Secale cornutum

Dusky, scrawny and heamorrhagic. Numbness, insufferable tingling, crawling, twitching, gnawing or cramping; with stiffness; in single parts; starting in face or back; in limbs; in fingertips; after the pains, etc. Burnings; here and there, like fire. Dark, thin, foul or exhausting discharges. Decomposition. Petechiæ. Varicoses. Passive bleedings or discharges. Contracted arterioles. Tonic spasm. .................... Mental weakness after spasms. Fear, depressed by; maniacal. Sparks before eyes. Distorted or sunken countenance; blue rings under eyes. Wild look. Thirst; craves acids. Empty retching. Empty feeling in hypogastrium. Wants abdomen uncovered. Gushing, painless, watery, olive-green or bloody stools; with collapse. Bloody urine. Everything seems loose and open. Senile enuresis. Inert uterus, or bearing down with coldness. Contracted uterus; hour-glass contraction. Miscarriage. Green lochia. Septic placenta. Metritis. Gangrene of female organs. Leucorrhœa; brown, foul; continuous. Pains through chest on pressing spine. Cold limbs. Bluish fingers and toes. Cramps in hands, legs and feet. Fingers spread apart; bent backward or clenched; look water soaked. Boils with green pus. Blood blisters. Cold, dry, wrinkled or bluish skin, < over affected part. Raynaud's disease. Foul, indolent ulcers. Twitching tremor or quiver in skin. EXTERNALLY, ICY COLD, YET BURNING HOT INTERNALLY; OBJECTS TO BEING COVERED, < ABDOMEN. Heat, as of sparks on skin. Erysipelas. Cold or foul sweat; destroying shoes. Antidote: Solan-n.

WARMTH. During menses. Pregnancy. Loss of fluids. COVERS.

Cold; bathing. Uncovering. Rocking. Forcible extension.

Muscles: BLOOD-VESSELS. UTERUS. BLOOD. Nerves. Cord. Limbs.

Related: Nux-m. Ust.

Secale cornutum

Spurred Rye; Ergot. A Fungus; a Nosode.

Adapted to women of thin, scrawny, feeble, cachectic appearance; irritable, nervous temperament; pale, sunken countenance.

Very old, decrepit, feeble persons.

Women of very lax muscular fibre; everything seems loose and open; no action, vessels flabby; passive haemorrhages, copious flow of thin, black, watery blood ; the corpuscles are destroyed.

Haemorrhagic diathesis; the slightest wound causes bleeding for weeks (Lach., Phos.) ; discharge of sanious liquid blood with a strong tendency to putrescence ; tingling in the limbs and great debility, especially when the weakness is not caused by previous loss of fluids.

Leucorrhoea; green, brown, offensive.

Boils : small, painful with green contents, mature very slowly and heal in the same manner; very debilitating.

Face: pale, pinched, ashy, sunken, hippocratic; drawn, with sunken eyes; blue rings around eyes.

Unnatural, ravenous appetite; even with exhausting diarrhoea; craves acids, lemonade.

Diarrhoea: profuse, watery, putrid, brown; discharged with great force (Gamb., Grot.) ; very exhausting ; painless, involuntary ; anus wide open (Apis, Phos.).

Enuresis : of old people ; urine pale, watery, or bloody; urine suppressed.

Burning; in all parts of the body, as if sparks of fire were falling on the patient (Ars.).

Gangrene; dry, senile, < from external heat.

Large ecchymoses; blood blisters; often commencement of gangrene.

Collapse in cholera diseases; skin cold, yet cannot bear to be covered (Camph.).

The skin feels cold to the touch, yet the patient cannot tolerate covering ; icy coldness of extremities.

Menses: irregular; copious, dark, fluid; with pressing, labor-like pains in abdomen; continuous discharge of watery blood until next period.

Threatened abortion especially at third month ( Sal). ) ; prolonged, bearing down, forcing pains.

During labor: pains irregular; too weak; feeble or ceasing; everything seems loose and open but no expulsive action; fainting.

After pains: too long; too painful; hour-glass contraction.

vSuppression of milk; in thin, scrawny, exhausted women; the breasts do not properly fill.

Pulse small, rapid, contracted and often intermittent haemorrhage ; it increases labor-pains, controls profuse or dangerous flooding, is always safe, while Ergot is always dangerous.

Similar : to, Arsenicum, but cold and heat are opposite.

Resembles Colchicum in cholera morbus.

