Onosmodium Virginianum

Onosmodium.

Onosmodium virginianum. False Gromwell (or Gromell). N. O. Boraginaceae. Tincture of entire fresh plant, including root.

Amblyopia. Bladder, irritation of. Breasts, affections of; atrophy of. Colour-blindness. Debility. Diarrhoea. Diplopia. Eyes, affections of. Headache. Locomotor ataxy. Ménière's disease. Neurasthenia. Nose, dryness of. Paralysis. Pregnancy, sickness of. Presbyopia. Seminal emissions. Sexual atony, desire lost. Spine, congestion of. Throat, sore; dry. Urethra, irritation of. Uterus; cramps in; prolapse of.

Onosmodium v., a member of an American branch of the Borage family closely resembling the British Onosma, was proved in material doses by W. E. Green, of Arkansas (H. M., June 1885).

Its common name is "False Gromwell"; the real "Gromwell" being another Borage, Lithospermum. The most remarkable feature of Green's striking proving is the want of power of concentration or co-ordination produced by the drug. This appears in inability to concentrate thought; to focus eyes; to co-ordinate muscles; to judge the height of impedimenta on stepping. It also appears in vertigo and sensations of numbness and general muscular prostration.

Next to the paretic symptoms come neuralgic pains. These are mostly of a dull, heavy aching character, and affect cervical and spinal nerves and pelvic organs—eyes; occiput; eyes to occiput; sacrum—these are the chief centres of pain; throat, bowels, breasts, heart, and limbs being also affected, the left side of the body more than the right. "Feeling of tension in the eyes, as from straining them to read small print," and "desires to have things far off to look at them," show the paralysing effect on the internal eye muscles, and give one of the keynotes of the drug's action.

Onos. has probably cured more cases of headache associated with eye-strain than any other remedy since it was proved. E. S. Norton published several illustrative cases (N.

A. J. H., i. 792): (1) Miss C., 23, suffering three years from headache. Pain especially in occiput, which feels "sore and stiff," often extending down spine, which was somewhat sensitive to touch.

Dull, aching pain left side of head, occasionally with darting pain through eyes. Aching in eyes, stiff, strained feeling in them if she read more than a little, left worst. Headache < in morning, with some dizziness. The patient had some astigmatism which was corrected with glasses, and Onos. 1x at once relieved all the symptoms.

(2) Mrs. D. had excessive myopia and severe headache: constant dull, stupid ache in right occiput and right eye; < when tired; from coughing; from any sudden motion. A little vertigo and strained feeling in right eye.

Onos. 3x cured. Norton suggests that neurasthenia and neurasthenic headache may be met with Onos. when connected with strains of other kinds besides eye strains. He gives a case of ear headache: (3) Mrs. B., deaf nine years, four years constant roaring, hissing noise in both ears, with constant dull, pressing pain in occiput, < evening; some pain in ear, and sharp shooting pain in front of auricle; slight vertigo.

Chronic catarrh of both middle ears, membranes thickened; hearing not improved by Politzerisation. Onos 1x immediately relieved all the pains, though it did not alter the hearing or noises. Green himself has published some very striking cases (H. M., vii. 530), with some pathogenetic symptoms as well as cures, and also gives an interesting comparative experience with attenuations.

Onos. was brought to Green's notice by Dr. Durgan, presumably an eclectic or old-school practitioner; for he recommended 20-drop doses, which Green gave in the following cases: (1) Mrs. B., 50, had for three weeks vesical irritation, with tormenting tenesmus, a trouble she had had before. Onos. Ø was given, 20 drops every three hours.

Within a short time Green was sent for, as the remedy produced a severe soreness and dryness of the throat. The dose was reduced to five drops, and then to three, and the trouble was entirely relieved in three days. (2) Mr. D., after operation for urethral stricture, had severe inflammation of urethra with vesical tenesmus.

Onos. Ø, five drops every three hours, was prescribed, and there was decided amelioration of the symptoms in twenty-four hours. But there were these new symptoms, which promptly disappeared when the drug was suspended: "I feel as if I had been on a drunk for a week; my head aches and feels full; my mind is confused; I cannot think, remember, or keep my thoughts on my business; my legs are tired and numb, and I cannot walk well." The next case confirms these symptoms. (3) Mr.

E. had the following symptoms of hyperaemia of the spinal cord: Severe pain in lower dorsal or lumbar regions coming on in night, when lying down, < towards morning, > when up and around. Constant sexual irritation, accompanied by severe erections that were also < by lying on the back. Slightly disturbed muscular co-ordination, with numbness and tingling in feet and legs. Onos. Ø, five drops four times a day, cured in a week.

(4) Mrs. P. had numbness and aching of lower limbs, oppression about heart, and general muscular prostration. Heart dilated with aortic and mitral murmurs. Onos. 1x, five drops every three hours, was given.

Next day there was a great improvement, but the patient was obliged to discontinue the medicine because it had developed urethral irritation. (5) Mrs. H. had severe backache in sacro-lumbar region; dull, aching soreness in uterus and ovaries; vesical tenesmus; colicky pains in bowels; slight nausea; clammy taste and white-coated tongue. Onos. 2x, five drops every four hours, was given, and rapid improvement followed.

