Bryonia alba

Slowly advancing, forcible processes, localizing in unyielding tissues. Very painful effects; on coughing holds sides, chest or head; in joints, etc. BURSTING, STITCHING or heavy, sore pain, going backward. AVERSE TO LEAST MOTION, even of distant parts. Dryness everywhere. Dryness of the mucous membranes. Scanty, adherent secretions. Congestion, INFLAMMATION, exudation. Streaks of red. Gastro-bilious-rheumatic type. .................... Determined, taciturn, irritable and ugly. Wants to be let alone or go home. Dull. DIZZY OR FAINT ON RAISING UP. Vertigo; felt in occiput. BURSTING, SPLITTING OR HEAVY crushing headache; fronto-occipital; < moving eyes, coughing, straining at stool, etc. Pain over l. eye. Sensitive scalp; every hair pains. Oily hair. Eyeballs sore; pains behind. Dark red face. Nosebleed; vicarious. Suppressions or non-appearing discharges, eruptions, etc. Wagging lower jaw. Descending colds. Chewing motions. Dry, parched, cracked lips. Dry mouth. Tongue very dry, rough, coated along center; red at base. Soapy saliva. BITTER TASTE, or vomitus. Hawks brown lumps from posterior nares. THIRST; FOR LARGE DRINKS. Craves what he can't relish. Loathing. Nausea, < lying on r. side. Throbbing, tender epigastrium. Heavy load in stomach. Heavy, sore liver, > lying on it. Appendicitis. Peritonitis. LARGE, DRY, VERY HARD STOOLS, as if burnt. Constipation. Gushing diarrhœa on rising, < cabbage; burning; < hot weather. Lumps of tough mucus after stool. Yellow, mushy stool. Vicarious menstruation. Right chest; rusty expectoration. Wants to take a deep breath, but can't, or it excites cough. DRY, HARD, VERY PAINFUL COUGH, as if from stomach; < eating or drinking. Blood-streaked or tough expectoration. Bronchitis. Pneumonia (r.). SHARP STITCHES IN CHEST, or at r. scapula. Dry, friction sound. Pleurisy. Stony, hard mammæ; before menses. Milk fever. Heavy, hard breasts before menses. Interscapular numbness or pain going to epigastrium or from l. to heart. Lumbago, < stooping. Delirium; dreams of hard work. FULL, QUICK, HARD PULSE. Undeveloped measles. Jaundice. Chill, with hot head and red face; < warm room. Dry, burning heat; with < of all symptoms; blood seems hot. Painful, continued fevers; typhoid, catarrhal, etc.; after suppressions. Sour or oily sweat. Groins sore before menses.

MOTION: LEAST RAISING UP. STOOPING. EXERTION. COUGHING. DEEP BREATHING. Dry: Heat. Cold. HOT: BECOMING. ROOM. Weather. Drinking, while hot. EATING. Vegetables. Acids. Calomel. VEXATION. Touch. Suppressions. Taking cold. Early A.M.

PRESSURE: LYING ON PAINFUL PART. Bandage, etc. COOL OPEN AIR. QUIET. Cloudy, damp days. Drawing knees up. Heat to inflamed part.

Blood. CIRCULATION. Liver. SEROUS MEMBRANES: HEAD. CHEST. JOINTS. ABDOMEN. Motor apparatus: Nerves. Muscles. Right side. Lymphatics. Cellular tissue.

Complementary: Alu. Lyc. Nat-m. Related: Phyt. Rhus-t. BUFO (See Rana Bufo) BURSA PASTORIS (See Thlaspi Bursa Pastoris)

Bryonia alba

White Bryony, Wild Hop. Cucurbitaceae.

Is best adapted to persons of a gouty or rheumatic diathesis; prone to so-called bilious attacks.

BRYONIA XU&\.—iContinue<r) .

Bryonia patients are irritable, inclined to be vehement and angry ; dark or black hair, dark complexions, firm muscular fibre; dry, nervous, slender people (Nux).

Pains : stitching, tearing, worse at night ; < by motion, inspiration, coughing; > by absolute rest, and lying on painful side (PteL, Puls. — stitching pain, but < and > are opposite. Kali c. ) .

Excessive dryness of mucous membranes of entire body; lips and tongue dry, parched, cracked; stool, dry as if burnt; cough, dry, hard, racking, with scanty expectoration; urine, dark and scanty; great thirst.

Vicarious menstruation; nosebleed when menses should appear (Phos.) ; blood spitting, or haemoptysis.

Ailments from chagrin, mortification, anger (Col., Staph. ) ; violence, with chilliness and coldness ; after anger chilly, but with head hot and face red (Aur.).

Complaints : when warm weather sets in, after cold days; from cold drinks or ice in hot weather; after taking cold or getting hot in summer; from chilling when overheated, kicks the covers off; from exposure to draft, cold wind (Acon., Hep.) ; suppressed discharges, of menses, milk or eruption of acute exanthema.

One of the chief characteristics of Bryonia is, aggravation from any motion, and corresponding relief from absolute rest, either mental or physical.

Desires things immediately which are not to be had, or which when offered are refused.

Children dislike to be carried, or to be raised.

Delirium: talks constantly about his business; desire to get out of bed and go home (Act., Hyos.).

Constant motion of left arm and leg (Apoc., Hell).

Patient cannot sit up from nausea and faintness.

Great thirst for large quantities at long intervals.

Headache: when stooping, as if brain would burst through forehead; from ironing (Sep.) ; on coughing; in morning after rising or when first opening the eyes ; commencing in the morning, gradually increasing until evening; from constipation (Aloe, Colin., Op.).

Pressure as from stone at pit of the stomach, re^ lieved by eructation (Nux, Pul.).

Constipation: inactive, no inclination; stool large, hard, dark, dry, as if burnt; on going to sea (Plat.).

Diarrhoea: during a spell of hot weather; bilious, acrid with soreness of anus; like dirty water; of undigested food; from cold drinks when overheated, from fruit or sour krout; < in morning, on moving, even a hand or foot.

Mammae heavy, of a stony hardness ; pale but hard ; hot and painful; must support the breasts (Phyt.).

Cough : dry, spasmodic, with gagging and vomiting (Kali c.) ; with stitches in side of chest; with headache, as if head would fly to pieces; < after eating, drinking, entering a warm room, a deep inspiration.

Similar: to Bell., Hep. for hasty speech and hasty drinking.

To Ran. in pleuritic or rheumatic pains of chest.

To Ptelia, aching heaviness in hepatic region ; > lying on r, side, greatly < lying on left side; turning to the left causes a dragging sensation.

After Bryonia; Alum., Kali c., Nux, Phos., Rhus, Sulph.

Aggravation. — Motion, exertion, touch; cannot sit up, gets faint or sick or both; warmth, warm food; suppressed discharges of any kind.

Amelioration. — Lying, especially on painful side (Ptel., Puls.) ; pressure; rest; cold, eating cold things.

Lecture XXIX — Bryonia alba

i. Blood.

2. Serous Membranes.

3. Muscles.

4. Skin.

Bryonia. <j a. Rash ; Measles.

b. Scarlatina.

c. Suppressed eruptions.

J 5. Mucous membranes.

^ 6. Organs.

There are three species of Bryonia, but so nearly identical are they that Allen has classed them under one heading in his Encyclopaedia. Bryonia alba is one of the oldest remedies in the homoeopathic materia medica, and is one of the best proved. It grows plentifully in England and on the continent in Europe. The tincture is prepared from the roots. It is a polychrest, suitable to many kinds of disease. To give you all its symptoms, even all its characteristic symptoms, would take two or three hours of steady hard work. I will endeavor in the hour before us to explain the action of Bryonia so far that you may be able to apply the drug, and, as I have said before, supply the deficiencies at leisure.

We find Bryonia indicated first of all in changes in the blood ; in changes affecting its quantity, its quality and its circulation. For example, it is indicated in febrile conditions ; in fevers of an intermitting type, although not frequently ; in those of a remitting type, very often ; sometimes, too, in synochal fever ; and also in rheumatic, gastric, bilious, traumatic and typhoid fevers, in all of which, gastric symptoms are prominent. The symptoms which characterize its fevers are in general these : there in an increased action of the heart, giving rise to a frequent hard tense pulse, very much as you find under Aconite, There is actually an increase in the force and power of the heart's action. This action is augmented by any movement of the body, consequently the patient is anxious to keep perfectly quiet. Then you find that there is almost always intense headache with these fevers. This is usually of a dull throbbing character or there may be sharp stabbing pains in the head. This is almost always associated with sharp pains in or over the eyes. All of these parts are exquisitely sensitive to the least motion. The patient will avoid moving the eyes, for instance, because it aggravates the pain. The least attempt to raise the head from the pillow causes a feeling of faintness and na sea. The mouth is very dry and the tongue is coated in the milder forms of fever as, for instance, in the synochal fever or in the light gastric type of fever. The coating on the tongue is white, and is especially marked down the middle. The edges of the tongue may be perfectly clean. As the fever grows in intensity, it approaches more a typhoid type. Bilious symptoms predominate. The white tongue becomes yellowish and is associated with a decidedly bitter taste in the mouth. There are splitting headache, tenderness over the epigastrium, with stitches, soreness, or tenderness in the right hypochondrium. As the typhoid symptoms increase, the tongue becomes more and more dry, but still maintains its coating. If the fever is of an intermittent type, you will always find the chill mixed with heat; that is, during the chill the head is hot, the cheeks are a deep red and there is a decided thirst, which is generally for large quantities of water at long intervals. In some cases it may be a continuous thirst. The pulse is hard, frequent^ and tense. The sweat is provoked by the least exertion and has either a sour or an oily odor.

