Stramonium

Maniacal delirium : symptoms resembling h y d r o p h o b i a. Delirium of fear, as though a dog were attacking him. Impression of danger : clings to person who had him in her lap. Noisy D E L IR IU M with H A L L U C IN A T IO N S. Appearance of patient suggested mania. “ There are those bugs, help me catch them." “ There, a long trail of bedbugs, and after them a procession of beetles, and here come crawling over me a host of cockroaches." He shrank back in alarm : then suddenly, “ I believe I know they are not really bugs : but except once in a while, they seem real to me." (.Biting a man’s hand), sometimes crying out that she saw cats,dogs and rabbits, at the top, sides and middle of the room. (Speaking) the sound resembled a squeak more than the natural tone of the voice. Manifested great aversion to fluids of every kind. When a cup of water was put to her lips, she would start from it, and sometimes relapse into her paroxysm : such great aversion to it, that it was with the utmost difficulty that any liquid could be forced down her throat. Hydrophobia : Aversion—even rage, when it was attempted to administer any liquid. Had even spasmodic irritation of pharyngeal muscles, and anything taken choked him and. was regurgitated. Asked her mother not to leave her, “something was going to hurt her ". Constant staring about, then a fixed gaze, with sudden startings of arms and lower limbs, with low mutterings, then sudden and furious screaming, scratching, tearing with the hands, and kicking. He makes all motions hastily. From the expression of face and movements, he seems at times to be chasing, or fleeing from imaginary objects. Terrified by fanciful delusions : they appear to grow out of the ground at his side—large dogs, cats and horrible beasts, from which he springs away with signs of terror, but cannot get away from them. Continually strange objects intrude on his fancy, frightening him. He sees more horrifying images at his side than in front of him. The boy seemed to see black objects. (An executioner standing before him) seemed to him a reality. AU ideas seemed to consist of mere reproductions : there was nothing original, no new combinations. Occupied with haUucinations : gaze fixed ; seemed trying to reach towards something she saw. Solely occupied with objects of his fancy. The sight of a light, a mirror, or water, excited horrible convulsions. Quite irrational : picked the bedclothes, saw bugs, etc. Shuddering and seeming much frightened. Starts up in affright. 774 STRAMONIUM—DATURA STRAMONIUM Fear of being in the dark, and (less) of being alone in the evening after sunset. Conduct and countenance like that of a child severely frightened, and apprehending some terrible calamity. Delirium : bland : murmuring : violent : foolish : joyful : loquacious: incoherent: chattering: with open eyes : vivid: merry: with spasmodic laughter : furious : raving : mid attempts to stab and bite : with queerest notions ; with sexual excitement : fear as if a dog were attacking him : conscious of her condition : calls for papa and mamma, who are present and trying to console child : with open eyes: noisy, with hallucinations ; shy, hides himself : tries to escape: full of fear : talks incessantly, absurdly, laughs, claps hands over head, wide-open eyes. Mania for light and company : cannot bear to be alone. Delirium tremens. Hallucinations which, especially at night, put patient into wildest restlessness. . . . Laughing. Intoxication. Rush of blood to head. Violent congestion of head. Eyes wide open,prominent : pupils exceedingly dilated, insensible, with injected conjunctives, as if vessels filled with dirty liquid. Complained that it was dark and called for light. Hallucinations park. (Bell., fiery, shining.) Hot cheeks. Blood rushing to face. White circle round mouth. Wild staring look : expression of great fear and terror. (Aeon.) Glairy saliva dribbling from mouth. Speech stammering, difficult and unintelligible. Has to exert himself a long time before he can utter a word. (Distorts face, makes great efforts to speak.) Dryness of throat. Constriction. Spasmodic- constriction of throat, a kind of paralysis, so that swallowing was very difficult—almost impossible. Fauces dry : very red: with difficult swallowing Terrible spasm . of throat on each attempt to swallow, like hydrophobia. Dryness of throat not