Aggravation. — Heat: zvarnith from covering, of all affected parts ; in all diseases worse from heat.

Amelioration. — In the cold air: getting cold; uncovering affected parts; rubbing.

Lecture XIII — Secale cornutum

Secale cornutum is commonly called "spurred rye." Ergot, a term borrowed from the French, is the name of the drug in the old school pharmacopoeia. The drug is not obtained from the rye itself, but from a fungous growth which attacks the grain, probably when it is very young.

Secale cornutum, or Ergot, has long been used in the dominant school on account of its well-known property of producing contraction of non-striated muscular fibres when given in appreciable doses. It exerts this action particularly on those involuntary muscular fibres which have a circular or transverse direction. I believe that it does this through an influence exerted over the vaso-motor nerves, and that all its symptoms are explainable on this ground. In the first place, the effects of Secale may be divided into two sets, those referable to the circulation, and those referable directly to the nervous system. We shall consider the last-named first. We find Ergot producing a peculiar type of convulsions, which constitute a prominent symptom of Ergotism, a condition of chronic poisoning produced by Ergot. Ergotism is not at all uncommon on the continent of Europe, especially in some of the provinces of Germany, where the farmers grow a great deal of rye. Rye is the principal grain, and thus Ergot poisoning is frequent. Of late years, by exercising more care, the number of cases of Ergotism has lessened. Eet us now return from this little digression and describe the character of the convulsions. At times the body is rigid and at others the rigidity alternates with relaxation; particularly is this noticed in the fingers. The hands are clenched, or the fingers are spread wide apart. The facial muscles twitch. Twitching commences in the face and spreads over the whole body. The abdomen is drawn in by the contraction of the musculi recti abdominales. There is suppression of urine, and at the same time retention from spasmodic contraction of the neck of the bladder. By the use of the catheter a small amount of prune-juice-like fluid may be obtained. There is a great deal of spasmodic retching, but not much real vomiting. The stomach is violently contracted. Coming now to the action of Secale on the circulation, we find that the symptoms referred to disordered circulation are traceable to the action of the drug on the involuntary muscular fibres of the bloodvessels. The first effect is one of contraction, while the secondary action produces a dilatation. The fingers look bluish-black, as though the blood had settled there. The skin is wrinkled and dry. After a time sloughing of the whole or part of the limb results. Now, the explanation of this is as follows: there has been a prolonged contraction of the capillaries, interfering with the circulation, and bringing about a stasis of blood. Thus local nutrition is deranged and the part in consequence dies. This action of Secale has led to its use in dry gangrene, especially of the toes in old people.

Coming next to the uterus as a muscular organ containing nonstriated muscular fibres, we find that Ergot produces marked contraction of this viscus, acting more on the pregnant than on the non-pregnant uterus, more upon the uterus of parous than of nulliparous women. The more the uterine muscular fibres are multiplied the more powerful is the action of Ergot. What symptoms does the drug produce ? You know that it has been used to bring on contraction of the uterus, to cause abortion, to hasten the expulsion of the foetus when abortion is inevitable, to increase labor-pains, to expel the afterbirth, and in fact whenever it is desirable to create uterine contractions. One of its characteristic symptoms is prolonged but ineffectual uterine pains. Another, which you will sometimes notice in cases of retained placenta, is hour-glass contraction of the uterus. This peculiar contraction prevents the expulsion of the placenta. You may remove the after-birth by the aid of the hand, but the safer plan is to give a few doses of Secale.

Secale may also be used in thin and scrawny women, with dry, harsh, shrivelled skins, and sallow faces, who are very weak in labor. The labor-pains seem to be entirely wanting. The uterus is as flabby as though it were merely mucous membrane, instead of a muscular organ. At other times the woman will complain of a sort of prolonged bearing down feeling in the abdomen and the sacral region. Ergot affects the blood itself; it seems to lessen the coagulating function of that fluid. Hence it will cause haemorrhages, which are dark, thin and persistent; haemorrhage from the uterus or from any of the cavities of the body. You may give it in uterine haemorrhage when the flow is passive, dark in color and, it may be, offensive. The woman may be reduced to such an extent that she is almost exsanguinated and lies unconscious and cold. Before losing consciousness she complains of tingling all over the body, and requests the attendants to rub her limbs. Formication is the best word to describe this tingling sensation under Secale. She constantly holds her fingers spread asunder. This symptom seems to bother her even more than the haemorrhage itself. In such cases Secale is the remedy. Again, we may use Secale in retained placenta, when it arises, not from hour-glass contraction of the uterus (although this condition may obtain), but after miscarriage, especially that occurring during the early months of pregnancy. The discharge corresponding to the lochia is offensive. The patient is cold and often almost pulseless, from loss of blood; the uterine contractions are very imperfect, or else there is prolonged tonic contraction. In such cases, Secale is further indicated by its mental symptoms. The patient has mania, during which she laughs, claps her hands over her head, in fact, seems to be beside herself.

