Homeopathic TriviaHere are some interesting bits of history behind some of our homeopathic remedies. Adonis vernalis Adonis has bright scarlet petals, which are considered as emblematical of the blood of Adonis, from which the plant is fabled to have sprung. Apocyanum cannabinum The name Indian hemp was originally given to it because the North American Indians used its tough bark for making nets; but it is an unfortunate one, as it may be confused with Cannabis indica, hashish, or Indian hemp, and the term American hemp are now given the preference. Artemesia vulgaris From Artemesia, the Greek Diana, goddess of chastity, as the plant was thought to bring on early puberty, is one explanation that is given for the name. Arum triphyllum ‘Cowerry’ boys coax their city cousins to bite into the fresh root and watch the effects that the acrid juice has on the mucous membranes of their friends. One trial is sufficient and the memory of its caustic effects remains with one through life, hence the reason for one of its common names (Memory root). Berberis vulgaris It is a well-known medicine to ancients, who steeped it in beer and gave it to patients suffering from jaundice. In more modern times, barberry bark and cider was used in all forms of abdominal inflammation, especially when accompanied by hepatic derangement and jaundice. Bovista It is more or less strange that the dried puffball has been used to arrest haemorrhage, as its most marked action seems to be on the circulation predisposing to haemorrhages. Chelidonium This plant was so named (Swallow wort) on account of some resemblance of the pod or seeds to a flying swallow; because it flowers at the time of the return of that bird; or because it was once supposed that when the eyes of young swallows became, through injury or otherwise, affected with a white film, the parent birds gathered and applied the juice of this plant and so cured the trouble. China (Cinchona) Cinchona derives its name from the Countess of Cinchon, wife of the Viceroy of Peru, who was the means of introducing the Peruvian bark in Europe, in 1640, for the cure of intermittent fever. Ceanothus This indigenous shrub derives its common name from the fact that during the Revolution, when Chinese tea could not be procured, it was used as a substitute. Cocculus The ancients used these berries to stupefy fish; they were scattered on the water, and the fish after eating them, would become dizzy and lie motionless on the surface, so that they were easily caught. The moderns, at least in England, use Cocculus for the adulteration of beer, as it not only prevents secondary fermentation, but it also hastens stupefaction in the human fish, the intoxication that it produces being first noticed in the motor tract. Colchicum Colchicum was so named either because it grew in profusion in Colchis, now known as Mingrelia, a portion of Asiatic Russia, or because, according to Greek legend, Media, the sorceress and poisoner, lived and finally died in that country. Colchicum autumnale, the meadow saffron, grows naturally in the temperate climates of Europe, blooming in the autumn. Collinsonia In 1735 a specimen of this plant was sent from this country to Peter Collinson, an English botanist. He forwarded it to Linnaeus, the Swedish botanist, who named the species Collinsonia, in honor of his friend. Conium While this fetid, poisonous herb was first proved for our school by Hahnemann, its use as a poison dates back to about the fifth century BC. It is now conceded that Conium was the Grecian State poison used at Athens as a means of executing certain prisoners, and the Socrates (d. 399 B. C.) was put to death by a drink from this plant. Conium, physiologically, produces paralysis, first of voluntary motion, then of respiration, and we read that Socrates was told that all he had to do after drinking the poison was to walk about until a heaviness took place in his legs and then lie down. Conium would do the rest. The first use of this plant as a medicine dates back to one hundred years before the Christian era, when it was used as a poultice in erysipelas. Pliny (d. 79 AD) says that Conium leaves keep down all tumors. In the first century it was claimed that by anointing the breasts with Conium they ceased to grow and several hundred years later a celebrated Arabian physician (and Hahnemann acknowledges many an idea from the Arabs) praised it as an agent for the cure of tumors of the breast. Crocus sativus Crocus sativus, the autumnal crocus, has nothing in common with Colchicum, the meadow saffron. Crocus sativus yields the real saffron of commerce, which consists of the orange-colored stigmas of the flowers; but as it took some four thousand flowers to make an ounce of the dried stigmas, it was apt to be adulterated with cheaper substitutes. Dioscorea villosa Dioscorea, named in honor of the famous Greek physician and botanist Dioscorides, is a creeper or twister, native of the United States, but common only in the South, and was first proved by Dr. A.M. Cushing, of that country. The root, which is one of the yams not edible and the only one used in medicine, had long enjoyed a reputation, first among the aborigines for curing abdominal pains, and later in domestic practice as a specific in bilious colic. "Country nurses will narrate almost miraculous cures from its use, after the patient had been given up to die by the attending physician" (Hale). Dioscorea root is not an officinal drug in the old school. Drosera The genus’s Droseraceae are known mainly by their leaves being clothed with gland-bearing hairs which exude drops of a clear gelatinous fluid that glitters in the sun, hence its name Drosera (drosos, dew, juice) or in English, sundew. These glandular hairs hold the small insects that touch them and exude a fluid, under the operation of which the insects are dissolved or digested. Dulcamara Dulcamara (dulcis, sweet mamarus, bitter), probably brought from Europe to this country; prefers moist banks and the margins of swampy grounds as the place to