, with vertigo and feverish chilliness. Vertigo when rising in the morning; had to lie down. Feeling of lightness and giddiness of the head. Vertigo when making any exertion, with slight nausea. Vertigo when standing, worse on stooping. Vertigo in back part of head, as if the occiput were turning

around.

Face.

Flushed, hot face and red eyes, with the palpitations. Cold sweat on face, with fearfulness.

Eyes.

Feeling in the eyes as if being forced outward. Eyes red, with flushed face.

Flashes before the eyes, with dull headache and palpitation of the heart.

Ears.

Roaring in the ears, with heaviness of the head, slight nausea,

and palpitation of the heart. Dullness of hearing and comprehension.

Throat.

Dryness of throat, as if filled with dust.

Throat feels as if both tonsils were enlarged.

Constant hawking up of thick, viscid, stringy mucus, until

after a meal. Choking sensation in throat, with fullness and heat. Choking sensation just above cricoid cartilage. Constrictive sensation in the throat, with stabbing pains in the

heart, dyspnoea and palpitation.

Gastric Symptoms. Loss of appetite, with feeling of indigestion. Sour eructations after eating, for hours. Nausea, with cold, chilly feelings over the body. Fullness and oppression on the right hypochondriac region. Pain in region of liver, with clay-colored stool.

Intestinal Symptoms. Tenderness of the bowels, with thin, whitish stool. Large, white or clay-colored stools. Fullness and distension of the bowels. Clay-colored stools, about ten minutes apart.

Urinary Organs. Frequent but scanty urination. Excessive evacuations of urine.

Respiratory Organs. Dryness in throat and larynx, with hawking up of thin,

stringy mucus, for many hours; (eating removes this

symptom.)

Tickling sensation in the throat, with expectoration of stringy mucus.

Tightness and constrictive feeling in the larynx. Respirations more frequent and labored; dullness of hearing.

Fullness in the chest, with fullness and heat in head and neck,

and flushed face. Dyspncea, and palpitation, on going up stairs. Constant desire to draw a long breath, without relief. Slight pain under sternum at articulation of third rib. Feeling of weight and pressure under the sternum, with sharp

pains in the chest (cardiac region). Fullness and constriction under the sternum, with lancinating

pains through the chest. Continual feeling of weight and anxiety in the chest.

Heart and Pulse. Increase of heart's action from seventy-two to eighty-eight (in

fifteen minutes). A wavy, tremulous sensation in the radial artery, felt by the

finger, with pulse intermitting every third beat, and easily

compressible; pulse has peculiar double beats, which

seemed to run into each other, but full, soft, and easily

compressed.

Palpitation of the heart on slight exertion, as when putting down a window (never had it before).

Palpitation, with vertigo and choking in the throat after walking, and on entering the house felt faint; a tingling and numbness commencing in fingers of left hand and gradually extending up left arm, with pulse irregular, tremulous, not well defined; also, a dull, heavy aching in. left arm (no perceptible palpitation, however).

Much pain over the base of the heart, with dull, heavy pain; in left arm, and tingling and numbness in the tips of the fingers.

• Palpitation, plainly visible on the whole chest, aggravated' by walking, passing off on sitting still, but renewed by the slightest exertion. {English physicians .)

Walking causes indescribable sensations under the sternum,, under articulation of third rib.

Sensation of weight and pressure in the region of the heart, with occasional sharp, stinging pains in that region, passing from before backwards, lasting but a short time,. 2i

attended by acceleration of heart's action from seventy to ninety-six.

The pulse rises from sixty to ninety-four in fifteen minutes after taking the drug, with slight pains in the region of the heart.

Pains darting through the heart at night in bed, worse when lying on left side.

Pains of a dull, dragging character in region of the heart, not relieved by any position, nor by pressure with the hand.

Sharp, sticking pain in the region of the heart, with constrictive sensation in throat; eyes red and face flushed.

On turning on left side at night, a sharp, sticking pain is felt, as if a needle were crosswise in the ventricles and pricked at each contraction.

• Palpitation, with marked increase of the force of the apexbeat, and irregular and jerking pulse, with a peculiar thrill under the finger. (Hale.)

Strong palpitation, with forcible impulse; the hand placed on the heart was visibly moved.

Palpitation when going up stairs (he was obliged to lie down), with dyspnoea and weak feeling.

Constant dull pain in the heart, worse when lying down.

Coughing, laughing, or slight exertion causes distressing palpitation, with increase of dull pain.

In one prover the cardiac symptoms lasted all day and night, and continued three days.

The attacks of palpitation and other cardiac symptoms occur within from five to fifteen minutes after each dose of the drug, and frequently pass away altogether within an hour. Physical Signs.

1. During the first part of the proving (Dodge's), no abnormal

sounds discoverable on auscultation.

1. About the middle of the proving, with the full intermittently-irregular pulse, auscultation revealed great excitement of the contractions at intervals of three or four beats, after which there was a much longer interval than usual before another pulsation.

2. Near the end of the proving, the sounds of the heart were

found to be increased in intensity, especially on the region of the semi-lunar valves.

During the whole of the proving (Sabin's), the force of the apex-beat was visibly increased, and the heart impulse visibly raised the hand when placed on the chest, and the pulse was hard and jerking, intermitting every third beat; rising from seventy}' to ninety.

Heart's action apparently weakened for the first few moments after taking the drug, but in ten minutes the pulse rose to one hundred, full and strong, but somewhat irregular

Heart's action weak and fluttering, with small, weak pulse. Extremities.

Trembling of lower extremities after exercise.

