Veratrum viride. American White Hellebore. Indian Poke. N.O. Melanthacae (of the Liliaceae). Tincture of fresh root gathered in autumn. (Burt proved Squibb’s liquid extract and says he found no other preparation satisfactory.).
Clinical
Amaurosis. Amenorrhoea. Apoplexy. *Asthma. *Bunions. Cecum,
*inflammation of. Chilblains. *Chorea. Congestion Convulsions. Diplopia. Diaphragmitis. Dysmenorrhoea. Erysipelas. Headache, nervous, sick. Heart, affections of. Hiccough. *Hyperpyrexia. Influenza. Malarial fever. Measles. Meningitis. Menses, suppressed. *Myalgia. *Esophagus, spasm of. *Orchitis. Pneumonia. Proctalgia Puerperal convulsions. Puerperal mania. *Sleep, *dreamful. Spleen, congested. Sunstroke. Typhoid fever. *Uterus, *congestion of.
Characteristics
*Veratrum V. is the American *White Hellebore. Growing side by side, *Veratrum a. and *Veratrum v. are scarcely distinguishable when not in flower. Millspaugh, however, says that though much like Veratrum alb. in its minor points, *Verbascum v. is strikingly different in general appearance, having a much more pointed leaf, panicles looser and more compound, the racemes of *Verbascum a being more compact and as a whole cylindrical, those of *Verbascum v. scattered, compound, and craggy. *Verbascum a. flourishes in mountain meadows, *Verbascum v. grows in swamps. And wet meadows, and along mountain creeks from Canada to the Carolinas. Cooper has pointed out (*H.W., xxxvi. 153) a confusion which exists through the Veratrums being also called Hellebores. *Verbascum v. is “American White Hellebore” and not “Green Hellebore” (*which is Helleborus viridis). Through this confusion an accidental proving of the latter (G. C. Edwards, No. 11 in *Allen) has been included in the pathogenesis of Verbascum v. The plants belong to different orders, though it must be admitted there is a close resemblance in their effects. The root of *Verbascum v. The plants belong to different orders, though it must be admitted there is a close resemblance in their effects. The root of *Verbascum v. contains Veratrine, and the other alkaloids found in the root of *Verbascum A., but in different proportions. Hale was chiefly instrumental in introducing Verbascum v. to homoeopathy, using it in fevers and particularly in pneumonia. Burt made a heroic proving of the liquid extract, and his infant daughter (twenty-one months) very nearly died from taking a few drops of the tincture from a phial. In two minutes she began vomiting. Coffee and *Camphor were given as antidotes. In five minutes her jaws were rigid, pupils widely dilated, face blue, hands and feet cold, no pulse at wrist. Abdomen and back were rubbed with *Camphor, when she went into spasms with violent shrieks. These spasms were frequently repeated, a hot path being most effective in relaxing the muscles. Vomiting ropy mucus kept up for three hours. Pulseless, hands and feet shrivelled. After three and a half hours she slept quietly and soundly and next morning was well but a little weak.Burt recalls his own symptom, “constant aching pains in back of neck and shoulders,” and concludes that *Verbascum v. acts on the cervical portion of the spinal cord and base of brain. He also regards it as acting on the vagus, and paralysing the circulatory apparatus. The great keynote of *Verbascum v. is congestion, and it is in resolving congestive states that its chief successes have been scored. The correspondence is rough and the lower potencies have been mostly used. D. McLellan told me of a case of his. He was sent for in the middle of the night to see an old lady whom he found sitting up in bed gasping for breath, and blue. Rapid congestion of the lungs had occurred. The attack had come on suddenly. *Verbascum v. quickly rescued the patient from a condition of imminent peril. The concomitance of congestive symptoms, and also of nausea and vomiting, form one of the leading indications of *Verbascum v. in a great variety of cases. Sensations of fullness (“Head feels full and heavy,” “rush of blood to the head,” “face flushed,” buzzing in the ears,” “chest constricted, or oppressed as from a heavy load,” point to the congestive tendency. The localities most congested by *Verbascum v. are: Base of brain, chest, spine, stomach. Slowing of the heart’s action is a leading effect of the provings (from its action on the heart muscle and cardiac ganglia Digitalis on the pneumogastric), and *Verbascum v. has been used to “knock down” fever in the same way as Aconite Nash points out that there is some risk in this. When *Verbascum v. was first introduced he used it largely and successfully in a number of cases, but in one case which appeared to be going on favorably, the patient died *suddenly. This he attributes to the *Verbascum v. In chorea *Verbascum v. has had many successes: “twitchings during sleep” was a characteristic of some cases. “Constant jerking or nodding of the head,” “jerking and trembling, threatened with convulsions,” are other leading