Actæa Racemosa

Actea racemosa, Linnee. Black Cohosh. Ranunculacece.

Grows in woodlands from Canada to Florida. Famous as a popular medicine, particularly for snake-bites. Has received so many improper names that the oldest one is preferred. Proved in 1853 by H. M. Paine, in 1858 by Ch. H. Burr, in 1859 by Hill and Douglas, in 1871 by Bacmeister, and used like a polychrest by most practitioners.

Mind

Sensation as if a heavy black cloud had settled all over her, and enveloped her head, so that all was darkness and confusion, while, at the same time, it weighed like lead on her head.

Forgetful.

Unable to find the right word in speaking.

Mind dull and heavy.

▌▌ Thinks she is going crazy.

▌ Often started by the illusion of a mouse running from under her chair.

▌ Imagines strange objects about the bed, as rats, sheep, etc. θ Delirium tremens.

Delirium with great headache, θ Puerperal fever.

Delirium with nausea, retching, dilated pupils.

▌ Fear of death; fears those in the house will kill him; saw wires encaging him ; visions of rats and of strange objects. θ Delirium tremens.

▌▌ Mania following disappearance of neuralgia.

13 Puerperal mania.

Desire for solitude, or to wander from place to place.

Answers questions hurriedly and evasively.

* The observation that a drug may produce different symptoms on the

different sexes, is of the utmost importance for the scientific development

of our Materia Medica.

Professors Hill and Douglas state in their valuable report of provings

with Actea racemosa, in the New York Quarterly, Val. VII., 1859, p. 450 :

" It produced nausea, vomiting, and much gastric irritation in the six

women, while in forty men it was hardly noticed as affecting the stomach

in the least. Being an important remedy in morning sickness of the preg-

nant, we may conclude that all the gastric symptoms observed by female

provers depended on the uterus.

It has also been observed that Cuprum acts more on the female and

Ferrum on the male organs.

Declares she has been poisoned.

▌▌ Incessant talking, changing from one subject to another. θ Delirium tremens.

▌ Frequent sighs and ejaculations. θ Mental disorder.

Would not answer ; at other times very loquacious.

▌▌ Feels grieved and troubled, with sighing; Next day a feeling of tremulous joy, with mirthfulness, playfulness and clear intellect.

a Miserable dejected feeling.

▌ Mental depression, with suicidal mood; also after checked neuralgia.

▌ Weeping mood; dejected; anxious.

▌ Great melancholy with sleeplessness.

▌ Apprehensiveness and sleeplessness. θ Pregnancy.

▌ Fears she will become crazy, with headache on vertex.

▌▌ Fear of death.

Indifference, taciturn, takes no interest in household matters. θ Mental disorder.

▌ Irritable ; the least thing that goes wrong makes her angry.

Nervous and irritable.

▌ She was suspicious of everything, would not take medicine if she knew it. θ Mental disorder.

││ Restless and impatient, can read only a few minutes, must get up and walk about, yet soon tires.

Headache when reading or writing. Cannot even write a letter.

▌ Headache of students.

Mental emotions cause: lamennorhoea; I suppression of the lochia.

▌ Mind disturbed by disappointed love, business failures, etc.

▌ Feels faint at the epigastrium when meeting a friend.

▌ After fright : threatened abortion.

Sensorium p. 43

Constant dull feeling in the vertex.

▌ Dullness and heaviness in head; like after " a spree."

Dizzy on rising in the morning, with pain over the eyes ; faintness, nausea, and occasional vomiting. θ In mental diseases.

Vertigo, head feels too large and heavy , when stooping, head swims.

Vertigo, dizziness with impaired vision.

▌ Fainting fits generally with some uterine affection.

▌ Sensation as if a heavy black cloud had settled all over her and enveloped her head, so that all was darkness and confusion, θ Mental disorder.

Inner Head p. 43

Dullness in the head as after " a spree."

▌ Rush of blood to the head, brain feels too large for the cranium ; after suppressed uterine discharges or suddenly ceasing neuralgic pains.