Secale acts very prominently on the gastro-enteric organs. It produces a picture very much like that of cholera, and will be found useful whether it be cholera infantum, cholera morbus, or cholera Asiatica. It is indicated when the patient is cold and almost pulseless, with spasmodic twitching of the muscles in various parts of the body; the spreading asunder of the fingers is especially noticeable. The eyes are sunken, and the features pinched. There is a great deal of spasmodic retching, although not much vomiting. The surface of the body is harsh, shrivelled, and dry, as though there were no moisture left in the system. The urine is suppressed. There is tingling or formication all over the body. The stools are profuse and watery, and are ejected with great violence. The patient, though cold, cannot bear to be covered.

In cholera infantum Secale is indicated more particularly by profuse undigested stools, which are watery and very offensive, are discharged by fits and starts, and are followed by intense prostration. Now, Secale must be separated from the remedies that are similar to it, or you cannot use it to the best advantage.

It has been observed in the case of a manufactory in which substances containing arsenic were made, that the fumes of the arsenic destroyed all the surrounding vegetation with the exception of the rye, which grew more luxuriantly under the fumes of this factory thau it did in other localities. When we come to study the medicinal effects of Secale and Arsenicum we ,find that they have many symptoms in common. Both produce shrivelling of the tissues, both produce gangrene, both produce choleraic symptoms, and they follow each other well. The following few distinctions are sufficient: in the first place, the Arsenicum gangrene and almost all of its other symptoms are worse from cold and better from warmth. The patient wants to be wrapped up warmly. The Secale patient finds relief from cold. The same is true of ulcers. If you have an indolent ulcer, with burning pains and discharge of an ichorous offensive pus, you almost always think of Arsenicum. Yet Secale is the remedy if there is relief from cold.

In cholera, both remedies have profuse, offensive, watery stools, which are very exhausting. Arsenicum lacks the tingling which is almost always present when Secale is the remedy. Arsenicum has more restlessness, anxiety, anxious tossing about and irritability of fibre. The patient wants to be warmly wrapped, while the Secale patient wants to be cool.

During the stage of collapse, Secale is indicated by the symptoms I have mentioned. Here, it is very similar to Carbo veg. The latter remedy is indicated when the prostration is so great that the patient lies quiet, too weak to move, with passive haemorrhage from the nose, and, perhaps, from the bowels as well. The body is cold, especially from the feet to the knees. The pulse is rapid, almost threadlike, and the breath is cold. In such alarming cases Carbo veg. may sometimes save the patient's life.

Another similar remedy, Camphor, is to be used in preference to Secale, Arsenicum, or Carbo veg. in cholera, when the system is overwhelmed by the suddenness or violence of the poison, before there is any vomiting or diarrhoea, and when the prostration is intense and the body is as cold as ice. The voice is squeaky or husky. Camphor is here used in the mother tincture, a few drops in water, and a dose given every fifteen minutes until the reaction takes place, when some other remedy may be needed.

Veratrum album resembles Secale in the coldness and blueness of the surface, with profuse watery stools; but it differs in one symptom, namely, the cold sweat on the forehead. None of the remedies just mentioned have this symptom except Arsenicum, and under this remedy the restlessness is greater than under Veratrum, while the cold sweat on the forehead is less marked.

In the uterine symptoms, haemorrhages, etc. , we have to remember some remedies that are closely allied to Secale. I may incidentally mention Carbo veg. here as a remedy similar to Secale in persistent epistaxis. The bleeding continues day after day, apparently not decreasing in the least, the blood being dark and non-coagulable. You must distinguish between the two remedies by their other characteristic symptoms.

