Baptisia tinctoria

the bed is too hard, yet he feels too sick to move. Dark; mucous membranes, exudates, hæmorrhage, stools, spots in body, etc. Brown; sordes, stripe down center of tongue, stool, menses, etc. FOUL; odor of body; excretions, stool, sweat, etc. Grippe. Zymoses. Sepsis. Typhoid states. Bed sores, etc. Insensible to pain. Restless mind but lifeless body. Bewildered. Thick speech. Sensation as of a blow on occiput. Dull, drowsy, besotted look. SENSE OF DUALITY; PARTS FEEL SCATTERED ABOUT, SEPARATED, numb or too large. Dull and confused. Falls asleep while answering or does not complete his sentence. Eyes feel swelled. DUSKY, SODDEN, BESOTTED, STUPID COUNTENANCE. Dark red, tumid mouth and throat. Throat, numb inside but sensitive outside. Fetor oris. Tongue cracked, bleeds, feels thick or is heavily coated. Viscid saliva. Aphthæ. Ragged ulcers in throat. Can't swallow solids. Spasm of gullet. Easy vomiting. Diarrhœa; sudden; horribly foul, mushy, painless, dark or slaty. Symptoms radiate from small of back. Dyspnœa from weakness in chest. Air hunger; on waking, > standing. Bronchial asthma. Drowsy, stupid and languid; slides down in bed and lower jaw drops (Mur-ac.). Hyperpyrexia. Livid spots on body. Uræmia.

Humid heat. Fogs. In room. Pressure. On awaking. SORE, HEAVY, ACHING MUSCLES; gall-bladder, heart, etc WITH RAPID PROSTRATION;

BLOOD. Mind. Nerves. Mucous membranes: Digestive tract. Left side.

Related: Arn. Gel. Hyo. Lach. Mur-ac. Op. Rhus-t.

Baptisia tinctoria

Wild Indigo. LeguminoscE.

For the lymphatic temperament.

Great prostration, with disposition to decomposition of fluids (Pyr. ) ; ulceration of mucous membranes.

All exhalations and discharges fetid, especially in typhoid or other acute disease ; breath, stool, urine, perspiration, ulcers (Psor., Pyr.).

Aversion to mental exertion; indisposed, or want of power to think.

Perfect indifference, don’t care to do anything, inability to fix the mind on work.

Stupor; falls asleep while being spoken to or in the midst of his answer (when spoken to, answers correctly, but delirium returns at once, Arn.).

Tongue: at first coated white with red papillae; dry and yellow-brown in centre; later dry, cracked, ulcerated.

Face flushed, dusky, dark-red, with a stupid, besotted, drunken expression (Gels.).

Can swallow liquids only (Bar. c.) ; least solid food gags (can swallow liquids only, but has aversion to them, Sil.).

Painless sore throat; tonsils, soft palate and parotids dark red, swollen; putrid, offensive discharge (Diph.).

Dysentery of old people; diarrhoea of children, especially when very offensive (Garbo v.. Pod., Psor.).

Cannot go to sleep because she cannot get herself together; head or body feels scattered about the bed; tosses about to get the pieces together; thought she was three persons, could not keep them covered (Petr.).

In whatever position the patient lies, the parts

BAPTISIA

Arn., Pyr.).

Decubitus in typhoid (Arn., Mur. ac., Pyr.).

Relation. — Similar: to, Arn., Ars., Bry., Gels., in the early stages of fever with malaise, nervousness, flushed face, drowsiness, and muscular soreness.

When Ars. has been improperly given or too often repeated in typhoid or typhus.

After Baptisia: Crot., Ham., Nit. ac. and Tereb. act well in haemorrhage of typhoid and typhus.

Lecture XXXVIII — Baptisia tinctoria

Baptisia tinctoria.

Gelseinium.

Rhustox., Bryonia.

Arnica, Muriatic acid, Lachesis, Arsenicum album.

Ailantlius.

