HOMŒOPATHIC MATERIA MEDICA
by
WILLIAM BOERICKE, M.D.

  
SCROPHULARIA NODOSA
Knotted Figwort

A powerful medicine whenever enlarged glands are present. Hodgkin's disease.

A valuable skin remedy. Has a specific affinity for the breast; very useful in the dissipation of breast tumors. Eczema of the ear. Pruritus vaginæ. Lupoid ulceration. Scrofulous swellings (Cistus). Painful hæmorrhoids. Tubercular testis. Epithelioma. Nodosities in the breasts (Scirrhinum). Pain in all flexor muscles.

Head.--Vertigo felt in vertex, greater when standing; drowsiness; pain from forehead to back of head. Eczema behind ear. Crusta lactea.

Eyes.--Distressing photophobia (Conium). Spots before eyes. Stitches in eyebrow. Sore eyeballs.

Ears.--Inflammation about auricle. Deep ulcerated auricle. Eczema around ear.

Abdomen.--Pain in liver on pressure. Colic below navel. Pain in sigmoid flexure and rectum. Painful, bleeding, protruding piles.

Respiratory.--Violent dyspnœa, oppression of chest with trembling. Pain about bifurcation of trachea. Asthma in scrofulous patients.

Skin.--Prickling itching, worse back of hand.

Sleep.--Great drowsiness; in morning and before and after meals with weariness.

Modalities.--Worse lying on right side.

Compare: Lobel erinus; Ruta; Carcinosin; Conium; Asterias.

Dose.--Tincture and first potency. Apply locally to cancerous glands also Semper viv.

  
SCUTELLARIA LATERIFOLIA
Skullcap

This is a nervous sedative, where nervous fear predominates. Cardiac irritability. Chorea. Nervous irritation and spasms of children, during dentition. Twitching of muscles. Nervous weakness after influenza.

Mental.--Fear of some calamity. Inability to fix attention (Aethus). Confusion.

Head.--Dull, frontal headache. Eyes feel pressed outwards. Flushed face. Restless sleep and frightful dreams. Must move about. Night terrors. Migraine; worse, over right eye; aching in eyeballs. Explosive headaches of school teachers with frequent urination; headaches in front and base of brain. Nervous sick headaches, worse noise, odor light, better night; rest, 5 drops of tincture.

Stomach.--Nausea; sour eructations; hiccough; pain and distress.

Abdomen.--Gas, fullness and distention, colicky pain and uneasiness. Light colored diarrhœa.

Male.--Seminal emissions and impotency, with fear of never being better.

Sleep.--Night-terrors; sleeplessness; sudden wakefulness; frightful dreams.

Extremities.--Twitchings of muscles; must be moving. Chorea. Tremors. Sharp stinging pains in upper extremities. Nightly restlessness. Weakness and aching.

Relationship.--Compare: Cyprip; Lycopus.

Dose.--Tincture and lower potencies.

  
SECALE CORNUTUM
Ergot
(CLAVICEPS PURPUREA)

Produces contraction of the unstriped muscular fibers; hence a constringent feeling throughout the whole body. This produces an anæmic condition, coldness, numbness, petechiæ, mortification, gangrene. A useful remedy for old people with shriveled skin-thin, scrawny old women. All the Secale conditions are better from cold; the whole body is pervaded by a sense of great heat. Hæmorrhages; continued oozing; thin, fetid, watery black blood. Debility, anxiety, emaciation, though appetite and thirst may be excessive. Facial and abdominal muscles twitch. Secale decreases the flow of pancreatic juice by raising the blood pressure (Hinsdale).

Head.--Passive, congestive pain (rises from back of head), with pale face. Head drawn back. Falling of hair; dry and gray. Nosebleed, dark, oozing.

Eyes.--Pupils dilated. Incipient cataract, senile especially in women. Eyes sunken and surrounded by a blue margin.

Face.--Pale, pinched, sunken. Cramps commence in face and spread over whole body. Livid spots on face. Spasmodic distortion.

Mouth.--Tongue dry, cracked; blood like ink exudes, coated thick; viscid, yellowish, cold livid. Tingling of tip of tongue, which is stiff. Tongue swollen, paralyzed.

Stomach.--Unnatural ravenous appetite; craves acids. Thirst unquenchable. Singultus, nausea; vomiting of blood and coffee-grounds fluid. Burning in stomach and abdomen; tympanites. Eructations of bad odor.

