Apocynum Cannabinum

The clinical effects of Strophanthus and the symptoms produced on patients to

whom it has been given in large doses, clearly show the relationship between it and Apocynum.

Both produce intense gastric disturbance, extreme depression of the heart's action, and both

• ▸control dropsical effusions and produce diuresis.
• ▸Apo.
• ▸c.
• ▸depresses the heart, kidneys, and

intestines, relaxing sphincters. It causes an intense sinking sensation; drowsiness and a

• ▸bewildered state of mind.
• ▸Dizziness.
• ▸Heemorrhages.
• ▸The dropsies of Apocynum are general

dropsies with or without organic disease; swelling of every part of the body; cardiac dropsies.

The excretions are diminished, especially urine and sweat. Hydrocephalus has been cured with it:

"Child lying in stupor, with constant involuntary motion of one arm and leg." "Paralysis of left

side; one eye motionless, one rolling."

Three cases of neuralgia of the right side—groin, hip, and in one case region of right

kidney—have been cured with this remedy. All were violent, extorting cries. In one case the pain

set in very suddenly and the slightest jar aggravated. Hale says the kidneys are the peculiar seat

of the operation of the drug, and that it is in renal dropsies that it is especially curative. It has

cured diabetes insipidus with "a sense of sinking in the pit of the stomach with great debility."

Heemorrhages, especially menorrhagia, and hemorrhages at the change of life have been cured

with it. Hale has found it restore the menses when given in cases of dropsy.

Diarrhcea is < immediately after eating. Food or water is immediately ejected, though hungry.

There is < on waking in the morning. Many of the symptoms are < after sleep.

Bewildered. Low spirited.

• ▸Dizzy.
• ▸—Very marked piercing pain in r.
• ▸temple followed by vertigo.
• ▸—Vertigo

suddenly appearing and disappearing.—Hydrocephalus: stupor, sight of one eye totally lost, the

other nearly so; forehead projecting; sutures open; stage of exudation.

• ▸Long-continued sneezing.
• ▸Snuffles of children (Sambucus).
• ▸Chronic nasal catarrh with tendency to acute stuffiness with dull, sluggish memory.
• ▸Dull headache.
• ▸Takes cold easily, nostrils become congested and blocked up easily.

Violent coryza.—Nose and throat filled with thick yellow mucus on waking in

• ▸morning.
• ▸—("Snuffles" in infants.
• ▸).
• ▸—Peculiar dryness of mucous membranes of nose with

sensation of stiffness, followed by secretion of thick yellow mucus, preceded in some cases by a

thin, irritating discharge.

Dry tongue, immoderate thirst——Tongue coated.—Constant spitting, increase of

mucus and saliva.

• ▸Nausea, with drowsiness.
• ▸Thirst on walking.
• ▸Excessive vomiting.
• ▸Food or water is immediately ejected.
• ▸Dull, heavy, sick feeling.
• ▸Oppression in epigastrium and chest, impeding breathing (Lobelia infl).
• ▸Sensation of sinking in stomach.
• ▸Abdomen bloated.
• ▸Ascites.

Thirst on waking.—Great thirst; but water disagrees, causing pain, and is

immediately thrown off (Ars.).—Cannot tolerate food or drink, which is immediately

ejected.—Distension after a moderate meal.—Feels hungry, but when she eats it settles in

epigastrium, turns sour, and hurts.—Extreme epigastric sinking.—Oppression at epigastrium and

chest excessive, can hardly, get breath enough to smoke a cigar.—Ascites, often with chronic

diarrheea.

Watery, flatulent, with soreness in anus; worse after eating. Feeling as if sphincter were open and stools ran right out.

Gentle diarrhoea in the morning, no pain —Diarrhcea explosive, involuntary

immediately after eating.—Stool copious, yellow or brownish, like mush; sometimes containing

undigested food.—Extreme prostration after stool—Constipation though faeces not hard.—Piles

with feeling as of a wedge being hammered into anus.—Tenesmus of rectum.—Bearing-down

pain in anus.—Evacuations very scanty—Watery stools—Symptoms always immediately after

eating.

