All my patients, except cases where I was the consulting physician, belonged to families I had been attending for years, nearly all very intelligent families which I consider a great advantage in treatment. I have had during this time about 50 to 60 cases with marked symptoms of diphtheria, in one case I succeeded in obtaining the membrane for microscopic examination, which I add herewith. I had about the same number of light cases. All recovered within seven, days, except a very few of so called scrofulous diathesis, which required more time. The time it took to effect a cure, I consider one of the most important items in statistic tables, as I remember that since I have learned to give the doses higher and higher, the duration of acute cases has been shortened. The medicine given has been mostly at first Belladonna. In some cases Bryonia or Antimonium crudum, which last one corresponded to the genus epidemicus particularly well. After the first medicine, Lachesis was indicated by the great sensibility to the touch on the throat, with or without a swelling. In a few cases Iodine or Bromine, the first in persons with dark hair and black eyes, the latter with blue eyes and blonde hair, was given with good effect. Mercury I gave only once without benefit to the patient. No other medicine seemed to me to be indicated, and least of all the Iodide of Mercury. Every single dose of any of the medines, even in the worst cases, I allowed about 24 hours to act before I decided to make a change. The lowest potence given was the 200 of Jenichen, generally I used them higher, giving always in every repetition a higher degree. Dr. LIPPE has had about a like number of cases, and as far as I recollect, has given nearly the same medicines in the same potences with like success. Dr. Reichhelm had had 6 or 8 weeks ago, about 80 cases, has given the 30th potence and lost none. ESCULUS HIPPOCASTANUM. BY H. M. PAINE, M. D., CLINTON, N, Y. The Horse Chestnut is a highly ornamental tree, and is greatly admired for its majestic proportions, and for the beauty of its flowers and foliage. It grows rapidly and often attains the height of forty or fifty feet. It is a native of Middle Asia, but flourishes well in the temperatǝ climates of both hemispheres. Its genus comprises about twelve known species: the genus Esculus, however, is incomparably the finest, and is the only one found in the Northern States, and this even is not indigenous in New England. It was introduced into Europe nearly three centuries ago by Baron Ungnad, ambassador of the Ottoman Porte, who, in the year 1576, sent the seeds of the common Horse Chestnut to Clausius at Vienna. It is now extensively cultivated as an ornamental tree in Europe as well as in this country. The name Esculus was originally applied to a species of oak, also to a tree which bore esculent fruit, and probably is derived from Esca, "food." It was transferred to this genus by Linnæus to the exclusion of the earlier and more appropriate name of Hippocastanum, Horse Chestnut, on account of the resemblance of the large seeds to chestnuts, and because the Turks often grind them into a coarse flour, which is mixed with other food and given to horses that are broken-winded. In the Southern and Western States there are several species which bear the name of Buck eye, from a resemblance of the seeds to the eye of that animal. In the language of flowers this tree symbolizes luxury. The beauty of the Horse Chestnut consists chiefly in its inflorescence, surpassing that of almost all our native forest trees; the huge clusters of gay blossoms, which every spring are distributed with such luxuriance and profusion over the surface of the foliage, and at the extremity of the branches, give the whole tree the aspect rather of some monster flowering shrub, than of an ordinary tree of the largest size. Early in June this beautiful tree puts forth large pyramidal racemes or thyrses of flowers of pink and white, mottled with red and yellow, finely contrasting with the dark green of its foliage which has great grandeur and richness in its depth of hue and massiveness of outline. Its botanical description may be briefly stated as follows: Order, Hippocastanacæ, (Sapindacer, Gray.) Genus, Æsculus. Species, Hippocastanum. Leaves opposite, digitate, of sevenobovate-cunate, acute,toothed leaflets,serrate and straight veined. Flowers, showy, in large, terminial thyrsoid racemes or panicles; pedicels articulated. Calyx campanulate of five united sepals. Corolla spreading white, spotted with purple and yellow, and composed of four or five petals, which are irregular, unguiculate and nearly hypogynous. Stamens usually seven, unequal, inserted on the hypogynous disk, Ovary large, round, echinate when young, dehiscent, loculicidal, three cornered, three celled, crowned with a single filiform conical style; containing two ovules in each