In typhoid fever, Bryonia is indicated in the early stages and by the following symptoms : there is some confusion of the mind ; the sensorium is depressed but there are no perversions of the senses. During sleep there is delirium, which is usually of a mild character. On closing his eyes for sleep, he thinks he sees persons who are not present. On opening them, he is surprised to find that he is mistaken. Sometimes this delirium is accompanied or preceded by irritability. The speech is hasty, as you find under Belladonna. As the disease increases, some little heaviness almost approaching stupor accompanies sleep. The patient has dreams, which have for their subject the occupation of the day. Frequently with this delirium, the patient suffers from an agonizing headache. This is usually frontal. If the patient is able to describe it to you, he will tell you that his head feels as if it would burst. No better term than " splitting headache " could be used to describe it. It is congestive in its character. The face is usually flushed and of a deep red color. This is intensified like all BRYONIA AI/BA. 2QI the other symptoms of the drug, by any motion of the head, and is often accompanied by nose-bleed. The epistaxis is particularly liable to come on at three or four o'clock in the morning, and is frequently preceded by a sense of fulness in the head. In very severe cases, you will notice that the patient puts his hand to his head as if there were some pain there, and his face is expressive of pain. Yet so stupid is he, that he makes no complaint other than that expressed by these automatic movements. Another symptom to be noted in these typhoid fevers, is the dryness of the mucous membranes, especially those of the mouth and stomach. This is the result of deficient secretion. In no case is the condition more apparent than in typhoid states. The mouth is dry, as I have already intimated, and yet there may be no thirst. If there is thirst it seems to have the character I mentioned in speaking of intermittent fever. The patient drinks large quantities but not very frequently. After drinking water or while attempting to sit up, the patient has a deathly nauseated feeling and sometimes even vomits. At other times he complains of a heavy pressure in the stomach, as if a stone were lying there. This symptom is no doubt due to the same pathological condition we found in the mucous membrane of the mouth. The secretion of gastric juice is deficient, consequently food lies undigested in the stomach. When B?yonia is called for the bowels are usually constipated. When they do move, the stools are large, hard and dry, and are either brown or black in color. They are expelled with difficult}' owing to the atony of the rectum. Sometimes in well-advanced cases of typhoid fever, you will find soft, mushy stools, calling for Bryonia. There is a symptom which sometimes accompanies typhoid fever at about the end of the first week of the fully developed fever, and that is a form of delirium in which the patient expresses a continual " desire to go home." He imagines that he is not at home and longs to be taken there in order to be properly cared for. This symptom is a strong indication for Bryonia, and frequently disappears after two or three doses of the remedy. In these febrile conditions, it is necessary to place Bryonia in its proper relations with its concordant remedies. First of all Aconite. Aconite bears an intimate relation to Bryonia in all these types of fever except gastric, intermittent and typhoid fevers. Aconite has not in its totality any special relation to any of these, however incorrectly it may be given to lessen the temperature. The symptomatology of Aconite is opposed in every respect to that of typhoid fever. In gastric fever, it may be given in the beginning when there is the full pulse, hot and dry skin and restlessness, indicating that drug ; but as the fever advances, it is then not indicated unless there are bilious complications. Then it is an all-sufficient remedy. The distinctions that you are to make between Aconite and Bryonia are as follows: in the first place, they hold the relation of Aconite and Bryonia and not Bryonia and Aconite; that is to say, Aconite is given earlier in the case than is Bryonia. Aconite suits the hyperemia, the congestion or even the chill which precedes an inflammatory fever. Bryonia is indicated later when Aconite fails. The mental symptoms of the two drugs are so distinct that you ought not to confuse them. Aconite demands that the mind be excited, that the patient be restless, tossing about the bed, full of fears. He imagines that he is going to die. The Bryonia patient may suffer just as much as the one to whom you would give Aconite, but he is perfectly quiet. He is quiet because motion aggravates his symptoms. Early in typhoid fever, and sometimes in rheumatic fever, you may have Bryonia indicated by this symptom: the patient is restless and tosses about the bed impelled by nervousness, and yet he is made worse by the motion. If there is anxiety in Bryoyiia it assumes more the form of apprehension ; he fears that he will not have the wherewithal to live.

Still another remedy to be thought of in connection with Bryonia in these fevers is Belladonna, and particularly in the beginning of typhoid fever. Now there is really nothing in the symptomatology of Belladonna which would call for it in a well-advanced case of typhoid type of fever. Only in the beginning could you confuse it with Bryonia. In the first place it has erethism. Here you distinguish it by its delirium, which is of a violent character. The patient jerks his limbs and starts during sleep. He springs up from sleep in affright. As soon as he closes his eyes, he sees all sorts of objects and people, which disappear as soon as the eyes are opened. Belladonna, then, has more cerebral erethism, and more violence in its delirium than has Bryonia. With the Belladonna headache there are throbbing pains, and the patient may be obliged to sit up rather than keep perfectly quiet in order to obtain relief.

Another remedy to be compared with Bryonia is Rhus tox. This is often indicated in typhoid fever. You all know the historic fact that Hahnemann, during one of the war-epidemics of typhus, cured many cases with these two remedies. Since the days of Hahnemann, this use of these remedies has become universal. Remember, however, that they are not specifics. Each epidemic may so change in character as to require other remedies. Rhus tox. is indicated, when there is marked restlessness. The patient, first lying on one side, changes to the other. For a few moments, he feels better in his new position. Then he begins to ache and back he turns again. Like Bryonia, it has nose-bleed, when nose-bleed relieves the patient's symptoms, and the headache I described to you last month as " a sensation as though a board were strapped tightly across the forehead." There are rheumatic aching pains through the joints and muscles of the limbs. The tongue differs from that of Bryonia. It is brown and dry and even cracked, and has a red tip, also an excellent indication for Sulphur. With Rhus tox., there is frequently diarrhoea from the very beginning. Bryonia usually has constipation.

I just referred to the symptom under Belladonna—"the patient sees persons and objects on closing the eyes; these disappear as soon as the eyes are opened." Both Calcarea ostrearum and Cinchona have this symptom. Under the latter remedy, however, it does not occur in typhoid fever, but after haemorrhage.

Next, I wish to talk about the action of Bryonia on serous membranes. Bryonia acts powerfully on these, producing inflammation. Hence we are called upon to prescribe it when the meninges of the brain and .spinal cord, the pleurae and the peritoneum, and the synovial membranes are inflamed. The indications for Bryonia in these serous inflammations are particularly to be looked for after exudation has taken place. There are sharp stitching pains, worse from any motion. The fever may still be high or it may have been partially subdued by the remedy which preceded.

Comparing Aconite with Bryonia once more, you will see the same rule applicable here as before; Bryonia is indicated after and not before Aconite. Take for purpose of illustration a typical case of pleurisy. In the beginning of the disease when fever is high you select Aconite, but just as soon as the fever commences to decrease, and effusion begins, as indicated by the friction sounds, Aconite ceases to be of any benefit and Bryonia comes in as an all-sufficient remedy. It is customary with some physicians to give Aconite for the fever and Bryonia for the pleuritic trouble. But this is useless. Bryonia is adapted to the whole case. It has not the same restlessness which demands Aconite. The patient is quiet and is full of pain. He lies on the affected side. Why ? Because by the pressure thus exerted on the ribs, he moves the affected parts less than he would were he lying on the sound side.

When the meninges of the brain are affected, Bryonia is a valuable drug, but here, except in some rare cases, it follows Belladonna rather than Aconite. Belladonna ceases to be the remedy in meningitis, whether tubercular or otherwise, when effusion within the ventricles or beneath the membranes commences. It then gives place to Sulphur in some cases, Apis in others, and Bryonia in still others. Bryonia is indicated when meningitis follows the suppression of some eruption, as that of scarlatina or measles. The child's face is pale, or else it is red and pale alternately, the tongue white. The child screams out suddenly as if it were in great pain, which it really is. These pains are of a sharp lancinating character and are especially manifested on moving the patient. There is marked squinting with one or both eyes. The bowels are usually constipated, the abdomen distended and the child has well-marked sensorial depression which seems to border on stupor. If you arouse the child and offer him drink, he takes it impetuously or hastily, just as under Belladonna. The latter remedy has more rolling of the head.

For the sake of convenience we shall next study the catarrhs of Bryonia and the effects of the drug on the lung structure. We find Bryonia indicated in nasal catarrh when there is either great dryness of the mucous membrane of the nose, with hoarseness, sneezing, or more frequently, when the discharge is thick and yellow. It is also indicated when the discharge has been of the character just indicated and has been suddenly suppressed. As a result, there is dull throbbing headache just over the frontal sinuses. Bryonia, however, is not often indicated in catarrhs without some stomach and bowel symptoms. The treatment of colds is a severe test of the skill of a physician. If you can successfully treat them, you must understand homoeopathy well. They are the most difficult class of cases we have to contend with. There are two reasons for this. One is that the patients are constantly exposed, and the other is that they are not watched sufficiently closely. If you are given the opportunity to watch the cases carefully, so that you may prescribe as the indications change, you will cure promptly. Lachesis is also useful for suppressed coryza. But it has not so marked an aggravation from motion; nor has it the yellow discharge. Aconite should be given in cases where the suppression is due to dry cold winds, and there is red face, fever, etc. China comes in with headache worse from the least draught of air and better from pressure. We may also use Bryonia in pneumonia. The type of the disease in which it is indicated is in the true croupous form. Just as we found Bryonia indicated in pleurisy with effusion, so is it of use in pneumonia after the croupous exudation has taken place. Usually when it is called for there is also some pleuritis, hence it is applicable to pleuropneumonia. It is not indicated in the beginning of the disease because the exudation does not occur in that stage. It is indicated after Aconite , with the following easily understood condition. The fever still continues, but the skin is not so hot, the face so red and the patient so restless as when Aconite was indicated. The patient is more pacific, and his face and whole demeanor are expressive of anxiety. I would have you discriminate between this condition and that calling for Aconite. It is not so much the mental anxiety that Aconite pictures as it is an expression of pulmonary oppression. That you must remember. The cough which under Aconite was of a dry teasing character, with frothy sputa, perhaps still remains troublesome, but it is looser and more moist. There is very little expectoration yet, but what little there is, is either yellowish or streaked with blood. Owing to the accompanying inflammation of the pleura, sharp pleuritic stitches are felt in the chest. They are worse on the left side. The patient complains of heavy pressure just over the sternum. The pulse is full, hard and tense. The urine is dark-red and scanty.