Urinary organs torpid, urine scanty, but flows as easily as oil—Severe

expulsive pains of bladder.—Urine copious and almost involuntary from relaxed

sphincters.—Profuse light-coloured urine; no sediment.—Enuresis.

• ▸Bladder much distended.
• ▸Turbid, hot urine, with thick mucus and burning in urethra, after urinating.
• ▸Little expulsive power.
• ▸Dribbling.
• ▸Strangury.
• ▸Renal Dropsy.

Amenorrhoea, with bloating; metrorrhagia with nausea; fainting, vital depression. Haemorrhages at change of life. Blood expelled in large clots.

Exhausting menorrhagia (continuous or paroxysmal).—Blood

expelled in large clots, sometimes in fluid state-——Amenorrhcea in young girls; abdomen and legs

bloated.

• ▸Short, dry cough.
• ▸Respiratory short and unsatisfactory.
• ▸Sighing.
• ▸Oppression about epigastrium and chest.

Oppression; can scarcely speak; speaks in sharp staccato; must take

deep breaths. —Violent hoarse cough, < at night ——Hzemoptysis.—Cough short and dry, loose and

rattling with oppression.—Short, unsatisfactory respirations.

Tricuspid regurgitation; rapid and feeble, irregular cardiac action, low arterial tension, pulsating jugulars, general cyanosis and general dropsy.

Flutterings, dartings, prostrated feeling in cardiac region —Quick, sharp, catching

pain in heart with palpitation —Pulse slow, laboured.—Irregular, intermittent, at times feeble, then

• ▸slow.
• ▸—Pulse quick, feeble when moved.
• ▸—Fainting on moving the head.
• ▸—Palpitation troublesome

on walking; heart action scarcely perceptible.

Great restlessness and little sleep.

Drowsy in afternoon, restless at night—Stupor.—On going to bed desire to sleep, but

inability to do so——Drowsy before and after nausea and vomiting.

Body covered with large drops of cold sweat.—Dropsy after scarlet fever; after abuse

of quinine.

• ▸Ascites.
• ▸Catarrh.
• ▸Coryza.
• ▸Diabetes insipidus.
• ▸Diarrhoea.
• ▸Dropsies.
• ▸Enuresis.
• ▸Heart,

• ▸affections of.
• ▸Hydrocephalus.
• ▸Menorrhagia.
• ▸Metrorrhagia.
• ▸Nausea.
• ▸Neuralgia.
• ▸Snuffles.

Tobacco-heart. Urinary difficulties. Vomiting.

• ▸Compare: Apoc.
• ▸andr.
• ▸, Alstonia const.
• ▸, Strophanth.
• ▸, Acet.
• ▸ac.
• ▸, Apis (thirstless in

• ▸dropsies), Arsen.
• ▸, Bell.
• ▸, Bry.
• ▸, Chi.
• ▸, Colch.
• ▸, Digit.
• ▸(dropsy; slow pulse), Elat.
• ▸, Helleb.

• ▸(hydrocephalus; ascites); Alo.
• ▸, Gamb.
• ▸, and Trombid.
• ▸(diarrhoea), K.
• ▸ca.
• ▸, Lyc.
• ▸, Merc.
• ▸, Merce.
• ▸sul.
• ▸,

• ▸the Loganiacezee—Nux v.
• ▸, Ignat.
• ▸, Curare; Spig.
• ▸, Scill.
• ▸, Sul.
• ▸, Verat.

• ▸Cymarin is the active principle of Apocyn, lowers pulse rate and increases blood-pressure.
• ▸Strophanthus (extreme cardiac depression with intense gastric disturbance; dropsy).
• ▸Aralia hispida-Wild Elder-a valuable diuretic, useful in dropsy of the cavities, either due to hepatic or renal disease with constipation.
• ▸Urinary disorders, especially with dropsy.
• ▸Scudder advises doses of five to thirty drops in sweetened cream of tartar, (Solution).
• ▸Apis, Arsenic, Digital; Helleb.