symptoms. In puerperal convulsions *Verbascum v. has only succeeded when nauseating doses have been given. In muscular and articular rheumatism it has been used locally as well as internally, and in chorea an application to the spine of the tincture, diluted with spirit, has proved a serviceable adjunct. Among other indications for *Verbascum v. are: “Violent pains attending inflammation.” “Head full, throbbing of arteries, sensitive to sound, double or partial vision.” *Suddenness: Sudden fainting, prostration, nausea. A keynote symptom is: Red streak down the center of the tongue. *Verbascum v. has a pronounced action on the oesophagus, it causes a sort of ruminating action or reversed peristalsis. Numbness is prominent among the effects of *Verbascum v. With the 30th I cured a man, 56, of these symptoms: Dim sight as if scales over it, numbness, pain in head as if a
tight band were round it, rush of blood to head, sleeplessness. *Peculiar Sensations are: Confused feeling in head as if head would burst. As if boiling water poured over parts. Tongue as if scalded. As if a ball rising into oesophagus. As if stomach tightly drawn against spine. As of a load on chest. As if ankles distorted. As of galvanic shocks in limbs. As if damp clothing on arms and legs. *Verbascum v. is Suited to full-blooded, plethoric persons. Dreaming about water is a characteristic which I have confirmed. The symptoms are: better By rubbing. better By pressure (pain in head). Motion worse. Sudden motion causes faintness and blindness. Rising worse. Walking worse, causes blindness. Lying worse (headache, breathing, &c.), better faintness and blindness. Closing eyes and resting head better vertigo. worse Going from warm to cold worse After exposure. The least food causes vomiting. worse Morning on waking, also evening.
Relations
*Antidoted by: Hot Coffee. *Antidote to:Strychnine. *Compare: Puerperal convulsions, Gelsemium (Gelsemium has dull, drowsy state of mind), Verbascum v., apoplectic condition between the fits, face red, eyes congested, violent convulsive twitches). Congestions, Ferrum ph., Belladonna Plethora, Aco. Chorea, Hyoscyamus Pneumonia with engorgement, Sanguinaria (Verbascum v. more marked arterial tension). Scalded tongue, Sanguinaria Tetanus, Nux vomica, Hypericum. Rheumatic fever, Bryonia, Acidum salicylicum Sunstroke, double or partial vision, Gloninum, Gelsemium Slow, irregular intermittent pulse, Digitalis, Tabacum Aching in gall- bladder, Baptisia Heat in heart, Lachn., Rhododendron, Kalm. Clumsiness, Bovista As if damp clothing on legs, Calcarea (Verbascum v. and arms). Nodding of head, Lycopodium, Stramonium Neck muscles weak, Antim tart., Verbascum a.
Causation
Sun. Suppressed menses. Suppressed lochia.
SYMPTOMS.
Mind
Stupefaction, congestion. Mental confusion, loss of memory. Temporary delirium. Quarrelsome and delirious, striking and kicking with right hand and foot (at times these movements seemed to be involuntary), changed to a happy and comical delirious state. Depression and prostration. Great fear of death. When not vomiting lay in a stupor. Puerperal mania: silent, suspicious, fears being poisoned. Loquacity with exaltation of ideas.
Head
Vertigo: with nausea and sudden prostration, with vomiting as soon as he rises, with photophobia, better closing eyes and resting head. Sunstroke with prostration, febrile motion, accelerated pulse. Headache with vertigo, dim vision and dilated vessels. Head feels full and heavy. Fullness in head, throbbing, aching, buzzing in ears, double or partial vision. Constant dull frontal headache, with neuralgic pains in right temple close to eye. Rush of blood to head. Pain in head as if tightly bound. “A principal headache remedy” (Cooper) (Cooper gives me the following cured cases: Sick-headache, eyes ache and burn, fearful headache and pain in lower back on waking in morning, digging in shoulders. Headache generally before menses, and much sensitiveness of nerves, has to keep in a dark room, pain worse behind eyelids, unable to bear sounds. Sick-headache dating from childhood, often at beginning or end of menses, with great depression and lasting two days. Headache in girl, 23, for two years, on getting up in morning is very giddy and weak on her knees, falls down faint in the street, vertigo and sickness and pains all over head, worse on vertex, behind ears and in occiput, can’t bear to talk or be in noise. Painful swelling of sides of neck, head also feels swollen with suffocative feeling and sneezing and chills down back (Verbascum v. cured after Apis failed). Sick-headache, vomiting, worse from fatigue.) On waking after a short sleep indescribable sensation rising from forehead to crown and seems to grasp vertex and occiput. Dull occipital headache. Constant jerking or nodding of the head. Congestive apoplexy. Basilar meningitis. Cerebral irritation, threatened hydrocephalus. Erysipelas of right side of head and face, with swelling. Phlegmonous erysipelas of scalp.
