Gelsemium Sempervirens gels.

CIRCULATION. BRAIN CORD: OCCIPUT. Base. Neck. MOTOR NERVES: MUSCLES. Knees. EYES (LIDS. VISION.) MUCOUS MEMBRANES: Nose. Gall-ducts. Right side.

EMOTIONS; DREAD. Surprise. Shock. Ordeals. Motion. Weather: SPRING. Foggy. HUMID. Muggy. Heat of summer. Periodically. Dentition. Tobacco. Gas.

Profuse urination. Sweating. Shaking. Alcoholic drinks. Mental effort.

ACHING, TIRED, HEAVY, WEAK AND SORE; < limbs. Grippe. Overpowering aching. Heavy single parts, heart, liver, etc. Lies quietly, half reclining. Nerve exhaustion. Dull, drowsy and dizzy. TREMOR; or twitches of single muscles, face, chin, tongue, etc.; wants to be held. Chorea, of pregnancy. Paretic effects; eyes, throat, anus, bladder, etc. Inco-ordination. Fulness. Passive congestion. Symptoms accompanied by vertigo, eye or visual effects, drowsiness or polyuria.

CONFUSED, dazed, apathetic, torpid, dull, drowsy and dizzy, or indifferent; answers slowly. DREAD of falling; of ordeals, death, pains, etc. VERTIGO; drunken; in occiput. Headache; dull, HEAVY, band-like, occipital, to over eyes; < tight hat; swelled feeling; basilar. Meningitis. Apoplexy. Suffused, sore, aching eyes. HEAVY, DROOPING EYELIDS. VISION; double; swimming; blind spells; affected, then migraine. Face full, dusky - red; heavy, expressionless; besotted. Ciliary neuralgia; pains into ears on swallowing. Pains to occiput. Nose stuffed. Sneezing; thin, acrid coryza. Sensation as of hot water flowing from the nostrils. Heavy tongue; thick speech. THIRSTLESS. Griping in gall-bladder. Copious, yellow stools. Painless, nervous diarrhœa. Rectal pains after labor. Clear, watery urine, > headache. Alternate pelvic and head symptoms. Atonic seminal losses. Heavy, sore uterus; it feels grasped. Dysmenorrhœa. Labor pains go up, backward or down thighs. Rigid os. Deep yellow leucorrhœa. Hoarse, during menses. Tiresome breathing. Chest; as of a lump behind sternum; congestion. Heart sore; threatens to stop, must move. Spine, dull pains up and down, > walking; with occipital pain. Pains under scapulæ. Hard ache in r. humerus. Wants hands in cool water. Heavy lower limbs. Weak knees, < descending. Tottering gait; can't direct his legs. Moist, yellow skin. DROWSINESS; starts on dropping to sleep. Heavy, stupid sleep. Full, round, soft pulse. Blood rushes from occiput to forehead. Visual disturbances, then chill. Chilly and achy; with languor (Sil.); mingled or alternating with heat; up and down back. Cold hands and feet. Heat with sopor. ABSENCE OF THIRST, or trembling. Cold sweat on genitals. Fevers; bilious-remittent; malarial; cerebro-spinal. Measles. Ebullitions and heats. Sluggish fever. Shuddering chill.

Complementary: Arg-n. Sep. Related: Con. Ign. Mur-ac. Nat-m. Sep. Ver-v.

For children, young people, especially women of a nervous, hysterical temperament (Croc., Ign.). Complete relaxation and prostration of whole muscular system with entire motor paralysis. Excitable, irritable, sensitive; for the nervous affections of onanists of both sexes (Kali p.). Bad effects from fright, fear, exciting news and sudden motions (Ign. - from pleasant surprise, Coff.). Fear of death (Ars.); utter lack of courage. The anticipation of any unusual ordeal, preparing for church, theatre, or to meet an engagement, brings on diarrhoea; stage fright, nervous dread of appearing in public (Arg. n.). General depression from heat of sun or summer. Weakness and trembling; of tongue, hands, legs; of the entire body. Desire to be quiet, to be let alone; does not wish to speak or have any one near her, even if the person be silent (Ign.). Vertigo, spreading from the occiput (Sil.); with diplopia, dim vision, loss of sight; seems intoxicated when trying to move. Children; fear of falling, grasp the crib or seize the nurse (Bor., Sanic.). Headache; preceded by blindness (Kali bi.), > by profuse urination. Lack of muscular co-ordination; confused; muscles refuse to obey the will. Headache: beginning in the cervical spine; pains extend over head, causing bursting sensation in forehead and eyeballs (Sang., Sil., begins in the same way, but semi-lateral); < by mental exertion; from smoking; heat of sun; lying with head low. Sensation of band around the head above eyes (Carb. ac., Sulph.); scalp sore to touch. Fears that unless on the move heart will cease beating (fears it would cease beating if she moved, Dig.). Slow pulse of old age. Great heaviness of the eyelids; cannot keep them open (Caust., Graph., Sep.). Chill without thirst, especially along spine, running up and down the back in rapid, wave-like succession from sacrum to occiput.

Compare: Bap. in threatening typhoid fever; Ipecac. in dumb ague, after suppression by quinine.

Damp weather; before a thunderstorm; mental emotion or excitement; bad news; tobacco smoking; when thinking of his ailments; when spoken to of his loss.

Bad effects from great fright or fear; threatened abortion from fright. (This Gelsem. fright is an awe-stricken feeling, a deep-seated fright or fear, that has made a deep impression.)

Loss of sight; eyes feel bruised: double vision; sensation of double vision controllable by the will, during pregnancy; appearance of smoke before the eyes, cannot see anything; pupils dilated.

Dull pain in back part of the head; headache with giddiness and faintness; pain in the neck, also in the limbs; drowsiness; sensation as though the skin at the middle of the forehead and about the face were contracted; also of contraction of the muscles of the face, particularly about the mouth, making it difficult to talk; spasmodic pains; bruised sensation all over the body, as if resulting from severe bodily exertion.

Does not wish to be spoken to; all exciting news cause diarrhœa; pulsations of the carotid arteries; sneezing; powerless condition of the lower extremities. Heat of the face with fulness of the head, and cold feet; putrid breath and fetid taste; frequent discharge of flatus with constipation. During parturition, when at every pain, with rigidity of the neck of the uterus, the pain strikes into the abdomen, above or below the navel, running from before, backward and upward; also, when the pain starts all right, then breaks and runs up the back, thus losing its efficacy. Respiration frequent and very unequal; coldness of the wrists and hands; hands dry and hot; especially the palms; delirium occurring soon as sleep comes on; waking from sleep with headache or colic; fevers, where muscular power is affected, patient feels so utterly without power.

Heaviness of the head, relieved after profuse emission of watery urine. Partial paralysis of the eyelids, tongue, or organs of deglutition. Fullness in head, heat of face, chilliness, thick speech, brain feels as if bruised. Diarrhoea after sudden emotions, as grief, fright, bad news, or the anticipation of an unusual ordeal. Inefficient labour pains, or none at all, or widely dilated, complete atony, or labour delayed by a rigid os. Fever beat with drowsiness. Sleep with half waking and murmuring frequently. Little thirst, feels very languid, and wants to lie still. Febrile chilliness, cold extremities, heat of the head and face.

Yellow Jasmine (GELSEMIUM)

Centers its action upon the nervous system, causing various degrees of motor paralysis. General prostration. Dizziness, drowsiness, dullness, and trembling. Slow pulse, tired feeling, mental apathy. Paralysis of various groups of muscles about the eyes, throat, chest, larynx, sphincter, extremities, etc. Post-diphtheritic paralysis. Muscular weakness. Complete relaxation and prostration. Lack of muscular co-ordination. General depression from heat of sun. Sensitive to a falling barometer; cold and dampness brings on many complaints. Children fear falling, grab nurse or crib. Sluggish circulation. Nervous affections of cigarmakers. Influenza. Measles. Pellagra.

Desire to be quiet, to be left alone. Dullness, languor, listless. "Discernings are lethargied. " Apathy regarding his illness. Absolute lack of fear. Delirious on falling to sleep. Emotional excitement, fear, etc, lead to bodily ailments. Bad effects from fright, fear, exciting news. Stage fright. Child starts and grasps the nurse, and screams as if afraid of falling (Bor).

Vertigo, spreading from occiput. Heaviness of head; band-feeling around and occipital headache. Dull, heavy ache, with heaviness of eyelids; bruised sensation; better, compression and lying with head high. Pain in temple, extending into ear and wing of nose, chin. Headache, with muscular soreness of neck and shoulders. Headache preceded by blindness; better, profuse urination. Scalp sore to touch. Delirious on falling asleep. Wants to have head raised on pillow.

Ptosis; eyelids heavy; patient can hardly open them. Double vision. Disturbed muscular apparatus. Corrects blurring and discomfort in eyes even after accurately adjusted glasses. Vision blurred, smoky (Cycl; Phos). Dim-sighted; pupils dilated and insensible to light. Orbital neuralgia, with contraction and twitching of muscles. Bruised pain back of the orbits. One pupil dilated, the other contracted. Deep inflammations, with haziness of vitreous. Serous inflammations. Albuminuric retinitis. Detached retina, glaucoma and descemetitis. Hysterical amblyopia.

Sneezing; fullness at root of nose. Dryness of nasal fossæ. Swelling of turbinates. Watery, excoriating discharge. Acute coryza, with dull headache and fever.

Hot heavy, flushed, besotted-looking (Bapt; Op). Neuralgia of face. Dusky hue of face, with vertigo and dim vision. Facial muscles contracted, especially around the mouth. Chin quivers. Lower jaw dropped.

Putrid taste and breath. Tongue numb, thick, coated, yellowish, tremble, paralyzed.

Difficult swallowing, especially of warm food. Itching and tickling in soft palate and naso-pharynx. Pain in sterno-cleido-mastoid, back of parotid. Tonsils swollen. Throat feels rough, burning. Post-diphtheritic paralysis. Tonsillitis; shooting pain into ear. Feeling of a lump in throat that cannot be swallowed. Aphonia. Swallowing causes pain in ear (Hep; Nux). Difficult swallowing. Pain from throat to ear.

As a rule, the Gelsemium patient has no thirst. Hiccough; worse in the evening. Sensation of emptiness and weakness at the pit of the stomach, or of an oppression, like a heavy load.

Diarrhœa from emotional excitement, fright, bad news (Phos ac). Stool painless or involuntary. Cream-colored (Calc), tea-green. Partial paralysis of rectum and sphincter.

Profuse, clear, watery, with chilliness and tremulousness. Dysuria. Partial paralysis of bladder; flow intermittent (Clematis). Retention.

Rigid os (Bell). Vaginismus. False labor-pains; pains pass up back. Dysmenorrhœa, with scanty flow; menses retarded. Pain extends to back and hips. Aphonia and sore throat during menses. Sensation as if uterus were squeezed (Cham; Nux v; Ustilago).

Spermatorrhœa, without erections. Genitals cold and relaxed (Phos ac). Scrotum continually sweating. Gonorrhœa, first stage; discharge scanty; tendency to corrode; little pain, but much heat; smarting at meatus.

