Pix liquida

Lecture XXX — Coniferae — Abies nigra, Sabina, Terebinthina, Pix liquida and Thuja occidentalis; Euphorbiaceae — Croton tiglium, etc.

Pix liquida has but two symptoms worthy of note. One proceeds from its action on the lungs. You may give it with confidence in suppurative processes affecting the left lung, with pain at the third left costal cartilage.

Anisum stellatum has the same pain, but here it is referred to the right third costal cartilage. The above symptoms of Pix and Anisum have stood the test of experience over and over again. Remedies having pains in the left side of the chest, which are here worthy of mention, are: Myrtus commwiis (upper part), Sumbul (many pains), Fluoric acid, Oxalic acid, Actea rac. (under the nipple), Lilium tigrinum (through the heart or through the mamma to the back), Kali carb.

} Sulphur (through to the back), Sarsaparilla (from the back through to the left chest), Pulsatilla nuttaliana (on the left side, under the arm near the back), Guaiacum (stitches at about the upper three ribs; purulent sputum), Theridion, Phosphorus and Silicea. Pix liquida also causes an eruption, especially on the dorsum of the hands, which cracks, itches intolerably at night, and bleeds when scratched.

Thuja Occidentals.

The remainder of the hour will be devoted to Thuja occidentalism the last member of this group, and we shall consider it fully. The history of the introduction of this drug is somewhat novel. Hahnemann received in his office on one occasion a patient who complained of some symptoms about the genital organs, which were, to say the least, suspicious. There was a thick purulent discharge from the urethra, with burning on urinating. There were also small pimples, attended with itching, about the glans penis, and some swelling of the parts. Hahnemann charged his patient with having contracted gonorrhoea. This was stoutly denied by the patient, who, by the way, was a theological student. However, on the principle prevailing in every court to consider a man innocent until he has been proved guilty, Hahnemann determined to give the young man no medicine, and directed him to report in three days. At the end of that time he came back well. Hahnemann was puzzled. He questioned the patient closely, but found no cause. Then the young gentleman remembered that as he sauntered through a garden a few days before he picked some leaves of the arbor vitae and chewed them. This led Hahnemann to investigate the properties of Thuja, when he discovered that the theological student had told the truth.

Do not think, however, that Thuja has no other field of usefulness than in sycosis, because it has several interesting actions on the system, especially upon the nervous system. While you must remember that these nervous phenomena may rest on a sycotic basis, you should also know that they may exist without the presence of any such taint. Grauvogl tells us of the '

' hydrogenoid constitution," in which the poison of gonorrhoea acts most virulently. If one with this constitution contracts the disease, he is more apt to retain the constitutional taint. This constitution, we are told, may exist without any sycotic taint. In those who are afflicted with it, vaccination is most injurious. When you find a patient suffering from vaccination, the virus being pure, you may set that patient down as belonging to the hydrogenoid constitution. We have two antidotes to these bad effects of vaccination: Silicea, which suits almost any of the symptoms, even convulsions, and Thuja, which is especially suitable if diarrhoea results and the vaccine pustules are very large. It was on account of this last-named symptom that Boenninghausen recommended Thuja in variola. He gave it just as soon as the vesicles began to turn into pustules, and he claimed to have thereby prevented scarring. But to return to a study of the action of Thuja on the nervous system. The patient exhibits a manner which is hurried and impatient. He talks hurriedly. His movements are unnaturally active and hurried. His temper is easily aroused. Even trifles make him angry and excited. Some of the gentler emotions also are awakened. For instance, music causes weeping and trembling of the feet. There is a form of insanity or mania in which you will find Thuja the only remedy, and that is one in which there is the fixed idea in the patient's mind, that he is made of some brittle substance, and he will not permit himself to be approached for fear that he will be broken. This is not the Antimonium crudum condition. It is not an irritability of mind that drives any one and every one away, and will not permit one's self to be even looked at, but it is a symptom that comes from some fixed delusion as to his bodily composition.

Or he thinks that his body and soul are separated or that a stranger is by his side.

Another singular characteristic of Thuja is one that was first met with in an old maid. She experienced a sensation as though a living child were in the abdomen. This symptom has suggested the use of