Tincture (ten drops three times daily) and in acute alcoholism 1 dram of decoction in 4 oz water.

This remedy comes in as a good one to contrast with Apis. You

will find it analogous in its symptoms and much like the complaints

cured by Apis. You will be astonished in going over the dropsical

condition, the rheumatic condition, the tumefaction of the cellular

tissues, the dropsy of the sacs, the scanty urine resulting in dropsy ; the

inflammatory swellings with oedema, at the great resemblances ; and

if you were to start in with two cases and work them out from their

particulars, and if one feature were left out, the aggravation and the

amelioration, the cold and the heat, in many cases you would not be

able to distinguish between Apis and Apocynum, §o near alike are their

swellings, their bleedings, their distensions, and their disturbances.

Both are remedies for dropsy ; routinists will try first Apis, and then

they try Apocynum, and then they will try something else that is good

for dropsy.

But all the way through this medicine is aggravated from cold, the

patient himself is aggravated from cold. His complaints are worse

from cold applications. In his distended, dropsical state, he is chilly,

sensitive to air. He is sensitive to cold drinks. He has a pain in the

stomach, and even vomits, from cold drinks. Pain in the abdomen

from cold drinks. Uneasiness here and there in the body when cold

things are in the stomach ; you see at once how different that is from

Apts. Anyone who follows symptom hunting and does not distinguish

between circumstances that relate to the patient and modalities that

relate to symptoms cannot appreciate these two grand distinctions,

where the one patient is aggravated from heat and the other one ameliorated by heat, in all complaints.

The excretions are all diminished. The urine is scanty. The skin

is dry. No matter what his complaints are, he cannot sweat. He

feels if he could only perspire he would get well. There is no outthrow of water. He drinks plentifully, and it goes into the cellular

tissues to distend them, and he becomes dropsical. He has a water

constitution, one that takes in water and lets out none. He passes

little water, and he perspires scantily or none at all ; his skin is dry,

sometimes hot, yet he is chilly. The skin feels husky and rough, but

he is chilly. Apis suffers dreadfully from dry skin, from scanty urine ;

yet Apis is aggravated everywhere from heat and ameliorated from

cold. That is the grand distinguishing feature in the dropsies and

rheumatisms and many internal complaints. ‘'Dropsy of serous mcmbranes.’* Dropsy of the brain, pericardium, pleura, peritoneum ; all

of these are distended with serum. And there is great suffering, great

uneasiness. The inflammatory rheumatism is again like Apis, in that

it takes on dropsy with it. Inflammation of the joints, of the anklejoints, of the toes, of the fingers, inflammation of the joints all over the

body. The swelling about the joint pits upon pressure like Apis,

But with the scanty urine, want of sweat, with the febrile condition,

he is all the time chilly, and wants the parts well wrapped where Apis

wants them uncovered. One might say, “Why, that is only one symptom.” All who do not perceive the difl’erence between symptoms

predicated of the patient and symptoms predicated of the parts will

see that as only one symptom with the rest of them. When he takes

up a case and works it out in. the Repertory he will use it as one symptom. Yet that feature will sometimes rule out all the rest, because

it is predicated of the patient and not predicated alone of his parts.

We have many remedies where the patient himself is ameliorated from

heat. He wants to be in the heat, he wants to be warm, and yet he

wants cold applied to the part. But that which is the general is the

ruling feature, and if we do not know and distinguish the things that

are general from the things that are particular, we get our Materia

Medica mixed up. We must distinguish the things that belong to the

patient himself from the things that belong to his parts. “Dropsy,

with great thirst.”