Slowness of breathing, with great prostration. Oppression about chest. Dry cough, with sore chest and fluent coryza. Spasm of the glottis. Aphonia; acute bronchitis, respiration quickened, spasmodic affections of lungs and diaphragm.

A feeling as if it were necessary to keep in motion, or else heart's action would cease. Slow pulse (Dig; Kalm; Apoc; Can). Palpitation; pulse soft, weak, full and flowing. Pulse slow when quiet, but greatly accelerated on motion. Weak, slow pulse of old age.

Dull, heavy pain. Complete relaxation of the whole muscular system. Languor; muscles feel bruised. Every little exertion causes fatigue. Pain in neck, especially upper sterno-cleido muscles. Dull aching in lumbar and sacral region, passing upward. Pain in muscles of back, hips, and lower extremities, mostly deep-seated.

Loss of power of muscular control. Cramp in muscles of forearm. Professional neuroses. Writer's cramp. Excessive trembling and weakness of all limbs. Hysteric convulsions. Fatigue after slight exercise.

Cannot get fully to sleep. Delirious on falling asleep. Insomnia from exhaustion; from uncontrollable thinking; tobacco. Yawning. Sleepless from nervous irritation (Coffea).

Wants to be held, because he shakes so. Pulse slow, full, soft, compressible. Chilliness up and down back. Heat and sweat stages, long and exhausting. Dumb-ague, with much muscular soreness, great prostration, and violent headache. Nervous chills. Bilious remittent fever, with stupor, dizziness, faintness; thirstless, prostrated. Chill, without thirst, along spine; wave-like, extending upward from sacrum to occiput.

Hot, dry, itching, measle-like eruption. Erysipelas. Measles, catarrhal symptoms; aids in bringing out eruption. Retrocedent, with livid spots. Scarlet fever with stupor and flushed face.

Worse, damp weather, fog, before a thunderstorm, emotion, or excitement, bad news, tobacco-smoking, when thinking of his ailments; at 10 am. Better, bending forward, by profuse urination, open air, continued motion, stimulants.

Compare: Ignatia (gastric affections of cigarmakers); Baptisa; Ipecac; Acon; Bell; Cimicif; Magnes phos (Gelsem contains some Magnes phos). Culex--(vertigo on blowing the nose with fullness of the ears).

Antidotes: China; Coffea; Dig. Alcoholic stimulants relieve all complaints where Gelsem is useful.

Tincture, to thirtieth attenuation; first to third most often used.

Complete relaxation and prostration of the whole muscular system, with almost or entire motor paralysis. Eyelids droop; muscles refuse to obey the will.

Trembling of hands or lower extremities if he attempts to move; must lie still.

Mental faculties dull, cannot think; drowsy, with dull red face.

Susceptibility to mental disturbance, excitement or emotion; causes diarrhœa.

Dull, tired, prostrating headache at base of brain; wants head high, sometimes > by profuse urination.

Vertigo with blurred vision; dilated pupils; double sight; sense of intoxication.

Nervous chill, violent shaking with no sense of coldness.

Desire to be quiet; feels too weak to move.

Children: fear of falling, seize the nurse, grasp the crib, especially in intermittents.

Slow, weak pulse of old age.

Great heaviness of the eyelids; cannot keep them open.

Fears that unless constantly on the move, the heart will cease beating.

General deep-seated muscular pain with prostration (la grippe).

This remedy affects, primarily, the whole nervous system. the most prominent symptom, as we are in the habit of recording the effects of remedies, is "complete relaxation and prostration of the whole muscular system, with almost or quite entire motor paralysis." This muscular prostration seems to come through inability of the nerves to convey impressions; thus we have the symptom "muscles will not obey the will." This condition comes on gradually, the first symptom being a feeling of lassitude or general fatigue. He wants to lie down he feels so weak (Picric acid), and is inclined to drowsiness; the pulse becomes weak and slow, but is accelerated on the least motion. Then, if he attempts to walk, the legs tremble, or the hands tremble if he attempts to lift them, the tongue trembles if he attempts to protrude it; all this from weakness, both objective and subjective. If I were to put one adjective before this remedy to indicate its chief characteristic I would call it the trembling remedy. Sometimes this trembling is so severe as to actually shake the patient like a chill, but there is no chill, objective or subjective. This weakness may increase to the stage of complete paralysis, and such symptoms as these appear: The eyelids droop (Sepia, Caust.) until they are completely closed. The fingers become unmanageable, so that he can no longer guide them over the keys of the piano in playing; he cannot guide his feet where he wants to in trying to walk, notwithstanding the sensorium remains clear, with perhaps the exception of a little drowsiness. He knows perfectly well what he wants to do, it cannot do it.

Then again, there may be neuralgia in various parts, and the pains may be a dull aching all over (myalgia), or they may be sudden and darting, so acute as to cause sudden starting. Or, again, it may cause spasms or convulsions; but with all these there is the characteristic prostration, for instance, in prosopalgia the eyelids droop from weakness. So we repeat Gelsemium is pre-eminently a nerve remedy.

Having shown the central action of this great remedy as it manifests itself upon the nervous system, we will proceed to notice some of its local uses which will always be more or less associated with such action. Upon the mind it shows its depressing power, and is portrayed in such symptoms as these: The Gelsemium subject is torpid, sleepy and dreads movement. The mental faculties are dull, cannot think clearly or fix his attention: "desires to be quiet; does not wish to speak or have any one near her for company, even if the person be silent." This condition of mind is in perfect accordance with the general nervous prostration already described. This condition of mind sometimes is temporarily suspended to give place to an alternate condition of excitement. But this is not the leading, characteristic, and legitimate effect of the drug, but is only the reaction; like a state of sleeplessness is to the characteristic sleepiness or stupor of Opium. I consider the large doses of either remedy used by some to quiet excited conditions, or to control spasms or convulsions by their toxic, depressing, or paralyzing action on the muscular system, antipathyc and in no way truly curative.

There is an excessively sensitive condition of the nerves that is very peculiar, and that this remedy controls markedly, viz., susceptibility to mental disturbance, such as sudden excitement or emotion, bad news or fright, the anticipation of an unusual ordeal. One of the effects following these things is a diarrhœa. Many people are thus affected. Gelsemium not only cures the diarrhœa for the time being, but often cures the whole abnormal condition. I have never known the remedy to do much good in these conditions below the 30th potency, but often in the potencies much above that.

As would be naturally supposed from its general action upon the nervous system, this remedy exerts a decided influence upon the sensorium and brain. Dizziness, with blurred vision, pupils dilated, double sight and sense of intoxication, show this influence. One very characteristic symptom appears here which is found under only one other remedy with any prominence, viz., "child starts and grasps the nurse and screams, as if afraid of falling." If there is any difference between it and Borax, it is that in Borax the child manifests this fear only when it is being laid down in the cradle, or from downward motion.

The most characteristic headache of Gelsemium is a dull, tired headache at the base of the brain. The patient wants to lie with head raised upon a high pillow, and lie perfectly still. It is aggravated by mental labor, smoking tobacco, lying with the head low, and in the heat of the sun. (Glonoine, Lachesis, Lyssin, Natrum carb.). It is temporarily ameliorated by pressure and stimulants. Such headaches often follow a debauch. Sometimes we have a headache from passive congestion; then the pain begins in the occiput and spreads all over the head. The aggravations are about the same as in the other variety, or nervous headache. One notable characteristic is that sometimes the headache is relieved by a profuse flow of urine. (Lac defloratum has a profuse flow of urine during sick headache to which it is adapted, but the pain is not so markedly relieved by the flow). Gelsemium has also a sick headache that is preceded by blindness. As the head begins to ache the blindness disappears. The sick headache of this remedy is not accompanied with much nausea and vomiting, as is that of Sanguinaria, Iris versicolor and Lac defloratum, but is accompanied by the characteristic weakness and trembling belonging to this remedy. Gelsemium is one of the so-called fever remedies. It is useful in the remittent fever of children. The fever is never of that active or violent form calling for Aconite or Belladonna, but of a milder form. The child lies drowsy, does not want to move, or, if it does, cannot move much on account of the weakness. One author says that Gelsemium stands midway between Aconite and Veratrum viride. I should rather place it between Baptisia and Belladonna. Like Baptisia, there is prostration, but the typhoid tongue and other symptoms are not so strong. There may be dark red face with both and a sort of besotted expression; but with Baptisia the sensorium comes more fully under the influence of the drug, so that the patient will fall asleep even when trying to answer questions. Then the offensive sweat, stool and urine of Baptisia are not found under Gelsemium. Like Belladonna, there is congestion to the brain and dilated pupils, but it is not so intense, accompanied by active or violent delirium as with Belladonna. Gelsemium is not a very great intermittent fever remedy; but is one of the best for nervous chill (Gelsemium chills run up and down the back in wave-like succession from sacrum to occiput; chill begins between scapulæ, Capsic., Sepia; chill begins in lumbar region, Eupat. purp. and Nat. m.; chill begins in dorsal region, Eupat. perf., Lach.); when there is great shaking and chattering of the teeth, with no objective, or even sense of coldness. Patient wants to be held because he shakes so." This kind of chill is frequently found in hysterical, and heart diseases (organic). The pulse of Gelsemium is slow when quiet, but greatly accelerated on motion. For the weak, slow pulse of old age there is no remedy oftener useful. For the nervous prostration already described, just preceding typhoid, there is nothing like Gelsemium. I have aborted many cases of typhoid fever with this remedy -at least I think so.

Great irritability, does not wish to be spoken to. Vivacity, carelessness, followed by depression of spirits. Unconnected ideas ; cannot follow an idea for any length of time ; if he attempts to think consecutively he is attacked by a painful vacant feeling of the mind. Stupor, cannot open the eyes. Sensation of intoxication with diarrhœa. Confusion ; when attempting to move, the muscles refuse to obey the will ; head giddy. Every exciting news ; causes ; diarrhœa ; bad effects from fright and fear.

Staggering as if intoxicated when trying to move. Giddiness as if intoxicated, as if should fall clown. Giddiness with loss of sight, chilliness, accelerated pulse, dulness of vision, double vision. Fulness in the head with heat in the face and chilliness. Great heaviness of the head, relieved by profuse micturition. Pain as from a tape around the head. Dull pain in the back part of the head after breakfast worse when moving and stooping. Sensation as if the brain were bruised. With the headache giddiness, faintiness, pain in the neck, pulsation of the carotid arteries, pain in the limbs, great drowsiness, sneezing, double vision, loss of sight. Sensation of contraction of the skin in the middle of the forehead. Itching on the head (face neck, shoulders), preventing sleep.

Eyes feel bruised. Yellow color of the eyes. Great heaviness of the eyelids, cannot keep the eyes open. Fulness and congestion of the eyelids ; ; paralysis of the eyelids. Double vision controllable by the strength of the will, or when looking sideways, not when looking straight forward. (During pregnancy). Distant objects ; look obscure. Appearance like smoke before the eyes. Dimness of vision (during pregnancy). Cannot see any thing (complete blindness). Pupils dilate. Aversion to light, -more to candle-light.