Still another remedy that ought to be thought of along with Bryonia in pneumonia is Antimonium tartaricum. It is indicated in pneumonia that begins as a bronchitis and extends downward. It is especially suited to cases that begin on the right side, and that have these sharp stitching pains, high fever, great oppression of the chest, as in Bryonia. But it is called for more in catarrhal than in croupous pneumonia. Mucous rales are heard distinctly in the chest. The colds of Bryonia if they begin in the nose tend downward.

Several remedies other than Bryonia have these pains in the chestwalls. Gaultheria has pleurodynia, with pain in the anterior mediastinum.

Ranunculus bulbosus is decidedly the best remedy for intercostal rheumatism; it has sharp, stitching pains, and a sore spot in the chest, and these are worse from any motion (even breathing), pressure, or change of temperature. The dyspnoea in these cases is sometimes distressing.

Arnica is sometimes of use when the sore and bruised feeling of the chest predominates.

Rhus radicans is called for in pleurodynia when the pains shoot into the shoulder.

Senega acts best in fat persons of lax fibre. It is useful in cold with stitches, soreness in the thoracic walls, sensation of tightness, and much mucus in the chest. There is hoarseness; the throat is so dry and sensitive that it hurts the patient to talk; the cough often ends with sneezing.

Rumex crispus has sharp, stitching or stinging pains through the left lung; it is indicated more in the early stages of phthisis. When the patient turns the left side feels sore.

Asclepias tuberosa has sharp stitches through the lower part of the left chest, worse from motion. Kali carb. has stitches irrespective of motion, worse 2 or 3 A. m.

Trifolium pratense has hoarseness and choking spells at night with the cough. The neck is stiff; there are cramps in the sterno-cleidomastoid muscles which are relieved by heat and friction. Actea racemosa has pleurodynia; worse on the right side, especially in nervous women.

In bronchitis, Bryonia is indicated with this same pressure over the sternum; the dyspnoea is great; the cough is dry, and seems to start from the stomach. Bursting pain in the head with every cough. Sometimes a little tenacious blood-streaked sputum is raised. The cough is worse after a meal, when it may even end in vomiting. During the cough the patient presses his hand against his side to relieve the stitching pain. The same symptoms will indicate this remedy in whooping cough. The child coughs immediately after a meal, vomits what it has eaten, then returns to the table.

Returning now to the action of Bryonia on the serous membranes, we find it producing synovitis. The affected joint is pale-red and tense. There is, of course, effusion into the synovial sac. There are sharp, stitching pains, aggravated by any motion. Bryonia is indicated in these cases whether the synovitis be of rheumatic or traumatic origin.

The nearest concordant remedy to Bryonia here is Apis, which is an excellent remedy for synovitis, particularly of the knee-joint. Sharp, lancinating, and stinging pains, and effusions into the joint, are further indications for the remedy. Apis seems to be preferable to Bryonia when this synovitis is of scrofulous origin, or at least appears in a scrofulous constitution. Apis also has another kind of inflammation, which ends in the thickening of the serous sac and of the tissues and cartilages about the joints, giving you the well-known white swelling.

You should also remember Sulphur in these cases. This remedy supplements Bryonia and Apis, and urges them on when they fail to do their work.

We come next to the study of Bryonia in its action on the muscular system. It is one of the few drugs which produce a positive inflammation of the muscular substance; consequently you expect to find the drug of use in muscular rheumatism. The muscles are sore to the touch, and at times swollen, and, as you might expect, there is aggravation of the pains from the slightest motion. Actea racemosa also acts on the muscular substance itself.

Bryonia may also be indicated in articular rheumatism. We find that the fever is not very violent, and the pains and swelling either shift not at all or else very slowly. The local inflammation is violent; that is characteristic of Bryonia. The parts are very hot, and darkor pale-red. The pulse in these cases is full and strong, and the tongue is either uniformly white or, more characteristically, dry and white down the centre. The bowels are constipated. It is needless for me to say that the pains are worse from motion.

The difference between Bryonia and Rhus tox. is principally this: Rhus is suitable for rheumatism after exposure to wet, especially when one is overheated and perspiring. Then, too, the Rhus patient finds relief from moving about. Rhus attacks the fibrous tissues, the sheaths of the muscles, Bryonia the muscular tissue itself. The difference between Ledum and Bryonia may be described in this way: Ledum is useful for rheumatic or gouty inflammation of the great toe; instead of tending to copious effusion the effusion is scanty, and tends to harden into nodosities. In hot swelling of the hip and shoulder joints, Ledum should be remembered as more successful than Bryonia.

Actea spicata has a special affinity for the smaller joints. It has this characteristic: the patient goes out feeling tolerably comfortable, but as he walks the joints ache and even swell.

Viola odorata has a specific action on the right wrist. Caulophylhim is especially suited to rheumatism of the phalangeal and metacarpal joints, particularly in females.

Sabina also affects the small joints; gouty nodes; pains worse in a warm room.

In Colchicum we have marked aggravation in the evening; the affected joints are swollen and dark red. It is especially useful in weak debilitated persons, or in those who, despite local rheumatic inflammation, exhibit general symptoms of torpor. The stomach is generally affected; nausea when smelling food. The urine is scanty and red, and burns in passing along the urethra. The pains are of a tearing or jerking character, and appear as if in the periosteum. The pains are superficial in summer and deep in winter. In metastasis of rheumatism to the heart, both remedies are to be studied. Bryonia has great oppression under the sternum, worse from motion; sharp stitches in the cardiac region, pericardial effusion, with strong pulse. Colchicum has pericardial effusion, fulness and oppression while lying on the left side, compelling him to turn over. The pulse is small, weak, and accelerated. The Colchicum pains appear about the neck and shoulders, or in a small part of the body at a time, and then shift quickly.

Guaiacum is useful in chronic forms of rheumatism when the joints have become distorted by the concretions. It is also indicated in pleurisy during the second stage of phthisis with muco-purulent sputum.

Arctium lappa may also be compared with Bryonia in rheumatism. It cures soreness of the muscles, dull pains, all worse from motion; high-colored urine. All the provers were so weary and sleepy, they could not work.

Next we shall study the alimentary canal. We have already spoken of Bryonia here so frequently that its symptoms require but a passing notice. There are the dryness of the mucous lining throughout, the white coating of the tongue, the characteristic thirst, a feeling as though a stone or heavy weight were lying clogged in the stomach, the hard, dry, brown stool, passed with difficulty owing to the hardness of the faecal matter, atony of the rectum, and intolerance of vegetable food. The symptoms are worse in summer. It seems that the Bryonia patient cannot tolerate the heat of the sun.

The liver also is affected. We find it congested, or even inflamed. The gastric symptoms just mentioned complicate the case. The peritoneum covering the liver is inflamed, consequently there are sharp stitches in the right hypochondrium, worse from any motion and better when lying on the right side. In jaundice from duodenal catarrh, you may give Bryonia, especially when the trouble has been brought on by a fit of anger. Although the patient appears hot, he complains of feeling chilly.

Chelidonium is an admirable remedy for symptoms very similar to those just enumerated. Sharp pains in the region of the liver, shooting in every direction, up into the chest, down into the abdomen; well-marked pain under the scapula, even going through the chest like a rivet; and diarrhoea with either clay-colored or yellowish stools. It differs from Bryonia particularly in the character of the stool, and the peculiar pain under the scapula.

Bryonia is also similar to Kali carb.

, which is indicated in bilious affections when there are these sharp pains in the right hypochondrium, shooting up into the chest; often there is sharp pain, coming from the lower lobe of the right lung. The difference between these pains and those of Bryonia is that these are not necessarily made worse by motion.

Yucca filamentosa is an admirable remedy for biliousness, with pain going through the upper portion of the liver to the back. There is bad taste in the mouth; the stools are diarrhoeic and contain an excess of bile. A great deal of flatus passes by the rectum.

Chamomilla, like Bryonia, is indicated in biliousness following anger. With Bryonia there is apt to be chilliness with the anger; with Chamomilla the patient gets hot and sweats.

Berberis vulgaris also has sharp stitching pains in the region of the liver; but the pains shoot downward from the tenth rib to the umbilicus.

The bowels, I have said, are usually constipated under Bryonia, but in some cases the reverse condition obtains. Bryonia is indicated in diarrhoea when the attacks are provoked by indulgence in vegetable foods or stewed fruits, and also by getting overheated in the summer time. The movements are especially worse in the morning after rising and beginning to move around, thus distinguishing them from those of Sulphur and making them similar to the stools of Natrum sulph. In other cases, the patient is seized with sudden griping pains, doubling him up, accompanied by copious pasty stools. Sometimes the stools are dark green, from admixture of bile. They have the odor of old cheese.

The mental symptoms of Bryonia have been pretty thoroughly described to you in speaking of typhoid fever. I will merely say here that the patients are irritable and easily angered. This condition is present with the bilious symptoms, with the headache, and with the dyspepsia—in fact, it is characteristic of the remedy.

The headache of Bryonia, I have also told you, is worse from any motion; even a movement of the eyeballs aggravates the pain. The pain begins in the occiput, or else in the forehead, going back into the occiput. It is worse when awaking in the morning, after violent fits of anger, and from stooping. Its exciting causes are exposure to heat, especially moist, hot, foggy air; taking cold; debauchery and rheumatism. Headache from ironing.

The nearest remedy that we have to Bryonia here is Gelsemium, which has headache with this soreness of the eyes on moving them. Natrum mur. has a headache which feels like the beating of little hammers, with aggravation on moving the head and eyes.

With the occipital headache of Bryonia we should also compare Petroleum, which has throbbing occipital headache.

Juglans cathartica has occipital headache with pains of a sharp character.

Carbo veg. and Nux vomica have occipital pains with bilious attacks. On the external head, we find Bryonia developing an oily perspiration with a sour odor.