Waving sensation in the brain.

An opening and shutting sensation when moving head and eyes.

Dull frontal headache relieved by pressure.

▌ Great pain in head and eyeballs, increased by the slightest movement of head or eyeballs, θ Meningitis.

Sensation as if temples were compressed.

▌ Headache down to the nose.

▌ Headache every day at the same hour.

▌▌ Severe pains in right side of head, back of the orbit, θ Afterpains.

▌ Aching and shooting pains in vertex, occiput, left temple, eye and ear ; worse lying down ; hysterical crying.

▌▌ Brain as if too large ; pressing from within outward.

▌ Head feels as if pounded, full ; as if too large, θ Intermittent.

▌ Top of head feels as if it would fly off, worse going up stairs ; declares she will go crazy.

▌ Intense pain as if a ball had been driven from neck to vertex, worse at every throb of the heart.

▌ Aching pain in the head, particularly at the occiput, only indoors ; worse in the afternoon and still more in the evening, disappearing entirely at 9 p.m. after a walk in the open air.

▌ Great pain in head, back and limbs.

▌ Pain over and in the eyes, extending along the back to occiput.

│▌ Excruciating pain in forehead, eyeballs and temples, with cold forehead on waking, 2 a.m.

Dull boring in forehead over left brow, 10 a.m.

▌ Pain in forehead, temple and vertex, with fullness, throbbing and heat.

▌ Dull pain in occiput, with shooting down back of neck.

▌ Headache better in open air.

Outer Head p. 44

Sensation as if the vertex opened and let in cold air. θ Climaxis.

Sight and Eyes p. 44

▌ Peculiar wild look out of the eyes. θ Delirium tremens.

Eyes expressionless, θ Chorea.

▌ Dark spots before the eyes.

Pupils dilated, θ Delirium.

Aching and heaviness of the eyes.

Eyeballs painful, with lachrymation.

Sensation of enlargement of the eyeballs ; they feel as if they would be pressed out of the head.

Ulcerated cornea, I with sharp pains through the eye into the head.

▌ Eyes congested during the headache.

▌ Pain in the centre of the eyeballs, and also a sensation as if pain was situated between eyeball and orbital plate of the parietal bone ; more severe in the morning, worse on going up stairs.

▌ Pain over the eyes extending to occiput.

▌ Ciliary neuralgia ; aching pains in eyeballs or in the temples extending to the eyes, so severe, especially at night, it seemed as if the patient would go crazy.

Ciliary neuralgia ; sharp, shooting pains from occiput through to eyes, or darting from the eyes to the top of the head, with redness of the eyes and photophobia ; worse on the right side, afternoon and night ; better on lying down.

▌ Blisters on the eyelids.

▌ Severe pains darting into left eye ; feels as if needles were run into the eyeball through the cornea ; worse on closing the eyes ; sleepy, but cannot sleep on this account, θ Neuralgia.

Hearing and Ears p. 45

Sensitive to least noise, with spasmodic labor-pains.

Singing in the left, later in both ears.

Buzzing in ears, θ Puerperal fever.

Sweat behind the ears.

^ Nose. Pain in the head followed by coryza and sore throat.

Coryza : dry in the evening, white mucus during the day ; sneezing ; aching pains in the head and eyes, sensitive to cold air; every inhalation seems to bring the cold air in contact with the brain.

Greenish, slightly bloody coryza.

* Face. Face bluish. θ Puerperal fever.

▌ Wild, fearful expression. θ Delirium tremens.

Face : pale ; eyes large and sunken, surrounded by dark rings.

▌ Forehead feels cold; deadly pale.

▌ Neuralgia affecting the malar bone, pain goes off at night, reappears the next day.

Frequent flushes of heat, wants to be in the open air.

Suddenly very faint, face became ashy white, weakness so great that she believed she was dying. θ Puerperal fever.

Lower Face p. 45

Lips dry.

Lower lip cracked, as if bitten.

Jaw sunken. θ Typhus.