Sudden loss of hearing (deafness) ; for a short time.

Sneezing followed by tingling and fulness in the nose. Sneezing with fluent coryza ; profuse watery discharge excoriates the nostrils. Sensation of fulness at the root of the nose extending to the neck and clavicles.

Heavy, dull expression of the countenance. Yellow color of the face. Paleness and nausea. Heat of the face with fulness in the head and cold feet. Erythema of the face and neck. The muscles of the face seem to be contracted, especially around the mouth, making it difficult to speak. Stiffness of the jaws, the jaws are locked. Lips dry, hot and coated.

Saliva colored yellow as from blood. Sticky feverish feeling in the mouth. Putrid taste and fetid breath. The tongue is coated yellowish-white with fetid breath. Thick coating of the tongue (during the chill). Tongue red, raw, painful, dry, inflamed in the middle. Paralysis of the tongue (glottis and eyelids). Dryness and burning in the throat. Dry roughness in the, throat when coughing. Dryness of the throat with hoarseness. Sensation of heat and constriction in the throat. Burning in the mouth extending to the throat and stomach. Sensation as if a foreign body were lodged in the throat. Difficult deglutition (paralytic dysphagia).

Thirst (during the perspiration). Increased appetite, or easily satisfied with small quantities of food. Sour eructations. Nausea (with giddiness and headache). Sensation of emptiness in the stomach. Burning in the stomach extending to the mouth. Gnawing pain in the transverse colon. Sudden spasmodic pains ; in the upper part of the abdomen, compelling him to cry, leaving a sensation of contraction. Sensation of soreness in the abdominal walls. Bumbling in the abdomen with discharge of wind above and below. Periodical colic with diarrhœa. (Yellow discharges setting in the evening).

Frequent discharge of flatulency. The soft stool is passed with difficulty, as if the sphincter ani resisted the passage by contraction. Paralysis of the sphincter ani, with disposition to prolapsus ani. Stool is loose, color of tea, dark-yellow. Diarrhœa with intermittent fever.

Frequent micturition (relieving the headache).

Men. Genitals cold and relaxed. Involuntary emissions, without erections. Painful redness at the urethra. (Secondary gonorrhœa). Women. Sensation of heaviness in the uterus. Suppressed menstruation with convulsions (every evening). Rigidity of the neck of the uterus. Spasmodic labor-pains. During pregnancy, violent pains in the uterus, headache, drowsiness, double vision, obscuration of sight, giddiness, pulsation of the carotid arteries, small slow pulse. Premature labor (abortion) (after fright).

Voice weak. Paralysis of the glottis with difficult deglutition. Spasm of the glottis evening, threatening suffocation. Roughness of the throat, raw, as ; if ulcerated in the larynx-bronchitis. Hoarseness with dryness of the throat. Burning in the larynx, descending into the trachea. Heaviness ; in the middle of the chest (afternoon). Sensation of constriction in the lower thorax. Stitches in the chest (right side), heart. Dry cough with soreness of the chest and fluent coryza. Pain in the heart when rising from a seat. Breathing frequent.

Pulsation of the carotid arteries (during pregnancy). The muscles of the neck feel bruised. Sensation of constriction in the right side of the neck. Pain in the neck under the left shoulder blade.

Upper. In the shoulders pain during the night. Sensation as if the right elbow were sprained. Pain in the elbow (left) from draught of air (at night). Pain as if sprained in the right wrist. Trembling of the hands when lifting them up. Coldness of the wrist and hands. Hot dry hands, especially the palms of the hands. Lower. Unsteady gait. Loss of the voluntary motion. Violent lancinating pain in the thigh. Rheumatic pains during the night in the knees. Sudden dislocation or slipping of the knee-pain (during breakfast). The calves of the legs feel bruised, pain at night. Cold feet. Spasmodic contraction of the toes.

Sleepiness and long continued sleep. As soon as he goes to sleep he is delirious. Yawning. Cannot to sleep on account of violent itching on the head, face, neck and shoulders. He wakens from headache or colic.

Paralytic affections, muscles weak and will not obey the win. Rheumatic pains (wandering) in the bones and joint (night). Spasmodic contractive pains. Sensation as if bruised.

Pulse slow, accelerated by motion. Limbs cold with oppressed breathing. Cold hands and feet. In the evening, when entering the warm, room, thirst, pain in the back and loins and in the lower part of the thigh. Chilliness in the upper part of the body, back. Chilliness every day at the same hour. Chilliness especially in the morning. Nervous chill, the skin is warm ; wants to be held that he may not shake so much. Chill with cold hands feet and headache. Chill with weak pulse. Coldness of the feet as if the were in cold water, with heat in the head and face and headache. Chill followed by heat and later by perspiration. Heat principally on the head and face. Profuse perspiration relieving the pains. Perspires freely from slight exertion.

Papulous eruptions ; resembling measles especially on the face. Itching on the head, face, neck and shoulders. Skin hot and dry.

Smoking tobacco aggravates the headache. Bad effects from suddenly hearing bad news ; from fright ; and from thence, diarrhœa, abortion.

Gelsemium sempervirens. G. Lucidum. G. Nitidum. Bignonia sempervirens. Yellow jessamine. N. O. Loganiaceæ. Tincture of the bark of the root.

Amaurosis. Anterior crural neuralgia. Aphonia. Astigmatism. Bilious fever. Brain, affections of . Cerebro-spinal meningitis. Choroiditis. Colds. Constipation . Convulsions. Deafness. Dengue fever . Diarrhœa. Diphtheria Dupuytren's contraction . Dysentery. Dysmenia . Emotions, effects of. Epilepsy. Eyes, affections of. Fever . Fright. Gonorrhœa. Hay-fever. Headache . Heat, effects of. Heart, diseases of. Hydro-salpingitis. Hysteria. Influenza. Intermittent fever. Jaundice. Labour. Liver, affections of. Locomotor ataxia. Mania. Measles. Meningitis. Menstruation, painful ; suppressed. Metrorrhagia. Myalgia . Neuralgia. Nystagmus. Œsophagus, stricture of. Paralysis . Paralysis agitans. Paraplegia. Pregnancy, albuminuria of. Ptosis. Puerperal convulsions. Remittent fever . Retina, detachment of. Rheumatism. Sexual excess, effects of. Sleep, disordered . Spasms. Sun-headache. Sunstroke. Teething. Tic-douloureux. Tobacco, effects of. Tongue, affections of . Toothache. Tremors. Uterus, affections of. Vertigo. Voice, loss of . Writer's cramp.

Gelsemium , which belongs to the same order of plants as Nux vomica and Curare , is not only one of the most important additions to the materia medica for whose introduction we are mainly indebted to Hale, but it is also in the first rank of importance among the vegetable polychrests. A drug is of importance in homœopathy not so much by reason of the great number of the symptoms it causes, as by possessing a number of well-marked and clearly characterised symptoms which correspond to symptoms constantly met with in every-day practice. It was this which at once gave Gelsem . a place among the polychrests of homœopathy. Like its botanical relatives, Gelsem . is a great paralyser. It produces a general state of paresis, mental and bodily. The mind is sluggish; the whole muscular system is relaxed; the limbs feel so heavy he can hardly move them. This condition exists in the cases of typhoid that call for it; the lassitude is expressed by the patient; with Mur. ac . there is the lassitude, but the patient does not express it. The same paretic condition is shown in the eyelids, causing ptosis; in the eye muscles, causing diplopia; in the œsophagus, causing loss of swallowing power; in the anus, which remains open; in diarrhœa from depressing emotions or bad news; in relaxation of the genital organs. Functional paralyses of all descriptions. This is shown again in some features of the headaches. They are accompanied by blurring of the sight, and relieved by a copious discharge of watery urine from a paretic condition of the kidneys. Conversely there may be a desire to urinate during the night, and if the call is not immediately responded to a violent headache supervenes. Post-diphtheritic paralysis; debility after pollutions; great prostration from irritability of seminal vesicles. The mental prostration is typified in "funk," as before an examination, stage-fright, effects of anger, grief, bad news, and is accompanied by drooping eyelids. Alcoholic stimulants relieve all complaints where Gels . is useful. Hysterical dysphagia or aphonia, after emotions. Measles and eruptive disorders, with drowsy state, stiff used face, and even convulsions. Convulsions are no less marked in Gels . than paralyses. Erskine White ( H. W ., xxxii. 501) cured an infant born in convulsions three weeks after its mother had been terribly frightened by seeing her little brother nearly burnt to death. The only guiding symptom was "the child's chin quivered incessantly ." In thirty seconds after the dose the quivering ceased; in three minutes the convulsions were at an end. White had to ride twelve miles over mountains to reach the patient after receiving the summons, so the convulsions must have lasted a considerable time. Tremor is a keynote of the remedy. Gels . is adapted to children and young people; to persons of a nervous, hysterical temperament; to irritable, sensitive, excitable people. The following provings related by Dr. George Logan, of Ottawa ( Med. Adv ., xxiii. 125) show the power Gels . has over the mental sphere. The subject of the first was Mrs. Logan, who describes her experience thus:-

"A few moments after taking the medicine there is an extreme feeling of restlessness — not able to be still for a second, keep turning and twisting all the time. This is succeeded by intense pain over the right eye, always the right; it seems as if my forehead would come right over my eyes and close them; my eyes feel as if they were turning into my head, roll up all the time. Then a strong inclination to commit suicide. Want to throw myself from a height; invariably think of going to the window and dashing myself down — feel as if it would be a relief. This is succeeded by an inclination to weep, and I generally have a good cry, but before I cry and while the feeling lasts of wishing to throw myself from a height, I clench my hands, and nervous rigors or sensations run all over my body down to my fingers and toes; it seems as if I would lose my senses. Then a great dread of being alone seizes me, and I am afraid of what may happen; think I may lose all self-control. The pain still continues over the right eye, and often the back part of my head seems to have a spot about four inches square that is turning to ice. These feelings are followed by a strong inclination to talk or write, very great exhilaration, and a better opinion of my mental capacity — indeed it seems as if my memory was better, that I can recall almost anything I ever read; nearly always repeat long passages of something to myself that I have read years before. It appears to me that I can remember almost anything I love to recall. Now this is my invariable experience whenever I take Gelsemium — no matter whether in the 3rd or 1,000th potency — and I have been in the habit of using it for twenty years. I am writing this under the influence of the drug. I could not give the symptoms so accurately at any other time. As I am getting over the effects of the drug I have to urinate every few minutes. While suffering I like to have people in the room — have a perfect horror of being alone. I find Cinchona an antidote for most of the symptoms, but it leaves me much exhausted, thoroughly tired, and with a wish to be quiet."