A similar symptom referred to the face is found under Natrum mur. Bryonia is a valuable remedy in diseases of the eyes, but not when the external coats of the eyes are affected. It is to be thought of for metastasis of rheumatism to the eyes. The pains are violent and shoot through the eyeball into the back of the head, or up toward the verex. They are aggravated by any motion of the head or eyes. There is also a sensation of tension as if the eyeballs had been put on a stretch. Antimonium tartaricum also has metastasis of rheumatism to the eyes. Now you know, from what I have said, that Bryoyiia is indicated in inflammation of the serous membranes with effusion. Bryonia ought, both symptomatically and pathologically, to be a remedy in glaucoma. The tension of the eyeball is greatly increased. Hot tears flow from the eyes. Photophobia and diminution of vision are present.

Bryonia is useful after operations on the eye when burning pains and vomiting follow.

The toothache of Bryonia is of a rheumatic origin and comes from cold. You will frequently find it occurring in teeth showing no signs of decay, which would lead to the conclusion that it is the nerve which is affected. More than one tooth may be involved and relief is momentarily obtained by firm pressure of the head against the pillow, or by the application of cold.

Toothache in children from decayed teeth, with relief from the application of cold water, finds its best remedy in Coffea. Kreosote has neuralgia of the face with burning pains increased by motion and by talking, especially in nervous, irritable persons whose teeth decay rapidly.

In aphthous sore mouth, Bryonia may be useful. The child seizes the nipple, but at once lets go and cries. When its mouth becomes moistened by the milk, however, it nurses well enough. We note here the characteristic dryness of the remedy.

The urine of Bryonia is dark, almost brownish red, without any deposit. This change in its appearance is due chiefly to excess of urochrome.

Bryonia has some action on the female genital organs. It is sometimes indicated in menstrual difficulties when the flow is dark red and profuse, but more especially is it useful when the normal flow has been suppressed and we have what has been termed vicarious menstruation.

Here you should compare Pulsatilla and Phosphorus, especially if the suppression of the flow produces haemoptysis or haematemesis. Senecio is to be thought of if the patient has cough with bloody expectoration.

Hamanielis, Ustilago and Millefolium come in for haematemesis. Bryonia is indicated in the lying-in chamber. For years I have been accustomed to using it for the so-called milk fever. I consider it indicated here more often than any other remedy because the symptoms of this affection are those of Bryonia. The fever is not very marked, there is tension of the breast with headache, tearing in the limbs and the patient is weary and wants to keep still. In threatening mammary abscess, Bryonia is indicated when there are sharp stitching pains, tension of the breast, and swelling of a pale red color.

In incipient mammary abscess you should compare first of all Belladonna, which is useful when the symptoms are violent; areas of redness spread out in radii from the central point of the inflammation. Phytolacca is an excellent remedy when from the beginning the breasts show a tendency to cake. Especially is Phytolacca the remedy if suppuration threatens. When the child nurses, pain goes from the nipple all over the body, streaking up and down the spine. The flow of milk is apt to be excessive.

Phellandrium aquaticum is an excellent remedy when pains course along the milk-ducts between the acts of nursing.

Croton tiglium is to be selected when there is pain from the nipple through to the back when the child nurses, as though the nipple were being pulled by a string.

Bryonia should be remembered in measles. Here it is indicated principally by the tardy appearance of the rash. There is a hard, dry cough which makes the child cry. The little one doubles up as if to resist the tearing pain which the effort of coughing causes. There may be little or no expectoration. The eyes are inflamed. In other cases the eruption suddenly disappears and cerebral symptoms appear. The child is drowsy. Its face is pale and there is twitching of the muscles of the face, eyes and mouth. Any motion causes the child to scream with pain. In other cases instead of these cerebral symptoms you have inflammatory diseases of the chest, such as bronchitis or even pneumonia.

In scarlatina, Bryonia is not often indicated, but when it is, you find some one or all of these symptoms to guide you. The rash has not that smooth character observed under Belladonna. It is interspersed with a miliary rash. It comes out imperfectly and the chest symptoms and cerebral symptoms just mentioned are present. Now while all the senses are benumbed in these cases, there are no absolute hallucinations of the senses as under Belladonna; the patients do not hear voices talking to them as under Anacardium; they do not awaken from sleep clinging to those about them, as with Stramonium or Cuprum.

When an eruption has been suppressed and the brain is affected in consequence, you may also look to Cuprum, which is the remedy when the symptoms are violent. The child starts up during sleep. There are decided perversion of the senses, and the spasms characteristic of Cuprum.

Helleborus suits when the entire sensorial life is suspended and the child lies in a profound stupor.

Zincum is to be preferred if the child is too weak to develop an eruption. The rash comes out sparingly. The surface of the body is rather cool. The child lies in a stupor, gritting its teeth; it starts up during sleep. Dilated pupils, squinting and rolling of the eyes are observed, and there is marked fidgetiness of the feet.

Ipecac, is to be thought of when the chest is affected from the recession of the rash of measles, if there is difficulty in breathing, cough, etc.

Tay'tar emetic ought to be given in preference to Bryonia when the disease is variola.

Bryonia is complementary to Alumina.

It is antidoted by Chamomilla, Nux vomica^ Pulsatilla, Rhus tox. and Senega.

It antidotes Rhus tox. , Rhus venenata and Chlorine.

Exceedingly irritable; everything puts him out of humor. Delirium; wants to go home; talks of business.

Wild Hops Acts on all serous membranes and the viscera they contain. Aching in every muscle. The general character of the pain here produced is a stitching, tearing; worse by motion, better rest. These characteristic stitching pains, greatly aggravated by any motion, are found everywhere, but especially in the chest; worse pressure. Mucous membranes are all dry. The Bryonia patient is irritable; has vertigo from raising the head, pressive headache; dry, parched lips, mouth; excessive thirst, bitter taste, sensitive epigastrium, and feeling of a stone in the stomach; stools large, dry, hard; dry cough; rheumatic pains and swellings; dropsical effusions into synovial and serous membranes. Bryonia affects especially the constitution of a robust, firm fiber and dark complexion, with tendency to leanness and irritability. It prefers the right side, the evening, and open air, warm weather after cold days, to manifest its action most markedly. Children dislike to be carried or raised. Physical weakness, all-pervading apathy. Complaints apt to develop slowly.

Worse, warmth, any motion, morning, eating, hot weather, exertion, touch. Cannot sit up; gets faint and sick. Better, lying on painful side, pressure, rest, cold things.

Vertigo, nausea, faintness on rising, confusion. Bursting, splitting headache, as if everything would be pressed out; as if hit by a hammer from within; worse from motion, stooping, opening eyes. Headache becomes seated in occiput. Drawing in bones towards zygoma. Headache; worse on motion, even of eyeballs. Frontal headache, frontal sinuses involved.

Pressing, crushing, aching pain. Glaucoma. Sore to touch and when moving them.

Aural vertigo (Aur; Nat sal; Sil; Chin). Roaring, buzzing.

Frequent bleeding of nose when menses should appear. Also in the morning, relieving the headache. Coryza with shooting and aching in the forehead. Swelling of tip of nose, feels as if it would ulcerate when touched.

Lips parched, dry, cracked. Dryness of mouth, tongue, and throat, with excessive thirst. Tongue coated yellowish, dark brown; heavily white in gastric derangement. Bitter taste (Nux; Col). Burning in lower lip in old smokers. Lip swollen, dry, black, and cracked.

Dryness, sticking on swallowing, scraped and constricted (Bell). Tough mucus in larynx and trachea, loosened only after much hawking; worse coming into warm room.

Nausea and faintness when rising up. Abnormal hunger, loss of taste.

Thirst for large draughts. Vomiting of bile and water immediately after eating. Worse, warm drinks, which are vomited. Stomach sensitive to touch. Pressure in stomach after eating, as of a stone. Soreness in stomach when coughing. Dyspeptic ailments during summer heat. Sensitiveness of epigastrium to touch.

Liver region swollen, sore, tensive. Burning pain, stitches; worse, pressure, coughing, breathing. Tenderness of abdominal walls.

Constipation; stools hard, dry, as if burnt; seem too large. Stools brown, thick, bloody; worse in morning, from moving, in hot weather, after being heated, from cold drinks, every spell of hot weather.

Red, brown, like beer; scanty, hot.

Menses too early, too profuse; worse from motion, with tearing pains in legs; suppressed, with vicarious discharge or splitting headache. Stitching pains in ovaries on taking a deep inspiration; very sensitive to touch. Pain in right ovary as if torn, extending to thigh (Lilium; Croc). Milk fever. Pain in breasts at menstrual period. Breasts hot and painful hard. Abscess of mammæ. Frequent bleeding of nose at appearance of menses. Menstrual irregularities, with gastric symptoms. Ovaritis. Intermenstrual pain, with great abdominal and pelvic soreness (Ham).

Soreness in larynx and trachea. Hoarseness; worse in open air. Dry, hacking cough from irritation in upper trachea. Cough, dry, at night; must sit up; worse after eating or drinking, with vomiting, with stitches in chest, and expectoration of rust-colored sputa. Frequent desire to take a long breath; must expand lungs. Difficult, quick respiration; worse every movement; caused by stitches in chest. Cough, with feeling as if chest would fly to pieces; presses his head on sternum; must support chest. Croupous and pleuro-pneumonia. Expectoration brick shade, tough, and falls like lumps of jelly. Tough mucus in trachea, loosened only with much hawking. Coming into warm room excites cough (Nat carb). Heaviness beneath the sternum extending towards the right shoulder. Cough worse by going into warm room. Stitches in cardiac region. Angina pectoris (use tincture).

Painful stiffness in nape of neck. Stitches and stiffness in small of back. From hard water and sudden changes of weather.

Knees stiff and painful. Hot swelling of feet. Joints red, swollen, hot, with stitches and tearing; worse on least movement. Every spot is painful on pressure. Constant motion of left arm and leg (Helleb).

