References: (1) Syme, British Medical Journal; (2) London Lancet; (3) Homœopathic World, March, 1892; (4) American Homœopathist, 1897, p. 429; (5) New York Medical Journal, January, 1898, p. 68.
(1) 1. Eczema on face.
2. Eczema on face and arms.
3. Moist eczema on face and forearms, papular and excoriated.
4. Severe cracking over joints and fingers as from frost.
5. Great itching of the skin.
6. Eruption appears at night.
7. Eruption and itching worse at night.
8. The itching was intolerable at night.
(2) 9. Irritable papular eruption on both hands, followed by desquamation.
10. Papular eruption on chin.
11. Eruption of small papules on a raised base with intolerable itching.
(3) 12. Papular eruption (eczematous) on hands, wrists and fingers.
13. Skin red and swollen and itching violently.
14. At night she became feverish, hands and face would burn, then intolerable itching followed by erythema with small papules becoming pustular.
15. Papular eruption itching violently.
(4) 16. Confluent blotches on face resembling urticaria.
17. Eruption between fingers which resembles scabies.
18. Desquamation.
19. Purple blotches on dorsal surface of hands.
20. Palmar surface of hands and fingers are stiff and unusable.
21. Deep-seated blisters form on tip of each finger and above and below each phalangeal flexure.
22. Blisters on fingers from which a clear fluid escapes on being pricked.
23. Intense itching and burning accompanies the eruption.
(5) 24. Eruption preceded by pricking sensation which gradually changes to a smarting.
25. Skin tumefied and diffuse infiltration with a red serosity, with here and there small fullæ filled with a limpid liquid.
26. Eyelids greatly swollen and covered with large fullæ, eyes half closed.
27. Great tension and redness of skin resembling erysipeias.
28. Desquamation sometimes furfuraceous, sometimes lamellar, involving all of the epidermic layer in such a manner that in some places the papillary layer was exposed.
29. Eyelids stiff and immovable, resembling ptosis.
30. Dryness and heat in palms of hands.
31. Deep infiltration of tissues rendering the parts stiff and immovable.
32. Skin symptoms accompanied by pronounced febrile symptoms.
From symptoms Nos. 5, 6, 7, 8, 14, 15, 23 it would appear the time of aggravation is at night, and the most prominent sensation is itching and less prominent is burning. This is characteristic of the Arsenicum eruption, also of Anacardium, Rhus tox., and some others. The eruption also bears a strong resemblance to these remedies, and if one may judge from the symptoms enumerated ought to prove a potent rival in erysipelas and eczematous complaints. Rhus poisoning will no doubt find a new and efficient remedy in Primula.
PYRUS AMERICANA.
Nat. Ord., Rosacæ.
Common Name, Mountain ash.
Preparation.—The fresh bark is macerated in twice its weight of alcohol.
(We find the following in the American Observer, 1878, credited to Northwestern Analist and written by Dr. H. P. Gatchell. Allen, in the Encyclopædia has not mentioned the drug, and we can find no mention in any of the dispensatories consulted. Dr. Fernie, in his excellent book, Herbal simples devotes some space to it. We quote: "'There is,' says an old writer, 'in every berry the exhilaration of wine, and the satisfying of old mead; and whosoever shall eat three berries of them, if he has completed a hundred years, he will return to the age of thirty.' At the same time it must be noted that the leaves of the Mountain ash are of a poisonous quality, and contain prussic acid like those of the laurel." The following is Dr. Gatchell's paper, the proving, be it noted, is made from a tincture of the bark:)