removed by frequent draughts of water. The child had not only lost power of utterance, but that of voice. Could only utter a hoarse croaking sound, alternating with sonorous croupy barking cough : unable to swallow for the violent spasms. Thirst violent, for sour drinks. Fear of water : and aversion to all fluids. STRAMONIUM—DATURA STRAMONIUM 775 Abdomen distended, not hard. Stool and urine suppressed. Voice hoarse and croaking. High, squeaking, out of tune. Usual modulation quite lost : higher and finer than usual. Twitching of hands and feet ; of tendons ; of extremities : during chill ; through body like chorea. Trembling of limbs. Trembling of whole body, seemed as if in a great fright. Convulsions. Frightful convulsions at sight of a lighted candle, a mirror, or of water. Now rejected every liquid, and seemed to labour under hydrophobia, for the moment a cupful of drink touched lips, the spasms returned with great violence. Child became restless : tossed about : called for water : could swallow with, great difficulty. Constant restless movements of all limbs and the whole body. Convulsions, alternating with rage : opisthotonic, from bright, dazzling objects, a lighted candle, a mirror, or touch. Child rigid as a board, when loudly spoken to or when touched. Shrieks in hoarse voice. Scarlatinous redness of skin. Intensely red rash in skin, resembling scarlet fever, but having a more shiny appearance. Scarlet efflorescence over the whole body. Head very hot. Skin hot, dry, burning : scarlet. Child will not go-to sleep in the dark, but soon falls asleep in a lighted room. “ Strange, Rare and Peculiar ” Symptoms Hands and arms in motion, as if spinning or weaving. Grasps about in air, catching at imaginary objects. Motionless, pulseless : then tossed about in great rage : made signs to those about him, not understood. Condition resembles highest state of intoxication from alcohol. • • Calls things by wrong names, his boots, logs of wood ; his bedroom, the stable. No correct estimate of distance or size : reaches for things across the room : bumps into persons and things which appear to be distant. 776 STRAMONIUM—DATURA STRAMONIUM Uses wrong words, cannot find right words. Talks in different languages. Sits silent, eyes on ground, picking at her clothes. Mind wanders, with quick motions of eyes and hands. Excessive dilatation of pupils, with slow pulse. Aberrations of mind. One carries home wood to manufacture brandy : another places two axes across each other to split wood : a third burrows in ground like a pig with his mouth : a fourth was " a wheelwright ”, and began to boreholes : a fifth ran into forge, to catch fish which he saw swimming there . . . a girl ran about the room and cried that all evil spirits were pursuing her. Face expresses perturbation—stupidity—Fear. Converses with spirits : is under influence of spirits ; has communications from God ; delivers sermons : prophecies. Animals jump out of the ground sideways : he moves quickly to other side, where others start up and pursue him. Thinks he is tall : double : lying crosswise : that he was killed, roasted, and being eaten. Sees more horrifying images at his side, than in front of him : they all occasion terror. Seemed to see black objects : spoke of black people and black clouds : grasped at air. Rush of blood to head with furious loquacious delirium. ” A dog is biting him and tearing flesh off his chest ” ; complains of violent headache : confessing and praying : wants to be killed : to be kissed : accuses his wife of unfaithfulness : will not be touched ; takes people for dogs and barks at them. Is a distinguished person. Threatens to use knife on those about him : to break furniture : to throw himself out of the window. Thinks he has snakes in him : lizards : worms in his clothes. Religious mania : pious looks : praying : inspired talking : despair of her salvation. Water, or a mirror, or anything bright excites convulsions. Screams and howls. Wants to kill people, or himself. Changeable : anticipation of death, and rage ; then laughable gestures : then haughtiness and inconsolableness. Obscene thoughts and actions. Sought to bite, or to catch flies. Sings and utters obscene things. Laughing. Makes faces : imitates motions, gestures and voices of different animals. Suicidal : wants a razor to cut his throat. Pangs of conscience : thinks he