Coffea cruda

Lecture XXXVI — Ipecacuanha and Coffea

sion than is Coffea.

Coffea is also a remedy in eruptive diseases, when the eruption keeps the patient awake on account of the excessive itching and burning of the skin; the patient scratches even until the parts bleed. This symptom is due, in the Coffea case, to the hypersensitiveness of the skin.

Moreover, Coffea has fear of death, thus allying it with Aconite; this fear usuallly being present with the severe pains. All pain in the Coffea patient is intolerable. Kven a slight pain causes great complaint and crying and whining.

Coffea is often indicated in the toothache of children and of nervous people. Sometimes you will be led to give Chamomilla in these cases. You find the mental symptoms indicating that drug, yet it does no good, or it affords but partial relief. You may give Chamomilla when the face is red, when the child cannot bear the least pain and is cross and irritable, and when cold water in the mouth relieves for an instant. But if cold water relieves permanently, Cofiea is the remedy. The senses are all too acute under Coffea, not only the sense of touch but that of sight and of hearing also. Under the stimulating influence of this remedy the patient may see fine print with a degree of distinctness altogether unnatural. Distant noises seem to be magnified.

Coffea has a condition almost the reverse of the hypersesthetic state. It results from the secondary or depressant action of the drug. In its effect upon the circulation, at first it seems to increase the frequency of the pulse, showing that there is increased action of the heart. This is followed later by cardiac depression, with palpitation and irregular pulse. It must be remembered that this increased frequency of the pulse is not attended with an increase of force, as under Aconite, Bryonia and Baptisia. So you see that the stimulation is not genuine. On the contrary, it weakens the heart muscle, so that after awhile, if this drug be given long enough, or if coffee be indulged in as a beverage to excess, the heart exhibits a tendency to dilate. We find Coffea also indicated in diarrhoea, particularly that occurring among housewives; those who have a great deal of care and trouble in the management of the household.

Remember also the use of Coffea for fatigue arising from long journeys, especially during hot weather.

I wish to mention two or three other drugs analogous to Cojfea, that have recently been proved. Piper methysticum, also called Kavakava and Awa-samoa, is largely used in Polynesia as a beverage. It has also been proved as a medicine. Its effects seem to be something like those of coffee, for it produces at first a feeling of buoyancy or tension, as though every nerve were " strung-up " to its highest pitch. The prover feels that he can work hard without fatigue. If these effects reach their extremes, there is a feeling of mental tension as though the head were large, almost full to bursting. There is dizziness also; dizziness on closing the eyes or on directing the attention to any object. The vessels of the brain, and particularly those about the base of the brain, feel full, as if ligated (that is the symptom given in the language of the prover). Thus far you see it is somewhat similar to Coffea. But the secondary action quickly follows the use of Piper, and this reverse effect is characterized by what we may call brain-fag. The brain feels tired on awakening, as one feels after being out late at night and losing considerable sleep, or after a hard night's study. There is heavy, dull aching in the head, which is worse from reading, thinking or any use of the mind. The mental symptoms, be they those of excitement or of depression, are relieved by diversion of the mind. Further than this, Piper seems to produce convulsions, and it has cured them. The spasms simulate those of catalepsy. The mind is tired and yields to the least pressure. There is over-sensitiveness to all external impressions.