Ustilago is to be remembered as a companion of Secale. It is a fungus which grows on corn and is similar in action to Ergot. Careful chemical analysis shows that it contains Ergotin just as does Secale. Ustilago may be used in haemorrhages somewhat different in character from those of Secale. The haemorrhages in which it is most effective are those from the uterus, when the flow is bright red, partly fluid, and partly clotted. With this condition present you may use Ustilago, whether the haemorrhage occur at the climaxis or during labor, abortion, or menstruation. Unlike Secale, this remedy causes passive congestion of the uterus. It is especially indicated when the slight manipulation necessary for a digital examination causes oozing of blood. Another condition for which it is the remedy is menorrhagia from retroflexion of the uterus. I have generally used it in the sixth potency. It seems to give tone to the uterus, so that the organ no longer feels soft and spongy to the examining finger. The circulation through the uterus is improved, and bleeding takes place less readily.

We have two or three other remedies useful in these cases of engorged uterus, and as this condition is so difficult to cure I will give them to you here.

One of them is Bovista, the puff-ball. When this plant is mature, the envelope of the ball bursts, and there is ejected from the cavity a brownish powder, which consists of the spores of the plant. This, when applied to the skin, produces an eruption resembling herpes, which bleeds readily. Bovista affects the circulation in a very peculiar way. It seems to produce a relaxation of the entire capillary system, but whether it acts through the blood or through the nervous system, I am unable to state. This relaxation of the capillaries favors the haemorrhagic diathesis. On account of this unique action of Bovista, we find it useful in epistaxis, associated either with menstrual irregularity, or with traumatism.

Bovista is indicated in uterine haemorrhage when the uterus is engorged, particularly when there is a flow of blood between the menstrual periods from any little over-exertion. Here it is exactly like Ambra grisea, but the menstrual flow of Bovista occurs chiefly or only at night or early in the morning. It would seem that the exercise during the day, by favoring the circulation, tends to diminish the uterine congestion.

Haemorrhage when the uterus is engorged is also found under Ustilago and Secale.

Another peculiarity of Bovista, which I might mention here, is a puffy condition of the surface of the body. A lady, for instance, after holding her scissors, notices that a deep crease has been made in the thumb and finger by the instrument, showing that there is a slight ©edematous condition produced by the sluggish passage of the blood through the veins.

Bovista also produces some symptoms of suffocation. It is used, in some countries, to stupefy bees in order to facilitate the collection of honey. The symptoms of asphyxia are very much like those produced by the fumes of charcoal, and Bovista has proved useful as an antidote to the effects of charcoal fumes.

Other antidotes to charcoal fumes are Arnica and Opium. In addition to these symptoms of Bovista, you should remember another group, likewise dependent upon the circulation. The heart feels enormously large, with oppression of the chest and palpitation after a meal and during menstruation. Associated with the heart disease, and also with deranged menses, is a headache deep in the brain, with a feeling as though the head were enormously large or swollen.

Mitchella repens may be used in cases of engorged uterus when the flow is more active than in the case of the remedies already mentioned. The blood is brighter in color, and the haemorrhage is associated with dysuria.

The next remedy that I want to mention as similar to Secale in haemorrhages is Trillium pendulum. This remedy is useful in an entirely different type of haemorrhage from that calling for the former. It is indicated when the flow of blood is bright red and profuse, and is attended by a faint feeling in the epigastrium, pain in the back, coldness of the extremities, prostration, and rapid, feeble pulse. It is more closely allied to Cinchona than to any of the remedies thus far mentioned. It is indicated more by the active acute haemorrhage than by the chronic slow oozing calling for Secale. There is gushing of bright red blood at every least motion. She feels as though the sacro-iliac synchondroses were falling apart and wants the pelvis tightly bound.

Hamaynelis is likewise indicated in haemorrhage. It acts as you know principally upon the veins. It is called for when there is hammering headache, especially about the temples. Strange to say the patient exhibits no alarm or anxiety concerning the haemorrhage. The flow is dark and rather passive and there is a feeling of soreness in the affected part. The patient is greatly exhausted by the flow of blood.

Erigeron Canadensis is indicated in haemorrhages from the uterus associated with painful urination. How can you distinguish it from Mitchella ? The Erigeron haemorrhage comes in fits and starts; it comes with a sudden gush and then stops again.

Sometimes the cavity remaining after the extraction of a tooth bleeds persistently. If you can clean out that cavity so as to remove the clot, and apply to it a piece of cotton soaked in tincture of Trillium, you will often check the haemorrhage even when other styptics fail. I have never used Erigeron in that way and cannot, therefore, tell what effect it would have. I have used Trillium in the same way in nosebleed.

