====== PATHOGENETIC EFFECTS OF BELLADONNA.====== 

{{anchor:s2}}BY N. H. WARNER, M.D., BUFFALO, N.Y.

{{anchor:s3}}The Pathogenetic Effects of Belladonna as seen in the healthy subject, are so fully set forth in the following case, from eating half of the contents of a half dram vial, filled with pellets of the 6th dilution of Belladonna, that I send it for publication.

{{anchor:s4}}Before giving the details of the case, I would premise, that the subject, a little girl of five years, had had some six months previous to her eating the Belladonna, scarlet fever with secondary symptoms followed with diphtheria, and but just escaped with her life.

{{anchor:s5}}Her recovery was slow; but at the time she eat the Belladonna pellets, her health seemed fully restored although she had not attained her full strength.

{{anchor:s6}}Mary B., aged about live years, of a nervo-sanguine temperament, took, unknown to any one from a domestic case, about half the contents of a half dram vial filled with pellets that had been saturated with Belladonna of the 6th dilution. {{anchor:s7}}As near as her mother could learn from her, she ate the pellets about noon on Friday. {{anchor:s8}}She went to sleep soon after, slept beyond the usual period and was unusually dull, so much so that she could hardly be aroused to take her afternoon's ride, for which she was usually eager. {{anchor:s9}}During the ride, she was attacked with a hacking cough which increased very rapidly, so that in half an hour from its commencement the hacks would occur at every third or fourth inspiration; the irritation continued to increase until the respirations were increased to 70 per minute; the action of the heart was furious, the palpitation being clearly visible to sight across the room; the heat of skin was variable, sometimes very hot, and in a few minutes unnaturally cool. {{anchor:s10}}In this condition, says my partner Dr. L. M. Kenyon, I found her about 9 o'clock, p.m., of Friday. {{anchor:s11}}Her parents had sent to the office at 6 o'clock, p.m., for medicine, and I sent Aconite and Belladonna. {{anchor:s12}}After taking the Belladonna she was seriously worse; constant snuffing came on, though the nose was dry, with extreme nervous irritability. {{anchor:s13}}We supposed she had taken a sudden cold, and as the Belladonna had made her worse, I gave her Lachesis 6th, which soon quieted her and she went to sleep. {{anchor:s14}}During the night she took two doses of Lachesis.

{{anchor:s15}}Saturday I was surprised to find her up and playing about the house, lively, and apparently quite well, except the snuffing which was constant, and an unusual flow of spirits, which drove her from one thing to another with great rapidity, with an incessant desire to talk of all manner of things mixed together. {{anchor:s16}}At 5 o'clock, p.m., all the symptoms that had been so prominent the day before came on, and as the symptoms were so strongly Belladonna, and that remedy having aggravated the symptoms the day before, I put a few pellets of Belladonna<sup>200</sup> into half a tumbler of water, and poured from one glass to another until the pellets were all dissolved, and then poured one spoonful into another half tumbler of water, and after pouring from tumbler to tumbler until it was thoroughly mixed, I further diluted it a third time, and gave her two tea-spoonfuls, and the increase or aggravation of symptoms was so rapid and marked, that I came to the conclusion that I could not use Belladonna at all.

{{anchor:s17}}I resorted to the Lachesis again and found on Sunday morning, that she had rested well and had taken Lachesis twice during the night; I found all the symptoms the same as the morning before. {{anchor:s18}}I gave one dose of Lachesis<sup>200</sup> and waited for evening, when about five o'clock the same symptoms occurred, and Lachesis was repeated and the same results were obtained.

{{anchor:s19}}On Monday we learned the fact of her eating the Belladonna and the symptoms that seemed to indicate Belladonna were in fact the effect of that drug, in the sixth potency. {{anchor:s20}}She was treated with Coffee, Hyoscyamus, Hepar. sulph., and Lachesis. {{anchor:s21}}The symptoms decreased daily and ceased entirely on the eighteenth day.

{{anchor:s22}}She had a small ulcer upon the back as a consequence of the scarlet fever, which healed very slowly, but had been healed some three months when she ate the Bell. pellets; and on the third day after they were eaten, this cicatrix inflamed and had the appearance of breaking out, but after giving Hepar. and other antidotes, the inflammation gradually subsided.

{{anchor:s23}}This case is interesting as it shows that attenuated medicines can produce the drug symptoms upon the healthy, in addition to the curative effect in disease.

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====== DOCUMENT DESCRIPTOR ======

^ Source: | The American Homoeopathic Review Vol. 02 No. 06, 1860, pages 271-273 |
^ Description: | Pathogenetic Effects of Belladonna. |
^ Remedies: | Belladonna |
^ Author: | Warner, N.H. |
^ Year: | 1860 |
^ Editing: | errors only; interlinks; formatting |
^ Attribution: | Legatum Homeopathicum |