Dr. Logan adds that he first gave the patient Gels . 2 for insomnia and headache. It produced the symptom "wishing to throw herself from a height" so markedly that he was alarmed lest she should carry it out. A year or two after, wishing to give the remedy again, he gave two pellets of the 30th — with the same result. He next prescribed the 1,000th, and the result of that was the proving now related. Here is the second case in Dr. Logan's words: —

" I gave Mr. Dorion, since Dr. Dorion, of St. Paul, five or six, drops of Gelsemium 1st for some ailment the nature of which I fail now to remember. Within a few hours after taking the Gelsemium I was sent for to see Mr. Dorion, who, I was told, was 'insane.' He was brandishing a sword in a threatening manner, and frightening all the occupants of the house. On my arrival at his room I found him in the position of 'shouldering arms' with his sword. I playfully admired his military appearance, and thus secured the dangerous weapon, very much to the relief of his fellow-boarders. It then occurred to me that the symptoms were produced by Gelsemium , and placing him in charge of one of the boarders, I returned to my office in order to procure the antidote, of which I was unaware at the time. I gave Cinchona 30 each half-hour, which, in the course of two or three hours brought him all right again." J. H. Nankivell drank two ounces of tincture of Gelsem . instead of a glass of sherry. He walked a few feet with assistance and in another minute his legs were paralysed. He dragged himself to the bedside with his arms, but they were unable to help him to bed, into which he had to be lifted. As long as he lay quiet there was no trouble, but on the least exertion there were excessive tremors. Vomiting occurred during the next twenty-four hours. Temperature rose to 101.5° F. Heart's action very violent and intermittent (possibly an aggravation of existing disease). All the muscles of the eyes were affected, but of voluntary muscles those of the right side suffered most. Prolonged conversation involved paralysis of upper lip. There was somnolence; absence of mental excitement; and good appetite. The effects passed away in the order of occurrence, from below upwards; but after the arms had recovered, vision was not perfect for twenty-four hours. A patient of mine once took a drachm of the tincture for a headache. On going out he could not tell which side of the street he was on. He was near St. Paul's Cathedral and saw two cathedrals instead of one. The following case of poisoning was recorded by Dr. Edward Jepson ( Brit. Med. Jour ., Sept. 19, 1891, p. 644). Although Gels . was given with other drugs, and on the last occasion with one of its antidotes (quinine), which probably saved the patient's life, the symptoms are unmistakably those of Gels .:-

"About two months ago Miss W., aged about forty, an inmate of my house, was seized with very severe neuralgia about both temples. I gave her tincture of Gelsemium 10 minims, with a bismuth mixture to be taken every two or three hours. After taking this for about a day and obtaining no relief — but rather she grew worse, being, as is described, 'nearly mad with pain' — I gave her the full dose of the tincture of Gelsemium , according to Squire's Companion of the Pharmacopœia , 1882, and Whitla's Materia Medica , third edition, namely, 20 minims in a quinine mixture. This was taken every three hours, but with only moderate relief, three or four doses having been taken during the night. At about eight o'clock the following morning Miss W. was able to speak pretty well, and said she thought she was better. At about nine o'clock she was speechless and in the greatest distress of mind and body; there was total loss of power in the tongue; it could not be protruded, she could not articulate, and with very great difficulty could she swallow the brandy and water we forced upon her. There was alteration in vision; she could not distinguish us clearly, and the pupils were widely dilated. She had uncertain power over the muscles of the hand and arm, so that she could not write her name. All this time she was perfectly conscious, and nodded her head in answer to questions. She was greatly alarmed as to herself, and, as she informed us afterwards, she thought she was about to have a fit. Not knowing of any special antidote for Gelsemium , and seeing that there was no time to lose if we wanted to avert any increase of the paralysis, it fortunately came into my mind to give her a subcutaneous injection of Strychnine , using 1 minim of the liquor Strychninæ , or 1-120th part of a grain. Ten minutes after this the change for the better was most marked; there was return of power in the tongue and in the hands, and an improvement in the vision. . . . I again injected a minim of the Strychnine , and with further improvement in the condition of the patient. After this she took food and stimulants, and all paralysis disappeared. The vision was not perfectly restored for some hours, the pupils being less dilated. She had some return of the neuralgia, and was very weak for a few days, but eventually she quite recovered, and has had altogether better health since this event than she had prior to it." Gelsem . in the attenuations is a great neuralgic remedy. I have cured among other cases one of neuralgia of the anterior crural nerve. The paralysis of the tongue recalls another condition, trembling of the tongue, which is one indication for Gels . in typhoid, in which it is a leading remedy. The tongue is only thinly coated, and has not the dark streak of the Bapt . tongue. The Gels . face is flushed crimson, but not quite as besotted as that of Bapt . There is excessive weakness and trembling, but the consciousness is not so clouded. In coryza and hay fever Gels . has an important place. Early morning sneezing and streaming colds are a strong indication. The characteristic headache of Gels . begins in the occiput and spreads over the whole head, settling down over eyes. Dizziness and dim vision, and dizziness rising up from occiput and spreading over whole head, with depression, from heat of summer. Headache with stiff neck, < in morning; > urinating; preceded by blur before eyes, drowsiness with headache, difficulty in keeping eyes open, dull headache over eyes to vertex and occiput, with irregular action of eye-muscles. Neurotic symptoms in cigar-makers, impotence, palpitation. Many symptoms occur in connection with the sexual organs, male and female. [J. H. Allen ( H. P ., xiii. 244) cured a case of hydrosalpingitis, of gonorrhœal origin, with Gels . 1m. The symptoms were: Feeling of fulness and heaviness in uterine region, cramp-like pains during menses, sharp pains moving from uterus to back and hips. A languid aching in back and hips a day or so before menses; great weakness and loss of power in lower extremities; very little pain after menses began. Lump in throat which she cannot swallow. After menses, pains in back of head and spine. Pains running up back of neck, with a feeling of tightness in the brain; irritable, easily angered. Fever in afternoon, twitching of muscles. Menses last eight days; for first three days appear natural, but afterwards very light-coloured, like serum. The tumour, which was in the left side of abdomen, disappeared in three months, improvement having set in from the first.] Dysmenia; epileptiform convulsions at menstrual period; rigid os in labour; chill, beginning in hands; or feet; and running up back. There is < both before, during, and after menses. Itching of skin; eruption like measles. Sensations of lightness: of head, of body. Sensation as if the head were enlarged; as if there were a tape round the head; as if the skin were contracted in the middle of the forehead; sensation from throat up into left nostril like a stream of scalding water; sensation as if a lump were in œsophagus; load in stomach as if stomach were quite gone; as if the uterus were squeezed by a hand; as if he would die; as if the blood ceased to circulate as if the heart would stop unless he kept moving; as if a knife were thrust through from occiput to forehead; as if eyes were jumping out of head; as if a lump were in throat which could not be swallowed. The stools of Gelsem ., whether loose or constipated, are mostly yellow, like the flower. The colour comes out also in the colour of the tongue, and bilious symptoms generally. Wants to lie down and rest. Wants to be held, that he may not shake. Motion < most symptoms; > muscular pains; > heart. Rising from seat = pain in heart. Shaking head > heaviness of head. Lifting arms = trembling of hands. Playing piano = tired sensation in arms. (J. G. Blackley pointed out the suitability of Gels . to writer's cramp and professional paralyses. I have relieved with it cases of Dupuytren's contraction.) Great distress and apprehensive feeling at approach of a thunderstorm. Heat of sun or summer < . Hot applications > pain back of head. Must be covered in all stages of the paroxysm. Complaints from sudden change from hot or dry to damp air. Catarrh occurring in warm, moist, relaxing weather. < Damp weather; cold, damp atmosphere; > cold, open air; < from fog. Cold drinks are vomited immediately; warm or spirituous drinks can partially be swallowed. " > From stimulants" is a very general characteristic.

Continue in Clarke 27 more passages →

Cataleptic immobility, with dilated pupils, closed eyes, but conscious.
Stupid, comatose condition attending typhoid fever.
Torpor, sleepiness, and dread of movement.
Stupor, cannot open the eyes.
Unconsciousness.
After losing son, inclined to brood over her loss ; at times becomes unconscious, or, rather, "rapt", in imagination thinks herself at the grave ; smothered pressure on chest after the spell.
Dulness of all the mental faculties.
Dulness of mind, > after profuse emission of watery urine.
Incapacity to think or fix the attention.
Unconnected ideas, cannot follow any idea for any length of time ; if he attempts to think consecutively, he is attacked by a painful, vacant feeling of the mind. θ Yellow fever.
Delirium in sleep, half waking, with incoherent talk.
Sensation of intoxication with diarrhœa.
Confusion ; when attempting to move, the muscles refuse to obey the will ; head giddy.
Paroxysms of frenzy ; eyes red, protruding and ghastly, hair dishevelled and wild demeanor ; talking and singing alternately ; hands, feet and head alternately hot and cold ; tongue much coated ; constipation ; appetite capricious. θ Acute
mania after melancholia.
Loquacity ; brilliant eyes ; shooting through temples and nasal sinuses ; fever.
Starts up screaming.
Desires to be let alone ; irritable, sensitive.
Desires to be quiet, does not wish to speak, nor have any one near her for company, even if the person be silent.
Depression of spirits ; anxiety following a somewhat cheerful, careless mood.
Great depression of spirits in onanists, with confusion of mind and excessive languor.
Melancholy and desponding mood.
Solicitude about the present and the future.
Fear of death ; has no courage.
Anxiety ; incoherency of thought, aversion to study.
Great irritability, does not wish to be spoken to.
Nervous, irritable, easily angered.
Mental exertions cause a sense of helplessness from brain-weakness ; inability to attend to anything requiring thought.
Great lack of courage.
Every exciting news causes diarrhœa ; bad effects from fright and fear.
Bad effects from suddenly hearing bad news ; from fright ; diarrhœa, abortion, etc.
Nervous dread of appearing in public ; singers and speakers.
Complaints : from exciting or bad news ; sudden emotions ; the anticipation of any unusual ordeal ; general depression from heat of sun or summer.
Effects of grief ; cannot cry ; < when thinking of his symptoms, also when spoken to of his loss ; > from diverting talk ; oppression and palpitation of heart ; feels a sense of peril ; face flushed ;
sleeplessness ; subdued manner ; sensation of soreness about heart.

Head feels light and large, with vertigo.
Lightness of head : with vertigo ; with dimness of vision ; < by sudden movement of head and walking.
Heaviness of head, with dulness of mind, dimness of sight and vertigo ; swimming sensation in head, vertigo on rapid movement.
Heaviness of head, > after profuse emission of watery urine.
Fulness in head, with heat in face and chilliness.
Dizziness of head and blurring of vision, gradually increasing, all objects appear very indistinct.
Vertigo, confusion of head, spreading from occiput over whole head ; pupils dilated, dim sight ; general depression from heat of sun or summer.
Vertigo, dim vision, fever ; seems as if intoxicated when trying to move ; < from smoking.
Giddy, with loss of sight, chilliness, accelerated pulse ; dulness of sight, double sight.
When attempting to move, the muscles refuse to obey the will ; giddy, confused, lack of muscular co-ordination.
Child dizzy, when carried seizes hold of nurse, fearing that it will fall.
Patient appears intoxicated.
Staggering as if intoxicated when trying to move.
Sensation of falling, in children ; child starts and grasps nurse or crib, and screams out from fear of falling.
Serious attacks of vertigo, with dimness of vision and fever, appears like one intoxicated.