is not honest. On being reprimanded, pupils dilate immediately. Child very crœs ; strikes or bites. STR A MONI UM—DA TU RA ST RA MONI UM Going down stairs takes two steps for one, and falls. Alae nasi white, face red. Taste bitter : all food bitter ; all taste lost. Tongue whitish with fine red dots ! In constant motion : swollen ; hangs out of mouth. Averse to fluids : to water, even the sight of it causes spasms. Violent desire to bite and tear things with his teeth. Sight of a light, mirror, or water excites horrible convulsions. Froths at mouth and constant spitting. Violent thirst with desire for sour drinks. Great desire for acids. Better for vinegar. Very violent hiccough. Flow of very salt saliva. Vomits water, bile, dark-green substance : green bile. As if navel were to be tom out. Wind in abdomen wakens her : screams, thinking herself full of creeping things. As if urine could not be passed, for narrowness of urethra. As if cylindrical body were being pushed through urethra : better after drinking vinegar. Sexual irritation : hands constantly on genitals. Nymphomania. Metrorrhagia with excessive loquacity, singing, prayers, praise. Shrinking look, when awaking. Aphonia : aphasia : stammering. Excessive sense of suffocation. Hard pressure on cartilages of third and fourth ribs with difficult breathing : unable to inhale enough to breathe without anxiety. When coughing while sitting, lower extremities are jerked up. Something turns round in chest. Diaphragmitis. As soon as she falls into a doze, profuse sweat breaks out (Con.). Arms thrown about : thrown upwards. Beating with one arm, grasping with the other. Falls over his own feet. Fingers and heels numb. Falls with full consciousness, bent backward so that heels touch occiput ; suddenly snaps forward again. Falls in the dark : can walk well in light. Voluntary muscles do not obey will. Continual cramp in hands and feet. Great movability of limbs. Strange involuntary motions : great agility. Sensation in joints as if all parts of limbs were completely separated from each other. Arms and legs separated from body : hands and feet loosened in joints. . . . 778 STRAMONIUM—DATURA STRAMONIUM (And so on : convulsions : chorea : hysteria : epilepsy : etc.) Awakes : does not know where he is : with a solemn air of importance ; screaming, frightened, knows no one, shrinks away or jumps out of bed ; with staring eyes at one point : assumes a comically majestic appearance. . . . As if cold water poured down back. As if sparks of fire rushing from stomach to eyes. * * * It is important to recognize the exactly opposite conditions produced (and curable) by Stramonium. Cursing, and praying (as the boy who gets hauled to his feet in passages and odd corners, where he has fallen to his knees in prayer—one remembers such a case). Desire for light, unable to walk, or to sleep in the dark (like the young man who has to have a night light, because he “ screams the house down” if it goes out), and yet convulsions renewed by the sight of bright objects. Again, the violent convulsions, with horrible distortions of the face ; or only the (characteristic) “ disorderly, graceful, rhythmical movements in delirium or chorea, utterly unlike the angular jerkings of Hyos.” (All remembered cases.) One recalls several striking instances of the rapid curative action of Stramonium. Two cases, scribbled into the margin of Allen’s Encyclopedia, at the time, come up opportunely, (i) A big, strong Scotchman, years ago, when influenza, after many years absence, came back to mightily stampede the doctors, and to claim a large number of victims including one of the princes, went down with a bad attack of the prevailing epidemic. He had a very high temperature, frightful pain, " right in the hairt of my heed ”, as he afterward expressed it ; with delirium, and vomiting of green matter. But the ” strange, rare and peculiar ” symptom here was, that he said that the glass of water his wife brought him was black, and that her face was black. This black vision suggested Stram, and he was cured in a few hours by Stram. 30. (No. 2), long forgotten but scribbled in below, at the same time, reads: ” Alice" (a housemaid). ” Bad pain all day across head, but right inside it, cured by one dose of Stram. 