Teeth p. 45

Toothache in neuralgic and rheumatic patients.

Thick mucus on the teeth.

Taste and Tongue p. 45

Taste : disagreeable ; coppery.

Cannot speak a syllable, though she makes the effort.

Talking provokes cough.

Tongue: clean but pointed and trembling ; — Bswollen. /? Cerebral diseases.

Inner Mouth p. 45

Breath offensive.

Mouth and tongue feel warm and dry.

Spitting of thick, sticky saliva.

Palate and Throat p. 45

Dry spot in the throat, causing cough ; dryness of the pharynx, with constant desire to swallow; fullness in the pharynx ; uvula and palate swollen ; neck stiff.

Hawks up a viscid, coppery tasting mucus.

Thick mucus lodges in the throat.

Inflamed throat, pains awaking him at night.

Appetite, Thirst. Desires, Aversions p. 46

No thirst, slight feeling of hunger in the stomach ; rumbling in abdomen.

Appetite variable.

No appetite for dinner, wants to drink cold water ; little at a time suffices.

Great thirst, θ Puerperal fever.

Eating and Drinking p. 46

After breakfast : headache better ; pain in the left temple. Faint before breakfast, overfilled after.

After dinner : pain through chest.

Hiccough, Belching, Nausea and Vomiting p. 46

Eructations, with nausea, vomiting and headache, more in women.

Nausea with pain in the region of the kidneys.

Vomiting of a green substance; groans, raves; presses both hands to her head for relief.

▌▌ Nausea, retching, dilated pupils, tremor of limbs. θ Delirium tremens.

Scrobiculum and Stomach p. 46

Acute, darting pains in the stomach.

▌ Sinking or goneness in the epigastrium, nausea, internal tremor ; women.

Faint sinking feeling at the epigastrium with palpitation of the heart.

Abdomen p. 46

Periodical colicky pains, better bending double and after stool.

Flatulence, causing a sensation of fullness.

Severe pains in bowels, small of back and down the limbs.

Excruciating pains in bowels, much rumbling and wind.

▌▌ Sharp pain across the hypogastrium. θ In uterine affections.

H Abdominal muscles sore.

Stools p. 46

Frequent, thin, dark, offensive stools. θ Spotted fever.

Morning diarrhoea, of children.

Pains go from limbs to bowels, producing diarrhoea and partial retention of urine.

▌ Alternate diarrhoea and constipation.

Urinary Organs p. 46

Pressing in the region of the kidneys and small of back.

▌ Irritable bladder.

Urine : profuse, pale, watery ; bloody, frequent ; scanty, feels hot.

▌ Increased flow of urine makes her feel weak.

Sp. gr. 1.005, then 1.019, 1.020; deposit of uric acid.

Male Sexual Organs p. 46

Pain and tenderness in the testicles.

Pain and retraction in the right cord.

Female Sexual Organs p. 47

Spasms of the broad ligaments.

Ovarian pains shoot up to the side.

▌ Severe pain in lower part of abdomen, worse from motion.

▌ Uterine neuralgia.

▌▌ Pains in the uterine region dart from side to side.

Dull dragging in the uterine region, with frontal headache.

▌ Bearing down as if something was passing out; better lying down.

▌ Bearing down in uterine region and small of back ; limbs feel heavy, torpid.

Great tenderness on pressure over the uterine region.

▌ Menses: profuse, early; dark, coagulated blood; I scanty, slightly coagulated ; sharp pains across abdomen, has to double up ; labor-like pains ; debility between periods ; scanty flow between menses.

Menses suppressed : Iby emotions ; I from cold; from fever.

▌▌ Menses irregular, delayed or suppressed ; with chorea, hysteria, or mental disease.

During the menses: hysterical or epileptic spasms; increase of mental symptoms ; ▌" shivers."

▌ Severe bearing down pains.

▌ Rheumatic dysmenorrhoea.

▌ Leucorrhoea, with sensation of weight in the uterus.

▌ Exhausting menstruation ; with a young girl who was unable to open her eyelids.