I would like to mention here Ferrum phosphoricum. It acts upon the circulation very much as does Hamamelis. It is an excellent remedy in that stage of inflammation which we describe as '

' dilatation of the blood-vessels." If administered then, it prevents further extension of the disease. Thus in engorgement of the lungs, it prevents the subsequent pneumonia. The chest feels sore and bruised, the pulse is full and round, but not rope-like as under Aconite. The expectoration is scanty and blood-streaked. Whenever the discharge contains blood and you have not the sthenic fever that belongs to Aconite, you may depend upon Ferrum phos. Sometimes in the summer diarrhoea of children, the bloodvessels of the intestinal tract become greatly distended. The stools are watery and contain mucus and blood. There may be a little urging to stool but no tenesmus. If tenesmus appears, Ferrum phos. ceases to be the remedy. If your case advances to the production of pus or muco-pus, Ferrum phos. can do no good.

You may also use Ferrum phos. in the beginning of hydrocephaloid, when, during a violent attack of summer complaint, the child becomes drowsy and heavy, its ej^es are suffused with blood, and there is a full, soft pulse. It has not the hard, tense pulse of Aconite or Belladonna.

Produces contraction of the unstriped muscular fibers; hence a constringent feeling throughout the whole body. This produces an anæmic condition, coldness, numbness, petechiæ, mortification, gangrene. A useful remedy for old people with shriveled skin-thin, scrawny old women. All the Secale conditions are better from cold; the whole body is pervaded by a sense of great heat. Hæmorrhages; continued oozing; thin, fetid, watery black blood. Debility, anxiety, emaciation, though appetite and thirst may be excessive. Facial and abdominal muscles twitch. Secale decreases the flow of pancreatic juice by raising the blood pressure (Hinsdale).

Worse, heat, warm covering. Better, cold, uncovering, rubbing, stretching out limbs.

Passive, congestive pain (rises from back of head), with pale face. Head drawn back. Falling of hair; dry and gray. Nosebleed, dark, oozing.

Pale, pinched, sunken. Cramps commence in face and spread over whole body. Livid spots on face. Spasmodic distortion.

Pupils dilated. Incipient cataract, senile especially in women. Eyes sunken and surrounded by a blue margin.

Tongue dry, cracked; blood like ink exudes, coated thick; viscid, yellowish, cold livid. Tingling of tip of tongue, which is stiff. Tongue swollen, paralyzed.

Unnatural ravenous appetite; craves acids. Thirst unquenchable. Singultus, nausea; vomiting of blood and coffee-grounds fluid. Burning in stomach and abdomen; tympanites. Eructations of bad odor.

Cholera-like stools, with coldness and cramps. Olivegreen, thin, putrid, bloody, with icy coldness and intolerance of being covered, with great exhaustion. Involuntary stools; no sensation of passing feces, anus wide open.

Paralysis of bladder. Retention, with unsuccessful urging. Discharge of black blood from bladder. Enuresis in old people.

Menstrual colic, with coldness and intolerance of heat. Passive hæmorrhages in feeble, cachectic women. Burning pains in uterus. Brownish, offensive leucorrhœa. Menses irregular, copious, dark; continuous oozing of watery blood until next period. Threatened abortion about the third month (Sab). During labor no expulsive action, though everything is relaxed. After-pains. Suppression of milk; breasts do not fill properly. Dark, offensive lochia. Puerperal fever, putrid discharges, tympanitis, coldness, suppressed urine.

Angina pectoris. Dyspnœa and oppression, with cramp in diaphragm. Boring pain in chest. Præcordial tenderness. Palpitation, with contracted and

intermittent pulse.

Spinal irritation, tingling of lower extremities; can bear only slightest covering. Locomotor ataxia. Formication and numbness. Myelitis.

Cold, dry hands and feet of excessive smokers with feeling of fuzziness in fingers. Trembling, staggering gait. Formication, pain and spasmodic movements. Numbness. Fingers and feet bluish, shriveled, spread apart or bent backwards, numb. Violent cramps. Icy coldness of extremities. Violent pain in finger-tips, tingling in toes.

Shriveled, numb; mottled dusky-blue tinge. Scleræma and œdema neonatorum. Raynaud's disease. Blue color. Dry gangrene, developing slowly. Varicose ulcers. Burning sensation; better by cold; wants parts uncovered, though cold to touch. Formication; petechiæ. Slight wounds continue to bleed. Livid spots. Boils, small, painful, with green contents; mature slowly. Skin feels cold to touch, yet covering is not tolerated. Great aversion to heat. Formication under skin.