I have selected for our study to-day a member of the leguminous plants, namely, Baptisia tinctoria, or the wild indigo. Baptisia is a drug which has a short history, but an exceedingly interesting one. Our journals are replete with glowing accounts of cures of typhoid conditions made with it. Baptisia causes, in general, the changes in the blood, both quantitative and qualitative, w 7hich are exhibited in typhoid fever. The offensive exhalations, the mental and nervous phenomena which it develops are characteristic of this disease. Baptisia is suitable to all stages of typhoid, early or late. Its symptoms I will divide into two classes: first, those which indicate the remedy early in typhoid affections, and, secondly, those which call for it late. The drug may of course be indicated even if all the following symptoms are not present in any one case. But I shall give you the characteristic symptoms of the remedy, and unless several of these are present it would not be proper to give Baptisia. These symptoms are as follows: excitement of the brain, just such as precedes delirium; wild-, wandering feeling; the patient cannot confine his mind to any one subject; restlessness, constant desire to move from place to place; disturbed sleep. The patient awakens at two or three o'clock in the morning, and then is so restless that he tosses about, unable to sleep any longer. During sleep his dreams are of the most extravagant character. He dreams that he is chained to the bed, or that he is swimming a river, or undergoing some ordeal which makes a great demand on his strength. He may suffer from nightmare, from which he awakens with a sensation as though the room were insufferably hot, making breathing almost impossible. If he still has strength he goes to the open window to get air. Now this is not a true asthma; it is not due to a spasmodic contraction of the bronchioles. There is a fulness of the chest, causing the oppressed feeling. One prover described the symptom, not as a true difficulty of breathing, but as a feeling as though he had not strength to lift his chest. The patient makes frequent errors as to his own person, supposing at times that he is double or that his body is scattered about, and that he must toss about the bed to collect the pieces. Now these evidences of nervous excitement are accompanied by excessive prostration; the back and limbs ache; the back feels stiff; the patient feels tired and bruised all over; he complains of the bed feeling too hard; this makes him restless, and he tosses about the bed to find a softer spot; weakness develops, progressing so far that he becomes unable to walk; he suffers from an indescribable weak or faint feeling, with or without vertigo.

The face is hot and flushed and has a heavy, besotted look, as in the case of one intoxicated. The eyes, also, are heavy and stupid in appearance. The tongue is at first white or slightly yellowish; frequently, too, the papillae are raised and project through this whitish or yellow coating. The edges of the tongue are of a deep red color. There is a dull, heavy headache, with the sensation as if the head would be pressed in; sometimes the pressure in the forehead seems to go down into the root of the nose. Again, the patient complains of a sensation which he describes '

' as though the skin of the forehead were being pulled back towards the occiput." This is evidently due to tonic contraction of the occipito-frontalis muscle. At other times the patient simply describes the sensation as though the skin of the forehead were tense, or tight, or drawn. These symptoms of the head are often accompanied by a numb, tingling feeling in the forehead or scalp. At other times the head feels enormously large.

The typhoid type of fever is very characteristic of Baptisia, it being one of the few T remedies which actually produce this type of fever.

There is always an increase of temperature. The pulse is usually accelerated in direct proportion to the intensity of the fever. Even in the early stages of typhoid fever, you may find Baptisia indicated by the abdominal symptoms, slight sensitiveness in the ilio-csecal region, and yellow putrescent stools. These, then, are the symptoms calling for the early exhibition of Baptisia in typhoid fever.

I can say confidently that if you select the drug on its homoeopathic indications as just outlined, you will succeed in aborting a large percentage of typhoid states. I say this despite the assertions of many other physicians who have argued to the contrary. The properlyselected drug will abort typhoid fever. The disease need not run its course, as prominent old-school authorities claim it must necessarily do. Later in the course of the disease, during the second or third week, you will find Baptisia indicated when the prostration is profound. The patient is in a stupor. He falls asleep while answering questions. His face is now dark-red in color and has, more marked than ever, this heavy, besotted look. The tongue has changed its yellow or white coating to one which has a brown streak down the centre, the edges of the organ still remaining red. All the exhalations and discharges from the patient are exceedingly offensive. The teeth are covered with sordes having an offensive odor. The breath is fcetid. The stools are yellowish or dark, and are horribly putrid. The urine and sweat are both offensive. So 3^011 see, Baptisia applies to cases in which there is an evident decomposition of vital fluids and rapid disintegration of tissue.