Pregnancy. Parturition. Lactation p. 47

▌▌ Given during the last month, it shortens labor.

Complaints in pregnancy: ▌▌nausea: ▌ false labor-like pains ;

▌ sharp pains across the abdomen; Sleeplessness.

Threatened miscarriage, third month ; nervous, anxious.

▌ Labor-pains severe, tedious or spasmodic, with fainting fits or cramps.

Labor-pains too strong, spasmodic ; feels worse from the least

_ noise.

Labor -pains ceased for thirty-six hours.

▌ Cardiac neuralgia in parturition.

▌ Convulsions in labor from nervous excitement.

▌ ▌" Shivers," first stage of labor.

▌ After-pains, worse in the groins ; oversensitiveness ; nausea and vomiting.

▌ Lochia suppressed, by cold or emotions.

Lochia watery, mixed with small clots.

Lochia suddenly ceased. θ Puerperal fever.

▌▌ Infra-mammary pains, worse left side.

▌ Burning in the mammae.

▌ In labor rigidity of os uteri (should be taken some weeks before parturition.)

Puerperal fever.

▌ Puerperal mania : does not know what is the matter with her head, it feels so strange, talks incoherently, screams, clutches her breast as though in pain, tries to injure herself.

Larnyx, Bronchia p. 48

Hoarseness, roughness and scraping, worse in the evening ; very sensitive to cold air.

▌ Tickling in throat, with violent cough.

Respiration p. 48

Frequent sighing, respiration quickened on waking.

Difficult breathing after slight exertion, with general feeling of illness.

Cough p. 48

Dry spot in the throat causes cough.

Night cough, dry, constant, short. θ Incipient tuberculosis.

▌ Cough at every attempt to speak.

Expectoration of a viscid, stringy mucus.

Inner Chest and Lungs p. 48

Severe pain in the left chest, below fifth or sixth rib.

Pain in right side of chest, must lie quietly on back and press with the hand ; breath short ; slight cough.

Congestion to the chest from exposure to cold air, with dry cough, night-sweats and diarrhoea.

Pain through the left lung and heaviness over the heart.

▌ Tuberculosis not hereditary, but from exposure.

▌ Sharp pains from side to side.

Acute pain from apex to base of right lung, worse from every inspiration.

Heart, Pulse and Circulation p. 48

Palpitation from the least motion.

▌ Pains from the region of the heart, all over the chest and down the left arm ; palpitation ; unconsciousness ; cerebral congestion ; dyspnoea ; face livid ; cold sweat on the hands ; numbness of the body ; the left arm numb and as if bound to the side. θ Angina pectoris.

▌ Heart's action ceases suddenly; impending suffocation.

Pulse weak, ▌irregular, eighty per minute; feeble in the morning, with trembling and weakness.

▌ Quick full pulse. θ Delirium tremens.

Sensation as if a heavy black cloud had settled all over her, and weighed like lead upon her heart, θ Mental disorder.

Outer Chest p. 48

▌ Pains about the right chest, worse from motion, extorting cries. θ Pleurodynia.

Neck and Back p. 48

▌▌ Head and neck retracted. θ Spotted fever.

▌▌ Rheumatic pains in the muscles of the neck and back ; feeling of stiffness and contraction.

Cramp in the muscles of the neck on moving the head.

▌ Stiff neck from cold air, pain from moving even the hands.

▌ Sensitiveness of the spine, especially in the cervical and upper dorsal regions ; soreness of all the muscles, θ Spotted fever.

Rheumatism of the dorsal muscles.

▌ Severe pain in the back, down the thighs and through the hips, with heavy pressing down.

▌ Violent aching in small of back. θ Uterine affections.

▌ Weight and pain in the lumbar and sacral regions, sometimes extending all around the body.

Weak trembling pain in the small of the back.

Pulsating pains in the lumbar region.

Dull, heavy aching in the small of the back, relieved by rest, increased by motion.

Upper Limbs p. 49

Severe pains down the arms, with numbness as if a nerve had been compressed.