Profound and long. Insomnia with restlessness, fever, anxious dreams. Insomnia of drug and liquor habitudes.

Coldness; cold, dry skin; cold, clammy sweat; excessive thirst. Sense of internal heat.

Compare: Ergotin (Beginning arteriosclerosis progressing rather rapidly. Increased blood pressure: 2x trit. Œdema, gangrene and purpura hæmorrhagia: when Secale, though indicated, fails); Pedicularis Canadensis (Symptoms of locomotor ataxia; spinal irritation); Brassica napus-Rape-seed–– (dropsical swellings, scorbutic mouth, voracious appetite, tympanitis, dropping of nails, gangrene); Cinnamon; Colch; Ars; Aurum mur. 2x (locomotor ataxia); Agrostema-Corn-cockle-active constituent is Saponin, which causes violent sneezing and sharp burning taste; burning in stomach, extends to œsophagus, neck and breast; (vertigo, headache, difficult locomotion, burning sensation); Ustilago; Carbo; Pituitrin (dilated os, little pain, no progress. Dose, 1/2 c, repeat in half hour, if necessary. Hypodermically contra-indicated in first stage of labor, valvular lesions or deformed pelvis). Antidotes: Camph; Opium.

First to thirtieth potency. Non-homeopathic use. In hæmorrhages of the puerperium, after the uterus in entirely emptied, when it fails to contract satisfactorily and in secondary puerperal hæmorrhage the result of incomplete involution of the uterus, give one-half to one dram of the fluid extract. Remember Pagot's law. "As long as the uterus contains, anything, be it child, placenta, membranes, clots, never administer Ergot".

Secale Cornutum

The best provers of Secale, those who are most susceptible to its action, are scrawny people, and they are the ones who will most likely need it as their curative remedy.

Aspect: Of course, it is not necessarily contraindicated in fat people. Certain constitutions are mentioned in connection with a remedy as being suited to it, but it must not be inferred that no action will result in others when the symptoms agree. Scrawny people are especially related to Secale.

Emaciated, withered, wrinkled, unhealthy appearance of the skin; purplish, bluish skin, general or in spots; purplish I spots on withered skin, especially where the circulation is feeble as on the back of the hands and feet and on the tibia.

These parts become numb, tingle and wither. The extremities prickle, burn, and tingle; creeping and crawling, as of insects under the skin, as if between the skin and the flesh; numb, dead, wooden sensation in the fingers and especially in the toes.

The toes become black, gangrenous. A senile withering, such as is found in feeble old people; the blood-vessels close up; no blood goes to the toes and they become numb and black, devoid of sensation. Hence, Secale improves the circulation of the aged and postpones senile gangrene.

Burning: is a feature of this remedy; the skin burns; the extremities burn, sensation of burning when the parts feel cold to the touch and really are cold, a sensation of heat with coldness. Burning, especially of internal parts. Dryness with burning; burning in the stomach and bowels; dryness and burning in the mouth and throat, the nose and air passages; burning in the lungs.

This remedy produces ulceration even to sloughing. Old ulcers take on a strange, withered appearance; dryness with no, granulations; a shiny, blackish aspect and all at once blackish granulations shoot out, indolent, and finally forming a black sphacelus which slowly separates; the part is dry; there is no discharge except now and then a little bleeding of black blood.

Oozing of black, liquid blood, oozing when there is no inflammation; nose-bleed of dark, venous, offensive, fluid blood, bleeding from the throat, lungs, bladder, and rectum, of dark blood; urine like ink.

Women: Prolonged uterine haemorrhage so that one menstrual nisus runs into another; withered subjects; considerable flow on the first day, fluid, and blackish; this goes on for a couple of weeks and then a dark watery flow comes on which lasts until the next period.

Then comes the thick, black, fluid, horribly offensive flow again. Such a state is found in the woman who has taken ergot to produce abortion, or in sensitive women who have been dosed with it to facilitate delivery. Of course, if the woman is not sensitive you will not get the lingering provings, Some women are so insane that though they die they will get rid of their offspring. On all hands women say, "I have had no health since I aborted." The worst state of health is produced by ergot; it establishes a miasm as deep as psora itself. The duke to destroy the offspring is an engraftment on psora and by ergot she takes on a miasm as dangerous as sycosis or syphilis.