Stool.--Cholera-like stools, with coldness and cramps. Olivegreen, thin, putrid, bloody, with icy coldness and intolerance of being covered, with great exhaustion. Involuntary stools; no sensation of passing feces, anus wide open.

Urine.--Paralysis of bladder. Retention, with unsuccessful urging. Discharge of black blood from bladder. Enuresis in old people.

Female.--Menstrual colic, with coldness and intolerance of heat. Passive hæmorrhages in feeble, cachectic women. Burning pains in uterus. Brownish, offensive leucorrhœa. Menses irregular, copious, dark; continuous oozing of watery blood until next period. Threatened abortion about the third month (Sab). During labor no expulsive action, though everything is relaxed. After-pains. Suppression of milk; breasts do not fill properly. Dark, offensive lochia. Puerperal fever, putrid discharges, tympanitis, coldness, suppressed urine.

Chest.--Angina pectoris. Dyspnœa and oppression, with cramp in diaphragm. Boring pain in chest. Præcordial tenderness. Palpitation, with contracted and intermittent pulse.

Sleep.--Profound and long. Insomnia with restlessness, fever, anxious dreams. Insomnia of drug and liquor habitudes.

Back.--Spinal irritation, tingling of lower extremities; can bear only slightest covering. Locomotor ataxia. Formication and numbness. Myelitis.

Extremities.--Cold, dry hands and feet of excessive smokers with feeling of fuzziness in fingers. Trembling, staggering gait. Formication, pain and spasmodic movements. Numbness. Fingers and feet bluish, shriveled, spread apart or bent backwards, numb. Violent cramps. Icy coldness of extremities. Violent pain in finger-tips, tingling in toes.

Skin.--Shriveled, numb; mottled dusky-blue tinge. Scleræma and œdema neonatorum. Raynaud's disease. Blue color. Dry gangrene, developing slowly. Varicose ulcers. Burning sensation; better by cold; wants parts uncovered, though cold to touch. Formication; petechiæ. Slight wounds continue to bleed. Livid spots. Boils, small, painful, with green contents; mature slowly. Skin feels cold to touch, yet covering is not tolerated. Great aversion to heat. Formication under skin.

Fever.--Coldness; cold, dry skin; cold, clammy sweat; excessive thirst. Sense of internal heat.

Modalities.--Worse, heat, warm covering. Better, cold, uncovering, rubbing, stretching out limbs.

Relationship.--Compare: Ergotin (Beginning arteriosclerosis progressing rather rapidly. Increased blood pressure: 2x trit. Œdema, gangrene and purpura hæmorrhagia: when Secale, though indicated, fails); Pedicularis Canadensis (Symptoms of locomotor ataxia; spinal irritation); Brassica napus-Rape-seed--(dropsical swellings, scorbutic mouth, voracious appetite, tympanitis, dropping of nails, gangrene); Cinnamon; Colch; Ars; Aurum mur. 2x (locomotor ataxia); Agrostema-Corn-cockle-active constituent is Saponin, which causes violent sneezing and sharp burning taste; burning in stomach, extends to œsophagus, neck and breast; (vertigo, headache, difficult locomotion, burning sensation); Ustilago; Carbo; Pituitrin (dilated os, little pain, no progress. Dose, 1/2 c, repeat in half hour, if necessary. Hypodermically contra-indicated in first stage of labor, valvular lesions or deformed pelvis).

Antidotes: Camph; Opium.

Dose.--First to thirtieth potency. Non-homeopathic use. In hæmorrhages of the puerperium, after the uterus in entirely emptied, when it fails to contract satisfactorily and in secondary puerperal hæmorrhage the result of incomplete involution of the uterus, give one-half to one dram of the fluid extract. Remember Pagot's law. "As long as the uterus contains, anything, be it child, placenta, membranes, clots, never administer Ergot".

  
SEDUM ACRE
Small Houseleek

Hæmorrhoidal pains, like those of anal fissures; constricting pains, worse few hours after stool. Fissures.

Relationship.--Compare: Mucuna urens (hæmorrhoidal diathesis and diseases depending thereon); Sedum telephium (uterine hæmorrhages, also of bowels and rectum; menorrhagia, especially at climacteric); Sedum repens--S alpestre--(cancer; specific action on abdominal organs; pain, loss of strength).

Dose.--Tincture to sixth potency.

  
SELENIUM METALLICUM
The Element Selenium
(SELENIUM)

Selenium is a constant constituent of bones and teeth.

Marked effects on the genito-urinary organs, and often indicated in elderly men, especially for prostatitis and sexual atony. Great debility; worse, heat. Easy exhaustion, mental and physical, in old age. Debility after exhausting diseases.