To give Baptisia its legitimate position among other typhoid remedies it will be necessary to compare it with those nearest like it in symptomatology. The first of these remedies to which I shall call your attention is Gclsemium. This usually precedes Baptisia when there are malaise and muscular soreness, and the patient suffers from chills and "crups," which go down the back. This is on the first day, remember. In the afternoon comes the fever with accelerated pulse, this being full and flowing, not tense and resisting as under Aconite. The fever is usually associated with drowsiness; the face is red in color, uniformly suffused; and even as early in the case as this there may be prostration. Gelsemium causes paratysis of the motor nerves, hence there must be weakness of the muscles. By the next afternoon, if the fever rises, despite Gelsemium, you may change to Baptisia, provided the above-mentioned symptoms develop. The reason I dwell on the relations of these two drugs is because of the great similarity of their symptoms. Both of them have this intense muscular soreness and prostration; both have drowsiness and nervous excitement, with prostration; both have this feeling of expansion, as though the head or some part of the body were enormously enlarged; and both have the afternoon exacerbation of the fever. The relation between the two drugs is one of degree or intensity. Gelsemittm is the milder acting drug of the two.

Another remedy which is not unlike Baptisia is Rhus tox. Like Baptisia, Rhus has restlessness, brown tongue and soreness of the muscles. I must confess that the distinction between the two remedies is not always easy. Formerly, Rhus held undisputed sway in almost all diseases which threatened to assume a typhoid type, whether the disease was diphtheria, scarlatina, peritonitis or pneumonia. Now this honor is shared with Baptisia. The main differences between the drugs, brief!y given, are these: Rhus has restlessness, caused more by rheumatoid pains than by muscular soreness alone. The tongue, under Rhus, has a red, triangular tip, which is not noticed under Baptisia, Delirium is of a muttering character under Rhus, unaccompanied, so far as I know, by these delusions respecting personal identity. Neither are the putrid discharges of Rhus tox. quite so offensive :as those of Baptisia. If diarrhoea progresses to a severe type under Rhus, the stools are watery, .sometimes bloody and involuntary. The pneumonic symptoms which often complicate typhoid fever are more prominent under Rhus.

Arnica claims a relationship with Baptisia. It is similar to the latter remedy in the stupor, in the intolerance of the bed (the patient complaining that it feels too hard), and in the falling asleep while answering questions. Arnica, I think, is more suitable when there is a tendency to apoplectic congestion and when the stupor is so profound that both stool and urine are passed involuntarily. The intensity of the involvement of the brain is shown by the loud, snoring respiration. Then, too, in Arnica we find suggillations, sometimes called ecchymoses.

Lachesis also comes forward as similar to Baptisia. You will recognize the resemblances between the remedies in the oflensiveness of the discharges, in the putridity of the exhalations and in the excessive prostration. I believe that I have seen apparently hopeless cases react under the benign influence of this remedy. As an animal poison, I think it penetrates more deeply than Baptida, and in consequence should be called for in worse cases. It may be distinguished by the following symptoms: trembling of the tongue when attempting to protrude it; the tongue catches on the teeth during the act. When he succeeds in getting it out, it hangs there tremblingly, and he may not even have sense enough to draw it in again. Haemorrhages are frequent in the Lachesis patient. Blood may escape from every orifice of the body. The lips crack and ooze a dark or blackish blood. Dark blood escapes from the bowels. This, after standing awhile, deposits a sediment which looks like charred straw. In severe cases there is marked intolerance to light pressure. Even when the sensorium appears to be perfectly benumbed the patient resists the slightest touch about the neck. In still worse cases, 3'ou have to distinguish it from Baptisia when there are approaching cerebral paralysis, dropping of the lower jaw and involuntary discharges.

Muriatic acid bears some resemblance to Baptisia in the great prostration, in the decomposition of fluids, and in the low form of delirium. But the general character of its sj^mptoms is not sufficiently similar to those of the other remed}' to make a distinction difficult. The Muriatic acid weakness is so great that the patient is unable to make the slight exertion required to maintain the head on the pillow; he therefore slides down to the foot of the bed.

Now, a word about Baptisia in diseases other than typhoid fever. In such affections it is indicated by the symptoms already mentioned. In dysentery you will give it when the discharges are offensive, bloody and are attended by tenesmus, but with a significant absence of pain, showing an alarming depression of vitality.

Baptisia comes into play in the treatment of phthisis. It is especially useful during the later stages of the disease in relieving the fever, particularly when it increases in the afternoon with slight drowsiness, thick speech and bewilderment of mind.

Baptisia has proved itself one of our best remedies in diphtheria when it has assumed a typhoid type. Some of the s} Tmptoms already mentioned will be present. The mouth is excessively putrid. The membrane is dark and exhibits a gangrenous tendency. Sometimes, early in the disease, you will observe this characteristic: the patient can swallow only liquids. Give him milk and he will drink it. Give him solid food and he rejects it at once.