Continue in Hering 46 more passages →

If you will observe the weather conditions in sharp climates, such as Minnesota, Massachusetts and Canada, you will find that the cold spells are very intense and that people when exposed, come down with complaints very rapidly and violently.

That is the way the Bell. and Acon. cases come on, but Gelsemium complaints do not come from, such causes nor appear that way. Its complaints are more insidious and come on with a degree of slowness.

A Gels. cold develops as symptoms several days after the exposure, while the Acon. cold comes on a few hours after exposure. The Aconite child exposed during the day in dry, cold weather will have croup before midnight. But in the South diseases are very slow. Like the people themselves, their organs are very slow, and their reaction is slow.

Their colds are not taken from the violent cold, but from getting overheated. Hence, they take colds and fevers of a low malarial type; they have congestive headaches and congestive complaints that do not come on suddenly. When we think of the climate, and consider the people, and the pace of remedies, we see that Gels. is a remedy for warm climates, while Acon. is a remedy for colder climates.

Certain acute complaints in the North will be like Aconite, while similar complaints will have symptoms in the warmer climate like Gels. The colds and fevers of the mild winters will be more likely to run to this medicine, whereas the colds and fevers of a violent winter will be more likely to run to Bell. and Acon.

It is true that Acon. has complaints in hot weather, fevers and dysentery of hot weather, but they are different from the complaints of winter.

Gels. has been used mostly in acute troubles. In lingering acute troubles and in those resembling the chronic it is very useful, but in chronic miasms it is not the remedy. It is only a short-acting remedy, though slow in its beginning. In this it is like Bryonia. Bry. complaints come on slowly, and hence it is suitable for fevers coming on in the southern climate, but it also has sudden violent complaints, though not to the extent we find in Bell.

The complaints of Gels. are largely congestive. Cerebral hyperemia, determination of blood to the brain and to the spinal cord. The extremities become cold and the head and back become hot. The symptoms are manifested largely through the brain and spinal cord. In connection with brain affections there are convulsions of the extremities, crampings of the fingers and toes and of the muscles of the back.

Coldness of the fingers and toes; sometimes the extremities are icy cold to the knees, while the head is hot and the face purple. During the congestion the face is purple and mottled. The eyes are engorged, the pupils dilated (sometimes contracted), the eyes are in a state of marked congestion with lachrymation and twitching.

The patient feels dazed and talks as if he were delirious; incoherent, stupid, forgetful. It is like this in intermittent fever that gradually develops towards a congestive chill. Great coldness running up the back from the lower part of the spine to the back of the head. Shuddering, as if ice were rubbed up the back.

The pains also extend up the back. With the coldness of the extremities, the very dark red countenance, the dazed condition of the mind, the glassy eyes and dilated pupils, we have the neck drawn back and rigidity of the muscles of the back of the neck, so that the neck cannot be straightened, and there are violent pains up the back and coldness in the spine.

This state would remind one of cerebro-spinal meningitis. Pain in the base of the brain and in the back of the neck. With all states there is a very hot skin and a high temperature, with coldness of the extremities. Sometimes the troubles are ushered in with a violent chill.

This is a very important remedy to study when such symptoms are present in intermittents and in a few days the tongue begins to coat, nausea comes on, ending in vomiting of bile, and instead of there being an intermission a continued fever extends from one paroxysm into another, with a higher temperature in the afternoon.

The chill practically subsides, leaving a state which has the appearance of typhoid, with dry tongue, not much thirst and marked head symptoms, dazed in mind. If this continues many days delirium and all the features of typhoid will come on and the fever will change its type altogether from the intermittent to the continued.

In congestive chill with high temperature occurring in the afternoon, the chill part of it subsiding and the fever becoming continued, Gels. is a useful remedy. It is also a very important remedy in afternoon fevers without chill in infants and in children. You will find in malarial districts that it is a common thing for the infants to have remittent attacks, while the adults are having intermittents. it is only occasionally that you will see a child or infant shake with a distinct chill, but they often go into a remittent fever, an afternoon fever which will subside along towards morning, to be followed the next afternoon by fever. With Gels. the child will lie as still as in Bry. but there is more congestion to the head there is the dark red face and duskiness like Bry.

Running through the febrile complaints, in the spinal meningitis, in congestion of the brain, in intermittents or remittents that change to a continued fever, and even in a cold when the patient is sneezing and has hot face and red eyes, there is one grand feature, viz., a feeling of great weight and tiredness in the entire body and limbs.

The head cannot be lifted from the pillow, so tired and so heavy is it, and there is such a great weight in the limbs. The Bry. patient lies quietly because if lie moves the pains are worse. He has an aversion to motion, because he is conscious that it would cause an increase of suffering.

The heart is feeble and the pulse is feeble, soft and irregular. There is palpitation during the febrile state. Palpitation, with weakness and irregularity of the pulse. There is a sense of weakness and goneness in the region of the heart, and this weakness and goneness often extend into the stomach, involving the whole lower part of the left side of the chest and across the stomach, creating a sensation of hunger, like Ignatia and Sepia. There is a hysterical element running through Gels. and it has the nervous hunger, or gnawing.

There are cardiac nervous affections like Digitalis, Cactus and Sepia. Sepia is not known to be as great a heart remedy as Cactus, but it has cured many cases of heart troubles. Sepia has cured endocarditis, and a remedy that will take hold in endocarditis and root it out must be a deep acting remedy. He feels that if he ceases to move the heart will cease to beat.

The headaches are of the congestive type. The most violent pain is in the occiput, and it is felt sometimes as a hammering. Every pulsation is felt like the blow of a hammer in the base of the skull. These headaches are so violent that the patient can not stand up, but will lie perfectly exhausted, as if paralyzed from the pain. There is an occipital headache that compels walking or rolling the head.

There is commonly relief from lying in bed, bolstered up by pillows, with the head perfectly quiet The face is flushed and dusky and the patient is dazed. After the headache progresses a while, the whole head seems to enter into a state of congestion, there is one great pain, too dreadful to describe, and the patient loses his ability to tell symptoms and appears dazed; lies bolstered up in bed, eyes glassy, pupils dilated, face mottled, and extremities cold.

Gels. has also headaches of a neuralgic character in the temples and over the eyes, with nausea and aggravation from vomiting. The headache is relieved by passing a copious quantity of urine; that is, the urine which has probably been scanty becomes free and then the headache subsides.

There is much nervous excitement. Complaints from fear, from embarrassment, from shock that is attended with fear, from sudden surprises that are attended with fright. A soldier going into battle has an involuntary stool; involuntary discharges from fright and surprises accompanying fright. On becoming suddenly overwhelmed by some surprise he becomes faint, weak and exhausted, he becomes tired in all the limbs and unable to resist opposing circumstances. His heart palpitates. This is similar to Arg. nit. Arg. nit. has the peculiar condition that when dressing for an opera a sudden attack of diarrhea comes on, causing more or less sudden exhaustion, and she must go several times before she can finish dressing.

They who are to appear before an audience are detained because of a sudden attack of diarrhoea. A lady has an attack of diarrhoea when about to meet friends over whom she expects to become excited at the meeting. The anticipation brings on the diarrhoea. Such a state is Arg. nit. These medicines are so closely related to each other that there are times when they will appear to do the work of each other.

Then we have paralytic affections of the sphincters, and so with the febrile conditions there is involuntary loss of stool and urine. There is also paralytic weakness of the extremities and of the hands. With paralytic states there is aching along the spine and in the muscles of the back; drawing, cramping in the muscles of the back and aching under the left shoulder blade.

There are many disturbances of vision; double vision, dimness of vision, appearance of a gauze before the eyes; confusion of vision and blindness. These symptoms come on before going into attacks, in connection with chill, at the coming on of sick headaches and congestive headaches. All sorts of objects are seen; the field of vision appears full of black spots, or full of smoke or little waves of various colors. It is useful in inflammation of all the tissues of the eye and of the eyelids. The eyeballs oscillate laterally when using them.

Drooping of the eyelids or ptosis is a marked feature and is in its paralytic nature.

The muscles are relaxed, they do not hold the lids tip. The lids close when he is looking steadily; they simply fall down over the eyes.

The patient in general is thirstless, and it is the exception that there is much thirst. It has a profuse, exhaustive sweat and is aggravated from motion, or rather motion seems to be impossible. It seems that he is unable to move, that be is too weak to move, and this runs through all complaints. At times it is a remedy for coryza, with sneezing and running of water from the nose, with coldness in the extremities, and the trouble will go down into the throat and produce sore throat, with redness, tumefaction, enlargement of the tonsils, hot head and congested face.

With this, as with the other febrile conditions, there is heaviness of the extremities. The red face, the heaviness of the extremities and sore throat that has come on gradually, a little worse from day to day, until it has become a severe throat, will lead you to Gels., especially if there is paralytic weakness all over, and as the throat trouble progresses the food and drink come back through the nose.

This is due to a paralysis of the muscles of deglutition. The tongue also becomes paralyzed and don not perform its work in an orderly way. There are times when the paralytic weakness is not sufficiently marked to account for things seen, but there is an incoordination of muscles and he is awkward. He undertakes to, take hold of an article and takes hold of something else. When he does grasp his hands feel weak. He is awkward and clumsy and the muscles do this and that and something not ordered to do.

The trembling incoordination and paresis are especially noticed during high excitement and afterwards, and these states occur with the febrile condition and remain sometimes after. Useful in paralytic cases that begin with fevers. Tearing is felt in the nerves all over the body and seems to be due to an inflammatory condition. It has cured sciatica, with tearing pains, associated with great weakness of the limbs.

Loss of sensation is sometimes found; numbness of the end of the nose, of the ears, of the tongue, of the fingers, of the hands and feet, numbness, here and there, of the skin.

In the male, the sexual organs arc in the same condition as the patient in general. The semen dribbles away; there is impotency, no ability to perform the sexual act; the sexual organs are relaxed.

The sleep is greatly disturbed. He cannot go to sleep; every excitement keeps him awake. During marked febrile conditions he has a profound sleep or coma. When he is not in this comatose sleep during congestion he is in a state of nervous excitement in which he lies awake thinking, and yet thinks of nothing in particular, because his!mind will not work in an orderly way.

The symptoms of Gels. may be present in inflammation of any organ, uterus or ovaries, stomach, the lungs and of the rectum. It has congestion of organs, but it has also high grade inflammation. There is nothing peculiar in the inflammation itself that would indicate Gels., neither should Gels. ever be given because there is inflammation, but when the mental symptoms are present, the delirium, the flushed face, the determination of blood to the head with the cold extremities, the great heaviness of the limbs, the disturbance of sensation, the paralysis of sphincters, then Gels. would be good for inflammation of any organ of the body.

In a most distressing and violent, rapidly spreading erysipelas that seems destined to cause death in a few days all the symptoms point to Gels., and though Gels. may not have produced erysipelas, it will stop the progress of the disease in a few hours and the patient will go on to a quick recovery.

Many times when erysipelas has spread over the face and scalp and in the most dangerous manner with the dusky red color that belongs to Gels., and other symptoms such as I have described in a general way, Gels. has taken bold of the erysipelas and cured. If we master thoroughly the Materia Medica we do not stop to see if a remedy produces certain kinds of inflammation, etc., but we consider the state of the patient.