I have patients who took ergot to cause abortion, and I can do nothing more than palliate them. They have Secale symptoms, sequelae, and their psoric symptoms are suppressed, held down, just as syphilis holds down psoric manifestations; only by covering the Secale miasm and getting at the psora can we help the patient.

They have placed themselves beyond the help of the physician and the ergot will shorten their lives many years unless they are fortunate enough to have careful prescribing continuously while they live.

Modalities: The general constitutional state is aggravated from heat; there are only a few exceptions to this.

Wants cold though the limbs are cold as ice, wants to be uncovered, wants the windows open; a patient with hemorrhages wants the covers off though the room is cold. A patient with ulcers wants to be uncovered; in inflammatory condition of the stomach and bowels, wants the abdomen uncovered.

At times there is a lingering state of heat of the skin and the patient wants to be covered up; there are also sharp, stinging neuralgic pains, which burn like fire and cut like a knife and are relieved by the application of beat; headache worse in cold air.

But the general state is ameliorated from uncovering, in a cold room, and from cold air blowing on the patient.

Violent inflammation of any part of the body; gangrenous pneumonia; gastritis; peritonitis; inflammation of the uterus and ovaries. In inflammatory conditions it competes with Ars. The symptoms are so nearly alike in both that it is difficult to differentiate; both have violently distended abdomen; tympanites; burning like coals of fire; violent thirst; extreme sensitiveness and tenderness to touch, so that motion or jar is unbearable; vomiting of blood; expulsion of blood-clots; horrible, offensive, bloody discharge from the bowels; but they are different in the generals. Ars. wants to be covered up, to be kept warm, to have hot applications, either wet or dry, while Secale wants to be uncovered, wants the cold air.

Convulsions: of single parts or of the whole muscular system; opisthotonos; cramps in the calves, thighs, soles of the feet, and hands, hysterical contractures, a hysterical diathesis. Convulsions begin in the face. Active manias with great excitement; exposes her body and tears at the genitals; puts her finger in the vagina and scratches until the lips bleed; all idea of modesty lost.

The spasms, nervous, and mental symptoms are worse while she is flowing, so that a puerperal convulsion comes on in the midst of a hemorrhage.

From the hemorrhagic tendency and the ability to destroy the red blood corpuscle, there is anemia. The face looks like dried beef, wrinkled, shrivelled, scrawny, as if it had not been washed; as if grey dirt had dried on the skin, and this especially on the extremities a dirty, grey appearance.

Catarrhal affections of all mucus membranes; they are dry and bleed; blood oozes from the catarrhal surfaces, liquid, black, and offensive, coagulating slowly or not at all.

"Nosebleed, blood dark, runs continually, with great prostration, small thread-like pulse; in old people or drunkards; of young women; from debility."

Those poisoned by ergot become victims of opacity of the lens as in senile debility; cataract of old persons.

The withered scrawny person with tendency to ulcerations, unhealthy skin and aggravation from heat, is striking in both acute and chronic states. Chronic diarrhoea exhaustive, watery discharges, cholera. It is related to Camphor, Scrawny people take cholera, skin cold and blue; better from cold. Violent and continued thirst. Diarrhoea and hemorrhages are likely to come together; diarrhoea of bloody water or dark liquid blood.

Large doses produce such contractures of the uterus that its contents are expelled and an exhausting hemorrhage follows; expulsion of large clots and in the early stages mixed with some red blood, but the most striking feature is liquid, black discharge.

"Asiatic cholera with collapse, sunken, distorted face, particularly the mouth, crawling sensation as of ants."

Paretic condition; paralysis of lower extremities; of one side; of one arm or one leg; paralysis of the upper extremities with tingling, numbness, and prickling. Numbness and burning down the whole length of the spine; general emaciation or only of diseased part.

Eruptions, abscesses, boils carbuncles; green pus discharged; a green, purplish appearance; boils small with green contents, mature and heal slowly.

Establishes sterility; so weak is the uterus that it can never hold the foetus, hence the value in sterility and repeated abortions.

Dwindling of the mammae. Absence of milk after confinement.

"Thin, scrawny children with shrivelled skin, spasmodic twitchings, sudden cries, feverishness."

Purpura hoemorrhagica. Paralysis of the extremities. Spinal irritation. Cachectic females with rough skin, pustules tending to gangrene.