Mind.--Lascivious thoughts, with impotency. Mental labor fatigues. Extreme sadness. Abject despair, uncompromising melancholy.

Head.--Hair falls out. Pain over left eye; worse walking in sun, strong odors and tea. Scalp feels tense. Headache from tea drinking.

Throat.--Incipient tubercular laryngitis. Hawking and raising transparent lumps of mucus every morning. Hoarseness. Cough in morning, with expectoration of bloody mucus. Hoarseness of singers. Much clear, starchy mucus (Stann).

Stomach.--Desire for brandy and other strong drink. Sweetish taste. Hiccough and eructations after smoking. After eating, pulsation all over, especially abdomen.

Abdomen.--Chronic liver affections; liver painful, enlarged, with fine rash over liver region. Stool constipated, hard and accumulated in rectum.

Urinary.--Sensation in the tip of urethra as if a biting drop were forcing its way out. Involuntary dribbling.

Male.--Dribbling of semen during sleep. Dribbling of prostatic fluid. Irritability after coitus. Loss of sexual power, with lascivious fancies. Increases desire, decreases ability. Semen thin, odorless. Sexual neurasthenia. On attempting coition, penis relaxes. Hydrocele.

Skin.--Dry, scaly eruption in palms, with itching, Itching about the ankles and folds of skin, between fingers. Hair falls out from brows, beard, and genitals. Itching about finger-joints and between fingers; in palms. Vesicular eruption between fingers (Rhus; Anac). Seborrhœa oleosa; comedones with an oily surface of the skin; alopecia. Acne.

Extremities.--Paralytic pains in small of back in the morning. Tearing pain in hands, at night.

Sleep.--Sleep prevented by pulsation in all vessels, worse abdomen. Sleepless until midnight, awakens early and always same hour.

Modalities.--Worse, after sleep, in hot weather, from Cinchona, draught of air, coition.

Relationship.--Incompatible: China; Wine.

Compare: Agnus; Calad; Sulphur; Tellur; Phosph acid.

Antidotes: Ign; Puls.

Dose.--Sixth to thirtieth potency. Colloidal Selenium injection for inoperable cancer. Pain, sleeplessness, ulceration and discharge are markedly diminished.

  
SEMPERVIVUM TECTORUM
Houseleek

Is recommended for herpes, zoster and cancerous tumors. Scirrhous induration of tongue. Mammary carcinoma. Ring-worm. Hæmorrhoids.

Mouth.--Malignant ulcers of mouth. Cancer of tongue (Galium). Tongue has ulcers; bleed easily, especially at night; much soreness of tongue with stabbing pains. Whole mouth very tender.

Skin.--Erysipelatous affections. Warts and corns. Aphthæ. Flushed surface and stinging pains.

Relationship.--Compare: Sedum acre-small Houseleek--(scorbutic conditions; ulcers, intermittent fever) (Galium; Kali cyanat). Oxalis acetosella-Wood sorrel--(The inspissated juice used as a cautery to remove cancerous growths of the lips). Cotyledon. Ficus Carica--(Fig)-The milky juice of the freshly broken stalk applied to warts; causes their disappearance.

Dose.--Tincture and 2 decimal, also fresh juice of plant. Locally for bites of insect, stings of bees, and poisoned wounds, warts.

  
SENECIO AUREUS
Golden Ragwort

Its action on the female organism has been clinically verified. Urinary organs also affected in a marked degree. Backaches of congested kidneys. Early cirrhosis of liver.

Mind.--Inability to fix mind upon any one subject. Despondent. Nervous and irritable.

Head.--Dull, stupefying headache. Wavelike dizziness from occiput to sinciput. Sharp pains over left eye, and through left temple. Fullness of nasal passages; burning; sneezing; profuse flow.

Face.--Teeth very sensitive. Sharp, cutting pain left side. Dryness of fauces, throat, and mouth.

Stomach.--Sour eructations; nausea.

Throat.--Dry mouth, throat, and fauces. Burning in pharynx, raw feeling in naso-pharynx, must swallow, though painful.

Abdomen.--Pain around umbilicus; spreads all over abdomen; better, stool. Thin, watery stool, intermingled with hard lumps of feces (Ant crud). Straining at stool; thin, dark, bloody, with tenesmus.

Urinary.--Scanty, high-colored, bloody, with much mucus and tenesmus. Great heat and constant urging. Nephritis. Irritable bladder of children, with headache. Renal colic (Pareira; Ocim; Berb).