30.” A third, a more recent Hospital case, already given, must be retold here, where it belongs. It was an amazing case. . . . A woman of 33 was brought into L.H.H. on January 17th, 1930. The old school doctor who sent her in had been treating her for the last 14 days for pyelitis and frequent heart attacks, with a tempera­ ture of 104 :—and the previous year for ” mitral incompetence and albuminuria ”. On admission there was much pus and blood in urine ; some lumbar pain, and difficulty in urination. She appeared to be very STRAMONIUM—DATURA STRAMONIUM ill ; but on admission there was nothing abnormal found in the lungs. Next day, she was restless and delirious towards evening, with morbid fears, and a temperature of 104*8, respiration 24. On the third day temperature 104-104*8, respiration now 44. She had developed a very rapid double pneumonia. Skin flushed, hot, dry. Delirium. Thirst. And at night restlessness with twitchings of face and hands. Temperature 104. Respiration 34-48 (in spite of Phos. 30, which she had been having at six-hourly intervals). And she had only passed 11 oz. of urine in twenty-four hours. On the fourth day, pretty twitchings of face : hands twitched :— a peculiar “ angelic ” smile in delirium. She was conscious when roused. It wasi observed that the temperature was always at its highest at noon (“ as now 104*6 ”). The case was reconsidered, having regard to its unusual and characteristic symptoms. For fever at noon, there is only one drug in italics—Stram. The graceful spasms and twitchings of face—“facial muscles constantly play in delirium ”—again Stram. Then, the character of the delirium, lacking the violence of Bell., together with the fever, the dry hot skin, and the suppressed urine, again suggested Stram. So at noon on the fourth day of admission—the second day of the pneumonia, she was given Stram. 1 m., three doses, four-hourly. The result was dramatic ! viz. a quieter night ; no twitching ; no delirium. Quite sensible. Temperature coming down. Next day it rose once more, but at 8 p.m., not noon, and only to 103 • 8—a degree lower ; when she got three more doses of Stram. 10m. After which, with one more small rise, it dropped—to remain sub-normal for some days. A day later, as she was weak and drowsy, and “ looked toxic ”, she was given three doses of A mica 200 ; after which she needed no more medicine. Stram, was given on the second day of the double pneumonia, and she was sub-normal three days later. By February 18th she was walking about the ward ; and was discharged a fortnight later, " lungs normal, heart normal, urine normal. Quite well." The interest in this case was its great severity (the doctor who sent her in believed her to be dying of pyelitis and heart trouble before the double pneumonia supervened), and the unusual drug for Pyelitis and double pneumonia. This case shows how the curative remedy was found on a very few, but characteristic 7»0 STRAM ONIUM S ATU RA STRAMONIUM symptoms, not of pneumonia, or pyelitis, but of that individual patient exhibiting those disease-conditions. Here, Hahnemann’s " totality of Characteristic Symptoms ”, suggested a remedy to which the patient undoubtedly owed her life. And with this we may quit Stramonium. A marvellous drug, rightly applied—they all are !—yet only worthy of twenty-one short lines in Hale White’s Materia Mcdica, the text book for students of medicine. Things are moving at last : and one wonders how long it will be before medical students are allowed to take their course of Materia Medica with us ! We have no desire to run a medical school : all the rest can be better taught elsewhere, with appliances and first-class teachers : but—Materia Medica ! Good Lord ! No wonder so many doctors have ” lost their faith in medicine * * * Nash gives a case of acute mania, cured with Stramonium. “ A lady about 30, overheated in the sun, on an excursion. A member of a Presbyterian church, but she imagined herself lost, and called me in six mornings in succession to see her die. Lost, lost, lost, eternally lost, was her theme, begging minister, doctor, everybody, to pray for and with her. Talked day and night about it. I had to shut her up in her room alone, for she would not sleep a wink or let anyone else. “ She imagined her head was as big as a bushel, and had me examine her legs, which she insisted were as large as a church. After treating her for several weeks with Glon., Lach., Nat. carb. and other remedies on the cause as