Sabal Serrulata - General symptoms - Clarke

GENERAL

General

Serenoa serrulata. Saw Palmetto. (Sandy soils of sea coast South Carolina to Florida; most luxuriant nearest the sea.) N. O. Palmaceae. ($56$) Tincture of fresh ripe berries and seeds, all crushed-and macerated in 90 per cent. alcohol for fourteen days and decanted (Hale). ($5.6$) Fluid Extract, "probably four times stronger than the tincture" (Hale). ($56$) Oil (prepared from the expressed juice of the fruit by allowing it to stand a few days). ($56$) Saccharated Oil (one part of the oil to seven parts of cane sugar). (5) Malted Sabal (one part of the Oil to seven of Maltine). (6) Aqua Marina ^Aqua Olei Sabal (a preparation suggested by Hale made by triturating gtt. xvi. of the Oil with Magnesia Carbonica ^{Mag. carb}. one ounce, gradually adding a pint of distilled water and decanting. For use as a spray).

Appendicitis. Asthma, catarrhal. Atrophic pharyngitis. Atrophic rhinitis. Atrophy, Backache. Breasts, inflamed.

painful. atrophy of. Bronchitis. Catarrh. Cystitis. Dysmenorrhoea. Dysuria. Enuresis. Glands, affections of. Gleet. Gonorrhoea. Headache. Hoarseness. Impotence. Innutrition. Iritis. Lactation, defects of. Laryngitis, catarrhal. Lumbago. Menses, delayed. Neuralgia. Neurasthenia. Obesity. Ovaries, affections of. Peritonitis. Phthisis. Proctitis. Prostate, enlarged.

affections of. Puerperal fever. School-headache. Sterility. Strangury. Testes, atrophy of. Throat, sore.

catarrhal. Urine, incontinence of. Uterus, affections of.

misplacements of. tumours of. Whooping-cough.

In his little book entitled Saw Palmetto, Hale has put together most of our available knowledge respecting this plant.

It is a dwarf palm with creeping (or leaning), branching stem, the edges of leaf and petioles serrate, roots fibrous, large, half exposed.

The fruit (so-called" berry") is a one-seeded drupe about the size of an olive, dark purple when ripe, and ripening in October and November.

The branching spadices form large pendulous particles.

When eaten the taste is at first exceedingly sweet, but in a few seconds this is followed by an acrid, pungent sensation that spreads to fauces, nasal mucous membrane, and larynx.

Sabal Serrulata is in turn succeeded by a feeling of smoothness as if the parts had been coated with oil.

The seeds are enveloped in a tough, fibrous membrane, are very hard, and when cut show a white, oily substance, which burns with a blue flame, giving off an odour of roasted coffee.

The fruit is richer in sugar than sugar-cane, and contains two oils, one volatile and one fixed.

The volatile oil is considered to possess the most characteristic properties of the medicine.

Hale describes it as "yellow," but he quotes John Uri Lloyd, of Cincinnati, as writing to him, "The principal constituent is a volatile oil.

Sabal Serrulata oil possesses a deep green colour." And he goes on to say that the colour is not due to chlorophyll nor to the Cuprum Metallicum ^copper of the worm used in condensing it.

Sabal Serrulata agrees with Estep's contention that the preparation of Sabal should be dark-green or grass-green.

The preparation Estep used was a Fluid Extract prepared by Burrough Brothers, of Baltimore, from the fresh green berries." (Hale directs that the fresh ripe berries should be used.) The preparation used by Dr.

Mullin's prove was made by Boericke and Tafel.

All are agreed that preparations of the dried fruit and of the root-bark do not possess the curative powers of the remedy.

While on a hunting trip through the wilds of Florida Hale observed the great fattening properties of the berries on animals.

During summer food is scanty, and the wild animals become very thin, but as soon as the Palmetto fruit ripens they improve rapidly, and in a few weeks have put on so much fat that they become an easy prey to the hunter.

Sabal Serrulata fat, says Hale, "consists principally of olein, and will not make lard." Sabal serrulata was introduced into medicine by J. B. Read and A. A. Solomons, both of Savannah, Georgia.

Read gave a "Saccharated oil," of which he says "By its peculiar soothing power over the mucous membranes it produces sleep and relieves the most troublesome coughs, promotes expectoration, improves digestion, and increases fat, flesh, and strength.

It has been used with benefit in cardiac asthma, phthisis, especially laryngeal, chronic bronchitis, and dilatation of the bronchial tubes.

Its action in catarrhal affections is rapid and permanent.

A cold in the head may be checked with two or three doses (of the saccharated oil) mixed with boiling water, and used by inhalation it has been found beneficial in chronic ozaena." Dr.