Male.--Lascivious dreams, with involuntary emissions. Prostate enlarged. Dull, heavy pain in spermatic cord, extending to testicles.

Female.--Menses retarded, suppressed. Functional amenorrhœa of young girls with backache. Before menses, inflammatory conditions of throat, chest, and bladder. After menstruation commences, these improve. Anæmic dysmenorrhœa with urinary disturbances. Premature and too profuse menses (Calc; Erig).

Respiratory.--Acute inflammatory conditions of upper respiratory tract. Hoarseness. Cough loose, with labored inspiration. Chest sore and raw. Dyspnœa on ascending (Calc). Dry teasing cough, stitching chest pains.

Sleep.--Great drowsiness, with unpleasant dreams. Nervousness and sleeplessness.

Relationship.--Compare: Senecio Jacobæa (cerebro-spinal irritation, rigid muscles, chiefly of neck and shoulders; also, in cancer); Aletris; Caulop; Sep.

Dose.--Tincture, to third potency. Senecin, first trituration.

  
SENEGA
Snakewort

Catarrhal symptoms, especially of the respiratory tract, and distinct eye symptoms of a paralytic type, are most characteristic. Circumscribed spots in chest left after inflammations.

Mind.--Suddenly remembers unimportant regions which he saw long ago. Inclined to quarrel.

Head.--Dullness, with pressure and weakness of eyes. Pain in temples. Bursting pain in forehead.

Eyes.--Hyperphoria, better by bending head backwards. Acts on the rectus superior. Blepharitis; lids dry and crusty (Graph). Dryness, with sensation as if too large for orbits. Starting. Lachrymation. Flickering; must wipe eyes frequently. Objects look shaded. Muscular asthenopia (Caust). Double vision; better only by bending head backward. Opacities of the vitreous humor. Promotes absorption of fragments of lens, after operation.

Nose.--Dry. Coryza; much watery mucus and sneezing. Nostrils feel peppery.

Face.--Paralysis of left side of face. Heat in face. Burning vesicles in corners of mouth and lips.

Throat.--Catarrhal inflammation of throat and fauces, with scraping hoarseness. Burning and rawness. Sensation as if membrane had been abraded.

Respiratory.--Hoarseness. Hurts to talk. Bursting pain in back on coughing. Catarrh of larynx. Loss of voice. Hacking cough. Thorax feels too narrow. Cough often ends in a sneeze. Rattling in chest (Tart emet). Chest oppressed on ascending. Bronchial catarrh, with sore chest walls; much mucus; sensation of oppression and weight of chest. Difficult raising of tough, profuse mucus, in the aged. Asthenic bronchitis of old people with chronic interstitial nephritis or chronic emphysema. Old asthmatics with congestive attacks. Exudations in Pleura. Hydrothorax (Merc sulph). Pressure on chest as though lungs were forced back to spine. Voice unsteady, vocal cords partially paralyzed.

Urinary.--Greatly diminished; loaded with shreds and mucus; scalding before and after urinating. Back, bursting distending pain in kidney region.

Modalities.--Worse, walking in open air, during rest. Better, from sweat; bending head backwards.

Relationship.--Compare: Caust; Phos; Saponin; Ammon; Calc; Nepeta cataria-Catnip (to break up a cold; infantile colic: hysteria).

Dose.--Tincture, to thirtieth potency.

  
SENNA
Cassia Acutifolia

Is of much use in infantile colics when the child seems to be full of wind. Oxaluria, with excess of urea; increased specific gravity. Where the system is broken down, bowels constipated, muscular weakness, and waste of nitrogenous materials, Senna will act as a tonic. Ebullitions of blood at night. Acetonæmia, prostration, fainting, constipation with colic a flatulence. Liver enlarged and tender.

Stool.--Fluid yellowish, with pinching pains before. Greenish mucus; never-get-done sensation (Merc). Burning in rectum, with strangury of bladder. Constipation, with colic and flatulence. Liver enlarged and tender, stools hard and dark, with loss appetite, coated tongue, bad taste, and weakness.

Urine.--Specific gravity and density increased; hyperazoturia, oxaluria, phosphaturia, and acetonuria.

Relationship.--Compare: Kali carb; Jalapa.

Antidotes: Nux; Cham.

Dose.--Third to sixth potency.

