====== FRAGMENTARY PROVINGS.======
{{anchor:s2}}BY DR. STOKES.
{{anchor:s3}}(From the Monthly Homoeopathic Review, London, April 1859.)
**{{anchor:s4}}CROTALUS HORRIDUS**.-Jan. 22nd, 1852. {{anchor:s5}}S. E. S., a lady of bilious-sanguine temperament, unmarried, 35 years of age, subject to indigestion, took a drop of the 3rd dilution morning, midday, and evening. {{anchor:s6}}Fulness and pressure in the Stomach were relieved by the medicine. {{anchor:s7}}Appetite bad all day.
{{anchor:s8}}23rd. {{anchor:s9}}No medicine. {{anchor:s10}}Appetite bad.
{{anchor:s11}}24th. {{anchor:s12}}Weight on stomach and chest; breakfast lies heavy all day; standing up fatigues her much; tremulous weakness all over, as if some evil were apprehended; flatulence and eructation. {{anchor:s13}}Today took a dose of 4 drops, 3rd dilution.
{{anchor:s14}}25th.{{anchor:s15}}Stomach sore and tender on rising this morning; tongue red and sore; gums white; throat dry, with thirst.
{{anchor:s16}}26th. {{anchor:s17}}The above symptoms continue, but in a milder degree. {{anchor:s18}}They gradually ceased after the medicine was left off, and she got quite well.
{{anchor:s19}}31st. {{anchor:s20}}Took a pillule soaked in the 4th dilution in the evening. {{anchor:s21}}In the night she was wakened by a violent burning pain in the hypogastrium, going through to the sacrum; burning pain in epigastrium for half an hour, when it ceased after a stool.
{{anchor:s22}}Feb.1st. {{anchor:s23}}Stomach sore and tender; worse after food; urine scanty and red. {{anchor:s24}}After this felt very well for four days.
{{anchor:s25}}5th. {{anchor:s26}}The soreness returned in the epigastrium, extending upwards under sternum. {{anchor:s27}}Pains in stomach after breakfast and dinner.
{{anchor:s28}}8th. {{anchor:s29}}Headache, and cold feet The headache is in the vertex; pressive; comes on in the afternoon, and lasts till night, for three days. {{anchor:s30}}On the fourth day it changed to the forenoon, with heat and flushing of face. {{anchor:s31}}An attack of diarrhea now came on; after which the bowels were costive and evacuations hard, during a week. {{anchor:s32}}Anxious dreams; is drowsy and heavy in the evening; turns about very much in bed; is easily tired by slight exertion; the arms feel benumbed in the morning; the legs go to sleep, and tingle when sitting; lips and throat dry, without thirst.
{{anchor:s33}}25th. {{anchor:s34}}Menses a week too soon; free; preceded by weight in the head and ears; accompanied by pains in the abdomen and back, and cold feet. {{anchor:s35}}The period lasts some hours longer than is usual, and goes off on the 27th, with an intense frontal headache, which lasts from ten to one o'clock in the night. {{anchor:s36}}She had this night a cramp in the calf of one leg. {{anchor:s37}}In the evening, a sudden attack of sore-throat and bronchial catarrh, which went away on the morning of the 28th and returned at night. {{anchor:s38}}During several days there was some soreness of chest and cough in the evening.
{{anchor:s39}}Remarks. {{anchor:s40}}-The throat dryness, the catarrhal symptoms, the pain in the bowels, the premature and free menses in a person who had them scanty, and with a tendency to retardation, seemed to me to depend clearly on the action of the medicine. {{anchor:s41}}These were symptoms very unusual with the prover, who appears to. have been very susceptible to the action of crotalus.
**{{anchor:s42}}NAJA TRIPUDIANS**.{{anchor:s43}}-In 1854, while proving Naja tripudians for Dr. Russell, I asked Mr. MacSwinney, of Galway, to undertake a proving of it, which he kindly did. {{anchor:s44}}I give the record in his own words.
{{anchor:s45}}J. M'S., aet. 38, of nervous-lymphatic temperament, regular habits, commenced taking cobra (Naja tripudians) on the 4th of August. {{anchor:s46}}Dose, 3 drops of 2nd potency in one ounce of water. {{anchor:s47}}In the evening felt very tired and sleepy, and had to retire at nine o'clock; slept directly after going to bed.