Adapted to children; young people; women of a nervous, hysterical temperament (Croc., Ign.); irritable, sensitive, excitable; onanists, both sexes (Kali p.).

Desire to be quiet, to be let alone, does not wish to speak, nor have any one near her for company, even if the person be silent (Ign.).

Fear of death (Ars.); utter lack of courage.

Weakness and trembling; of tongue, hands, legs; of the entire body.

Complaints: from exciting or bad news (from pleasant sur-prises, Coff.); sudden emotions (Ign.); the anticipation of any unusual ordeal brings on diarrhœa; stage fright, nervous dread of appearing in public (Arg. n.); general depression from heat of sun or summer.

Vertigo: spreading from the occiput (Sil.); with diplopia, dim vision, loss of sight; seems intoxicated when trying to move.

Children: fear of falling, seize the nurse, grasp the crib (Bor., San.).

Lack of muscular co-ordination (Kali br.); giddy, confused; muscles refuse to obey the will.

Headache: beginning in cervical spine; pains extend over the head, causing a bursting sensation in forehead and eyeballs (Sang., Sil., begin in same way, but are semi-lateral); worse from smoking; preceded by blindness (Iris, Kali bi., Lac d.,) > by profuse urination.

Sensation of a band around the head above the eyes (Carb. ac., Plat., Sul.); scalp sore.

Slow pulse of old age.

Great heaviness of the eyelids; cannot keep them open (Caust., Graph., Sep.).

Fears that unless constantly on the move, the heart will cease beating (would cease beating if she moved, Dig.).

Damp weather; before a thunder storm; sudden emotions; bad news; rest; smoking tobacco; thinking of his ailments; spoken to of his loss.

In the cold, open air.

Quotidian; tertian; same hour of the day with every paroxysm (Aran., Ced., Sabad.). Periodicity extends throughout its entire pathogenesis; all its fevers are of a regular type, but characterized by disorders of innervation. Simple uncomplicated cases. When the remittent takes on the intermittent type (reverse of Bap., Eup., Quin.). Malarial, yellow, typhoid.

Afternoon and evening paroxysm 2, 4, 5 and 9 P. M. Fever without chill at 10 A. M (Bap., Nat.). Daily, at same hour.

Sudden mental emotions, the anticipation of any unusual ordeal, fright, grief, bad news, may hasten chill or produce diarrhœa. Could tell when chill was about to return, as incontinence of urine would set in. Thirst, but does not drink much; hurts to swallow.

Without thirst. Chill commences in the hands and feet (in recent cases—in old chronic cases, Nat.). Chill ascend- ing from feet; chill and chilliness, especially along the spine; run- ning up the back from loins to nape of neck, and following each other in rapid wave like succession from sacrum to occiput (running up and down the spine, Eup. purp.). Chilliness with cold hands and feet, headache, and heat of head and face. Chilliness with tired, languid feeling in back and limbs; wants to avoid all mus- cular exertion. Feet feel as if in very cold water. Coldness is so severe as to be painful. Sleepy as chill is leaving (Apis).

Transient chilliness with profuse urination. Nervous chill, the skin is warm; wants to be held that he may not shake so much.

Child wants to be held so that he will not shake so hard (Lach.).

Without thirst; intense burning. General heat, mostly about the head and face. Warmth over the whole body, as if sweat would break out, then chilly down the back. Directly after the chill comes a flying heat and pricking in the skin, rapidly followed by perspiration, which at times is profuse, and lasting from twelve to twenty-four hours (Caust.). Heat in the face, sleep or sleepy, stupid, besotted; with half-waking, muttering delirium; tired, wants to lie still (Bry.), or great nervous restless- ness; sensation of falling, in children; child starts and grasps attendant or crib, and screams out for fear of falling. Semi-stupor; cannot open his eyes or think correctly; vertigo, staggers as if intoxicated. Sensitive to light or noise (Bell.—intolerant of noise, Caps.). Long-lasting heat; far into night; pain in one leg; jerking of the limbs. Loquacity.

With thirst. Profuse, which $>$ the pain. Sweat coming gradually and moderately, always $>$ the pains (sweat $>$ all the symptoms, Nat.). Sweats freely from slight exertion

(Psor.). Perspiration, sometimes profuse and continuing from a few hours to twenty-four, with languor and prostration. Sweat most profuse on genitalia. Freely on slight exertion.

Coated yellowish-white, or nearly clean, or with white centre and red margins. If coated thickly, breath fetid.

Taste: bitter, foul, with blood-colored saliva.

Irregular, intermitting, yet full (Dig.). Small, weak, feeble, almost imperceptible.

Often wanting, or very short. Heat and perspira- tion are so extended that many fevers are more remitting than intermitting. Great prostration of whole muscular system. Head- ache < by smoking tobacco (Ign.—> by smoking, Aran.)

Patient is nervous, irritable, easily angered (Cham.—very irritable, Anac., Bry., Tub.).

Patient wants to be held during the chill (Lach.); fear of falling; chills along the spine, running up and down the back; sleep throughout heat; thirst during sweat; muttering delirium when half awake; absence of all gastric and hepatic symptoms. Fever apt to end in remittent or typhoid. Convul- sions in children; masked ague from abuse of quinine; choreaic symptoms. Must be covered in all stages of the paroxysm.

"For intermittents or remittents which are contracted at summer watering places and 'wintered over,' making their ap- pearance in early spring, Gelsemium is a remedy of great value."

—LUDLAM. (Ars., Eup., Lach.).

Gelsemium is one of the few remedies that have the regular periodic fever, without chill. It divides the honors equally with

Arsenicum in the treatment of children's intermittents, from which it is distinguished by the regularity of the paroxysm, absence of thirst, and the burning fever and restlessness. The child is neither so weak and prostrated nor pale and feeble as in the Arsenicum fever. Sensation of falling is a genuine symptom, often occurring in children. Gelsemium is always to be thought of in recent uncomplicated cases, where chill begins in extremities (in chronic cases, Nat. mur.). Also where a remittent takes on the intermittent type, or vice versa. Tendency to typhoid.

Cataleptic immobility, with dilated pupils, closed eyes, but conscious.
Delirium in sleep; half waking, with incoherent talk.
Desires to be left alone; irritable, sensitive.
Loquacity, brilliant eyes, shooting through temples and nasal sinuses; fever.
Depression of spirits; anxiety following a somewhat cheerful, careless mood.
Solicitude about the present.
Fear of death.
Mental exertions cause a sense of helplessness from brain weakness; inability to attend to anything requiring thought.
Complaints from bad or exciting news; from some unusual ordeal.

Vertigo, confusion of the head, spreading from occiput over whole head; pupils dilated, dim sight; general depression from heat of sun or summer.
Vertigo, dim vision, fever; seems as if intoxicated when trying to move; worse from smoking.
Giddy, with loss of sight, chilliness, accelerated pulse; dulness of sight or double sight.
When attempting to move, the muscles refuse to obey the will; giddy, confused.
Child dizzy, when carried seizes hold of the nurse, fearing that it will fall.

Severe pain in forehead and vertex, dim sight roaring in ears; head feels enlarged and vertex, dim sight, roaring in ears; head feels enlarged; "wild feeling" alternating with uterine pains.
Hyperæmia of the brain; dull feeling in forehead and vertex, and a fulness in the region of the medulla before spasms.
Fulness in the head, heat of the face, chilliness; pulsation of the carotids; thick speech; brain feels as if bruised; eyeballs feel raw when moving them; double vision.
Heaviness of the head slightly relieved by shaking the head; better after profuse micturition.
Cerebro-spinal meningitis; stage of congestion; severe chill, dilated pupils; congestion of spine and brain.

Dull, dragging pain in occiput, mastoid and upper cervical regions, extending to shoulders; better quietly resting the head on a high pillow, with eyes half closed; eyes, heavy, sleepy, red.
Pressure on the vertex so great as to extend into shoulders; head feels very heavy.
Cramp-like drawing and tearing; worse from study and exertion, after fever and ague.
Neuralgic headache beginning in upper cervical spine; vertebra prominence sensitive; pains extended over head, causing a bursting pain in forehead and eyeballs; worse at 10 A.M., when lying; with nausea, vomit, cold sweat, cold feet.
Sensation of a band around head above ears; scalp sore.

Pupils dilated.
Amaurosis of congestive origin; after apoplexy.
Sees double, when inclining the head towards the shoulder.
Confused vision, eyes look heavy.
Hazy, vitreous, very fine.
Increased tension, balls sore.
Serous iritis; serous choroiditis; dull pain to back of head, better from hot applications.
Glaucoma from increased secretion rather than from obstructed excretion.
Detached retina from myopia, severe neuralgia, etc.
Astigmatism.
Eyeballs oscillate laterally when looking steadily.
Eyelids heavy.
Eyes close when looking steadily.
Eyes feels sore in evening, sensitive to light with lachrymation; lids feel full and congested.

Sudden transient loss of hearing, rushing and roaring in the ears.
Catarrhal deafness, with pain from throat into middle ear.

Violent morning paroxysms of sneezing; tingling in nose.
Watery, excoriating discharge; a feeling from throat up into left nostril, like a stream of scalding water; right nostril stopped up; nasal voice.
Coryza in spring and summer weather.
Edges of nostrils red, sore.
Fulness at root of nose; pains extending to neck and clavicles.

Expression heavy, dull, drowsy.
Face: red; yellow, jaundiced; pale, sickly look.
Muscles of face, especially around the mouth, seem contracted, making speech difficult.
Orbital neuralgia in distinct paroxysms, with contractions and twitchings of the muscles on the affected side.

Lips dry; coated with dark mucus.

Toothache from a cold, or purely nervous; pains from teeth to temple.
Dentition; child frantic, awakens with sudden screams; face deep red; fontanelle pulsates too strongly; pain about ear.

Taste: foul, with blood-colored saliva; bitter.
Clammy, feverish, during the sweat.
Tongue: yellowish-white, breath fetid; coated thick, brown; nearly clean; margin red, centre white.
Tongue and glottis partially paralyzed; speech thick, as if drunk put tongue out, it trembles so; red, raw, painful, inflamed in the middle.

Fauces dry, burning, irritated, sore.
Throat feels as if filled up; tonsils inflamed, swollen, mostly in or beginning in the right.
Swallowing causes shooting in the ear.
Dysphagia: paralysis of the organs of deglutition.
Diphtheria, local tingling of parts during the fever; incipient paralysis impaired vision.
Painful sensation of a lump in œsophagus.
Burning in the œsophagus to the stomach.

Little appetite and thirst, but can take food or drink.

Wine aggravates, especially the headache and eye symptoms.
Thirst absent or slight.

Eructations sour.
Nausea, giddiness, headache.

Cramp in the stomach, better riding and sitting erect.
Feeling of emptiness and weakness in stomach and bowels.
Rumbling and full pain in the epigastrium, relieved by passage of flatus.
Oppression and fulness in the stomach, worse from pressure of clothing.

Passive congestion of the liver, with vertigo, dim sight and fulness of the head.