  
SEPIA OFFICINALIS
Inky Juice of Cuttlefish
(SEPIA)

Acts specially on the portal system, with venous congestion. Stasis and thereby ptosis of viscera and weariness and misery. Weakness, yellow complexion, bearing-down sensation, especially in women, upon whose organism it has most pronounced effect. Pains extend down to back, chills easily. Tendency to abortion. Hot flashes at menopause with weakness and perspiration. Upward tendency of its symptoms. Easy fainting. "Ball" sensation in inner parts. Sepia acts best on brunettes. All pains are from below up. One of the most important uterine remedies. Tubercular patients with chronic hepatic troubles and uterine reflexes. Feels cold even in warm room. Pulsating headache in cerebellum.

Mind.--Indifferent to those loved best. Averse to occupation, to family. Irritable; easily offended. Dreads to be alone. Very sad. Weeps when telling symptoms. Miserly. Anxious toward evening; indolent.

Head.--Vertigo, with sensation of something rolling round in head. Prodromal symptoms of apoplexy. Stinging pain from within outward and upward mostly left, or in forehead, with nausea, vomiting; worse indoors and when lying on painful side. Jerking of head backwards and forwards. Coldness of vertex. Headache in terrible shocks at menstrual nisus, with scanty flow. Hair falls out. Open fontanelles. Roots of hair sensitive. Pimples on forehead near hair.

Nose.--Thick, greenish discharge; thick plugs and crusts. Yellowish saddle across nose. Atrophic catarrh with greenish crusts from anterior nose and pain at root of nose. Chronic nasal catarrh, especially post-nasal, dropping of heavy, lumpy discharges; must be hawked through the mouth.

Eyes.--Muscular asthenopia; black spots in the field of vision; asthenic inflammations, and in connection with uterine trouble. Aggravation of eye troubles morning and evening. Tarsal tumors. Ptosis, ciliary irritation. Venous congestion of the fundus.

Ears.--Herpes behind ears on nape of neck. Pain as if from sub-cutaneous ulceration. Swelling and eruption of external ear.

Face.--Yellow blotches; pale or sallow; yellow about mouth. Rosacea; saddle-like brownish distribution on nose and cheeks.

Mouth.--Tongue white. Taste salty, putrid. Tongue foul, but clears during menses. Swelling and cracking of lower lip. Pain in teeth from 6 pm till midnight; worse on lying.

Stomach.--Feeling of goneness; not relieved by eating (Carb an). Nausea at smell or sight of food. Nausea worse lying on side. Tobacco dyspepsia. Everything tastes too salty (Carbo beg; Chin). Band of pain about four inches wide encircling hypochondria. Nausea in morning before eating. Disposition to vomit after eating. Burning in pit of stomach. Longing for vinegar, acids, and pickles. Worse, after milk, especially when boiled. Acid dyspepsia with bloated abdomen, sour eructations. Loathes fat.

Abdomen.--Flatulent, with headache. Liver sore and painful; relieved by lying on right side. Many brown spots on abdomen. Feeling of relaxation and bearing-down in abdomen.

Rectum.--Bleeding at stool and fullness of rectum. Constipation; large, hard stools; feeling of a ball in rectum, cannot strain; with great tenesmus and pains shooting upward. Dark-brown, round balls glued together with mucus. Soft stool, difficult. Prolapsus ani (Pod). Almost constant oozing from anus. Infantile diarrhœa, worse from boiled milk, and rapid exhaustion. Pains shoot up in rectum and vagina.

Urinary.--Red, adhesive, sand in urine. Involuntary urination, during first sleep. Chronic cystitis, slow micturition, with bearing-down sensation above pubis.

Male.--Organs cold. Offensive perspiration. Gleet; discharge from urethra only during night; no pain. Condylomata surround head of penis. Complaints from coition.

Female.--Pelvic organs relaxed. Bearing-down sensation as if everything would escape through vulva (Bell; Kreoso; Lac c; Lil t; Nat c; Pod); must cross limbs to prevent protrusion, or press against vulva. Leucorrhœa yellow, greenish; with much itching. Menses Too late and scanty, irregular; early and profuse; sharp clutching pains. Violent stitches upward in the vagina, from uterus to umbilicus. Prolapse of uterus and vagina. Morning sickness. Vagina painful, especially on coition.

Respiratory.--Dry, fatiguing cough, apparently coming from stomach. Rotten-egg taste with coughing. Oppression of chest morning and evening. Dyspnœa; worse, after sleep; better, rapid motion. Cough in morning, with profuse expectoration, tasting salty (Phos; Ambr). Hypostatic pleuritis. Whooping-cough that drags on. Cough excited by tickling in larynx or chest.

