Digitalis Purpurea dig.

Vagus. HEART; muscle. CIRCULATION: Liver. Lungs. Stomach. Occiput. Genito-urinary organs.

Raising up. Exertion. Heat. Lying on L. side. Motion. Smell of food. Cold drinks. Excesses: Sexual.

Rest. Cool air. Lying flat on back.

WEAKNESS, faint - like; can hardly talk. Heart slow, with indefinite or causeless symptoms. HEART SLOW, weak or irregular; quick, on motion; with liver or sexual symptoms; at puberty. Must walk about, with precordial anxiety; with teasing to urinate.

Anxious solicitude. Dizzy. Crashes in head; on dropping to sleep. Spastic hemicrania. Yellow-red conjuctiva. Seething in ears. Face pale; bluish, also lips and tongue. Thick, flabby tongue. Much thirst, little appetite (Sul.), but no fever. Deathly nausea or with faint sinking at pit of stomach. Liver sore, swelled. White, putty-like stools. Dribbling urination. Dropsy. Throbbing in neck of bladder. Early morning erection. Swelled prostate; senile. Atonic night losses. Glans inflamed; gonorrhœa of (Jaca.). Profuse, thick, yellow-white gonorrhœa. Slow breathing. Cough, with pains in shoulders and arms. HEART; weak; feels like stopping; sprains; palpitation. Slow, intermittent pulse. Numb or weak left arm. Drowsy. Dreams of falling; wakes with a shock. Cold skin. Flushes of heat, then great weakness. Cold, clammy sweat.

Related: Glo. Spi.

Sudden flushes of heat, followed by great nervous weakness and irregular intermitting pulse, occurring at the climacteric; < by least motion. Weak heart without valvular complications. Sensation as if heart would stop beating if she moved (Cocaine - fears that unless constantly on the move, heart will cease beating, Gels.). Faintness or sinking at the stomach; exhaustion; extreme prostration; feels as if he were dying. Night emissions, with great weakness of genitals after coitus. Great weakness of chest, cannot bear to talk (Stan.). Stools: very light, ash-colored; delayed, chalky (Chel., Pod.); almost white (Cal., Cinch.); pipe-stem stool; involuntary. Pulse full, irregular, very slow and weak; intermitting every third, fifth or seventh beat. Face pale, deathlike appearance and bluish-red. Blueness of skin, eyelids; lips and tongue. Respiration irregular, difficult, deep sighing. The fingers "go to sleep" frequently and easily. Dropsy: post-scarlatinal; in Bright's disease; with suppression of urine; of internal and external parts; with fainting when there are organic affections of the heart (with soreness in uterine region, Conv.). Fatal syncope may occur when being raised to upright position.

Cinchona antidotes the direct action of Digitalis and increases the anxiety.

When sitting, especially when sitting erect; motion.

A very slow pulse is one of the chief characteristics of this remedy; never think of it where there is a rapid pulse, say over 80. Bluish appearance of the face. Stools gray or ash-colored; discharge of urine too scanty (with slow pulse); pulsations of the heart intermit: cyanosis; dropsy of inner parts; fainting.

Pulse full; irregular; slow, very slow.

When sitting, especially when sitting erect.

Bellad., China, Lycop., Pulsat., Nux vom., Sulphur, Veratr.

Camphor.

Respiration irregular, difficult, performed by frequent deep sighs. Sudden sensation as if the heart stood still, with great anxiety. Extremely slow pulse.

Foxglove (DIGITALIS)

Comes into play in all diseases where the heart is primarily involved, where the pulse is weak, irregular, intermittent, abnormally slow, and dropsy of external and internal parts. Weakness and dilatation of the myocardium. Its greatest indication is in failure of compensation and especially when auricular fibrillation has set in. Slow pulse in recumbent posture, but irregular and dicrotic on sitting up. Auricular flutter and fibrillation especially when subsequent to rheumatic fever. Heart block, very slow pulse. Other symptoms of organic heart disease, such as great weakness and sinking of strength, faintness, coldness of skin, and irregular respiration; cardiac irritability and ocular troubles after tobacco; jaundice from induration and hypertrophy of the liver, frequently call for Digitalis. Jaundice with heart disease. Faint, as if dying. Bluish appearance of face. Cardiac muscular failure when asystole is present. Stimulates the heart's muscles, increases force of systole, increases length. Prostration from slight exertion. Collapse.

Despondency; fearful; anxious about the future. Dullness of sense. Every shock strikes in epigastrium. Melancholia, dull lethargic with slow pulse.

Vertigo, when walking and on rising, in cardiac and hepatic affections. Sharp, shooting frontal pain, extending into nose, after drinking cold water or eating ice-cream. Heaviness of head, with sensation as if it would fall backward. Face bluish. Confusion, fullness and noise in head. Cracking sounds during a nap. Blue tongue and lips.

Blueness of eyelids. Dark bodies, like flies, before eyes. Change in acuteness of perception of shades of green. Objects, appear green and yellow. Mydriasis; lid margins red, swollen, agglutinated in morning. Detachment of retina. Dim vision, irregular pupils, diplopia.

Sweet taste with constant ptyalism. Excessive nausea, not relieved by vomiting. Faintness, great weakness in stomach. Burning in stomach extending to œsophagus. After cold water or ice-cream, sharp pain in forehead, extending to nose. Faintness and vomiting from motion. Discomfort, even after a small quantity of food, or from mere sight or smell. Tenderness of epigastrium. Copious salivation. Neuralgic pain in stomach, unconnected with taking food.

Pain in left side apparently in descending colon and under false ribs. Severe abdominal pains, pulsation in abdominal aorta, and epigastric constriction. Enlarged, sore, painful liver.

White, chalk-like, ashy, pasty stools. Diarrhœa during jaundice.

Continued urging, in drops, dark, hot, burning, with sharp cutting or throbbing pain at neck of bladder, as if a straw was being thrust back and forth; worse at night. Suppressed. Ammoniacal, and turbid. Urethritis, phimosis, strangury. Full feeling after urination. Constriction and burning, as if urethra was too small. Brick-dust sediment.

Labor-like pains in abdomen and back before menses. Uterine hæmorrhage.

Nightly emission (Digitalin), with great weakness of genitals after coitus. Hydrocele; scrotum enlarged like a bladder. Gonorrhœa, balanitis (Merc), with œdema of prepuce. Dropsical swelling of genitals (Sulph). Enlarged prostate.

Desire to take a deep breath. Breathing irregular, difficult; deep sighing. Cough, with raw, sore feeling in chest. Expectoration sweetish. Senile pneumonia. Great weakness in chest. Dyspnœa, constant desire to breathe deeply, lungs feel compressed. Chronic bronchitis; passive congestion of the lungs, giving bloody sputum due to failing myocardium. Cannot bear to talk. Hæmoptysis with weak heart.

The least movement causes violent palpitation, and sensation as if it would cease beating, if he moves (Opposite; Gels). Frequent stitches in heart. Irregular heart especially of mitral disease. Very slow pulse. Intermits; weak. Cyanosis. Inequality of pulse; it varies. Sudden sensation as if heart stood still. Pulse weak, and quickened by least movement. Pericarditis, copious serous exudation. Dilated heart, tired, irregular, with slow and feeble pulse. Hypertrophy with dilatation. Cardiac failure following fevers. Cardiac dropsy.

Swelling of the feet. Fingers go to sleep easily. Coldness of hands and feet. Rheumatic pain in joints. Shining, white swelling of joints. Muscular debility. Nocturnal swelling of fingers. Sensation in legs as if a red hot wire suddenly darted through them (Dudgeon).

Starts from sleep in alarm that he is falling from a height. Continuous sleepiness.

Sudden flushes of heat, followed by great nervous weakness.