Excruciating pains in the arms, worse as evening approaches. θ Rheumatism.

Pains in the muscles, worse from motion.

Left arm feels as if bound to the side. θ Chorea.

▌ Constant irregular motions of 1. arm; is useless. θ Chorea.

▌ Cold sweat on the hands.

Trembling of the fingers, especially when writing.

Lower Limbs p. 49

Aching in the sacrum, lumbar region, and down the left leg. θ Sciatica.

Severe pain in the ileo-sacral symphysis and down the leg.

Pressure around the hips, with pain in the sacrum. ^! Threatened miscarriage.

Fearful pains through the lower limbs, like growing pains.

▌ Rheumatic pains in the joints, with heat and swelling. θ Pleurodynia.

Towards evening soreness, aching and stiffness in the region of the tendo Achilles ; worse walking.

▌ Dull aching-burning pain in the second joint of the right great toe, extending up the limb.

Limbs in General p. 49

▌ Aching in the limbs.

▌▌ Excessive muscular soreness.

▌ Rheumatism affecting the bellies of the muscles; cramping, stitching pains.

Uneasy feeling in limbs, causing restlessness.

Torpidity of limbs, with uterine affections.

Joints feel stiff in the morning, as if he had worked hard the day before.

Rest. Position. Motion p. 49

Rest : improves aching in back.

Wants to lie down and close the eyes.

Lying down : shooting and aching in head worse ; ciliary neuralgia better; uterine troubles better; jerking commences.

Must lie (quietly on the back : in chest pains.

Rising from bed : dizzy.

Stooping : head swims.

Bending double : colic relieved ; menstrual troubles ameliorated.

Must change position : to quiet jerking, in bed.

Walking : aggravates soreness, aching and stiffness of tendo Achilles.

After walking in open air : headache relieved.

Can scarcely walk : from trembling of legs.

Must walk about : when restless and impatient.

Desire to move about : when restless.

Exertion : sighing, difficult respiration.

Motion : increases pain in head and eyeballs ; causes palpitation ; increases pain in right side of chest ; aggravates dull aching in back.

Going up stairs : aggravates feeling as if top of head would fly off; pain in eyes worse.

Moving the head : causes opening and shutting sensation of head ; produces cramps in muscles of neck.

Moving eyes : causes opening and shutting sensation of head.

Moving the eyelids : aggravates pain through left eye.

Moving the hands : increases the pains of stiff neck.

When writing : fingers tremble.

Clutches at breast : in puerperal mania.

Nerves p. 50

▌ Nervous shuddering through the upper and back part of the body.

▌ Twitching of fingers and toes.

▌ Trembling of the legs, scarcely able to walk.

Great debility between the menses.

Irregular motion of the limbs, worse left; legs unsteady. θ Chorea.

▌ Alternate tonic and clonic spasms. θ Spotted fever.

▌ Epilepsy, periodical convulsions, with uterine diseases.

▌ Hysteric spasms.

▌ Restless forenoon; desire to move about, not knowing where to go or what to do.

▌ Nervous uneasiness during the afternoon, so uneasy can scarcely fix his attention on any subject.

▌ Paralytic affections.

Limbs cold, twitching, subsultus. θ Puerperal fever.

Sleep p. 50

▌ Comatose state.

Sleeplessness: with excited brain. ▌ θ After nursing the sick. θ During pregnancy, θ Delirium tremens.

││ Cannot sleep, because she feels numb all over. θ After an abortion.

Sleepy but cannot sleep because of pain through left eye on closing lid.

Awakens 11 p.m. as in a fright.

▌ Unpleasant dreams of being in trouble or in a sad plight.

▌ After going to bed jerking commences on the side on which he is lying, must change position.

Time p. 50

Night : ciliary neuralgia worse ; facial neuralgia better ; sore throat awakens ; cough constant ; sweats ; fever with clammy sweat.

Morning : dizzy ; pains in eyeballs worse ; diarrhoea in teething children ; pulse feeble ; joints feel stut.