Yellow; pale, swollen, dropsical; hot and painful. Seborrhœa. Hair very greasy.

Drowsy; starting when falling asleep. Delirium; busy with business matters and what he had read.

Pulse full, hard, tense, and quick. Chill with external coldness, dry

cough, stitches. Internal heat. Sour sweat after slight exertion. Easy, profuse perspiration. Rheumatic and typhoid marked by gastro-hepatic complications.

Complementary: Upas when Bryonia fails. Rhus; Alumina. Illecebrum.––A Mexican drug.––(Fever with catarrhal symptoms, gastric and typhoid fever symptoms). Antidotes: Acon; Cham; Nux. Compare: Asclep tub; Kali mur; Ptelia.

First to twelfth attenuation.

Bryonia Alba

Generalities: Every medicine has a sphere of action, a peculiar nature whereby it differs from all other medicines, and hence it becomes suitable to complaints of one class and not suitable to those of another.

It is like the nature of human beings, as they differ from each other, and also like the nature of diseases, which differ from each other in character.

We study a remedy also in regard to its velocity and continuance, its remittence or intermittence. The symptoms of some remedies come on suddenly, with great violence, with great rapidity, stay but a short time in their paroxysm, and go off as it nothing had happened. Others come on slowly, are deep acting and continuous, like the continued fevers. We notice the complaints of Ignatia, how flitting and intermittent and unexpected everything is; we notice in Aconite how complaints come on with violence, and in Belladonna with what suddenness they come on.

When we come to the study of Bryonia we find it is a most persistent remedy; its complaints develop slowly, i.e., slowly for acute conditions. Its complaints are continuous, remittent, and only occasionally intermittent.

They increase into violence, but the violence is not the first flash as in Aconite or Belladonna, and hence it conforms to a type of disease with continued fever; to rheumatisms that come with gradually increasing severity, gradually increasing and involving one joint after another, until all the white fibrous tissues are in a state of inflammation, pain and distress.

It has inflammatory conditions anywhere about the body, but particularly of the fibrous tissues, serous membranes, ligaments of joints and aponeuroses. It also affects the coating of nerves with its congestions, and these gradually increase in severity.

From the beginning there are present the characteristic features, and it may be seen that this patient is coming down with a Bryonia sickness.

The patient has several days of preparation. He does not feel very well, is languid and tired, does not want to be spoken to, does not want to move, and this gradually increases; pains begin to flit over the body, they move around here and there over the fibres in one place and another, and every time he moves the pain increase, until they end in a steady and continuous pain. The parts become hot and inflamed, and at last he is down with rheumatism.

The complaints come on after taking cold, not the first few hours, as in Aconite or Bell., but the day after an exposure he begins to feel uneasy and he sneezes and the nose discharges, there is rawness in the chest, and in a day or so he has a chill and comes down with some inflammatory trouble, pneumonia or pleurisy.

Its inflammatory complaints include inflammation of the membranes of the brain, sometimes extending, into the cord; the pleural membranes, the peritoneum and the heart covering, these are the most common; it also has inflammation of organs.

When these conditions come on there is noticed, very early in the case, even before the pains begin, an aversion to motion, and the patient does not know why, but finally he observes that his symptoms are made worse if he has to move, so that the slightest inclination to move is resisted with a feeling of anger, and when he does move he finds he is aroused to great suffering, and that all the aches and pains of the body come on.

Thus we have the well-known Bryonia aggravation from motion. This runs all through the remedy.

This medicine is suitable in a great many diseases, diseases of a typhoid nature, diseases that take on a symptomatic typhoid, diseases that start out as remittents and run into a continued fever, as in pneumonia, pleurisy, inflammation of the liver, of glands, of the bowels, etc.

It may be a gastro-enteritis or peritonitis, or inflammation of the bowels, with the sensitiveness, the aggravation from motion and the desire to keep perfectly still. Inflammation of joints, whether of rheumatic character or not, whether from cold, exposure or injury. Bryonia is often indicated in injuries of joints where Arnica would be a failure.

There is an extreme state of irritability in Bryonia; every word which compels him to answer a question or to think will aggravate him. The effort to talk will be attended with horror. At the beginning of complaints you go to the bedside of a patient who has been grumbling a few days; something is evidently coming on; the family meet you at the door and say, "The patient is almost unconscious;"

you look at him, the face is puffed and purplish, he seems to be dazed, there appears to be a short of venous stasis all over the body, but especially about the face; his countenance is almost that of an imbecile, yet he is perfectly capable of talking, although he has an aversion to it and appears to outsiders to ignore everything that is said.

This sometimes comes on apparently in a short time; the patient awakens in the morning with a dull, congestive headache and a stupid feeling in the head; dulness of mind so that he cannot work, and this feeling gradually increases; such a state is sometimes the forerunner of a serious illness.

We find, when a pneumonia or inflammation of the liver, or some slow insidious inflammation is coming on somewhere in the body, but not yet located, that this state will begin in the morning. This is peculiar about the aggravation of Bryonia - its troubles commence many times early in the morning. On waking, with the first move, he realizes that things are not all right, there is a state of stupidity bordering on unconsciousness. Those who have been grumbling for a week or ten days wake up in the morning feeling miserable, some time that night or the next day they have to send for the doctor. If this is watched for a few days, a continued fever is observed.

Or at night a chill will come on, with much pain in the chest, rusty expectoration, short, dry cough and other symptoms that will be spoken of under Bryonia later, showing that the trouble is going towards the chest; or the condition may gradually increase as a congestive, dull headache.

This will be seen when congestion of the brain is coming on. Bryonia sickness often picks out plethoric subjects, those who are venous in their make up, those who, when suffering with cold, come down with catarrhal congestions. Catarrhal fever may be covered by Bryonia.

Mind: This sluggish state of the mind then is the state of Bryonia, not an excitable state, as in Coffea, Nux vomica, Ignatia, but sluggish aggravated from motion, aggravated from being talked to; wants to lie still in bed; very great irritability, which is as extreme as that found in Nux or Chamomilla.

It also has acute complaints aggravated from anger, from being aroused, from being disturbed, from controversy. Following the early sluggishness, there is later a state of complete stupefaction in Bryonia, in which he becomes quite unconscious, as in typhoid.

He goes from a state of partial unconsciousness to one of complete unconsciousness, as in hydrocephalic children.

In rheumatic complaints, in pneumonia, and in typhoid conditions, when he is aroused from this stage of stupefaction he is confused, sees images, thinks he is away from home and wants to be taken home.

Sometimes he will lie and say nothing but that he "wants to go home."

The delirium is of a low type; it is not the flashing wild excitement of Bell. or Stram.; it is the very opposite; he talks and wanders and does not say much unless he is disturbed. You disturb him and lie says, "Go away and let me go home," and if you let him alone he will relapse into a perfectly quiet state and seldom speak.

"Irrational talk or prattle of his business, aggravated after 3 P.M."

Usually you will find the delirium commencing about 9 P.M., and keeping up all night like the fever.

The acute mental state you will find manifesting its symptoms on rising in the morning, but as the febrile state advances and takes possession of him the symptoms will take on a 9 P.M. aggravation; those who have chill will have it at 9 P.M.; in those who have a fever, the fever will come at 9 P.M.

If mental symptoms are uppermost they increase and spread over the night. It has a 3 P- M aggravation. Bell. will begin at 3 and run on towards midnight, but Bryonia will begin at 9 P.M. and run on through the night.

The aggravation of the Chamomilla patients, who are also extremely irritable, is at 9 A.M. Sometimes we go to the bedside and can hardly distinguish between Bryonia and Cham. because they are both so spunky, but the Cham. baby is worse at 9 A.M. and the Bryonia baby is worse at 9 P.M.

in Bryonia there is a key-note which really applies to a dozen or more remedies, "he wants something and he knows not what." It is a very important symptom of Bryonia. It is a symptom that calls for Bryonia only when the rest of the symptoms agree. You go to a child who is being carried in the arms of the nurse and wants one toy after another; you get the toy he wants and he does not want it and will throw it back at you.

When that case is looked into thoroughly it may be covered by Kreosote; another is never satisfied with anything and rejects everything he asks for; you look into that case and it may be covered by Chamomilla.

"Desire for things that cannot be had which are refused, or not wanted when offered." "Apprehensiveness; fearfulness."

"Anxiety in whole body compelled him to do something constantly."

There is a feature worthy of consideration because it sometimes makes a case appear inconsistent. It is due to his anxiety that pervades the whole body.

In Bryonia as in Arsenic there comes an anxious and uneasy feeling which compels him to move, but he is worse from motion, yet so uneasy and anxious that he must move.

There are pains so violent that he cannot keep still, and yet when he moves he screeches from the pain. So it is really not an inconsistency but simply due to the great violence of the pain. Even though he knows that the motion is going to make him worse, he cannot keep still, for the pain is so violent.

Early in the case he was able to keep still, and found that he was better from keeping still, and that the mental state was better from keeping still, and that the anxious restlessness increased the more be moved, until finally a reaction comes and he is obliged to move.

You would think, looking at the case superficially, that that patient is better from motion as in Rhus tox., but in Rhus you find that the patient moves and in moving he gets feeble, and when he sits down the pains begin to come on again. There is the distinction between the two, and yet they look alike if not examined into carefully. It is common for Bryonia to be ameliorated from cool air, and from cool applications. Now, if he moves, he gets warmed up, the pains are worse, but there are rheumatic complaints of Bryonia which are better from heat, and under these circumstances he is better from continued motion.

It is another form of relief, and another of the modalities. I sometimes wonder whether Bryonia has a greater element of relief from heat, or greater element of relief from cold.