This is a great medicine for the low forms of disease, such as typhoid and scarlet fever, and is useful after lingering sicknesses. Patients become greatly prostrated, very chilly, very anaemic, have great

thirst, the urine becomes scanty, the skin becomes dry. It is a bad

convalescence ; he has not r€SCovered. Dropsy sets in ; dropsy after

scarlet fever, dropsy after typhoid fever. A low form of disease, like

typhoid fever, has kept him in bed for four or five weeks, and he is

emaciated and prostrated, and now he does not gain flesh, he has no

appetite, but he drinks copiously ; he seems to want nothing but water.

His skin commences to distended, fills up, and l>ecomes dropsical. That

is like ApiSy and Apis would be indicated provided he was always

hot, and wanted to be uncovered, and wanted cold things.

The mental symptoms of this remedy have not been brought out.

We only know a few clinical symptoms, and they are of little importance It has cured that peculiar kind of stupor belonging to hydrocephalus, but we do not know what kind of a primary case of brain

disease this remedy would fit, because of lack of provings. We only

know the condition after it has existed for a long time, that is, for

weeks ; rolling the head and tossing about, and he is greatly emaciated.

The little one has chills and fever along with it, and his skull is beginning to distend, the fontanelles are growing wider ; then we begin to

think of some of those remedies capable of curing dropsy in the shut

sacs, and this is one of them. But we do not know the beginning.

We do know the beginning of Apis, but not of this remedy. Hahnemann's provings arc full of particulars. He cross-examined his prov-

*4

lo6 AI^POCYNUM CANNABiNtJM

crs as to their modalities, the time their symptoms began, and where

they ended. Many of the symptoms he felt upon himself, because he

proved many remedies. Hahnemann had a sensitive constitution and

deep perception, and his provings gave him an insight into medicines

that he could not have obtained in any other way. Those who prove

medicines properly, conscientiously, prudently, learn more about Materia Medica than anyone else. They become inured to hardship, and

live longer thereform. They are hardened to their environments, to

their atmosphere, to their associates, and their surroundings. They

are made better, and they may be able to perceive something of what

Hahnemann perceived. But now-a-days provings are made and nothing recorded but common symptoms, that is, stomachache, nausea,

headache, pain in the back, cold feet. Many of our remedies are not

proved much further than that. What, when and how much, are left

• ▸out.
• ▸The modalities are left out.
• ▸The finer sensations are not described, because they are considered emotional.
• ▸“Low-spirited and

bewildered. Feels as if she could do nothing but cry.” We do not

know the affections of either the male or the female. Wc do not know

the desires or aversions, mental or physical ; and hence it may be said

that this is only a partial proving and suitable only for those complaints

that show themselves upon the surface.

“Hydrocephalus, with great stupor.” That is the last stage of it

where there is great prostration, loss of flesh, stiffness of all the limbs,

with dropsical swellings. Many times in hydrocephalus pains shoot

along the nevers and attack the joints. Then it is that such remedies

as Apis and Calc, carb, and this one take hold with wonderful depth.

The first permanent and substantial indication that the remedy is working in a hydrocephaloid case is that it increases the flow of urine, which

has been scanty all the time. For hydrocephalus study Tuberculinum,

The expression of the face is that of anguish. “Face bloated, puffed,

• ▸swollen.
• ▸Bloating under the eyes.
• ▸Pitting upon pressure.
• ▸Tongue

dry ; great thirst.” There is another lemedy that comes into this

sphere that will be very often misunderstood, too, and will be likely

in most instances to be given before this remedy. It is Ars, It has

all the dropsical conditions of Apis and Apocynum. It has all the

coldness and distension of the abdomen and of the shut sacs. It, too,

is ameliorated in all of its symptoms, and the patient himself is ameliorated, from heat, and intense heat is required for that purpose. He

wants to be in a very hot room, but it has something else. It has a

deathly prostration, a deathly anxiety and terrible restlessness, not

found in either of these remedies. It has also such a cadaveric odor,

discovered on entering the room, which is not common to either of

these remedies. In this way we have to take up our medicines and

study them only one at a time, but wc have also to study them by comparison. The medicines that are similar in generals have to be compared, as to heat and cold. In that way wc get a list of those that are

ameliorated by cold, and a list of those that are ameliorated by heat ;

and another nondescript list not ameliorated by either. That is the

starting point, and we have to divide and sub-divide these, and so on.