{{anchor:s48}}5th. {{anchor:s49}}Thermometer at 62°. {{anchor:s50}}Awoke with a troublesome tickling in the larynx, attended with nausea, sneezing, and coughing. 2 p. m. {{anchor:s51}}Took 3 drops as before. {{anchor:s52}}Continuance of the tickling, with scanty viscid expectoration of tasteless mucus.
{{anchor:s53}}6th. {{anchor:s54}}Thermometer at 69°. {{anchor:s55}}Gasping for breath all this day, yesterday, and the day before; but particularly So today, with several deep-drawn inspirations. {{anchor:s56}}At 10 p. m. took 3 drops as before.
{{anchor:s57}}7th. {{anchor:s58}}Awoke early with hawking of viscid mucus. {{anchor:s59}}At 2 p. m. took 3 drops. {{anchor:s60}}Tickling continues, but less.
{{anchor:s61}}8th. {{anchor:s62}}At 1 p. m. took 4 drops, and felt immediately afterwards increasing tenderness over the trachea; gasping for breath both yesterday and today (thermometer 66°) for several hours; feeling as if there were a hair in the trachea.
{{anchor:s63}}9th. {{anchor:s64}}Thermometer at 66 °. {{anchor:s65}}At 2 p. m. took 5 drops, and soon afterwards felt increased tenderness of the throat and over sternum, lasting all day.
{{anchor:s66}}10th Thermometer at 66°. {{anchor:s67}}Today, an ulcer on the frenum of the tongue. {{anchor:s68}}This morning, on awaking, expectorated frequently a whitish viscid mucus. {{anchor:s69}}Soon after noon I took 12 drops. {{anchor:s70}}Almost while taking the medicine, felt all the above symptoms greatly increased, added to which I experienced a feeling of hollowness over the entire head, which continued for several days, and caused me to leave off further provings.
{{anchor:s71}}For other provings of the Naja, see the British Journal of Homoeopathy.
**{{anchor:s72}}ERYTHROXYLON COCA**.{{anchor:s73}}-Being anxious to ascertain on my own person the powers of this famed intoxicating drug, I procured some of the tincture made by Mr. Turner, from a sample of the leaf obtained in Covent Garden Market, and began by smelling, for the space of one minute, the mother tincture; observed no effects, but preserved the feeling of unruffled health I had previously enjoyed. {{anchor:s74}}On the 9th December, 1857, took, at 6 p. m., 10 drops of the strong tincture in a desert-spoonful of water. {{anchor:s75}}During the evening my hearing became painfully acute, and I felt something like expectation, the brain excited, and a rather painful pressure on the sides of the head. {{anchor:s76}}In bed, the pillows felt hard to the neck and head, hand although very sleepy, I turned and twisted about all night, and awoke tired and heavy next day, with aching shoulders. {{anchor:s77}}The dreams were of great activity. {{anchor:s78}}Last night and this morning the mouth and palate felt as if burnt with pepper.
{{anchor:s79}}10th. {{anchor:s80}}In the evening took 10 drops. {{anchor:s81}}Experienced the same painful constriction round the sides of head, and the same dreamy excited state in the night.
{{anchor:s82}}11th. {{anchor:s83}}At 9 a. m., took 10 drops, in water; repeated the dose at noon; and at 6.30 p.m. {{anchor:s84}}This evening felt very bouyant on walking out in a dense, chilling fog; felt very much elated; indisposed for food; ate very little dinner: and no tea or supper. {{anchor:s85}}Night again dreamy and restless.
{{anchor:s86}}12th. 10.30 a. m. {{anchor:s87}}Ten drops in water. {{anchor:s88}}Head very clear this morning. {{anchor:s89}}Daily evacuations delayed for three hours, and when passed, the rectum seemed dry; though the evacuation was soft enough and well formed, there was difficulty in voiding in. {{anchor:s90}}Appetite diminished; I could not take my usual moderate quantum of food. {{anchor:s91}}Night again dreamy; though this time I slept well and awoke fresh.