grow, and we find in it, as a remedy, a pronounced adaptability to conditions arising from exposure to cold-wet. Equisetum Equisetum belongs to the series Cryptogamia, or flowerless plants. The cuticle of the Equiseta abounds in silica, on which account the stems of some species are used for polishing wood or metal. The scouring rush is best suited to this purpose and it was formerly "gathered into bundles by many housewives and used to brighten tins, floors and wooden-ware" (Millspaugh). Eucalyptus Dr. Leao tells me that when it was first planted in Brazil then number of cases of malarial fever in the district were greatly lessened. In a few years, however, malaria was as prevalent as it had ever been. He attributes it to the fact that when the trees were young the leaves were near the ground and could sift the air as it came from the marshes. Subsequently, with the growth of trees, the leaves being removed from the ground, the air was enabled to pass under unobstructed. Eupatorium perfoliatum (Eupatorium, from the surname Eupator of King Mithridates (d. 63 BC), who was so named because he happened to have a noble father. Perfoliatum, or distinguished by the perfoliate character of its leaves (where the stem seems to pass through the leaf), each pair of which are at right angles to those immediately above or below.) Euphrasia For many centuries Euphrasia had enjoyed a great reputation in the cure of all diseases of the eyes, including senile blindness, and poets have sung its praises as an eye-opener, Milton saying: "The purged with euphrasy and rue The visual nerve; for he had much to see." -Paradise Lost. Gaultheria Gaultheria-- named after Dr. Gaultier, of Quebec. The leaves, which are used to prepare our tincture, were also used for an infusion during the Revolutionary War, hence the common names for the evergreen--Mountain or Jersey tea. Gelsemium Its medical history only goes back to the time when a Mississippi planter, sick with bilious fever, was cured with an infusion of the gelsemium root, which was administered in mistake for that of another plant. Glonoine Dr. C. Hering, who first proved Glonoine (he published the proving within a year of its discovery, 1848-9), was unable to obtain it for experimentation until a Philadelphia chemist, Morris Davis, succeeded, under the direction of Hering, in making a sufficient quantity for proving. Hering in naming it, took the first two letters of the word glycerine and the symbols O and N; then, because there was an excess of oxygen in the mixture, or for the sake of euphony, he added another); completing this by the terminal ine, he gave us the word Glonoine. Hamamelis This shrub indigenous to the United states and Canada, need not concern us now in reference to its pretended occult powers in locating water-courses on ore bodies; but it is of interest to recall that "the many varied uses of a watery infusion of Witchhazel bark were fully known to the aborigines of this country, whose knowledge of our medical flora has been found by us in provings to have been strangely correct (Millspaugh). Helonias The root, when cut across, shows the little rootlets freely movable in the channels of foramina (like the thread in the eye of a needle), as though they were disconnected with the rest of the root. Legend accounts for it thus: The evil spirit angered that root should have the power to cure all disorders - as was then supposed - bit off a portion of it so as to curtail its usefulness, hence the name Devil's Bit (from Millspaugh). Hydrastis Hydrastis is indigenous to the United States and Canada, and was used by the native Indians not only as a medicine, but because the juice from the root yielded a beautiful yellow color, they used it as a dye for their clothing and implements of war; hence the common names, Golden-seal, Orange-root, Yellow-root, Indian dye. Hyoscyamus It was used as a medicine by the ancients, the earliest account that we have of it going back to 681. Its violent character was known and Dioscorides rejected it as a medicine as being too highly poisonous for use. In 1872 it was again brought to the notice of physicians and is now in general use by the old school as a sedative and as an anti-spasmodic, and as a hypnotic in cases where opium would be used, did it not agree. Kalmia latifolia It seems that Linnaeus, the Swedish botanist and founder of the "Linnean system" in botany, had a pupil named Peter Kalm, who was not only a noted botanist and a Swede, but he had traveled in this country and wrote a book about it. History is silent as to which one of these achievements entitled him to everlasting fame, but the fact remains that Linnaeus named this plant after his pupil who had brought him a specimen from this country, andbecause it was broad-leaved, he added the name latifolia, to distinguish it. Lobelia Lobelia, named after Mathias de L`Obel, a French botanist, is a widespread American plant and was smoked by our Indians for its relaxing effect. Mezerium It was first proved by Hahnemann, and it is of interest to know that associated with him, as one of the provers was Constantine Hering, who at that time was a medical student at Leipzig. For many years members of the senior class of this college used to go to Philadelphia to call on and pay their respects do Dr. Hering, the eminent homoeopath and former student of Hahnemann's Dr. Hering died in Philadelphia, July 23, 1880. Phosphorus Phosphorous was first discovered in, and made from urine (1669). One hundred years later it was discovered that it was an ingredient of bones. Phosphorus for our use is made from bone ash. Phytolacca Phytolacca is indigenous to this country and its use has been handed down from the Indians, who employed the root as an emetic as well as a cathartic and the berries for rheumatism, especially syphilitic and gonorrhoeal. Phytolacca is still officinal in the U.S. Pharmacopoeia. Psorinum In 1830, Dr. Constantine Hering, while in Surinam, or Dutch Guiana, collected pus from the forearms, hands and between the