2 A.M. : violent headache.

Forenoon : restless.

10 A.M. : dull boring in forehead, chilliness, heat, languor.

▌▌ A.M. to noon: chilliness.

Day : mucous discharge in coryza ; facial neuralgia worse.

Afternoon : headache ; ciliary neuralgia ; uneasy, nervous.

5 P.M. : chill, heat and sweat.

Towards evening : pains in arms worse ; pain in region of tendo Achilles worse.

Evening : headache ; coryza dry ; hoarseness worse.

9 P.M. : headache disappears after a walk in open air.

▌▌ P.M. : awakes as if frightened.

Temperature and Weather p. 51

Cold air : seems to penetrate the system : aching pains in head and eyes sensitive to it ; larynx sensitive to it ; from exposure congestion to the chest ; causes stiff neck ; when suffering with flushes of heat wants to be in cold air.

Open air : relieves headache.

In-doors : headache, mostly occipital.

Fever p. 51

Chilliness down the back, from 11 to 12 m., with pain under left scapula.

Chilly before and during discharge, θ Dysmenorrhoea.

Chilliness, then heat; languid, stretches her limbs, 10 A.M.

Feet and hands cold, then hot.

Chill, then heat, then sweat, alternating with dryness of skin, 5 P.M.

Chills, cold tremors from the back ; hot flushes, then slight sweat on the abdomen.

Night-sweats, diarrhoea. θ Tuberculosis of the lungs.

Sweat smells offensive.

Skin cold and moist, θ Delirium tremens.

Fever during the night with clammy sweat, pulse 150 and small, with great prostration. θ Puerperal fever.

▌*^ Attacks. Periodical attacks of colic.

Pains come on suddenly.

Headache at intervals.

Headache every day at same hour.

Tendency to abort at third month.

Locality and Direction p. 51

Right : pains in head and back of orbit; ciliary neuralgia; pain in spermatic cord; pain in chest ; aching in great toe.

Left: dull boring over brow, aching and shooting in temple, eye and ear; pain in temple; infra-mammary pains; pain in chest ; arm numb and seems bound to the side ; irregular motions of arm ; aching down the leg ; pain under scapula, with chill.

Side to side : darting pains in uterine region ; pains in chest.

Behind forwards, diagonally : shooting pains through the head.

Below upwards : shooting pains through the head, ovarian pains ; aching and burning beginning in right toe.

Above downwards : shooting from occiput along neck ; sharp pains in lung; pain from heart ; pain in arms ; chilliness in the back.

Within outward : pressure of brain ; pressure of eyeballs.

Without inward: sharp pains with keratitis.

Sensations p. 52

Like electric shocks here and there.

▌▌ Sharp, lancinating pains in various parts, associated with ovarian or uterine irritation.

Whole body, especially the arms, feels numb.

▌ General bruised feeling as if sore.

Pricking all over.

Tissues p. 52

lllAifects the nerves, especially muscular nerves. θ Myalgia.

▌ Serous membranes.

▌ Chorea from rheumatic irritation.

*' Touch. Passive Motion. I Surface sensitive.

Pressure : relieves dull frontal headache ; desires it during vomiting ; aggravates tenderness over uterine region.

Must press with the hand ; during pain in right side of the chest.

Skin p. 52

Eruption of white pustules over the face and neck ; sometimes large, red, papular.

Prickling;, itching, heat of the whole surface.

*'' stages of Life, Constitution. Climacteric years.

▌ Nervousness from anxiety or overexertion.

▌▌ Rheumatic persons.

Children, teething; diarrhoea.

Relations p. 52

Side relations, Act. spic, and other Ranunculaceoe.

▌ Aeon, relieves the sleeplessness.

Act. spic, Bryon., and Puhat., similar in rheumatism.

Baptis. relieved headache and nausea.

▌▌ Oauloph. similar in uterine and rheumatic affections.

Compare: Pulsat., Sepia, Nat. mur., Lit tig., and Ignat.