the basis of the prescription, without the least amelioration of her condition, I gave her Stramonium, which covered her symptoms, and in twenty-four hours every vestige of that mania was gone. She was to have been sent to the Utica Asylum.” (Nash gave her the sixth potency.) Sulphur is one of the greatest of " polycrests ” (drugs of many uses),—is Hahnemann’s Prince of " antipsorics ” (remedies of non-venereal chronic diseases),—and is one of the constituents of protoplasm, thus not only occurring, but evoking and curing, symptoms in every tissue and organ of the body. Its great and wide range in homoeopathic prescribing, is evidenced by the fact that Allen's Encyclopedia gives no fewer than 1,040-odd symptoms, each with reference that tells not only the authority but the dose responsible. Hahnemann says of Sulphur : “ The homoeopathic physician (who alone acts in conformity with natural laws) will meet many important morbid states for which he will discover and may expect much assistance in the symptoms of Sulphur and Hepar Sulphuris.” He points out the similarity of the eruptions produced by Sulphur with those of itch :—the characteristic itching eruption which Sulphur can excite, “ in which is revealed an affection, similar (homoeopathic) to but not identical with the itch . . . and tells us that Homoeopathy requires medicines that produce diseases only similar to those they should be administered for in order to cure them. . . . Homoeopathy has never pretended to produce an identical disease with medicines, but has always enjoined the selection of a medicine for the cure, that produces only a similar affection. . . Canova’s statue of the captive of St. Helena may be very like, but it is not Napoleon !... Do not our stupid opponents understand that ? Are they unable to comprehend the difference between identical (same) and similar ? or do they not wish to comprehend it ? ” And he gives the differ­ ence between “ true itch and the very-like pimples and vesicles of the itch of workers in wool.” In Materia Medica Pur a he scorns the idea of employing diseases for the cure of disease : but later on, in his Chronic Diseases, and indeed in the Organon (possibly in its later editions) he discusses the fact that by preparation and potentization disease products become ” so changed as to be no longer idem but similli- mum ” ; and it was Hahnemann himself who prepared and potentized the contents of the itch pustule, and proved it (the proving is to be found in Stapf’s Archives) ; and showed thereby its great similarity of symptoms to those of Sulphur—and its great differences : thus teaching us when to prescribe the one, and when the other. But it is believed that Hahnemann later on partly proved and used some other disease products : though he did not give us a lead to their use, since they were not sufficiently proved to be capable of scientific employment. (See an interesting article on this subject, Homœopathy, vol. I, p. 462.) Anyway Sulphur is one of our great skin medicines, but only in such skin conditions as it can produce, or in typical Sulphur- patients. It has boils (Anthrac., Tarent, cub., Am., Beilis and a host of others, eàch in its place) : crops of boils, which succeed one another. Itching, extreme ; " voluptuous ” itching, relieved by scratching, then burning ; worse from heat of bed {Merc.). “ Dry, rough, scaly or itching skin, disposed to break out or fester and won’t heal ” {Hep., Sil.) : even pustular eruptions. And Sulphur eruptions may alternate with other complaints, such as asthma {Ars., etc.). When we were children a precious Riddle Book had it, “Sulphur comes from volcanoes and is good for eruptions,” and Sulphur is associated in ideas with the Lake of Fire, and Everlasting Burnings ; and Sulphur indeed causes Burnings ; burning pain in eyes, lips, tongue ; in nostrils, face, throat ; in fauces and pharynx ; in stomach and abdomen ; in anus ; in haemorrhoids, etc. ; between scapulae {Lyc., Phos.) ; in fingers, palms (Phos.), knees, feet, especially at night ; in soles, in corns, in chilblains, in skin of whole body, in parts on which he lies. The eruptions of Sulphur Burn. And with all its burning there may be burnings in parts—patchy or local burnings with coldness elsewhere, as feet cold with burning head or face ; in the same way that Nat. tnur. may have irregular distribution of the