cell, only one of which, sometimes two or even three matures. These seeds are very large, shining, roundish, coriacious, mahogany colored, with a broad round pale hilum, without albumen. The Esculus Ohioensis, Ohio Buck eye, differs from the Esculus Hippocastanum in having five leaflets, stamens red, curved, much longer than the corolla, which is of four upright yellow petals. Fruit prickly when young but smooth at maturity, about half the size of the Hippocastanum. This tree is small in size and exhales an unpleasant odor, particularly while in flower. The timber is not valuable: The large farinaceous seeds contain a considerable amount of nourishment, which is rendered unavailable because of the intensely bitter and narcotic principle with which they are charged. Common Horse Chestnuts, nevertheless, with some precautions, are largely and advantageously used in Switzerland for fattening sheep. They are also eaten eagerly by deer, horses and oxen. Starch prepared from them is superior to that of wheat, and excels as an article of diet that of the potatoe. Paste Paste prepared from them is preferable to any other, not only because possessing great tenacity, but also from the fact that no moths or vermin will attack anything cemented with it. They have been recommended as a substitute for coffee. They contain sparingly a saponaceous principle. The young leaves are aromatie, and have been used instead of hops in brewing beer. The roots contain a mucilaginous and saponaceous matter which is thought to be poisonous. Active and poisonous properties prevail in the root, seeds, bark and foliage. The bark has little odor, but an astringent and bitter though not disagreeable taste. It contains among other ingredients bitter extractive and tannin, and imparts its virtues to boiling water. Its active constituent is supposed to be tannin, hence it has been employed in tanning. It is recommended as a tonic, astringent, narcotic and antiseptic; in fevers as a febrifuge; for gangrene, and as an errhine. A strong decoction is recommended as a lotion to gangrenous ulcers. It has attracted much attention in Europe, as a substitute for cinchona, although it certainly cannot be considered comparable to the Peruvian bark in its power over Intermittents. It is at present seldom used, and never in this country. The bark of the branches from three to five years old is considered the best. It should be collected in spring. The powdered kernel snuffed up the nostrils produces sneezing, and has been used with advantage as a sternutatory in complaints of the head and eyes. Ten grains of the pow der of the rind have been found equivalent in narcotic power, to three grains of opium. In Europe the oil is at present a fashionable remedy for gout and rheumatism. Maceration in an alkaline solution removes the bitter principle. Esculine is the name given to the extractive matter. Hahnemann thus speaks of it: "We can from the morbid effects which the bark is able to produce, form a just estimate of its medicinal powers, and determine whether it is suitable for pure intermittent fever, or some of its varieties. The sole phenomenon we know belonging to it is, that it produces a constrictive feeling in the chest. It will accordingly be found useful in (periodical) spasmodic asthma." The following digest of the symptoms of Esculus has been arranged from provings made by Dr. Woodland Warren, and by Dr. O. A. Buchanan, upon himself and six other persons, four females and three males, all in middle life.* The mother tincture or crude drug was chiefly used in doses of from five drops to forty grains, in a few instances, however, the first and second decimal triturations were employed. Dr. Buchanan introduces the provings in the following words: "Horse Chestnuts have been occasionally used as a popular remedy, and the favorable results heard of from their use in glandular swellings of horses, in chronic catarrhs of the respiratory passages and of the intestinal canal, determined me to undertake a careful proving of them in the healthy, in order to ascertain if their vaunted curative powers were on the homœopathic principle." Symptoms.—Compiled from eighteen provings, by eight persons. The figures indicate the number of times the proceeding symptom was mentioned by the provers. General Symptoms.-Feeling of extreme illness. Great weakness. Totters when walking. (2) Weariness. (3) Fatigued feeling, as from a long walk. Sensation as if she would faint. General feeling of malaise. from two to six hours. Duration of action Yawning and stupifying Sleep.-Inclination to sleep. sleepiness. Constant yawning. (2) Sleep for a quarter of an hour. Slept well. Fever.-Chilliness and goose-skin. Attack of rigor, lasting ten minutes. Cannot get warm. Rigor for half an hour. Rigors. General perspiration. Heat in the whole body. * See British Journal of Homœopathy, vol. XVIII, p. 188, 194. |