EUPHORBIA COROLLATA.
Nat. Ord., Euphorbiaceæ.
Common Names, Milk Weed. Wild Ipecac. Blooming or Flowering Spurge.
Preparation.—The fresh root is pounded to a pulp and macerated in two parts by weight of alcohol.
(In North American Journal of Homœopathy, Dr. E. M. Hale has, among other things, the following to say of this drug):
Its action on the system is intense and peculiar. It is called by the country people by the expressive name of Go-quick, referring to its quick and prompt action. I am indebted to Dr. A. R. Brown, of Litchfield, Mich., for many interesting facts relating to its action. It is considered, by those who use it, as the most powerful "revulsive agent" in their Materia Medica, in all cases of local congestion, especially of the lungs and head; also in inflammation of the pleura, lungs, and liver, and is used as a substitute for bleeding and Calomel. Its admirers allege that it will certainly arrest the progress of the above affections in a few hours, and break up all simple fevers. This is of course erroneous, but it reminds one of the Helleborine of the ancients, so graphically described by Hahnemann. In fact no drug with which I am acquainted so much resembles the Veratrum album.
FAGOPYRUM.
Nat. Ord., Polygonaceæ.
Common Name, Buckwheat.
Preparation.—The fresh mature plant is pounded to a pulp and macerated in two parts by weight of alcohol.
(The following paper was published in the Transactions of the Homœopathic Society of Maine in 1895. It is by Dr. D. C. Perkins, of Rockland, Me.)
There is, perhaps, no well proven remedy in the Materia Medica, of equal value to that of which I present a brief study, that has been so wholly overlooked by the homœopathic profession. There certainly is none which possesses a more marked individuality, and which more fully fills a place by itself. It is safe to say that not one in ten of those who practice the healing art has ever used it or is familiar with its pathogenesis. Having not unfrequently cured cases with it, which had refused to yield to other remedies apparently well indicated, I have come to regard it as among the important drugs in our super-abundant Materia Medica. Its effects upon mental conditions are marked by depression of spirits, irritability, inability to study, or to remember what has been read, bringing to our minds Aconite, Bryonia, Chamomilla, Coffea, Colocynth, Ignatia, Lachesis, Mercury, Nux vomica, Staphisagria, Stramonium, and Veratrum. Its effects upon the head are deep-seated and persistent. There is vertigo, confusion, severe pain in many parts of head, with upward pressure described as of a bursting character. The pain may be in forehead, back of eyes, through temporal region on either side, but always of a pressive or bursting nature. For congestive headaches it is as valuable as Belladonna, Glonoine, Nux vomica, or Sepia.