Erythema, deep red, worse on back, like measles. Blue distended veins on lids, ears, lips and tongue. Dropsical. Itching and jaundiced.

Worse, when sitting erect, after meals and music. Better, when stomach is empty; in open air.

Antidotes: Camph; Serpentaria. Incompatible: China. Compare: Nerium odorum (resembles in heart effects Digitalis, but also has an action like Strychnia on spinal cord. Spasms appear more in upper part of body. Palpitation; weak heart will be strengthened by it. Lock-jaw). Adonia; Cratægus (a true heat tonic); Kalmia; Spigel; Liatris; Compare also; Digitoxinum (Digitalis dissolved in Chloroform; which has yellow vision very marked, and distressing nausea, aggravated by champagne and aerated waters). Nitri spir dulc increases action of Digit. Ichthyotoxin. Eel Serum (Experiments show great analogy between the serum and the venom of vipera. Indicated whenever the systole of the heart is insufficient, decompensated valvular disease, irregular pulse due to fibrillation of the auricle. Assytole, feeble, frequent, irregular pulse, dyspnœa and scanty urine. Liver enlarged, dyspnœa, albuminuria. No œdema). Convallaria (heart disease with vertigo and digestive disturbances). Quinidin-Isomeric methoxyl compound.--(Restores normal rhythm in auricular fibrillation, often supplements the action of Digitalis. Two doses of 3 grains each, three hours apart-if no symptoms of cinchonism develop, 4 doses 6 grs each daily (C. Harlan Wells). Paroxysmal tachycardia. Establishes normal heart rhythm at least temporarily, less in valvular lesions).

The third to thirtieth attenuation will bring about reaction when the drug is homeopathically indicated; but for palliative purposes the physiological dosage is required. For this purpose, the tincture made from the fresh plant, in doses of five to twenty drops, when the cardiac stimulation is desired, or the infusion of 1 1/2 per cent. Dose, one-half to one ounce if the diuretic action is wanted. The tincture may be given on sugar or bread, and nothing liquid be taken for twenty minutes before or after its administration. Of the powdered leaves, 1/2 to 2 grains in capsules. Digitoxin 1-250 grain. No matter what form of digitalis is given the dose should be reduced as soon as the pulse rate has been lowered to 80 beats a minute and the normal rhythm has been partially or completely restored. Under such conditions a good rule is to cut the dose in half and still more if there be a sudden falling off of the urinary output.

Extremely slow, intermittent pulse; weak heart; or rapid, very irregular pulse.

Respiration; irregular, difficult, slow, deep or performed by frequent deep sighs; sometimes stops on dropping off into sleep.

Excessive jaundice, with slow, weak heart, and ashy-white stools.

Faintness or sinking at the stomach; feels as if he would die if he moved.

Blueness of skin, eyelids; lips, tongue; cyanosis. Distended veins on lids, ears, lips and tongue.

Very much has been said and written upon this as a heart remedy: It is called a cardiac tonic, but Homœopathy knows no such thing as a tonic in medicines. The only tonic, in the sense of something to impart strength or tone to the human organism, is nourishing food. If Digitalis is capable of correcting a diseased condition, it does so by opposing its own power to cure to the power that is making the patient sick, which is called disease.

The leading characteristic of Digitalis is a every slow pulse. This may alternate with a very quick pulse, and between the two we may sometimes get a very irregular or intermittent pulse.

One day I saw an old but very strong man staggering across the road toward my office. I thought he was drunk, but on closer observation I noticed that his face looked purple, his lips bluish, and I stepped out and helped him in. He sat down and could not for a few minutes speak a word, but sat and struggled for breath. His pulse was very irregular and intermittent. When he could speak, he told me that for a number of weeks past he had been having these spells, had fallen several times and been obliged to go into the stores and sit, before he could go along the streets. Auscultation revealed hard, blowing sound with first beat of the heart. He had had inflammatory rheumatism in his younger days. He had been obliged to give up all manual labor and dared not go away from home on his business, that of bridge builder. Said he expected to die with this heart disease. I gave him Digitalis 2, a few drops in water. In a few days I saw him shoveling snow from the walk in front of his dwelling. "Hello," he said, "I have no heart disease;" and I saw him often after that and he told me that that medicine cured him of "those spells."

A young man of good habits was taken with nausea and vomiting. He was drowsy, and after a couple of days he began to grow very jaundiced all over. The sclerotica were as yellow as gold, as was indeed, the skin all over the body, even to the nails. The stools were natural as to consistence, but perfectly colorless, while the urine was as brown as lager beer, or even more so. Where you could see through it, on the edge of the receptacle, it was yellow as fresh bile. The pulse was only thirty beats per minute, and often dropped out a beat.

This was a perfect Digitalis case of jaundice, and this remedy cure him perfectly in a few days, improvement in his feelings taking place very shortly after beginning it; the stools, urine and skin gradually taking on their natural color. The characteristic slow pulse was the leading symptom to the prescription, for all the rest of the symptoms may be found in almost any well-developed case of severe jaundice.

In dropsies, consequent on heart disease, Digitalis is often the remedy, and in these cases the skin is more apt to be bluish, as from venous stagnation, than in those cases dependent on renal disease.

Among the troubles consequent upon weak heart action with slow pulse that are particularly amenable to digitalis are vertigo (this is often found in the aged); dropsy of brain, chest, abdomen or scrotum; passive congestion of the lungs.

Among the more characteristic symptoms, aside from the slow pulse, are:

"Blueness of skin, especially eyelids, lips, tongue, and nails; cyanosis."

"Faintness or sinking at stomach; feel as if he were dying."

"Sensation as if the heart would stop beating if she moved." (Gelsemium, if she did not keep moving. Lobelia, as if it would cease any way).

"Respiration irregular, difficult, performed by frequent deep sighs."

"Great weakness and general sudden sinking of strength."

When going to sleep the breath fades away and seems to be gone; then wakes up with a gasp to catch it, cannot get to sleep on this account. (Grindelia and Lachesis).

Great anxiety and inclination to shed tears ; apprehension about the future. Gloomy and peevish. Indisposed to speak ; inclination to lassitude.

Giddiness, with trembling. Dulness of the head, with limited power of thinking. Stitches in the temples (evening and night). Stitches in the forehead, extending into the nose, especially after drinking something cold. When stooping, sensation as if something fell forward in the head. Pressure in the forehead, from mental exertion. Sensation of itching in the head (inside, one-sided). Sudden cracking in the head (during a siesta), with starting, as in a fright. Hydrocephalus ; sensation as if waves or water were heating on the skull ; worse while standing, talking, shaking the head and bending the head backward-relieved when lying down or bending the head forward. The head is inclined to sink backward.

Burning pain in the right eyebrow. Blueness of the eyelids. Swelling of the lower lid. Inflammation of the Meibomian glands. Agglutination of the eyes in the morning. Lachrymation (tears, acrid) ; worse in the room than in the open air ; worse from bright light and cold air (in the morning). Diminished irritability of the pupil ; aversion to light. Painless obscuration of the lens. Obscuration of sight. Dark bodies, like flies, hover before the eyes. Double vision (diplopia). Things appear green (or yellow).

Hissing before the ears, like boiling water (with hardness of hearing). Single stitches behind the ears. Painful swelling of the parotid gland and behind the ear.

Pain above the root of the nose. Coryza, with hoarseness.

Pale face ; bluish hue under the pale skin. Blue lips (and eyelids). Lips dry, parched. Black pores in the skin, which suppurate and become ulcerated. Convulsions on the left side of the face.

Blueness of the tongue. Swelling of the tongue. White-coated tongue (morning). Fetid or sweetish ptyalism (with soreness of mouth, gums and tongue). Ulcer on the tongue. Mouth and throat rough, sore ; scraped feeling of.