Sudden spasmodic pain in the upper part of the abdomen, leaving a sensation of contraction and causing him to cry out.
Acute enteritis (catarrhal) during damp weather; warm or cold.
Gnawing pain in the transverse colon.
Wandering, pinching wind colic, less when sitting erect; more beginning to move, less during continual motion.
Periodical colic, with yellow diarrhœa; evening.
Griping in the lower abdomen, relieved by passing copious bilious stools.
Tenderness in the right iliac region during typhus.
Rumbling in the abdomen, with discharge of wind up and down.
Sensation of soreness of the abdominal walls.

Stools: yellow, fecal; bilious; cream-colored clay-colored; color of green tea.
Diarrhœa: in nervous persons, subject to nervous chills; after sudden emotions, as grief, fright, bad news, the anticipation of an unusual ordeal.

Copious flow, relieving headache.
Incontinence from paralysis of the sphincter; nervous children.
Alternate dysuria and enuresis; spasms of bladder.
Albuminuria: 24, 36.

Sexual organs irritable, weak; involuntary emissions without erections; spermatorrhœa.
Emission of semen during stool.
Genitals cold, relaxed dragging pains in the testicles.
Suppressed gonorrhœa; followed by rheumatism or orchitis.
Profuse warm sweat on the scrotum.

Threatened abortion from sudden depressing emotions.
Uterus, as if squeezed by a hand; anteflexion.
Ovarian irritation with the characteristic headache.
Menses suppressed, with congestion to the head; sharp darting, twitching pains in face and head; convulsions (every evening).
Dysmenorrhœa, preceded by sick headache, vomiting; congestion to head; deep red face; bearing down in the abdomen.
Leucorrhœa white, with aching across the lower part of back; heavy fulness in uterine region; amenorrhœa.

During pregnancy: double vision, headache, drowsiness, vertigo, pulsating carotids, small, slow pulse; cannot walk or muscles will not obey; cramps in the abdomen and legs; convulsions with unconsciousness.
Labor-pains gone, os widely dilated, complete atony, drowsy. θ Albuminuria.
Albuminuria, thirstless, erratic pains.
Labor delayed by rigid os; or when pains go from before backward, the uterus seems to go upward.
Pains leave womb and fly all over; os rigid.
Sensation like a wave, from uterus to throat, ending with a choking feeling; this seems to impede labor; impending spasms.
Convulsions during labor: 36.
Nervous chills, "chatters"; first stage of labor.

Hoarseness in paroxysms, with dry, rough throat; rawness of the chest, catarrh.
Paralysis of glottis.
Hawking bloody water.

Slow breathing and slow pulse; heavy, labored; congestion to the chest.
Long crowing inspiration; sudden and forcible expiration; spasm of the glottis.

Cough from tickling or roughness of the fauces; hoarse; rawness and soreness of the chest; coryza; bronchial catarrh.
Croupy cough; measles.

Congestive pneumonia with suffering under the scapulæ, both sides; caused by checked sweat.
Short paroxysms of pain in superior part of right lung, on taking a deep breath; pulse slow, full.

Excessive action of the heart.
A peculiar action of the heart, as though it attempted its beat which it failed fully to accomplish, the pulse intermitting each time; worse lying, especially on the left side.
Fears that unless constantly on the move, her heart will cease beating.
Nervous chill, yet skin is warm; wants to be held that she may not shake so. θ Heart disease.
Hearts action: feeble, slow; depressed; hands and feet cold.
Pulse: frequent, soft, weak, almost imperceptible; slow and full.

Periodical pains in the pectoral muscles.

Pains from spine to head and shoulders.
Contractive sensation in the right side of the nape.
Pains in the neck, myalgic, mostly in the upper part of the sterno-cleido muscles, back of the parotid glands.
Congestion of the spine; prostration, languor; muscles feel bruised and will not obey the will.
Locomotor ataxia. θ Paraplegia.
Dull aching in the lumbar and sacral region; cannot walk, muscles will not obey.

Deep-seated muscular pains in both arms.
Palms hot, dry.
Coldness of wrists and hands.
Arms, weak, numb.

Deep-seated muscular pains in the legs, relieved by motion.
Shooting pains in paroxysms.
Drawing, contracting, crampy pains in the legs, from thighs into toes; worse on motion or walking.
Heaviness, weight; loss of voluntary motion; muscles will not obey the will; calves feel bruised; pain at night.
Feeling when walking, as in a partial luxation of patella.
Coldness of the extremities, especially of the feet, as if in cold water, with anguish and pain in the legs.

Limbs cold, with oppressed breathing; cold hands and feet.
Deep-seated dull aching in the limbs and joints generally; induced by cold, and attended with loss of motion.
Neuralgic pains in the limbs, as a sequel to scarlatina.

Wants to lie still.
Resting on high pillow, head better.
Sitting erect: 17, 19. Walking: 33: in open air: 39. Cannot walk: 24, 31. Moving: 2, 3. Motion: 33. Worse beginning to move, better from continued motion: 10. Fears to remain quiet: 29. Shaking head: 3. Exertion: 40. Lying: 4, 29; with head high: 4.

Excessive irritability of mind and body; vascular excitement.
Convulsions from reflex irritation; spasms of one leg.
Puerperal spasms, preceded by great lassitude, dull feeling in the forehead and vertex fulness in the region of the medulla; head feels "big"; heavy with half stupid look; face deep red, speech thick; pulse slow, full; from protracted labor; rigid as uteri; albuminuria.
Tetanic spasms; jaws locked.
Jactitation of the muscles.
Paralysis of motion; muscles will not obey the will, feel bruised.
Tingling, prickling, crawling.
Neuralgia.
Acute, sudden, darting pains; shooting, tearing along the tracks of the nerves; especially if aggravated by changes in the weather.

Yawning, chilly.
Sleeplessness; a wide-awake feeling.
Sleepless from violent itching of face, head and shoulders; sleepless during dentition; face red; also from exhaustion.
As soon as he falls asleep, delirious.
Awakened by headache or colic.
Drowsy, dim sight; a kind of drunken stupor.
Stupor in beginning of fevers; especially with children.
Languid, drowsy, but cannot compose the mind for sleep.
Wakeful or lies in a half awake state, with incoherent talk.

Morning: 7. Forenoon: neuralgic headache (10 A.M.). Afternoon: 40. Evening: 5, 19, 23.

Worse in damp weather, before a thunder-storm; southeast wind: 19. Heat of sun or summer: 2. Open air: 39. Changes of weather: 36.

Chilliness, languid aching in back and limbs; sense of fatigue, desires to avoid all muscular exertion; every afternoon, 4 to 5 P.M.
Chills begin in the hands; chills running up the back; hands and feet cold.
Feet cold, with heat of the head and face; headache.
Slight occasional moisture; sweat coming gradually and moderately, always relieving the pains.
Sweats freely from slight exertion.
Typhoid fever, when so-called nervous symptoms predominate.
Low fevers when pulse is slow and by lifting or turning the patient, it becomes accelerated.
Eruptive fevers: especially children, tendency to convulsions at the time of the eruption.
Intense fever-heat, erethism, but less restlessness than Acon.; less violence and suddenness of aggravation than Bellad.; languid; asthenic fever; stupor.

Fevers remit or intermit.
Periodical attacks.
Every day at the same hour.

Right: 7, 13, 19, 28, 31. Left: 7. Right to Left: 13. Below upwards: 7, 10, 40. Before backwards: 24.

Congestions, arterial or venous, with sluggish circulation.
Hemorrhages, blood in drops, crimson.
Affects more the nerves of motion; causes muscular prostration through the nerves.
Catarrhs of mucous membranes; watery mucus, never purulent discharges.

Pressure: 17. Riding: 17.

Papular eruption, like measles, especially on face.
Skin hot, dry; gastric and nervous fevers.
Erythema, especially in face and neck.

Young persons; children.
Women.
Nervous persons; excitable.

Antidotes: Cinchon.; Coffea, salt.

A tincture is made of the fresh root of Gelsemium sempervirens, Ait.

It produces spinal convulsions and paralysis, lowering the force and rate of the heart, and finally paralyzing respiration. The paralysis of the oculo-motor nerve is noticeable, with double vision, ptosis, squint and vertigo. ▶ Consciousness is preserved to the last stage of life.

Arg. nit., Cimic., Nux vom., Ign., Con., Gran.

Lying on left side. ▶ Trembling at noon, with general chill; T. in afternoon, with weakness; general, in afternoon, with tingling in legs; with profuse micturition (Arg. nit.); with anxiety. ▶ Sudden acute darting pains along single nerve branches in almost every part, at one time in quick succession down outside and front of tibia, leaving tenderness in its track. ▶ Pains fugitive or fixed, here and there; P. of a shifting character all day; erratic rheumatic (Cimicif.); drawing and aching, which seem to come from bones. ▶ Running in all nerves at noon, agg. fingers, and jumping as from ant-bites in finger-ends, nails blue half way to root. ▶ Unpleasant sensation at 10 A.M. when in a hospital, with weakness, pallor, nausea and trembling of lower limbs, amel. open air. ▶ Feeling as after "a fit of sickness;" in forenoon; feeling of general illness, as in fever.

Restlessness, with chill after breakfast. ▶ Feeling of lightness and sense of instability in whole body. ▶ Feeling of danger of stumbling or falling. ▶ Inclination to lie down. ▶ Weakness and trembling through whole system (Arg. n., Cimicif.); W. in morning, with vertigo; in afternoon; mental and physical in afternoon; in afternoon when reclining for the purpose of study, after sleeping an hour was unwilling to move, amel. stiffing around; when reclining before a heavy shower, with drowsiness; agg. elevators of lower jaw and lids and muscles of arms; with emaciation; with muscular relaxation, convulsions, staggering, want of co-ordination through system; with diuresis and flaccidity and coldness of genitals; with irregular and slow breathing. ▶ Easy fatigue; agg. lower limbs. ▶ Sensation as if blood did not circulate. ▶ Relaxed muscles and motor paralysis, paralysis; paralytic symptoms through muscular system, first in knee, then in inferior tibial region. ▶ Aggravation from any movement or touch of head (which seemed enlarged) or application of any fluid to lips, the dread of which nearly equally that in hydrophobia.

General prostration and loss of muscular power, fear of making any effort, desire to be alone. ▶ Paralysis of various groups of muscles about the eye, throat, larynx, chest, sphincters, extremities, etc. ▶ Paralysis following diphtheria. ▶ Locomotor ataxia. ▶ Paraplegia. ▶ In general, hysterical spasms, a kind of hystero-epilepsy. ▶ Puerperal convulsions. ▶ Convulsions from suppression of menses. ▶ Catarrhal affections of various mucous membranes, with a relaxed and debilitated condition of the system, especially in women. ▶ Neuralgias of various nerves, with loss of control over the part, pain in the muscles of the back, hips and lower extremities; the pains are mostly deep-seated.

Continue in Allen 57 more passages →

It produces spinal convulsions and paralysis, lowering the force and rate of the heart, and finally paralyzing respiration. The paralysis of the oculo-motor nerve is noticeable, with double vision, ptosis, squint and vertigo. Consciousness is preserved to the last stage of life.