Most of the head complaints that are of a congestive character are better from cool applications, from cold air, etc. Yet there are some of the Bryonia head com plaints that are relieved by hot applications, and these seem to have no accompanying cerebral congestion. So that Bryonia has opposite modalities, but in all its opposite states there is still a grand nature running all through, sufficient to detect it. In a damp climate Bryonia is one of the most frequently indicated remedies, but in the clear climates, where the thermometer runs low, Aconite will be indicated more than Bryonia. Still further South, the complaints assume more of the constitutional state of Gelsemium in inflammatory conditions. We know in the far North the sudden, violent cold brings on violent colds like Aconite, while here the complaints are more insidious, like Bryonia, land further South. These atmospheric changes should be thoroughly considered in relation to our Materia Medica. The mental state of Bryonia is usually relieved from cool air, he wants the windows open. Anxiety, confusion of mind, fear, etc., are ameliorated from being cool. Sometimes the delirium, and the congestive fullness of the head affecting the mind, will increase if the room becomes very warm, or from the heat of the stove, from becoming heated, or from warm covers.

In children this will be noticed, whereas if the window be thrown up to relieve the stuffiness of the room the child will sleep quietly. Such remedies as Bryonia, Apis, Pulsatilla, and many others, come in here.

If you go into a room and find the child raging with delirium, turning and tossing, and the mother is trying to keep the room warm because she is chilly, and you say, "Why, how stuffy it is in here!" and you open the window and then notice that the child goes off to sleep, do not overlook that; because that relief was caused by something.

There should be nothing that can possibly occur to a patient, but that you should solve the meaning of before you leave the room. Settle in your mind as to what it was that caused it. "Fear of death."

Full of fear, anxiety, despair of recovery, great despondency. Both mental and bodily quietness is required, that is, he wants to keep still. Often he wants the room dark. It has complaints from getting excited. Bryonia patients are nearly always worse from visitors.

"Morose."

Do not cross a Bryonia patient for it makes him worse.

"Bad effects from mortification."

"Ailments arising from chagrin; " these are headaches usually.

Violent, congestive headaches that come on a few hours after altercation or controversy, or little misunderstandings with somebody that he cannot talk back to, will be covered by Staph., but Bryonia also has that.

Staph. is suited to irritable, violent, nervous, excitable people, that get into violent altercation or dispute. If a headache comes on, such a patient may need Bryonia.

If in a chronic state a patient says, "Doctor, if I ever have a dispute with a man over anything I come down with nervous excitement, sleeplessness, headaches;"

you do not have to work long upon that case, because more than likely Staph. will be suitable. Bryonia has dizziness; the dizziness is worse in a warm room. You will notice, as I go through, that in everything of a nervous nature, nervous excitement, and commonly the bodily state, the patient is worse from a warm room, worse from too much clothing, worse from the warmth of the bed, wants the windows open, wants to breathe fresh, cool air.

He suffers more than ordinary persons, from a stuffy room. Persons who are subject to Bryonia conditions in church, at the opera, in close warm rooms, like Lycopodium. Girls that faint every time they go to church are relieved by Ignatia.

Head: We commence now with the study of the head.

The head complaints may be looked upon as striking features of the remedy, because there is pain in the head with almost every acute complaint.

Headaches are associated with inflammatory and congestive complaints.

The mental dullness and confusion of the mind is spoken of with the congestive headache, and bursting headache.

The head feels so full she wants to press it with the hand, or tic it up; tight pressure, over the whole skull, is grateful. The headaches are worse in a warm room and commonly worse from heat. Sometimes superficial neuralgias have relief from local heat, but a warm room or a close room is very distressing to the Bryonia headache. Headaches as if the skull would split open; the pains are worse from every motion, even the winking motion of the eyes, the motion necessary to talking and the effort of thinking so that all exertion of body or mind becomes impossible with a severe headache.

Must keep perfectly quiet. Sometimes lying down and keeping perfectly quiet in a dark room will give some relief. Light aggravates; if you think a moment you will see that the accommodation to light and shadow of a room involves motion; it is said that the light aggravates, but even here it is the motion that is carried on by the muscles of accommodation.

The headaches of Bryonia are very commonly the forerunner of other complaints, congestion of the lungs, bronchitis, congestion of some other part of the body; he wakes up in the morning with headache; if it be coryza that is coming, he has the headache in the morning and through the day he commences to sneeze; or if the trouble is in some other part of the body, before the symptoms develop, he wakes up in the morning with this congestive headache over the eyes or in the back of the head, or both; it seems as if the head would burst; better from pressure, worse from the warmth of the room, and worse from every motion.

Headache over the eyes, sometimes like the stabbing of a knife, worse from the first motion. He realizes it on waking upon moving the eyes, with soreness in the eyeballs, with bruised feelings all over.

The motion of the arms, doing work with the arms as in various kinds of business that are carried on with the use of the arms and hands, is generally accompanied by complaints of the upper part of the body and especially the head, so that one of the old key-notes in the time of Hering was "complaints from ironing.". You know that ironing is commonly carried on in a warm room, it involves the motion of the arms, and thus brings in two most striking features of Bryonia, so that this key-note is no longer an abstract statement; it is not to be considered apart from the general nature, but only serves to bring it out.

Splitting, violent congestive headaches; headaches as if everything would burst out of the forehead. Pressure pain in the forehead, fullness and heaviness in the forehead as if the brain were pressed out.

This fullness or congestion of the head, is accompanied by what was described as sluggishness of the mind, and it will often be noticed that the countenance is somewhat besotted.

The patient looks as if he were an imbecile. The face is mottled, and purple, with congestion in a marked Bryonia state. The eyes are red, and congested; he is listless, does not want to move, to speak, or to do anything, because all these things are motion, are efforts, and they make him worse.

You will see this is also true in Bell.; it has all of this congestion and pressure; but remember Bryonia is slow, sluggish, passive and insidious in its approach and progress, while in Bell. the mental symptoms and everything in connection are marked by activity. With the headaches there is more or less burning, and sometimes throbbing.

The throbbing is seldom felt until he moves. After any movement, like going up stairs, walking, or turning over in bed during the headache, he feels the violent throbbing; on keeping still a moment it settles down into a bursting, pressing pain as if the skull would be pressed open.

There are many other pains in connection with the Bryonia headache; in the text it is described: "tearing and stitching pains."

"Shooting pains," sharp pains.

Some of the pressing pains are described as if a great weight were on the head, but the same idea prevails; it is an internal pressure; a sluggishness of the circulation in the brain, a stasis as if all the blood in the body were surging in the head.

"Stitches in the head."

"Splitting headache."

"Rush of blood to head." Threatened apoplexy. "Headache after washing himself with cold water when face was sweating."

That is, taking cold from suppression of perspiration.

"Always on coughing, motion in head like pressure."

The headache is so bad in many cases of pneumonia or bronchitis, in fact in any of the inflammatory or congestive conditions, that very often you will see the patient grasp the head when he knows he is going to cough.

He holds his head because it hurts so from the action of coughing. Many remedies have this, but it is in keeping with the general aggravation of Bryonia from motion, from jar, from any effort. "The headache is expanding, aggravated by the slightest motion; after eating."

The aggravation after eating is in keeping with the Bryonia state in general. The Patient himself, in all complaints, feels worse after eating. It hardly matters what the trouble is, it is worse after eating; the cough is worse after eating, the gouty, state is increased by eating.

The Bryonia patient will finally sum up the whole subject and say, "I am always worse after eating;" so that it becomes a general.

The headaches are often accompanied by nosebleed.

"Obstinate headache with constipation." Bryonia is particularly suitable in venous, sluggish constitutions, with sluggish heart, poor circulation, yet apparently plethoric, apparently rugged, but subject to gouty exacerbations from change of weather.

Dandruff is common; sensitiveness and great soreness of the scalp worse from the slightest touch of the scalp, feels as if the hair were pulled; women must always have the hair hanging down. In the Bryonia headaches, as well as rheumatic attacks, if he can perspire a freely, he will get relief.

Eyes: Bryonia is ameliorated in all its complaints as soon as the perspiration becomes free and general. Catarrhal conditions of the eyes are found in Bryonia; it is not so often thought of as an inflammatory remedy for the eyes when there are no other symptoms, but eye symptoms will be found, redness, inflammation, congestion, heat, enlargement of the veins, burning and smarting, associated with headaches, with coryza, with troubles in the air passages, bronchitis, etc.

Sore aching in the eyes, the eyeballs can hardly be touched, so tender to touch, as if bruised, increased from coughing or pressure.

Such conditions come with chest complaints, with colds and headaches.

"Soreness and aching of eyes when moving them."

"Pressing, crushing pains in eyes."

"Inflammation of eyes and lips, especially in new-born infants."

Think of Bryonia when gouty conditions have left certain parts and all at once the eyes are affected, tumefaction of the lids, the conjunctiva looks like raw beef, so highly inflamed is it, red and oozing blood. You find out that a few days before the patient, an old gouty subject, had rheumatic attacks of the joint, and now he has sore and inflamed eyes.

"Rheumatic iritis, caused by cold."

Rheumatic inflammation of the eyes, i. e., in inflammatory conditions and congestion with redness, associated more or less with gouty affections. In olden times it was described as "arthritic sore eyes," which means sore eyes in a gouty constitution,

Nose: Many of the complaints of Bryonia commence in the nose; sneezing, coryza, running at the nose, red eyes, lachrymation, aching through the nose, eyes and head the first day; then the trouble goes down into the posterior nares, the throat, the larynx, with hoarseness, and then a bronchitis comes on, and if not checked it goes into pneumonia and pleurisy, so that the trouble has traveled from the beginning of the respiratory tract, the nose, to the lung tissue.

This is a field for the complaints of Bryonia. All are worse from motion, all parts are subject to a good deal of burning and congestion; more or less fever, sometimes intense fever; the patient himself worse from the slightest motion and wants to keep still; dullness of mind, pressive, congestive headaches; sore, lame and bruised all over, often worse at 9 o'clock in the evening; increased dullness of the mind after sleep or on waking in the morning.

The cough comes on with great violence, racking the whole body and increasing the headache, and with copious discharge of mucus from the respiratory tract.

"Frequent sneezing."

"Sneezing between coughs."

"Loss of smell."