{{anchor:s92}}13th. {{anchor:s93}}Evacuation again delayed, like yesterday. {{anchor:s94}}Took 10 drops this morning.
{{anchor:s95}}After this my digestion became extraordinarily good, and continued so. {{anchor:s96}}The aptitude for work was increased, and the power of the muscles was notably augmented. {{anchor:s97}}I took no more at this time; but my sleep continued to be full of active, troubled dreams, notwithstanding which I awoke lively and vigorous every morning for about ten days afterwards, when the effects of my proving faded away.
{{anchor:s98}}Some months after this, Dr. Drysdale gave me a few leaves of Coca, and we each chewed a piece, both experiencing alight nausea and vertiginous feeling, incapacitating us for carrying on our literary labors for about an hour.
**{{anchor:s99}}OSMIUM**.{{anchor:s100}}-Being in excellent health, I took, on the 12th May, 1855, 2 grains of the 3rd trit. dry, at 8.30 a. m. {{anchor:s101}}On the 13th, same hour, same dose. {{anchor:s102}}All the afternoon had fulness and aching at the upper and back part of the head, in doors and out; worse by throwing back the head. {{anchor:s103}}7 PM., repeated the dose. {{anchor:s104}}Next day, at 4 p. m., another dose. {{anchor:s105}}Had dull headache, like a band round the head above the ears. 10 p. m. repeated the dose. {{anchor:s106}}The dull headache extends from the base of brain into the jaws.
{{anchor:s107}}On the 15th, at noon, took 2 grains. {{anchor:s108}}At night, had dull aching at base of skull and in jaws. {{anchor:s109}}Irregular attacks of stabbing in the tips of the fingers, particularly those of the left hand.
{{anchor:s110}}16th. {{anchor:s111}}Arose very tired, with muddled head and aching limbs and body, and was thus all day. {{anchor:s112}}Evacuations delayed, small and constipated. {{anchor:s113}}At 10 a. m. took 2 grains. {{anchor:s114}}In the evening perceived the urine to be strongly scented, somewhat like violets; very highly colored, and apparently full of bile.
{{anchor:s115}}On the 17th, took no medicine, but still the urine was like that passed yesterday, and the occipital headache continued.
{{anchor:s116}}18th. {{anchor:s117}}At 11 a. m. took 2 grains, and again at night.
{{anchor:s118}}19th. {{anchor:s119}}Two grains at 11 a. m. {{anchor:s120}}All day yesterday and today there has been uneasiness in the stomach, increasing to anxiety and contraction; worse after food, and much aggravated by stimulants. {{anchor:s121}}I felt restless and fidgety. {{anchor:s122}}The bowels are confined, but move daily. {{anchor:s123}}Feeling so poorly, I took no more medicine on the 20th and 21st.
{{anchor:s124}}On the 22nd, took 2 grains in the forenoon. {{anchor:s125}}Slight rawness in the larynx, which increased until the 24th, when it was very severe laryngeal catarrh, the voice hoarse, weak, and low, and almost extinct. {{anchor:s126}}Lay in bed all the morning, and took three doses of mere. sol. and two of bell., which carried off the attack in the afternoon. {{anchor:s127}}Felt very weak and easily tired.
{{anchor:s128}}25th. {{anchor:s129}}Yesterday and today felt a drawing aching in the left quadriceps tendon, each side of the top of patella, varied by occasional shoots below the external malleolus, and on the instep of left foot.
{{anchor:s130}}26th. {{anchor:s131}}Today felt aching pain in the metacarpo-phalangeal joint of left thumb. {{anchor:s132}}The aching of the left knee continues, but is less severe, and ceases at night.
{{anchor:s133}}I am not positive that the laryngeal affection was medicinal, but I very much incline to think it was.
{{anchor:s134}}I began a second proving with the 3rd trit. on the 28th of May, by taking 1 grain at 2.{{anchor:s135}}30 P M At six o'clock felt a weakness of stomach, almost amounting to nausea, and aversion to cocoa, usually bo well relished. {{anchor:s136}}This, by-the-bye, occurred during the digestion of meat pudding, and required a glass of brandy-and-water at half-past ten to set matters right.
