Senega - General symptoms

GENERAL

General

A sort of aching pain in the head, in the sinciput and occiput, not increased by pressure.

this headache came on every day, and was especially felt when sitting in a warm room.

it was accompanied with a pressure in the eyes, which did not bear touch. On the fifth day nausea supervened after dinner, with inclination to vomit. The pain seemed to be relieved by leaning the head quietly on the arm, but exercise in the open air diarrhoea would set in, which however was not the case. After the nausea had passed off, after the lapse of one hour and a quarter, a peculiar though not unpleasant sensation was felt in the parotid gland, and a simple pain in the pit of the stomach, rather external,.

Pulse 68 (before the experiment).

72 (in five and ten minutes).

76 (in fifteen minutes).

78 (in twenty minutes).

80 (in thirty and forty minutes).

78 (in sixty, seventy-five, and ninety minutes).

72 (in one hundred and five and one hundred and twenty minutes).

68 (in one hundred and fifty minutes). Pulse was increased in force as well as in frequency,.

Catarrhal symptoms, especially of the respiratory tract, and distinct eye symptoms of a paralytic type, are most characteristic. Circumscribed spots in chest left after inflammations.

Sub-acute, catarrhal or paretic states; of old people or fat, chubby children Lax tissues

Profuse, albuminous secretions

Burning in air-passages

Headache, into eyes, better cool air

Eye-balls feel distended

Bends head backward for better diplopia, ptosis, etc

Eye-balls feel like balls of ice

Sneezes, until dizzy

Coppery taste

Dry scraping in mouth, throat and chest; worse talking

Nausea

Shreddy urine

Hoarse, unsteady voice; worse sexual losses

Wheezing

Emphysema

Cough, incessant; strangling, choking ends in sneezing; worse lying on right side or evening

Loose rattle in chest, but the profuse, clear expectoration is tough and slips back

Blood-tinged or albuminous expectoration

Chest sore (in spots), as if bruised; shifting pains on stooping

As of a crushing weight on or weakness starting from chest

Pleuro-pneumonia

Polygala senega. Seneca Bothrops Lanceolatus ^Snake-root. N. O. Polygalaceae. Tincture of powdered dried root.

Amblyopia. Ascites. Asthma. Bladder, irritable.

catarrh of. Blepharitis ciliaris. Bronchitis. Constipation. Cornea, opacity of. Cough. Enuresis. Facial paralysis. Hay-fever. Hydrothorax. Hypopion. Influenzinum ^Influenza. Iritis. Oesophagus, stricture of.

catarrh of. Phthisis mucosa. Pleurisy. Pneumonia. Bothrops Lanceolatus ^Snake-bites. Sneezing fits of.

at end of cough. Styes. Throat, sore. Whooping-cough.

Senega was introduced to medical practice by Dr.

Tennant, of Virginia, who was led to test its properties through hearing that the Indians used it as an antidote to Bothrops Lanceolatus ^snake-bites.

As it relieved the symptoms of Bothrops Lanceolatus ^snake venom, Tennant concluded that it might also relieve dyspnoea, cough, and haemoptysis arising from other causes, and gave it with success in cases of pneumonia, pleurisy, and Hydro-thorax (Teste).

Other old-school practitioners used it as an expectorant in chronic respiratory catarrh, acute phthisis, rheumatic fever, dropsies, incipient cataract, croup.

It is at present regarded as "a stimulant, diaphoretic, and expectorant, especially in chronic bronchitis." It is in affections of the chest, eyes, and bladder that homoeopaths have found it of most service, and the extensive provings have supplied excellent data for prescribing.

Teste (who includes Seneg. with Acid Phos ^{Phos. ac}., Chamomilla ^Cham. and Cantharis ^Canth. in his Conium Mac ^Conium group) considers it specially suited to "females of slender and tall make, thin, but having retained a good deal of sprightliness and moral power." He cites this case in which it gave great relief Lady, 45, had contusion, pressive, sometimes cramping, very old pains in chest, anterior wall of which was sensitive to contact (on both sides).

pains at times agg., at times amel. in open air.

respiratory mucus at apices feeble, without rhoncus.

dyspnoea when walking, and especially when going up stairs.

paroxysms of vesicular agitation in chest as if she would faint.

catarrhal cough, not very frequent, with ropy, not very profuse expectoration.

spitting of red blood now and then.

paroxysms of palpitations, during which the rhythm of the heart changed to an almost imperceptible tremor, and which, in some instances, lasted all night, and even longer.

menses regular. the palpitation generally took place after the period or in consequence of some moral emotion.