'Thick, yellow mucus in the throat. Great thirst. Stiffness in the

• ▸thoracis region.
• ▸Fullness.
• ▸A sense of distension.
• ▸*' You will think

a moment and see that filling up the pleural cavity does not cause very

much outward distension, because the ribs prevent it. They form a

wall, and hence the growth or distension is towards the lungs, and

downward towards the diaphragm. By this means we get increasing

dyspnoea, with cough. This medicine, like Apis, must sit up ; cannot

lie down. You will find it is a common feature in hydrothorax for

the patient to be compelled to sit up, because lying down increases the

pressure upon the lungs and narrows the breathing space ; and hence,

he must sit up in order to let this heavy water-bag, the pleural sac,

hang down, against the diaphragm, and that produces pressure in the

abdomen and distension of the bowels. 'Thirst on waking. Thirsty

all day. Great thirst but water disagrees.” He likes cold water, but

it so disagrees with his stomach, causing pain in the stomach, or causing him to vomit before it even gets warm, or causing distension, or

causing uneasiness, so that he dreads to take cold drinks. He is more

comforted by hot drinks. Warn drinks warm him up, make him more

comfortable, cold drinks aggrairate. Yet his thirst is for cold.

Then come distension and> vomiting. You will find patients so distended in all their cellular tissues with a general anasarca that it seems

that no more water can be taken from the stomach into the blood. He

is full. The blood vessels are distended, his stomach is distended and

he must vomit ; and with this distension of his whole body he drinks

and vomits. It is with difficulty he can cat ; cannot keep it down ; it

will not digest. From this comes a part of these symptoms. ‘'Sense

of pressure in the epigastrium, in the chest/' so that it is almost impossible for him to get breath enough to move. Very little food makes

• ▸him feel distended.
• ▸He wakes up and wants something in his stomach.
• ▸There is a gnawing hunger, but every little thing, even a mouthful, makes him feel distended.
• ▸His stomach is already full of water

and he vomits up great quantities of water, of bile, and of undigested

substances that he has swallowed. The stomach finally, in dropsical

conditions, becomes very irritable. It seems as if nothing passes

• ▸through him.
• ▸He finally becomes paralyzed in the bowels.
• ▸The kidneys are not acting, and scarcely any urine passes.
• ▸The tongue becomes inflamed.
• ▸The mucous membranes are all inflamed, and probably

the stomach is. Abdomen very much distended ; dropsy of the abdomen.

The another phase comes on. It seems that one by one each organ

io8

ceases to perform its functions. The ovaries and uterus fail to perform their functions, and amenorrhcea comes on with dropsical conditions. Many times this seems to be the beginning of such troubles ; a

failure of these organs to perform their functions, and then dropsy sets

in. A woman passes along to a low state of weakness and nervous

excitement, no menstrual flow, tenderness of the abdomen, distension

of the abdomen, and then distension of the limbs.

Apocynum has been a curative remedy in diarrhoeic conditions alternating with dropsy. Sometimes a diarrhoea will set in and all the other

troubles go away. The diarrhoea is copious, yellow, watery and involuntary. I once knew large doses to be given in a case of dropsy, and

it established its own peculiar diarrhoea, and while that diarrhoea lasted

the enlarged spleen and the dropsical condition of the body all went

away apparently, to the doctor, in a natural manner. It was brought

to my observation, and 1 said, “Wait.” Finally he was brought to stop

the poisoning by Apocynum, and heart failure followed at once. A

similar effect is to be seen from the allopathic use of Digitalis. The

time comes when the doctor will be compelled to stop Digitalis, and

the patient dies of heart failure ; Digitalis is never charged with the

death, and the doctor never seems to learn that Digitalis will kill.