Loss of appetite and clean tongue. Continuous thirst, with dry lips. Flat, slimy taste ; bread tastes bitter. Gulping up of an acrid or tasteless fluid. Nausea ; convulsive efforts to vomit. Vomiting (morning) of the ingesta, of a green liquid. Nausea, as if he would die with it ; continuous, and not relieved by vomiting. Nausea and vomiting of food as soon as he eats. If she expectorates she has to vomit at once what she has eaten. Vomiting of mucus. Great sensation of weakness in the stomach (sinking), as if he would die, soon after eating. Burning in the stomach, extending up to the œsophagus. Colic, with nausea and vomiting. Stitches in the pit of the stomach, extending to the sides and back. Contractive pain in the abdomen. Sensitiveness to pressure in the region of the liver. Distension of the abdomen (ascites).

Stool gray, ash-colored, white as chalk. Watery diarrhœa. Diarrhœa, consisting of fæces and mucus. Chilliness previous to stool.

Pressure on the bladder, with the sensation as if it were too full, continuing after micturition. Continual desire to urinate ; each time only a few drops are emitted ; the urine is dark-brown, hot, and burning on passing. Frequent emission of small quantities of water-colored urine. Excessive emission of urine. While in a recumbent position the urine can be retained for a longer time. Difficult micturition, as if the urethra were constricted. Inflammation of the bladder (neck of the bladder). Cutting pain before and after micturition.

Men. Hydrocele ; the scrotum looks like a bladder filled with water. Dropsical swelling of the genitals. Contusive pain in the right testicle.

Oppressed breathing when walking and in a recumbent position. Hoarseness (in the morning, after a night-sweat). Tenacious mucus in the throat, detached by coughing. Hollow, spasmodic cough, from roughness and scraping in the throat ; expectoration, only in the evening, of yellow jelly-like mucus, tasting sweet ; sometimes small quantities of dark blood are expectorated (expectoration like boiled starch). Cough worse at midnight and during the morning hours. The cough is caused by talking, walking, drinking any thing cold ; when bending the body forward ; after eating. Sensation of soreness in the chest. Increased activity of the heart, with slow pulse. Violent, audible palpitation of the heart, with sensation of contractive pains on the sternum. Hydrothorax.

Upper. Heaviness or paralytic weakness of the left arm. The fingers go to sleep frequently and readily. Lower. Weakness and lassitude of the lower extremities. Tightness in the bends of the knees ; swelling (fatty) of the knee, with stinging pain. Pain in the hip-joint. Swelling of the feet during the day (diminished at night). Coldness of the feet (and hands).

Continuous sleepiness during the day (lethargy). Uneasy, unrefreshing sleep. Frequent waking at night ; smarting up from a dream, as with fright, as if one were falling from a height or into water. Uneasy sleep at night, on account of constant desire to urinate. Feeling of great emptiness of the stomach frequently, previous to falling asleep.

Faintness and debility, with perspiration. Attacks of great debility, especially after breakfast and dinner. Great nervous weakness. Graty nodosities. Prickling pain in the muscles of the upper and lower extremities. Dropsy of internal and external parts.

Pulse very low, especially when at rest (every other heat intermits). Pulse irregular ; intermitting. While moving about the pulse is accelerated, and soon sinks down again to its accustomed slowness when at rest. Chilliness more internally, with heat of the face ; beginning with coldness of the extremities, from them extending over the whole body. Internal chilliness, with external heat. Chilliness, with heat and redness of the face. Coldness of the hands and feet, with cold perspiration. Sudden flushes of heat, followed by great debility. Increased heat of the body, with cold perspiration on the face. Heat of one hand and coldness of the other. Perspiration, generally at night ; cold and clammy. Perspiration after the chill, no heat intervening.

Jaundice ; cyanosis ; dropsy. Elastic white swelling of the whole body. General paleness of the skin.

Digitalis purpurea. Fox-glove. N. O. Scrophulariaceæ. Tincture from the leaves of the second year of the plant.

Amaurosis. Angina pectoris. Asthma. Bright's disease. Cyanosis. Delirium tremens. Dropsy . Fever. Gonorrhœa. Headache. Heart, affections of . Hydrocele. Hydrocephalus. Impotence. Jaundice. Lungs, congestion of. Memory lost . Meningitis. Noises in head . Paraphimosis. Prostate, enlarged. Ptyalism. Spermatorrhœa. Toothache. Urinary disorders. Vision, disorders of.

There are three main symptoms in the Digitalis pathogenesis which should be borne in mind: ( 1 ) Slow, weak, irregular and intermittent pulse. ( 2 ) Enlarged, sore, painful liver. ( 3 ) White, pasty stools. Along with these is prostration from slight exertion. The mental condition is: anxious; low-spirited; tearful, wants to be alone; tries to escape if others force themselves on her. Anxiety as if conscience-troubled. "Anxious and concentrated sadness, with sleeplessness at night, owing to pains at the heart: for instance, from unhappy love, especially in women of brown complexions, firm and obstinate dispositions. In such cases far preferable to Ignatia " (Teste). Teste classes Digit . with Bryonia and Ignatia . The stomach symptoms (from portal engorgement) are nausea and vomiting; the mere sight or smell of food excites violent nausea, with clean tongue, thirst for water, absence of fever; the complaints may come either from excessive venery or from high living. In old men there are: enlarged prostate; impotence; lascivious thoughts. Malcolm Macfarlan ( H. P ., xiii. 490) reports Digit . having produced severe urethritis, phimosis, and strangury. He has cured with it many cases of gonorrhœa. Ballard cured a man of headache and dizziness originating probably in gonorrhœa suppressed several years before. He complained of feeling bad about the head after drinking, and this keynote symptom was elicited: "after drinking cold water the pain would seat itself in the forehead and extend down the nose." Delirium tremens in high livers, stomach and liver diseases with the mental state of the drug. Nausea < from smell of food; not > by vomiting. The food eaten comes up by mouthfuls, cannot expectorate without vomiting. Every shock, like bad news strikes her in the epigastrium. Deathly sinking in the epigastrium. The use of Digitalis as a remedy for pneumonia in the old school is well known. It has proved a very dangerous remedy, but it has been used by homœopaths with very good effect in senile pneumonia (E. V. Ross., H. P ., xvii. 177). Ross regards the indications as being: "Dry cough with mucous râles and no expectoration or only 'prune-juice' expectoration; cyanosis, cold extremities; feeble, intermittent pulse deathly nausea or gone sensation at epigastrium." Restlessness with great nervous weakness. Lassitude, mental and bodily. Faintness. Convulsions, with retraction of head, syncope, and collapse. Among the peculiar sensations of Digit . are: Sensation as if the heart would stand still if he moved, must hold the breath and keep still ( Gels . has "must keep moving or the heart would stop.") As if the brain were loose; as if something fell forward in the head on stooping; as if the brain were made of fine glass and shattered at a blow; as if something were running out of urethra; as of a weight attached to stomach; as if the internal parts were grown together. As if the lungs were constricted and tied up in bundles. As if heart stood still; as if heart had torn itself loose and were swaying to and fro by a thin thread; as if the stomach would sink into abdomen. Terrible pain at root of nose after vomiting.

Discharged blood coagulates slowly or not at all. Distended veins in eyes, ears, lips, and tongue. Blue skin. Digitalis is suited to the climacteric period: sudden flushes of heat followed by great debility; least motion = palpitation. Nervous lymphatic constitutions. Children with very white complexions, light hair, scrofulous. Most symptoms are < at night or on waking in the morning. Symptoms are > when stomach is empty; < after meals; from cold diet; after drinking (anything); < from spirituous liquors. Motion < most symptoms and may = fatal collapse. < From being raised up in bed. < From touch or pressure. Great sensitiveness to cold air; cold weather; changes of weather; cold food; cold drinks; all of which < . Getting heated < cough. In a room, lachrymation is < . With fear of suffocation there is desire for open air, and the symptoms of catarrh are > in open air. < From music; sadness from music.