Senega patient was apparently of the type Teste mentions, and the case shows that the correspondence of type must not be too closely considered, for other observers, including myself, have found Seneg. more suited to plethoric, phlegmatic persons.

persons tending to obesity.

fat persons of lax fibre.

fat, chubby children. and old persons.

Senega is one of the sources of Saponin.

It has a nauseous taste, and leaves a scraping sensation in the throat.

Guernsey outlines its action thus "Where there is a great burning in the chest, either before or after coughing; profuse secretion of mucus.

Dryness of inner parts which are usually moist; dry skin.

General affections of the windpipe.

left side of chest particularly.

right eye. lower eyelids." Nash (who has only obtained success with low attenuations of Seneg.) has cured many cases of "cough with great accumulation of mucus which seems to fill the chest, with much rattling, wheezing, and difficult breathing." It is especially valuable, he says, with old people, but works well with others.

I have used Seneg. only in the 30th, and have found it answer to its indications exceedingly well.

In the case of a very stout elderly lady, of phthisical family history, who had pneumonia of both bases, especially right, very violent paroxysmal cough, with ropy, difficult expectoration tinged with blood, Seneg. 30 quickly relieved a very dangerous condition when other remedies had failed.

Leading indications for Seneg. in chest cases are ($51$) Great accumulation of clear albuminous mucus, which is difficult to expel. (2) Great soreness of walls of chest. (3) Pressure on chest as though lungs were forced back to spine.

Whooping-cough in fat, chubby children, clear mucus like white of egg, difficult to raise, cough agg. towards evening.

The soreness of the chest walls makes Seneg. appropriate to cases of pleurodynia.

There is hoarseness, and the throat is so dry and sensitive it hurts the patient to talk.

Cough often ends in sneezing.

Clinton Enos (quoted A. H., xxiv. 253) relates this case A very fat girl, aet. 10, with cold, damp feet and hands and sweating about the head, had spells of sneezing for two years, ever since whooping-cough.

Several spells a day lasting about half an hour.

Sharp pains in chest and temples during the attacks.

In nose a large quantity of mucus with stuffed-up feeling.

One dose of Seneg. 200 removed the whole trouble in a week.

A. R. Macmichael (N. A. J. H., xl. 824) cured Mrs.

B., 40, of acute Catarrhal laryngitis which had lasted ten days with Seneg. 1. There was hoarseness; hawking of thick, tenacious mucus (profuse, a quart in twenty-four hours) from larynx, especially in morning, with burning sensation.

Relief set in within three hours from first dose.

Seneg. acts on the eyes even more powerfully than on the nose, producing pains, inflammation both of the exterior and interior of the eye and lids, and much disorder of vision.

The eye troubles are agg. when looking intently at an object; and another modality brought out in the proving has taken the rank of a keynote amel.

Bending head backwards.

The symptom in which it was first noticed was this "When walking towards the setting sun he seemed to see another smaller sun hover below the other, assuming a somewhat oval shape when looking down, disappearing on bending the head backwards, and on closing the eyes." The prover took from 40 to 60 drops of the tincture. "agg.

Bending head forward" and "agg. stooping" are scarcely less characteristic.

Eye symptoms as an accompaniment of head symptoms indicate Seneg. "Violent rush of blood to head when stooping, especially to eyeballs, where a painful pressure is experienced." Extreme tenderness is another note of Seneg. "A sort of aching pain in head, in sinciput, and occiput, not agg. by pressure.

agg. sitting in warm room.

accompanied with pressure in eyes, which did not bear touch." Pressure.

dulness. heaviness are the leading head sensations.

There is painful sensitiveness of hearing.

The digestive organs are disordered.

Seneg. has been used as an emetic.

The urinary organs are very prominently affected, irritability and catarrh being the leading effects.

There is frequent urging, scalding in urethra before or after micturition, and the urine is loaded with mucous threads.

Peculiar Sensations of Seneg. are Eyes, as if they were pressed out; as if eyeballs were being expanded; as if soap in eyes.

As if red pepper throughout nostrils and air passages.

As if chest too narrow.

Dyspnoea as from stagnation in lungs.

As if lungs pushed back to spine.

