Senna

The leaflets of several species of Cassia : C. obovate, Alexandrian Senna, is the principal. N. 0, Leguminosae. Trituration or tincture of the dried leaves.

Clinical

Colic ; flatulent, of infants. Exhaustion. Nitrogenous waste. Sleeplessness. Sneezing, with heat

Characteristics

Used as a laxative in ordinary practice. Senna has proved an excellent remedy in the colic of infants, with incarcerated flatulence and sleeplessness. Infantile colic when the patient seems full of wind. The symptoms of the Schema are mostly derived from overdosings. A peculiar symptom is : "Repeated sneezing, which caused heat (especially of hands), exhaustion, and panting breathing." Exhaustion is typical of Senna. Farrington says it is one of the best remedies in the materia medica for " simple exhaustion with excess of nitrogenous waste." The exhaustion is exemplified in the sinking immediately after meals. The pods caused a nasty unclean smell from the body of a woman taking them for constipation (R. T. C).

Relations p. 1158

Compare : Infantile colic and sleeplessness, Jal. Exhaustion, K. ca. Sinking after meals, Ars., Cin., Lyc, Sil., Stp., Ur. nit., Calc, iod., Sep., Tab.

Head p. 1158

Heaviness of the head when stooping, as if it were pressed down.

Nose p. 1158

Repeated sneezing, which caused heat (esp. of hands), exhaustion, and panting breathing.

Face p. 1158

Livid lips. — Commissure of lips covered with small burning vesicles.

Stomach p. 1158

Anorexia.— Thirst. — Empty, or watery and fetid, risings. — Loathing and nausea, with inclination to vomit. — Sinking immediately after meals.

Abdomen p. 1158

Colic, esp. in little children. — Painful colic from incarcerated flatulence (particularly in young children). — Sensation of coldness in the abdomen, with emptiness and uneasiness in the stomach. — Accumulation of flatus, with grumbling and fermentation in the abdomen, and discharge of fetid flatus.

Stool and Anus p. 1158

Two liquid stools with griping pains. — Loose evacuation, with tenesmus, and followed by a burning sensation in the anus. — Diarrhoea with straining and prolapsed rectum and sore anus (cured in children.— R. T. C).

Generalities p. 1158

Universal swelling. — Exhaustion. — Unclean body swell

Sleep p. 1158

Ebullition of blood, esp. at night, disturbing the sleep. — Sleeplessness, with cries and tossing, esp. in the case of infants.

Fever p. 1158

Heat (esp. of hands).