fingers, from mature pustules, on a young and otherwise healthy Negro. The Negro had been handling some stuff imported from Germany and had become infected but Hering says that he does not know whether the infection was due to the Acarus scabiei or not, although he speaks of it as the itch pustule. The mature, unscratched pustules were opened and the pus collected and placed in a vial with alcohol. Hering proved this on the healthy human being and called this nosode, or disease product, Psorinum (psora, the itch). Pulsatilla Pulsatilla nigra, is the European Pulsatilla and is not to be confounded with the American variety (Pulsatilla Nuttalliana, named after Thomas Nuttall, an American scientist), as the action of the latter differs in certain respects from the one we are going to speak of. It is called WindFlower because it was supposed not to open its flowers until blown upon by the wind and Pasque flower because it flowers about Easter (the French word for Easter being Pasques). Robinia The common name of this drug is pseudo-acacia-false or bastard acacia-locust tree. Linnaeus named Robinia after Jean Robin, herbalist to Henry IV of France. The true acacia is the Egyptian tree, Acacia Arabica. Sabina Sabina was named from the Sabines, one of the ancient people of Italy. According to tradition, Romulus induced his men to carry off the Sabine virgins, thus robbing the people of future wives. As though it might be in revenge, we find the drug Sabina ready to rob us of our children, for in toxic doses it will originate uterine action and cause abortion. Sanguinaria canadensis Sanguinaria is so called in allusion to the blood-like juice of the root. It is found, as its name denotes, in Canada, as well as in many parts of the United States and all parts of the plant, when wounded, exude an orange-colored sap, or deep brownish if obtained from the root. It was used by the native (American) Indians as paint for making turmeric paper (which has been superseded by litmus paper), and as an aromatic in curry powder. Senega A short history of this plant would begin about 1735, when John Tennent, a Scotch physician, while in the Western part of New York State, noticed that the Seneca Indians obtained excellent results from a certain plant as a remedy for the bite of the rattlesnake. After a good deal of effort and much bribing, he was shown the roots and given to understand that what is now known as Seneca snakeroot was the agent used. Dr. Tennent noticed that the symptoms of the bite were similar, in some respects, to those of pleurisy and the latter stages of pneumonia and conceived the idea of using the root in those diseases. His success was so great that he published an account of the remedy in Edinburgh and soon it was being used throughout Europe. Spigelia antihelminthica Linnaeus named Spigelia in 1737 after Adrian van der Spigel, a Belgian professor of anatomy. He should have been satisfied without this additional honor, as one of the lobes of the liver had already been named for him; but as he had been dead for a hundred years (d. 1625) when this plant was christened, he was not wholly to blame. Anthelmia, from anthelmintic, a worm destroyer. Spongia The toasted or roasted Turkey sponge of commerce, the "bath-sponge" as Hahnemann calls it, is used for the preparation of our remedy and the tincture, which corresponds in drug power to the 1x, is officinal whether in the form of liquid or trituration. Hahnemann, who first proved the remedy, tells us that "sponge burnt to a black coal seems to be less powerful" than when it is toasted brown. Staphisagria You will call this plant Staphisagria when speaking to a homoeopath; Delphinium staphisagria (delpis, delphis, a dolphin, which its flower is supposed to remind you of) when speak to a druggist; and Lark-spur (any plant of the genus Delphinium, so-called from the spur-shaped formation of flower) when telling the nurse in charge of an orphan asylum to use the ointment on the children’s heads, for it is very efficient, locally, for body or head lice. Sticta A spotted lichen growing on the trunks of large trees; that which grows on the sugar maple seems to be the best. Because this lichen somewhat resembles a human lung, we not only obtain the second name of the plant, but also the popular idea that it is a lung remedy. Sulphur Hahnemann advises us against the use of Sulphur made with flowers of sulphur and alcohol to form the tincture, and says that it is far inferior to that prepared by triturating flowers of sulphur with sugar of milk up to the 3rd, and that our potencies should be run up from the 3rd triturate rather than from the tincture. Uranium nitricum The attention of homoeopaths was first called to it as a medicine by a statement in the British and foreign Medico-Surgical Review for 1871,that "Laconte always found sugar in the urine of dogs poisoned by small doses of nitrate of uranium" (Hughes). Urtica urens The most ancient use of the nettle, the stinging properties of the hairs being due, at least in part, to formic acid found, there, was for flagellation or whipping of paralyzed limbs. "This practice extended also to a stimulation of impotent organs and to bring into action dormant energies" (Millspaugh). Viburnum Dr. E. M. Hale used it before this time, and says: "The use of Viburnum opulus in the treatment of dysmenorrhoea did not originate in the practice of any physician. It is a tradition in the United States that the aborigines so used it among themselves, and that the secret of its use was handed down to the white people. Anyway, it has been in successful use here for more than a century as a domestic remedy in many painful affections of women. Xanthoxylum Xanthoxylum was first used by the American Indians for neuralgic pains, gonorrhoea and rheumatism. Others besides the Indians have found relief from the pains of toothache by chewing the bark, but all that the proving brought out in reference to it, was pain in lower jaw and l. side of face.
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