Will Scott Mullins, of Louisville, Kentucky, published the first proving made for him by a former student of his, Miss Annie Roask.

Sabal Serrulata prover is described as a very intelligent lady of twenty-three, mediumly developed, small breasts, red hair, blue eyes, 5 feet 7 inches in height, weight, 109 pounds, bust measure 32 inches.

These details are important, as this prover developed some of the most characteristic effects of the drug, especially those of the mammary glands, and at the end of the proving (from December 8th to March 1st) her breasts had increased fully one-third in size, and her bust measure was 33 1/2 inches, and her weight 119 1/2 pounds.

Sabal Serrulata prover had also many symptoms in the head and ovaries.

Her symptoms are for the most part not distinguished from the others in the Schema, but when I have wished to distinguish them I have appended the letter (R).

Another remarkable proving by a woman is that of Dr.

Freda M. Langton, of Omaha, Nebraska.

Her symptoms, when distinguished, have the letter (L) appended.

Mind, bladder, ovaries, and uterus were all strongly affected in her case.

One symptom she developed was an irritability and depression; and sympathy did not merely agg. as with Nat Mur ^{Nat. m}., it made her angry. (This condition of mind was present in one of the prostatic cases cured by Sbl.) Dr.

Langton relates that she was unable to find in antidote, and suffered for three months after the proving before she found one.

In searching for a remedy for a case of dysmenorrhoea she found the leading symptoms under Silica Marina ^Silic., and it struck her that the symptoms of Silica Marina ^Silic. corresponded to her own symptoms.

She took it twice daily, and was better in two hours.

In three days all the bladder and ovarian trouble was gone. Silicea ^Sil. was also given to the dysmenorrhoea patient, but only partially relieved.

Sbl. was then given, and quickly and permanently cured.

Sbl. was proved by two men, Dr.

R. Boocock, and an unmarried prover whose symptoms are given by Hale (H. R., xiii. 103).

Both experienced well-marked symptoms in the genito-urinary sphere, including increased sexual power.

I have marked some of Boocock's symptoms (B).

Hale's prover had this urinary symptom, which be justly says may prove a valuable indication "Fears to fall asleep lest something should happen.

starts up with this fear as he is dozing." In all the provings the Ø tincture, or Fluid Extract, were used in from 5- to 10-drop doses, repeated two or three times a day.

and in the clinical use of the remedy a similar dosage has been adopted.

Sbl. is an organ remedy of great power, selecting the uterus and prostatic gland (which is the male analogue of the uterus), ovaries and testes and bladder.

But the provings are sufficiently detailed to warrant closer homoeopathising, and Dr.

Langton says that though she gives 5-drop doses four times daily in cases of over-worked brain and school-headache for the "tonic, nutritive, and stimulating" effect of the remedy she gives the 1x as soon as relief has been obtained, and she finds that the dilution often gives greater relief in the headaches than the larger closes.

Mullins also says (H. R., xii. 68) "I now found the use of the drug in the 3rd and 6th attenuation curative in nearly all of the diseases of the uterus and appendages.

Also in headache from reflexed uterine, troubles, in mammary abscess, mental irritations, and nervous debility.

It is indeed an anti-lean, and well deserves the name of "The Homoeopathic Catheter." But, he adds, it must be given on its individual indications.

W. E. Reily published (Hahn. Adv., December, 1898) these cases illustrating the prostatic action of Sbl. ($51$) Mr.

J., 56, very despondent; irritable.

Sympathy seemed to anger him.

Great tenesmus in neck of bladder, with heavy, aching pains, with sense of coldness extending into external genitals.

Occasional sharp pains extending up into abdomen and down into thighs.

Appetite capricious. Constipation chronic.

Urination too frequent, disturbing sleep.

Sbl. Ø was given, five drops night and morning.

Steady improvement followed, and in eight weeks all the symptoms had gone, and with them an annoying eczema of the hands. (2) Mr.

M., 45, for a year had gradually increasing frequency of micturition.

Despondent; distressed.

Appetite capricious. Vertex headache and gastric catarrh.

Little sexual desire; coitus followed by digging pain in back and tenesmus of bladder with difficulty in commencing to urinate.

Genitals cold, dull aching in region of prostate, extending to abdomen and thighs.

Sbl. Ø gradually relieved and cured in three weeks. (3) Mr.

E., 35. Frequent urination for 1 1/2 years.

Heavy, dragging pains, extending into back and thighs; back pains much agg. after coitus Considerable loss of prostatic fluid at times.

Sexual desire much impeded.

Severe headache on vertex and gastric catarrh.

All symptoms removed by Sbl. Ø. Hale says E. S. Evans, of Columbus, Ohio, considers Sbl. "almost specific in iritis when the prostate gland is involved.