Ailanthus is to be compared with Baptisia in typhoid conditions, in scarlatina and in diphtheria. It produces even more profound stupor than the latter remedy. There is a well-marked, excoriating, watery discharge from the nose, making the upper lip sore. The rash, if any exist, is of a livid purplish hue, thus denoting the poisoned state of the blood.

I wish to impress upon you the need of correlating properly in your mind Gelsemunn, Baptisia, Rhus tox. and Lachesis. These remedies present so inan}^ distinct clinical pictures, which, when recalled in time of necessity and used according to their symptomatic indications, form a quartette invaluable in the treatment of disease.

Wild, wandering feeling. Inability to think. Mental confusion. Ideas confused. Illusion of divided personality. Thinks he is broken or double, and tosses about the bed trying to get pieces together (Cajeput). Delirium, wandering, muttering. Perfect indifference. Falls asleep while being spoken to. Melancholia, with stupor.

Wild Indigo The symptoms of this drug are of an asthenic type, simulating low fevers, septic conditions of the blood, malarial poisoning and extreme prostration. Indescribable sick feeling. Great muscular soreness and putrid phenomena always are present. All the secretions are offensive-breath, stool, urine, sweat, etc. Epidemic influenza. Chronic intestinal toxæmias of children with fetid stools and eructations. Baptisia in low dilutions produces a form of anti-bodies to the bac typhosus, viz,

the agglutinins (Mellon). Thus it raises the natural bodily resistance to the invasion of the bacillary intoxication, which produces the typhoid syndrome. Typhoid carriers. After inoculation with anti-typhoid serum. Intermittent pulse, especially in the aged.

Worse; Humid heat; fog; indoors.

Confused, swimming feeling. Vertigo; pressure at root of nose. Skin of forehead feels tight; seems drawn to back of head. Feels too large, heavy, numb. Soreness of eyeballs. Brain feels sore. Stupor; falls asleep while spoken to. Early deafness in typhoid conditions. Eyelids heavy.

Besotted look. Dark red. Pain at root of nose. Muscles of jaw rigid.

Taste flat, bitter. Teeth and gums sore, ulcerated. Breath fetid. Tongue feels burned; yellowish-brown; edges red and shining. Dry and brown in center, with dry and glistening edges; surface cracked and sore. Can swallow liquids only; least solid food gags.

Dark redness of tonsils and soft palate. Constriction, contraction of œsophagus (Cajeput). Great difficulty in swallowing solid food. Painless sore throat, and offensive discharge. Contraction at cardiac orifice.

Can swallow only liquids, vomiting due to spasm of œsophagus. Gastric fever. No appetite. Constant desire for water. Sinking feeling at stomach. Pain in epigastric region. Feeling of hard substance (Abies nig). All symptoms worse from beer (Kali bich). Cardiac orifice contracted convulsively and ulcerative inflammation of stomach and bowels.

Right side markedly affected. Distended and rumbling. Soreness over region of gall-bladder, with diarrhœa. Stools very offensive, thin, dark, bloody. Soreness of abdomen, in region of liver. Dysentery of old people.

Threatened miscarriage from mental depression, shock, watching, low fevers. Menses too early, too profuse. Lochia acrid, fetid. Puerperal fever.

Lungs feel compressed, breathing difficult; seeks open window. Fears going to sleep on account of nightmare and sense of suffocation. Constriction of chest. Back and Extremities.––Neck tired. Stiffness and pain, aching and drawing in arms and legs. Pain in sacrum, around hips and legs. Sore and bruised. Decubitus.

Livid spots all over body and limbs. Burning and heat in skin (Arsenic). Putrid ulcers with stupor, low delirium and prostration.

Sleepless and restless. Nightmare and frightful dreams. Cannot get herself together, feels scattered about bed. Falls asleep while answering a question.

Chill, with rheumatic pains and soreness all over body. Heat all over, with occasional chills. Chill about 11 am.Adynamic fevers. Typhus fever. Shipboard fever.

Compare: Bryonia and Arsenic may be needed to complete the favorable reaction. Ailanthus differs, being more painful. Baptisia more painless. Rhus; Muriat acid; Arsenic; Bryon; Arnica; Echinac. Pyrogen. Baptisia confusia (Pain in right jaw and oppression in left hypochondrium, producing dyspnœa and necessity to assume erect position).

Tincture, to twelfth attenuation. Has rather short action.