(6) Mrs. J., 45, had dull, frontal headache, extending through both temples; dizziness; pain over praecordia and crest of left ilium. Urinary discharge irritating, frequent, profuse, light-coloured, and of low specific gravity (1,010). Muscular prostration confined her to bed.

Onos. 6 relieved all symptoms in twenty-four hours. (7) Mrs. M., 30, blonde. During a thunderstorm she slept in a draught, and on awaking had severe and constant roaring in both ears, with marked deafness.

On attempting to get up she staggered and fell. Five days later Green saw her and found: Inability to walk, or even stand without help; constant tinnitus; loss of memory: would repeat orders she had given to servant a short time before. Vision blurred; and on looking closely at anything saw double. Pain in lower part of back and lower limbs.

Felt as if treading on cotton; imagined the floor too close to her; would step too high, and by so doing jar her body. Fear of falling on going up or down stairs. Onos. 1x, one drop every two hours. Next day she was worse.

The remedy was omitted for twenty-four hours, and then given in 6x, with relief from the first dose, and steady recovery. The female prover had very distressing cramps in uterus and pain in ovaries, and breast and menstrual disturbances J. W.

Covert (Hom. News, xxvi. 256) gave Onos. Ø, 5-drop doses every hour till relieved, to a woman who had fibroids and suffered from severe uterine cramps. The attack for which be gave it was the worst the patient had ever had, and the first dose relieved so perfectly that no second was required W.

A. Yingling (H. P., xiii. 385) found out that the depressing action of Onos. extends, to the generative sphere, desire being abolished in both male and female. He quotes S.

A. Jones as suggesting that this is the primary action of the drug, thereby distinguishing it from Pic. ac., in which excitement precedes debility. Jones quotes Hahnemann's canon, that "only the primary symptoms of a drug afford the indications for its therapeutical application" (a canon which Jones endorses as far as the infinitesimal dose is concerned), and he concludes that Onos. will correspond to the developed consequences of sexual abuse and Pic. ac. to the initial step of sexual debility manifested in erethism.

(Jones is a very acute observer, and his comparison has a practical basis; but I do not endorse Hahnemann's dictum, even to the limited extent Jones does.) Yingling many times verified "complete loss of desire" as a leading indication. W. J. Guernsey (H.

P., viii. 595) greatly relieved with Onos. a man, 38, suffering from seminal emissions, the result of masturbation. The uterine pains are all > by undressing and lying on the back. A leading symptom of Onos. is dryness: of nose; of mouth; of throat. With this there is a great thirst for cold water, which >.

Yingling had an interesting experience in the case of a woman to whom he gave Onos. for dryness of the nose and throat. Not only did it cure this, but it also restored the breasts, which were diminutive and almost absent, to their normal size. Yingling's results were obtained mostly from the c.m. attenuation; he had no results from the Ø, and not marked from 30. "Soreness and stiffness" are the frequent symptoms of Onos.

In the occiput there is pressure upward; and the pains may go from the eye backward. With a laryngeal cough there is gluey expectoration. H. F.

Ivens cured a case of headache of ten years' duration, which illustrates the modality < in the dark. The pain was in left temple and over left eye; was not < by noises, light, or use of eyes, but was < in the dark and on lying down. Pellets of Onos. Ø were given every twelve hours. The Conditions of Onos. are very distinctive, especially the ameliorations.

> From cold drinks; from eating; from undressing and lying on back. The headache is an exception to this last, for it is < lying down; and is also < in the dark. < From tight clothing; from motion; from jarring. > From sleep, but only temporarily (headache).

Compare: Myosotis: Heliot., Symph. (botan.). In uterine misplacement, Heliot., Helonias, Lil. t., Sep., Nat. m., &c. Disorder of vision, Lil. t. (astigmatism), Pic. ac. (myopia), Nat. sul. (myopia). Ocular headache, Gels. (Gels. more right; Onos. more left), Lil. t., Spig., Rut., Bapt.

Eye-strain. Sexual excess.

Face flushed least motion or excitement; with > of headache; with full feeling.—Pain in right malar bone, with numbness.

Eructations: after eating; nauseous.—Nausea: with bitter, clammy taste; in morning, as in pregnancy.

Stool: shining, bloody, and stringy, with tenesmus; yellow, mushy; hurrying him out of bed in morning.

Cold feeling in glans.—Desire diminished.

Weariness: of legs, knees, and hands, with numbness; of arms and hands.

Tremulousness from least exertion.—Nervous, trembling feeling, as from hunger.—Nervous and shaky feeling that physically and mentally unfits her for any duty.—Muscles feel unsteady and treacherous.—Inability to lie on l. side.—General distress and full feeling.—Light feeling, somewhat like that caused by chloroform.—Weakness: in morning, with stiffness; with aching, stretching, gaping, and disagreeable feeling.

Formication in calves.