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Weakness of memory.
Thinking difficult, forgets everything immediately.
Dulness of head like from inebriation, with increased mental activity.
Delirium tremens ; in cases which come on slowly with gradually increasing pain in pit of stomach, continuous nausea, thirst, palpitation of heart, headache, vertigo, and paleness of face.
Paroxysmal mania with rage, attended by high degree of delirium, indigestion and melancholy, followed by headache.
(OBS :) Epileptic mania ; given at beginning of excitation, frequently cuts short attack.
Lascivious fancies day and night.
Wants to be alone ; indisposed to speak ; inclination to lassitude.
Tearfulness, low spirits.
Profound melancholy, < by music, with frequent sighing and weeping, which bring relief ; gloomy, morose, ill-humor, great fear of future ; insane obstinacy and disobedience, with desire to escape.
Melancholic, despondent, and constantly tortured by fear of death or loss of reason. T Tertian intermittent.
Desponding and irresolute.
Great anxiety, like from troubled conscience.
Gloomy, peevish, and distrustful.

Sopor ; unconsciousness ; pupils dilated, insensible to light ; blindness ; one-half of face convulsed ; pulse very slow, often hard, with a corresponding powerful stroke of heart, sometimes intermittent and small ; breathing
heavy, slow and deep ; sleep with frequent startings, and dreams of falling ; general convulsions.
Fainting, with slow, irregular pulse ; cold sweat ; death-like appearance of countenance.
General weakness, with fainting fits.
Weak action of heart, so that it is unable to stimulate sufficiently the brain, which feels fatigued and weak ; severe vertigo.
Vertigo, with anxious sensation as though faintness would occur while standing or leaning against a chair.
Vertigo : on rising from sitting, and noticeable weakness of limbs when walking or riding ; with trembling ; with very slow pulse.
Constant dizziness of head and ringing in ears. θ Angina.
Confusion of head.
Dulness of head, with limited power of thinking.
Every night on going to sleep he is suddenly awakened with a start by a loud metallic crash in head ; occurs several times before he can fall into quiet sleep.

Throbbing headache in forehead, or at bottom of orbits.
Pressure : in forehead when exerting mind ; in paroxysms, at times in temples, at times in whole head.
Stitches : in forehead, extending into nose, especially after drinking something cold ; in temples (evening and night).
Head heavy, confused, as if full.
Headache, pressure and weight, as if caused by congestion of blood to head.
Headache like waves beating from side, < by lying down, blood rushes in, bubbles and swashes, but is not hot.
Drawing in sides of head which makes one feel giddy.
Brain feels loose.
Sensation as if something fell forward in head, when stooping.
Sudden cracking noise in head during mid-day nap, with frightened starting up.
Wakened from sleep in fright by a crash in head as if brain were made of fine glass, and shattered at a blow.
Report in head, like the firing of a pistol.
Sensation of itching in head (inside, one-sided).
Violent, lancinating headache, especially in occiput and vertex.
Sudden and sharp crying with clutching of hair or nurse's face, squinting of eyes and desire to get head back as far as possible ; can take no nourishment without vomiting ; frequent distressing and exceedingly offensive stool ; abdomen flat and
shaped like a boat ; extremities cold, and if not constantly wrapped up, coldness extends to trunk. θ Cerebro-spinal meningitis.
Face pale ; eyes sunken, dim ; pupils very much dilated ; vision entirely gone ; lids closed, at rare intervals half-opened ; hearing impaired ; lachrymation and discharge of thick mucus from left eye ; sudden sharp cries with much tossing about, <
at night ; skin hot and dry ; involuntary urination ; entire absence of stool ; pulse quick, jerking, intermittent ; tongue brown, dry towards base ; lips and teeth covered with brown sordes. θ Hydrocephalus
acutus.
Sensation as if waves of water were beating on skull ; < while standing, talking, shaking head, and bending head backward ; > when lying down or bending head forward.
Hydrocephalus with scanty urine ; head falls back from weak neck ; squints ; pulls hair ; slow, weak pulse ; cold surface and cold sweat ; bores head into pillow ; peculiar sharp cry ; vomits easily, especially on taking
anything into stomach.
Apoplexia nervosa, or serosa ; apoplexy oftener than paralysis.

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This drug as used by the Old School has done more mischief than any one drug in their Materia Medica. Every patient who had a fast heart, or anything the matter with the heart, was given Digitalis.

It has caused more deaths than any drug. If administered when the heart is going fast it will soon produce a peculiar kind of paralysis; the heart then having lost its balance-wheel, compensation gives out, the patient sinks and finally dies.

They do not know that many patients would have lived through fevers, pneumonia and other acute diseases if it had not been for this medicine, used as they have used it in the tincture, in many-drop doses, until the heart was slowed down.

They call it sedative; yes, it is a sedative. It makes the patient very sedate. You have seen how very sedate a patient looks after he has been in the hands of an undertaker and has on his best garments. That is what Digitalis does. In that way it is a sedative in the hands of the allopath. A homoeopathic physician never prescribes to bring down the pulse. He prescribes for the patient and the heart's action takes care of itself.

Digitalis is a very poor fever medicine. Instead of being indicated when the pulse is fast, the proving says it is indicated when the pulse is slow. The allopath gives it when the pulse is fast to make it slow; if given to a well person it will make the pulse slow, and when indicated in a sick person the pulse is slow.

It produces a great disturbance of the liver.

"Congestion and enlargement of the liver.

Soreness of the liver."

Tenderness about the liver-but during that time the pulse is slow. It makes the bowels very sluggish, produces inactivity of the liver, and stools are bileless, light colored, putty-like-and the pulse is slow.

Add to that jaundice and you have a grand picture of Digitalis: jaundice with slow pulse, with uneasiness in the liver, pale stool, and even if you have never seen or beard of Digitalis before you will scarcely miss it. Now, you might add a myriad of little symptoms, but it does not change the aspect of things. It is Digitalis.

Another group of symptoms that belongs with the Digitalis heart, the Digitalis liver and the Digitalis bowels, is a gone, sinking feeling in the stomach. It seems as if be would die, and he does not get better from eating. It is a nervous, deathly sinking that comes with many heart troubles.

You would not be surprised to find in Digitalis much nervous prostration. Restlessness and great nervous weakness.

"Feels as if would fly to pieces.

Anxiety.

Feels that something is going to happen."

Seems as if his whole economy were full of anxious feelings and restlessness. Lassitude, faintness exhaustion and extreme prostration. Faints on the slightest provocation. It begins in the stomach; an awful sensation of weakness in the stomach and bowels.

His sleep is full of horrible dreams, nightmare, fright. Dreams of falling, that is very common with cardiac affections. When the pulse is too slow, when it is irregular, the brain is irregularly supplied with blood during sleep, and there is a turbulent state.

A shock goes through the body like an electric shock, like internal jerkings, twitchings. Sudden muscular movements, as if a current of electricity passed through the body. This, with slow pulse, with a sense of faintness, and great weakness. Bluish paleness of the lips in persons who suffer at times with cardiac spells - it seems at times as if the pulse would cease. Face becomes blue, the fingers become blue. Wants to lie on the back. Frequently startled in sleep; jerking at night.

The heart symptoms are numerous, but none is so important as the slow pulse. The pulse is slow in the beginning of the case. It may now be flying like lighting.

He is anxious, restless, has horrible dreams and sinking in the stomach - that sounds like the advanced stage of Digitalis - but I want to know if in the beginning, the pulse was slow.

The patient himself seldom knows, but someone says that in the beginning the pulse was 48; that is Digitalis. If the pulse in the beginning was rapid do not think of Digitalis, for it will not do any good.