Baptisia

Generalities: Baptisia is suitable for acute diseases. It is principally a short-acting medicine, suitable for complaints that are not long lasting. So far as we know it is not an antipsoric, does not go deep into the life.

All of its acute diseases and complaints have the appearance of Zymosis, like scarlet fever, diphtheria, typhoid, and gangrenous complaints. There is one thing that is unusual about it, it brings on this septic state more, rapidly than most other remedies.

The zymotic complaints of Ars., Phos., Rhus, and Bry., are much slower in their pace. But Baptisia is suitable for typhoids that come on rapidly, and hence it is not so often suitable in idiopathic typhoids.

When an individual comes down suddenly from cold, from malaria, from drinking poisonous waters, and from any zymotic or septic cause he is hurled into bed in a few days, instead of going through a period of four, five or six weeks. The old idiopathic typhoid fevers come on slower. Baptisia is suitable for those blood poisons that are highly septic such as the puerperal state, such as scarlet fever. He comes down perhaps with the appearance of a sudden violent break down, with a remittent fever.

But all at once it turns continued, and takes on septic symptoms. So much for its progress and its pace. Every medicine must be observed as to its velocity, as to its pace, as to its periodicity, as to its motion, and its wave.

Looking and smelling: We get that by looking at the symptoms. You take an individual who has been down in a mine, in the swam, down in the mud, in the sewers, who has inhaled foul gases, who goes into bed with a sort of stupor, from the very beginning he feels stupid. It is not gradual, but he goes down very suddenly, and he is stupid.

He is prostrated. His face is mottled. Sordes begin to appear on the teeth much earlier than in the regular typhoid. The abdomen becomes distended much earlier than in a regular typhoid; that is one who is accustomed to observing those things knows they are postponed for a number of days; while with this remedy the third day the abdomen is distended, his mouth is bleeding, and is putrid.

His odors are horrible; and he is in a marked state of delirium, such as would not be expected until the typhoid is out for many days. So it has rapid running diseases. It has velocity. That is, he is going down toward death rapidly. He is increasing in his prostration more rapidly than usual. It is not a gradual decline of days and weeks.

He goes into a state of stupor. When aroused he takes on delirium. It does not matter whether it is scarlet fever, or typhoid fever, or a septic surgical fever, or a puerperal fever, or what. He has fever, and if you look at him, and talk to him, and turn him over, and rouse him up, and make him realize that you want to say something to him - which is difficult - he gives you the impression that he has been on a big drunk. That is the first thought you will have in a Baptisia case. His countenance is besotted. It is bloated and purple and mottled. Blood oozes from the mouth. You have seen the besotted countenance of drunkards, and it is like an old drunkard.

Mind: His mind seems to be gone. He does not know what be is talking about lie is in confusion, and when aroused be attempts to say some thing, and utters a word or two and it all flits away, and he is back in his state of stupor again. No matter what disease that comes in, no matter what inflammation is present, no matter what organ is inflammed, if that state of the blood that can give rise to such symptoms and such sepsis is present, if that state of the mind is present, it is Baptisia.

Discharges: All of the discharges are putrid. The odor is cadaverous, pungent; penetrating. His perspiration, if he has any, is sour, foetid, pungent, and penetrating.

If he has no sweat the body gives off an odor that is unaccountable. The odor is so penetrating that on going into the front door the whole house, if the room is open, is filled with the odor. The odor from the stool is putrid and so penetrating that it can be detected on first going into the house.

Now, a strange thing that runs through the remedy is a peculiar kind of mental confusion, in which he is in a constant argument with his parts.

Delirium: He seems to feel that there are two of him. He realizes a dual existence whenever he is roused up. He will begin talking about the other one in bed with him.

It is said clinically that "his great toe is in controversy with his thumb." Or, "one leg is talking to the other leg." Or, one part is talking to another part; or, he is scattered around over the bed; tumbles and you ask him what he is trying to do.

"why, I am trying to get those pieces together." He never succeeds; he is in delirium, Of course these are only examples; you will get a new phase every time you get a Baptisia case. Most of the time he is un conscious except when roused. Sometimes mutters. You will see his lips go, and you rouse him to see what he is about, and he is trying to get the pieces together. "Confused as if intoxicated."

There are stages when he is not quite so stupid, and he is sleepless and restless. That is the exception. Most, generally you will find him lying upon one side curled up like a dog, and he does not want to be disturbed.

