Materia Medica
Gelsemium
Yellow Jasmine
Centers its action upon the nervous system, causing various degrees of motor paralysis. General prostra- tion. I Dissincss, drowsiness, dullness, and trembling. Slow pulse, tired feeling. mental apathy. Paralysis of various groups of muscles about the eyes, throat, chest, larynx, sphincter, extremities, etc. Muscular weakness. Complete relaxation and prostration. Lack of mus- cular co-ordination. General depression from heat of sun.S Sensitive to a falling barometer; cold and damp ness brings on many complaints. Children fear falling, grab nurse or crib. Sluggish circulation. Nervous af- fect
Mind
Desire to be quiet, to be left alone. Dull- ess, languor, listless. "Discernings are lethargied." Delirious on falling to sleep. Emotional excitement, fear. etc., lead to bodily ailments. Bad effects from fright, fear, exciting news. Stage fright. Child starts and grasps the nurse, and screams as if afraid of fall- ing. [Bor.]
Head
V'ertigo, spreading from occiput. Heaviness of head; band-feeling around and occipital headache. Dull, heavy ache, with heaviness of eyelids; bruised sensation; better, compression and lying with head high. Pain in temple, extending into car and ing of nose, chin. Headache, with muscular soreness of neck and shoulders. Headache preceded by blindness; better, pro- fuse urination. Scalp sore to touch. Delirious on fall- ing asleep. Wants io have head raised on pillow.
Eyes
Ptosis ; eyelids heavy ; patient can hardly open them. Double vision. Vision blurred, smoky. [Cycl.; Phos.] Dim-sighted; pupils dilated and insensible to light. Orbital neuralgia, with contraction and twitching of muscles. Bruised pain back of the orbits. ( One pupil dilated, the other contracted. Deep inflammations, with haziness s of vitreous. Serous inflammations. Albu- minuric retinitis. Detached retina, glaucoma and descemetitis. Hysterical amblyopia.
Ears
Feeling of a lump in throat that cannot be swal- lowed. Aphonia. Swallowing causes pain in ear. [Hep.; Nux.] Difficult swallowing. Pain from throat to ear.
Nose
Sneezing; fullness at root of nose. Dryness of nasal fossa. Swelling of turbinates. Watery, ex- coriating discharge. Acute coryza, with dull headache and fever.
Face
Hot heavy, fushcd, besotted-looking. [Bapt.; Op.] Neuralgia of face. Dusky hue of face, with vertigo and dim vision. Facial muscles contracted, es- pecially around the mouth. Chin quivers. Lower jaw dropped.
Mouth
Putrid taste and breath. Tongue nuinb, thick, coated, yellowish, tremblrs, paraylzed.
Throat
Difficult swallowing, especially of warm food. Itching and tickling in soft palate and naso- pharynx. Pain in sterno-cleido-mastoid, back of parotid. Tonsils swollen. Throat feels rough, burning. Post- diphtheritic puralysis. Tonsillitis; shooting pain into
Stomach
As a rule, the Gelsemium patient has no .thirst. Hiccough; worse in the evening. Sensation of emptiness and weakness at the pit of the stumach, or of an oppression, like a heavy load.
Stool
Diarrhoea from emotional excitement, fright, bad news. [Phos. ac.] St(col painless or involuntary. Cream-colored [Calc.], tea-green. Partial paralysis of Kectum and sphincter. Urine.—Profuse, clear, atery, with chilliness and tremulousness. Dysuria. Partial paralysis of bladder; flow intermittent. [Clematis.]
Male
Spermatorrhaa, without erections. Genitals cold and relaxed. [Phos. ac.] Scrotum continually sweating. Gonorrhoea, first stage; discharge scanty; tendency to corrode; little pain, but much heat; smart- ing at meatuis.
Female
Rigid os. [na] Vaginismus. False labor-pains; pains pass up back. Dysmenorrhoea, with scanty flow; menses retarded. Pain extends to back and hips. Aphonia and sore throat during menses. Sen- sation as if uterus were squeezed. [Cham.; Nux v.; Ustilago.]
Respiratory
Slowness of breathing, with great prostration. Oppression about chest. Dry cough, with sore chest and fluent coryza. Spasm of the glottis. Aphonia; 'acute bronchitis, respiration quickened, spas- modic affections of lungs and diaphragm.
Heart
A feeling as if it were necessary to keep in motion, or clse hicart's action would cease. S Slow pulse. [Dig.; Kal.; Apoc. can.] Palpitation; pulse soft, weak, full and owing. Pulse slow when quiet, but greatly accelerated on motion. Weak, slow pulse of old age.
Back
Dull, heavy pain. Complete relaxation of the whole muscular system. Languor; muscles feel bruised. Every little exertion causes fatigue. Pain in neck, es- pecially upper sterno-cleido muscles. Dull aching in lumbar and sacral region, passing upward. Pain in muscles of back, hips, and lower extremities, mostly deep-seated.
Extremities
Loss of power of muscular control. Cramp in muscles of furearm. Professional neuroses. Writer's cramp. Excessive trembling and weakness of all limbs. Hysteric convulsions. Fatigue after slight exercise.
Skin
Hot, dry, itcling, mcaslc-like eruption. Erysipelas. Measles, catarrhal symptoms; aids in bring- ing out eruption. Retrocedent, with livid spots. Scar- let fever with stupor and flushed face.
Sleep
Cannot get fully to sleep. Delirious on falling asleep. Insomnia from exhaustion; from un- controllable thinking; tobacco. Yawning. Sleepless from nervous irritation. [Coffea.]
Fever
Wants to be held, because he shakes so. Pulse slow, full, soft, compressible. Chilliness up and down back. Heat and sweat stages, long and exhaust- ing. Dumb-ague, with much muscular soreness, great prostration, and violent headache. Nervous chills. Bilious remittent fever, with stupor, dizziness, faint- ness; thirstless, prostrated. Chill, without thirst, along spine; wave-like, extending upward from sacrum to occiput.
Modalities
Worse, damp weather, fog, before a thunder-storm, emotion, or excitement, bad nezws, to- bacco-smoking, when thinking of his ailments; at 10 A.M. Better, bending forward,·by profuse urination, open air, continued motion, stimulants.
Relationships
Compare: Ignatia (gastric affections of cigarmakers); Baptisa; Ipecac.; Acon.: Bell.; Cimicif.; Magnes. phos. (Gelsem. contains some Mag- nes. phos.) Antidotes: China; Coffea; Dig.
Dose
Tincture, to thirtieth attenuation; first to most often used. 351