The Digitalis pulse is at first slow and perhaps remains so for many days, until finally the heart commences to go with a quiver, with an irregular beat, intermits, feels as if it would cease to beat, and then we have all these strange manifestations.

Weakness is the very character of the Digitalis pulse, and all these characteristics go along with it. First it is slow, and sometimes strong. Slow, strong pulse when rheumatism is threatening the heart.

"Violent. but not very rapid pulse.

Sudden violent beating of the heart, with disturbed rhythm."

The slightest motion increases anxiety and palpitation. When the pulse is going very slow, sometimes down to 40, the patient turns the head and the pulse flutters and increases in its action. If he turns over in bed it seems as if the heart would stop. If he moves he feels it fluttering all over him, and it settles back and is slow again; but, finally, it changes and flutters all the time.

Palpitation of the heart originating in grief. Sudden sensation as though the heart stood still. Fluttering of the heart, The least muscular exertion renders the heart's action labored and intermittent in a feeble heart.

A person with an enlarged liver, with a slow pulse, with jaundice and pale and stool. With that he will have a troublesome cough. Digitalis is not much of a remedy for a cough unless it is a cardiac cough.

Cough at midnight. Cough, with expectoration of "boiled starch." Cough, with expectoration of bloody mucus in hypostatic congestion of the lungs.

Cough, brought on by talking, walking, drinking anything cold, bending the body. These are coughs associated with other troubles.

The same thing is to be said of the respiration. There are difficulties of respiration, along with cardiac troubles and liver troubles.

"Respiration irregular and performed with great difficulty.

Constant desire to take a deep breath.

When he goes to sleep the breath seems to fade away, then he wakes up with a gasp. Lachesis, Phosphorus, Carbo veg. and some other remedies have that; remedies that affect the c e rebellum particularly, producing a congestion of the cerebellum.

When a patient goes to sleep the cerebrum says to the cerebellum:

"Now you carry on this breathing a little while, I am getting tired."

But the cerebellum is not equal to the occasion. It is congested, and just as soon as the cerebrum begins to rest the cerebellum goes to sleep, too, and lets the patient suffer; and in that way we get suffocation. The cerebellum presides over respiration during sleep and the cerebrum presides over respiration when the patient is awake. We might learn that from the provings of medicines if we never found it before.

"Fear of suffocation at night."

Now, to analyze that. He knows from experience that every time he drops into a sleep he suffocates, and hence he fears to go to sleep for fear he will suffocate. The fear of suffocation at night is from this origin. It is the same if he falls asleep in the day time.

"Can only breathe in gasps."

Digitalis is a useful medicine when there is a filling up of the lower part of thy lungs. The patient is sitting up in bed, and there is dullness in the lower part of each lung and plenty of resonance in the upper portion. Then it is, if he lies down, he will suffocate. Digitalis likes mostly to lie flat on the back with no pillow, when there is no filling up of the lungs. But when there is hypostatic congestion he suffocates. If early in the case the pulse was slow and it has become fast, Digitalis may be of some benefit.

Now, a feature in connection with the genito-urinary organs. In old cases of enlarged prostate gland I do not know what I would do without Digitalis. Where there is a constant teasing to pass urines.

In many instances where the catheter has been used for months or years because he is unable to pass urine in a natural way, and where there is a residuary urine in old bachelors and old men, Digitalis is a good remedy.

It diminishes the size of the prostate gland and has many times cured.

"Dropsy with suppression of urine."

In uraemic poisoning and in various phases of Bright's disease of the kidneys we have symptoms indicating Digitalis. Retention of urine; dribbling of urine. Spermatorrhea, Nightly emission. In persons addicted for years to secret vices. Enlarged prostate gland.

It is capable of curing chronic gonorrhoea. It has cured acute gonorrhea. It has cured inflammation of that thin, delicate membrane covering the glans penis. Dropsical swelling of the genitals.

"Loss of appetite and violent thirst."

Most doctors give Sulphur when the patient drinks much and eats little. The nausea of Digitalis is not like that of Ipecac. and Bryonia. It is a singular nausea. The smell of food excites a deathly nausea, a sinking, a goneness, associated with cardiac troubles, with Jaundice and liver troubles.

The nausea is accompanied by a deathly feeling, as if be is sinking away. Sometimes the nausea is relieved by eating, but the sinking remains after eating, showing that it is something besides hunger.

"Persistent nausea.

Extreme sensitiveness, in the pit of the stomach.

Faintness and sinking in the pit of the stomach as if be would die.

No appetite, but great thirst.

Soreness and hardness in the region of the liver.

Sensitiveness to pressure in the region of the liver."

Now remember the liver and the heart symptoms, the jaundice, the slow pulse, the awful sinking in the stomach, the enlargement of the prostate gland, the gray stool, and you have the principal symptoms of Digitalis.

After all that I have said you are not surprised at the horrible anxiety that the Digitalis patient carries with him all the time.

He wants to be alone; sadness, melancholy, despondency and restlessness. He can’t decide upon anything that be ought to do; tremulousness.

The stomach, bowel and liver troubles are just what you see sometimes in a hard drinker after trying to break off. He is prostrated; his heart gives out, is irregular, weak, slow; and he has sadness and melancholy; inability to apply himself. Digitalis will help him straighten out.

Suitable for sudden flushes of heat, fol- lowed by great nervous weakness and irregular, intermitting pulse, occurring at climacteric; < by least motion.

Sensation as if heart would stop beating if she moved

(Cocaine—fears that unless constantly on the move, heart will cease beating, Gels.—See Fer.). Weak heart without valvu- lar complications.

Faintness or sinking at the stomach, feels as if he were dying.

Great weakness of chest, cannot bear to talk (Stan.).

At night frequent waking in a fright, as from a dream, as if he fell from a height or into the water.

Face pale, death-like appearance and bluish-red.

Blueness of skin, eyelids, lips, tongue; cyanosis.

Distended veins on lids, ears, lips and tongue.

Respiration irregular, difficult, deep sighing.

The fingers "go to sleep" frequently and easily.

Dropsy: post-scarlatinal; in Bright's disease; with sup- pression of urine; of internal and external parts; with faint- ing when there are organic affections of the heart (with sore- ness in uterine region, Conv.).

Fatal syncope may occur when being raised to upright position.

Headache by lying down; motion; in a warm room; sitting, especially when sitting erect.

No periodicity. Generally in early morning.

Commencing in the fingers; palms of the hands, soles of the feet, thence over the whole body. Coldness first of hands and arms (of extremities, Gels.—of arms, Bell., Hell.—in fingers, toes and lips, Bry., Cic.). Great coldness of skin. Great sensitiveness to the cold (Bar. c., Camph.); chilliness and shiver- ing over the whole back; internal chill with external heat; chill and heat in alternation; cold extremities; excessive coldness of the hands and feet, with cold sweat. Chilliness over the whole body with heat and redness of the face

Without thirst. Sudden flushes of heat followed by weakness of all parts. General violent heat, with swollen veins and rapid pulse. One hand hot, the other cold (Lyc.—one hand is burning hot and pale, the other cold and red, Mosch.). Heat of body, with cold sweat of face. Heat in the head, face and ears, hands, with redness of the cheeks.

Immediately after the chill (Bov., Caust.—heat with profuse sweat at same time, Con.). Night-sweat, generally cold and clammy Covered with a copious perspiration, without relief of heart symptoms. Cold sweat on body, warm sweat on palms of hands. Sweat on upper parts of body; on the face.

Clean or coated white. Taste: desire for sour drinks and bitter food; bread tastes bitter; want of appetite, or hunger. Constant ptyalism.

Third, fifth or seventh beat intermits. Extremely slow and weak when at rest; accelerated, full and hard from every motion. Often characteristic.

Digitalis should not be followed by Cinchona in any form, as according to Hahnemann, Cinchona increases the anxiety caused by Digitalis to deadly anguish.