Again, when the stupor is not so great he is restless and turns and tosses. In that case he cannot sleep, because he cannot get the pieces together. He feels if he could once get matters together he could go to sleep, and these parts that are talking to each other keep him awake. His mind wanders as soon as his eyes are closed. Dullness, especially at night. Indisposition to think. Mind seems weak.

There you find the whole picture of the mental aspect in all complaints, in all acute diseases but they all come on in a hurry.

They are zymotic, of a low form such as scarlet fever, such as malignant diseases; and yet it takes on a continued type of fever.

These patients will die in from ten to twelve days if let alone. Whereas, ordinary typhoid will run for weeks, and sometimes die at the close of four weeks in a crisis.

The bleedings are black and offensive. The putridity is marked. In the mouth, the mucus from the throat and nose is bloody and putrid. It has a diarrhoea.

Stools: Thin, faecal, watery, yellow. It has a typical typhoid discharge; the most typical typhoid stool is like yellow corn-meal mush, coming on many times a day, but soft, pappy, just about the consistency of soft mush. This remedy has that stool, but it is not the commonest form - but the black, the brown, the dark. In treating a good many cases of typhoid it was my fortune to observe a large number of Baptisia cases, which the remedy cured promptly.

The stool where the Baptisia did the most service was like ground up slate, slate colored, brownish. The odor was penetrating. In addition to that I have seen this medicine cure that kind of diarrhoea when it was slate colored, even thin as water, if it was horribly putrid like decomposed meat; like the cadaver, attended with great prostration.

I have seen it cure that diarrhoea when there were none of the elements of typhoid fever present a simple prostrating form of diarrhoea. Exhaustion. Exhaustion comes rapidly. In three days he has a deathly sinking coming over him.

Headaches: The headaches are nondescript. Only those congestive attacks, frontal headaches violent pains in the head, and especially in the occiput, such as occur in the low forms of disease.

I hardly ever go into the details of headaches. Baptisia is not a headache remedy. It is not a remedy that we would single out to treat headaches with, except such violent pains in the head of a congestive character that are associated with this low form of fever.

Face: It has characteristic eye symptoms. Congestion. Redness.

Pains in the eyes, and back of the eyes. So it has with hearing. So it has with nasal symptoms. But associated with fevers. But as soon as we come to the face we begin to realize the Baptisia symptoms, that besotted expression.

The countenance shows that. The eyes show it, the face shows it. And these are the symptoms: "Dark red with besotted appearance. Hot and perceptibly flushed; dusky."

That tells the whole story. Burning; beat in the face.

"Critical sweat on forehead and face. Anxious, frightened look."

On rousing from sleep looks as if he had a horrible dream.

And then comes the mouth, and the teeth, and the throat, and the tongue, all show marked Baptisia features.

The tongue is swollen, painful, offensive. Covered with black blood. Raw; denuded. Stiff and dry as leather. Described as if it was made of wood, or burnt leather; ulcerated. Ulceration runs all through the remedy.

Aphthous patches. These little ulcers that start no bigger than a pin-head become black and are so offensive and run together so that the whole surface of the mouth will be in a state of ulceration; raw and denuded, oozing a thick saliva that is putrid.

Throat: The throat takes on ulceration; is raw and bleeding.

There may be diphtheritic exudations in the throat, but round about it there are those low, dark, offensive surfaces. The throat is greatly swollen, and it is with difficulty that he can swallow.

Baptisia has been a very useful remedy in gangrenous sore mouth and sore throat. "Cancrum oris." The ulcers spread rapidly and eat rapidly.

They are really phagedenic. Sordes form rapidly on the teeth. And when he is roused from sleep after a few hours of stupor there is a building up on the lips and around the corners of the mouth ridges of dry blood; very offensive.

Bleeds much from the mouth, throat and nose. Thick oozing. Putrid.

"Tongue red, and dry in the middle, The roof of the mouth swollen and feels numb. Foul or bitter nauseous taste in the mouth. Tongue of a dark hue. Tongue dry, brown down the centre. Tongue covered with a thick, brown crust. Tongue yellowish white, deeply furred."

Ulcers all over the mouth. Baptisia has cured the ulcerated sore throat of young mothers - and nursing sore mouth in children, when the parts become dusky and ulcers spread, and the mouth is putrid, and prostration is coming on rapidly. The child or the mother is growing weak with great rapidity, is becoming prostrated. Now, all this without fever.