Sbl. Ø, gtt. xv., four times a day, was prescribed.

At the end of the first week he complained of drawing pains in spermatic cords, there was freer flow of urine; he slept better and felt better.

At the end of the second week the testes were gradually increasing in size, tenderness of urethra had nearly disappeared, and erections were established.

In two weeks more the cure was complete, the testes were even larger and firmer than normal.

J. Martin Kershaw, of St.

Louis, treated a young lady of twenty-three who had had great difficulty in controlling her urine all her life.

Undue exertion, lifting, straining, laughing, caused it to dribble away.

Unless she rose several times in the night she was sure to wet the bed.

Sbl. Ø, gtt. i., four times a day, was given.

In one month she was much improved, and under the same remedy she gradually got quite well.

Elias C. Price reports these cases. ($51$) Very nervous lady with chronic inflammation of bladder, frequent painful urination, ten to twelve times in the night and every fifteen to thirty minutes during the day.

Spells of pressing pain on rectum, amel. by warm water enemas, which generally brought away hardened faeces. Lilium Tigrinum ^Lil. t. 3x removed this temporarily.

Rectal examination disclosed a hard fleshy tumour the size of half a hen's egg on the posterior aspect of the uterus.

Sbl. (Fluid Extract) gtt. v., thrice daily, diminished the tumour by half in two months, and removed it entirely in three more. (2) Mrs.

X., primapara, had, five days after confinement, irritation of kidneys, and a week later symptoms of pelvic peritonitis.

Uterus much enlarged, very tender.

Did not urinate very often, but when she did the pain was so excruciating that she fainted away, and sometimes did not come to for an hour.

For three days no remedy did any good.

Then she had violent pain right side of head above and behind the ear, and paralysis of left arm and leg; became unconscious and could not be aroused; at times would talk of things which had occurred before her illness; insensible to external impressions.

She remained thus ten days.

Sbl. (Fluid Extract), gtt. xx., every two hours, relieved the pain on being raised to urinate after the second dose.

Recovery from the other condition was very gradual. (3) Miss X., 22, had had irregular menses for years, having once gone nine months without a period.

When she came to Price she was three months past her time; one breast was much smaller than the other.

Sbl. (Fluid Extract), gtt. v., thrice daily.

In about a month the menses came on freely, lasted four days instead of the usual two.

Breasts began to increase in size.

In three months one was as large as the other.

The following year she again missed her time, and Sbl. brought it right in a week.

Price has cured with Sbl. cases of pelvic cellulitis, peritonitis, puerperal fever, inflammation of uterus, tubes, ovaries, and even appendicitis; and proctitis, especially if the prostatic gland is involved.

Showerman gave Hale a summary of his experience with Sbl. ($51$) A lady who had been for two years unable to rise in the morning without a cup of coffee and something to eat was cured with Sbl. in a week. (2) An impotent man was cured in thirty days. (3) Man, 76, enlarged prostate, had to use catheter for three years.

Cured in four months. (4) Man passing blood with urine for six months cured in two weeks. (5) Cases of incontinence. (6) A lady to whom he gave Sbl. for nervous debility had to discontinue it because "her sexual passions made her almost furious" from its use. (7) In catarrhal affections he found it very efficacious, and he cured himself with it in four months of a bronchial trouble of seven years' duration which no medicine had relieved before.

Mullins confirms the value of Sbl. in catarrhal states, which is one of the uses the remedy was put to by Read, who introduced it. Mullins says "In chronic bronchitis, with a wheezing, hard cough, agg. on lying down till 6 am. agg. in damp, cool air and cloudy weather, it is promptly curative." The fattening properties of Sbl. have been utilised in medicine. For this purpose it has been given in the form of Saccharated oil (gr. x. to gr. lx.) or Sabal Maltine. The Aqua Marina ^Aqua Sabal Hale found useful as a spray. The symptoms are agg. in early morning.

from rising to bedtime. agg. By motion. amel. After sleep. Backache agg. after coitus. Catarrhal symptoms are agg. in cold, damp weather. Cough agg. on lying down at night. agg. Before menses (depression). Stinging pains appear to be characteristic. Wandering, radiating, and cramping pains were also prominent. Sbl. has several groups of associated regions of pain pains affecting head and ovary.

ovaries and breasts. lower back and right temple.

prostate and eye.

In nursing woman, for four months after confinement, stinging pain in both breasts, agg. r., commencing at nipple and extending into and pervading entire gland about fifteen minutes after child had been at breast.

caused excessively nervous state and affected whole body.

Helonias Dioica ^Helon. relieved somewhat, Sabal Ø cured in two days.