Dulness of head as from inebriation, with increased mental activity.
Overworked mind, pulse being weak.
Lascivious fancies day and night.
Tearfulness, low-spirited.
Internal anxiety, like from troubled conscience.
Anxiety, with great fear for the future, worse at 6 P.M.

Vertigo: when walking or riding; with trembling; with very slow pulse.

Pressure in forehead when exerting mind or thinking of it.
Bores head in the pillow, pulls the hair; shrill cry; vomits easily; urine scanty; cyanotic.

Diplopia.
Objects appear either green, yellow, or as if silvered.
Chronic inflammation of the conjunctiva.
Yellowish redness of the conjunctiva palpebrarum.
Pupils not very active.
Inflammation of the meibomian glands.
Swelling of the lower lid.
Lachrymation, worse in bright light or cold air.
Agglutination of the lids in the morning.
Both eyes turn to the left.

Sudden crashing noise in the head, on falling asleep; awaking with a frightened start.
Noise before the ears like boiling water.

Bluish-red; pale; of death-like appearance.

Taste: flat, slimy; sweetish, with constant ptyalism.
Talking: 27, 28.
Tongue coated white.

No appetite, tongue clean, stomach empty.

Eating: 27. Drinking cold things: 27.

Nausea, as if she would die.
Constant nausea and gagging, with clean tongue, covered with white slime.
Inclination to vomit.
Persistent nausea and vomiting; nausea even after the vomiting.
Vomiting in the morning; of food; of bile.

Burning in stomach, extending up the œsophagus.
Weakness (sinking) at stomach, feels as if he were dying.
Soreness and bloatedness of the pit of stomach.

Soreness and hardness in region of liver.
Jaundice and easy vomiting; pulse slow.

Cutting in the abdomen.

Frequent desire to evacuate bowels, accompanying urging to urinate; very small, soft stools without relief.
Stools: violent diarrhœa, ash-colored, or very light; delayed, chalky.
Stool in evening, passing great quantities of thread-worms.

Fruitless effort to urinate.
Constant urging to urinate, with scanty discharge each time.
Feeling of fulness continuing after urination.
Increased desire to urinate after a few drops have passed, causing patient to walk about in distress, although motion increases the desire.
Constriction and burning as if the urethra was too small; enlarged prostate.
Urine: scanty, thick, turbid, blackish.
Brick-dust sediment in the urine.
Throbbing pain in region of neck of bladder, during straining effort to pass water.

Nightly emissions with great weakness of the genitals; with sadness and despair (Digitaline); after emission sensation of something running out of urethra.
Balanitis, phimosis, with great burning on urinating; dropsy of the prepuce.
Testicle swollen.
Hydrocele.

Labor-like pains in abdomen and back, before the menses.
Leucorrhœa.

Choking when trying to swallow. θ Spasm of the glottis.
Hoarseness early in the morning.

Respiration slow, asthmatic, paroxysm early in the morning, especially in cold weather.
Distressing nausea at the pit of stomach with orthopnœa.
Painful asthma, worse when walking.

Hollow, deep, spasmodic cough, excited by roughness and scratching in roof of mouth and in the trachea, excited by roughness and scratching in roof of mouth and in the trachea; morning without, evening with scanty, yellow, jelly-like mucus, expectorated with difficulty.
Cough worse about midnight and towards morning; from getting heated; from eating; from drinking cold fluids; talking, or walking in the open air.
Expectoration of sweetish taste; sometimes with a little dark blood.

Peculiar, seemingly rheumatic pains and catarrhal affections of the lungs, with serous exudation.
Passive congestion of the lungs, depending on a weakened, dilated heart.
Desires to lie on the back, lung constricted; sputum tough or bloody mucus.
Great weakness in the chest, can't bear to talk.
Emphysema, in complication with heart disease, feels better while lying perfectly quiet in the horizontal position.
Moist rales, yet cough dry; pulse thready. θ Senile pneumonia.

Violent but not very rapid beating of heart.
Pulse: small, irregular; slow; extremely slow, particularly when at rest; becomes accelerated, full and hard from every motion; intermitting the third, fifth, or seventh beat.

Heaviness or paralytic weakness of left arm.
The fingers "go to sleep" frequently and easily.

Swelling and painfulness of the feet.
Paralytic feeling in the limbs.

Rest: 29. Motion: 21, 29, 47. Walking: 2, 21, 26, 27. Lying quiet horizontally: 28.

Great weakness.

Lethargy, great sleepiness.
Uneasy, unrefreshing sleep.
Frequently startled and awaking, at night.

Morning: 5, 16, 25, 26, 27. Evening: 20, 27. 6 P.M.: 1. Night: 22, 37, 40. Midnight: 27. Day and night: 1.

Getting heated: 27. Open air: 27. Cold: 40. Cold air: 5. Cold weather: 26.

Chill more internal, with warmth of face, beginning with cold extremities, then spreading over the body.
Chilliness and shivering over the whole back.
Internal chill, with external heat.
Chill, with heat and redness of the face.
Chill and heat in alternation.
Excessive coldness of the hand and feet, with cold sweat.
Great sensitiveness to cold.
Sudden flushes of heat followed by weakness.
Heat of body, with cold sweat of face.
One hand hot the other cold.
Sweat at night, generally cold and somewhat clammy.
Sweat immediately after the chill.
Sweat: on upper part of body; on the face.

Right: 18. Left: 32. Below up: 40.

Piercing pains in the joints.
Distended veins on the eyes, ears, lips and tongue.
Flabby, œdematous swelling all over; with fluttering, weak pulse, cold legs.

Riding: 2.

Itching of the skin.
Desquamation.
Jaundice.

During the climacteric, sudden flushes of heat followed by great debility, irregular pulse; least motion brings on palpitation.

Antidotes of large doses: sweet milk with Fœnum græcum; vegetable acids, vinegar, infusion of galls, ether, Camphor.
Of small doses: Nux vom., Opium.
Cinchon. increases anxiety of Digit.
Compare: Convallaria, Magnolia grand., Lycop.

A tincture is made of the leaves (of the second year) of Digitalis purpurea, L.

The chief interest centres in its action on the circulation, which it seems to affect through the vaso-motor centres. ▶ It slows the pulse, increasing arterial tension and causing contraction of arterioles. ▶ Its action on the heart is remarkable in that it produces vigorous systolic contractions which become very irregular, one portion of the ventricle dilating while another remains in a state of contraction; finally the heart stops in systole. ▶ Its actions on the urinary secretion is uncertain and variable, but it is a valuable remedy (at least a palliative) in some forms of dropsy, with a weak heart.

Apocynum c., Tabac., Hell., China, Ferr., Bry, the alkalies (Calc., Kali, Bar.), Zinc.

Lay on back prostrated, scarcely able to move a limb; lay supine in morning, cold, pale and covered with profuse sweat. ▶ Could not bear the upright position. ▶ Falling senseless. ▶ Tense white swelling of whole body, with pain on touch, afterward becoming soft and changing to anasarca. ▶ Wasting of body in proportion to recuperation of mind. ▶ Convulsions. ▶ Epileptic attack. ▶ Cramps. ▶ Stiffening of body; painful S. of trunk and limbs, agg. thighs. ▶ Universal and partial trembling. ▶ Symptoms of inflammation of gastro-intestinal mucous membrane as well as of brain. ▶ Tearing burning and itching sticking in various parts. ▶ Feeling as if electrized on every inspiration. ▶ Bruised feeling. ▶ Malaise. ▶ Restlessness. ▶ Lightness of body. ▶ Relaxation of all muscles, with sensation as if he had not slept enough. ▶ Weakness; in morning on waking (Calc. c.), agg. rising (China); with trembling of muscles; sudden, with sweat; sudden, after dinner as if he would loose consciousness, with heat and sweat. ▶ Faintness; between attacks of nausea; and nausea on motion. ▶ Heaviness.