As if chest would burst.

Wrist as if sprained. Joints as if lame.

Seneg. has the gnawing hunger and empty feeling well marked.

It is predominantly left-sided in its action.

The symptoms are agg. by touch and pressure (but pressure on left side amel.). agg.

Rubbing. Most symptoms agg. rest; amel. walking in open air.

Rest amel. dry cough. Lying down = tickling in larynx; fear of suffocation.

Lying on right side = pain in chest.

Motion = pain under sternum.

Motion of arms = soreness of walls of chest. agg.

Going up stairs. Stepping hard, walking fast, or running = pain through mediastinum; piercing pain between scapulae. amel.

Bending head back. agg.

Stooping; bending forward. agg.

Morning; and night. Whooping cough agg. towards evening. agg.

In warm air; in warm room.

Lachrymation, sore chest.

Cough and chilliness agg. in open or cold air.

Sweat amel. agg. Looking intently at an object.

Seneca Bothrops Lanceolatus ^Snake-root. Polygallaceae.

Senega is an old lung tonic, and I suspect it has been an ingredient in most of the lung medicines for the last one hundred years.

It has been only partially proved, and needs further proving to bring out its particulars. When a medicine has been fully proved, it can be said of it that its symptoms are so well known that they can be examined as an image, i. e., the drug has affected all portions of man in such a manner as to stamp itself upon all of his natural actions and functions in a way peculiar to itself. Senega has done some wonderful things, and these results in many instances can be only attributed to mere guesswork. This is about all that can be said in favor of careless and loose. prescribing.

From its most striking action on the mucous membrane of the air passages, its chief use has been in chest complaints, asthmatic complaints, in various forms of dyspnoea, cardiac and asthmatic. There are violent pains in the chest, especially like those of pleurisy. It has also symptoms like pneumonia.

one of its most useful spheres is in pleuro-pneumonia. The pleuro-pneumonia of cattle has almost found its specific in Senega.

The finding of specifics is more likely to be true of animals than of human beings, as a remedy that is only partially indicated - may cure an animal, but it requires much finer discrimination among remedies in dealing with human beings.

A violent attack of pleurisy associated with pneumonia, too deep and too vicious for Bryonia ^Bryonia, often finds its remedy in Senega Senega is a sort of cross between Bryonia ^Bryonia and Rhus Tox ^{Rhus tox}. The violent symptoms are those of Bryonia ^Bryonia, yet it is worse from rest, unlike Bryonia ^Bryonia The symptoms of Senega are not so much like Rhus Tox ^{Rhus tox}., but it has an amelioration like that of Rhus Tox ^{Rhus tox}, better from motion, the pains being worse when at rest.

The chest pains, rheumatic pains and inflammatory pains are worse during rest, but the cough is made worse from motion and the asthmatic troubles are made worse from the slightest motion. The Senega patient cannot walk up hill; he cannot walk against the wind, because it brings on chest symptoms and dyspnoea.

The rattling in the chest is as marked as in Antimonium Tartaricum ^{Antimonium tartaricum} the tenacious mucus is as copious, as gluey and stringy as in Kali Bich ^{Kali bichromicum}, so much is this the case that he can get it only part way up, and with a spasmodic effort he swallows it, like Spongia Tosta ^Spongia and Causticum ^Causticum.

Senega is a remedy of deep action, as well as an acute remedy. It is filled with sharp and acute sufferings, sufferings that come on with rapidity, from taking cold, or from a cold that involves the whole chest.

"Paralysis of the muscles of the eyes."

"Iritis and specks upon the cornea."

"Paresis of the superior oblique."

"Aching over the orbits."

"Eyes pain as if pressed out."

"Blepharitis."

It has cured opacity of the vitreous humor.

"Aphonia from severe cold or excessive use of the voice."

"Constant tickling and burning in the larynx, leaving the patient not a moment's rest and preventing him from lying down; fear of suffocation."

When Senega is indicated there is a dryness in the mouth and throat, and the cough is incessant; there is a constant metallic coppery taste in the mouth and throat, as if he were coughing up pulverized Cuprum Metallicum ^copper.

"Grippe, with stitches in right eye when coughing."

"Laryngeal phthisis."

"Copious accumulation of tough mucus in air-tubes, which causes the greatest often ineffectual, efforts at coughing and hawking for its expulsion."