fluids of the body, as diarrhoea with a dry mouth and tongue, or " dryness of mucous membranes with watery secretions elsewhere ”. ” Sulphur reddens orifices in a way common to no other remedy ”—lips {Tub.), eyelids {Graph.), nostrils, red, dirty, discharging {Aurum) Anus, with itching ; and excoriating stools, often ; and here it is a great remedy for haemorrhoids. One has seen low-potency Sulphur produce them in someone who never had them before or since. The old ” low-potency ” men had a trick of curing piles with Sulphur alternately with Nux (they are complementary remedies). In those days they would have held it a disgrace to have piles ” operated ” or injected. Sulphur goes through the body from vertex to soles. In the former its pressure-symptoms remind one of Lach., Bell., Glon. and others, while it burns the soles so much that the feet must be thrust out of bed (Puls^, Mf.d., Cham.). Sulphur is, of course, a great remedy of stomach and intestinal conditions. The Sulphur stomach feels empty and " sinking ” , especially about 11 a.m. (or noon, or an hour before the mid-day meal), but then a Sulphur patient will often tell you that she wants no breakfast, but starves at the later hour. And the typical Sulphur diarrhoea (often chronic) torments its victim with hurried early morning stools or diarrhoea, leaving them safe for the rest of the day. It would be impossible to give all the black letter symptoms of Sulphur—i.e. the symptoms again and again produced and again and again cured by that drug—they are far too numerous for the space at our command ; but we will delve a little into Kent, and glean from that great prescriber his experiences derived from a very large and successful practice and from years of teaching Materia Medica. The more one goes to Kent, the more one needs to go. He, more than anyone, probably, has imbibed the spirit of Hahnemann, and expounded and perpetuated his doctrines. Kent says, " Sulphur is such a full remedy that it is difficult to tell where to begin. It seems to contain a likeness of all sickness, and a beginner reading over the provings of Sulphur might natur­ ally think that there was no need of any other remedy, as the image of all sickness seems to be contained in it.” Yet, he says, “ it will not cure all the sicknesses of man, and must not be used indiscriminately. . . It seems that the less a physician knows of Materia Medica the oftener he gives Sulphur ; but it is very frequently given by good prescribers, so that the line between physicians’ knowledge and ignorance cannot be drawn from the frequency of their use of Sulphur. " The Sulphur patient is lean, lank, hungry, dyspeptic with stoop-shoulders ; yet many times it must be given to fat, rotund, well-fed people.” "The Sulphur state"may be brought on by being housed up in meditation—philosophical inquiry, taking no exercise : must eat only the simplest foods and not enough to nourish them, and end up by going into a philosophical mania. . . . Another class, dirty-looking, shrivelled, red-faced. If a child, may be often washed, but looks as if perfunctorily washed. . . . The Sulphur scholar—inventor—works day and night in thread­ bare clothes and battered hat ; has uncut hair and a dirty face ; his study is uncleanly—untidy, books piled indiscriminately, no order. Sulphur seems to produce this state of disorder, unclean­ liness, ‘ don’t care how things go,’ and a state of selfishness. He becomes a false philosopher—disappointed because the world does not consider him the greatest man on earth.................... He has on a shirt that he has worn many weeks : if he had not a wife, he would wear his shirt till it fell off him.” (One has seen with triumph how a dose or two of Sulphur, in such a patient, has produced a clean shirt ! ) “ Cleanliness is not a great idea with a Sulphur patient,” says Kent. " Sulphur is seldom indicated in cleanly people, but it is commonly indicated in those who are not disturbed by uncleanliness. . . . The Sulphur child is subject to catarrhal discharges from nose and eyes, etc., and mothers will tell you that the child will eat the discharges from the nose. . . . That is peculiar, because the Sulphur patient is over­ sensitive to filthy odours ; but the filthy substances themselves he will eat and swallow. Has filthy odours, and they nauseate him. Imagines he smells things. . . . Discharges