Post-scarlatinal dropsy, urine frequently scanty and dark, extremities œdematous, dyspnœa, œdema of lungs, etc.

Delirium; at night, with agitation; violent, at night; secretive insanity, with disobedience, obstinacy and attempts to escape. ▶ Lively fancies. ▶ Gayety bordering on intoxication, with debility. ▶ Anxiety (Calc. c., Ars., Bry., etc.); agg. about 6 P.M., with dread of the future, amel. weeping; as if he had committed a crime or expected to be reproved. ▶ Fear of death. ▶ Apprehension; agg. music, with depression; with sighing; as if rising from upper abdomen. ▶ Anger at everything. ▶ Ill humor. ▶ Sadness; and weeping about disappointments; and all object appear as to one sick with fever. ▶ Continual complaints. ▶ Disinclination to talk. ▶ Desire to be alone. ▶ Indifference; as if he had not slept enough without sleepiness. ▶ Great desire to work. ▶ Increased energy, especially of imagination. ▶ Weakness. ▶ Intellect destroyed. ▶ Thought difficult, forgetfulness of everything, with internal and external heat of head. ▶ Incapacity for study. ▶ Confusion of ideas. ▶ Inability to connect ideas. ▶ Dullness, agg. evening with indifference; D. in evening, with uneasiness in various parts of head and weakness of forearms. ▶ Stupor. ▶ Coma; interrupted by convulsive attacks of vomiting. ▶ Unconsciousness in morning, then falling down in syncope.

Continue in Allen 54 more passages →

The chief interest in this drug centres about its action on the heart; vigorous systolic contractions, which become very irregular; the pulse becomes slow, arterioles are contracted and arterial tension increased.

General weakness and faintness, < rising.
Cold, pale, and covered with profuse sweat.
Restlessness.
The symptoms, especially those of the circulation, < suddenly rising.

Great anxiety and fear of death.
General apprehension, with depressed spirits, especially < music.
Inability to think.
Forgetfulness.

Sudden cracking noises in the head, starting one up from the midday nap.
Confusion and pain, as if the head were full.
Vertigo; worse on rising from a seat, with weakness of the limbs.
On stooping a feeling as if something fell forward in the head.
Head is inclined to fall backward while sitting and walking, as if the muscles were too weak to hold it up.

Blue rings about the eyes.
Pupils dilated.
Insensible.
Loss of vision and many symptoms associated with anæmia of the retina and optic nerve.

Hissing like boiling water.
Sudden crashing noises, deep in the head.

Pale, sickly expression; a bluish color, especially about the eyes and mouth.

Tendency to saliva.
Tongue pale, sometimes coated white.
Tongue blue.

Loss of appetite, even with a clean tongue.
Constant thirst, especially for sour, cold drinks.
Nausea and vomiting, with deathly anxiety.
Nausea, caused by smell of food.
Vomiting, with extremely feeble and irregular pulse.
A feeling of great weakness in the region of the stomach, as if one were dying, immediately after eating.
Cramp in the stomach, with nausea and vomiting, somewhat > eructations.
Stitches extend from the region of the stomach to the sides and back.

Distention.
Soreness over the region of the liver, with jaundice.
Griping pains as if the intestines were twisted.

Watery diarrhœa.
Stools ash-colored.
Stool mixed with mucus; stool white like chalk.
Evacuation forcible.

Dragging and pressure in the bladder, not > frequent micturition.
Urine generally decreased in quantity (though sometimes increased).
At times dark brown or red, depositing brick-dust sediment.

Clinical:
Nephritis after scarlatina.
Cystitis.
Inflammation of neck of bladder; after passing a few drops the desire to urinate is increased and the patient walks about in great distress, associated with tenesmus of rectum; these symptoms have indicated the use of the drug for the relief of acute inflammation in chronic enlargement of the prostate.
In inflammation of the kidneys of the chronic form it is sometimes of temporary value when there is threatened failure of the heart, or very scanty or suppressed urine, with œdema of the lungs, etc.

Copious seminal emissions at night.
Weakness of the sexual organs, with great irritability.
Weak pulse.
Suppression of menstruation follows irregularity; sometimes hæmorrhages.

Painless hoarseness.
Dry cough, with pains in the shoulders and arms; with soreness in the chest; with expectoration like boiled starch, or sometimes bloody.
Respiration irregular, with deep sighs.
Dyspnœa, with constant desire to breathe deeply; it seems as if the chest could only be half filled.
Suffocative constriction in the larynx as if grown together.
Œdema of the larynx.

Clinical:
Pneumonia in old people, with prune juice expectoration, cold extremities, cyanotic face and feeble pulse.

Heart's action feeble, intermittent and irregular.
Sudden sensation as if it stood still, with anxiety.
Pulse small, feeble and irregular.
Audible throbbing of the heart, with a feeling of constriction in the breast bone, anxiety, etc.

Clinical:
Pericarditis, with effusion; fluttering of heart.
Cardiac dropsies.
In all forms of diseases of the heart in which Digitalis is indicated there is feeble, irregular or fluttering pulse, feeling as if the heart stood still, with anxiety and oppression; sometimes there is a cyanotic hue of the face, general desire to take a deep breath, which only partially relieves the sense of suffocation.

Heaviness and weakness of the left arm specially.
Pains in the arms coming from the chest.
Lower extremities weak and unsteady.
Coldness of the extremities.

Frequent waking as from anxiety, and in fright.
Sleep restless, unrefreshing.
Overpowering sleepiness during the day.

Coldness spreads from extremities over the body.
Internal chilliness.
Profuse perspiration at night.

DIGITALIS PURPUREA. FOXGLOVE. [*].

This plant, which grows wild on open mountainous plateaux, is one of the most powerful medicinal substances of the vegetable kingdom ; it has been frequently abused by the physicians of the old school ; who sought to gain consideration through violent action on the patient, without considering of what nature this action might be ; for they had not knowledge sufficient to apply this remedy to the various diseases for which it is suitable. Countless murders have thus been committed by men who were not conversant with its pure effects. In extremely rare instances, when they unconsciously used it in cases where the disease-symptoms had a striking similarity to those produced by foxglove, they produced wonders by rapid cures. The true Homœopath will never use it injuriously, but always for the salvation of his patients ; he will not consider it indicated by a quick pulse, as has been customary in the old school ; for though in its first effects it greatly retards the pulse, in its after effects it causes so much greater an acceleration through the counter effects of the vital force. The homœopathic medicine is prepared from this plant by dynamizing one drop of its freshly expressed juice, mixed with ninety-nine drops of alcohol, by ten strong succussive strokes, which is then repeated in twenty-nine other vials, as has been taught at the conclusion of Part I. of the Chronic Diseases as to the second method. Instead of this we can triturate two grains of the fresh herb with one hundred grains of sugar of milk, and then develop it to the thirtieth potency of its medicinal powers, as is usually done with dry medicinal substances. In its homœopathic use, this medicine need only be given in the smallest dose, and if even such a dose should produce too violent effects, repeated smelling of a solution of Camphor will serve to moderate its action. Nux vomica and Opium are also said to have been found useful as antidotes. A cautious physician, however, will hardly ever need antidotes. By spirits of nitre the action of digitalis is immensely increased. Digitalis has a long period of action. The abbreviations of the names of my fellow-provers are : Bchr., Becher ; Fr., Dr. Franz ; Gr., Dr. Gross ; Hbg., Hornburg ; Jr., Jahr. ; Lgh., Dr. Langhammer ; J. Lh., J. Lehmann ; Myr., Meyer ; Pp. Piepers ; Rkt., Dr. Rueckert ; Stf., Medical Counselor Dr. Stapf ; Tth., Teuthorn ; Trs., Dr. Trinks. [*].