Dull aching in left arm, as if he had slept upon it all night.

Rheumatic pains in right shoulder.

Fever.

Feverish chilliness.

Quickly passing febrile paroxysms.

Conditions.

Cardiac symptoms better in afternoon, worse at night. Worse in warm room. Better in open air.

Sleep.

Sleep at night disturbed by all sorts of dreams — (unusual, aa I never dream).

Restless and continually turning in bed, with ludicrous dreams. Very restless night, with horrid dreams. Nervous and irritable on rising in morning.

Generalities. Feels weary, with desire to lie down. Feeling of nervous excitement in whole system. Feeling of inability to move even a finger. A feeling of lameness and soreness throughout the whole

body, as from a cold. Trembling sensation all over, so that he had to lie down. Desire for stimulants. Great weakness and debility. Looks as if he had been ill a good while.

[The Iberis was proven by students of Hahnemann College under my own directions. It will doubtless become a valuable cardiac remedy. — Hale.]

Volume II — Special Therapeutics

The Iberis (Candy-tuft) belongs to the family Cniciferce, of which Sinapis (Mustard), Raphanus (Radish), and Thlaspi (Shepherd’s purse), are members. Th e genus was named Iberus by Dioscorides, and the name is supposed to be derived from Iberia (Spain), its place of natural growth. The habitat of all but one species is the south of Europe. The Iberis amara is a native of England, and is found in great plenty in Berkshire. None of the species are North American.

The Lepidium boniraense of South America, a near relation of Iberus, has been proved bv Dr. Mure, of Brazil. Its heart symptoms are notable, and resemble those of the Iberis amara.

My attention was first called to this medicine by a brief observation in Wood’s “ Practice,” vol. ii, p. 184, where, in giving the treatment of hypertrophy of the heart, He mentions that “ Dr. Sylvester speaks highly of the Iberis amara in that disease. He gives the seeds, rubbed to powder with Cream of tartar, in doses of one to three grains. The remedy was first brought into notice by the late Dr. Williams, of London.”

Since my attention has been specially directed to cardiac diseases, I have frequently been tempted to prescribe Iberis, but we had no proving to guide me in its selection. But in the winter of 1871-72 I found three students in the class of Hahnemann Medical College who were willing to make provings of the drug. These provings fully verified the supposition that it had a specific action on the heart. They were published in the “ United States Medical and Surgical Journal/’ of 1872, pages 295-313. The pro vers were Drs. Sabin, Dodge, and Magee, and their principal symptoms agree very well.

The sphere of action of Iberis is undoubtedly upon the heart, and those organs most under its influence. In its affinity for the heart it may in time rival Digitalis, Cactus, Collinsonia, and Lycopus.

The primary effect of Iberis appears to be to lessen the force of the heart’s action without lessening its velocity. u It possesses the property of controlling the violence and sharp action of the heart, and softening the pulse; hence its great value in hypertrophy with dropsy.” (Sylvester.) The italics are my own ; they give standing to the provings, for you will observe that the pulse was softened in the provers, even during palpitations. Primarily, then, it depresses the force or impulse of the heart, when given in doses of one to three grains several times a day. It is to be presumed that the hypertrophy which it remedied in Dr. Williams’s practice was from thickening of the heart’s walls, a condition in which the impulse is powerful. Hypertrophy, with dilatation, has impulse not powerful, but with excessive action. While it was primarily homoeopathic to the latter condition, I think it would be secondarily indicated in the former, for if it depresses the heart for a long time, the reaction (or secondary effect) would be to the other extreme.

I imagine that it does not act on the accelerator or the retardator nerves of the heart, but either on the nerves which supply the heart with its force, or upon the ganglia of the heart itself.

One characteristic of the drug appears to be that its primary depressing action is rather transient ; the secondary, or exciting, more persistent.

Its action on the liver, kidneys, and chest, so far as the symptoms

go, appear to indicate that it acts like Digitalis. Like Digitalis, it causes severe vertigo and intermittent pulse, but does not cause the sloioing characteristic of Digitalis.

I have used it in a few cases of hypertrophy with dilatation , when there was excessive action without much force, vertigo, scanty urine, clay-colored stools, and troublesome cough. These symptoms it appeared to remove. I used the 3d dilution, in five-drop doses, every four hours.

In hypertrophy with enlargement, I should use it in the same doses of the 1st dilution or trituration of the seeds.

Dr. Williams used it successfully in asthma, probably cardiac dyspnoea; in bronchitis , perhaps from cardiac trouble; and dropsy , undoubtedly cardiac.

Dr. Sylvester says he has “prescribed it for ten years, in numerous instances, for these diseases, always with some benefit, and sometimes with almost magical efficiency.” He admits that in his doses it “occasionally induced giddiness, sickness (nausea), and diarrhoea.”

The ancients made much use of Iberis. Pliny says it was used in gout. Galen used it in “ rheumatic affections of the hip-joint.” Archigenes prescribed it in disease of the spleen and hip.

It is worth while to observe that the Nasturtium, a plant akin to Iberis, is used in dyspnoea. Many of the “Cresses” are used in asthma. Iberis is a cress.

It may be that it is specially homoeopathic to diseases of the heart of a rheumatic or gouty nature.

Theoretically I would advise you to try it in jaundice occurring in persons with heart disease; in bronchial cough from a similar cause; and in some congestions of the head in young persons about puberty, in elderly persons, or women at the change of life.

Since the provings were published, two years ago, no report of its clinical use has been made, nor have I heard of its use in other hands than mine.

I have been surprised at this, for our cardiac remedies are not many, and those we have are not fully developed.