Bleeding from the nose in these congestions, or with coryzas. During menstruation there is epistaxis, congestion of the head is present at this menstrual period. Epistaxis appears as a vicarious flow in cases of amenorrhoea. If the menstrual flow should be checked suddenly from cold, nosebleed comes on. Dryness in the nose.

Face: The aspect of the face is important; the besotted, purple, bloated countenance is not dropsically bloated, although it has the oedematous face sometimes, but puffed from vascular stasis, not pitting upon pressure; swollen and puffed, purple, with a doltish state of the mind, as if he were drunk.

He will took at you and wonder what you were doing, and what you said; a stupefaction of the intellect; the eyes do not look at you intelligently. When a patient is about to come down with some Bryonia complaint, with a remittent, or with head congestions, or pneumonia, or some other respiratory disease, the family will notice when he awakes in the morning that he has that besotted expression, and he says he has to make such an effort to think or do anything, and his head aches hard, and is worse from motion. Or the face is red and burning, "red spots on the face and neck;"

"hot, bloated, red face."

In children, as well as adults, there is gradually increasing cerebral trouble, dilated pupils, besotted countenance, and continual lateral motion of the lower jaw.

This motion of the jaw in a congestive attack is a strong feature of Bryonia. It is not the grinding of the teeth so much that I refer to now, although that is found in Bryonia, but a lateral movement of the jaw as if chewing, but the teeth do not come in contact and they keep it up night and day.

A great many remedies have grinding of the teeth. When intermittent fever comes on with marked congestion, stupefaction of the intellect, violent rigors, even to a congestive chill, the patient lying in stupefaction or a semi-conscious state, without grinding the teeth, yet wagging the jaw back and forth by the hour, Bryonia is often suitable.

Constant motion of the mouth as if the patient were chewing, in brain affections of children; it occurs in little ones when there are no teeth; but they keep up a chewing motion.

In regard to the lips and lower part of the face, that bloated, swollen condition, the sluggish circulation, a venous congestion or stasis will be found in Bryonia, making the aspect as of one long intoxicated; it is not so marked as in Baptisia and is not accompanied by so low a state, so advanced a stupor, as in Baptisia. Great dryness of the lips; the lips parched and dry.

"Children pick the lips,"

"Lips cracked and bleeding."

Lips parched, dry and bleeding, such as will be seen in typhoid states, where the whole mouth is dry and brown, cracked, parched and bleeding; dry, brown tongue. Sordes on the teeth. In Arum triphyllum, there is marked picking of the nose and lips; they pick and pick and bore the finger into the nose.

Toothache: Bryonia has toothache, worse from warmth.

"Tearing, stitching toothache while eating;" from warm drinks, from warm foods, worse in a warmworn, wants cold foods in the mouth, wants to be in cold air, but worse from motion.

"Toothache > by cold water or lying on painful side."

Pressing hard upon the painful tooth ameliorate it.

"Toothache < from smoking."

You see how the relief from cold and aggravation from heat go along with us; we shall keep reiterating these modalities that affect the patient as a general state, and we shall see as we go through that nearly all his symptoms are worse from motion, worse from heat, etc. He keeps on telling us they are better from pressure in each region we go over, until, finally we come to the conclusion that they are general. We may have in two remedies the same set of symptoms, and yet they are all made worse from all the opposite things.

Thus you see modalities indicate and contraindicate remedies. This is the studying of remedies by their modalities, for modalities sometimes constitute strong generals.

Taste: You will not be surprised to know that Bryonia loses his sense of taste, so that if he has a coryza nothing tastes natural.

Not only is there mental sluggishness, but there is a slowing down of his sensations, his whole state is benumbed.

"Taste flat, insipid, pasty"

His intelligence is so affected that he does not know where be is even, thinks he is away from home, and even his tongue is no longer intelligent; so that something that is sour tastes as though bitter; his senses deceive him. "Tongue thickly coated white."

In typhoid, in cerebral congestion, in sore throat, in pneumonia, in all diseases of the respiratory apparatus, in rheumatic affections, the tongue is thickly coated.

"Dry, and bleeding and covered with crusts." Such a tongue is found in typhoid fever, a dry, brown, cracked, bleeding tongue. When he takes a cold the mouth becomes dry. It is very common for the Bryonia patient to have great thirst; he is apt to drink large quantities of water, at wide intervals.

With this dry, brown tongue, however, he loses his taste for water and does not want it; dry mouth and thirstless like Nux moshata. "Aphthae"

"Bad odor from mouth."

Throat: Bryonia has nondescript sore throats, with stitching pains, with dryness, with parched appearance of the throat, and thirst for large, quantities of water at long intervals. "Constitutional tendency to aphthous formations in the throat," little white spots in the throat.

Desires and aversions: Then we come to the desires and aversions that relate to the stomach, and they are greatly perverted. He is worse from eating. The stomach has lost its ability to digest, and hence he has an aversion to all food. "Desires things immediately, and when offered they are refused."

He is changeable, does not know what he wants. He craves in the mind the things he has an aversion to in the stomach.

When he sees it he does not want it. His intelligence is in a state of confusion. He craves acids.

"Great thirst day and night;" he wants cold water.

"Thirst for large quantities at long intervals." Many remedies want to sip water all the time. In Bryonia the large quantities relieve the thirst immediately. In Arsenic the drink does not relieve, he wants a little and wants it often. The stomach complaints of Bryonia are relieved from warm drinks that becomes a particular because his desire is for cold drinks, but his stomach is better from warm drinks.

In his fever and head complaints and febrile states he wants cold things, which often bring on and increase the cough and pains, but the hot drink, which he does not crave, relieves the stomach and bowel complaints.

In the chill, Bryonia often has desire for ice-cold water, which chills him dreadfully; and hot water relieves.

"Desire for cold and acid drinks."

Aversion to rich fat food; all greasy things. "Desire for things which are not to be bad." When patients are under constitutional remedies, they need caution about certain kinds of foods that are known to disagree with their constitutional remedy. A Bryonia patient is often made sick from eating sauerkraut, from vegetable salads, chicken salad, etc., so that you need not be surprised after administering a dose of Bryonia for a constitutional state, to have your patient come in and say she has been made very ill from eating some one of these things. It is well to caution persons who are under the influence of Puls. To avoid the use of fat foods, because very often they will upset the action of the remedy. It is well to say to patients who are under Lyc.

"See that you do not eat oysters while taking this medicine."

These medicines are known to produce states in the stomach inimical to certain kinds of foods; certain remedies have violently inimical relation to acids, lemons, etc.

If you do not particularly mention the fact, and say, "You must not touch vinegar or lemons; nor take, lemon juice while taking this medicine," you will have the remedy spoiled, and then wonder why it is.

The medicine often stops acting and the patient gets a disordered condition of the stomach and bowels a medicine that should act for a long time ceases action and you do I not know what the trouble is.

Homoeopathy will rule out such things as are inimical to the remedies and inimical to patients in general, or do not agree with a particular constitution.

To have an iron-clad rule is not correct practice; the only iron-clad rule is to be sure that the remedy is similar to the patient when you administer it, and the things that he is to have are to be in agreement with that remedy. It is not an uncommon thing for a patient who has been under the influence of Rhus tox., and has been doing well up to a certain time, after he has taken a bath, to have his symptoms return in the form of a Rhus state; the action of the remedy stops right there.

He must of course take a bath, and yet it is true that some constitutional cases under Rhus must stop taking their ordinary bath, in order to keep themselves under the influence of Rhus. It is the same with Calcarea, a bath will often stop the action.

I only speak of these things to impress upon you the importance of feeding and treating, your patient in accordance with the remedy; in accordance with a principle and not by rule; do not have one list of foods for your patients; do not have a list of things for everybody. There is nothing in Homoeopathy.

The patient himself in all the strange and peculiar things is worse from eating; the cough is worse from eating, the complaints of the head, the headaches, are worse from eating, and the respiration is worse from eating.

The stomach is distended with wind after eating, but especially after oysters. Oysters are not, as a rule, a dangerous article of diet, yet some are poisoned by oysters.

"Worse after eating or drinking."

When the case is one of whooping cough, the cough is worse, the paroxysms are more violent and all the symptoms are worse a little while after eating, but later, when digestion is finished and the stomach is empty, he is much relieved. The Bryonia patient is ordinarily relieved from drinking, but if, when overheated, he drinks cold water, all of his rheumatic symptoms are worse, the cough is worse, and the headache is worse. He will have a violent headache after drinking cold water when heated. In Rhus patients complaints are worse from drinking cold water when heated. The headache increases into a throbbing and bursting pain tenfold greater than it was before drinking.

The Bryonia patient is subject to hiccough, to belching, to nausea and vomiting, so that disordered stomach is the general term. Bitter eructations, bitter nauseous taste. He vomits bile. After eating all these things are increased. In the stomach and abdomen we have a great many symptoms resulting from disordered stomach, or from taking cold, or from becoming overheated, or from drinking ice water when overheated.

Disordered stomach; irritation of the stomach so that he cannot eat without extreme pain, and this increases until the inflammatory condition involves the whole stomach and abdomen, and there is sensitiveness to pressure, and it can be diagnosed as a gastro-enteritis, with the soreness and tenderness, stitching, burning pains, all worse from motion; nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, tympanitic abdomen unable to move because it so increases the pain. With the exception of the abdominal and stomach pains, the Bryonia pains are better from pressure.

The Bryonia patient with these inflammatory conditions will often be seen lying perfectly quiet in bed with the knees drawn up; lying with the limbs flexed in order to relax the abdominal muscles; he does not want to be talked to, does not want to think; every movement is painful, and increases the fever and often causes alternation of chilliness with heat; high fever. The Bryonia patient, when lying perfectly quiet, is sometimes quite free from nausea, but the instant the head is raised from the pillow the dreadful sickness returns, so that he cannot sit up.

He cannot be raised up in bed because of the nausea, and if he persists in rising tip the nausea comes on more than ever, with burning in the stomach. With every motion he gulps up a little mucus and slime, which is putrid.

