Verbascum Thapsus

Verbascum.

Verbascum thapsus. Great Mullein. N. O. Scrophulariaceae. Tincture of fresh plant at the commencement of flowering. ["Mullein Oil" is prepared by placing the crushed yellow blossoms in a bottle, which is corked and allowed to stand in the sun (Cushing); or by steeping the blossoms in oil and keeping in a warm place till the oil has absorbed them (Gerarde)].

Anus, itching of. Colic. Constipation. Cough. Deafness. Enuresis. Haemorrhoids. Neuralgia. Prosopalgia. Urine, incontinence of.

"The thick woolly leaves of V. thapsus, the Great Mullein, have a mucilaginous, bitterish taste, and a decoction of them is employed in domestic practice in catarrhs and diarrhoea. They are also used as emollient applications to hard tumours and in pulmonary complaints in cattle-hence one of its popular names is Bullock's Lung-wort. It is also called Adam's flannel, from its flannel-like leaves" (Treas. of Bot.). Hahnemann proved Verbascum, and his proving confirms many of the old uses.

It produced neuralgic pains of very great intensity, pressing and lancinating, and especially in the facial bones, navel, and limbs, and a peculiar cough. "Cough, deep, hollow, hoarse, in sound like a trumpet," is Nash's description. He has cured many cases and always used it low. It is more especially a night cough.

It occurs in children during their sleep. Some years ago Mullein was brought forward as a popular specific for phthisis, the leaves being boiled in milk, which was then strained and given Warm. Among its traditional uses Gerarde mentions it as a remedy for piles, and I do not know a better application for itching haemorrhoids or pruritus ani than an ointment made of the Ø tincture in the proportion of one drachm to the one ounce of Cetacean ointment. I generally direct it to be applied at bedtime.

Gerarde says that the oil of the yellow flowers is also curative in piles. The flowers contain "a yellow volatile oil, and fatty acid, free malic and phosphoric acids, and their -ate salts of lime, a yellow resinous colouring matter, and the general plant constituents including an uncrystallisable sugar" (Millspaugh). Cushing prepared from the flowers an "oil" (1) by putting the blossoms in a bottle and laying the bottle in the sun; and later (2) by expression. This "Mullein Oil" has found many uses, and especially for instilling in the ears in cases of deafness, or earache; in cases of enuresis nocturna (Cushing had good success with the 3x), and painful micturition.

The provings brought out some very marked symptoms in the ears, especially the left ear (Verb. is predominently left-sided). W. B. McCoy (Hom.

News, xxviii. 36) gives several illustrations. According to him Verb. (i.e., the "oil") has a "soothing effect on the entire nervous system, in many cases acting, as a soporific." In summer diarrhoea he gives one to four drops in two ounces of warm water, a teaspoonful every hour. In enuresis or dribbling of urine one-drop doses in warm water three or four times a day.

Among his cases were those of two boys who had become deaf from getting water in their ears when swimming. They were cured by having three drops of the oil instilled "in each ear alternately night and morning." O. S. Laws cured a youth, of 16, of enuresis with fifteen drops of the oil three times a day (N.

Y. Med. Times, xxiv. 318). The oil plainly acts on the indications of the proving, and may be regarded as an alternative preparation to the official tincture.

It might be called Verbasci oleum. E. E. Case reports a case of neuralgia cured by Verb.

(Med. Adv., quoted A. H., xxvii. 234): A widow, 36, black-haired, had been for a long time overworked, sewing, and her life made miserable by neuralgia. The symptoms were: Tearing, stitching pain above left ear, downward and inward; outer ear numb; dulness of hearing left side; heavy pressure in vertex.

Shivers run up back and left side with the pain. Irritable and despondent. Verb. 1m, one powder taken in four doses at three-hour intervals, cured. Among the Sensations are: As if everything would press out at forehead.

As if left ramus of jaw were pressed against upper jaw. As if temples were pinched and Crushed. As if ears were stopped up. As if nose and larynx were stopped up.

As if something had fallen before ear. As if one were violently pressing on left malar bone. As of a crushing with tongs. Pressure as from a stone on umbilicus.

As from needles from umbilical region to back. As if intestines were adherent to wall of abdomen and were being torn away. As of a twist around navel. As if a weight were hanging on lower extremities.

As if cold water were poured over side of body from shoulder to thigh. "Salt water collects in mouth" is a guiding symptom. The symptoms are < By touch; by pressure. Rest = sticking in left metatarsal bones.

Lying = tension across chest, stitches in region of heart. Sitting = pains; sitting up >. Motion > some pains; < prosopalgia.

Stooping <; (> pressure in forehead). Walking <. < Night; no sleep after 4 a.m.

< Draught of air; exposure to cold; change from cold to warm and vice versâ. Attacks appear at 9 a.m., reach their height at noon, gradually diminish till 4. Many pains are intermittent.

Compare: In neuralgia, Plat. (pressure); Stan. (gradually increasing and decreasing). Deep cough, Coral., Dros., Spo., Sul. Sheep-dung stools, Mg. mur. Cough from tickling in chest, Ver.

Pains in eyes, as from contraction of the sockets, with burning in eyes.—Sight confused, as if directed through a veil.

Sensation of stoppage of larynx and ears.—Profuse coryza from frontal sinuses, with hot, burning, profuse lachrymation.

Very severe pain in throat on swallowing.

Pollutions without lewd dreams.

Stitching in the limbs.

General indolence, and disposition to sleep, after rising in the morning.—Stretching and frequent yawning.—Haemorrhoids; affections of the inner navel region; obstruction from induration of stool.—Darting pains in inner parts; want of perspiration.—< When sitting; from change of temperature.—> On rising from a sitting posture.—Stinging pains in the limbs.—Benumbing sensation with almost all the pain.—Tearings, sometimes lancinating, in different parts (going downwards).—Tottering when walking.

Internal coldness of whole body, of hands and feet, perceptible also externally.—Shuddering, esp. on one side of body, as if it were bathed in cold water.