Many of these ulcerative states in Baptisia are not attended with fever, it seems sometimes as though there were not life enough to get up a fever. Aphthous appearance in typhoid, in children, and with nursing mothers.

Canker sores in the mouth.

"Putrid ulceration of the whole buccal cavity." Now, with all this trouble saliva pours into the mouth, is thick and ropy and runs all over the pillow; like we find in Mercury.

The sore throat may be gangrenous. A strong feature of it is that the ulcers are rapid and painless, as if numb, without sensation. But it has a painful sore throat.

"Fauces dark red; dark, putrid ulcers; tonsils and parotids swollen. Putrid sore throat. Tonsils and soft palate swollen, not accompanied by pain." Great swelling; great tumefaction; purplish. The darker it is the more likely would I be to think of Baptisia -but never a bright red. I have never seen the Baptisia mental state associated with a bright red appearance. That low form of mental state is associated with blood decomposition, with duskiness, with a dark appearance of the skin, and of the mucous membranes. Not bright red, not pink, as we find in Bell.

Bell is more commonly bright red, although it has duskiness, but nothing to the extent of Baptisia. There is nothing like the putridity in Bell. that there is in Baptisia.

"Oesophagus feels as if constricted from above down to stomach."

Oesophagus: Now, we have another phase of it. From the sore throat the trouble extends into the oesophagus, and the oesophagus is at first in a state of spasm. Later it is paralyzed. Fluids will at first go down the throat, but he cannot swallow a particle of solids.

The bolus of food will go into the upper end of the oesophagus and there it chokes him and feels like a lump, and he chokes and struggles and gags and throws it back, and then takes water or fluids.

He can swallow fluids but he cannot swallow solids. Every particle of solid food gags; but he can swallow liquids. Natr. mur. and quite a number of other remedies have spasms of the oesophagus coming on with nervous complaints, but in this low state I know of no other medicine having that one symptom, having these features, and the paralysis, and the spasmodic condition of the oesophagus.

"The oesophagus feels as if constricted from above down to the stomach."

Constrictive feeling causing frequent efforts at deglutition; throat sore, feels constricted. Can swallow only liquids. Children cannot swallow solids. The smallest solid substance causes gagging, thus he cannot use anything but milk; sometimes, thin, watery, offensive passages day and night; associated with the putridity, with the offensiveness, with the duskiness and with the prostration.

You need to know no more, if it is diphtheria, or scarlet fever, if it is typhoid fever, that will lead you to a certain remedy.

"Paralysis of the organs of deglutition." To draw out from every remedy that which is positive to get the associations that make up a particular remedy and that only is the duty of every clinician.

Abdomen: The abdomen is distended; the stomach is distended. We may have these symptoms in inflammation of the liver, when this remedy would be useful. Along with the diseases that I have mentioned, tympanitic abdomen. Great soreness in the right iliac fossa; so sore and tender, no bigger than a fist; but all of this putridity, - I am sure, would prevent you from using a knife to cut off that little appendix. "Foetid, exhausting diarrhoea. Aphthous diarrhoea which means that the parts of the anus that roll out are ulcerated, little aphthous patches inside of the margin."

"Involuntary diarrhoea."

Involuntary urine and stool in these low forms of disease.

"Dark brown, mucous and bloody stools. Foetid stools."

It has dysentery. After confinement the lochia stops. Great tenderness of the abdomen. All these putrid signs-breaking down of the blood, the appearance of the face, the sudden prostration, suddenly becoming stupid; and add to that the mental symptoms-these are all signs for Baptisia in puerperal fever.

Now, intermingled with this after the case has been running on a few days the limbs become helpless and tremulous.

The tongue when it is put out is tremulous. The hand when it is raised is tremulous, and the limbs are tremulous. Quivering all over the body. Prostration. increases. The jaw drops and he lies upon the back unconscious, with the mouth wide open. He gradually slides down toward the foot of the bed.

A peculiar sort of paralytic weakness. This is how the prostration increases with the disease; but even yet when he is as low as this, with the signs present, Baptisia will break that fever. Baptisia will stop the typhoid fever, when it is indicated. Prostration and trembling Huddles down in bed, feels as if sinking away.

Lies in a semiconscious condition when she appears dying. Excessive drowsiness. Delirious stupor, Lies in a semi-comatose state. "Discharges and exhalations foetid."

Breath, stool, urine, ulcers; all putrid. Ulceration of mucous membranes.