Everywhere the functions are impaired, in the skin, the kidneys,

bowels, uterus, and all tends toward the formation of tlropsy. Urinary troubles are exceedingly troublesome. Scanty urine accompanies

many complaints among the early symptoms. Retention of urine ;

painful micturition ; urging to pass urine constantly. The bladder is

sometimes only partially full, but he cannot pass urine. “Retention

• ▸with great urging.
• ▸” “Paralysis of the extremities.
• ▸Urging to urinate.
• ▸” Numbness, tingling in the extremities, and finally entire loss of

power. Some patients remain this way for a while, and finally dropsy

will set in. ^It has alternating conditions, as I have mentioned ; dropsies, alternating with copious discharges. The dropsy may be relieved

with copious watery discharges from the bowels or by copious spasmodic action of the kidneys, the urine being so profuse that he can

hardly realize where so much water comes from. All at once it ceases.

The urine becomes scanty, and then the tissues fill with serum, and

the dropsical condition progresses. These conditions cease after a

while, and the heart fails. “Urine diminishes to one-third its usual

amount, without pain or uneasiness about the kidneys or bladder

Urine suppressed. No urine at all in brain affections.” It was a

routine medicine once, given to all children for wetting the bed, and

as It cured many it must have that symptom, but that is a clinical symptoin. It IS not surprising, seeing its action is so marked upon the

bladder, that it has cured involuntary passage of urine. “Dropsy of

the genital organs." “ ^

ARGENTUM METALUCUxM IO9

I have mentioned the suppression of the menstrual flow, the amenorrhoea, but it has also a marked haemorrhagic tendency. It will establish haemorrhage anywhere, but especially from the uterus. Copious

haemorrhage. The menstrual flow may become copious, too frequent,

last too long ; but it will also establish a uterine haemorrhage at another

time. It will cause the patient to bleed so copiously that she becomes

anaemic from uterine haemorrhage *, and then will follow dropsy. The

old practitioners were in the habit of giving China in most instances

where dropsy followed a haemorrhage. It was so generally useful,

and so commonly relieved, that they seldom used any other remedy.

But Apocynum is also a remedy for dropsy following haemorrhage.

Many times it will fit the symptoms clearly in dropsy following haemorrhage. '‘Prolonged menorrhagia, or haemorrhage from the uterus for

six weeks. Blood expelled in large clots, sometimes in a fluid state.”

Moderate flow for a day or two : suddenly sets in with such violence

that she cannot be out of bed. Compels her to lie quietly. ‘'Shreds,

or pieces of membrane with the fluid blood. Menorrhagia continuing,

or paroxysmal,’* that is, a continuous flow until the patient is exhausted.

That is like Phos, and Ipecac, and Secale. In most instances, a uterine

haemorrhage will cease after about so much blood has been lost. In

medicines where the flow is so liquid as it is in this medicine that tendency to cease does not come until a state of profound exhaustion has

come on. Then the dyspnoea, as has been described, will not permit

the patient to lie down. This is commonly from hydrothorax. It has

also a hypostatic congestiem of the lungs in patients that have been

sitting up a long time, so that it fills up from below, gradually creeping

up so that a large portion of the breathing space is destroyed. “Great

oppression about the epigastrium. Difficult breathing. Gasping for

breath. Wheezing and coughing.*' It has all the rattling that is found

in Tartar emetic and Tartar emetic has a similar filling up of the chest,

cannot lie down.

Pulse small and irregular ; almost pulseless. Disposed to faint whenever she attempts to raise her head from the pillow. Small weak

pulse. Dropsy of the pericardium. Palpitation very troublesome.

• ▸Rheumatic condition.
• ▸—Joints stiff, esp.
• ▸on moving in the morning.
• ▸—Constant

involuntary motion of one leg and one arm.