{{anchor:s137}}26th. {{anchor:s138}}At noon, took 1 grain, dry. {{anchor:s139}}This morning I arose feeling jaded after a restless, tossing night. {{anchor:s140}}Pulse 80 before taking the powder.
{{anchor:s141}}30th. {{anchor:s142}}At noon. {{anchor:s143}}Pulse 78. {{anchor:s144}}Took 1 grain, dry.
{{anchor:s145}}31st. {{anchor:s146}}At 11 a. m., pulse 84. {{anchor:s147}}Took 1 grain dry. {{anchor:s148}}Last night slept badly; tossed about as before.
{{anchor:s149}}June 6th. {{anchor:s150}}Began a third trial of this medicine by taking 1 grain of the 3rd trit. at 3 P.M. All the evening had distension of stomach and abdomen, although the dinner was only plain roasted mutton and potatoes. {{anchor:s151}}Passed a restless night, and had a dull head all the day on the 7th; the bowels were not moved until 4 p. m., and the urine was brown and scanty all day. {{anchor:s152}}At 3 p. m. another dose. {{anchor:s153}}At night there was slight gripping in the bowels; the evacuation was passed hastily, with burning at the anus; it was bilious, and partly fluid.
{{anchor:s154}}8th. {{anchor:s155}}This morning the urine was scanty, and strongly scented, but not so dark as before. {{anchor:s156}}Took 1 grain at 11 a. m. {{anchor:s157}}In the evening had again distension of stomach and bowels, with difficult passage of flatus.
{{anchor:s158}}9th. {{anchor:s159}}Urine scanty and dark colored. {{anchor:s160}}Took 1 grain this morning. {{anchor:s161}}All the afternoon the abdomen was very sensitive, and distended. {{anchor:s162}}No evacuation today; only a small lump, like a marble, passed, after trying very hard to relieve myself.
{{anchor:s163}}10th. {{anchor:s164}}This forenoon took 1 grain, dry. {{anchor:s165}}Again troubled with distension all the afternoon and evening. {{anchor:s166}}Next day took 1 grain; found my pulse 90; when I am well it is 72. {{anchor:s167}}Before dinner (which I take at 12.30), felt contractive pain and weight in epigastrium. {{anchor:s168}}This is often attended by a feeling in the stomach as if I had swallowed a lot of stones from a newly laid road. {{anchor:s169}}No appetite for dinner; bowels distended in the afternoon; pressure on both inguinal rings. {{anchor:s170}}No evacuation today until 10 p.m. it was dry, and full of air.
{{anchor:s171}}12th. {{anchor:s172}}Sleep restless every night, with dreams of painful events; I rise jaded. {{anchor:s173}}In the forenoon, constrictive pain in the stomach. {{anchor:s174}}Pulse 80. {{anchor:s175}}Bowels relieved at 10 a.m.;evacuation small in volume and quantity. {{anchor:s176}}Took 2 grains at noon; urine scanty and dark.
{{anchor:s177}}16th. {{anchor:s178}}Took no more medicine. {{anchor:s179}}The bowels remain costive, and the urine scanty and dark, but now begins to be more free and less colored. {{anchor:s180}}Several times I have felt the stabbing pains above mentioned in the tips of the thumb and fingers of the left hand. {{anchor:s181}}Sleep is haunted by dreams of activity, and of events of a serious and important character, but they are not remembered on awaking.
{{anchor:s182}}From the effects I experienced from this medicine, I judge it may be found a valuable aphrodisiac.
{{anchor:s183}}In about a week from the time I left off this last trial, my health resumed its usual vigor and evenness, which had been rather unpleasantly ruffled by this powerful drug.
----
====== DOCUMENT DESCRIPTOR ======
^ Source: | The AMERICAN HOMOEOPATHIC REVIEW Vol. 01 No. 08, 1859, pages 354-360 |
^ Description: | Fragmentary provings - Crotalus horridus, Naja tripudians, Coca, Osmium metallicum. |
^ Remedies: | Crotalus horridus, Naja tripudians, Coca, Osmium metallicum |
^ Author: | Stokes |
^ Year: | 1859 |
^ Editing: | errors only; interlinks; formatting |
^ Attribution: | Legatum Homeopathicum |