Senega thick, tough mucus will lead most routine prescribers to give such medicines as Kali Bich ^{Kali bichromicum}, Lachesis ^Lachesis and Mercurius Corrosivus ^{Mercurius corrosivus}, entirely overlooking the usefulness of Senega

It is a remedy of very wide range in complaints of the chest, larynx and trachea, in the severe "colds" that settle in these parts, especially when associated with tenacious mucus, so tenacious that he cannot cough it up.

it seems at times that he will strangle.

he will cough and vomit in the effort to expel the mucus, but it seems to disappear and he does not know where it goes.

"Sensation as if the chest were too narrow."

"Most violent suffocation with asthma."

"Short breathing and oppression of chest when going up stairs."

"Dyspnoea especially during rest."

"Dry cough with aphonia; worse in cold air and from walking," is like Phosphorus ^Phosphorus and Rumex Acetosa ^Rumex.

Those two remedies cause a cough, which commences when he first goes into the air. Senega, has another feature like Phosphorus ^Phosphorus, in that the cough is so violent that it makes him shake from head to foot.

it brings on a tremulous feeling all over the body. He coughs from inhaling cold air.

the cough is violent and the expectoration most difficult. In old, chronic catarrh of the chest for the earlier stages of which Bryonia ^Bryonia was the most similar remedy, with this thick, tough, ropy mucus,.

Senega is most suitable, and even when the patient is in the last stages of consumption. The symptoms become most troublesome, the gagging and coughing and effort to expectorate because of the thick, ropy mucus, are very distressing.

He breaks out in a cold sweat, especially on the upper part of the body. The chest is full of coarse rales from the tough mucus which he cannot expectorate. We think in such a case of remedies like Antimonium Tartaricum ^{Antimonium Tart}aricum, Pyrogenium ^Pyrogen, Kali Bich ^{Kali bichromicum}, etc., but Senega is just as suitable, especially when there is a great amount of dryness in the throat and larynx, dryness in the throat during sleep and observed on waking, and inability to expectorate the tough ropy mucus.

"Shaking cough," i. e., the cough is so violent that it shakes the whole frame.

The concussion from the cough causes discharge of urine involuntarily and causes violent pains in the head and over the eyes. Senega, is called for especially in those cases where the pleura has been involved at one stage or the other.

The pains are increased and it seems as if the chest would be torn on coughing.

"Walls of the chest sensitive or painful when touched."

"Profuse secretion of mucus in lungs of old people."

Senega is one of the leading remedies for the tough mucus and coarse rales in old people without any other symptoms. It very often clears the throat and helps to patch up an old man when he is breaking down.

"Great rattling of mucus in chest and flying pains in chest-"

It has sometimes cured pleuro-pneumonia when there was the extreme exhaustion of Phosphorus ^Phosphorus and Arsenicum Album ^Arsenicum In such cases Senega has caused reaction.

it has such weakness. Especially is it suited in the advanced cases of phthisis, when those symptoms that I have mentioned are present.

It acts as a palliative. It does excellent patch work without serious aggravations, as it relates more especially to superficial conditions. It is not as deep acting as Sulphur ^Sulphur and Silicea ^Silicea. We give such remedies only when we have a reasonable assurance that we can cure, when the patient is yet curable.

But when we have given up all hope, then we pay more attention to the most painful parts; we pay more attention to the local symptoms, to the group which causes the most suffering and attempt to do patch work.

If the sufferings in the chest and the exhaustion become most severe it is true that Arsenicum Album ^Arsenicum will patch him up a little and make him feel more like life, and he will go on to the end with more comfort. If the pains in the chest are most severe such medicines as Senega or Bryonia ^Bryonia will help him.

if he is sore and feels as if bruised and he most move from side to side Arnica ^Arnica will relieve.

but these are not the remedies to go deep into the life and eradicate a deep-seated disease like phthisis.

Yet with these one may take a consumptive patient in comfort to the very grave, by simply patching him up and prescribing for his immediate sufferings. Homoeopathic remedies give these incurable sufferers much greater comfort than sprays and anodynes.

The pains of the chest are worse during rest and on inspiring. Stitching pains in the chest when lying on the right side. Great soreness in the walls of the chest. Pain under right scapula when coughing. The chest pains are better while walking in the open air.

Dose

Tincture, to thirtieth potency.

Region

MUCOUS and serous membranes CHEST

Eyes Nose

Bladder

Muscles

Left side