Tremulous weakness; with profuse micturition.
Weakness; pallor, nausea and trembling of the lower limbs; > open air.
Weakness, with vertigo.
General motor paralysis.
More rarely convulsions.
Deep-seated pains, with loss of control over the painful part.

More or less complete inability to think.
Unconsciousness.
General stupidity.
General heaviness (results of emotional excitement, bad news, grief, etc.).

Dull, bruised pains.
Heaviness and tightness, > profuse micturition.
Much vertigo, < any sudden motion, with blurred vision.
General headache, < smoking.
Headache in the occiput, extending to the forehead.
Predominating pains in the occiput, with muscular soreness in the neck.

Lids droop.
Pupils dilated.
Vision very dim, especially with vertigo and double vision.
Vision double; sometimes partially controlled by the will.

Clinical:
Intra-ocular inflammations, characterized by serous exudation, with dull pains, vertigo, double vision, etc.

Deafness (from catarrh of the middle ear and Eustachian tube).

Nasal catarrh, with prostration, with inflamed throat, and pain extending to ear.
Takes cold on the slightest change of the weather, with much sneezing, etc.

Face flushed and hot; heavy, dull.
Sharp pains, with vertigo, double vision, etc.

Tongue thick; can hardly speak.
Tongue coated yellowish-white; tongue numb.
Mouth dry; must swallow frequently.

Swallowing difficult on account of loss of power of the muscles; sometimes with spasmodic feelings.
Throat inflamed, with pains, extending to the ears.

General lack of thirst.
Emptiness and weakness in the stomach, or a feeling of a heavy load.
Hiccough, < in the evening.

Symptoms of intestinal catarrh, with persistent nausea; diarrhœa.
Hepatic symptoms, with vertigo, blurred vision, etc.

Diarrhœa, resulting from excitement or emotional disturbances; stool yellow, painless, sometimes involuntary.
Loss of power of the sphincter ani and rectum.

Frequent and profuse micturition; relieves the head.
When urinating the bladder does not seem to be emptied; stream intermittent.

Involuntary emissions at night, without sexual excitement.
Labor-like pains in the uterine region, extending to the back and hips.

Clinical:
Dysmenorrhœa, or suppressed menstruation, with vertigo and headache; pains extending to back and legs.
During labor pains extend upward and are ineffectual.
Threatening puerperal convulsions.

Loss of voice, with dryness and burning in the throat (paralytic).
Severe attacks of dyspnœa, with fullness in the chest, threatening suffocation; desire for fresh air, cold extremities.

Sensation as though it would stop beating if she did not move.
Action irregular, feeble, pulse soft and weak, cold extremities.

Numerous pains in the neck, extending into the head.
Muscles of the neck feel bruised.
Dull pains in the lower part of the back, with weakness of the legs.
At times, sharp pains extend from the back down to the hips.

General tremulousness, weakness of the hands and feet, and loss of control.
Lower extremities become fatigued after very little exercise.

General tendency to stupor.
Nights restless, especially towards morning.
Sleep, with unpleasant dreams.

Chill especially along the spine, extending upward, with profuse micturition.
Heat.
Paroxysms of fever generally recur from 3 to 5 in the afternoon.
Fever, with vertigo, prostration, without thirst, with soft pulse.
Perspiration generally not profuse.

Gel. / (2d G-Yellow.) / Jesse.

Gelsemium,-Thou drowsy sprite!
In fevers showing thy delight.
An intermittent type thy gem,
With drowsy chill at 4 p. m.
And night sweat with a pimpled skin,
To measles showing closest kin.
There may be hiccough to sustain,
Or vaginismus in thy train,
Or local spasm-Tetanus-
Convulsions or paralysis.
With drooping lids, and urine drip,
And check to swallowing a sip.
With vision blurred and vertigo,
And headache eased by urine flow.
Numb tongue, and heart that seems to need
That one should move to give it speed.
By seeking much to be alone,
Thy worriment of mind is shown.
Whilst in thy stomach seems to sit
A death-like goneness at the pit.
The while thy suffering wife sustains,
False labor, and sore after pains.

Jesse,-Has drooping eyelids.

Jesse Knight, the old gray plumber, is calling to his Kid, from a vessel on the coast of Russia.

This Jesse,-Who is subject to a numbness of the tongue,-Is in the coach with Nathan J. Agar, and Amber Inn.

Drooping Eyelids: Gel., Arg. n., Con., Graph., PB., Caul., Kal. i., Verat. a., Sep., Caust., Rhus.

Numbness of the Tongue: Gel., Colch., Nat. m., Aco., Agar., Ambr., Nux. m.

Indicated in fevers of malarial, catarrhal or eruptive character, with shivering; fever without thirst; unwillingness to be disturbed; sense of paralytic weakness in the limbs. In catarrhal conditions, including hay fever and la grippe, with watery discharge, dullness of head, dizziness, chilliness, and neuralgia, and hysteria, passing off with the appearance of frequent and copious emissions of limpid urine. Diarrhoea from fright. Cerebro-spinal meningitis. Headaches with moderate vertigo. Post-diphtheritic paralysis of the throat.

Lassitude, weariness, indifference.

Countenance livid and stupid; hot.

Fever without thirst; wants to be let alone.

Trembling, paralytic weakness of the muscles, especially of the legs.

Pulse soft, weak, fluttering, causing him anxiety and apprehension.

Drooping of eyelids; paralysis of oculo-motors; paralytic condition of tongue, glottis, epiglottis, respiratory muscles, extremities.

Sense of contraction of the skin and muscles of the face.

Headache, with vertigo and dimness of vision; tongue feels thick and numb; in occiput, with feeling as of a band around the occiput.

Headache, beginning in the neck, extending upward into forehead and eye-balls; better from profuse urination.

Orbital neuralgia, with muscular twitchings.

Acute coryza, with copious, slightly irritating, watery discharge, dull headache, shivering and fever.

Diarrhoea, caused and aggravated by excitement, by bad news, from stage fright; stools watery, painless, cream-colored; involuntary from paralysis of sphincter ani.

Chill without thirst, especially along spine, running up and down the back as though in waves; goose-flesh all over; with much muscular soreness.

Urine profuse, clear, limpid, like water.

Worse in damp; from mental excitement; from bad news; before thunder-storm; from tobacco.

Better from open air; after profusely urinating; from continued moderate motion; from stimulants.

Dull, listless and languid. Misty. Incapacity to think or fix the attention. Stupid, intoxicated feeling. Impatient and irritable (Ing.) Feeling as if in danger of stumbling or falling. Feels as if someone else were sick. Dread of liquids. Inclination to throw herself from a height. Feels as if the world lose her senses. Dread of being alone.

(Coccl.) Accompanies many symptoms. As if intoxicated, with blurred vision, in brows. Worse: Sudden motion.

Bruised feeling in, especially behind orbits. Dull, stupefying pain ascending from nape into forehead, accompanied by dizziness, blurred vision and heavy eyelids. Sensations of heaviness, tightness, a band about, or as if enlarged. Worse: From smoking, heat, or moving eyes. Better: Reclining head on high pillow, or from profuse urinations.

Scalp: Feels contracted at centre of forehead.

Twitching of eyeballs. Sore aching in balls, worse motion Strabismus. Pupils dilated, or alternately dilate and contract. Distended. Right - sided supraorbital pain. Heavy, drooping lids. Puffy lids. Vision: Dim, smoky or lost, double on raising head, looking sidewise or inclining head on one side, better by an effort of the will.

Sudden temporary loss of hearing. The pains which ascend form back to occiput affect them.

Fullness and tingling in, with sneezing and headache. Fluent coryza.

Heavy, besotted appearance, flushed and hot, dark, swelled. Lower jaw dropped or wagging sidewise. Overflow of saliva from mouth. Contraction of muscles, especially about mouth Burning in zygoma.

Foaming at. Tongue, So thick can hardly speak, numbness of, burning on extending over mouth, throat, stomach and into abdomen. Dry, also throat. Yellowish saliva. Foul, spoiled taste.

Hawks up bloody matter. Spasmodic sensations, with cramp - like pains in. Feeling as if something had lodged in. Swallowing painful, difficult.

Pain from pylorus to axilla. under scapula and down right cramping like in pit. Empty, weak feeling in, and in bowels. Hiccough, worse in evening.

Hypochondria: Cramp at last short rib in right side. Thrusting pain in left floating rib, changing to left temple.

Sharp pains to, with pappy, cream - colored stools. Burning pains moving around in intestines. Gnawing in region of transverse colon. Colicky pains below navel extending to testes, better expelling flatus.

Diarrhoea. Urging to from exciting news, emotions, etc. Loose, but difficult. Feeling as if more remained behind after stool and after urinating.

Copious, watery, with chill and trembling, alleviating heaviness of head, dullness of mind and dimness of vision. Intermittent stream.

Flaccidity and coldness of. Emission of semen with out erection.

Severe, labor like pains in uterine region, which extend to back and hips, alternating with heavy headache.

Voice weak, thick. Paralysis of glottis. Inability to expectorate. Suffocative sensation. respiration slow, heavy superficial. Desire for fresh air. Worse: Moving head.

Stinging along lactiferous ducts. Shuddering in right breasts. Sore, when coughing. Constriction around lower. Suffocative sensation, as in hysteria. Heaviness. Weakness or burning in. Heart: Feels as if it would stop beating if he did not move. Palpitation. Irregular beat.

Neck: Aching soreness in muscles of, and of shoulders. Contractive sensation in. Pains extend into head.

Back: Rheumatic pains in bones and joints of, and of limbs. Soreness of muscles.

Trembling. Paralytic weakness and heaviness of. Sensation blunted.

Staggering. Fatigue after slight exertion. Drawing or cramping pains in muscles or single fasciculi thereof.

Numbness or trembling of single parts of whole body. Great relaxation and loss of muscular power, causing sensation of heaviness and weakness, particularly of upper eyelids and lower extremities, as well as involuntary evacuations (Stool, urine, semen, etc.) from emotional excitement, fear, etc. Sudden darting pains making one start, they leave a tenderness behind. Paralysis. Feeling of illness, as in a fever. knew everything going on, but was unable to move. Paralytic pains. Periodical symptoms. Worse: 11 AM. Emotions, exciting news, fright etc. Heat of sun of summer. Dampness. After midnight. Before a storm. Better: Open air, Profuse urinations.

Yellow. sudden stinging. Measles like eruption, with fever and itching.

Yawning, with stupor and inability to keep eyes open. Languor and drowsiness before storm. Stupefying. With general numbness. Late falling to sleep, the nightmare.

Pulse. Variable. Throbbing thro, whole body. Chill: With cold extremities, especially feet, extending upward up and down along spine, with profuse urination, pain in back, heat of face and head, and headache, worse from mental excitement. Heat: Burning, in afternoon, without thirst. Sweat: With thirst, easy, cold, profuse or scanty. Relieving all the symptoms. Accompanied by languor and prostration.

Allied Remedies: Anac., Arg-n., Bap., Bell., Bor., Caust., Con., Kalm., Op., Phos., Physos., Pic-ac., SEP., Tabac., Verat-a., Mur-ac.