not only offensive but excoriating. Stools, nasal discharge, excoriating, bum and make raw the parts. Boils—suppurations—abscesses— eruptions, but always with burning. Burning runs through Sulphur. Burning soles : palms : vertex. Worse wann in bed. Nightly complaints are a feature.” And so on for many pages. Sulphur has some weird sensations, perhaps not often met with, but helpful where they occur. A band tightly bound round forehead ; as if bed too small to hold him : as if swinging, or standing on wavering ground. Pressure vertex, as if brain beating against skull : as if head would burst. As if scalp were loose ; as if eyes had been punctured ; as if sounds came not through ears but forehead ; as of a lump or hair in throat ; intestines in knots ; as if bowels too weak to retain their contents ; as if a lump of ice in chest ; as if chest would fly to pieces when coughing or breathing deeply ; as of a mouse running up arms and back. (See Calc.) And many others. As of a rivet through upper third left lung to scapula .... Sulphur has also some weird mentalities. As Guernsey puts it, ” fantastic illusions of the intellect, especially if one turns everything into beauty, as an old rag or stick looks to be a beautiful piece of workmanship—everything looks pretty which the patient takes a fancy to. Wishing to touch something ” ... one has had this symptom in children, and failed to find it ! Sulphur is one of the remedies that has periodicity. Pams in head, for instance, every seven days, every fourteen days ; ” an intermittent, periodic neuralgia with aggravation every 24 hours, generally at mid-day or mid-night.” Diarrhoea at 5 a.m. The Sulphur patient hates, or is the worse for a bath : and though a " warm patient ” is worse for wet, or cold wet weather. Sulphur has a big reputation for clearing up acute conditions that hang fire : pneumonias—exudations into serous sacs, following inflammations (as pleural effusions—we have seen this). Com­ plaints that are continually relapsing (Tub.). But, in a “Sulphur patient By the way, Sulphur has, in poisoning, produced convulsions, and it is one of the first things one thinks of for epilepsy—in a Sulphur patient, or when the patient has had a Sulphur-like eruption. When first one started “ working o ut” one's cases, it seemed as if Sulphur must always come through, such a constant appear­ ance does it present in the various rubrics, but that is by no means the case. Its symptoms are very definite and very striking : it has its own place and does its own work ; and often comes in, as we said, to clear up difficult conditions, and those that hang fire—in a Sulphur patient. To do rapid and at all creditable out-patient work, where the patients crowd in as they do with us, and where they have to be considered as individuals, and not as this or that disease, and treated accordingly, one must have the various drug-pictures of Sulphur—Sepia—Lycopodium and a dozen other common remedies of common complaints at one's finger-tips. And when you get one or two of the little Sulphur drug-pictures by heart, and pre­ scribe Sulphur correctly, it is surprising how long it will hold your patient—i.e. a chronic patient. Many of these return only after many months to ask for “ the medicine you give me, which always puts me right ” . Sepia is another of these medicines of very definite symptoms, easy to recognize ; and when one turns to the patient's page, and sees Sepia inscribed thereon, one nearly always knows that the patient will say, “ Much better ! ” and that the call for repetition will be long-delayed. One must be pardoned for dragging in “ out-patients "so often ; but continuous heavy out-patient work for at least thirty years has impressed some things on one’s consciousness. A few years ago we gave a Paper to the British Homoeopathic Society on “ Drug-Pictures ” which still persists in pamphlet form. That little paper was sd much appreciated, and one was urged so often to go on with such pictures, that it has led to the present efforts in the same direction. And the little Sulphur- pictures in that paper—they only ran to a page—are so concise and to the point that we are minded to reproduce them here. Sulphur has been called the " ragged philosopher ”. An argumentative, stoop-shouldered person, who is always on the look-out for a chair to drop into.

Thirtieth potency and lower.