Stomach: All sorts of pains are felt in the stomach and bowels, but most particularly stitching and burning pains; feels as if the stomach would burst, as if the abdomen would burst. Peritoneal exudations. Awful soreness. Sensitiveness of the pit. of the stomach, and sensitiveness Over the whole abdomen. This is commonly relieved by heat, although the patient himself wants to lie in a cool room.

The heat of the room is oppressive, yet beat applied is agreeable. Every inspiration, every motion of the chest greatly aggravates these pains, so that you will find a Bryonia patient shortening' up his breathing instead of breathing deep. He keeps that up until he cannot stand it any longer, and then he takes a long breath that causes groaning.

Gastric inflammatory affections and disordered stomach, gastric affections in young girls from suppression of the menstrual flow, gastritis, gastroenteritis.

Bryonia has inflammation of the liver and many other liver symptoms. The liver, especially the right lobe, lies in the hypochondrium like a load, with soreness and tenderness to pressure, and he cannot move.

Every motion, every touch, every deep breath causes pain in this organ, as in the abdominal viscera. The breathing is short, quick, and when followed by, taking a deep breath it causes pain through the liver; it burns and stitches. With this, he has the disordered stomach, nausea and retching worse from motion; spitting up of bile. Stitching pains, sticking pains and burning in the liver.

"Transient stitches in right hypochondrium;" these are in the liver.

When he coughs it feels as if the liver or right hypochondrium would burst. Severe pains when coughing.

Stools and rectum: Bryonia furnishes many symptoms in connection with the stool and rectum. It has constipation, and it has dysentery. The pathogenesis is full of these conditions as well as many symptoms relating to the parts themselves. In the constipation the stool is dry and hard, as if burnt. No desire for stool, but after going many days there are passages of little hard pieces as if they had been burned. No moisture about the parts, no mucus to often the hard stools. Any mucus that may be present will be discharged separately. Some times the stool is composed of little hard particles looking as if burned, at times scanty, again quite a lot, and then will follow the passage of mucus, as if lying about the mass of faeces was quite a lot of mucus.

In most inveterate constipations Bryonia is sometimes suit able. It has also diarrhoea that drives the patient out of bed in the morning; i.e., on first beginning to move in bed he begins to feel nauseated, he is bloated and distended with colic, and he has urging to go to stool; or a little while after getting up and moving about the bowel is distended causing colic, and be must hurry to stool.

The purgation is sometimes enormous, frequent, and no sooner does the patient finish than he is perfectly exhausted, lies down like one almost dead, covered with sweat; so tremendously fatigued he can hardly reach the vessel the next time, and then it comes a gushing, copious, bilious stool. If, while lying, he makes the least motion, he must hurry to stool.

Bryonia cures dysentery with all the tormina and tenesmus possible to imagine, with pain in the abdomen; with bloody and mucous discharges. In the constipation the straining is often ineffectual. He has urging to stool and goes several times before there is any result. The stool seems to re in the rectum, although he seems to be compelled to strain; there is inactivity and inability to strain.

Ordinarily he has plenty of power and is quite likely to have a passage, but it is so dry. Bryonia has another kind of diarrhoea. It is like the yellow corn meal mush. just such a stool as this you will find in the typhoid patient, a yellow, mushy stool.

This is sometimes intermingled with mucus and slime, sometimes with blood. It may be useful to the physician to, know whether this is in the typhoid state or in the form of chronic diarrhoea. Bryonia has cured many cases of chronic diarrhoea where this yellow, mushy discharge was present, and frequent; several times a day, but more frequent in the morning.

Sometimes he has several stools in the morning that will satisfy for the whole twenty-four hours, or only one or two in the afternoon and five or six in the morning; during the night no stools at all, because when be keeps quiet in bed and comfortable he has not very much urging to stool; every motion or keep ing upon the feet increases the urging to stool.

So that some would think of it as a diarrhoea only in the day-time, and would associate it with Petroleum; but with Petroleum, no matter how much he moves about in the night, he will not have a stool, but will have all of the stools in the day-time. It says here:

"Diarrhoea putrid; smelling like old cheese." "Very offensive."

"Brown, thin, faecal stools."

Some times chronic Bryonia patients will diet themselves, eating only thin liquids, avoiding solids, etc., and yet the food will come right through the next morning, almost undigested; lienteric stools.

"Urging followed by copious pasty evacuations." "Involuntary stools while asleep."

"Burning of the anus with every passage." This is especially at night if he moves, but motion is more common in the day-time, and every motion will bring on urging to stool.

Urines: There are plenty of urinary symptoms in this remedy; inflammatory condition of the kidneys; pinkish urinary deposits, uric acid crystals; urine profuse.

Whenever he strains himself in lifting, or any unusual motion, there is pain in the kidneys, a rousing up of congesting and long-lasting pain. It is a gouty constitution with kidney troubles, so that after overheating or overexertion he gets pain in the back.

"Pressure to urinate and involuntary discharge of urine."

"Burning in urethra, when not urinating;" relieved by passing urine.

Female organs: There are many symptoms of the female sexual organs of great interest. Painful menstruation, dysmenorrhoea; pain in the ovaries at the menstrual period. Every menstrual period is associated with marked congestion of the ovaries, with sensitiveness to touch. The sensitiveness at the approach of every menstrual period, in both groins, will be spoken of by the patient, increasing as the menstrual period comes on, until the soreness proceeds across the abdomen and meets, and then the whole abdomen is painful during the menstrual period.

The uterus is sore, the hypogastrium is tender. Inflammation of the uterus. Burning pain mostly in the body or fundus of the uterus.

The Bryonia patient is subject to amenorrhoea, or the flow is suppressed upon the slightest provocation. If she becomes overheated from exertion, such as from ironing or washing a few days before the menstrual period, it will be suppressed, and the next time she will have a harder time than ever.

In young plethoric women, after violent exertion, these complaints come on in that way. Violent exertion then scanty urine. Soreness of the abdomen, but the flow does not come, or is postponed a good many days after violent exertion; scanty urine and suppression of menses in plethoric girls.

From overexertion and becoming overheated, threatened abortion. In inflammation of the breasts and stopping of the milk flow in the lying in period. Bryonia must be consulted. In milk fever and pains and swelling of the breast Bryonia must be studied.

During confinement a woman becomes overheated and naturally perspires; just at the close of it as the delivery takes place, if the nurse and the doctor do not observe and throw more clothing over her, or at least keep the room warm enough, there will be sudden suppression of the sweat, and this will bring on milk fever and other febrile symptoms which will need Bryonia. Threatened peritonitis, from such causes, gonorrheal troubles, old rheumatic troubles, pains or aches, if made worse from the slightest motion.

If due to septicemia rather than to suppression of the sweat, very commonly a deeper acting remedy is required. In inflammatory conditions of the breast one of the most striking things is the stony hardness of the breasts, hardness and heaviness.

Bryonia is often suitable for inflammation of the breasts at other times; heaviness and hardness of the breast prior to menstruation.

Respiratory: Then we come to the respiratory tract again, which we have only hinted at, and here we have a tremendous study before us. Very commonly the Bryonia conditions commence with a cold; it may be at first loss of voice, with rawness in the trachea and great soreness in the chest; dry, hacking cough, as if the chest would burst from coughing.

The Bryonia patient sits up and holds the head, or holds the chest; presses both hands upon the chest when coughing, feels as if the chest would fly to pieces when coughing; pains in the chest on both sides, but mostly the right side. Bryonia prefers the right side when the condition is pneumonia. We see a patient who had first a cold, and the cold has traveled down the air passages, with hoarseness and rawness in the chest and cough; the cough shakes the whole body, then comes a hard chill.

He is now down in bed, and when the physician sees him be sees the state of inflammation and knows the meaning of it, and listening confirms the diagnosis of pneumonia.

The patient cannot move hand or foot; the pain is mostly in the right lung, and he is compelled to lie on the right side or back and dreads motion. Sometimes the pleura is involved and we have the sharp pains; every respiration causes intense pain, whether it be pleuro-pneumonia or a simple pneumonia.

But we see the Bryonia patient lying upon the side that is affected, upon the painful side, in order to diminish the motion that respiration causes; and every often he will have a hand under it to see if he cannot hold it still. With Bryonia the expectoration is of a reddish tinge, is rusty, and if you have this symptom and the right side affected, it is all the more strongly Bryonia.

There are a few medicines that look somewhat like Bryonia; take for instance, a case with high fever, intense heat, great excitement, and consider the rapidity with which the trouble has come on, involving the left side and in the pan you see the sputum consists of bright red blood, Aconite will be the remedy.

If the liver is involved, there is fullness in the side, stitching pain over the liver, and the face is yellow, it is not impossible for Bryonia to be indicated, for it has such things, but with pain very severe, continually going from the front to the back through the right shoulder blade, Chelidonium is more likely to cure than Bryonia. These comparisons may be carried out indefinitely, but the study of Bryonia as to the respiratory apparatus is a wonderful one. With these colds that end in loss of voice, it has bringing and tickling in the larynx, constant cough. Hoarseness and loss of voice in singers. Great soreness in the trachea; rawness and tightness in the trachea, even suffocation, like Phosphorus.

The Bryonia breathing is panting and very rapid, little short rapid breaths, due to the fact that deep breathing increases the pain, the Bryonia patient desires to breathe deep, wants deep breathing, needs deep breathing, but it hurts him so.

"Constant disposition to sigh," but cannot because it hurts him so.

Shortness of breath, suffocation, asthma. Asthmatic attacks from becoming overheated. Asthma worse in a warm room, wants cool air to breathe.

"Dry, spasmodic cough, whooping cough, shaking the whole body."

Cough compels him to spring up in bed involuntarily, painful cough with difficult breathing, cough that shakes the whole body. Tough, difficult expectoration.

"Cough evening and night, dry cough." A great deal of the rest of Bryonia, as we go over it is repetition.

If you will only read the text carefully and make application of what has been said, you see the general character and idea of the remedy, you see its image and you will fill it out for yourselves, if you have a full text-book.