Heart.--Violent, intermittent palpitation. Beating in all arteries. Tremulous feeling with flushes.

Back.--Weakness in small of back. Pains extend into back. Coldness between shoulders.

Extremities.--Lower extremities lame and stiff, tension as if too short. Heaviness and bruised feeling. Restleness in all limbs, twitching and jerkings night and day. Pain in heel. Coldness of legs and feet.

Fever.--Frequent flushes of heat; sweat from least motion. General lack of warmth of body. Feet cold and wet. Shivering, with thirst; worse, towards evening.

Skin.--Herpes circinatus in isolated spots. Itching; not relieved by scratching; worse in bends of elbows and knees. Chloasma; herpetic eruption on lips, about mouth and nose. Ringworm-like eruption every spring. Urticaria on going in open air; better in warm room. Hyperidrosis and bromidrosis. Sweat on feet, worse on toes; intolerable odor. Lentigo in young women. Ichthyosis with offensive odor of skin.

Modalities.--Worse, forenoons and evenings; washing, laundry-work, dampness, left side, after sweat; cold air, before thunder-storm. Better, by exercise, pressure, warmth of bed, hot applications, drawing limbs up, cold bathing, after sleep.

Relationship.--Complementary: Nat mur; Phosph. Nux intensifies action. Guaiacum often beneficial after Sepia.

Inimical: Lach; Puls.

Compare: Lit; Murex; Silica; Sulph; Asperula-Nacent oxygen. Distilled water charged with the gas--(leucorrhœa of young girls and uterine catarrh); Ozonum (sacral pain; tired feeling through pelvic viscera and perineum); Dictamnus--Burning Bush--(Soothes labor pains); (metrorrhagia, leucorrhœa, and constipation; also somnambulism). Lapathum (Leucorrhœa with constriction and expulsive effort through womb and pain in kidneys).

Dose.--Twelfth, 30th and 200th potency. Should not be used too low or be repeated too frequently. On the other hand Dr. Jousset's unique experience is that is should be continued for some time in strong doses. 1x twice a day.

  
SERUM ANGUILLAE
Eel Serum
(SERUM ANGUILLAR ICHTHYOTOXIN)

The serum of the eel has a toxic action on the blood, rapidly destroying its globules. The presence of albumin and renal elements in the urine, the hemoglobinuria, the prolonged anuria (24 and 26 hours), together with the results of the autopsy, plainly demonstrate its elective action on the kidneys. Secondarily, the liver and the heart are affected, and the alterations observed are those usually present in infectious diseases.

From all these facts it is easy to infer, a priori, the therapeutical indications of the serum of the eel. Whenever the kidney becomes acutely affected, either from cold or infection or intoxication, and the attack is characterized by oliguria, anuria and albuminuria, we will find the eel's serum eminently efficacious to re-establish diuresis, and in rapidly arresting albuminuria. When during the course of heart-disease, the kidney, previously working well, should suddenly become affected and its function inhibited; and when besides we observe cardiac irregularities and a marked state of asystolia, we may yet expect good results from this serum. But to determine here the choice of this remedy is not an easy matter. While digitalis presents in its indications, the well-known symptomatic trilogy: arterial hypertension oliguria and œdema; the serum of the eel seems better adapted to cases of hypertension and oliguria, without œdema. We should bear in mind that the elective action of the eel's serum is on the kidney, and I believe we can well assert that if digitalis is a cardiac, the eel's serum is a renal remedy. So far, at least, the clinical observations published seem to confirm this distinction. The serum of the eel has given very small results in attacks of asystolia; but it has been very efficacious in cardiac uræmia. There, where digitalis is powerless, the serum of the eel has put an end to the renal obstruction and produced an abundant diuresis. But its really specific indication seems to be for acute nephritis a frigori (Jousset)

Subacute nephritis. Heart diseases, in cases of failure of compensation and impending asytole. The experiments of Dr. Jousset have amply demonstrated the rapid hæmaturia, albuminuria and oliguria caused by it. In the presence of acute nephritis with threatening uræmia we should always think of this serum. Very efficacious in functional heart diseases. Mitral insufficiency, asystolia with or without œdema, dyspnœa and difficult urinary secretion.

Relationship.--Great analogy exists between eel serum and the venom of the Vipera.

Compare also: Pelias; Lachesis.

Dose.--Attenuations are made with glycerine or distilled water, the lower 1x to 3 in heart disease, the higher in sudden renal attacks.

 

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