[] Of these thirteen fellow-observers, ten belong to the pathogenesis of Materia Medical Pura. The remaining three, Jahr and Piepers contribute here for the first time. The two symptoms belonging to Trinks are from the list given in his own and Hartlaub's Arzneimittlehre, Vol. III. -Hughes*.

Dejection and anxiety. [WITHERING, Abhandl. ueb. d. Fingerh, Leipzig, 1786.] [*].

[] Effects of D. on patients. (The symptoms have been revised from the original English edition). This symptom not found. -Hughes*.

Sadness, with a sensation of being quite sick ; all objects seem to him as in the changed visual sensation of fever.

Continue in Hahnemann 663 more passages →

Dig. / (2nd D.) / The Ditcher.

Digitalis pulse is slow,
Body temperature too low.
Pale and bloated is the skin,
Water 'ccumulates within.
Weak and failing is the heart,
Deathly nausea taking part.
Hydrothorax-emphysema
Cynosis-pale oedema
Jaundice, too, and ash gray stools,
Show how digitalis rules.

The Ditcher,-has Gray stools.

The Ditcher, Job Chel-chi, has choice apples for the Nun Pho-pha.

This Ditcher,- Who is subject to a slow pulse,-Is at Kalmi Zoo, seeking for Laura Vera, the Greek.

Gray stools or White: Dig., Aco., Bell., Chel., Chin., Cal. c., Hep., Pod., Nux. m., Pho., Pho. a. (Gray white, Dig. Pho. -White liquid, Pho., Ph. a.)

Slow pulse: Dig., Kalmi., ZN., Sec., Laur., Verat. a.,Cic. (With rapid heart action, Glo).

Indicated in affections of the heart, with weak, irregular contractions, causing a fluttering sensation. Sense of faintness and fear of death from dread that the heart's action will suddenly cease. Of great value in organic heart disease, with scantiness of urine and dropsical effusion. Also in hepatic disease with jaundice, ascites, nephritis with cardiac symptoms, percarditis with effusion; pneumonia, especially of the aged, with weakness of the heart's action. Less often in urethritis, specific and non-specific, and in prostatitis.

Mind sad, fearful, apprehensive.

Great dyspnoea, praecordial anguish, faintness; feels as though dying.

Difficult, irregular, sighing respiration.

Cardiac affections with great dyspnoea and faintness, with pulse irregular and intermittent, small and intermittent, slow and intermittent, small and slow.

Heart feels as though it would stop at any time, causing great distress and anxiety.

Stitches in the heart.

Weak, irregular pulse when lying down; worse from assuming erect position.

Coldness and oedema of feet; coldness of hands.

Dropsy.

Great thirst for sour drinks.

Eructations of watery fluid, so sour it sets his teeth on edge.

Faintness and weakness at the stomach; excessive nausea, not relieved by vomiting.

Soft, white stools, like chalk.

Dark, turbid urine, with much burning and pain while passing; ammoniacal.

Worse when sitting erect; after meals; after excitement.

Great anxiety, weeping and solicitude for the future. Sadness. Raving excitement, alternating with melancholy.

With trembling.

Stitches: in temples in evening and at night, in forehead, extending into nose, especially after cold drinks. Pressure in forehead from mental exertion. Feeling as though' something in head fell forward, when stooping. Itching sensation inside of. Feeling like water or waves striking within. Worse: Standing, talking, shaking or bending it backward. Better: Inclining it forward.

Constantly inclines to sink or fall backward, while sitting and walking, as though' the anterior neck muscles bad lost their tone. Hydrocephalus.

Burning pain in orbital arch. Blue lids. Inflamed meibomian glands. Lids are agglutinated by mucus. Biting tears. Cloudy crystalline lens, without pains. Dim vision.

Coryza, with hoarseness.

Pale. Skin of is a transparent bluish color. Black, suppurating sweat pores. Thin, blue lips. Dry lips.

Rawness, redness and scratching in cavity of and in throat. Profuse flow of sweetish saliva. Offensive salivation. Blue tongue.

Taste: Bitter, in mouth. Sweetish, with constant collection of water in mouth. Bread is unpalatable, it tastes bitter.

Sense of intense weakness, as though' he would die, immediately after eating. Cramp in, with nausea and vomiting, somewhat better eructations. Stitches extending from pit into sides and back.

Nausea: Continuing after vomiting. And vomiting of all food, as soon as be eats. After expectorating she must instantly vomit the ingesta. Vomits: Mucus, first food, then bile.

Pinching Contraction in, as though intestines were twisted. Ascites.

Diarrhoeic, of faecal masses mixed with mucus. Gray, ashy. white, like lime. Watery diarrhoea.

Ineffectual, anxious urging to urinate. Constant urging, with scanty discharge of red urine. She is able to hold her urine longer when lying down. Frequent necessary to urinate, whereat a little only is passed by drops, each time. Difficult urination, as if from narrowing of urethra. Diminished section of, sometimes alternating with profuse watery discharge of. Dark brown or red. Inflamed bladder. Cutting before and after urinating.

Dropsical swelling of. Hydrocele, the scrotum looks like a bladder filled with water.

Tightness of chest when lying and walking.

Hollow, dry, spasmodic, excited by roughness in palate and trachea, dry in morning, in evening, scanty, difficult expectoration of yellow, gelatinous, sweetish mucus, sometimes with a little dark blood. Dry with pain in shoulders and arms. With smarting in chest. With bloody expectoration, of like boiled starch.

Hoarseness, early in morning.

Sense of weakness rising from stomach. Hydrothorax. Anxious, strong and audible palpitation, with contraction in sternum.

Pain in shoulder and arm. Chronic sciatica. Tumefaction about knee, with sticking pains. Swelling of feet during day, becoming thinner again at night. Cold hands and feet.

Sticking pains in muscles of upper and lower limbs. Extreme faintness and debility, with sweat. Attacks of excessive weakness, especially after breakfast and dinner. Great nervous weakness. Dropsy, of internal and external parts. Gouty nodes. Digitalis first affects the heart then the skin.

Glands swollen and indurated.

Corrosive itching, terminating in burning sticking when not scratched. Anasarca. Cyanosis. Jaundice.

Interrupted, at night Persistent day sleepiness, like sopor. Drowsiness during day, disturbed by attacks of vomiting.

Pulse: Extremely slow, especially during rest. Irregular and sometimes intermittent. Form every motion it immediately becomes accelerated, full and hard, afterward during rest it quickly sinks back to its accustomed slowness. Chill: More internal, with warmth of face, but beginning with coldness of extremities, from which it spreads over entire body. Chilliness and shuddering over entire back. Internal, with external warmth. General with heat and redness of face. Alternating with heat. Extraordinary coldness of hands and feet, with cold sweat. Great sensitiveness to cold. heat: Unusually appears a long time after the chill. Sudden overrunning sensation o, followed by weakness. Increased bodily warmth, with cold sweat on face. Heat of one hand, with coldness of the other. Sweat: At night, mostly cold and somewhat clammy. Immediately after the chill, without previous heat. General.

Allied Remedies: Ars. Bell., Chin., Con., Glo., Merc., Nux-v., Op., Phos. Phos-ac. Plat., Puls., Spig., Sul-ac.

Stinging pain in the muscles of the upper and lower extremities.

Faintish debility with perspiration.

Attacks of excessive debility, especially after breakfast and dinner.

Feeling of weakness; emptiness or goneness in the abdomen.

Dropsy of external and internal parts.

The urinary discharge is too scanty.

Cyanosis.

Nausea and vomiting.

Urinary secretion increased.

Violent and audible palpitation of the heart.

Pulse slow (an excellent indication).

Blue tongue.

Frequent desire to urinate with small discharges.

Blue lips.

The stools are gray, ash-colored or white.